TRAINER ID
Name: Daniel Ingram
Badges: 2
Account: 12,537 credits
Location: Route 111

DANIEL'S TEAM
Ralts (Apollo) - Male
Corphish (Duran) - Male
Eevee (Orion) - Male

SAMANTHA'S TEAM
Espeon (Stella) - Female
Skitty (Chase) - Male
Masquerain (Buzz) - Male
Oddish (Joy) - Female

OWEN'S TEAM
Makuhita (Bronson) - Male
Geodude (Roxy) - Female
Shroomish (Misha) - Female
Slakoth (Omar) - Male

With our spirits lifted after a wonderful lunch and meeting a family as friendly as the Winstrates, our journey was lighthearted and productive as we made excellent progress on our journey north.

Or rather, it was until we ran into a bit of a conundrum.

About an hour after departing from the Winstrate home, we came across a fork in the road that would have led Owen and me westward to the Cable Car. As agreed, we ignored it and kept going, and it didn't take much longer for us to find ourselves standing at the entrance of Route 111's desert.

That in itself wasn't necessarily a problem; we'd known we were going to encounter it, and had adequately planned to traverse it so we could hit the fork on the other side where we would part ways with Samantha for the time being. No, the problem came with the timing at which we encountered it.

Historically, whenever I encountered something of a major terrain change, I would camp out at the entrance to try to make as much progress during the day as possible. I'd done this for Petalburg Woods as well as Rusturf Tunnel, and in the second instance it had allowed us to get all the way through without needing to camp inside or walk through the night.

This time though, we found ourselves facing a difficult decision. We still had plenty of daylight left to travel for hours before the sun would begin to set, but that would almost guarantee that we'd either need to camp out in the desert or travel late into the night.

As we stood just beyond the edge of the seemingly endless sea of sand, we held an impromptu group discussion to determine what our next course of action would be.

"So when exactly is your contest, Sammy? Last we talked about it, you said that you'd have plenty of time to get there. But that was almost a week ago, and won't it take you at least a few days to get there on foot?"

"I am cutting it a bit close," she admitted reluctantly. "From here it should take me about four days to get to Fallarbor if I make good time and don't get held up. The contest is in five days."

"Why didn't you say anything sooner? We could have left the day I got my badge," I sighed.

"I wasn't about to ruin your big day by immediately rushing you out the gates," she huffed. "We're still doing fine, and if I find myself falling behind schedule it isn't like I can't make up time by waking up earlier and traveling later. I could even go through the night if I had to."

"That's assuming you don't have anything that really holds you up," I pointed out. "What if you roll your ankle or something? You also need time to get settled, prepare for your performance, and you need a good night of sleep the night before. I think you're cutting it closer than you think."

"I know it'll be close, but it's not exactly the end of the world even if I do miss it, which I highly doubt I will."

"Then you'll be stuck in Fallarbor for at least another week, and our plans are likely to go to shit."

Sadness. Worry. Disappointment. "Promised, Sammy and me."

"You're doing that thing where you worry about things that might happen," Samantha admonished before I could even think of addressing Apollo.

"But we planned on meeting back up in Mauville, then I'd be able to go with you to Slateport to watch your contest. Right now we're on schedule with what we planned out, so I don't see any reason for us to put that at risk," I tried to reason.

"I'm not exactly guaranteed to win the contest. I might be stuck there a week anyway, and you might have to wait around in Lavaridge if there's a waitlist or you lose your battle," she said as she crossed her arms and looked at me sternly. "I won't say you don't have a good chance at earning your third badge, because you're a good trainer and probably could, but you heard what Vito said. Flannery will go hard if you get on her bad side, and let's not act like there isn't a very real possibility that you somehow manage to do that. It's not exactly out of character for you, no offense."

I sighed, wanting to argue but knowing that nothing she had said was incorrect. I glanced over at Owen, looking for his input on the situation, but he looked hesitant to get in the middle of our light bickering but Samantha gave him an expectant look as well and got him to voice his thoughts.

"The desert is supposed to take roughly six hours to get through, assuming good pace and conditions. The way I see it, we have two options…" he trailed off in thought as he rubbed the back of his head and looked out toward the sprawling desert ahead. "We could camp here for the rest of today, bust the entire thing out in the morning, then split up mid-day tomorrow. Or, we could keep going and camp once we get to the other side, but it'll be pretty late by the time we're out, and we'll be traveling in the dark. I think we can all agree that it would be a terrible idea to camp in the middle of the desert if we can avoid it, which we can."

"Agreed, terrible idea," Samantha nodded firmly. "I'm not sleeping in the middle of a desert; it'll be impossible to cook and sand will get everywhere. Not to mention, if the wind picks up I doubt we'd be able to sleep with sand whipping against our tents, and honestly there's a risk our tents just get completely buried."

"Good thing we have ear-plugs," I said sarcastically with a slight smirk. "Plus, didn't you just tell me not to worry about things that might not happen?"

She rolled her eyes and shoved me gently, "This isn't a joke, Danny. It might look calm now, but this desert is nestled in a valley that's famous for funneling wind. Traveling at night isn't the best idea, but by then we should be through the worst part. If we were to camp when we normally do, we'd be in the thick of it and fully exposed. There are some seriously dangerous Pokémon that live in this desert, most of which come out in the middle of the night. Owen is right, camping in the desert should be out of the question."

"Fine, we won't camp," I agreed. "I vote that we travel into the night and camp once we're back on solid ground. We always take our time journeying, it wouldn't kill us to skip a night of training and leisure to make sure you can make it to your contest."

"I agree," Owen chimed in. "We have a lot of Pokémon with us, and none of us are pushovers. I'm not too concerned with what Pokémon we'll run into after the sun sets, I'm more worried about what happens if we're traveling in the dark and a sandstorm whips up. It's calm now, but that might not last. But we've got the right gear and clothing for the task, might as well put it to use."

Samantha sighed in resignation, clearly not thrilled about the idea but not vehemently opposed enough to argue, particularly since we were doing it for her sake. "Fine, we'll keep going. Let's at least take a quick break to get geared up, better to do it now and get it out of the way."

We broke off momentarily, finding a place where we could change into our desert clothes and ensure everything was tightly secured to our backpacks in case a sandstorm whipped up. I simply tied the bandana around my neck for the time being, not wanting to wear it over my face if I didn't need to, and soon we were as ready as we could be to set off into the desert for what was going to be our longest day of traveling yet.

The arid desert was unlike anything I'd ever seen. It mildly reminded me of a beach, but there was no water to be found and the only plants in sight were dry shrubs and cacti. We took care to give any cactus we encountered a wide berth, as it was well-known that Cacnea and Cacturn could be easily mistaken for a cactus and might attack if you encroached on them.

I knew that the desert was home to quite a few interesting species of Pokémon, but the only ones that we saw were Dweeble and the occasional surfaced Sandshrew. But we were cutting through the narrowest portion of the desert, and it was likely that most of the interesting species resided much deeper on the eastern side.

Though there wasn't a sandstorm, a gentle breeze was all it took to severely reduce visibility. It wasn't so bad that I felt the need to cover my face with the bandana, but I found myself immensely grateful that we'd taken proper precautions and gotten goggles to shield our eyes; as uncomfortable as they were to wear, I knew it would be infinitely better than having small grains of sand pelting my eyes.

Walking in the sand wasn't exactly an easy task either. Each step took considerably more effort than usual thanks to the resistance sand provided, and the glaring sun beaming down on the sand made it too hot for any of our Pokémon to comfortably walk on, except for Bronson and obviously Roxy. Between the Makuhita thick layer of fat and calloused feet, he was technically able to travel with us, but with the sand offering more resistance for each step and Makuhita having to keep a constant jog to keep up with what was our walking pace, it didn't take long for Owen to recall him for a break.

Heat was also an issue. Hoenn, being near the equator, has always been known for being abnormally warm and tropical compared to most places one might visit, but when compounded with the sand absorbing and reflecting the relentless sunlight, I couldn't remember having ever been as hot. Even with the loose long-sleeve shirt I'd gotten, I still found myself sweating both from the heat and the effort it took to continue traveling through the sand. I wouldn't ever admit it out loud, but I regretted my decision not to spend the money for lighter pants, as my cargo pants weren't exactly ideal for the conditions.

Sadly, the shirt I'd picked didn't have any sort of pocket, and it was too hot for him anyway considering all of his fur, so he was forced to stay in his Luxury Ball. Duran's shell was well-suited as far as the sand and sun went, but I didn't want to risk the arid environment drying him out so he too was recalled for our travels. But I felt confident that if I needed to call him out for a few minutes to battle a wild Pokémon, he would be fine so long as he got some water afterward.

The only one I felt comfortable having out for any extended period of time was Apollo, who was lucky that his eyes were largely shielded by his helmet and that his body was comprised of light colors that didn't absorb much sunlight. Still, I decided to wrap my bandana around him just below his helmet to ensure he didn't burn or succumb to overexposure, just to be safe. I checked in with him frequently, made sure he got plenty of sips of water from the bottle cap, and kept worrying about whether I should make the executive decision that he too should remain recalled. But he was very insistent that he was fine and wanted to stay out, so I reluctantly agreed on the condition that he inform me the moment he felt he needed a reprieve.

Samantha didn't have a single Pokémon capable of traveling out with us, which only added to my resolve that we'd made the right decision to accompany her through the desert. Buzz couldn't fly with sand in the air and his wings would have quickly dried up, both Chase and Stella's paws weren't suited for the baking hot sand, and a grass-type like Joy wasn't suited for such dry, sweltering heat for obvious reasons.

Owen was in a similar situation. His Slakoth, Omar, had too much fur and would overheat, and Misha the Shroomish would have similar issues to Joy as a fellow grass-type. Bronson technically could travel in short bursts, but only Roxy the Geodude was perfectly well-suited to travel alongside us with no risk to their health. It was completely indifferent to the heat and sun, and had no issues traversing through the sand by flinging itself with its hands or rolling.

So, for the majority of our trek through the desert landscape, it was just Apollo and Roxy able to accompany us with Bronson occasionally joining for a short while until he needed another break.

"This sucks," Samantha whined for the tenth time, wiping another bead of sweat from her forehead.

"I think it's safe to say we made the right choice to travel into the night," I panted, "It'll be much cooler after the sun sets. The sand is annoying and all, but it's the sun that's making this so miserable."

"Agreed, the sun setting will be a huge relief. In fact, we probably could have taken a nap at the entrance and done all our traveling at night," Owen chimed in, though not looking nearly as miserable as Samantha and I. Though he wasn't used to wearing long cloves that covered his appendages, he was clearly much more used to dealing with heavy amounts of sun and sweltering heat than we were, and seemed only mildly annoyed.

"I would not have wanted to do this entire journey at night, even if it would have been much cooler. But I will admit, I think we made the right call not doing this tomorrow. We would have been doing this at noon, and it would have probably been even hotter than it already is. Not to mention, we've been pretty lucky as far as the wind being mellow."

"Don't jinx it," I pleaded, "We still have a long way to go, and there's plenty of time for things to get worse."

"I say bring it on," Owen challenged with a confident grin, causing Samantha and I to carefully examine him for any further signs he might be slipping into insanity unknowingly. He gave us a confused look before chuckling, "We only get one journey across the region, right? Might as well experience what every place has to offer to the fullest."

"We still have to go back to Mauville, and you're more than welcome to venture back into this godforsaken wasteland whenever you please," I commented. "I hear there's some interesting Pokémon to be found out here, especially on the eastern side of the desert. Just make sure that if you plan to come back, you tell me so I can break off."

"My roster is full, remember? I'm perfectly happy with who's on my team and who I hope to recruit, I don't need to go wandering the desert when I know there aren't any fighting-types out there anyway."

"You never know what you can find," Samantha commented, "There are Pokémon who settle long-term in areas, but you always have to consider you might find something unique that's wandered, migrating, or recently relocated."

"Either way, I'm good. You should speak for yourself though, Danny. You're due for another Pokémon, aren't you? Orion seems well settled into the team, and three team members will only get you so far."

"Plenty for the next gym," I remarked. "I have a feeling that both Apollo and Duran will more than pull their weight, and I hope to get Orion more on par with them in the meantime."

"Yeah, yeah. We saw your gym battle dude, and I've battled you for myself. You'll probably be perfectly fine to earn your third badge in Lavaridge with the team you have, but it's better to start training new members as soon as possible. It also helps to have options you can pick from for a battle; if I hadn't caught Misha, I would have had to use Omar in the gym battle and I probably would have seriously struggled, if not lost."

"Your Shroomish is a scrapper, I'll give you that. I can see what you meant when you said it had the fighting spirit," I complimented.

"All of my team are. Well, Omar isn't yet able to fully express it of course, but once he evolves I have no doubt he'll be a vicious fighter."

"This might be a dumb or rude question, but how exactly is your Slakoth going to evolve if it never battles? Sort of seems like the same situation as raising a Magikarp, only even worse. At least a Magikarp can try tackling a smaller opponent to win, Omar can't even land a hit from what I've seen. No offense."

He shrugged, "None taken. It's a reasonable assessment and question, although it sounds like it's based on the incorrect assumption that Pokémon need to battle to evolve, which isn't true. It helps for sure, but as long as we keep training and he puts in the work to improve, he'll get there. Only reason I had him fight Orion was to let him experience a real battle, and hopefully motivate him to push himself to improve. I'm not going to have him battle wild Pokémon that he has no chance against and who might not pull their punches."

"Is that true? I remember doing some research on evolution, and it said there were a bunch of factors but that battle experience was one of the more impactful ones."

"You're both half-right," Samantha contributed. "It's perfectly possible to evolve without battling, but it undoubtedly helps. It'll take longer, but as Daniel said there are a lot of factors that go into evolving. Things like diet, environment, training, mental health, genetics, and even bonds with their trainer have all been identified as contributing factors. I'm not sure how accurate it is to say battling is one of the most important, but nobody sensible would disagree that it does play a considerable part."

"Well I'm not in any rush and Omar is undoubtedly progressing, just at a slower pace than most Pokémon."

It soon became apparent that talking was only making the experience more difficult, causing us to be more winded and drink water frequently to quench our dry mouths or swish the sand that had embedded itself between our teeth, so it didn't take us long to go silent and focus at the task at hand. We continued trudging through the arid sandscape, pushing ourselves to make the best pace possible as the winds began to pick up and we began getting whipped with sand. I eventually had to commandeer my bandana from Apollo and return him, much to his chagrin, and eventually the hazy fury of sand around us that made it impossible to see more than a short distance ahead lost its orange hue as nightfall began encroaching on our travels.

As prepared as I had thought we were, it turned out that only Owen had the foresight of traveling with a compass to ensure we kept on track, which I was extremely grateful for as we found ourselves straying a few times inadvertently. I'd never realized how difficult it was to simply walk in a straight line, but with zero visibility of landmarks and the sand causing every step to be labored, I was surprised to find how easy it was to slowly veer over time.

Samantha did her best to light the path with her flashlight, but it did little to help between the pitch black and sandy static that surrounded us like a flurry of snow. She could only see a step or two ahead of where she was walking, and wasn't able to provide any meaningful light for Owen and me, who tried using our lanterns but found them underpowered and useless to permeate the dense sandstorm. I had no idea if the moon was out, but the sandstorm had become so dense that there was no moonlight to provide us with any meaningful light.

At one point, I accidentally tripped over what turned out to be a Cacnea, which naturally didn't take kindly to the intrusion and perceived act of aggression. It managed to shoot a couple of needles at me, most of which were largely absorbed by my cargo pants, but a few did manage to embed themselves into my skin before Roxy realized what was happening and quickly engaged it, quickly driving it away and causing it to roll into a ball and tumble with the wind into the obscurity of the whipping sands.

Thankfully, the needles didn't go deep and were easy enough to extract, as they were thick and lacked barbs. I could feel that it was definitely enough to draw some blood, but thankfully my cargo pants did wonders to hide it from a fretting Samantha and I assured everyone that I was fine to continue, not wanting a few minor pricks to slow us down.

Not much later, I heard a hiss followed immediately by Owen shouting in a mixture of surprise and pain, and looked over to find that he had been bitten on the ankle by a Sandile who refused to let go and looked properly angry, likely having been accidentally stepped on. But Roxy made quick work of that as well and was able to 'convince' the Pokémon to let go and flee, and Owen refused to acknowledge the pain I knew he must be feeling and refused to stop for Samantha to tend to it, repeatedly reassuring us that he was fine and its teeth hadn't penetrated his pants, though I knew that to be a lie.

Not able to defend myself properly with any of my team, I decided to palm an Ultra Ball as we continued our travels, and even offered one to each of my companions which they happily accepted after they understood the idea behind it. My thinking was that if one of us got attacked or had something latch onto us as Owen had just experienced, we could quickly stop the attack by having it get sucked into the ball, which would at least buy time for Roxy to get into position to properly handle the threat if it broke out.

As unsettling and suspenseful as the whole experience was, I found myself mildly amused at the sight. Owen with a compass in one hand and an Ultra Ball in the other, Samantha doing the same but with a flashlight that barely did anything to aid in our visibility, and me clutching two Ultra Balls ready to throw or tap them against anything that moved in my general vicinity, not caring whatsoever what the intruder was or if it was even something I'd be interested in training. Now that I had my commercial license, I could technically sell or trade any Pokémon that came into my possession that I didn't intend to keep, and there was always the option of releasing it just before we left the desert as well.

I could tell that Samantha was getting anxious and worried, though she did her best to hide it. Owen's face held a look of annoyance, and I suspected that his ankle was stinging but that he didn't want to draw attention to it. For my part, I felt some mild discomfort from the pricks I'd received, but I was sure that the wounds were closing and that the bleeding had been minimal since I didn't feel any dampness on my pants where I'd been hit.

"I changed my mind, traveling at night was a horrible idea," I shouted at one point over the wind and constant torrent of sand all around us.

"Too late to change our mind now, we just have to keep going," Owen answered with a raised voice before we fell back into silence and focused on the task at hand

We all kept up as fast a pace as possible, wanting to finally reach a point where we could rest and leave the worst of the sandstorm behind us, and our group's fatigue was beginning to show. While the heat was no longer an oppressive force as it had been during the day, the blinding sandstorm constantly whipping against us combined with the fact that we could stumble upon a threat and not even see it more than compensated. Although we had occasionally seen Pokémon roaming the sand during the day, the desert's residents seemed to be much more active and aggressive at night which I wouldn't have suspected.

As I tried to ignore the discomfort I was feeling by focusing on random thoughts I was having about the desert and its inhabitants, one of my steps didn't make contact with the ground as I had expected and I suddenly stumbled. Upon falling on my hands and knees and feeling myself sinking into a small pit of sand, I felt something latch onto the heel of my shoe and immediately twisted to slam my Ultra Ball against whatever it was that was attacking me, sucking it in and freeing myself. I somehow managed to maintain my grip on the ball despite it forcibly opening and closing as I scrambled out of the pit and to my feet, and gave a sigh of relief as I felt it go still just as I grabbed at Duran's ball on my belt to prepare for a possible fight.

"Are you alright? Did you trip?" Samantha asked worriedly as I kicked my legs to shake the sand off me, her and Owen having noticed that I'd fallen slightly behind.

I nodded, trying my best to play it off despite my pounding heart and concern over what I might have caught. I didn't want to give any further cause for concern by admitting I'd just been attacked again, since we were already in a tense situation and I didn't want to add any stress to the group.

"Yeah, just lost my footing and stumbled," I lied smoothly as I quickly caught up to them, not wanting to give Samantha a chance to investigate and find the pit I'd fallen into.

After a few minutes when nobody was looking, I discretely clipped the now-occupied Ultra Ball to my clip and grabbed a fresh one to replace it. Luckily, I wouldn't end up needing it as only thirty or so more uneventful minutes later, the sandstorm dissipated as we finally reached the edge of the desert and set foot on solid ground once again, causing us all to collectively sigh in relief and immediately collapse onto the ground to rest our weary legs.

"We did it," I panted as I ripped the bandana and goggles off my face, reveling in how freeing it felt.

"I'm so tired," Samantha groaned, "My legs are killing me, and we still have to set up our tents and camp."

"Some of us do, yeah," I quipped, referring to Samantha's self-assembling tent. She cast me an unamused glare but was too tired to make a fuss about it.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm starving after that. Let's hurry up and find a place to camp for the night so we can get some sleep."

With the help of the moonlight that was now on full display, were able to find an acceptable camping spot nestled among the rocky cliffside that went on to wrap around the eastern side of Route 111's desert. Soon we had our tents up, dinner cooking, and a moment to truly relax and reflect on the day as Samantha pulled out a small medical kit and demanded to see our wounds.

They all ended up being relatively minor, as I had expected. The few spots where my skin had been penetrated were rinsed of sand, had some antibiotic ointment applied, and were bandaged easily enough. It felt like overkill to me and I was sure it would have been fine, yet Samantha was very insistent it wasn't worth the risk of infection and treated it anyway.

Owen wounds were undoubtedly worse than mine, but were easy enough to treat and not serious enough to be a cause for concern. He had multiple, clearly distinct teeth marks where the Sandile had bitten him, but nothing that couldn't be treated in much the same manner. We

"Arceus, Danny… What happened to your shoe? It looks like something took a chunk out of it, and almost you!"

I blinked in surprise before glancing down to see that Samantha was right; a chunk of my shoe's sole was missing on the side of the heel, and there were deep gouges torn out of the surrounding area. It wasn't so bad that it made the shoe unusable, but it was undoubtedly overdue for replacement and explained why that shoe had gotten more sand in it than my other.

I groaned at the sudden reminder that I was in possession of an unknown desert dweller who was likely both dangerous and aggressive. I knew I would have to figure out what to do with it sooner or later, but I didn't want to cause a stir among our group as we were just beginning to relax after a long and stressful day, and most of all I was far too tired to want to deal with whatever was this late at night.

"Can we please talk about it tomorrow…" I all but pleaded, knowing that continuing to lie about it was pointless now that we were safe and tensions had cooled.

"Don't be stubborn. If you're hurt just say so, I've already got the supplies out," Samantha urged with confusion and concern. "It doesn't look like whatever happened even got through to you, so if you're hiding an injury I doubt it's anything serious."

"It's nothing like that…" I hesitated, "I'm not hurt, but there is something that we'll have to deal with. I'd much rather wait until the morning, though."

"I wouldn't even be able to get a good night's rest with all this vague suspense. Just spill the beans and quit being ominous," she said as she crossed her arms and gave me a stern look. Owen for his part simply looked curious, but not nearly as invested as Samantha was as he finished releasing his team.

I sighed, resigning myself to my fate as I forced myself to my feet and unclipped the Ultra Ball that held the Pokémon that had attempted to take a bite from my leg.

"I caught… something," I admitted as I stared down at the ball. "It's what I tripped over, and what did a number to my shoe. I didn't even get a look at it because it was under the sand and happened so fast, but if I had to guess it's probably a Sandile, or maybe a Sandshrew."

"Hey, you got your fourth team member! Congratulations dude!" Owen complimented with a grin as he came over and clasped my shoulder.

"Not sure we should be celebrating," I grimaced. "Considering how I caught it, it'll probably be confused and aggressive. I'll probably end up releasing it back into the desert, honestly. Although I do have my commercial license, so I could always sell or trade it. But I'm not sure I'd feel good about that."

"Why are you just telling us this now? Seems like being attacked and capturing a Pokémon is something you should probably tell your travel buddies," Samantha half-accused with clear annoyance.

"It was already over by the time you two noticed, and I just wanted to keep going. Explaining would have only give us a mouth full of sand and even more stress. But you're right, I should have just said something. I wasn't really thinking," I apologized, deciding it was best to just be sincere and apologetic.

Truthfully, I wasn't fully convinced that I'd made the wrong call, but the Meowth was out of the bag and there was no point arguing over something I could just easily apologize for. Though I might have felt like I had good reasons to do so at the time, it wasn't hard to understand why withholding information like that might rub someone the wrong way, and I knew if I was in her shoes I'd feel a similar way. Just because I had good intentions didn't make keeping it from the group right, and I wasn't about to stand my ground on that point.

Her eyes widened in mild surprise as she carefully examined me for a moment as if to check my sincerity before nodding, seeming appeased that I'd admitted wrongdoing.

"Apology accepted. Now then, let's see what you caught."

"I'm pretty sure it'll lash out, so let's release our teams first just to be safe. At a minimum, Apollo can help me communicate with it."

"I'd advise against that," Owen warned, to my surprise. "A Pokémon's first time in a Pokéball is jarring, and whatever you caught has likely never left the desert before. Having a crowd of humans and strange Pokémon around it would probably increase the chances it lashes out if it feels cornered and threatened. Besides, there's no reason for it to devolve into a battle. It's captured, so just be ready to recall it if it gets aggressive. I do think Apollo to help communicate is a good idea, though. Probably just you and him would be best, and I'd do it a little distance away from us and the campfire to reduce stimuli."

I blinked, not having expected such thoughtfulness from Owen. I'd never gotten the impression that he wasn't intelligent, but he'd always struck me as the type to act first and ask questions later. After all, he'd been the one who had challenged the desert to whip up a sandstorm and 'bring it on', he'd been perfectly willing to travel at night, and was undoubtedly the one least bothered by our travels today despite getting hurt the most.

I'd thought I had him pegged, but then again he had shown similar levels of thought and planning when it came to his challenge against the Mauville gym. Perhaps his passion for Pokémon trainer was one of the few things he took truly seriously, or at least that was my new running assumption.

"All good ideas, I'll do that," I agreed with a nod as I released Apollo, who instantly connected to my mind and took to my shoulder.

Relief. "No sand, not hot."

I nodded silently, my mind running through what had happened to quickly feed it to him as I tried to ignore Samantha's growing impatience and Owen's rising curiosity.

Concern. "Was attacked, hurt?"

"I'm fine, promise. Sammy fixed me up. We need to check on the Pokémon, can you help translate?"

"Will do best."

I nodded, rolling the Ultra Ball around in my hand as I went a short distance away from camp but still close enough that they could watch the proceedings. Taking a deep breath, I aimed the ball a few steps away so that it couldn't immediately attack and released it.

I blinked in confusion and heard Samantha audibly gasp as the light settled and the Pokémon came to form, not recognizing the species. It was essentially one giant head and mouth with beady eyes, a smaller orange body, four stubby legs, and a white underbelly. My immediate impression was that it must be some sort of bug, though by the rows of massive jagged teeth and the fact it tried to take a chunk out of me I strongly suspected it was carnivorous.

To my surprise, the first thing it did upon being released was attempt to Dig. It didn't make much progress though due to having no experience digging through solid ground, and soon it paused in confusion before taking a moment to finally look around and realize it was no longer in the desert. It presented me with the perfect opportunity to pull out my Pokédex and scan the peculiar creature for more information, something I sorely needed.

"Trapinch, the sandpit Pokémon. It can survive over a week without food or water, waiting for prey to fall in its cone-shaped pit traps. Its bites can possess enough force to crush small boulders, so caution is advised. Trapinch is unable to right itself if flipped on its back, leaving it vulnerable when exposed. This Trapinch is female and has the ability Sheer Force, which focuses attacks on inflicting maximum damage at the cost of a greatly reduced chance of inflicting status effects."

I was surprised to find that it was only tagged as a ground-type and not part bug like I had assumed. Seeing no other useful information and not wanting to give the Trapinch another chance to try burrowing away, I pocketed my Pokédex and crouched down, trying to talk to it while maintaining a safe distance.

"Hey Trapinch, it's nice to meet you," I started as the Trapinch locked eyes with me and glared, seemingly sizing me up.

Confusion. Suspicion. Anger.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot; I'm Daniel, and my partner here is Apollo," I continued. "We'd like to try being friends, if you're open to it. I'll keep you well-fed and help you get stro–"

*DANGER*

The Trapinch suddenly began scurrying toward me, snapping its massive jaws in a threatening display that left no doubt as to its intentions. I immediately recalled it, sighing as I stood up and rubbed the back of my head while returning to the campfire.

"Well that didn't go too well," I remarked as I took a seat and glanced over longingly at the pot of stew that was beginning to smell amazing.

"Danny, do you even know what you caught? That's not just some common desert dweller," Samantha said with some alarm in her voice that put me on edge.

"The Pokédex said it's a Trapinch, but didn't give me many details. My main takeaway was not to let it bite me, or I might lose an appendage."

"Owen walked over with a beaming smile, clasping my shoulder and shaking me. "Dude, you're a dragon tamer now! Hope you're ready, because it's not going to be easy!"

I gave him a look of confusion, "Dragon? It's just a ground type. It looks more like a bug than anything."

"He's right Danny," Samantha supplied. "When Trapinch evolves into Vibrava, its dormant dragon genetics begin to surface. When it fully evolves into a Flygon, its draconic traits are very prevalent."

My eyes widened at the mention of the familiar species, "That becomes a Flygon? I would have never guessed."

"It's similar to an Altaria; not a pure dragon, but undeniably draconic. Fierce, stubborn, and powerful. You always said you wanted to try raising a dragon, it looks like now is your chance."

"But it doesn't even want to come with me. You saw what happened, I tried talking to it and it instantly attacked. How am I supposed to train something like that?"

"By being patient and persuasive. Hate to break it to you Danny, but there are some species of Pokémon you'll never be able to talk into joining you. You said that Duran wouldn't have been able to be reasoned with and needed to be shown that working with you was beneficial. It was also your idea to convince Joy and Buzz to join me by putting on a show. It's no different."

"I'm going to have to respectfully disagree," Owen objected, causing Samantha to raise a brow. He raised his hands placatingly, keeping a calm and steady voice while explaining his reasoning.

"Let me rephrase; I agree with the sentiment, but not the approach. We're talking about a dragon here. From what I've heard, dragons require a much heavier hand to keep under control than most species. You need a dragon's respect, and the only way to do that is through proving your strength, confidence, and for lack of a better word… dominance."

Samantha frowned, "It's not even a dragon yet, there's still plenty of time to earn its respect the modern way. No need to force it into submission, that's barbaric and archaic."

"You say that, but there are countless stories of dragons who have killed their trainer the moment they evolved. If the approach is to make it believe in a mutually beneficial relationship, of course a dragon will try to kill its trainer the moment it thinks it's strong enough that they don't need them. You also have to bear in mind that hormones and emotions surge upon evolution, and for dragons in particular you can't rely solely on friendship to prevent a possible frenzy of aggression."

Owen leveled me with a serious look, "It might sound archaic, but for some species it's best to approach things more primally, especially for dragons. I'd recommend asserting yourself as a fair yet firm leader who won't tolerate outbursts like what we just saw. Once the Trapinch sees your team's strength and that they look to you as a leader, it'll know the possible reprocussions of crossing you and will respect you more. They say fear is the most powerful motivator, and a healthy dose of it might just save you or your team's life."

"I think you both have good points," I spoke up, not wanting to risk a possible debate when I saw the point both were trying to make. "Safety needs to be a priority, so I'll try tackling it somewhere in between. It did try to attack me, twice now actually, so I don't think it's a terrible idea to take a firmer approach to speak at a more primal level. But the end goal is to make them a functioning, willing member of my team, so I'll do everything I can to get a line of communication going and gain some level of understanding. I'll try in the morning; I think some time for both of us to rest and reflect will help ease tensions."

Owen nodded in approval while Samantha pursed her lips, and although I could tell she was tempted to argue her point she decided to accept it and forced a nod of her own. She had to know that there was some undeniable truth to Owen's words; although it was universally accepted that the best partnerships were borne of forming close bonds, there was tried and true merit to taking a firmer approach for some Pokémon that wouldn't even give friendship a chance otherwise.

Deciding that the Trapinch would be fine in its ball for the night, I released the rest of my team as we settled in, ate dinner, and soon made our way to bed. The Pokédex had said that Trapinch could go over a week without food and water, and I simply didn't have the energy to try dealing with it again after such a long, grueling day.

I tried my best to stay up later to give Apollo and Stella time to converse as they sat off to the side and stared up at the moon, seemingly having a moment. Orion ended up inadvertently helping by hopping in Samantha's lap and allowing her to pet him, a gesture I found truly touching and that Samantha relished in, seemingly reminded of when Stella was just a young Eevee.

But it only helped so much. Owen soon turned in for the night, and Samantha eventually decided that she'd had her fill of Orion's affections and declared it well past time for bed, causing Stella and the rest of her team to follow her into the tent. I gave Apollo a sympathetic rub of the helmet as we retreated to the tent, assuring him he'd have a chance tomorrow to talk to her again before Samantha went her own way.

As my team and I settled into bed, I couldn't help but groan in annoyance as I set an alarm on my phone, deciding that I was going to need to wake up extra early to allow myself time to try to interact with the Trapinch again and figure out what I wanted to do with it. There was a large part of me that thought I wasn't ready; none of my team had even evolved yet, and I wasn't sure I had it in me to deal with the headache I was sure this Trapinch would surely present.

And yet, there was an undeniable flood of serotonin in my mind at the thought that I'd just begun one of the milestones I'd set for myself as a trainer. I wasn't a dragon tamer yet, but I could be if I somehow managed to make things with the Trapinch work out.

Flygon were rare, fierce battlers known throughout the region for being extremely versatile and powerful. They even got big enough that they could carry their trainers on their back, and I couldn't help but get goosebumps as I imagined myself flying high over Hoenn's landscape on the back of my own mighty and loyal dragon. I knew it was bound to be an uphill battle, but I'd somehow managed to get through to Duran under similar circumstances.

Even though I didn't feel fully ready to step up to the task, the rare opportunity to become a dragon tamer had quite literally fallen into my lap, and I wasn't about to let it go to waste when I might not get another one. Although it was far from guaranteed that things would work out, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that the next morning was going to be an important and memorable one, no matter how events unfolded.

A/N: Yup, Trapinch. Can't have Daniel catching something easier to train like a Bagon, Gible, or Deino now can we? Our boy must struggle, it is his destiny. I had quite a few commenters mention Trapinch as a potential capture, but it's actually been lined up since the very start of the story. I've got one more planned capture for Daniel that is tied directly to the core plot and cannot change, and one free slot that I'm leaving open to whatever feels right and comes naturally, although I have a few ideas. If you feel a particular species would fit Daniel very well, feel free to make a suggestion; I love hearing people's thoughts.

Shoutout to JoeMcLuvin and BigBuckler712; appreciate you both sharing your thoughts! No beta reader this week, we flying solo, so hopefully i didn't miss any glaring issues in this chapter.

Come chat about DotD or hang out on Discord. gg/ ge6a8XcNcB