The evening had begun to creep over Viridian Forest. Before the daylight was completely lost through the trees, the bug catching brothers had led Paige and Isaac to an established camping spot they used for overnight stays. The brush had been cleared some time ago, though weeds had begun the assault of recovering the soil. A few small logs had been rolled and positioned around a dug out pit, surrounded by rocks and a patted dirt wall. A cable was already secured from one tree to another for use of clothing or maybe a quick tent. The forest's day choir slowly gave way to the night's music of soft hoots and chirps.
Paige had not packed much camping supplies except for a bedroll. She had camped out before but wasn't expecting to have any long stays in forests on her journey. When she was younger, her parents let her sleep in the backyard on warm summer nights like this but a forest and a fenced in patch of grass were two totally different things.
Patrick threw a sheet over the wire cable while Alex took a hold of the corners and nailed down sharpened stake through each metal ring. She would watch the two boys for a bit, noting that Isaac had left to look for firewood on foot and left his motorcycle next to the camping site. It would have been easier if she went to help him but his infamous cold demeanor persisted on. Instead, Paige was left at the site to sit on one of the logs and fiddle a bit with her Pokedex and look at the different entries. Her fingertip slid along the flat screen and watched as the different varieties native to this area scrolled along. It seemed to mainly consist of bugs and birds with a few grass types mixed in . . . nothing that she hadn't seen before.
The thud of wood hitting the dirt pit snapped Paige out of her study. Isaac had dropped a pile of logs off to the side right before tossing a few into the pit to begin a small fire. The young teen looked up and watched him while the back of her mind began to produce questions. Who was this trainer and what was his story? What other Pokémon did he have? Was he always wandering alone before they met? It felt odd to her that she was traveling with this guy and she knew little to nothing about him. At least Patrick and Alex shared stories of their family life with her . . .
"It's cooler than usual tonight. I guess with all the tree cover and local streams nearby it keeps the forest pleasant", Paige remarked, smiling softly at Isaac. Isaac's head was still lowered down at the pit, kneeling forward and recovering a set of matches from his pocket. He didn't reply to her, instead pushing a bit of tinder in between the logs to prep the lighting spot. Paige reached to her belt and took a hold of Varem's ball. "Hold up. I'll just use Varem to light the f-"
"No you won't", Isaac said, cutting her off. Paige froze, looking at him with her eyebrow arched in a confused expression.
"No? What do you mean? It's no trouble Isaac." Isaac looked up at Paige from his work with a deep sigh, striking a match and lowering it into the pit with his eyes locking onto hers.
"I don't need any help to light a fire from you or your Pokémon. It is a simple enough task. Your Pokémon need to rest after the battle today anyway. Did you forget just how close you came to losing? If it wasn't for the fact that the bird keeper only had 2 Pokémon with him and your capture of the Nidoran, you would have been crushed for sure. What you need to do is -". Isaac cut himself off as he drew his hand back with a sharp hiss from his teeth. The fire had begun to burn but he had held his hand to the flame for too long and the match stick was now just a burnt stick the flame used to reach his fingers. Looking down at the burn he placed the tip of his pointer and thumb into his mouth instinctively to ease the singe.
"Don't do that. I have some ointment in my backpack." Paige quickly turned around and reached for her sack, unzipping the front pocket. Digging past the clutter still, she was able to find the cream fairly quick but when she turned back around, Isaac could be seen walking off into the dark tree line. Paige narrowed her eyes a bit and stood up from the log and gave pursuit. Patrick and Alex were more occupied with setting up tents to notice the two.
Isaac stopped after a few minutes of walking. Irritated in his own action, he looked down at his burn though the darkness before raising them back up to his lips. It wasn't like him to make stupid little mistakes like that. His attention had been split.
"Damn . . should of just ignored her", he would mutter to himself. The footsteps behind him let him know he was not alone. He didn't have to look to know who had followed him. "Go back to camp Paige." Paige stopped a few yards behind him as he spoke, the tube of ointment still in her hand.
"What's wrong with you? I am only trying to be nice to you here and you have been giving me the cold shoulder ever since. I am sorry for hitting you earlier. It was out of line. Can't you just accept my apology and let me help you?" Isaac slowly turned to Paige with an emotionless stare. Paige had been given this look several times now but it was especially piercing tonight.
"What is your game Paige?" Paige was confused by his question.
"Game? I . . don't have a game. I am just trying to be nice to you if we are going to travel together."
"You are trying to be nice because you feel guilty about lashing out at me. That's it. There is no other reason to it. Ease your guilt elsewhere. I dislike this emotional game you are trying to play." Paige felt anger growing at his statement. Here she was, trying to be genuine with him and he was swinging walls up at each step.
"That's not it Isaac. I do feel bad about what happened earlier between us but I also want to be your friend. It might be too soon to call you that but I was hoping in time as we travel that you and I would learn more about each other and find some sort of common ground like . . . your favorite Pokémon type, your favorite food or even your favorite color. It doesn't have to be much but it is a good start."
Paige clung to her elbow with her free hand, squeezing the tube unconsciously in her other hand and hoping she got her request across. While she could be hot headed just like her mother, she did carry her father's calm tongue when needed. Isaac ruffled a hand through his short and unkempt hair over his head before sighing out with a retort.
"Listen Paige. I am not interested in making any new friends. I only accepted to assist you because Professor Oak roped me into it and . . I suppose I am a bit of a sucker for unique stories about Pokémon like Varem and his tail flame. Make no mistake I am only here to help if another poacher shows up. You made it clear you don't want my help with other matters."
"No Isaac! I do want your help with battles and catching Pokémon! I just . . . I just didn't want to see Nidoran, I mean Rinno, get hurt anymore. That's all." Paige looked a bit down and tried to recollect her thoughts. He was being stubborn and cold still.
Isaac looked as Paige struggled to come up with something. The girl was persistent about this and it was hard to tell if this was a merit of hers or a flaw. Whichever it was, it was getting on his nerves more so than he would usually allow from others. Isaac walked forward in front of Paige and reached out to take the tube from her hand. Paige felt him standing in front of her; his touch was cold to her skin, fingertips grazing along her hand for a brief moment as she would relinquish the ointment.
"Listen Paige . . . I've seen hundreds of trainers come and go. They all sounded like you at one point. Those who kept going and got stronger realized that they had to roll with the punches while those too weak to handle it would lose their Pokémon to thieves or just release them and go home. You however have something else going on. It might be you're a hard headed twit but only time is going to tell." Isaac exhaled into the night air and turned the ointment tube around a few times in his hand before he would continue. "I will try to remember you are pretty new to all of this and we will attempt lessons again tomorrow. For now, you better get back to camp. I am going to do some thinking out here, alone." Paige looked up back into his face, giving a light nod before walking backwards a bit and turning around to head back to the camping area. His tone had changed and he seemed a lot more genuine when he spoke. His walls might still be up but this was a start, right? Her hands fumbled a bit together where his touch had met hers while her mind tried not to overanalyze everything. At least the two were back on track.
Isaac watched her walk away in silence, waiting until she was out of view before pocketing the medicine. Slipping his free hand into his back pocket he flipped open his cellphone and went down the list of numbers before highlighting one and pushing the call button. A few seconds past as the connection was made.
By the time Paige had made it back to the camping area, Patrick and Alex had everything set up and had fed the summer fire up. The older brother had the younger one laughing about a particular goofy joke as Paige joined them. Sitting across from the log they had claimed, she would tilt her head with a smile and ask, "Hey! What's so funny?"
The brothers stopped laughing, turning their attention to Paige and would only grin widely at her. Somehow she knew this was coming up.
"Ohhhh noooothin. We just were wondering how long you two would be smooching in the forest. Alex owes me an origiri when we get back home." Paige gave Patrick a sharp glare.
"It wasn't like that! He just burned his hand when getting the fire started and he stomped off before I could get him some of the ointment my mother packed. The guy is way too stubborn for his own good if you ask me. There will never be any smooching between us two." Paige folded her arms over her chest and maintained her glare, forcing Patrick's grin to die out slowly. "Besides, you two are way too young to talk about those kinds of things. Let's get back to what we were talking about earlier."
"You mean the gym leader?" Alex spoke out. Paige nodded, feeling a bit uneasy about the topic at hand but knowing it would come up sooner or later. She was fully aware that the purpose of this trip was to get Varem and her Pokémon stronger and to do so she would have to face them. Still, she barely defeated Bret so what were her chances on a gym leader battle? Alex continued with his voice excited in details. "Pewter's gym uses rock types and they are really tough! Not a lotta newbies can take Brock on! He got a Geodude the can punch Pokémon clear out of the ring! BAMMO! Oh and he got a giiiiiant rock snake that crushes other Pokémon in binds! A lot of new trainers have to run to the Pokemon Center after a match and even then they OWW!"
Patrick had shoved an elbow in his little brother's side, looking down at him and gesturing to Paige. Paige's lips were curved up in a small smirk; her face had slowly lost a bit of color with a constant nervous chuckle. Her eyes had glazed a bit over as she was now lost. All that confidence from earlier couldn't shake her out of the stupor that settled in.
"Don't worry about it Paige. What Alex was trying to say is that they never throw anything at you that you are not ready for. A gym leader is there to evaluate your skills as a trainer, not just to be a roadblock for you. My brother just is just a big fan of Brock. If you have a grass or water type you are . . . oh . . . umm."
"I think both of you have done enough encouragement for this evening." Paige was snapped out of her state by a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she saw Isaac flipping his phone shut while addressing the brothers. "Types mean nothing to gym leaders. They anticipate you are going to use that advantage and they have ways to counter that. To overcome that with your own strategy is how to defeat a gym leader. Charging in head on is a fool's errand." Paige gazed up quietly and listened. Isaac seemed to know a lot about battling and gym leader tactics. It only made sense to adjust strategies accordingly to an opponent's type. Isaac looked down at Paige, applying a bit of pressure to her shoulder with a smirk. "I think I can show you enough tomorrow to give you a fighting chance, as long as you can roll with those punches."
"Pewter City . . Between Rugged Mountains . . ." Paige read the sigh proudly and out loud, not particularly to anyone but herself. Patrick and Alex lived here and Isaac seemed to be pretty knowledgeable of the Kanto region. Paige however had never had the chance to visit the city that was nestled at the base of Mt. Moon. Her clothing and skin still retained patches of dirt, scrapes and mud from the training exercises earlier that morning with her pokemon sharing similar visages at this time.
The bug brothers had their backpacks lugged over their shoulders and seemed happy to be back home. Isaac sat on the seat of his motorcycle and stared out at the view over the city from the hilltop, wondering how many times he had seen this. Varem and Rinno were both at Paige's side, tired but enjoying being outside their pokeballs to see the view. Even Gale had perched her way on top of Paige's hat and cooed out loudly with her wings stretched out.
Mom . . Dad . . Oak . . I'm on my first step to helping Varem. I know I can do it. Look out Brock! Here I come!