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Chapter 13

The next hour flew by as if in a blur. We would walk for a while then get into a fight with some sort of bug. Either Caleb or I would take care of it and on the ones that never fought back Sanaline would fight them. It was rather strange thing. Since they seemed to go down really easily to me and Sanaline kept fighting defenseless pokemon it was no surprise that Caleb seemed to be having the hardest time at continuing. It got to the point that in between fights he would choose to rest on my back to catch his breath. When we reach a clearing Allen puts the bag down to rest. Once we stop Caleb hops off and sits down.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Caleb answers. "Give me a little while and I'll be right as rain. Just all these fights with the bugs can really take its toll on me."

"Why are there so many of them?" I ask. "When I was going through this forest last time I saw that they were there, but they weren't nearly as numerous as this."

"Don't know," Allen states and sits there a moment before speaking up again. "Best I can figure is that as that they are trying to prepare themselves for the coming winter. Whether they're using us to help make themselves hardier or to accelerate their development I can't say. The Professor never had anything that really discussed this behavior. To him it was probably just an ordinary occurrence and never gave it any thought."

"You know, we could always just ask the next one that we come to," Sanaline comments dryly.

"As we're trainers I don't think that they'd be so willing to talk. After all I'm not sure if you noticed but in none of the battles we've been in so far has the other pokemon ever had a single word to say to us. I don't think they're going to be so talkative while we're trying to beat them up," Allen replies.

I think I can see motion out of the corner of my eye, but whatever it is does not seem to have any attempt to move towards us. I pay attention to where it is, choosing to not share it with the others as they continue arguing. Whatever it is moves along some path that is intentionally away from where Allen and the others are looking and moving slowly enough to try and not draw any attention. It stops for a moment as if regarding us but I make sure to not turn to confront it although my hackles begin to rise slightly and my body tenses up slightly just in case. After stopping for a moment it begins moving again on the same path as before. It takes me a little while to completely allow myself to relax.

Caleb looks at me for a moment before speaking up, "You okay?"

"Yeah," I comment. "Though I think we've had enough of a rest for the time being. Wouldn't want to attract too much of the wrong kind of attention."

Allen half ignores me for a second as he continues arguing with Sanaline, though he does stand up and starts getting all of his things in order. He doesn't quite put the bag on, though, but instead brings out of the pack a little flask of something.

"We should probably all get at least a swig of water before going. Open up." He states before dropping a little water into Sanaline's mouth then moves over to me and Caleb.

It felt weird having someone pour water down my throat in such a way. I almost half choke on it a moment but I do manage to swallow it all. He puts it away and we begin walking again after he puts the pack on again, my attention half on if whatever it was that had checked us out is still watching us but I cannot see any sign of such. We begin walking again, though this time we seem to be going in a somewhat different direction. I'm about to comment on the different direction when the device goes off. As it is my turn I reluctantly step forward, expecting to see yet another bug on this journey. But instead what walks out seems to be an almost yellow version of Sanaline, though it seems to be a lot more round looking and the tail juts out quite a bit more and seems to have a lot less flexibility to it, not to mention the almost painful looking kinks in the tail that make it have a somewhat jagged appearance. Further there seem to be red circles on his cheeks.

I make sure to try and keep my distance as this is the first time I had ever encountered such a pokemon and thus am completely unsure of how it behaves. As the only real attack that Allen seems to have me do is a ranged on if I can stay out of close quarters combat I should have no problem in catching when his first strike will be. As I'm starting to get used to I feel a compulsion throwing out fire from my mouth, aimed at the little rodent. It hits, almost seeming to catch him by surprise before I can see little sparks of electricity begin to surge out of his cheeks and tense up as I try to jump sideways and avoid the other ranged attack, but fail to do so completely as it hits me on my side. I try to keep my body from convulsing from the electricity hitting me as I get ready for the next time I'm forced to attack, already trying to think of how to fight this rodent when we both use long ranged attacks and his moves faster than mine does.

I feel the almost familiar compulsion again and throw a ball of flame at the little rodent and notice that his reaction speed almost seems much slower than mine is, meaning that he seems to have even less time to try and move away from my attack than I do his. Taking this to the advantage I watch closely, waiting for the first sign of his attack. If I can time it right I might have a chance at dodging it. If we're equal in strength then it'd be a toss up between who falls first. But if I can dodge even a few of his and make sure he doesn't dodge any of mine then the advantage clearly favors me. I can see a spark start to build on his cheeks and a second later another bolt of electricity shoots out at me. It hits me full on but having seen the process of his charging I am confident I can do better at dodging next time.

A small part of me wonders why it is that I don't seem to be having my normal effect on this pokemon as I have with the others, that I'm far less able to simply half see what he's going to do before he does it but as another attack is forced out of my mouth I decide the simplest explanation is that he's the first one I've ever had to deal with of his type that used long range attacks as well. As we continue this exchange back and forth each time he attacks I can start to make out just the slightest hint of what he's going to do before he does it such that by the time he's half exhausted I can start to see his movements almost like I have with the others, though by this time my body is starting to get rather beaten up as well.

What I find strangest of all is that though my entire body is starting to really hurt and am even bleeding in a few places from the attacks the attacks always seem to come out of me with the same force as if nothing at all was wrong. The next time it's my turn again for this almost random back and forth instead of an attack coming from my mouth a ball flies over my head and hits the little yellow rodent. As with Sanaline and Caleb they're quickly converted into some sort of reddish energy before getting sucked into the ball. As it continues to wobble, I start to walk towards it. Though it is much more of a limp than any actual walk, however, as it hurts to put any pressure on my right foreleg. The ball makes the sound and stops moving, just as it had with the other two. Once I get close enough that I can reach it I move forward and push the button to let him back out.

The yellow rodent comes out of the ball and actually looks somewhat frustrated more than anything.

"Hi! What's your name?" I ask as cheerfully as I can manage.

"Even with the fact that attacking someone is generally not the best way to go about trying to make friends, I'm called Shoul," Shoul responds before grunting from his injuries.

"Well I'm... Poune?" I ask and turn to Allen to confirm I got it right. His response is to just shake his head though the manner he does so implies more a response to the fact I had to check with him on if I got my name right rather than that I got it wrong. "The blue one by the bag typing in your name into that strange device thing is Allen. The little birdy is called Caleb though he seems to like to flirt with me which makes me rather uncomfortable," I comment while my ears pull back slightly from embarrassment. "And the last member of our group is Sanaline."

"Wonderful," Shoul comments.

After having finished typing Shoul's name into the device Allen puts it away and puts the bag back on.

"Well I suppose we might as well keep going. I want to get to the checkpoint before the sun begins to set."

"Well there's a problem with that," Shoul speaks up as he hobbles towards Allen. "You're going the wrong way to get there."

"What?" Allen exclaims.

"Well I live in this part of the forest because I know that the trainers don't generally go past the fence nearby and it covers a large area. Most of the intelligent human trainers seem to either stay near that human entrance to the forest or head almost straight to the checkpoint. Very few ever bother coming this far out in this part of the forest. I've dealt with the humans at that checkpoint; even have gotten some free food out of the deal. But there's no way for you to reach it by sun down."

"Well then," Allen states before reaching down and picking up a rock. He stares at it a moment before throwing it at me.

I see it coming just quickly enough to keep it from pelting me in the head but I still get hit in my hind leg, particularly on the side that was already hurting. I grunt and then fall over from the pain for a second though I manage to try and force myself back up before anyone thinks to try and come after me.

"This is all your fault," Allen states at me as if giving a reason to throw a rock at me. "You had been down this way before so you should have told me we were going the wrong way right after we entered the forest. But with you as banged up as you I don't think we can make it all the way to the checkpoint as we are. So I guess we'll just have to head back to the entrance, get you lot all cleaned up and have another go at it. But don't you dare think for a second, Sunshine, that just because you're acting a little banged up that I'm not going to still have you fight every single time it's your turn."

I stand up and make sure to not comment in response to the rock being thrown and choose to instead move over and grab Shoul's ball and bring it back to the group.

"Well if makes any difference I would really like to not have to walk all the way back as I am. Your little fuzzy little friend there certainly did a number on me."

"Well you could just go and stay in your ball until we get back to that machine to have you healed up," Caleb offers.

"Sure, we'll go with that," Shoul shrugs. "What do I need to do for that?"

Allen responds by grabbing the ball from my mouth and aims it at Shoul.

"Return," he commands and the ball shoots out a red light at Should who begins to be sucked up into that red light as if he had touched the ball's button. He then puts the ball away and takes out another one. "Do you want to go in as well?" he asks me.

"No, no!" I quickly exclaim. "I'll manage. I don't want to be left in that place again."

"I am not going to let you slow us down. You've already wasted enough of our time by not telling me that we were going the wrong way when we entered this forest. If you can't keep up I'm going to put you in your ball whether you like it or not and once we get back I'm going to make sure you pay for slowing us down even more. Do you understand me?" Allen asks.

"I'll be fine. I promise."

"Suit yourself," Allen comments before putting Shoul's ball away and begins walking back the way we came.

I follow as best I can though I find myself unable to walk normally. I'd try for a little bit and then my leg would start to really hurt. Eventually I found that the best chance I had at keeping up was to basically just don't even bother trying to put any weight on the leg nor try to hide the fact my leg hurt and instead just hobble after them on three legs. Though I can't be entirely certain and am almost willing to just attribute it to my senses becoming slightly more sensitive due to being injured but it almost looks like Allen is moving a little more cautiously than he had been on the way here. Not so much walking slower, but rather that the path he's taking seems like it's the path of least resistance and the easiest to cross over as opposed to coming here where we just sort of walked in a mostly straight line.

Both Caleb and Sanaline seem be leaving me alone as well, particularly Caleb. The entire walk back towards that building Caleb does not make any comment towards me that makes me feel embarrassed nor does he ever try to hop on my back even though he is still getting somewhat tired out from all of the fights. As I could still take them all out fairly quickly I have no real trouble in dealing with the fights against the bugs and I am definitely glad that the attack that is forced out of me is a long ranged one as that means that I do not have to put any weight on my injured leg during the fight at all. Still after each time I get hit in a battle after the battle is done and force myself back up to limp after the group Allen gives me a sort of look that almost looks to be on the border between disapproval and actual concern, as if he's seriously thinking about whether or not to force me into those frightening balls against my will or not.

With us going directly back to the building we manage to get their fairly quickly. Though once we can see the building again Allen starts fumbling around in the bag as best he can as he walks and then pulls out my ball and aims it at me.

"Return," he commands as the red light shoots out at me, eliciting a yelp of surprise and indignation that he did so.