Pokemon Trainer Arylide wants to battle!

“You think that’s better?” She asked,”They were just walking in circles. C’mon Ari, at least I tried.” She pouted. He wanted to do ghost stories, but his was easily explained. “No one even died in that!”

She wouldn’t admit that she was worried about tomorrow. “Whatever, let’s just go to bed. C’mon Rini, Zip. Let’s sleep.”

Ari pouted, slightly, but then shrugged and curled up in his sleeping bag anyway. Kit purred, and curled up beside him, and he wrapped his arms around him with a yawn, “Whatever!” 

buuuuzzzzzzz

Zip was curled up in Lin’s lap, while Rini scratched at the ground a bit away. Lin watched her for a few moments, before returning to her handheld battle sim. She was distracted again by her brother’s suggestion.

“Hahahaha uhm…”She didn’t really want to. Ghost stories were scary after all! But….She didn’t want anyone to say that she backed down at a challenge. “A-alright.”

“Uhm, oh! There was one someone in Viridian mentioned the other day about this forest, wanna hear?” She took a breath, and leaned forward. Whispering as she continued. “A trainer from a faraway land came to Kanto to try his hand at the Indigo League. On his way through the forest to Pewter, he wandered off the beaten path. He tripped and fell into a river and drowned…. His pokemon were released after a long time in their balls, and -not being able to find their trainer- though he had abandoned them. They vowed to take their revenge on any trainer who passed through. While most trainers stick to the path, and are safe. Those who cut through the center will wind up lost and confused. Trees will move, and any semblance of a path will be cut off until its impossible to find your way! Sometimes even the stumps of fallen trees will cry for the fates of these trainers.” She sat back, and looked over to her brother,”How was that?”

Ari folded his knees, and wrapped his arms around his legs as he listened. The light from the fire flicked across Lin’s face, causing creepy shadows to dance along the contours of her face. He leaned forward a bit, until she finished her story, and then frowned and leaned back again. He paused, and looked out into the shadows of the trees. 

“Pfft! That’s not scary!“ Ari replied. And totally not why he was glancing around the forest to make sure the trees were in the same places they were before. 

“That’s no-” But he was gone already,”-t how you set up camp?”

Lin opened up Rini’s pokeball with a sigh. Rolling her eyes at her brother, she started working on setting up her tent. Hopefully, he’ll be back by the time she’s done. “Hmm… Well, we don’t have his tent to set up, and we can’t start dinner without a fire…What do you say we train?” Zip shook his head and flopped down. Rini, the blue Nidoran sniffing him.

“Not before dinner huh?….Geez that Ari needs to get his butt back here.”

Time seemed to zoom past after that. Ari, Kit, and King collected as much firewood as they could carry, and dragged it back to their little camp. He was in a hurry to get this done so he and his Pokemon could eat, then practice! 

Before long though, the sun started setting, and it was time to wind down. They got a bright fire burning, and Ari sat down beside it, wrapped up in a blanket, with Kit on his lap, and King beside him. The fire was warm, and he was starting to feel sleepy, but wasn’t ready to sleep. 

Ari looked around at the shadows cast by the flickering orange light cast off by the fire. It caused dark patches to dance past the trees and was kinda spooky... which of course, gave him an idea!

“You can’t just make up a class, Ari!” All classes are made up, Lin.  She sighed at the mention of food,”When we set up camp,”She stopped walking when her stomach growled,”Which should be soon probably. We don’t want to be scrambling for firewood at night, right?” That’s how it worked right? She didn’t actually know. “What if we set up over there!” She pointed to a small nearby clearing. “I’d like to practice battling if we can get dinner done and eaten fast enough.” It probably wouldn’t happen, but what is the passage of time?

Ari immedietely lit up at the mention of practice-battles, and broke into a run towards the clearing, “I’m starved!“ 

He immediately dropped his bag at the edge of the clearing, and unfurled his sleeping bag, and simply laid it out on the ground, “There!” 

He looked around the clearing for a second, and then reached for his belt, where his pokeballs lay, “Let’s all take a rest!” 

He threw a Pokeball up into the air, and it burst open in a flash of light. In a split second, a small, purple Nidoran landed on the ground in front of Ari. Kit ran over towards King, and sniffed the Nidoran’s nose. 

“Pokemon Master isn’t an actual trainer class,”Lin pointed out,”It’s a way of life.”

She pulled out her trainer card, and pointed at the ‘PKMN Trainer’ by her name “A trainer class is what it says on your trainer card. It doesn’t do much that I know of other than like give you something to talk about with other trainers, but some of the higher ‘level’ ones have requirements you gotta meet first.”There were probably other things, but Lin had no clue what they actually did.

“It’s pretty deep. You weren’t expecting to get there today, were you? There’s no way! Even if we left in the morning, there was no way we’d get through in one day!”

“Well I’ll make it a class then! I’ll be the first Master Class Trainer!“ Ari bragged. 

Wait? Not make it today? Well... they hadn’t exactly even left in the morning, and it was already getting kinda late, so that made sense... but still!

“They’re like some dumb trainer class that only uses bug types and are super weak apparently,”Lin responded,”At least that’s what some of the older kids at the school said, so….”

She struggled past the log, and barely avoided tripping over some roots that she didn’t notice at first. She hurried behind him, not willing to get lost from him in such a thick forest. “I wonder what trainer class I’ll go with…Or maybe I’ll stick with a general ‘Pokemon Trainer’. What about you?”

Ari casually pushed a branch out of his way, “Well duh! I’m gunna be a Pokemon Master, so I gotta master all types!”

“Well…when you put it like that…” Lin muttered,”Fiiiiiine we can cut through. Just. I will say I told you so if we get lost.”

She says it so reluctantly, but she’s already passed Ari. She wanted cool pokemon too! And it would be a good way to train! Maybe.

“And this way we might avoid a bunch of bug catchers…” She’s never even met one before, but she’s heard a lot about how everyone in that trainer class is annoying, easy to beat, and an all around waste of time.

“Wait? Bug Catchers?“ Ari replied, as he trailed along behind her.