Chapter 8 - Dive and Catch

The morning sun hung low in the cloudless sky, and a gentle chilly breeze blew. It was early autumn then, and luckily, the harsh summer heat had been long since gone. Be thankful for small miracles, Celeste thought as she stared at the lifeboat and shellder floating on the calm ocean waters.

"She really can't do it? I heard shellder are fast swimmers."

"She really can't."

The girls spent the first few hours of the morning avoiding this difficult conversation. Without the seel, they weren't sure how to steer their lifeboat, but even if it hadn't left, they still didn't have a proper plan or a map.

"Okay. I'll have to catch a water pokémon," Celeste decided.

It shouldn't be that hard to catch a water type. They were common; she remembered reading once they were the most common type of pokémon, both amongst trainers and in the wild. How hard could it be to get one? In Celeste's mind, not hard at all. She was in the middle of the ocean after all, she could even find a lapras swimming around. That would solve all their problems for sure.

Delia looked baffled at her companion.

"And how to you intend to do that exactly?"

"I'll dive in and find something, I suppose." Celeste suggested. It was a beautiful new day. The sun was shining and Delia was not planting seeds of doubt in her mind. Dive and catch. That was going to be fine.

"You know you shouldn't go into the water with that thing in your hand, right?" Delia pointed out, gesturing to the splinter.

"It's fine. It got really wet yesterday, and I survived," Celeste said smiling, "Once we are back in civilisation I'll get nurse Joy to check it out. I'm sure she won't even scold me too much."

Delia sighed.

"And I suppose you won't battle the pokémon you want to catch? Again."

"You might not believe me, Delia, but I actually have a lifetime of experience with water types," the trainer declared, making a show of confidence. "I'm sure I can handle it."

"Between you and your pokémon, I don't think there is much experience in anything," Delia muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Well, if you must know, my parents are actually trainers," Celeste said triumphantly. "Sort of…"

"Do I even have to ask it?"

"It's not their main job, but they have a team of pokémon to help them out," Celeste grinned, ignoring her friend's scepticism. "Mom has this super cute chinchou. He is a total sweetheart. When we were living on the boat, I would sometimes get scared of storms. So, at stormy nights, Chimmy would go to my room and light it up for me."

"Your experience with water types is being put to sleep by a chinchou?"

"Dad also has this beast of a wailmer named Salacia. She could carry all our equipment and even some of the crew. Sala taught me to surf, you know? Well, sort of."

"Sort—" Delia was going to ask, but instead, she brought her hand up to her eyes and let out a deep breath. "How is that even remotely useful?"

The Pallet girl liked to think of herself as very patient and pleasant. But her companion seemed to be absolutely set on pushing her limits.

"Let's get this straight, Cee," Delia started again. "Whatever crazy luck you had before is not how things usually work. You need to battle if you want to have a good chance to catch a pokémon, and if you want to catch a pokémon in the sea, that means you will need to have a water battle. Seriously, how come you no one ever taught you that?"

"Maybe professor Oak was supposed to?" Celeste said with the most charming smile she could muster. "But thanks to his lovely assistant, I have got an early lesson."

"Do you seriously plan to try a water battle with one of those two?" Delia asked, pointing to the pokémon at Cee's feet. She needed to discourage the girl somehow.

"Yeah. Shame Aria didn't want to become a jolteon, huh? It would be so much easier if she was electric," Celeste mused.

"You really should thank your lucky stars that you don't get to try this craziness with something that knows thunderbolt," Delia added, with the dreadful image of her fishing an electrocuted Cee out of the sea.

"Probably," the trainer laughed and then picked up her two pokeball. As the red light engulfed a protesting Aria and sleepy Powder, she declared, "Off I go then!"

Celeste started walking towards the water, but as soon as the waves started hitting her boots, that usual knot of fear started forming in her stomach.

"S-silly me," Cee said, slapping her cheeks. "I shouldn't swim with all this heavy clothing."

Before Delia could utter any word of protest, the trainer was already on the floor, removing her boots. Once she was done, Cee sloppily threw them in the lifeboat together with her vest and pants. She had stripped down to her black undershirt, her belt with a small pouch to carry the pokeballs and her boy short style underwear. With a sudden tinge of shyness, Celeste found herself glad she wasn't wearing anything more revealing.

"Cee, please," Delia begged.

Celeste, who was making her way through the waves, stopped and pointed at something in the distance.

"Look at the islet over there," the trainer said, with her confidence returning. "I'll swim there and look for a krabby or something, okay? No actual water battles," Celeste finished, secretly hoping not to capture something as lame as a krabby.

That didn't seem as horrible a plan as Delia expected. There was some logic there. After all, they had scared the pokémon in the islet they were in. Still…

"I have to ask. Do you even know how to battle?"

"Yeah, I've been in tons of battles before," Cee half lied.

"Did you ever win any?"

"Does it matter?" Celeste retorted, not letting her smile fade. So what if she hadn't battled much? Her Aria had managed to get experience and learn new moves. That had to count for something.

Ignoring Delia's continuous attempts to stop her, Cee jumped into the ocean. She just knew she was going to catch the most amazing water pokémon ever. Probably a lapras.

—*—*—

Celeste had been swimming for a while. It wasn't hard at first, as the sea was calm. However, the islet was actually further away than she calculated and she was getting tired. Perhaps it was a bad idea to swim with a splinter.

No, it wasn't. Scratch that.

All Celeste needed was to catch her breath, then she would push through. She could even make out the islet now. It was rockier and bigger than the one she and Delia had slept in. And in the girl's overacting imagination, she was sure a lapras was hiding near the surrounding rocks. That spark was all she needed. Her beautiful lapras deserved her efforts, so she would make it to her destination.

As she prepared for her final sprint towards the islet, something slimy started to slowly creep up on Celeste's leg. She didn't fully notice it at first, being too distracted by her daydreaming. But the feeling was there. It was a strange at first, somewhat ticklish, but also numbing. After a few moments, though, Celeste realised she could not feel her foot anymore.

"What—" she started saying, but before she could finish, whatever caught Celeste pulled her underwater.

As she submerged, Celeste looked around, terrified of what sort of sea monster she would find.

There was a tentacool with its tentacles coiled around her leg, dragging her to the deep.

Tentacool are not that scary, the trainer decided, in a shallow attempt to control her growing panic.

Celeste tried to free herself from the pokémon. She flailed around the water and she tried kicking the creature, but the more she moved, the more the tentacool tightened its grip. And to make things worse, the more it tighten its grip, the number her leg became. Was it having fun?

The tentacool was trying to play with the girl. Didn't it realise it was drowning her? Maybe that was the game, Celeste pondered with dread. If that was a game, the pokémon was certainly winning.

Celeste looked at the creature for a moment. A sadistic tentacool was definitely not what she had in mind. She wanted a lapras… or more realistically a seel… She wanted a cool new friend… Well… no one could say this one wasn'tcool.

Celeste reached for an empty pokeball. Would it even stay in?

The trainer stopped flailing and swam in the direction of the tentacool instead. She extended the pokeball and touched the creature's head? Or was it its body? The familiar red light enveloped it and immediately sucked the pokémon into the ball.

One shake.

Did it work? The trainer wondered, literally holding her breath.

Two shakes.

She was nervous.

Three shakes.

Celeste did it. She captured a tentacool. She actually—

And out.

The pokeball burst open with a flash of light. The tentacool that came out didn't seem to be in the mood for games anymore.

Shit. Celeste thought, trying to wriggle her body around to reach the surface. In horror, she realised her poisoned leg was not responding properly. She wasn't in too deep. She just needed to go a little—

Air! Celeste gasped in relief as she made it to the surface. However, before she knew, the slimy tentacle was crawling through her leg again. She opened her mouth to let more air in, but it was too fast. The tentacool pulled her underwater again, making her swallow a large amount of salty water.

Celeste desperately needed more air.

The tentacool's grip was even tighter this time and his pulling more forceful. This wasn't a game anymore. It was angry and Celeste needed help.

Panicking, the trainer reached for Aria's pokeball. Swift had to work underwater and Aria was smart, she would figure out how to help. Or so Celeste hoped as she pressed the button to enlarge the pokeball.

When the trainer was about to release her eevee, the tentacool launched a Bubble Beam towards the pokeball. She fumbled around with the object as the bubbles hit her hand, and before she could secure her grasp, the tentacool launched the pokeball away with a second attack.

As Celeste watched her ball float away, she noted her vision was getting blurry, and she felt her lungs burning. She needed air. Also, she needed Aria… Could Powder help? No. She wasn't even sure her vulpix could swim. No way she would take this risk. There had to be an alternative.

Celeste carefully reached for another empty pokeball.

She didn't care if she could catch the tentacool or not, but if she could do like before and put it in the ball for a bit, she would have the chance to make her escape. All she needed was to be sneaky.

Celeste wasn't good with sneaky, though.

Before the trainer could manage a throw, the crystals in the tentacool head started glowing. They hadn't glowed with Bubble Beam. That didn't seem good.

The girl flailed around in panic, and, to her surprise, got herself free. Her relief didn't last long, however, as she got all the strength of a hydro pump in her stomach. In a second, the little air she had left was forced out of her lungs and she was thrust into the sand and rocks.

Celeste hit a rock. The impact didn't hurt as much as she expected. The drag had slowed her movement down. A rock? She gasped. Swallowing even more water. The only place with rocks was the islet. She was safe.

The girl painfully climbed the rock she had hit while coughing large amounts of water. Finally, she could breathe. She felt dizzy and weak as the air filled her still burning lungs.

But Celeste was alive, somehow.

And that was what mattered.

—*—*—

Dragging herself away from the waves was challenging, with only one functional leg. Still, the trainer managed to plop herself onto the sandy beach, letting go of the empty pokeball that was still on her hands.

As she watched the ball roll away, Celeste started crying with a mix of relief and terror. She got really lucky with that last hydro pump; she had almost drowned… In the water, she felt so helpless, she couldn't even call her pokémon—ARIA! The girl realised with dread she would need to go back to the ocean to retrieve her pokémon.

Celeste turned around, curling herself into a ball and closing her eyes. This trainer thing… maybe it was too much? There was no one to make sure she was safe here.

Something poked Celeste's nose.

"A-Aria?" the girl called, forcing her eyes open.

"Ke?" the pink creature said slowly. It was carrying a pokeball in its tail.

"Aria!" Celeste yelled, jumping over the pokémon to grab the pokeball.

Holding the eevee's ball tightly, the tearful Celeste turned to the pink creature to thank it. It was moving towards the empty pokeball she had dropped.

Maybe it hates littering? Celeste wondered while watching the creature's movements.

It nuzzled the ball. Letting the familiar light out.

One shake.

"Wait what?"

Click.

A/N:

* I guess today was a bit tough for Celeste, but she got a new pokémon at least! Yay.

* Anyway, I also went back and edited the other chapters a bit. The content didn't really change but I think I improved the flow of the text and grammar a bit. :)

* NEXT CHAPTER: Enter Patrick!