A Late Start

Expedition

I awoke the next morning with an unfamiliar weight on my chest, I reached out to touch it only to feel the soft fur and gentle breathing of another creature. This caused my memories of the previous day to come flooding back in a hurry. A smile came over my face as I started to gently stroke the pokemons fur, I could hear him snoring gently. As I ran my hand over his back I couldn't help but feel at peace. Things were starting to turn around for me, I tried to breathe slowly so that I wouldn't disturb his sleep as I continued petting him. I'm pretty sure he wasn't asleep anymore as he had started making little purring chirp noises, but neither of us really wanted to admit it. I glanced across at my alarm clock, 7:30 seems as good a time as any, I gave Silas two gentle taps with my fingers and he got up and moved to my side so I could sit up.
"Just like we practised eh buddy?" I said half chuckling
"Voi," he chirped. I swung my legs off the edge of the bed and stood up, flicking the light on I could see Silas stretching on the pile of sheets that I had tossed aside moments ago. His scarf slightly tangled around his legs as he leant forward. I pulled my Pajama top off and threw it lazily at him, the cloth landed on top of him, covering him entirely. I watched him squirm and wriggle his way out from underneath it while I got changed. By the time he'd figured his way out from the cloth dungeon I trapped him in I had already finished changing and he just looked up at me with bemusement in his eyes.
"What? Can't let a boy see me change now can I? I laughed to myself as he rolled his eyes and pulled himself the rest of the way out from under the garment. I pulled my door open and grabbed my bag from the hangar on the wall. Silas jumped off the bed and followed me out, walking behind me instead of taking up perch on my shoulder.
"Okay, quick breakfast then we should head out to the route so you can show me what you've learned okay?" He chirped in response before repeating his dinnertime whining when I filled his bowl with the same food from last night.
"I told you, I'll get you some better food as soon as I can. For now, you're just going to have to get used to it okay?" I tossed some bread in the toaster and made myself a small cup of coffee. When my toast popped I quickly spread some jam on it and sat down at the table. As we were eating I wrote down a note for mom so she'd know where we went and left it on the table. Afterwards, I stood up and pulled an empty plastic container from the top cupboard and slid it into my bag, Ethan had told me about some berry bushes a little way off the track on route 19, I figured that if we could find any Silas might prefer to have them for lunch over his Pokefood so I'd store them in here.
"Alright buddy, you ready to go?" I turned to Silas who had just finished his breakfast. He looked up at me and nodded once before walking up beside me.
"You gonna walk today bud?"
"Voi," he let out a short chirp and stood by the door.
"Jee if you're gonna give me attitude I could always.. you know." I teased, tapping the metal sphere on my hip. He didn't respond at all.
"Jeez tough crowd, you mad because I threw my shirt at you?" He nodded once and let out an indignant huff.
"Aw c'mon buddy, I was just playing around you know." I don't think he was actually mad, but he was being petty about it, always did have a bit of an attitude. I could hear him snigger to himself as we walked out of the door.

Silas' attitude cleared up almost as soon as we got on the route as he ran about frantically from one tree to the next. After he had calmed down I took a seat on a slightly crooked rock near the edge of the path.
"Alright Silas, have you done any training while you were away?" He nodded in response
"Alright then, show me what you've learned buddy." Initially, he just stood there, looking around. he eventually locked eyes with a wild Patrat, carrying a few small, blue berries in its hands, Silas walked up to the creature slowly, his tail swaying gently, I noticed his gait was off as he approached, it was unlike how he usually walked, the Patrat watched him closely but didn't seem too concerned. As soon as Silas was within reach of the Patrat he snatched one of its berries in his mouth, spinning around and kicking the creature with his back legs before rushing back to me, he dropped the berry at my feet and turned back to the Patrat who had since gotten up and turned to face him a look of rage across its face, staring Silas down. Without hesitating Silas darted back across the field towards the creature, white light surrounding him as he seemingly disappeared for a second before colliding once more with the creature, sending it reeling into a nearby tree. The Patrat collapsed to the floor after colliding with the tree, its eyes replaced with spirals as it lay in the dust unconscious.
"Huh, so that happens in the wild too," I commented as Silas turned to me, a massive smile across his face.
"Quick attack and Covet huh, now where exactly did you learn how to steal like that?" He just grinned at me as he chirped again. I picked up the berry he dropped for me and gave it a closer look. It was an oran berry no doubt, said to give Pokemon energy on the spot, fairly common but incredibly useful. I pulled the container I prepared earlier and my Pokedex from my bag, placing the berry in the container before resealing it and setting it aside on the rock. I slid the screen on my dex open and called out to Silas.
"Alright buddy, come here, scan time."
I had scanned him before of course, and he came straight to me, but I needed to know just how much he'd grown since last we saw each other. As always my screen lit up with all the information I needed. [Species: Eevee, Classification: The evolution Pokemon, Gender: Male, Age: Approx. 1 year, OT: Alexis, PL: 1398, Moveset {Tackle, Covet, Sand Attack, Tail whip, Quick Attack} Notes: Unusual colouration, Specimen previously recorded, Update info? Yes/No] I hit the button for yes causing a new text box I hadn't seen yet to pop up on the screen. [Pokemon registered to dex owner, Nickname:__________] Alongside a touchscreen keyboard, I entered Silas and hit confirm. [Registration complete] the screen then returned to the normal homepage, with an extra tab labelled 'my pokemon' now appearing at the bottom. Before I had a chance to investigate it a rather loud call broke the silence in the air.
"Royce, use rock throw." It was Ethan.
Without thinking I yelled out, telling Silas to jump, he gave me a confused look but did as I told him, right as he did a small rock landed right where he was standing and slid past onto the path. Silas came back down and landed on my shoulder.
"ETHAN WHAT THE HECK!" I called out, furious.
"Haha, relax Lexi, just a little test to make sure you're paying attention." He shouted back, I could hear Silas growling quietly in my ear.
"And if I wasn't?" I shot back
"Well I told Royce to be gentle, Silas would have been fine."
"Did you come here for a reason OTHER than to attack me?" I was still glaring daggers at him
"Of course I did, I wanted to wish you good luck on your Journey with Silas. Plus I thought you could use a hand, there's more to being a trainer than just Pokemon." He gave Silas a gentle scratch on the top of his head. "Sorry for the scare little guy, nice jump though," Silas bit his hand, even I could tell it was more playful than aggressive.
"Yeah, I deserved that," Ethan said quietly
"What did you mean by 'there's more to being a trainer than just pokemon.'"
"I'm talking about survival skills Lexi, you won't always be within a few minutes walk of a town, you need to be able to fend for yourself if it comes to it. Speaking of, I was actually thinking of taking Royce out on a camping trip this weekend, just out past the route, close enough that there's no real danger, but far enough that town is at least an inconvenience to get to. You and Silas should come with, It's the perfect opportunity to teach you how to live off the land."
"Does kinda sound like fun, I don't have any camping supplies though. Plus I have to make sure it's okay with mom."
"I have some spare gear you could borrow if you decide to come."
"I'll have to ask mom, but I'd love to tag along."
"Awesome, so, what're you guys working on?"
"Silas was just showing me what he's learned while he was between trainers."
"That what happened to the Patrat over there?"
"Voi!" Silas chirped, prideful.
"Yeah, that was Silas' first victim," I chuckled "Hey Ethan, you still remember where those berry bushes you told me about were?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, course I remember, Royce and I like to raid em every so often, c'mon I'll show you," as per usual he finished his sentence and took off, recalling Royce with a beam of red light as he disappeared between the trees. I took off after him, trying to stay reasonably level so Silas didn't fall off my shoulder, he held on fine and before long I had stumbled into a clearing. Ethan stood near the centre a handful of blue berries in his hand.
"Told you it wasn't far off the track, amazing more people don't know about it," at first I didn't realise what he was talking about until I took a closer look, several of the bushes dotting the area were covered in the same blue berries Silas had taken from the Patrat. He had gotten the memo too and dove off my shoulder into one of the nearby bushes, popping out a few seconds later with blue juices seeping through the fur on his muzzle.
"You like 'em hey bud?" He nodded at me and licked the juice from his lips before disappearing into the bush again. "Maybe we'll take some home for you as a bit of a snack,"
"You should Lexi, Pokemon love these things. Plus you can mix them into say, package food to make it better for them."
"Yeah, Silas really isn't a fan of the stuff mom got for 'em, but we don't really have a lot of options right now."
"You should try a tournament some time, they happen all the time, and depending on how well you do can give some decent cash. At the very least it can give you a good start for taking care of your pokemon."
"That would be good for training, but I dunno if Silas is ready for Battles like that. Last time I saw him fight was back in Kanto six months ago." I spoke quietly, glancing back at the rustling bushes behind me.
"Hey, don't worry about it, beginner tourneys are nothing major, but if you don't think you're ready then don't rush it. If you want I'm sure Royce wouldn't mind if we helped you train Silas up a bit. Battling And foraging are obviously quite a bit different."
"Well it's either that or just the equipment at the gym, just go easy alright. Not only do you have a type advantage but Royce has actual battle experience."
"Hah, 'course we'll go easy Lexi, although I wasn't talking real battles. I meant drills and stuff, to help you get ready for the real battles."
"Oh, right. That makes more sense, yeah it sounds great," I started to fill the container I brought with the berries from the bushes. "What do you think Silas?" My thought was interrupted by a loud yelp, a large cloud of dust bursting from the bushes. When the dust settled I could see Silas standing in the clearing, he had bared his claws and was hunched over, breathing heavily. Something had attacked him.