Sinnoh Journey

Chapter 43 - Flaming Poison

The pain in Nate's lower left leg was like nothing he had felt before. He quickly lost all feeling in his leg and the feeling only worsened as another sharp pain reached his right leg.

"Monferno, can you see what's going on?" Nate asked, hoping Monferno would be of help to him.

Monferno used her tail to show two small pokémon had their tails stabbed into Nate's legs. They were clearly the problem, but Monferno couldn't get them away without risk of burning Nate.

"Monferno, just get those things off of my legs. They're Skorupi, and their poison is much worse than I would have ever expected it to have been," Nate explained, clearly worried at having been attacked by Skorupi.

Monferno nodded and powered up a Flame Wheel since it was the most likely way of getting the Skorupi away with the least amount of risk to burn Nate.

The Skorupi waited specifically to move so that Monferno would collide with Nate's leg, burning him in the process.

Monferno was furious and sent a huge plume of fire towards the two Skorupi who were now snickering, the plume of fire just missing burning Nate for a second time.

After being hit with the flames, the Skorupi retreated back underground and left Nate and Monferno be, but that was far from what the two were concentrating on.

Nate had been left severely weakened by the effects of the poison, not to mention the small amount of bleeding from the puncture wounds and the burn from Monferno's Flame Wheel weren't doing him any favours.

"Monferno...tell Willow...what happened. I can't...walk on this," Nate explained, struggling to talk through how much pain he was in as he sat down on a stone ledge.

Monferno was worried about leaving Nate just in case the Skorupi came back again, but she knew she had to do so in order to help Nate. She nodded and ran back to the camp to get Willow.

Willow had finished setting up her tent and was beginning to grow worried. Nate and Monferno hadn't been gone that long, but she hadn't expected them to go that far out just to get wood. Then she saw Monferno running back alone and knew something was wrong.

"Monferno, what happened to Nate? Can you show me where he is?" Willow asked, hoping Monferno hadn't just left Nate alone.

Monferno nodded and pointed towards Gabite, gesturing for him to come and help. Gabite just turned his head and settled himself down once more, Willow wasn't his trainer and he wouldn't take orders from her.

"Gabite, please. Nate's probably injured and we need a way of getting him back here quickly. You're by far the quickest out of mine and Nate's pokémon," Willow said, trying to coax Gabite into helping.

Gabite grumbled and stayed where he was, if he couldn't be understood, he wasn't interested.

Willow knew she had to try something in order to get Gabite to help out. Yes, Torterra was an option in getting Nate back, but they needed someone quicker, and since Ponyta hadn't evolved yet, he wasn't an option. Then it clicked, all she had to do was find something shiny enough to give to Gabite as a bribe.

"Alright then, I guess you just won't get anything shiny," Willow said, hoping her plan would work.

Gabite turned back round and locked eye contact with Willow before sticking out his claw to ask for what would be offered for his help.

Willow was hoping that the bribe would be enough, but then again, Gabite was stubborn and wouldn't agree to a deal that wasn't legitimate. She rummaged around in her bag but didn't find anything Gabite was interested in, and he turned back round.