A Road Worth Walking (Human male x Pokemon male)

The Wild Area

Huh. Must have dozed off soon after I made that wish. Can't remember the last time it took me less than an hour to fall asleep. Certainly the best sleep I've had recently. Right now I'm still in bed because I'm lazy rather than tired. The alarm says it's 7 in the morning. Picking up the wishing stone, I briefly wonder if this was what caused me to sleep so soundly. Heh, imagine that, the wish I held close to my heart; a good night's sleep.

Then I feel something hop up onto the bed. I look to my left, expecting to see Blaze next to me, but I was surprised to see Brace instead. "Hmm? What is it little guy? Curious about this thing?" I hold the wishing stone a little closer to Brace, so the little rookidee could have a good look at it. He gave it a quick glance, then looked back me.

And then pecked me in the forehead.

"Ow! What was that for?" Brace flew off towards his pokeball, which I left near my clothes, and began twittering in a way that felt like laughter. I sit up as I rub forehead. It actually didn't hurt much, but it was unexpected. Looking around, I noticed the other pokemon waking up. Something tells me looking after pokemon is going to be a full time job in of itself. Oh well, might as well get ready, see what the professor can with this thing.

A couple of hours later...

"Finally out of bed Zack? I was wondering if you were going to sleep the day away!" Wait until he realizes I normally sleep in till 10. "Sorry, I'm not used to waking up early I guess." "Ah well, let's get going to the train station! I bet I can catch more pokemon on the way than you!" With that challenge declared, Hop runs off, not waiting for a reply as per usual. You know what? To hell with it. Challenge accepted.

"Took your sweet time getting here, didn't you? You must of caught a bunch of pokemon, right?" Hop smiled cheekily. We both know I don't normally take his challenges seriously. This time though, I gave him cheeky grin of my own. "Yeah, it took a while, but I caught four more pokemon. How about you?" "Wait, really? I only caught three!" As disappointed and shocked Hop seemed, he also seemed happy I had actually taken him seriously for once. Even if it did mean that he had lost.

"Now you two, were you really going to leave without saying goodbye?" Ah, yeah, knew I was forgetting something. "Hey mom. Sorry I forgot to tell you about this." Much as I tried to seem chipper, I couldn't seem to keep the smile on my face. Not even when Hop's own mom arrived. "Professor magnolia was kind enough to let us know you were about to head off, so we both got you something! A camping kit each!" My mother gave me a bag that seemed just about small enough to fit in my backpack, though I wasn't sure how Hop would carry his around. "Now, have fun and take care of yourselves! We'll be waiting anxiously for news about how well you did!"

After exchanging our goodbyes with our parents, me and Hop got onto the train just before the announcement that we would be leaving came up. As we rode the train, Hop told me about motostoke and the wild area surrounding it. He made the wild area especially sound like a little slice of heaven. However, we stopped a lot sooner than what I had expected.

Moving off the train, Hop asked one of the attendants what was happening. "Hey, isn't this the wild area? Why are we stopping?" The attendant coughed awkwardly before delivering his rehearsed line "I'm sorry, but the train is halted due to a flock of wooloo on the tracks."I expected him to say more, but he didn't get the chance to before Hop turned to me. "What's there to be sorry about? This is great! We can explore the wild area and assemble the best possible team here!" And off he went. "How long will it take for the train to be running again?" The train attendant shrugged. "It will still bring you back to Wedgehurst, but it's impossible to know how long it will take for the wooloo to clear the tracks. If you still need to get to Motostoke, you can get there through the wild area." So I do have to go through the wild area. Welp, at least it'll give my team some XP.

I had to give to Hop, the wild area certainly was picturesque. Large open fields, huge lakes, an occasional forest, and I could even spy a couple of ancient ruins. I wonder who built those. The most notable thing I noticed though...

Was a huge rock snake pokemon almost immediately to my left! Thankfully, it hadn't seemed to notice me. Either that, or it didn't care. Looking around, I noticed a few smaller pokemon around the place. Mostly hiding among patches of tall grass. There was also a tree nearby that held a bunch of fruit. Well, I have a cooking set in my camping bag, so it might pay off to grab some. On top of that, it wouldn't hurt to try and catch some more pokemon, train up my team in the process.

A couple of hours later...

"Alright, the curries ready! I think..." weirdly enough, the only thing I could actually cook with the cooking set my mom gave me was curry. Odd, but oh well, not like I'm planning to use this a lot. I had to use a lot of oran berries, and a few pecha, on top of an apple or two, so I wasn't expecting it to taste that great. Nevertheless, my pokemon seemed eager to dig in, so I started laying down the plates. Speaking of my pokemon, I'd gotten a few new members in my team.

I had caught another two pokemon, which meant I had to replace a couple of the pokemon I caught for Hops bet. Luckily, the device that Sonia gave me just before I wandered off into the wild area helped with that. The first one I caught was a magikarp, which I named Aqua. I had heard something about how it evolves into something far more powerful than it currently was, so I just had it in my party to passively gain XP. The second one I had caught was a pancham that I named Mask.

As I was setting up the plates, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I had set up camp just outside of a patch of tall grass, and now something tentatively padded it's way out of the grass towards me. A little growlithe, clearly hungry for a meal, if the looks it was giving the food was any indication. Looking into the pot, I sighed. There wasn't enough for all of us and the little puppy. Looking down at my plate though, I decided to give the little guy my food. Taking a couple of bites beforehand, and confirming that yes, it was somewhat bland, I knelt down in front of the growlithe and placed my plate in front of him.

It sniffed at it, unsure if it should trust me, but it's hunger won out in the end and it began gobbling up the curry, clearly happy to be finally having a meal. Looking back at my pokemon, I noticed that they didn't seem to enjoy it as much as this little guy, but liked it enough to eat it. Wonder how long it was since it had gotten to eat. Once it finished eating, I pet its head, expecting it to run off. It didn't. It gave a happy bark, and continued to stick around, even after I packed up the camp and put all my pokemon into their pokeballs.

"What is it little guy? Do you you want to come with me?" Kneeling before the growlithe, I quickly got my answer as it jumped up into me, knocking me onto my butt and landing on my lap. "OK, I'll take that as a yes. Come on, little guy, let me get up." After gently pushing him off of me, I get up, and walk towards my pokeballs. After thinking for a moment, I placed Muffle's pokeball into the box link Sonya gave me, and grabbed a spare pokeball from my backpack. "What should I call you... how about Ember?" Actually, that didn't sound like a good name for it. In fact, I'm still not sure what gender it is. "Arf!" It didn't seem to mind, though bouncing up and down. "Heh, Ember it is then."

"Welp, finally here. Wonder if Hop's made it yet?" Looking around the city of Motostoke full of tall buildings, small streets, and huge contraptions, it felt rather different to Wedgehurst's open fields and small houses. However, the main part I could feel weighing down on me was the people. There were so many wandering around, I could already feel my body reflexively shrink up to dissappear into the background. But, thankfully, I saw someone familiar. "Hey, Zack! Over here! It's me, Sonia!"