Bonds

Chapter 2 - Rain

Chapter 2

The sun shone bright as the afternoon dragged on and down below, a crowd of people, both old and young said their goodbyes to Ash. He was the last to leave for his journeys due to being delayed by his worrying mother who, to his embarrassment, had handed him a bundle of underwear he had forgotten to bring in front of everyone, making Ash want to curl up and hide.

Nevertheless, he was now off onto Route 1, the first step of what he was sure to be, an epic journey.

Ash marvelled at the rolling fields of grassland that stretched towards the distant coast, as well as the forests that seemed to hold mysteries of the world, waiting to be discovered. The dirt track was relatively smooth, though overgrown and untended as flying pokemon became more popular, thanks to the distant region of Galar. The path was still used occasionally by cars that were used by civilians, or trucks that brought supplies to the small town.

Ash smiled and brought out Froakie, who looked around tensely before relaxing when he saw no opponents. The two continued walking like this for a while, resting for a couple of minutes and continuing. While they were walking past a particularly tall patch of grass, a cry split the air and out from the tall grass burst out a rattata.

Ash stepped back in shock, and Froakie tensed up, but was confused when the rattata didn't pay attention to them at all, instead focusing in fear of something else. The rattata darted across the path, seemingly swallowed by the tall grass, when a second cry followed and a second pokemon ran from the grass.

A blur of red was all he saw before it went dashing after the rattata. Ash grew excited and with Froakie, chased after the two pokemon. Stopping behind a tree, Ash watched as the rattata suddenly darted on a boulder and leaped off it at its attacker with their ufangs glowing a bright light. The attacker leapt off to the side, opening its maw and launching dozens of sparks of Embers at the rattata.

"A Vulpix!" Ash exclaimed excitedly, while Froakie just watched, intrigued at the battle.

This drew the vulpix's attention, giving the rattata an opportunity to bolt away. The vulpix growled when it noticed that and focused on Ash, whose messy black hair painfully stuck out of the bushes. Noticing this, he quickly grabbed Froakie and leaped away, narrowly dodging the barrage of Embers that ignited the bush Ash was hiding behind.

"Froakie, Quick Attack!" Ash ordered excitedly, it was his first battle with a wild pokemon, the next step in his journey.

Froakie glowed before speeding at the vulpix. The vulpix launched more Ember at Froakie, who leapt past them and hit the vulpix. The fox pokemon flew off into the grass before darting back, more angry than before. It growled as its eyes glowed, to which Ash cried out in alarm.

It was too late. Froakie also glowed a dim light before it disappeared as quickly as it came. Ash frowned before ordering a Quick Attack. Froakie nodded, just as determined as Ash was but when he started the attack, Froakie suddenly found himself tripping up and tumbling into the ground.

"Froakie, are you alright?" Ash called out in worry, who was greeted with a croak of affirmation.

"Keep away from its attacks!" Ash yelled out before grabbing out his pokédex.

Uhh, I don't want to learn about vulpix's breeding rates, or habitats, or diet, I just want - oh - known moves list, uh Ember, Tail Whip, Disable! The vulpix had used Disable on Froakie.

"Froakie, Frubble as much as you can." Froakie complied, leaping up and slinging globs of foam at the vulpix, who got hit despite its impressive speed.