"Reign, meet your new teammate."
Introducing her starter to their newest member did not go as well as Yun had hoped but more like how she had expected it to go. Reign looked at the bird perched on her shoulder for exactly one second before turning his eyes on her. Despite still not being able to tell what her starter was feeling most of the time, she didn't have to take a guess at his narrowed eyes.
She slumped. "Yeah yeah, a bird, I know. But think of the tactical advantage he brings to our team." Reign didn't need to know it was an accidental capture. In fact, no one needed to know, ever.
"Skorupi!" He waved his two little claws around angrily.
"Okay," rubbing both her eyes, she tried to think of placating things to say, "at least I didn't capture a Starly, right?" Because that could have happened. Hell, she could have even caught a Kricketot by accident.
The look he gave her was downright murderous. Yun turned her head to see how her new Pokémon was was dealing with the argument but so far the Fletchling didn't seem to care. The bird was happily tweeting some high but soft tones on her shoulder.
"It's just... how it is. Can we please get on to training now, Reign?"
While she did eventually got him motivated to start training and take out his anger on the local Bidoof, he kept throwing dark looks at their new teammate. It didn't get any better when Yun needed him to help the tiny bird take down higher level Pokémon. The Fletchling was especially competitive against other birds and often started a battle without prompting. Most of the times he chose to challenge the biggest, meanest looking Starly of the area. This resulted in her having to recall both her Pokémon while running for the hills more than once.
It was a day to forget as soon as possible but her bird did grow a handful of levels and his dominant attitude towards other flying types earned him his name, Tenno her little emperor.
When they sat down for dinner Yun realized she had another problem. She had bought food while having only one Pokémon to think of and she hadn't planned on a prolonged off-route trip either.
"Okay guys, come tomorrow we will start heading for the next city. No more detours!"
Tenno responded with a melodious chirp while Reign just angrily poked his pellets.
The next day she started making her way back to the main path. Unlike before the sun was shining and it was warm enough to pack away her raincoat. And while she had said no more detours, she did keep an eye out for a third Pokémon that could help her with the first gym. She had a faint preference for water types as the grass types she tended to like wouldn't often be found in the wild and water types had more resistances.
At first Yun had wanted to keep Tenno out of his ball to accompany her but his habit to bite off more than he could chew hadn't disappeared overnight. Occasionally she let Tenno out to fight a Kricketot as he took those out really fast but always managed to recall him just as quickly. She also wouldn't feel comfortable letting Reign out for longer periods of time while they were off-route so she stuck to traveling alone for the most part.
After a few hours of walking in a more or less straight line while regularly checking her compass, it dawned on her just how far she had wandered off. She wondered whether she would even make it back in one day.
Yun decided to stop for lunch as her feet started to grown tired, and even though Reign still wouldn't look at her or his teammate she was glad for the company. Wandering around between Sinnoh's aged trees in silence made her feel quite lonely.
"... and then after we gather eight badges, we can challenge the league!" She started to explain their goal to Tenno in an upbeat tone. Honestly, she never had any ambition to become the champion before starting her journey. All Yun had wanted was to score enough badges on the way to get into a nice university. That would have made her parents proud.
But now that she was here, training her very own Pokémon... she wanted to see how far they could go.
"We can do it, right Reign?"
When he still refused to look at her, she sighed. It concerned her but she was confident that he would get over it after a few days. In the meantime, her only enthusiastic audience was Tenno.
She shrugged and turned to her other Pokémon. "After we get back, we'll do some more training for you."
He chirped happily and hopped on her knee so she decided to gently stroke his feathers. The gloves made it impossible to tell but something told her they were quite soft. When he turned his head to give her access to his neck she couldn't help cooing at the little bird.
"Aww, aren't you cu- ACK!"
Tenno jumped away just in time to avoid a poison sting that narrowly missed Yun's gloved hand in the process. Then the bird turned to the aggressor high on his legs, clearly angry.
She turned to Reign who met her eye in challenge. At a loss for words, she opened and closed her mouth a few times.
"Reign you- why... don't..." Shaking her head she decided on the only action she could think off.
Dazed, she recalled him then dropped er head in her hands. "Oh Arceus..." And here she was thinking of collecting badges when she couldn't even keep her Pokémon from fighting each other. The idea that the matter would resolve itself vanished into thin air. It had never occurred to her that her starter would attack a teammate, even if it was a flying type. Before they did anything else, she needed to fix this.
But... she didn't know how.
"Sorry, Tenno." She murmured.
After finishing her lunch in silence she recalled her bird with mixed feelings. It might seem that she was punishing him as well but she wanted to hurry up now more than before. So she started trekking through the woods, once again, alone.
It was starting to go dark and Yun had to admit to herself that she wouldn't make it back in one day. She was just about ready to set up her tent when a Pokémon popped out of the tall grass right next to her.
They met eyes and Yun inhaled sharply.
"Shinx!"
The Pokémon darted away and she gave chase with only a mild sense of deja vu. This could be the solution to her problem. Having a Pokémon that Tenno was weak to could potentially placate Reign and as a bonus, she really wanted that Shinx.
Knowing she only had two Pokéballs left, she had to choose the right moment to throw. But she was in luck, this Shinx was slower as the one she chased before and so she actually managed to keep up.
She ducked under some low hanging branches before sliding down a small slope. The small creature scrambled to get away as she readied a Pokéball.
"Grrr..."
A deep growl coming from behind her made all the hairs on her neck rise. Her gut feeling told her the growl came from something bad. By the time she turned towards the noise her hands were trembling.
It was black with a mane of blood red fur and it stood taller than her. One of the thing's arms was twisted and mangled but its most notable scar was on its face, on one side most of the Pokémon's lip was torn off, exposing it's sharp teeth in an eternal grin.
It's appearance alone was enough to spook her but it was the look in it's eyes that really scared her. They were well and truly murderous.
She screamed. Loud enough to make the birds in the surrounding trees take flight. In the same moment, it pounced.
Yun couldn't tell when exactly she tripped and fell but it might as well have saved her life as the creature flew over her fallen form. The reprieve was short lived as it shot a beam of pitch black energy at her that hit her full force and send her flying into a tree. The wind was knocked out of her and her head was spinning but something lucid in her made her grab one of her Pokéballs.
"R-reign help!" was all she managed to say as her starter appeared. For a moment she feared he wouldn't listen to her because he hated her now. Then he shot a pin missile at the monster and relief flooded her.
That relief froze cold when the needle lodged into the creature's torso and it didn't even seem to notice. Saliva dripped out of the open gap in its muzzle as it once again locked its dark eyes on her. She had never felt such paralyzing fear before.
It charged towards her and she pushed herself on her hands and knees trying to get away. Then it stopped, finally noticing the bug that attempted to poison his opponent. Reign's stinger struck the monster's leg from behind once, twice. The creature turned almost faster than Yun could blink and swiped it's claw down on the scorpion.
Yun flinched when she heard something snap loudly. Reign didn't get back up. Horror filled Yun's face as it raised it's claw for a second strike.
A red beam shot out from beside her making Yun blink in surprise. Tenno had released himself from his Pokéball and pelted towards the far bigger creature, valiantly pecking at it's face.
With one swipe the small bird was smacked into unconsciousness and fell to the ground. It opened it's jaw, preparing to bite down on the fallen Pokémon but was stung with a poison sting once more.
Reign was barely standing and one of his claws was drooping but his eyes stood determined. The monster pushed down on him and Yun's ears were filled with another snap. But it was a far weaker sound that echoed through her head, the pained cry of her starter. Something broke inside her.
"NO!" She screamed as loud as she could while throwing a stick at the murderous Pokémon. It landed right in front of it but the thing still turned his head towards her. "Leave him alone." She sobbed.
There wasn't any hesitation as it rushed her, slamming into her and knocking her down. It's teeth tore into her arm when she raised it to defend her neck. She had neither time nor breath to scream anymore. Blood dribbled into her face as she fought to keep it's jaws away but her trembling arms were rapidly losing strength.
This is it, she thought. That stupid boy with the wide grin flashed before her eyes. 'And did you die?'
Why did she let herself be provoked like that? She'd much rather be a wimp than dead.
"Sentinel, headbutt that thing!" A voice shouted from nearby.
Yun felt rather than saw that the creature was thrown off her. A huge Pokémon cast a shadow over her, blocking out the last of the sun.
A sharp howl that was unmistakably of the monster rang in her ears. She shivered.
"Keep it at a distance." The stern voice called, very close now.
The Pokémon charged towards the offender, giving Yun a clear view of it's back. A Rampardos.
Once Yun could see again she also noticed the other person standing in the slope. With the red and black outfit and the Sinnoh insignia on her right arm, she was clearly a ranger on duty. Yun sagged in relief even if the ranger was frowning.
"Get behind me kid."
The monster had changed tactic and was keeping a distance, shooting a pitch black rays towards the advancing Rampardos.
The ranger cursed briefly before murmuring to herself. "Nelly is no good with long range," Her hand hovered over her four Pokéballs, "And I can't use Desmond, this creature is clearly dark."
To Yun's surprise the ranger released two Pokémon at once, an Electabuzz and a Granbull.
"Storm and Chomper, help Nelly take that thing down."
The two joined the Rampardos, working together to push back the threat. The Electabuzz countered the creature's attacks with it's electric moves while the other two took turns in charging the thing. Yun watched their teamwork in awe, wondering whether her team would ever be able to achieve something like that.
Her team.
"Reign!" Disregarding the Ranger's startled shout she scrambled towards her fallen Pokémon and found herself turning her head. She couldn't bare to look at him. His shell was broken and his left claw stood in the wrong angle. But she wasn't afraid of the wounds, it was what she couldn't see that scared her. For she couldn't tell if he was breathing or not.
Warm tears welled in her eyes and slid down her cheeks. The fighting sounded distant now as heavy boots crunched in the dirt behind her. Her chest started heaving in an attempt to keep the sobs in, aware of how pathetic she looked in that moment.
"Are you okay?" The ranger's tone had softened considerably.
Yun started crying in earnest. "M-my starter." She bawled.
"Can you recall it?"
With trembling hands she reached for her belt and managed to drop his Pokéball before picking it up from the dirt. A red beam collected the tiny Pokémon.
"Good, that means it's alive."
That managed to relieve her but she couldn't stop tearing up whenever she wiped at her eyes. She was still sniffling when she recalled Tenno so the ranger crouched down and laid an arm over Yun's shoulders.
"Cheer up kid, bugs bounce back from any injury real fast."
"Really?"
"Yeah, don't worry you'll see."
The older girl stood up to look towards the trees where her Pokémon had disappeared behind in pursuit of the creature. Her eyebrows briefly furrowed with worry before she turned back towards Yun with a painted smile.
"How about we see you to a center, get some treatment for those wounds?" She gestured towards Yun's arms.
Yun grimaced as she looked down at the many small wounds in the middle of her forearm, just below her ugly glove. It's edge was starting to color a dark brown from all the blood staining it.
"It bit me." She murmured dazed.
The ranger didn't comment, she had seen it happen. Instead, she released her fourth and final Pokémon. Unlike the others, Yun didn't recognize his species right away. He was rather plain looking except for his fingers which came in three different colors on each hand.
"Desmond, can you help me out for a moment?"
"Of course." A mechanical voice rung through her mind, which startled Yun. He was a psychic.
The moment she thought that he turned his attention towards Yun.
"Oh dear." The words expressed worry but his voice stayed monotonous. "I'm guessing you want me to bring the youngster to a center?"
The ranger hummed affirmatively. "Make your way back as soon as you can, Nelly and the other's wont take much longer, I'm sure."
The last thing Yun saw before the creature took her hand was the young ranger's worried stare into the distance.
AN: Updates will be on Saturdays until I'm caught up with my written chapters