Wildheart: Chapter 3
_Through Bamboo and Badlands_
"Alright, so we should make it to Blush Mountain and the motel in a few days…" I looked up from my Pokedex to the start of the many trails through Route 11. Our plan was simple: travel through the island. Eventually we'd track down Nanu for a Z-Ring, and I felt like we'd need more training and team members before we had a good chance at winning a trial.
All this I had discussed with Ryuki and my team the night before. Our first of many goals now was to conquer the route before us, and we were well prepared.
"Ok! Let's go, girls." I held the map out for them to see, tracing the trail I wanted us to take. "This entire route is basically a jungle, so there'll be plenty of opportunities to work on our agility training. I'll be jogging as well, but if either of you get too tired and fall behind, let me know."
I closed the Pokedex, sliding it into a pocket and stretching my arms before putting in the earbuds I'd bought last night. "Alright… let's move."
_
When traveling through Route 11, the first thing you tend to notice is how much fucking bamboo there is. There's miles of the stuff, and it's so dense you can't see anything but more bamboo through it. There's normal trees here and there, of course, but they just block out light from above. And believe me when I say that in a bamboo forest like this, you don't want to lose the little light you have.
But I'm exaggerating.
Yeah, there's a ton of bamboo, but it's a beautiful place because of it. The plants curve slightly the higher up they go, casting a shadow over the little-traveled dirt trail.
I looked off to the side of the trail, noticing the shadows of my team flying through the foliage.
"They're moving fast…" I mused to myself, flipping open my Pokedex to check our progress.
"Alright, should take about 45 minutes to get to the end… then it's route 12."
Closing it, I began humming along to the song playing as I walked on.
_
A while later, I was sidetracked from my trek by a shout.
"Hey!"
I skidded to a stop in my run, pulling out my earbuds and turning to look at who'd grabbed my attention.
"Uh, hi there." I replied.
The person was a girl with dark red hair, sitting on a foldable chair with a Cottonee perched on her hat and a Ledian sleeping behind her. No doubt a trainer, she looked about my age.
She stood up, stretching. "You're a trainer, right?"
"Yeah. I'm new, though. Just started a week ago."
Her expression turned skeptical. "How old are ya?"
"17. I moved here from Unova recently, you need to be that age to become a trainer there, and I just didn't get the chance to start my journey."
"Ohhh. I gotcha. Either way, I'm still bored, so… want to fight my newest team member?"
Putting my hands in my pockets, I shrugged. "Sure. I've got time to spare. My team's been resting from their workouts, but they should be ready to go."
"Perfect! You go over there," she directed, pointing to a spot about 5 feet behind me. "You'll be facing Cottonee here!" When she tapped the small grass-type, it bounced to the ground, hovering. "I've only had 'er a month or so, so she's pretty new."
"Fine by me." Miku's weak to Fairy, even with the bits of endurance training we've done, and Val deserves some time to shine after that fight a few days ago…
I reached up and clicked the play button on the earbud still in my ear. Turns out, most of the OSTs from the games are in this world in the form of albums. This particular one was the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet Tera Raid Theme, one of my favorites.
"Alright," I shouted while grabbing Val's capsule from my belt, "Valkyrie! Let's go, center stage!"
And I threw the ball forward, Val bursting out in a flash as it shot back to my hand. I caught it, clicking it shut before tapping Miku's.
"Miku, I figured you'd want to watch the fight: Val against this girl's Cottonee. Pay attention, I want you all on each other's level as a team."
She chirped, and my attention was drawn to the girl across from me.
"Okay! It'll be my Cottonee, Wisp, against your Cutiefly! Valkyrie, was it?"
"Yep. Now, let's do this!"
Her Ledian flew up at about the halfway point, bringing up a hand.
"Lehh…"
We should prioritize Bug moves, though since it's a fairy type itself, they're likely neutral… I'm unsure how its abilities will work, as well, but…
"Dian!"
"Val, get up high. Start with Webs from above, then hit with Silver Wind." I spoke loud enough to hear, but didn't shout. In return, Val squeaked a reply before flying swiftly across the field.
"Wisp! Leech Seed!"
Faster than I could see them form, the Cottonee launched small seeds from its body that glowed with green energy.
My eyes widened. "Silver Wind, now! Blow them away!"
"Kyuuu-!" A high-pitched sound from Val accompanied the burst of wind that sent our foe's attack back at them.
"Alright! Back to Webs, get 'em stuck!"
The opposing trainer threw a hand to the side. "Dodge! Keep moving, if we get stuck we're done!"
Moving, eh?
"Val! Sweet Scent, all around them!"
My opponent's eyes widened as Valkyrie, cutting off the stream of webs, swiftly fluttered her wings, blowing puffs of light pink pollen down to the battlefield. As she chased Wisp down, I grinned at the sight of the living cotton slowing down and looking up to find the source.
"Now, coat 'em with Webs!"
While the other trainer called frantic instructions, I watched as Val launched strings of webbing from what I earlier identified as a gland under her proboscis over the Cottonee.
They aren't very accurate, and we won't be able to tie up our opponents for a while, but that shit's sticky as hell. Once she's got enough on…
"Alright, that should be enough. Lay on the Silver Wind!"
Cottonee struggled to get out from its prison of webbing, no longer under the effects of Sweet Scent, but even when tired, Valkyrie's rapid bursts of Bug energy steadily whittled down Wisp's health.
"That's enough! I forfeit," declared my opponent as she returned Wisp with what looked to be a Nest Ball.
I grinned. "Alright. Great job, Val!" I held a hand out for her to land on, splaying her legs and letting out a tired sigh of a buzz. Gently stroking her fuzzy body, I chuckled. "You've improved so much since we met. It feels like we're only going up, you know?" Miku fluttered up and landed on my shoulder, nodding and making noises that I guessed to be mirroring my compliments.
"Ahem."
I looked up to see my opponent standing in front of us. "Ah. Hi."
"I am… genuinely impressed!"
My expression lit up. "Really?"
"Absolutely!" She was grinning along with me. "You've only been a trainer for a week? Wisp's beat people who've been training for months!" Her expression turned a bit sheepish, and she rubbed the back of her neck. "Though, I was sleeping ten minutes ago… but either way! That was a ton of fun!"
Are we really that strong already? My gaze shifted over to Miku and Valkyrie, and I thought back to the battle against Talonflame.
I guess so.
"Thank you. It means a lot."
"No, I should be thanking you! In fact…" She spun on her toe and ran back to her bag, pulling out a gray cylinder from it. When she ran back over, I saw what it contained through a small plastic window: TMs.
She held it out to me, pressing a button to open it. "Take one!"
"I, uh. I don't want to take anything you might need."
"Oh, it's fine! I've got a couple spares of most of them at my house."
I stepped closer to look through them. Each one had a small label on them.
Ice Beam, Iron Head, Leech Seed, Liquidation… there's a ton here, and they're organized alphabetically...
Then, one caught my eye.
"I'll take Protect."
I picked it out from the case, and she snapped it shut. "Good eye! That's probably one of the best you could have grabbed, plus it's a 3-use!"
"3-use?"
"Yep. Most TMs are usually 1 use or infinite uses, but recently, they've started making ones with anywhere from three uses to ten. It's pretty nice, since they're a good bit cheaper."
Looking over the disk, I noticed the small "3 Uses" engraved next to the label.
A thought struck me. "Hey, what's your name?"
She looked up. "Oh, right! I forgot to introduce myself. Saki Ryisol, at your service!" She stuck out a hand for me to shake, and I took it.
"Dennis Dreiblitz. 17 years old, Unova born."
A few seconds passed, and she spoke up again.
"Y'know, I'm from Johto, myself. Started at 13, I'm 17 now."
"Cool. That explains the Ledian… What's Johto like?"
"Oh, it's beautiful! There's forests and mountains all over, not to mention how many rivers and lakes there are. You should give it a visit sometime."
"That'd be fun. Maybe we'll see each other again."
She grinned. "Yeah, that'd be great. Do you want any medicine for your Cutiefly?"
"Nah, she's all right. Just tired."
As if agreeing, Val let out a tired buzz.
A few moments of silence later, I cleared my throat. "Well, I've gotta get going. I wanted to make it through most of Route 12 by sundown."
"Alrighty. Good luck with that, and here's a tip: spray some repels over your area if you sleep. Those Mudbray will eat everything you own, I swear. I went through there on my way here, so I know."
"Thanks for the advice, and the battle as well!"
"Right back at ya!" She waved as I walked away, and as I turned the corner of the trail, I looked back at the path in front of me.
"That was fun, wasn't it?"
A few quiet noises put a smile on my face.
"Amazing job out there, Val. Tonight I'll make a bit of fruit salad for us all, and you get an extra drizzle of honey."
Val happily buzzed, and Miku crawled up my arm, noisily complaining.
Chuckling, I tapped her on the forehead. "Alright, alright. I'll give you a bit extra as well, don't worry."
_
Soon enough, the air became dry and grass turned a sickly shade of green in patches scattered across the trail.
"Hmm… seems like we're close to Route 12."
No reply came from my team on account of their current activity, and I put a hand up to shade my eyes as I looked up to where they flew above me.
As I watched, they flew around each other, throwing weak attacks. I stepped to the side to avoid a string of Sticky Web falling from above.
Turning my gaze back to earth, a formation of reddish-brown stone caught my eyes.
"Yep. As I thought…"
My mind drifted to thoughts of my future team composition while I walked.
I wonder what would be good… I feel like I should prioritize dual-types, since they're, uh… right, more versatile. That's the word. I mean, there are some good monotypes…
My Pokedex buzzed, interrupting my thoughts. I grabbed it, opening it up to see a message from Ryuki.
'Hey, Dennis! I wanted to make sure you were using all the resources you have access to, so I sent you a list of League websites you should sign up to! Most of them are newsletters or forums, but they've got tons of info. Good luck!'
"...huh. Cool." I scrolled down to see the list of websites, first opening one called Alola Beginner Trainer's Forum. Clicking on the sign up option had me filling out my trainer ID and making a username for my PokéForums account before I was taken to a master list of forum posts.
"Oh, I'm gonna spend so much time on this." I exited back out to my messages, opening up to a forum titled PokéLocate. "Huh, this is cool… so you can check out rare Pokemon locations…?" I scrolled down, seeing some various older threads about rare sightings: Jangmo-o, Eelektross, Sableye. "Damn… anything recently?"
I scrolled up and sorted by New with my Location as Ula'Ula Island, and after a few uninteresting or irrelevant posts, one caught my eye from a user named SpherePillar, who wanted a Turtonator to add to their team and show off in Sinnoh.
"Interesting…" I looked off to the side, trying to remember the times I'd played through Alola. "You can find Turtonator in this area, right? I'm pretty sure you can. Never used it, though, since I either had a different Fire or Dragon type, or…"
I looked over to the side, then turned my vision back to the path and sighed.
"...is it weird that I'm talking to myself…?"
Roughly an hour of nothing important happening later found us hiking through a dry, rocky environment. Thanks to the trail of the route needing a Pokemon to get through the jagged stone path, I opted to hike an alternate route.
"I may have underestimated this place…" I sighed to myself. "Eh, could be worse."
A chirp from above alerted me to a lowering Miku and Valkyrie.
"Hey, girls. How are ya?"
They replied with tired huffs, settling down on my backpack and hat.
I chuckled, looking back at the trail. "Tired, eh? See anything cool?"
Miku crawled over my shoulder from her seat, pointing over to a small rock formation and mimicking eating something.
"What, a berry tree?"
She nodded, squeaking happily and rubbing her stomach.
"Alright, neat. Let's head over."
Stepping off the trail is either a lot more or less deadly in the Pokemon world. On one hand, you don't have the danger of ticks and rattlesnakes. But you do have the danger of magical creatures ranging in size from as short as a child to taller than a refrigerator.
As I stepped into the tall, dry grass, I thanked myself for buying hiking boots.
I stepped around the rock before recoiling, hiding from the scene in front of me.
"Oh, shit. Be quiet, girls…"
Fighting beneath the tree were two Pokemon: a Manectric and a Houndoom. While we watched, the Manectric was clearly at the advantage, as the Houndoom had visible static sparks jumping across its body. Each canine was bleeding, with claws and fangs lightly stained red.
Damn, they're brutal. Can I record this? I quietly pulled out my Pokedex, opening the recording app and pointing it towards the encounter.
"I've come across a fight between a wild Manectric and Houndoom. My best guess is that it's due to either territorial or hunger issues," I quietly spoke into the device. "Since there's a berry tree in the proximity."
I stopped talking but kept recording, watching as the two Pokemon attacked each other. The Houndoom skidded back from what I assumed to be powerful Quick Attack, hacking up embers before releasing a howling inferno from its maw. The sheer amount of heat released caused us three viewers to shrink back a bit, but it quickly cut off as Manectric appeared in a burst of electricity, clamping down with a Thunder Fang around the Houndoom's throat.
The hellhound froze in place, paralysis wracking its body. A moment later, it whined and slumped in its opponent's maw. The Manectric let Houndoom free, then barked at it. It stepped back, then turned tail and ran.
God damn. That was cool as hell. I stopped the recording, putting the Pokedex in my pocket.
After the Houndoom had traveled what the Manectric judged to be a good distance, it walked up to the tree and kicked it, knocking a few berries down. It sniffed a couple before picking out a large Chesto Berry and running off.
Making sure it was gone, I slowly made my way out from behind the rock.
"Miku, Val. What did you two think of that?" I asked.
Valkyrie looked with awe in the direction the Manectric had gone, while Miku just flew over to the palm and grabbed an Oran Berry off. I smiled as she bit into the blue fruit.
"Val, if you want one as well, eat up. I don't want to spend too much time here in case the Manectric comes back."
As the two feasted, I leaned against the rock formation, thinking to myself.
I guess this world can be a lot more brutal than I originally thought… but that's to be expected. Didn't expect to see Pokemon actually bleeding, but…
Shrugging, I grabbed my Pokedex and opened up to a forum page, scrolling to look for any other interesting posts. Not finding anything, I put it away.
"Aaalrighty, girls," I began with a yawn, "Let's get going, alright?"
The two flew up to me, and I noticed a large amount of berry juice left on Miku's face.
*Sigh.* "C'mere, girl." I crouched down, licking my thumb and using it to wipe the leftover berry from her. After a few moments, I deemed her clean enough.
"There we go. Clean now." I scratched the little bat dragon under her chin for a moment before standing.
"Ya both ready?"
They smiled up at me before flying to my shoulders.
I grinned. "Great. Let's get to, uh, wherever the fuck that rest stop is!"
_
"Shit, man… I didn't think it would take this long."
It was late afternoon at this point, and we had been walking for almost four hours.
"Fuck it, I'm checking the map…"
I pulled out the Pokedex and opened up the map, only to see how absolutely lost we were.
I stopped walking and let out an audible sigh, then looked over the map to see what the best way to go was. Miku crawled out from my backpack where she'd tucked herself in to relax, and looked at me inquisitively.
"Miku, good news and bad news. Good news, we get to see more of this place. Bad news… we are lost as all hell." I showed her the map, pointing to our location compared to our destination. "We went on a trail we weren't supposed to, and since I'm an idiot, I didn't think to check the map until now." I looked over to her, and she blinked at me with her gold eyes.
"Heh…" I smiled, a tired one but a smile nonetheless. "Don't worry, if we don't get there by 8 we can set up camp. I know you're nocturnal 'n stuff though, so we can walk for a bit longer if you want."
She happily squeaked, reaching out a hand and patting the brim of my hat.
"Thank you, Miku. Is Val doing fine?"
Miku nodded.
"Great. Get some rest, I have some ideas for training tomorrow."
She smiled up at me, then crawled back into the backpack.
My smile thinned, and I looked up at the beautiful crimson sky.
…I need some music.
Popping my left earbud in, I started a random playlist on my playlist.
But as I heard the song, I stopped. It was the song used for the start of the Gen 7 games, Welcome To Alola if I remember correctly.
I blinked a tear out of my eye, clearing my throat.
How long has it been… almost 5 years, right?
The image of my smiling parents handing me a Christmas present- a Nintendo 3DS and Pokemon Ultra Moon- surfaced in my mind, and I took a deep breath.
Wiping away another tear, I smiled bitterly. "Nostalgia's one hell of a drug." Turning up the volume a notch, I continued to walk. I miss those days…
But...I won't waste this chance like I did the last.
I took a deep breath and continued on.
_
We stopped for the night in a small area off to the side of the trail, surrounded by trees and rocks.
Laying out my sleeping bag, I looked over to where Miku and Val were sitting, both sharing a bowl of fruit salad.
Smiling, I called them as they finished. "Hey, girls. I'm gonna go to sleep. Feel free to fly a bit, but don't go anywhere that I can't help you. Stay around here."
I slid into my sleeping bag, clicking the off switch on my small travel lantern. "G'night, girls… sleep tight."
…
The last few hints of red faded from the sky. It's surprisingly nice out, I thought to myself. If I end up doing well as a trainer, I want a house out here.
Suddenly, I heard the flutter of wings, and Miku landed next to me.
"Hey, Miku." Propping my head up with my hand, I looked at her. "Hi, Val. What's up?"
With a chirp, Miku began to try and crawl her way into my sleeping bag.
"Heh! I see what's up." I unzipped it a bit, and she pushed her way in, turning around so that her head was outside the bag. Valkyrie, ever the wiser, simply laid on top of me.
I gently pet the little dragon's head, looking at both of them and smiling. "Thank you. Both of you."
Resting my head on the travel pillow, I let out a breath and looked up at the starry sky. Slowly, my eyes closed, and I drifted off to sleep.
_
Ello, Ello, Ello! Ciao and Bonjour!
Sorry about the wait. I got caught up with school, private/social life stuff, and of course, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. Just completed the Pokedex as well, first time doing that outside of PLA.
But I do hope you liked this chapter. I'm trying to hit a pace that feels fast but not rushed, as well as write dialogue that doesn't feel as awkward as my conversations are. I'm also trying to have likable characters, which is a bit difficult to do with Pokemon. I'm working on it, though. Still learning.
Thanks for all the favorites and follows, it means a lot that there are people who like my writing. It ain't perfect, but I think I'm improving. Happy Holidays, and I'll see you in 2023!
(Sorry if weird shit happens notification-wise, it's late at night and the ffn app is something I have a love-hate relationship with. I have updated this chapter multiple times, so please excuse any mistakes.)
(fucking hell this god forsaken app won't recognize a damn ampersand I'm going to kill something)