A New Journey Begins:
By TerraMGP
Welcome to the world of Pokemon
This is the Ottah region. A land of lush forests, rugged valleys and crags, and most of all beautiful, pristine lakes and rivers surrounding and enfolding the land like a blanket of pure crystal blue. This is a world where Furres live together with mystical creatures known as Pokemon. For generations people and Pokemon have worked hand in hand to Ottah into a thriving place where all can live in peace and prosperity.
As with most regions every child upon reaching a certain age sets off on their very own pokemon journey. This is a chance to get away from home and see the wonderful sights that make up Ottah. Forging a bond between the Pokemon they befriend and their fellow citizens. Our story begins with two young women from Spring Town. Ester and Diana. The two have just set out on their own adventure, having left home not long ago.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Both girls were familiar enough with the rugged, rocky terrain of route 40. While their home in Springtown was pleasant and pastoral it tended to be rather lacking in shops and services. Still a trip that would have taken perhaps half an hour by car was very different on foot.
“Ugg, I still don’t see why we couldn’t have just grabbed the bus out of town.” Dee grumbled as she struggled hard to pull the various pieces of a pup-tent free from their painfully cramped bag. At the other end a smallish, pudgy Tepig pulled hard at one corner of the carrying bag letting out frustrated grunts and growls trying to help its trainer pull the object free.
“Well for one thing” Ester sighed “We already have our emergency money carefully budgeted out. So unless we manage to make some more between here and Harbor City I don’t think we should be wasting it. Besides this is supposed to be half the point. We are out here trying to train our pokemon and catch new ones, to see and explore the world around us. It’s about life experience and adventure!”
The mouse girl found herself instantly silenced by a hard thwap on the head. The blow knocked the brown-grey flat cap she had chosen for this adventure down over the poor girls eyes and sent her glasses tumbling to the ground below.
“You are such a dork mousie, ya know that? Weren’t you the one who just last month refused to head out to the lakeside with me because you were afraid of some wild Krabby that were wandering around looking for food? You thought they were gonna pinch though your boots!” Dee rolled her eyes and snatched the glasses from the ground, shoving the hat back up before placing her girlfriends glasses on and adding a cheek kiss for good measure. “What the hell would a wimp like you know about adventure anyways?
Est looked perturbed a moment, but then smiled softly “Well I know I wouldn’t have been as freaked out now.” She said. “After all, my Pokemon protect me without thinking its funny to freak me out and fuck with my head!”
The two had chosen a small patch of farm land for their camp that night. Much of the distance between Route 40 and Harbor City was made up of corn fields and fruit orchards. Sadly the latter were rather well guarded most of the year, and seemed to be a breeding ground for all manner of wild bug Pokemon that were distinctly nocturnal. In contrast plenty of the corn fields were fallow at this point. And the soil was just firm enough to support a pair of sleeping bags and a tent comfortably.
Off in the distance Taillow and Fletchling could be heard squabbling back and forth among the treeline where this farm ended and another began. The sun was slowly sinking behind those trees and Dee looked off at it wistfully for a moment adjusting her leather vest a bit at the slowly growing cold. “Ya know something Mouise maybe you are right. It’s not like we have it so bad. So we almost got our asses kicked by a bunch of Patrats heading outta town. So we gotta sleep in a tent in a field somewhere. It’s not so bad. I mean I got a cute mouse girl, all to myself. We have pokemon who can easily be put away in their Pokeballs, we got no parental supervision…”
Ester blushed as she started to grasp what her girlfriend was telling her, leaning back a bit and whimpering softly as she bit down softly on her lower lip. She looked into the eyes of the powerful, punkish Chipette now glairing down at her predatorily and slowly inching closer. Soon the silver stud resting in Dee’s left nostril catching those bashful green eyes as Ester tried hard to avert her gaze. She could feel her girlfriend’s hot breath breaking off of her fur, feel her fingers slowly sinking into the loamy dirt of the field breaking the dry cracked crust holding them up so tenuously. Finally she shut her eyes just barely starting to push forward, her lips pursed eagerly.
Both girls stopped just short of kissing. A loud rumbling sound snapped both of them away from the tender moment as birds began screeching and flying off in all directions, blotting out sections of the sinking sunlight from the sky. They were both on their feet after a few moments. Lines in the loamy earth already appearing off in the distance. Ester snatched up one of the two Pokeballs hanging from her belt as Diana snapped her fingers, her Tepig quickly leaping to her heel.
“What the fuck is that?” Dee asked as she narrowed her eyes. A small cloud of dust had kicked up and was just now settling down. She paced forwards a few steps and peered with a hand over her eyes, barely spotting the outline of a dark figure stumbling its way out of the mist.
Ester saw this as well, and in a moment the flat, matte-shelled rectangle of her Pokedex popped open. The display screen in the middle flickered to life as she centered the camera reticule over the figure and the machine got to work. Dark images of basic body type and pattern recognition software strained quickly flipping though the things database.
“I know what that is!” Dee cried out. it’s a Mawile!”
“Mawile, the Deception Pokemon” the Pokedex chirped at almost that exact moment. “Rarely seen in the Ottah Region, this small Pokemon makes its home in large, mineral rich caves. The mining boom two hundred years ago has forced many small packs out into the Frostcrag Moraines north of Rapid City. Many trainers find its body cute, forgetting about the dangerous second mouth atop its head..”
Ester looked up a few more times to compare and then shook her head in frustration. “Well that’s a Mawile alright, but I don’t know what it would be doing down here. There’s nothing but Farmland and Dunes for miles!”
“I donno…” Dee said with a small sneer on her lips “But I’mma catch it! Come on Gannon!” Her Tepig let out an excited squeal and nodded his head. He wasted no time in bounding off ahead deadlocked on his trainers target, which was now his target.
The munk girl’s boots sank hard into the dusty surface of the field as she marched her way undaunted towards the image, but Ester hung back a bit, hesitant. Regionality may not have been as exact as people liked to think. After all the Pokemon Rangers in Ottah claimed for years that wild Leipard and Ursaring had been wiped out over a hundred years ago, and then just last year someone hit a Leipard weighing in at almost a hundred pounds with their jeep along route 43. Something felt very wrong, and honestly if Dee wasn’t heading right towards it Ester would already be packing up the tent and making a run for it.
But for better or worse Diana had already neared the seemingly distracted Pokemon. She stood confidently looking over her intended prize with Gannon at her feet, snorting out large puffs of steam as his hooves dug into the dirt.
“Uhh, Dee” Ester mumbled “I don’t think its such a good idea. I mean what is it doing out here? N-not to mention that big cloud of dust! What if she kicked it up. Maybe we should take a moment and…”
“Gannon, use ember!” Diana cried. The Tepig at her side jumped into the air and growled letting out a loud gruff squeal and blowing forth a smoldering hot spray of cinders like the blast from some hellish shotgun. The Mawile turned around and yelped loudly. She threw both arms up to cover her eyes as the burning hot cinders fell into the dry earth. When Gannon landed and looked up with a proud mmph Dee smiled, only to frown a moment when she realized that somehow not a single fleck of the attack had landed on its intended target.
“Oh good God are you serious? I swear Baconator We went over this!”
Gannon grunted dejectedly He looked up at his trainer and lowered those floppy piggy ears with a few upset grunts and snorts. “What am I gonna do with you? I swear if you let this one get away I’m tossing you in in the lake when we get to Harbor City.”
“Umm, Dee?” Ester whimpered.
“Not now mousie” The munk girl snapped firmly “Ok Gannon. Lets try this again. Now turn those ham hawks around and use rock smash. Don’t you dare let her get away.”
“Diana… sweetie… dearest” Ester whimpered again
“Damn it Est not now! Go on Gannon. Get it.” Dee turned to watch her loyal Pokemon dashing its way forward into the dirt, running head long at its target. The thing was facing him, its long black hairlike protrusion swaying nervously from side to side. Even though it was facing the Tepig it took no notice of the oncoming attack and made only a shocked and awkward movement to get out of the way, realizing too late that Gannon was flying shoulder-first towards its gut.
The two Pokemon went sprawling, and as they did Diana finally realized what had caught Ester’s attention. Once again the dust cloud kicked up hard, this time surrounding the entangled mass of pokemon and stinging the two trainers in the eyes with the fine and well used crop soil. There was an unmistakable sound now. Cries anyone growing up around this area knew. Cries that were normally faint and in fact laughable, yet the sheer volume and mass made the two trainers go rigid in nervous fear.
Digletts. Dozens, maybe fifty or more total, began popping out of the ground with alarming and almost comical frequency. Those simple cylindrical heads and bright red noses making the expressions of anger and frustration they wore look almost laughable. Indeed they probably would have been, had there not been so many of them.
“Son of a… Gannon! Get over here now!”
Diana didn’t even stop to think as she ran head long into the dust cloud, Ester barely missing her vest shoulder in an attempt to stop her girlfriend from doing something monumentally foolish. When that failed she quickly grabbed one of the Pokeballs off of her belt and tossed it mere feet from the throng of Digletts even as they began bobbing up and down, chanting their cry in unison and causing cracks to slowly form in the dry soil.
A confused looking Ralts, sleeve like arm jammed partially into its mouth as it sucked innocently on the tip emerged from the ball. The nearest Digletts quickly turned around to face the new creature with a scowl that scared the poor thing off of its feet. Ester winced a bit at this, but tried hard to maintain her composure. “Diana! Shut your eyes!” Ester yelled over the aggravated Pokemon. She gave it a quick moment to let her girlfriend try to comply be fore crying out “Cassandra, use Flash!”
Instantly the frightened little Ralts stopped struggling to stand and instead put both hands against its head. For a split second that helmet-mop of forest green hair parted and the creatures eyes were revealed shining brightly with a blue-white light that cut though the dust cloud and swept over the Digletts who had turned instinctively turned their attention towards the screaming trainer.
Diana could be seen clearly now. She and the other two were surrounded by Digletts who until a moment ago had apparently been bashing themselves into the poor confused Tepig and Mawile. Now Diana stood with Gannon cradled in one arm and a thick boot kicking frantically at a few now-blinded Digletts as she hid her face with her free arm.
When the light had subsided Dee took the chance and grabbed the Mawile by the base of its hair-mouth-appendage. Athletic as ever the munk girl leapt over the creatures and without pause instantly began sprinting full tilt towards the main road. “Move it mouse butt! These things are pissed!”
Ester wasn’t really as fast, as athletic, or as quick to react as Diana. It took her a moment to process all of this. Unfortunately that was all the time these Digletts needed to gather themselves once more and turn on her. She took a couple of cautious steps back, swallowing hard and uttering some nervous half-hearted laughs. “Uhh, good Digletts, nice Digletts. I’m sure we can all be reasonable about this. I mean after all its not like we want to hurt youuuoh my God Cassandra run for it!”
The young trainer took a few steps, then turned back and ran over quickly to snatch up her Pokemon just a split second before a Diglett would have put its head into Cassandra’s gut. With the Ralts slung over one shoulder like an infant Ester made a mad scramble to catch up with Dee who was already standing at the tent waiting for her.
No matter how hard Est tried, the Digletts were in their element, and were quickly gaining on them. The Mawile, clearly hurting from Gannon’s attack, clung to Dee’s neck and buried its face into her shoulder while Gannon stood by Diana’s leg. To Ester it was almost like the finish line from a race in Gym class.
Ester hated Gym class.
“Cassandra” Ester panted as she started to feel her chest tightening a bit, the very first hints of an asthma attack creeping over her “use… do… something. I don’t know” She stumbled over a field stone and wound up on her knees, one hand sunk deep into the dirt as the Digletts drew closer, angrily grumbling their chorus
Cassandra started to whimper and whine in a panic Ester’s wheezing and coughing started to grow and she struggled to pull herself off of her knees. The tiny ralts couldn’t see Diana coming to help her trainer, but even if she had it was clear she had to do something. Once again that mop of green hair started to lift up as Cassandra let out a loud, angry cry. The cry grew far louder than it should have, echoing with psychic resonance as her eyes flickered and sparkled with white-speckled purple hughs. This flickering light soon molded itself into a beam, a focused ray that Cassandra swept across the advancing Digletts like the giant robot in some Mecha anime.
A moment later Diana had gotten to her girlfriend and helped her up, free hand now fishing around in Ester’s pocket for her inhaler while Gannon snapped and growled at the Digletts. They seemed stunned, but unhurt. They all sat shivering in the dirt for a moment and when their eyes opened again they all seemed to be shocked that none of them were hurt.
Diana also found this a bit shocking and went from fishing in Est’s pocket to wrapping her arm around her girl, muscles tensing as she prepared to drag her back off towards the shoddily paved road of Route 40 and what she hoped was safety.
Her muscles tensed as the Digletts resumed their advance once more, and then relaxed a bit as the effect of Cassandra’s attack became abundantly, almost hilariously clear. Scores of Digletts began to dash forward, but in all directions. The small brown animals all advanced at full speed, but most of them simply rammed straight forwards into one another banging heads like a mosh pit.
The few who didn’t instantly ram into each other started to simply charge off in random directions. It was clear that their attackers had no idea what was going on.
Diana had no interest in sticking around to figure out though. Her arm still hooked under Ester she began to limp-run the two of them and the Pokemon that they carried back towards route 40 as quickly as possible. “So why didn’t you have Cassandra do that in the first place then Ester?” Diana asked half-joking
“I… didn’t know she could” Est wimrped back as she struggled to stay on her feet the wheezing getting worse. “I.. I guess… I guess it musta… it musta been something she got… from her mom” Ester tried to offer the best smile she could all things considered. The cluster of trainers and Pokemon were slowly making their way towards the small drainage ditch separating them from the road ahead, but she could also feel her chest tightening and tingling, that lingering semi-drowning sensation was filling her lungs little by little and if it were not for the terrified Ralts in her arms Ester would have stopped right then and there to fish out the inhaler from whatever pocket she had absently stuck it in this time.
Thankfully no matter how bad it got Diana carried the brunt of the weight for all four of them. The munk dragged herself, Est, Cassandra and the Mawile down into the ditch and up though the other side as quickly as she could. From there getting across the road was easy and after that she was quick to all but throw Ester down against a nearby oak tree and being rifling though her pockets frantically. The wheezing and coughing had grown worse at that point and the poor trainer looked at Diana with a growing sense of terror. It was a terror Ester could allow herself now that they were safe from the persuers.
“Ok mosuie just relax, I got ya ok? Those things can’t dig their way though solid pavement.” brown fur and red fingerless gloves blurred from one jacket pocket to the next as she frisked Ester hard. Finally after the second go-around Diana managed to find the small plastic L shape and yank it free from her pocket, pushing it aginast that muzzle and slowly petting Ester’s shoulder as she fed her the first couple puffs of life-saving medication.
Luckily enough the attack had not progressed to anything genuinely dangerous. A few puffs and a half-moments rest were all Ester needed to recover. Still both girls had their adrenaline going and Diana was quick to place herself protectively between Ester and the field.
“Ok. So next time maybe we don’t camp out in the middle of a cornfield huh?” She quipped, a smile painted over her muzzle in a poor attempt to hide her worry.
Ester coughed a bit and nodded trying to smile back “A-and maybe we figure out why it looks like cannon balls are hitting the ground in some location before we try to catch an out-of-place Pokemon there?”
“Phh, yeah right. Like that’s gonna happen” Dee chuckled
That had reminded her though. Diana took another moment to ensure Ester was recovering before turning back to the Mawile now sitting at the base of the tree as well. She had half expected to see the thing scamper off the second she was put down, but instead it lay there gripping its side and rocking softly in clear pain.
Diana glanced at Gannon for a moment. She knew he had some fight in him, in spite of the clumsiness, but she really couldn’t imagine him hitting anything hard enough to cause that kind of pain. Then again maybe her training was paying off. After all Gannon was a very loyal lil porker. Even now he was glairing out into the field where most of the Digletts had knocked themselves out or dispersed rather than trying to burrow down under that much asphalt just to reach two trainers.
“Kinda gotta wonder… what your new friend did, to piss them all off… huh?” Ester asked, wincing as she tried to shake the still lingering pain-tickle in her lungs. The mouse girl held up her Pokeball and allowed a now petrified Cassandra to return in a flash of red light. “I remember in school they taught us that Digletts are largely herbavores, and I can’t imagine they would try to make a meal out of a Steel-type Pokemon even if they weren’t.”
Diana tried to pick the Mawile up, but it winced in pain and instantly took a rather shallow swipe at the munk with her large hair-maw. Dee found this easy enough to avoid, but still felt more than a bit agitated considering what she had just gone though to save this little ingrate.
“Yeah well maybe she decided to mow down on a few of them, and they fought back. I remember back when June tried putting a garden in our back yard. After a while the lil bastards got so intent on stealing the berries and Potatohs she was growing that Ruth finally broke down and bought a pellet gun to drive em off.”
“Wasn’t that the same summer the water main at your house got ruptured?” Ester asked with as coy a smile as she could muster.
“Damn right. The guy from the waterworks said it wasn’t the Diglett though. Well, not really. He figured what happened was that The pellet gun just kept pissing them off. They wanted their food and they didn’t want to deal with the threat. Guy says that happens Some times. Digletts get all riled up and… and… oh, no.”
The color quickly drained out of Dee’s face. She gripped hold of Ester under her arms and pulled her to standing without a word. Once the mouse was up she got down and grabbed hold of her knees tugging hard and acutally hoisting the light mouse girl up in the air “Quick, grab the branch, now!” she shouted
Est had no idea what the hell was going on. She gripped hold of the oak with both hands and looked down wimpering “W-whats going on? What is it?”
“I said get your ass on the branch Est. Now!”
Ester blinked and did as she was told, getting up onto the branch and then lowering her arm down instinctively for Diana.
Dee reached down and grabbed hold of the Mawile instead, shoving her up into Esters outstretched arm. Once that was done She did the same with Gannon, just as Ester started to realize what had the munk so upset.
A loud thumping sound could now be heard from the field-side of the road. Cracks and fissures were slowly spreading though the asphalt as something smashed into the road again and again.
Ester lowered her arm for Diana once more but the munk was already taking a step back and prepping herself. In one smooth motion Diana did a short Parkor sprint up to another low branch and wrapped her hands around it. Those heavy boots dug frantically into the bark as she struggled to gain more altitude. It took a few tries, but finally Diana had herself wrapped around the branch and was turning herself over just as the road cracked hard and nearly knocked both girls and the Pokemon out of the tree once more.
Dirt flew in all directions as three smooth brown domes popped just over the surface of the earth. All three smashed into the trunk of the tree in Unison, jolting the girls hard and swaying it side to side.
“So is this what happened at your house?” Ester yelled before the tree was jolted again. They all clung tightly to it and winced, squealing as the Dugtrio grumbled again and backed up for another attack. Diana had no time to answer before the massive Pokemon smashed itself into the tree trunk once more forcing them all to cling tight to the branches.
By the time both girls had gotten situated again, the newly evolved Pokemon was already circling the tree slowly leaving a trail of freshly tilled earth behind it. Ester looked up in panic a moment as she felt the earth trembling around them. The small mouse started to fiddle around her belt frantically before pulling one of the Pokeballs free and wincing “Diana we gotta do something! This thing is gonna knock the tree down!”
Ester struggled to keep one arm and boht legs wrapped around the tree as the ring of broken earth continued to grow. “Sonic, You gotta do… something.” Est’s poke ball flew to the outter end of the ring and quickly popped open. A blue-flame wreathed Cyndaquil screaming and squealing as it grunted and growled loudly.
“Damn it Mousie what are you doing?” Diana grumbled “You’re gonna get that thing killed.”
“Sonic, use smo… look out!” Ester was made aware quite quickly just how bad this idea was. Sonic was forced to jump out of the way as the Dugtrio began to kick up rocks. They flew like buckshot towards the poor thing as Sonic jumped over a few of them and ducked under others, squealing and screeching loudly.
The poor mouse girl winced and pushed herself back up into the tree. Sonic was struggling to keep away from the new rock spray, his lapping blue flames kissing rocks and dirt that flew by. Even without the urging of its trainer the blue Cyndaquil was able to keep out of the way of the attacks, if only just. This seemed to annoy the wild Dugtrio to no end and it continually took hard raging lunges towards this new annoyance. Sonic on the other hand was edging his way back loosing gouts of thick black smoke the whole time.
By the time Sonic had made it back to the road he had become a bit more confident. Unfortunately the Dugtrio had become furious. The wild pokemon dashed forwards and smashed into the pavement sending showers of rock and asphault at Sonic once more. The nimble creature was able to duck and weave though most of it, but a solid blow from a rather large stone smashed into its side and sent it skidding hard into the median strip. Ester watched this in shock and shuddered as she tried to pull herself back up into a sitting position. She looked down nervously at the ground below, ready to jump down and run towards her injured Pokemon. What she saw however was the leather vested munk girl landing down before her and shooting a quick glance up at the branch full of mouse and Pokemon.
“Est, I am going to go and try to distract that big bastard. When I do I want you to recall Sonic. That should buy all of you enough time to start heading back towards Spring Town. You got it? I‘ll meet back up with you when I‘m done dealing with our friend there.” The words were confident and cool enough, but they did little to mask the munks obvious fear. She took a deep breath that told Ester she would broker no argument and then started to run towards the Dugtrio, screaming and waving her hands.
“Hay you six-eyed son of a bitch! Why don’t you pick on someone your own size” The trainer yelled. Once she was far enough from the tree Dee scooped up a rock an chucked it hard at the nearest head. It bounced off with a satisfying thunk that drew all three heads around to glare menacingly at her.
Ester wanted to scream when she saw this. She wished to God that Dee had not been so insistent, or forceful. A bright red flash of light quickly enveloped Sonic and pulled him back to the safety of his ball. With that done Ester quickly hopped down and did her best to hold the Mawile up in her arms, giving Gannon a kick as he growled and glared at the Dugtrio. She lingered, watching fearfully as her Girlfriend sought out refuge and clutching the half-dead pokemon to her just as Dee had asked.
This whole scene probably would have made Diana smile if she had felt able to pause and look at it. As things stood she was already cursing herself for such a stupid decision and scanning the surrounding area desperately for another source of refuge.
The next few moments were a flash of adrenaline and fear for the young woman. She darted over a few rather large stones only for the Pokemon chasing her to dip under them with ease or even smash though them. When that strategy failed she began edging her way towards the road once more hoping to slow the creature down and give herself some breathing room. This too was a decision she would instantly regret as hard churning stones and pellets of asphalt started to nip at the back of her thighs and bounce menacingly along her boots.
“Shit!” she thought “This thing is seriously relentless. Just go away already!”
Dee made her way out into the median once more and there she started to slow, her heart racing and breath catching in her throat. The pelting of rocks and the loud tri-toned growling and yelling had thankfully died down. It looked like the thing had burrowed down to try and get at her from beneath, yet there were no telltale cracks or rumbles like before.
Against what probably should have been her better judgement, Dee looked down at the road and narrowed her eyes. Part of her, a bigger part than she wished to admit, expected the thing to burst right out from under her and send her head first into the pavement. After a few painfully long moments of peace though she smiled ot herself and took a deep relaxing sigh.
“Oh yeah, that’s right. Whose the queen?” she cried jumping up and down hard on the pavement and trotting tiredly back towards Ester and the others. “I kenw this plan would work. But I thought I told you to start moving your fuzzy butt back towards town. Well then I guess that just means I gotta give it a spank, huh mousie?”
Diana strolled lazily with both hands folding behind her head and a wry grin on her face. It was typical of her, especially after such a thrilling and ‘ingenious’ escape. Ester and the others all started to wave at Dee and she chuckled happily. Now all they had to do was grab the gear, head a mile or two down the road and then set up camp somewhere safer.
It did strike Dee as odd though, that the waving was growing more intense, and the look on Ester’s face seemed more panicked than she realized. It was a bit confusing. Very confusing actually. She stopped and stood there trying to figure out what Est was yelling, taking a few steps closer and cupping one hand behind her cutely pierced ear. She took another step forward, and then blinked in shock as something cold and wet slammed into her like a rugby player and left her sprawled and drenched on the ground.
There it was, the Dugtrio rose from the ground once more. The massive goute of water suggested he had hit some pipes down there, but that had only served to piss the thing off even more. Dee flipped around quickly and struggled for a handhold in the muddy ground. Three sets of black beady eyes narrowed at her and began to grind their way slowly though the wet soil, locked menacingly on the young chipmunk.
Those pretty blue eyes went wide as she watched the thing edge ever closer to her. Diana could feel the knots growing and twisting in her gut, feel every shred of confidence start to slip. She knew damn well what some wild Pokemon could do, and there was no way in hell she could get up and run before this thing would mow her down.
The Dugtrio growled once more and let out a loud cry, rearing back to strike a blow while Diana frantically fumbled for rocks in the mud. There were none, and Diana braced herself for the impact.
The impact that finally hit though was not the one she expected.
The Mawile, flying though the air in a powerful leap, Its protruding jaw faced forwards and gaping flew into the young trainers vision. Its jaw was wide open and the fangs seemed to drip with frost. The smallish Pokemon let out a loud, defiant cry as it bit down hard on the lead head of the Dugtrio. Instantly the air filled with screaming and flailing from both parties. The Dugtrio tried to shake its attacker by spinning and waving around whipping the Mawile like a rag doll. In response those frozen fangs and the icy jaw clenched down harder, gripping and twisting hard leaving cuts with near crystallized blood covering them. Both creatures whipped around in the water and mud for a long moment before finally the Dugtrio managed to shake free of the bite and quickly pulled itself away burrowing a Bee line towards the fields across the road.
The whole world was cold. Wet and dirty and cold. Diana could feel the gushing water seeping into her cloths and filling her boots. She was forced to bring a muddied paw to her face in order to scrape more mud from her eyes and brow. Not even a full day gone and already she needed a long hot shower. Seeing the Mawile though Dee felt far worse. She lunged at the poor creature and quickly scooped it out of a half-pool of water. Dee held the thing tight and tried like hell to get mud and water away from it with her own wet muddy garments finding the level of success one might expect.
By the time Ester arrived again she was already out of breath and a bit scared. She flailed around for her pack, realizing too late that it was not with her at the moment and instead pulled off her jacket, and then her shirt. She handed the latter to Diana and slipped the jacket back on quickly to cover her flat tawny-furred chest.
Dee chuckled, for a moment at least, and then quickly went to work rubbing and wiping the Mawile down with the shirt. Big violet eyes opened for a moment as the poor creature tried to groan something to Diana.
“Shh, just relax ok? Were gonna get you all set up. Est, go grab the lighter from My gear and a few logs, we need to get this poor thing warmed up.” Ester nodded wordlessly and quickly ran off. Gannon in the meanwhile moved in closer to his trainer and the small creature, loosing a few snoutfulls of hot steam in an effort to help dry the Mawile faster.
Ester came back soon after with her arms full of previously collected branches. She dumped them into a pile and quickly set about starting a fire. It took four tries doing it with the lighter before she simply glanced at Gannon, who quickly turned and spit a small smattering of embers into the makeshift pit.
“Well” Dee chuckled as she watched the fire crackle-pop to life “I guess you’d be easy to catch now huh short stuff? Lucky you I don’t’ really like doing things the easy way.” She looked back down at the Mawile, who was already reaching and fiddling with the flap of Dee’s muddy vest. One of those short, stubby hands groped around a moment at the inner lining until finally it landed on the button of a Pokeball. There was a blinding red flash as the beam pulled the creature in, and Dee felt the ball twitch and twist before finally securing.
She smiled, and pulled herself free of the mud hole.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Well I called Aunt Ruth on my PokeGear. She said she will be by in about a half hour to get us, and she wants us packed up.” Ester said as she and Cassandra set about clearing up the few unburnt sticks and struggling to get the tent broken down.
Diana nodded as she held Ami, the name she had picked for the little Mawile, in one arm and fed the poor creature some Pokemon food with her free hand. “Yeah, and damn if that isn’t embarrassing. Couldn’t even last a day on our own, could we?”
Ester narrowed her eyes a bit and shook her head “Oh come on you know it isn’t’ as simple as that. Whatever Ami there did to piss off the Digletts, there were a ton of them! The worst story I’ve ever heard about someone starting out was dealing with a few uppity Patrats stealing a camping stove. Besides…” Ester chuckled a bit and scanned the mud-caked munk once more. “No matter how much I liked the idea of spending nice warm nights sharing a tent with you, I don’t think the smell of wet fur and muddy water is very romantic.
That got Ester a half-eaten bit of food right between the eyes and a small laugh filled with false anger. “Please, you’d put your nose between my legs if they were on fire. Which knowing Gannons aim is a realistic possibility one day.” She glanced at her Tepig now asleep by their fire. Soon Diana’s adopted mother, well one of them, would show up in her SUV and take the girls back home. It really was not a very auspicious start to their Pokemon journey. But with Ami rested in her arms and the sun just starting to set, Dee had a feeling this would be a day she wouldn’t’ trade for anything.
