On the Wings of Death

Boom Goes Zapdos

Versant Road ended up being a lot longer than it looked. It took Harry a total of three days (and two nights) to make it to the end, by which point Honedge was able to call on Night Slash one in five times compared to one in a billion before. By then, Harry had also made his way through what seemed like a bazillion other trainers, mostly partnered with local Pokémon – Bunnelby, Skiddo, Pancham. The Oddish had been a rather unusual encounter, but it did add another piece of data to his Pokédex – and who knew Oddish could learn so many Poison-related moves?

The journey through Versant had definitely been interesting. From the Backpacker who offered him a TM of Hone Claws – shame Honedge couldn't learn that, although Harry supposed the combination of No Guard and Swords Dance worked just as well – to Fletchling's constant commentary – what is she wearing? It looks like someone fused two starers together! Oh, look, there's a pretty piece of something. Mmm, Big Mushrooms. Get some! Now! – it had been an interesting journey. And a productive one – apart from Honedge's stronger grasp on Night Slash – still bad, but nowhere near as bad – Fletchling had made him grab Aspear Berries, Big Mushrooms and even a piece of old ceramic that was pretty enough to maybe be of some value. Besides, he could always sell it in the markets if he needed to.

Most towns had markets – Camphrier Town, he knew, had one. Aquacorde was the only one that didn't, and that was partly because of its relative proximity to Lumiose – a mere one-and-a-half hour flight via Pidgeot Air. Lumiose didn't have markets either, but it had enough range to make up for it.

Camphrier would be a great place to stock up on supplies – somehow while he had stocked enough Pokémon food he didn't have quite so much human food – and from what he had made battling trainers along the route and from the hotel way back in Lumiose, if he went all-out he could probably buy enough food to live as a hermit for the next six months. Except that wasn't really in his agenda yet.

He arrived in Camphrier just as the sun began to set, so, quite naturally, his first port of call was the Pokémon Centre.

Then food.

Then sleep.

~OoOoOoO~

Fletchling woke him up bright and early with a horribly off-key rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Cleffa, turned into a screaming atrocity. Harry grumbled as he pulled the pillow over his ears, only for a Tailwind to whip it off him. The bed dipped as Ralts began bouncing on it, while the screechy sounds of Honedge sharpening his blade filled Harry's ears.

"All right, I'm up," he grumbled halfheartedly. "Arceus, you won't even let me sleep in late, would you?"

Nope, giggled Ralts, as Fletchling – blessedly – ceased her rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Cleffa. Harry sighed in relief – while the nursery rhyme-song was sweet, Fletchling had turned it into a monster. A horribly high-pitched monster.

You said you were going to the market today, Honedge commented dryly. The market is already open. Buying or selling?

"Maybe a bit of that and trading," answered Harry as he opened his Bag. "Let's see... we can turn the Aspear Berries into jam, and someone out there should be happy to have some BrightPowder. The Big Mushrooms aren't really my style, too chewy, but we can probably trade it. All those battles gave us a fair bit of cash, and maybe the shard will be worth something. We might want to stock up a little on food, though, it'll take us quite a while to reach Cyllage and that's if we stick to the roads, but I really want to explore a bit. We made it through Santalune Forest that quickly because we stuck to the roads, this won't be like that at all. And there's the Zubat Roost to consider. Maybe we'll get a few Antidotes." He shuddered at the idea of going through the Zubat Roost. Zubat were every trainer's worst nightmare. Sure capturing one was okay, but having over a hundred charge at you – it wasnot good.