John woke up early in the morning. He normally wasn't a morning person, but because of all the walking from the previous day, he went to bed early, causing his early rising. When he reached Viridian City, he ended up getting into a couple more trainer battles, but there wasn't anything he couldn't handle. The only attack Rhyhorn had received was the Quick Attack from that first Spearow, while the other Youngsters in the area were beaten before their pokémon could use a single attack. Because of all the extra money, he managed to get dinner and find an Inn within his price range. Sleeping in an unfamiliar bed felt kind of weird, but because of his exhaustion he slept well regardless. Now, John was debating his plan for the future.

'Should I go to Pallet Town, or go to Pewter City? Seeing Oak might mean I can get a Pokédex, but… the Hoothoot from yesterday shows there's gen 2 pokémon here, meaning I'm probably in HeartGold/SoulSilver, where Oak doesn't give a Pokédex to the player. In that case, going to Pallet Town would be a waste of time.'

After some deliberation, John decided to head north. If he could encounter more pokémon he wanted on his team, then finding something to cheese the overleveled gym leaders with would be much simpler than sticking around Viridian City anyway. There were only Rattata and Pidgey south anyways, so with no Pokédex or starter going to Pallet town would be a complete waste of time. Besides, it shouldn't take long to get there. Viridian Forest may have seemed large because it was at the start of the game, but it was actually pretty short for the average Pokémon dungeon.

As a bonus, Rhyhorn seems to have healed overnight from the attack it had received yesterday, so there was no need to waste time visiting the Pokémon Center.

John got a complimentary breakfast at the inn, then set out with no money to his name. With no worries though, as he could just beat the bug catchers populating the forest if he really needed more. It seemed like things were going to go quite well today.

John walked north out of Viridian City. There was an old man on the way, but the interaction was inconsequential.

"Hello young trainer. Would you like to lea-"

"Skip."

"Wha-?!"

Unperturbed, John continued out of the city.

'I'm glad Gamefreak finally added the option to skip unnecessary tutorials.' John thought, as he reached the dirt path to the woods.

One hour and one Bug Catcher later, John had arrived at Viridian Forest.

'Right, I forgot this game is a walking simulator. What if…' John felt uncertainty, because the short route to the forest that would have taken seconds to traverse in the games took an hour, the dungeon he believed to be 'actually pretty short' would definitely be much longer as well.

'The route may be much longer, but there were hardly any encounters on Route 22, so the encounters must be spaced out as well. In that case, the only difference should be the amount of time it takes to go through it.'

Assuaging his own feelings of worry, he steps into the forest. It's not like he hasn't done things like this before, like going into a gym battle without knowing if he'll win or not. But he trusted himself, and he ended up winning most of the time.

There was no route building between Viridian City and Viridian Forest. Instead, it was a large arch, like a gate over the beaten path into the forest.

Now Entering: Viridian Forest

It reminded John of the national parks from his own world, where the amount of trees along the path would steadily increase, with the arch being placed around where most people would agree the field ends and the forest begins.

Inside the forest, the ambiance was very different from Route 22. The trees, while being thick and spaced apart, still covered the half sky, mostly only allowing thin rays of sunlight through. Still, the forest seemed very vibrant and green. There were plenty of trainers near the entrance of the forest, but not many of them seemed interested in battling.

'Wow, Viridian Forest has only looked this good in the Let's Go games.'

John looks around for a second, looking for the path. According to his memory it should be… yep, to the right. In terms of tiles the dungeon isn't too big, but it makes use of every tile by forcing you to move in a zigzag. At least it wasn't Eterna Forest, that dungeon was huge no matter how you looked at it. By comparison, this should be a piece of cake!

…

It was not a piece of cake.

John was doing his best to not scratch any of the red patches on his arms.

"God damn poison ivy, why add something so irritating to a pokémon game-" John was angrily muttering to himself.

"Hey! Let's battle!" John heard a young voice call out to him. Turning, John saw a Bug Catcher.

'Oh yeah, I forgot I was supposed to fight trainers. I've just been itchy for the last hour'

"Alright, let's do this! How much are you betting?" John called out.

"500 Pokkén." The Bug Catcher called back. It seemed among inexperienced trainers, 500 was the standard amount to bet. There were only a few trainers that had bet higher than that.

John sent out Rhyhorn, and the Bug Catcher sent out a Butterfree. One Smack Down later, and the Butterfree was down. To be fair the Bug Catcher seemed quite a bit stronger than the area, but the type matchup was just not in their favor.

After winning, John stuck out his hand expectantly.

"Um… I don't have the money." The Bug Catcher says apologetically, seemingly starting to panic.

"You bet money you didn't have." John stated, ignoring the fact he did the same thing.

"Well- I-"

"What am I getting then?"

The Bug Catcher thinks for a moment.

"I found some Oran Berries nearby. I could show you?"

'I didn't think Viridian Forest had any Oran Berries, but I do need some healing items. Those would be the best I'm going to get until I get out of the forest.'

"Alright sure, show me."

John and Rhyhorn followed the Bug Catcher. True to her word, there were some bushes of Oran Berries.

"Oh, score!" John exclaimed. Rhyhorn walked over to the bushes and tried to eat one, but John returned it to its ball.

"No, we're saving those for when you get hurt."

The Bug Catcher looked at John worryingly, then slowly asked "Um, is that good enough to settle my bet?"

"Yep it's good, thank you." In the middle of Viridian Forest, healing was more important than money, so John was more elated to get a bunch of Oran Berries.

The Bug Catcher silently left as John collected the Oran Berries. In total, there were eleven berries in his possession now, but not in his bag.

'Wait, I don't have a backpack.' John finally realized. He had been storing Rhyhorns pokéball in his pocket, but he couldn't fit all of those berries in his pockets. Each Oran Berry was about the size of a tangerine.

"Hmmm." While doing the humming that a person pondering a problem normally does, John pulls up the front of his shirt, and uses it like a basket to hold the berries.

'Sometimes my own genius, it terrifies me.' John thought jokingly to himself. He knew it was only a temporary solution, but he always took the opportunity to make himself laugh. Though the itchiness in his arms would make holding on to his improvised basket difficult.

Over the next many hours there were plenty of wild battles, but not all that many trainer battles. John had seen a bunch of trainers near the entrance, but hardly any around here, and not many of them wanted to battle either. Also coincidentally, after fighting that Bug Catcher from before, the pokémon in the area got much faster. Rhyhorn had outsped everything before, but now Rhyhorn was getting hit in every battle.

'I've gone through seven of the Oran Berries already, at this rate I'm not sure if we'll make it out of the forest'

John worried about the sudden increase in the difficulty of battles, but it was weird. All the wild pokémon still went down in one hit, but they just started landing more hits overall. More worryingly, John was only around one of the bends and the sky was already starting to get dark. And once again, John was very hungry. Worse, he was parched, and exhausted. His head drooped, as he was running low on the energy necessary to keep it up. As John considered leaning on a tree for a bit, he heard some footsteps approaching him. His head shot up, ready for a fight.

"Hello there lad. Do you want to battle?" A stocky man with light blond hair said.

John squinted, not recognizing this trainer class.

He had sort of an Australian accent, which was weird. Most of the people John had seen so far hadn't had much of an accent.

"Uhh, sure. How about 500 Pokkén?" John didn't want to make a big bet, since he wasn't sure he would win. Even if he did win, he saw experience as more valuable than money.

"Seems fair. How many badges do you have?" The trainer asked.

"Uhh…" John was weirded out by this question. John suddenly felt like he accidentally found some endgame superboss.

"Ah, pardon me. My name is Terry. I've got a few badges under my belt, but if you don't have any I'll take it easy on you." He notices John being weirded out, and explains himself.

"Oh! Well, I don't have any badges, and only one pokémon."

"Got it. Now that I've introduced myself, what's your name?" Terry says as he sets down some kind of cylinder that was attached to the side of his backpack.

"It's John." John says, as he curiously looks at what Terry is doing.

A keyboard pops out the side of the cylinder, and Terry starts typing into it. After a few seconds, it materialized a pokéball in the air.

"Uh, what's that?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry, I thought most people knew about this. It's a portable PC system."

"Like from Galar?"

"I believe that was where the technology was invented, yes. I don't normally carry weaker pokémon on me, so to make this a fair battle I needed to withdraw one."

"Oh, understandable."

'Please don't be a grass or water type' John prays.

"Go, Abra!" Terry calls, throwing the pokéball out.

"Alright! Go Rhyhorn!"

'Abra has weak physical defense, but then again Rhyhorn also has weak special defense. Maybe the npc is stupid and sent out an Abra with only teleport?'

"Rhyhorn, Smack Down!"

"Protect!"

A shimmering blue-green wall appears in front of the Abra, blocking the rock that was launched at it.

"Now Hidden Power!"

John's eyes widened. 'Oh crap'. His fears about receiving a grass or water type attack had come back full force.

A wave of colorless energy bashed into Rhyhorn, eliciting a growl of pain, but Rhyhorn still stood, looking moderately damaged.

'Whew, must have been neutral.'

"Smack Down!"

This time, Abra couldn't block the attack. The Smack Down struck it square in the forehead, knocking it out.

"Aw darn it!" Terry said, still smiling as he did so. "Well, 500 Pokkén goes to you, fine lad."

"Thank you!" Compared to the other npc's so far, this one seemed pretty engaging, so John didn't have much trouble getting emotionally invested with him.

Though John was celebrating his victory, thoughts of his victory were eating at him a little bit. 'That Smack Down looked like it had been a critical hit. If it wasn't, I probably would have lost.'

"If I may, could I offer some advice for battling?" Terry said.

"Sure." John didn't think he could say anything he didn't already know, but John already decided he liked this npc, so he'd listen to him.

"I get that it's normal to think of tactics all the time but… you seemed sort of distant from the fight itself."

"What do you mean?"

"I get I wasn't the best example of this, my bond with Abra isn't very strong. Hell I haven't even thought of a nickname- I'm getting off topic. Anyway, the important thing is that when your pokémon fight, you're involved in the battle too."

"... As the trainer; Of course I'm involved in the fight?"

"I don't mean as a trainer, I mean as a partner." Terry corrected.

'I think this is some of the stuff I hear in the dialogue I don't bother reading twice.' John thought. It doesn't seem like Terry had anything new to say after all.

"Thank you for the advice Terry, I'll try to improve on that." John said just to try and politely end the interaction.

"Alright. Good to hear. I could tell you've got a very tactical mind. It would be a shame if you limited your options."

"Thank you. Hopefully I'll see you again later?"

"I believe we will. I'm headed to Viridian City, how about you?"

"Pewter City."

Terry paused for a moment.

"Well I'm sure our paths will cross again in the future! Goodbye John." Terry says, continuing down the path waving.

"Bye Terry." John says, giving a short wave before proceeding down the path.

John walks for about two minutes before remembering how exhausted he was, and promptly collapses on a nearby tree. This throat was parched, and even if it hadn't affected him at the time, talking with Terry was a little bit painful. It was getting pretty dark in the forest now, now that the sun had set behind the tree line. John laid on the ground, leaning on the tree as he thinks about everything he's seen and experienced today. At the start, even though he knew going through Viridian Forest would take a lot longer than in the games, he didn't expect that he would end up being stuck here overnight. Even if he wasn't exhausted, he didn't have a light source, so he had no way to tell where he was going. As for items.

'Four Oran Berries, and a moderately wounded Rhyhorn. pokémon seem to recover hp when they sleep in this game, so I'll see how much Rhyhorn recovers overnight, then see how many Oran Berries he'll need-' John's own stomach rumbling distracted him from his own thoughts.

'And it appears that I'll need food and water too.'

Despite running through his circumstance in his head multiple times, he still felt like something was wrong. maybe it had to do with Terry? He was the only thing John had seen so far that he couldn't understand. I guess that and the pink aura around Rhyhorn, but that didn't seem to bother him nearly as much. But what could possibly be bothering him about Terry?

Why can't you just think about other people for once?

Slowly, John drifted into sleep, despite the uncomfortable conditions as the exhaustion of the day began taking its toll. His body shivering, John had one last thought before drifting off into sleep.

'I should have gotten a sleeping bag or something.'

Sarah slowly drifts into the world of the waking, roused by the smell of bacon and eggs.

"Good morning Sarah!" Mirei says joyfully. Mirei, as Sarah found out, was Crystal's mother. Once again Sarah had gotten the name wrong, but she hadn't said the wrong name out loud, so technically no mistake was made. After Crystal called her mom and explained the situation, Mirei happily let Sarah stay for the night. Almost too happily. Mirei explained it as missing having her daughter around. Sarah accepted the kindness, even though the doting felt like a bit much, but she also thought it was sad that the parents of travelling trainers went through this. How many parents in the real world suffer from empty nest syndrome? It was probably way worse in this world because the expected age of moving out was a lot younger. Between ten to sixteen, as opposed to eighteen to twenty four in Sarah's world. Parents would always worry, but they would worry a lot more if their children were less prepared for the world than they could be. Granted, this world was based on a children's anime, so Sarah stopped herself from riding on this train of thought any longer. Time to change lines!

"Good morning Mirei." Sarah drowsily pulled herself off the couch. Crystal said she didn't mind if Sarah used her bed because she doesn't really use it anymore, but Sarah still thought it was a bit weird and settled on the couch.

"I hope you're ready for breakfast!" Mirei plated everything, and set the table as Sarah washed up. Amber was given her own plate as well. Overall, it was a pleasant morning, but while Sarah and Mirei were eating, Sarah could sense that something was wrong. Mirei seemed to take weird pauses when she was eating, pressing her lips together while looking absently at the table. Sarah tried to start a conversation, either to find out what was bothering Mirei, or to take her mind off it.

"So… Cherrygrove should be my first stop. What's the town like?" Sarah started.

"Do you really have to go?" Mirei quickly replied.

Now Sarah knows what the problem is. Addressing it directly might… well it might cause Mirei to get defensive.

"Yes. As nice as it may be to stay here, I want to experience the world."

"Yes… I understand." Mirei said quietly.

"I'm sorry." Sarah could imagine the pain Mirei was going through. She probably didn't want Crystal to leave either, and Sarah was causing her to re-experience that pain.

"Don't apologize. It's not your fault. I just…"

"I know! When I finally get a Pokégear, I'll call Crystal and tell her to stop by more often!" Sarah said, doing her best to force a playful tone to shift the mood.

"Yeah. Thank you." Mirei says, sort of forcing a smile. Of course Sarah didn't expect to make Mirei happy with her departure, but this was probably the best way to resolve this. Mirei wasn't looking so tense anymore, even if she still wasn't happy about Sarah leaving.

The two of them, plus Amber, continued to eat their breakfast. Sarah learned from Mirei that Cherrygrove was apparently a beautiful place, and since it was closer to the sea than Newbark town, it was a much more popular tourist destination. Sarah understood the appeal. Some places may be beautiful, but if it's too difficult to go there then it wouldn't be popular. Places further from bigger cities like Newbark Town may be nice quiet places to settle down, but not all that popular for tourists.

After breakfast, Sarah and Mirei cleaned up, and Sarah got ready to go.

Sarah put her shoes on, and Amber jumped up onto her shoulder. Sarah didn't see Mirei, but she called out to her.

"Thank you for breakfast Mirei! I'm going now!"

"Wait!" Sarah heard Mirei call back from upstairs.

Mirei ran down the stairs, carrying a backpack, and handed it to Sarah.

"Unfortunately I don't have any trainer supplies here, but I have a spare bag." Mirei quickly explained before catching her breath. "You'll find a lot of interesting things you can't carry, so you should definitely have a bag."

"Thank you Mirei! I'll make good use of it." Sarah answered.

Mirei sent her off with a bittersweet smile, and Sarah's journey officially started.

From what Sarah could tell from route 29, it was fairly open. The patches of tall grass were seemingly random. Sarah heard from Mirei that the trip would be about one day, so she decided to avoid all the wild battles she could. She wouldn't want to get attacked by a wild pokémon while Amber was tired from a whole day of battling.

For the most part though the route itself was like an open field, with lines of trees off in the distance forming almost a giant pathway. There weren't very many trainers on this route. Most of them looked pretty young, and Sarah was pretty sure she saw a young kid with their parent, who was teaching them how to catch a pokémon.

'This is probably one of the weakest routes in the region, making it a good starting point. I probably shouldn't expect many battles around here-'

Just as Sarah was thinking that, a trainer called out to her.

"Hey, do you want to battle?"

It was a boy wearing blue shorts, an orange t-shirt, and a blue cap. He looked about 12, and very energetic.

"Sure. Do you feel up for it Amber?" Sarah asked. Amber responded with a fired up "Vee!"

"Alright!" Sarah exclaimed, Amber leaping off her shoulder onto the ground in front of her.

"I don't have anything to bet, is that alright?" The youngster said.

"Bet?" Sarah didn't know there was betting involved in the battles, but she didn't have anything to bet anyway, so it doesn't really matter. "Yeah, that's fine."

"Go, Tatta!" The youngster shouted, sending out a Rattata.

The two pokémon locked eyes with each other, waiting for their trainers to give out a command. Fortunately for the inexperienced Sarah, Elm had scanned Amber with a pokédex and told her Amber's moves.

"Tatta! Tackle!" The Rattata ran towards Amber at high speeds, but Sarah expected this.

"Amber, jump over it!" Sarah knew Amber could just at least up to her shoulder, which was way above Rattata's height. Amber jumped, spinning herself around in the air to still land facing the Rattata. When Amber jumped, Tatta was still trying to stop so it could turn around, meaning it was off balance.

"Now Amber, Tackle!" Amber struck Tatta while it was turning, landing a strong tackle right into its side.

"Grr, Tatta isn't done yet! Go for another Tackle!" Tatta was sent rolling from that hit, but recovered and ran at Amber again.

"Amber, Sand Attack, then go to the side!" Amber kicked sand directly at the charging Rattata, blinding it, then Amber jumped to the side to avoid its blind attack.

"Now finish it!" Sarah confidently called out. Amber landed one last Tackle, finishing the battle.

"Aw dang it." The youngster complained.

"Yes!" Sarah shouted, Amber jumping back up to her. The two of them celebrated together.

'We won our first battle, with no injuries to boot!' Sarah thought. This joy was shared with Amber as well, who was also excited about winning her first battle.

The youngster quietly thanked her for the battle, and walked away. Probably going home. Sarah thought about his reaction as she kept walking. Once she thought about adding betting to the picture, it started to make sense. In Sarah's mind, there were two kinds of people who wanted to battle. Those who wanted to battle because they enjoyed it, and those who wanted to battle because they gained something from it. If betting was really a big part of battling in this world, then it may be difficult for someone who doesn't have anything to bet to battle somebody. It made sense that the youngster was upset about losing, but he still thanked her because she was willing to battle him, even with no reward.

'The anime makes this world look so bright and cheery, but if I keep thinking about things for too long it just gets depressing.'

The closer to the middle of the route Sarah got, the fewer people she saw. It was basically a giant path, so she still saw people here and there, but they were so far away that it would have taken some time to meet up. If they had seen her as well, they weren't interested in going the distance just to talk to her.

At first Sarah was staying around the middle of the route, but around noon she decided to stick near the right side by the forest line. This was because she was getting hungry, and remembered there was nothing in the bag.

'I wonder where Brock put all of the cooking supplies, and where he got the food from. Come to think of it, Cilan is capable of the same magic that Brock uses. Hmm… Kanto is closer, so maybe I should try asking Brock.'

Some time later Amber started making noises of complaint. It seems she got tired of balancing on Sarah's shoulder, which was fair, they had been travelling for about five hours at that point. Sarah returned Amber to her ball. Not long after, she noticed a break in the forest line north. Unfortunately, the way north looked like a plateau, going up about fifty meters from the elevation she was at now. She could swear she saw somebody trying to climb it, but since she didn't have any climbing tools, and because of how high up it went, she chose not to try. It would be super dangerous, and all it would do is take her off her intended path.

Fortunately not long after, she found some berry bushes. There were three kinds, a red berry with a bunch of spikes coming out of it, a berry heavily resembling a pineapple, and a berry that looked kind of like a.. raspberry. Literally just a raspberry. Sarah recognized the Tamato and Pinap berries. Ash was given some pretty funny swollen lips from the Tamato berry, and in Alola there was an Oranguru who was well known for his Pinap berry drinks. That Oranguru was definitely somebody she wanted to visit when she went to Alola.

Sarah sent Amber back out, and showed her the berries she had found.

"How about we eat them together?" Sarah asked. Amber nodded. Sarah and Amber first looked at the Tamato berry. Despite having spikes on it, the spikes were actually part of the flesh of the berry itself, and thus not actually that pointy. Biting one of the spikes still seemed like a good place to start. Sarah was kind of wary of this berry because apparently it was supposed to be pretty spicy, but she's been getting names wrong, so maybe her knowledge of how the berry tastes is wrong as well.

"Alright, let's give it a go!" Sarah and Amber bit into their respective berries at the same time. At first it tasted sort of like a tomato. Sarah didn't really like tomatoes, but even so it wasn't all that unpleasant, until Sarah was proven right and the inevitable wave of spiciness hit. Her mouth felt like it was on fire, and her face started getting red. Doing her best to bear with the heat, she swallowed it, and set the berry back down. Meanwhile, Amber freaked out a lot more, licking grass to get the taste off her tongue. Sarah wanted to get the spiciness out of her mouth too, so she tried the next berry, a berry that she knew would help.

Sarah bit into the Pinap berry. Her teeth didn't get very far, because the skin on this one was pretty thick. After taking a few seconds to figure out how to get the skin off, she took a bite of the actual fruit itself. Its texture was close to that of an apple or a pear, but the taste of it was exactly like pineapple. It was very sweet, but also very acidic. Still, it worked well to rid her mouth of the spiciness from before.

'It's uncanny how similar that one was to a pineapple, even in appearance as well. Amber didn't enjoy this berry as much as Sarah did. Not because the berry was bad, but because Amber just doesn't seem to like acidic things.

"Alright, onto the last one." Sarah and Amber both took a bite of their final respective berries. The Razz berries tasted like, well, raspberries. The actual size of it was a lot bigger than a raspberry so Sarah expected it to be really juicy, but it wasn't. It was a little dry actually. Not totally dry, but just enough where it didn't feel thirst quenching at all. Amber loved these berries the most, probably for their clean and smooth aftertaste. These berries were also mildly spicy, but just enough to leave some tingles on the tongue after your swallow, not enough to burn at all.

Either way, after eating these berries Sarah and Amber were getting thirsty. It wasn't too hot out, but she had been walking in the sun all day. The tomato-like one may have been pretty thirst quenching, but both Sarah and Amber weren't willing to eat more of it.

Sarah and Amber rested in the shade for a little while before continuing their trip. Water was definitely going to be an issue, but currently they didn't have any other option but to press onwards. Any small pond they found near the main path would probably be muddy and stagnant. In other words, the perfect place for bacteria to form, so they had no choice but to bear with it for a bit longer.

As the sun set lower in the sky, Sarah expected the sight of other trainers to get more common, but there were hardly any trainers in the area. Throughout the day, Sarah had to take more breaks as the exhaustion was piling up, but she could tell she was steadily getting closer to her destination. Her main worry now was if she would get there before it gets dark. Mirei said it was about a one day's journey, but maybe Sarah was just slower than the average traveller? That or she meant twenty fours hours of walking, not one daylight's worth of walking.

Because of the openness of the route, it wouldn't get fully dark here until the sun set completely, but it was definitely getting much darker. Sarah just considered stopping where she was, but she saw the flickering of a fire not too far ahead of her, so she decided to check it out.

However, as she got closer, she heard the people around the fire shouting in panic. Hearing this, Sarah pushed through her exhaustion and ran over to them.

"Ahh! Speeider, use String Shot! It'll smother the flames." Sarah could see two young boys shouting around the fire, dressed in tank tops and shorts with straw hats, along with a Spinarak.

"No, don't do that! The strings are highly flammable!" The other one of the boys shouted.

The poor Spinarak was frozen in conflict between the two of them. Between their cries, and what Sarah could see, it looked like they intended to make a campfire, but it was just about to go out of control.

"Amber!" Sarah sent Amber out. "Use Quick Attack to get to the fire, and Sand Attack to put it out!"

"Vee!" Amber said affirmatively. Amber covered herself in a white light, and accelerated far faster than Sarah could run, reaching the fire in under ten seconds. Amber then transitioned the force from her Quick Attack into the ground, kicking up sand onto the fire. Once Sarah caught up, Amber had gotten the fire under control, back where it should be.

"Thank you miss!" One of the boys said.

"No problem! If anything, thank Amber." Sarah says, proudly presenting her Eevee.

Both of the bug catchers thanked Amber.

"So why did you start a fire out here?" Sarah asked.

"Well… this was our first trip onto a route…" One of the bug catchers meekly answered.

"Travelers are supposed to make campfires, right?" The other one said far less meekly.

Both of these boys looked to be about eleven years old.

'Sheesh. When kids go out into the wilderness this young it's practically a miracle forest fires haven't broken out. Not to mention their inaccurate expectations.'

"Did either of you receive some kind of survival training?" Sarah asks out of curiosity.

"Yes." One of them answers.

Sarah takes a look at their improvised fire pit. She stares at it for a few seconds, then remembers that she didn't have any survival training, so it looked fine to her.

"Do you know what you did wrong?"

"Yes. The fire pit was too small. One of the embers flew out of the fire and onto the grass."

"Ah. Well now that you know the problem, how about we work together to fix it?"

The boys, who were expecting some kind of scolding, now relaxed quite a bit. Together the three of them gathered rocks, made the pit bigger, and relit the fire. The bug catchers had matches on them, which may have been a red flag in Sarah's world, but Sarah reasoned it would be pretty normal for travellers in this world. At least, for travellers that didn't have any fire type pokémon.

"So Miss, are you a trainer too?" One of the bug catchers had asked after the three of them had gotten settled around the fire. Maybe it was because Sarah had helped gather rocks for the fire pit but neither of them questioned her sitting down at the fire too. Sarah had learned their names were Leo and Jason. Jason was the one asking this question.

"I guess I am, but I just started."

"Is that why you don't have any camping supplies?" Leo asked. His tone was more patronizing than Sarah would have liked.

"Hey if I brought camping supplies with me, I wouldn't have found out how good Pinap berries taste."

"You can just buy Pinap juice though." Jason said.

"Unless you don't have any money either." Leo piled on.

'These kids really know how to hit where it hurts' Sarah thought, her face halfway twisted between the smile she was forcing and the glare she was holding back.

"So… does that mean you don't have any food?" Jason asked. His face was kind of sad, but also serious.

"Well.. no. I was just going to hope I could forage some more berries for dinner."

Jason opens his backpack, and pulls out some packaged bread. Sarah suspected it was something similar to melon bread, but made with some kind of pokémon Berry instead.

When Jason offered Sarah some food, Leo seemed to sober up and stopped teasing her.

"I have some extra water too…" Jason offered.

"Thank you." Sarah graciously accepted the food and water. "So, may I ask where you two are headed?"

Jason and Leo looked at each other.

"We… don't really have a destination in mind." Leo admitted.

"So… why are you travelling then?" Sarah asked.

Jason cracked first.

"Leo's mom and dad wouldn't let him visit his grandparents, so we grabbed some supplies and snuck out." Jason said quickly.

"W- we were going to be trainers anyway! We just left a little early is all!" Leo said defensively, expecting Sarah to chastise them.

From what Sarah could tell, Jason seemed to be the more proper of the two, while Leo was a bit more bratty. She could already imagine the antics Leo would pull Jason into, which Jason would always help Leo out of because they were friends. She didn't know all that much about how that dynamic would work out in real life, but if Leo kept getting more extreme, he might end up getting himself, and Jason killed.

"I'm not going to tell you you're wrong for wanting to visit your grandparents." Sarah started. "But Leo, make sure you're not dragging Jason to dangerous places. It's good that this is the weakest route in the region, but if you had dragged Jason into some dark cave, what would happen?"

"Jason could handle it, whatever it is!" Leo said confidently, while Jason just looked nervous.

"And Jason, sometimes the best way to help Leo would be to stop him, even if he doesn't like it."

Jason nods uncomfortably.

"What? Jason?! Don't tell me you agree with her!"

"Leo… do you remember that Furret from two years ago?"

Leo fell silent upon being reminded of that.

"If I had stopped you then, then we never would have gotten attacked."

"But if we had never gone then we wouldn't have met Speeider and Lebby!" Leo countered.

"I'm not saying never do anything exciting." Sarah interrupted. "I mean… I just want you to be careful about risking your lives. It sounds like that Furret incident led you to meeting… uhhh"

"Speeider is my Spinarak, and Lebby is Jason's Ledyba." Leo answered.

"It led to you meeting your partner pokémon, right?" Sarah asked.

Both of the boys nodded.

"So it was a net positive overall, right?"

Leo nodded enthusiastically, while Jason nodded shallowly.

"Jason, I'm not saying don't hold Leo accountable for his actions, what I mean is to not hate him for the dumb decisions he makes."

"Hey!" Leo shouted.

"I understand." Jason says. At this point Sarah wasn't sure what Jason was actually thinking. At first she thought Jason just didn't like what he was hearing, but it seems that when there's nothing to panic about, Jason is just pretty reserved.

Some time passed between them as they ate. Eventually Jason and Leo started to get some sleeping bags out. Sarah didn't have anything like that, so she just collected some more sticks and stuck close to the fire.

Apparently Spinarak silk was naturally sticky, making it not very good to use as a pillow. So Sarah opted for using her empty backpack as a pillow.

Fortunately the boys didn't seem to mind Sarah sticking around too much. Leo looked like he might object, but Jason shot him a stern look.

The night was chilly, but fortunately Sarah had the fire to keep the shivers away, even if the ground was sapping her warmth.

Sarah reflected on her day. She got to participate in an actual trainer battle, she got to try some berries that she was always curious about, and she also lectured some kids. She didn't know if that was the right thing to do, but she figured they would get hurt in the future if she didn't say something.

Why do you have to stick your nose in other people's business?

Sarah turned herself over towards the fire, watching the dancing embers as she drifted off.

'When I get the chance, I'm buying a sleeping bag.'

Author's notes:
Sorry about taking so long to put this chapter out. My courses have been very demanding of me, and I was also having difficulties putting my words onto the paper. Fear not however, as I have planned this story out to the end, and intend to see it through. It is not a matter of if I finish this story, only when.

If anybody has advice for me, about what things I should go into greater detail on, or what things I should skim over in the future, please let me know. I am still a learning writer and would appreciate any constructive criticism.

Thank you for reading!