CHAPTER 9: In Which Twice Is A Pattern
Gwen and Kirlia strolled cheerfully through the town of Tanzanite for quite a while before Gwen started to get a worried feeling. It had taken her much less time to get to the cliff than it was taking to get back...yes, she'd been running, but even still... She took a serious look around her, and frowned. Had that tree been there last time? Hadn't that roof been painted green?
"Oh no," she whispered. "Again?"
Gwen pulled out her Pokegear and dialed Adrian. He wouldn't be impressed, that was for sure, but he was the only person who could get her out of this mess.
"Hello?" she head him ask, through a mouthful of something.
"Adrian, I -"
"Gwen!" He cheered. "I told you she'd be back soon," he continued, though muffled. Gwen figured he'd put his hand over the 'gear while he was talking to someone else – the kid, maybe? "Where are you?" he asked, loud and clear again.
"Um," she said. "Look...I got the Teddiursa back, but there's been a bit of a problem. I think I might be -"
"Don't say lost," he hissed.
"Lost," she finished. "Kirlia and I thought we were going the right way, but uhh, clearly not."
"Kirlia?"
"Oh! Dude, Ralts evolved!"
"What? Congratulations! When?"
Gwen laughed. "Look, help me get back to the station, and I'll tell you the whole story, I promise. Can I get a Rufflet Rescue?"
"That's a good name for it," Adrian admitted, and she could hear a smile in his voice. "Maybe I'll have to start advertising."
They said their quick goodbyes, and Gwen hung up. She kept an eye on the sky, and soon enough Rufflet flew overhead, keen eyes on the ground.
She waved, and he flew down to her, chirping madly.
"I know," she sighed. "Lost, again? You must think I'm an idiot."
Rufflet chirped agreeably before soaring back high, traveling back towards the station at a slow enough pace that she could follow him. In no time, she began to recognise her surroundings, and soon enough she was back at the station.
Adrian and the kid were sitting on the porch of a nearby cabin that was larger than most of the houses, eating ice cream cones.
"Gwen!" Adrian called, waving her over.
When she reached them, the kid looked up at her hopefully. "Did you get him back?" he asked.
Gwen nodded, pulling out the Teddiursa's pokeball. "Here you go, little dude," she said, passing it over.
"Thanks," he said solemnly, taking the ball and tucking it into the inside pocket of his jacket. "Brady and Jackson keep taking him. Will they stop now?"
"Aw, maybe?" Gwen said, crouching down so that she could be on his level. "Brady seems like a total jerk, I'm not surprised this isn't the first time he's taken your pokemon. Have you thought of training him up so you could battle them? That might stop them."
The kid scrunched up his face. "Me and Teddiursa are friends, I don't want him to get hurt."
Gwen felt like she'd been slapped, considering the battle she'd just forced Kirlia – well, Ralts, then – through.
Adrian saw the look on her face, and stepped in. "Harold," he said, crunching down the last of his cone. "Battling isn't like that. Sure, your pokemon can get hurt, but they're strong. Teddiursa could protect you from those bullies if you trained together."
Harold shook his head, a determined set to his little chin. "Pokemon who battle get hurt," he said firmly. "That's what my Gramma says, and she's always right. Teddiursa and me just want to hang out."
Gwen and Adrian looked at each other, and shrugged. They didn't want to force the kid into doing anything he didn't want to do, after all.
"Um, sure," Gwen said. "Hanging out with Teddiursa sounds lovely to me! I hope Brady and his friend leave you alone from now on."
Harold nodded, then jumped up from his seat. "I should go home now," he said solemnly. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."
Without a glance back, he trotted off into the forest.
Gwen laughed. "What a strange little kid," she said.
Adrian sighed. "You don't know the half of it," he said. "You're not the one who had to hang out with him! You just got to battle. Speaking of which – dude! Tell me all about it, already!"
As Gwen related the events of the battle and the evolution, Rufflet led them to the Pokecenter he'd seen from the air. It was starting to get late, and they decided they'd go to the town hero the day after, once they'd gotten a good night's rest.
"Hopefully this quest isn't gardening," Gwen laughed as they were eating dinner in the Pokecentre cafeteria.
"Amen to that," Adrian agreed. "Hey, you think we'll see the others tomorrow?" He continued thoughtfully.
Gwen shrugged. "Maybe? The girl at the counter hadn't seen them, but that just means they're not staying here. They could be in Tanzanite."
Adrian sighed, getting a hazy, faraway look in his eyes. "I hope they're here," he said. "I haven't had a chance to talk to Celia in days."
"Talk," Gwen repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah sure, that's what you want to do to her."
"Gwen!" Adrian cried, scandalised.
"You know, you're going bright red," Gwen continued with a cheeky grin.
Adrian buried his face in his hands. "Stop," he groaned. "I command it!"
Gwen cracked up. "Sure, sure," she agreed. "I'll back off, Mr Innocent."
Adrian had an embarrassed scowl on his face for the rest of the meal, which Gwen found absolutely hilarious.
As it turned out, the others did not show up for the quest the next day. When Gwen and Adrian finally found the small cabin deep in the woods, they were the only Adventurine graduates there.
They knocked on the door for what felt like hours before they heard a soft voice telling them to come around the back. Behind the house, in what was probably supposed to be a backyard, but what was actually just a fenced-off portion of the forest, was an ancient Shiftry sitting next to an even more ancient lady. They were tiny and wizened, perched on what looked like hand-carved stools in front of an enormous cauldron bubbling away on a fire.
"Hi," Gwen said slowly. "Um..we're..."
"The other graduates, of course," the old lady said, her face-crinkling grin showing off the handful of teeth she still had. "Minnie and I were wondering where you were!"
"The other graduates," Adrian repeated. "So Celia and the others have already been here?"
"Yep!" the old lady said, hopping off her stool and coming closer to them. She barely came up to Gwen's shoulder. "They were here yesterday. Where were you lazybones?"
"Um, we were helping a little kid," Gwen said, kind of annoyed. "Sorry we were too busy retrieving a stolen pokemon to come do some quest!"
The old lady cackled, clapping her hands delightedly. "Oh, you've got some fire in you!" she said. "Excellent. Those girls yesterday were so meek."
Gwen exchanged a look with Adrian. Meek wasn't exactly how Gwen would describe either Celia or Zoe, but they'd probably tried to be polite to this little old lady. Gwen knew she wasn't always the most polite person in the universe, but she'd never had that be a point in her favour before. It was kind of awesome.
"Sorry we weren't here yesterday. I'm sure that would've been easier on you, Mrs...?" Adrian began, trailing off when he realised he didn't know her name.
"Ms Ainsley," she corrected. "But folks round here just call me Ida." Then to Gwen she continued, saying "Boy, he sure is boring! You can definitely do better, girl."
Gwen didn't need to look at Adrian to know he'd just gone bright red. "Oh, we're not together," she said with a laugh. "We're just friends."
Ida shrugged. "I call it how I see it," she said, ambling back to the fire and giving whatever was in the cauldron a stir. "Now, you'll be wanting a quest."
"Yes please, Ida," Adrian replied with a hopeful smile. Gwen elbowed him, Ida clearly wasn't the kind of person who appreciated being sucked up to.
And indeed, she gave Adrian an unimpressed look. "Now, the quest I planned was finished yesterday by your friends. Most years, you kids all travel together; I didn't know I needed two quests," she scolded. "You ought to phone ahead and let the other heroes know you'll be coming separately!"
"I guess we didn't consider that," Gwen admitted. "But we'll definitely call Port Peridot tonight, that's a good idea."
Ida huffed, apparently mollified for now. "Alright, well. My grandson is coming around later for lunch, and I need more food."
"We'd be happy to go to the market for you," Adrian tried.
Ida rolled her eyes at him. "No thank you, young man," she said. "My grandson's favourite food is the fruit that grows on Tropius, which needs to be fresh to be any good. I believe there are still a few of the pokemon in the forest, so you can hunt them down and bring me back the fruit. That will be your quest."
Gwen could have hugged her. She'd grown up around a Tropius, she could totally convince one to let her harvest its fruit, no problem.
"Sounds good," she said, trying to hide her satisfaction. "We'll see you back here in a bit, Ida!"
Three hours later, and they had seen hide nor hair of a Tropius.
"You said this would be so easy," Adrian said, elbowing her. "Miss I Know Everything About Tropius!"
"Whatever," Gwen scoffed. "I do know things about Tropius, you know my mum has one! And I'm sure this is the kind of area they'd love! There has to be one or two around here somewhere."
"You said that already," Adrian said long-sufferingly. "Five times."
Gwen groaned. "Shut up already!"
"Shh!"
"No, you shut up!"
"No, Gwen!" Adrian whispered, putting a hand over her mouth. "I think I heard something!"
It came again – a high, melodious keening sound.
Gwen's eyes went wide, and she gestured wildly at Adrian.
"Is that it?" he whispered. When there was no response, he sheepishly moved his hand.
"So gross," she whispered, wiping her mouth. "Your hand is super sweaty, did you know that?"
"Is that Tropius?" Adrian repeated, ignoring her comment.
"Yes! Let's go get it!"
Adrian quietly released Rufflet, asking it to work out where, exactly, the noises were coming from. They didn't want to accidentally run in the opposite direction.
After a moment, Rufflet returned, flying in a slow circle before winging its way back to Tropius. This time, they followed.
The Tropius was grazing from the top of a tall tree, its wings flapping lazily to keep it in the air, where it could reach the fruit it was eating. It hadn't noticed Gwen, Adrian and Rufflet.
Until Gwen stepped forward, waving her arms.
"Hey!" she shouted. "Tropius, down here!"
"Gwen?" Adrian whispered furiously, stepping forward to grab her arms. "What are you doing?"
"Tropius loves attention," she said. "Trust me, I'm an expert!"
"On one Tropius," Adrian groaned, but gave in. "Hey!" he cried half-heartedly. "What's up, Tropius?"
Tropius, by now, had noticed them, and had decided that they might just be more interesting than fruit. It dropped out of the sky towards them, landing a little too close for comfort. It snaked its long neck down towards them curiously, regarding them with huge, limpid eyes.
"Aw, you softie," Gwen cooed, reaching up to pat it. "You just love this attention, don't you!"
As soon as she touched its neck, Tropius recoiled sharply with a loud hiss. Its eyes narrowed, and it glared at Gwen.
"Um, I don't think it does love this attention," Adrian said nervously.
"Nonsense!" Gwen cried. "Tropius, we just want some of your fruit! Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you."
But Tropius wasn't listening. It spread its wings, trying to look larger and more menacing – which it didn't need to do, since it was already quite large and menacing. It gnashed its teeth and hissed some more.
"Ummmm," Adrian said. "Gwen, this really doesn't look so great."
"Tropius," Gwen tried once more. "Please, calm down!"
Tropius opened its mouth and spat out a cluster of glowing leaves. Gwen and Adrian tried to duck out of the way, but the leaves followed them, smacking into them at high speed.
"Ow!" Gwen cried, rubbing a spot on her arm where she'd been hit. "What the heck was that?"
"I think that was Magical Leaf," Adrian said, eyes wide. "Dude, I don't think Tropius can learn that until it's really strong."
"Typical," grumbled Gwen. "Can we fight it, do you think?"
Adrian shook his head. "With Kirlia and Rufflet? No way. All we can do is run."
"No way," Gwen echoed. "No way are we leaving without that fruit!"
"You made Tropius super mad, dude. I don't think it's gonna happen."
They glanced back at Tropius, who was pawing the ground in a distinctly pre-Body Slam manner. Adrian shivered, but Gwen just looked determined.
"Adrian," she said, with a small smile. "I've got a plan."
"Oh no."
The plan involved running, causing a ruckus, and also Rufflet, so Gwen later dubbed it Plan R. The idea was that they would distract Tropius by running around and being super loud, while Rufflet Pecked some fruit off its neck. Then after they'd lost it, they could come back around and pick up all the fruit.
"This plan is genius!" Gwen cried as they ran full-tilt through the forest.
"This plan is going to get us killed!" Adrian replied, voice tinged with hysteria.
They ran for what felt like forever, until the sounds of Tropius crashing through the trees after them faded into silence. Gwen collapsed to the ground, and Adrian bent over, trying to breathe.
"That was awesome," Gwen said.
"It was definitely something," Adrian wheezed. "Now fingers crossed Tropius didn't stomp on all that fallen fruit."
Thankfully, it hadn't. Thanks to Rufflet's skill at freeing fruit – or maybe thanks to how much they'd distracted Tropius – there was plenty for them to gather as they crept back along their trail, hoping that Tropius wouldn't think to come back here.
Once they'd picked up as much fruit as they could possibly hold, they returned to the cabin, where Ida and Shiftry were still sitting around the fire.
"The heroes return," Ida cackled, without looking at them. "How did you find your quest?"
"It wasn't too hard," Gwen said, aiming for nonchalant. Ida turned, almost falling off her stool in surprise as she registered the armfuls of fruit. Then her eyes narrowed, and she laughed again.
"I see you got a little injured," she said with a grin. "Tropius wasn't the dear lamb you thought it might be?"
Gwen sniffed. "We got the fruit," she said. "That's the important thing."
"Was it, though?" Ida asked. "Did you manage to calm Tropius down? Did you defeat it, or catch it? How did you get the fruit?"
A little awkwardly, Gwen related Plan R. Ida wheezed with laughter, but when she stopped, her expression became stern.
"Angering a pokemon isn't heroic," she said. "And stealing its fruit while you run away is cowardly."
"Cowardly?" Gwen cried. "Are you kidding me?"
"Let her finish," Adrian said, but Gwen could see his grip on the fruit was white-knuckled.
"I'm afraid I cannot count this quest as a success," Ida said. "You need to respect pokemon, especially the ones in the wild."
"We totally respected Tropius!" Gwen couldn't believe what she was hearing. "We didn't even hurt it!"
Ida shook her head. "You don't even understand how poorly you behaved. I'm sorry, but I cannot give my town's emblem to such immature heroes."
Gwen wanted to cry, and a glance at Adrian told her that she wasn't alone.
"Fine," she choked out, staring at the ground. "Okay. Do you even still want the fruit?"
"You can put it inside," Ida said with a sigh. "My grandson will be here soon."
As soon as they were inside the cabin, away from Ida's sharp gaze, Gwen burst into tears. Adrian looked hugely awkward.
"Uh, don't cry," he said, hurriedly putting his fruit down, and taking Gwen's bundle from her. "It's okay, Gwen."
"Is it?" she asked. "Is it? Because so far all the heroes I've met have been so disappointed in me." She scrubbed her hands over her face, sniffling.
"You tried your best."
"I'm not cut out for this," Gwen whispered. "Adrian, I just want to go home."
He wrapped her up in a hug. "You are totally cut out for this," he said into her hair. "Gwen – you're made to be a hero! You're just new at this."
Gwen sighed, extracting herself from the hug. "Maybe," she allowed. Her green eyes were red-rimmed, and her usual tidy black hair was a total mess. She ran her hands through it, trying to calm it down.
"Gramma!" The high, childish voice cut through the tension in the room.
Gwen turned to Adrian. "Is that-?"
He nodded at her, wide-eyed.
As one, they dashed out of the cabin, just in time to see Ida sweep Harold into a crushing hug.