Tepig, Unfezant, and Vanillish

"Hii-choo!" The Tepig sneeze hard enough that her four legs skidded on the icy cavern floor, but only a tiny flame shot out from her nose. It was surrounded by thick black smoke, which drifted out of her nostrils for a few seconds while she gasped and snuffled.

"Bree, are you okay?" the girl Trainer asked. Linda wore a red-violet jacket and pants set that identified her as belonging to the Pokemon Aces club, which only accepted members who had earned five Gym Badges within one regional league. It was very prestigious, but even so, there were still things about Pokemon that were a mystery to her.

This wasn't one of them, now that she knelt and took a closer look at Bree the Tepig. She was getting back up on her feet, but her nose was dribbling snot and smoke. Her eyes were weary, although they had gone through much longer training days before. While she tried to look as eager as always with perked up ears, it just wasn't convincing. A few sneezes sending out fireballs each and every time was a bit dangerous and irritating, but that might just be dust. But now that it had progressed to this, it was clear that Bree was sick.

Linda rubbed the Pokemon's back; she was warm, but that was normal. Around Bree's neck, there was a collar with an Everstone clasp. She had brought her Pokemon here for some intensive training, but wanted to delay her evolution. It seemed that doing so would allow the Pokemon to learn moves quicker, perhaps even those their evolved forms wouldn't learn naturally. As there was no record of if this was the case with a Tepig, she had wanted to see what would happen.

With her like this, further training was out of the question until she got better. But as Linda looked around, she knew that getting out of this cave quickly was also out of the question. They had traveled for an hour to get down here, and had traveled several more just to reach the cave. Getting up, she opened up her travel bag and pulled out the tablet computer she used to store items on. Anything that might need an immediate use, like Potions and a few Pokeballs, were set in the bag, but most of her equipment was stored digitally in order to save space and weight.

But on scrolling through the field items category, she found a distinct lack of an Escape Rope. She swore under her breath and clenched the tablet. "That would be the one thing I forgot to buy for this trip," she muttered. She skimmed over to the TM and HM tab and noted that she did have a Dig TM. But the only one that might possibly learn it was Bree, so she didn't even bother to activate it. Instead, she put the tablet back and released one of her other Pokemon. "Will, I need you to carry Bree while we get out of this cave."

The Tepig sneezed again, causing herself to slip and fall on her stomach. Nearby, Will the Unfezant shook out his long red plumes. He wouldn't even look towards Bree.

"This isn't the time to let your vanity make the decisions," Linda said firmly. "This whole trip has managed to go almost perfectly wrong. It figures that the day I decide to try those time lock training boosts on the Pokeball would be the day the locked out Pokemon gets sick, and there was that rock and ice fall a few halls back. Be nice to Bree."

After a moment's pause to let her know that he was only doing this because she had asked, Will lowered his head. Linda then picked Bree up off the floor while she was struggling to get upright again. She put the Tepig on the bird's back, but knowing how he was, she kept a hand on Bree to keep her steady. They then headed back towards the ramp that would lead to the upper levels.

The scenery around them made it obvious that this was an Ice Pokemon's abode. Ice glistened on the walls, mixing icicles with stalactites. Sometimes the ice coated the floor, making it flat and slippery. Will was not happy with that, especially since he wasn't allowed to flutter off the slippery parts to avoid sliding, not with Bree on his back. When enough Ice types gathered in one place, their combined energy brought the temperature of their environment down, even down to the freezing point in otherwise warm locations. But sometimes a single powerful Ice Pokemon could do the same, especially in a cave like this. Whichever reason it was, this cave system had been an icy place for over a decade.

Right before they entered the cavern with the ramp, Linda and her Pokemon began to encounter snow. It was odd; it hadn't been doing this previously. They made their way over the pile of rubble from the rock and ice fall and then ran into a bigger problem: their way out was blocked off by snow.

And not a snow drift. No, this was snow that was hanging in the air, so thick and white that visibility was down to a couple feet in front of them. This room definitely hadn't been like this when she and Bree had come in. but she could recall the layout of the room, which had included three patches of slick floor, a number of holes that would lead to even lower levels, and many icy stalagmites. Simple to navigate when the room was clear, but like this...

"Why do things always seem to get complicated when we're in trouble?" Linda wondered aloud.

Bree sneezed in response, gasping for breath afterward. The black smoke coming out of her nostrils mixed with water vapor from the cold. Oddly enough, this made the snow caught in the air turn black or gray for several inches. Linda swept her hand through the air and noted all the ice crystals that got caught on her gloves. This was all ice suspended in the air. Had to be the work of some Pokemon.

"Will, let's be careful," she said to her Unfezant. She tried to recall the way to the ramp and began leading him that way.

There were some jingles in the air, chinks and tinks that sounded much like ice. It came from several sources in the room. And it was a familiar sound: it was the Vanillish, the Pokemon that she had been training Bree with. They had knocked out over a dozen of them before the Tepig started to have trouble.

In her usual experience, wild Pokemon did not hold grudges against Trainers. A lot of them sought out battles on routes and the usual wisdom was that one would have to go off the usual paths to encounter Pokemon that weren't expecting a human-led Pokemon team to pass through. One time in training Bree, they had taken out many Grass and Bug Pokemon, but the ones that came out to challenge them didn't seem to be after revenge. Even in a place like this, she should be safe as she still had other members of her team away in Pokeballs. But this ice filled room with hidden Vanillish made her skin prickle with more than just the cold.

"We don't want to cause trouble," Linda said, keeping one hand on Bree. "Come on, there should be... yeah, an ice patch we have to cross. Careful."

Will cooed, but he was obedient and didn't fuss about having to slide across the ice with her. On his back, Bree breathed noisily and shuddered. She made a pleading whine.

"Chingle," came a Pokemon's call, very close to them. There was a cluster of ice crystals that was hanging in a dense patch nearby. A pair of black eyes appeared in the icy fog, then vanished back into the white with an icy laugh.

Linda very nearly slipped at that, but managed to stay upright and land with Will on a non-icy patch of floor. "Okay, I think there's one more patch of ice we have to cross, and then the ramp should be nearby. But we can't hurry because of the holes."

"Chingle, chingle." The Vanillish kept laughing at them. Patches of the floating ice began to shimmer. For what reason, Linda couldn't figure out. Another one came close enough to be seen, an ice cream cone shape hanging in the misty air, but also darted off with a laugh. It should have been a silly sight to see, but instead it was kind of chilling.

Once they passed the next patch of ice, Linda searched around until they could see the wall, then followed that to where she thought the ramp was. At that time, the air began to stir in the room. The glows in the ice mist became brighter, as if the Vanillish were preparing attacks. "Look, I'm sorry!" she called out to them. "We won't bother you anymore; we just want to get out of here now." By her side, Will cooed in agreement and Bree sneezed. And the former was usually never this cooperative or submissive with anyone that wasn't Linda.

The Vanillish replied with strange threatening sounds. Thankfully, Linda spotted the ramp. She nudged Will into hurrying a little bit in order to get to the next level and out of the ice mist. As they kept climbing up, she hoped that it would clear soon.

But the mist created by the Vanillish remained as dense as before.

They taunted Linda and her two Pokemon as they tried to navigate their way out of the cave. Sometimes they let a hallway go clear, but returned in force for the next large cavern. Sometimes it sounded like they were shifting rocks or breaking icicles, causing strange crashes and thumps. Sometimes one or two would come close, but never close enough to swat away. And they laughed.

Bree didn't seem to be improving at all, continuing to sneeze and gasp hard. She was shaking to, although whether from being ill or from being scared was difficult to tell. In the meantime, Will was strange in this meek and quiet mood, not holding his head high and showing off his long plumes in pride. Perhaps he knew he wasn't in his element in this icy cave, where the native Pokemon had decided to be tormenters instead of tolerant.

Finally, Linda spotted a brighter section of the mist. But it was a particular kind of brightness. "Sunlight, it must be the exit!" she said, glad to see it.

The Vanillish that had followed them chittered angrily; they blasted the three with an icy wind, causing Linda and Will to yelp. It stung terribly, causing ice to cling to Linda's hair. Acting quickly, she scooped up Bree in one arm and took hold of Will's neck with the other. Recognizing part of that motion, the Unfezant let her climb onto his back, then began racing towards the light.

"Fly on out of here," she called as the sharp wind continued to build.

Will spread his wings and lifted a bit off the ground. For a moment, Linda worried that she was mistaken about it being sunlight. But then they burst out of the icy mist and into the clear air outside of the cave. Will beat his wings strongly to climb further into the sky.

"Thank goodness," she said, shifting her posture so that her Pokemon had an easier time flying. "Let's get back to town quickly so we can get Bree to a Pokecenter."

Ace Trainer Central

Member Linda's Blog

Tip of the day: ALWAYS make sure that you have an Escape Rope on you. Always.

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Tepig White entry: It blows fire through its nose. When it catches a cold, the fire becomes pitch-black smoke instead.

Unfezant White entry: Males have plumage on their heads. They will never let themselves feel close to anyone other than their Trainers.

Vanillish White entry: It conceals itself from enemy eyes by creating many small ice particles and hiding among them.

I rarely use Escape Ropes, but I always make sure that I have one, just in case.

Anyhow, another person's one-shot/rant collection about Pokemon made me think about what happens when a Trainer's Pokemon gets sick. Linda wasn't able to recall Bree to her Pokeball due to putting a timed lock device on it, which was said to improve training when used. That doesn't exist, obviously, but I wanted an obstacle to keep her from simply recalling the Tepig. The things I do for a plot...