Chapter 2: Willow's Story
After I left the hall I waited around the corner for Liam to finish. There was a constant stream of students coming out of the building, but I knew Liam would know where to look. This was our spot. Just outside the elaborate yellow and cream brick building there was a long cream path. The path was quite long and lead up to the great brass fences that surrounded the property to keep out unwanted visitors and keep in students who weren’t supposed to be outside. Around the path were smaller paths going in a intricate pattern around the school grounds all around to the back. There were flowers and bushes everywhere and it really looked gorgeous.
Just behind a thick willow tree stood a white marble bench. I had claimed it as my spot due to the willow, and Liam and I had met here.
It had been a rainy day, but I liked rainy days. It was also the first week of my arrival. I liked to read under the willow tree and had hoped to do so that day. The rain had disturbed my reading though and I didn’t have an umbrella with me. So I thought what I did was quite clever, I took off my coat and draped over the book and over my head and continued reading with a little book light. This must have looked rather silly, or even stupid, and it had caught the attention of a certain ginger. He was taking a walk through the gardens and he had an umbrella with him. He had tapped me on the head and asked if he could sit next to me. I didn’t see why not.
He ended up sitting close and holding the umbrella over both our heads while I read and he read over my shoulder until it was too dark for any reading. Then we just sat there and talked. It was a start of a friendship. We were both odd ducks anyway.
And so I sat behind the willow tree waiting for Liam to come out of the building. He didn’t keep me waiting for long before he came running toward me excitedly. He looked like he had won the lottery. He waved with a light blue Poké Ball in his hand before reaching her, panting.
“Well you look quite windswept,” I told him mockingly. It took him a few seconds to regain his breath and reply.
“Beldom, my ass. I’ve got the real prize!” He swung his Ball in front of my face. I saw that is was actually a more purplish shade of blue. It had a strange wing-like shape on either side of the ball And a big white dot in the middle, with a significantly smaller dot above it.
“Well, aren’t you gonna show me?” I was impatient, something Liam had always taunted me on. But today he wasn’t going to make me wait. He was far too excited for this.
He released his Pokémon and the white light formed into a snake-like form. The creature before her was the exact shade of blue the ball was also. It had round white nose and large violent eyes. It had strange wing-like fins on either side of its head to match the Ball and it was really nothing more than a head and a long slim tail, but I recognized it immediately. A Dratini. Liam had gotten a Dratini. I was completely stunned.
“Told you all that studying paid off!” He petted the little thing and it floated behind him. It floated!
Finally regaining control over my body I quickly hugged him and congratulated him. I knew Liam wasn’t picky with his Pokémon, but I also knew this meant a lot to him. He had the chance to show everyone that this great orange-haired boy was capable of earning a creature as rare and great as a Dratini.
“So how about yours?” Liam wanted to see my Pokémon, but I knew nothing could compare with his Dratini. I wasn’t jumping to be let down. The truth was that I hadn’t even checked yet. But I had to check once, right? And Liam wouldn’t let it go until he knew.
I looked at my light blue ball. Delicate clouds were painted at either side and an upside-down egg was painted in the middle, broken up by the black line where the Ball opened. When it opened a tiny blue bird appeared. The creature was tiny, I could take both of my hands and engulf it’s body entirely. Her wings, because I knew immediately that it was a her, were twice as long as the body and white and fluffy. A Swablu.
I instantly fell for the little lady. She was adorable in her fragility and she chirped a hello to me. Despite the cotton look of her wings she was perfectly capable of staying in the air. Happily chirping she crossed the distance between us and perched herself on my shoulder.
“Look at that, you two seemed to have instantly bonded! It’s cute, you know.”
“She! She’s cute. She’s not an it you idiot!” Who wouldn’t be able to see that this lovely little bird was a lady? It was Liam, though, so she could forgive him.
“I guess we need to say goodbye now though,” I didn’t at all like this part. Exam rules.
You had to start your journey alone. This wasn’t a group exercise, their professor had told them, this was to test you and your Pokémon skills alone.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Liam looked away from me and I could tell he wasn’t too happy about this either. But then he got this tingle in his eyes that told me he was up to no good.
“What if we started out alone, and then teamed up? It never said anything about not teaming up after we started, remember. It just said that we had to start alone!”
“Liam, no. That’s cheating. We’re doing this fair and square. What are your challenges anyway?” I had totally forgot about the challenges. We swapped papers and I checked out his.
It said we had both had the Sky and Sea challenge with the same people. He also had the 2 on 2 challenge in Maryville and the disadvantage challenge here in Luminos. There was also the Beach Challenge in Palmas, which was where I needed to go for my 1 on 1. The IC’s were the double-3-Stage, the 1-stage, the Ghost, Steel and Bug challenges. He had the same destination as me for 3 challenges. I found myself hoping we’d meet somewhere.
“We have two of the same challenges and one in the same town,” I said. He nodded, he had noticed it too.
“We have to see each other sometime don’t we? I hope so,” He smiled and turned to leave. I did the same. We both hated those long stretched good-byes.
We walked to the gate together, not saying a thing. As if this were our funeral. I guess we’re just strange that way. We walked silently through half of the city before I started babbling over some random thing. I talked about the custom Poké Balls and of the Pokémon I hoped to encounter. I talked about how hard this could be and about the girl that was supposed to have received the Beldum. He just nodded and listened while his head was elsewhere. I didn’t mind, we did this often. I’d have someone to talk to and a way to fill up the silence while he was thinking about whatever he needed to think of.
Finally, when we reached the road that branched out in different directions, he talked. He told me that he was going East, toward the Dead Hills to search for his Steel Pokémon.
The Dead Hills were the rockiest part of the Island. It looks like hills, except that it’s all dark stone and there are plenty of small caves to find ground and steel Pokémon in.
So I told him I’d be going West to follow the cliffs in the hope to reach the Sea and the beaches. Half of Lumina was covered in beaches. The other half, where Luminos City is also located, is made up of tall cliffs. There were the earth just stops existing and towers over the violent sea. These cliffs were lowest on either side of the beaches and highest at the Sky Cliff. The d cliffs by the Dead Hills were also quite high, but Sky Cliff towered above everything else. It was the highest part of the Island.
And so me and Liam separated. Me and Swablu started following the road through endless grassland. There were little forests here and there, nothing big. I stayed off the path for most part, not wanting to run into Pokémon, but after a while I knew that I
had to start training Swablu sometime. And I desperately needed a Grass Pokémon.
There was a reason why I was so hesitant to run into Pokémon though. There had been strange rumors, so many rumors it had to be true. People were saying that the Pokémon on the island were acting strange. Restless even. Especially the ones residing on the land and in the sea. The flying creatures had mostly been undisturbed, but the others were so restless they had begun getting dangerous.
“But we can’t complete the exam without taking a risk, right?” Swablu chirped back at me, still on my shoulder. It was crazy how small and light she was.
“Let’s do this. I have you to protect me anyways. Maybe, by luck, we’ll find a bug or grass Pokémon you have advantage over.”
And so we cautiously entered the big bad forest. So cliché, I know, but that was how it felt. We encountered many creatures, but most to scared and skittish to stay around for very long. But we didn’t have to wait very long.
The rustle was a warning, but I had dismissed it as a creature running away from us. The suddenly Swablu started chirping like mad and took off from my shoulder to fire a quick peck attack. I turned around to see what was happening and saw a Beautifly coming towards us in a blind rage.
“Swablu, watch out!” The butterfly launched a mean Poison Powder but my little bird swept it away with a powerful Gust attack. Those wings were more powerful than I thought they were!
Beautifly didn’t seem at all phased by the gust. It straightened its curled snout and started what looked like an Absorb. Green balls of energy were breaking free from Swablu and Beautifly was sucking them up greedily. No, this wasn’t an absorb, it was a Mega Drain!
“Quickly, peck it Swablu! Peck it!” I was almost hysterical at this point. I was shouting at Swablu, who needed no encouragement to carry out my command. She flew toward the Beautifly with her beack read to do some nasty damage. The opponent had still been busy sucking up energy when it was hit. The attack did great damage and Beautifly recoiled painfully.
“Quickly Astonish it before it can start again!” It was already trying to launch another Mega Drain but my Swablu was faster. It flew at the creature with a sharp cry. Just when it was about to hit it head on, she turned and tackled it with her back.
The flinched Beautifly seemed to be out of it and couldn’t do anything while I asked Swably to perform another Peck attack. Before this one could hit the Beautifly restored itself and performed a Whirlwind. The winds trapped Swably while the butterfly flew back into the woods.
“Swably, are you alright?” It hardly needs asking. Swablu had hardly been affected by the bug attacks. She was a bit agitated by her loss, though, but I pet her wings to soothe her.
“There will be more, I promise. Come let us search for a Grass Pokémon. It will not get away this time.”
It seemed that the Pokémon themselves weren’t quite so convinced at this. We encountered some bellsprout, but they all hid at the side of us. It seemed that instead of being dangerously restless, the Pokémon seemed to just be extremely skittish. This reassured me quite a bit and I dared get deeper into the forest. There wasn’t much deeper, however, because it was still quite small. Nothing compared to Bascus Forest by Boom Town. Nothing at all.
When there was a rustle that didn’t die out quite as easily, I didn’t hesitate to catch it. Both Swablu and my were sick of trying to catch something that keeps getting away. I could see something green in the bushes and that was all the encouragement I needed.
“Get behind it and peck it,” I whispered to her and she did what I asked. I waited patiently, but after a couple of minutes I heard a yelp and the green thing started to run my way. I quickly stepped in front of it.
“Oh, no you don’t! Swablu peck it again!”
This time the little creature did not get caught off guard and it quickly dodged, grabbing Swablu with green vines that came out of a green pod on its back. The Bulbasaur had grabbed the wings and Swablu couldn’t get away.
“Swablu, come one little one, try to get close to it and peck it!”
No matter what she did, she couldn’t get away from the vines, and they held her tightly away from the body. But while Swablu was now caught, the Bulbasaur couldn’t get away anymore either. That’s when I got an idea.
“Swablu, do you know ding already?” I wasn’t quite sure at what point a Swablu learned Sing, but this one didn’t seem to be that young anymore.
As to answer my question the Swablu started singing a lovely tune. I knew I didn’t have to cover my ears, Swablu’s song would only reach the one she was focused on. The Vines seemed to tremble a bit as their owner struggled to stay asleep. It fired off a Razor Leaf. The sharp leaves hit Swablu, but she still didn’t stop singing and it was a matter of seconds before the vines dropped and the Bulbasaur was fast asleep.
“Great job Swablu! Now let’s see if I can catch this little fellow,” I fumbled with one of the Premium Balls for a bit, but I couldn’t get it loose. I took too long and Bulbasaur was already waking up. He grumbled angrily and fired a Leech Seed at Swablu.
The seed sprouted and little green appendages surrounded Swablu and started sucking at her energy, feeding Bulbasaur’s. While static green energy started bussing around Swablu, Bulbasaur’s bulb started glowing a dull green.
“Come on little one, fight it, I know you can!”
She started picking on the vines surrounding her. It took her a while to get a hold on her, a bit of static energy always interrupted her, but she got one in her beak and ripped it off her. She started pecking at another one and got this one quicker. The last one she got almost immediately and quickly shook the seed and its sprouts off of her. Now she did not look very happy.
Without having to give her a demand she started a rapid Fury Attack on Bulbasaur, pecking away at him. It looked as if it would never end, she kept lashing out at him with her beak. She ended it with a peck, and the Bulbasaur couldn’t resist any longer. It fell to the ground, and Swablu landed on its bulb squawking in victory. She was quite enjoying this.
I had finally managed to get the Premium Ball from its holder and I threw it at Bulbasaur. Instead of a white light, a red light poured out and engulfed Bulbasaur. It shook once before staying silent. I had caught my first Pokémon, and ahd completed my first challenge. I had caught my grass Pokémon.