Pokémon: Out of the Woods | A Galar, Unova & Sinnoh Fanfiction

Chapter 102: Rigel's Story, Part I - The Lost Kid

Cinderace and Mimikyu said Rigel wasn't unhappy in Glimwood Tangle. For at least a month after he arrived, he was terribly lonely and afraid, but the Rapidash family treated him as their own. The young Ponyta became his little brother. They spoke with the Impidimp families who messed with travellers to find out which plants and mushrooms were safe for humans to eat. Cinderace cooked them.

Those Impidimp then taught Rigel to pickpocket. He shared his stolen sweets and sugary drinks with them in return. They weren't interested in anything savoury.

After a few months, Cinderace no longer needed to boil the river water. Rigel was accustomed to it. They still found that safe food and water were scarce during hot summers and harsh winters. Impidimp crept into homes and corner shops on the outskirts of Ballonlea to bring food back, but many were caught and released far away in the Wild Area.

There were days when Rigel laughed and smiled from sunset to sunrise, playing catch and hide-and-seek with the wild Pokémon. Pickpocketing even became a game. There were also days when he cried and refused to uncurl from a ball in the hollow where he slept, rarely because of lack of sustenance, but often because he felt like the lost and lonesome child he was. He missed Abaddon. He didn't understand why they couldn't stay together. Then he wondered about the father who was out there somewhere and loved him dearly. He knew Abaddon wouldn't lie. Cinderace and Mimikyu said it was true. He hugged his squashed Oshawott plush and, whether it was the power of his Pokémon friends or something deep in his subconscious, swore he felt the memory of loving arms around him.

Abaddon urged Rigel to stay far, far away from the marked paths. He had no choice when the bags passing by were one of his only sources of sustenance, but he wandered there even when he had plenty of stolen food already. He and Ponyta enjoyed watching the people passing by. Some were alone. Others were in groups: tourists, couples, university students and Gym Challengers. Nearly all of them got lost.

The regulars who actually knew the paths were Rigel's favourites. He and his Pokémon friends imagined lives for them all, including Muirne and Volo, who walked their Pokémon through the woods every day. After seeing Muirne in a ballet kit, Ponyta decided she was a ballerina while Rigel decided her father was a basketball player, since he was so tall. They watched her befriending a Hattrem they knew and Volo eventually giving her a Poké Ball to catch it.

Hattrem joined them on their walks. It must have told Volo's Pokémon about Rigel, because Togekiss once dropped some chocolate bars in the undergrowth. Avila's Audino slipped them an entire tub of leftover katsu curry. Abaddon was a terrible cook. That curry was the most delicious thing that Rigel had ever eaten.

Neither he nor Ponyta knew what a driving test was, but he hoped Volo would pass it soon. They heard Muirne insisting he would pass this time, only for Volo to groan at his latest failure the next day, at least 15 times. When they didn't pass by, Rigel wondered if there was a basketball game or ballet. Togekiss told Ponyta that Volo was actually arrested for taking his 'L' plates off and using Avila's car without a supervising driver after failing yet again. Rigel, Ponyta and Mimikyu giggled.

They soon found out that Black Belt Oscar, the old man in the karate gi who often passed – and 'trolled' people in the Wild Area in his free time – was Volo's driving instructor. He used his Hawlucha's walk to grill his most infuriating student about the questions he kept getting wrong before the test even began. Rigel still didn't really get what a driving test was, but he loved transport, so anything relating to cars was fascinating to him. Oscar knew a lot about them. Rigel thought he was a genius. He imagined him as a professional racer, surrounded by sports cars, in his youth.

Then there was Bede. He and Queenie often strayed from the beaten path while walking their Pokémon. Every wild Pokémon in the woods knew that Bede was Ballonlea's Gym Leader, so Rigel didn't need to imagine a future or past for him or Queenie. He heard her saying that she was going to be the Fairy-type Gym Leader one day.