Pokémon: The Nagai Region

Chapter 3: A Friend in the Woods

Rena sat, swinging her feet a few inches about the ground, on a bench. Keri was standing, stretching out her muscles. Just behind her and to her left was a sign: Viridian Forest (Beware of Poison Type Pokémon). Keri wasn’t too worried, she’d stocked up on lots of antidotes in Viridian city.

“You ready Rena?” Rena hopped to her feet in response without a word. The girl peered curiously into the forest and then looked back to her companion and gave her a small smile. “That’s the spirit!” Keri excitedly bounded off into the grove of trees.

The light from the sun barely managed to shine down through the thick tree tops of the forest.  In places it failed to break through at all. “These are old trees huh?” Keri said quietly in reverence. The trail continued to wind through the trees. Keri came to a fork in the road; since neither was marked she could only assume both would eventually make their way to Pewter city. Suddenly Keri felt a tug at the edge of her shirt. She looked down to see Rena pointing into the woods. Keri followed her gaze but didn’t see anything. “What is it Rena?” Rena continued to point and suddenly Keri saw it, inching through the undergrowth was a giant grub.

“It’s a Caterpie Rena.” Rena hid partially behind Keri. “Shoo, shoo, go back to your nest.” Keri futilely waved her hands at the bug Pokémon. Now it was out in the open and moving closer. Suddenly it came up to Keri’s boot and sniffed around. “See Rena, it’s friendly.” She laughed as the Caterpie started to climb up her leg. “Hey!” Keri found the Caterpie a fast climber as it made it to her waist before she could stop it. The Caterpie stopped for a moment, looking around before transferring to the clinging Rena. She let go of Keri and tried to push the bug off of her. The Caterpie hissed and spat out a white substance and dropped to the ground, crawling away. Rena shook her hand trying to get rid of gooey webbing. Keri couldn’t help but laugh. Rena gave her a look of an indignant plea.

“Oh don’t look at me like that, you did hit it.” Keri removed her handkerchief from her back pocket and wiped off Rena’s hand. “There, now we know not to hit other Pokémon.” Rena sucked in her breath and looked away. Keri gave her hair a tussle. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

Keri chose the path to the right and they continued on down the trail in peace. Despite their sudden encounter Keri thought it was odd they hadn’t seen any other Pokémon around. They rounded a bend in the road and Keri suddenly pulled herself back. Two people were standing in the middle of the road. They were looking all around them.

“You see anyone?”

“No, where are all the trainers today? There were tons here yesterday.” Keri frowned. They were waiting to ambush trainers to battle. “Come on Garrett, lets head father in, you know that’s where all the serious Pokémon trainers are.”

“Oh come, just a little longer James!”

Keri looked down at Rena. “Let’s go around them.” She started to lead the way into the woods, but Rena wouldn’t budge. “Oh come on, it will be fine.” She shook her head. Keri gave an exasperated breath. “A Caterpie can’t hurt you Rena, they’re friendly,” She forced a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” Rena cautiously took a step forward into the unpatched trail of the woods.

“See there is nothing bad here.” Keri said after a short time. Though she couldn’t help, but still feel a bit disturbed that they hadn’t run into any other wild Pokémon yet. From what she’d been told this forest was supposed to be teaming with bug Pokémon and such.

“please…one?...help…” The pair of sisters froze at the sound of a voice in the trees. “Anyone?” Keri suddenly rushed forward towards the voice. “Hello? Oh god, please don’t be another Pokémon.” Keri pushed a branch aside to reveal a thin boy standing in a small clearing.

“Are you alright?”

“Oh thank god! I thought I was going to die here.” Keri could see the boy was trembling from head to toe.

“What happened?” Keri asked shocked. His clothes were tattered and dirty.

“You see I travel through here a lot, well not a ton, but several times – to visit my grandma in Pewter city – and, well, I usually know the way, well, I do know, it’s just I got surprised and…”

“Slow down,” Keri said walking over to the boy. “You were walking through the forest. Why aren’t you on the main trail?”

“You see, I only have one Pokémon and so I try to avoid any kind of battle in the forest otherwise I can’t fend off wild Pokémon.” Keri nodded. “So when I saw a couple of people yesterday blocking the road demanding challenges of people I decided to go around them. Unfortunately I ran in another trainer sometime yesterday and I was forced into a battle. My Magi, it fainted. Not only was I left a little poorer, but I also now have no Pokémon now. I’ve been trying to get back to the road, but when I finally did I ran into a wild Pokémon and had to run. Now I’m lost. Oh please help me get out of here.” Keri looked at the frighten boy and judged him to be around her age. What if that had happened to me? Keri thought. She needed to catch more Pokémon and soon.

“Of course, I can’t just leave you.”

“Oh thank you! Thank you! My name is Javan.”

“Keri, and this is my little sister Rena.” Keri looked over Javan and finally dug through her bags until she found her extra sweater. “Here take this. Sorry about the design, it’s the only extra I have.” Javan took the flower patterned sweater, grateful, and put it on. It hung loosely around him and fell short of his hips.

“I would hate to ask any more of you, I lost my bags somewhere and I haven’t eaten since yesterday…”

Keri smiled. “No problem, it’s probably getting close to lunch time anyways. Let’s find a place to eat.”

Once back on the main road they found a sunny patch of ground. Laying out a blanket, they sat down to eat. Javan hastily dove in with vigor. Keri was pleased to see some of the color returning to his face now after his scare. Rena still hadn’t said anything, but that was only to be expected around a stranger; and as it was, Javan wasn’t really making any sort of conversation.

“Are you feeling better?” Keri asked after they’d finished.

“Yes, all thanks to you. If only there was some way I could repay you.” Keri thought about it for a moment looking at Rena. What would happen if her Tayiril wasn’t able to battle? She wasn’t going to send in Rena. After knowing what had happened to Javan here she just wanted to get out of the forest as quickly as possible.

“You said before you traveled here a lot?” Javan nodded.

“Yes, I come and visit my grandma in Pewter city every month or so. I know all the direct routes through the forest.”

“Then could you guide us through? I’ve never been here before.”

“So you’re a new trainer then,” Javan said, a bit of awe in his voice. “Your sister too?”

“No… she’s just traveling with me.” Keri looked over at Rena, who sat quieting on her knees. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason really,” He looked down blushing, scratching a non-existent itch behind his head. “It’s just that I’ve always wanted to set out and become a trainer, but…”

“But what?”

“I don’t think my parents would approve of the idea. They gave me my Magikarp when I was old enough to start traveling on my own to see my grandma in Pewter city, but other than that they really don’t like Pokémon.”

“What about your grandma? You must have a good relationship with her to visit her so often.”

“Yeah, I guess. She’s a lot more open minded. She tells me stories of when she was a trainer.”

“Maybe you can tell us some while we travel?”

“Well, I don’t think I’m a good storyteller, I tend to get disorganized.”

 “That’s alright,” Keri smiled. “We have all day for you to figure out how to tell it. Right Rena?” Rena looked up and gave a nod.

“If you insist I guess I can,” Javan gave a tentative smile. “I suppose it’s the least I can do.”