บท 15: Interlude

The sun was shyly peeking, hiding behind the horizon, casting a warm golden glow at the world.

We started our travel along with the first sunrays of the morning.

The Pokemon too woke up with the sun, the buzzing sound of the day clearly in contrast with the dead silence of the night.

Maddy and I were pedalling our way to the Celadon when she slammed her brakes abruptly.

I stopped some distance from her and asked, turning to face her.

"Why did you stop, Maddy?"

"I think I saw a Ducklett, quick follow me," she said, before racing into the forest, not waiting for my reply.

I harrumphed and trailed after her.

After searching around for more than five minutes, we were able to spot the silhouette of the bluebird from far away.

Maddy started pedalling with renewed vigour, making me catch up with her hastily.

We followed the Ducklett trying to reach it, but the distance between us was too far to cover quickly.

We followed it onto a downtrodden dirt road.

Just as we thought we were going to catch up with it, the Ducklett disappeared around a bend.

Huffing with disappointment we searched for it again, I even had to shoot down Maddy's idea of leaving the route to find it.

Maddy is normally very cool-headed and doesn't let anything affect her mood.

'Well except when it comes to water Pokemon,' I thought looking at the cold expression on Maddy's face.

People who didn't know her wouldn't notice the difference, but the slightly rapid breathing and the constant eye movement gave away her agitation.

She was always like this, even when we were just children.

Only after spending some time with her, you can understand the subtle cues indicating her mood.

'Well, I can. Most of our classmates still can't tell her expressions apart,' I thought looking at Maddy's steadily growing apprehension at the now missing Ducklett.

It's not like I don't understand her anxiety.

Flying-type Pokemon don't have preferred habitats making the task of catching them very difficult.

If we miss the Ducklett now, the chances of us seeing another Ducklett are very low, except if we camp around water bodies and wait around for months.

Which is a no-go, obviously.

A Water and flying type combination is very useful. The removal of grass and rock-type weakness makes it very valuable.

It will also improve the chances of Maddy winning her first badge, which are pretty high even now.

But Maddy likes water-type Pokemon, she won't miss the chance of catching one as rare as Ducklett.

As we turned around the bend, a modest tent was built on the side of the dirt road.

Before I could say anything, Maddy got off her bike and knocked on the tent.

I had to yank her away, to give her a piece of mind on disturbing some stranger's sleep without any tact.

A boy with scrambled black hair and black eyes exited the tent with some irritation on his face.

After looking over us once, he ignored us in favour of staring at the bikes.

His hair was so dark that I thought it was absorbing the sunlight for a second.

He wore a T-shirt that was too large and loose shabby jeans, giving an awkward and comical look.

'Why didn't he buy any clothes? If he has enough money to buy this tent?' I thought looking over the tent.

Maddy then rudely questioned him about the Ducklett, he ignored her and kept looking at our bikes.

The bikes were the latest model, so, I can understand why he was staring at them.

I introduced myself making him look at me.

He then challenged Maddy to a match, with an extra bet -food.

With the state Maddy was in, I don't think she would even care if the bet was her little sister.

I gave them and refereed for the match.

The match that ended just after it started, making me feel at a loss.

Snapping out my stupor, I called out the guy's victory.

He didn't even introduce himself.

'No manners at all,' I thought looking at him as introduced himself sheepishly.

I turned around to see how Maddy was dealing with her loss- she was on the verge of crying.

I gave her time to get a grip on her emotions as they both started a stare contest.

Losing hurts, I know.

My win ratio against Maddy is so horrendous, that I even cried to my grandpa one time.

He consoled me saying that type advantages at the novice stages decide the matches most of the time.

After the staring contest broke out, I challenged him hoping to cheer up Maddy's mood with my win.

'That Zubat oh my god! He is a monster. He easily lifted Maddy's starter, like it weighed nothing, what is he eating?' I thought.

The Zubat got two egg moves just like Liza's.

'Maddy was just distracted, I will win,' I thought excited for the battle.

I took the held item Grandpa gave me and handed it to Liza, hoping to secure the win.

The match started and the held item buff showed.

The Zubat was not able to avoid the embers.

Just when I thought I would win, Leo made a reversal.

'Of course, It knows agility. I mean why wouldn't, it's not like Zubat is a poison-type Pokemon,' I thought sarcastically.

Again, just when I thought I got him with the fire spin, the Zubat dodged the move with nothing but a minor injury.

'This guy!' I thought exasperated.

Any manuals that a common citizen can get their hands on wouldn't mention tactics he was using, and he certainly didn't look like he was from a well-off family or clan.

'Did he think of training the Zubat's supersonic attack range with area effect moves in mind on all his own,' I questioned myself shocked.

There is a reason why the league didn't mention the importance of Pokemon positions in the battle, in any commonly available resources.

The league wants the trainers to find out about them on their own, the league wants trainers to be self-sufficient and innovative, not imitators.

But it didn't stop our parents from teaching us about them, though.

'He even took advantage of Zubat's position in his match with Maddy,' I thought, glancing at her as his Zubat again vanished into the dust to increase its speed.

The level of thought he put into training the Zubat is astonishing.

'Trainers 10 days into the journey are not supposed to be like this,' looking at his Zubat easily evading fire spins.

'There is nothing I can do but wait for an opening. With the speed the Zubat is exhibiting, I don't think Liza can hit it with a Metal claw,' I thought grimacing.

'He will have to end this match quickly if he doesn't want his Zubat to keel over from exhaustion from maintaining two-speed buffs,' I thought waiting for my opportune moment.

The Zubat bit onto the confused Liza's neck and flew into the air.

'A Chance!,' I thought happily.

'If he is going to take more time to drop Liza than he took for Azure, then the match is mine.'

Just like he heard my thoughts ordered his Zubat to drop Liza at the same time as before, taking away my chance to reverse the match.

"Metal claw," I shouted and hoped, knowing I was asking too much from the Charmander to snap out of her confusion, even if her parents were a Metagross and Charizard.

My Liza didn't disappoint me and snapped out of her confusion, but it was a tad bit too late.

'Just 1 more second Liza would have snapped out of confusion,' I thought and cursed softly.

Their clash kicked up the dust again.

'That's too much dust for a single day,' I thought grimacing and shielding my face with my hands.

The dust cleared showing the conclusion of the match.

'Draw!' I thought sadly.

Defeat isn't new for me as I travel with an aspiring water-type trainer while having a fire-type Pokemon as my starter. So, I shook it off and made my way to Liza.

I knew she didn't have any serious injuries as otherwise, my Pokedex would have fired an alarm.

I recalled Liza and as he recalled his Zubat, I saw that he was using a luxury ball.

I didn't notice it before because his loose shirt covered his Pokemon belt, and he released his Pokemon by cupping both of his hands covering most of the luxury ball.

'Paranoid much?' I thought pettily.

He asked us about our Pokemon, making me give him the response our parents drilled into us.

I think there is nothing wrong with our parents handing us our starters, but I gave the reply instinctively as our parents placed great emphasis on this.

'Why is he afraid of showing his luxury ball and why does he have the luxury ball, but not proper clothes,' the curiosity overwhelmed me.

So, I probed.

He deflected it, making me mad.

I leaned towards him, knowing what reaction I elicit out of boys.

Just as I expected he stuttered.

Still not satisfied with my petty win, I answered his question about the held item truthfully.

His expression when he heard about the held item made it worth it, but my grandpa wouldn't have agreed.

Finally satisfying my bruised ego, I gave him one of my favourite meal packages for his reward, and he looked at me like I gave him a legendary Pokemon.

'Cute!' I thought subconsciously.

Before I could get embarrassed by my thoughts, he delivered some bad news.

Maddy was sad to hear he didn't see any Duckklet.

We thought the Ducklett strayed from its flock and was making its way back.

Maddy climbed her bike and called me, mostly likely deciding that finding the Ducklett was a lost cause, as we didn't have any leads and going off route was too risky even in newbie routes.

She pedalled away without even waiting for me.

'She is so rude today,' I thought and chased after her, waving goodbye to Leo.

He looked at loss seeing us leave so quickly, making me giggle.