NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25
“So what are you going to name it?” I ask Flannery as we away from the fainted pokemon.
“I’m thinking Night. Seeing as how it is a dark type pokemon I thought it might be fitting.” She replies as she pulls out her phone to scan the pokeball with her new pokemon.
Bea nods her head as she speaks up, “That’s a fitting name for it.”
We continue to chat as we walk. Eventually the slope slowly returns to flat ground and we find ourselves in another large cavern. Looking around the cavern, it doesn’t seem any different than the one we just came from. One big change that I can notice, but I’m not sure if the others do, is there are some small spots of light spread out. From where I am, I can see small and dark silhouettes near the lights, but not enough to tell what they are. If I had to guess, I would say that they are other trainers that are traveling through the tunnels as well.
*Smack**Crash**Smack*
From nearby, I can faintly hear the sounds of something fighting. I look around and I see a couple of Geodudes fighting against something near one of the cavern walls. I tap on Bea’s shoulder to get her attention.
“Point your flashlight over there. It sounds like something is fighting.” I tell her while pointing in the general direction of the Geodudes I had found. As Bea moves her light over, what comes into view is a yellow standing on two legs with red cheeks and hands that look like gloves. The Geodudes are ramming into the yellow pokemon over and over as the other pokemon pushes them away. It doesn’t really look like a fight but more like training of some sort.
We move closer to get a better look on what is going on and I pull out my phone and open the pokedex. Once we are in range, I scan the yellow pokemon.
[Makuhita the guts pokemon]
[Makuhita is tenacious—it will keep getting up and attacking its foe however many times it is knocked down. Every time it gets back up, this Pokémon stores more energy in its body for evolving. Their daily routine consists of training together first thing in the morning, eating and napping in the afternoon, and then more training afterward.]
Bea’s eyes light up as I quietly read out the dex entry for us. This was the type of pokemon that would fit well with her team as she likes to spar with them. She tells us to stay back as she moves towards the Makuhita with a confident gait. She stands behind the Geodudes and faces the yellow pokemon.
“How about a spar? If I win, you follow me. If you win, You can continue training.” Bea says towards Makuhita. The pokemon looks up at her just as a Geodude slams into it, causing it to tumble backwards. It stands back up and looks at her for a moment before nodding and taking a stance. The pair of Geodudes quickly disappear into the cavern like they are running away. Bea mirrors Makuhita taking a stance of her own and waiting for the pokemon to make its first move.
Makuhita takes a step forward and throws a normal punch. Bea effortlessly dodges the punch and returns one of her own towards its stomach. Makuhita punches again, ignoring Bea’s punch, but not blocking costs it as it is knocked down to the ground as her punch hits. Bea moves in and throws a couple more punches while it is down before pinning its arms to the ground resulting in Makuhita being pinned. The pokemon struggles against Bea’s pin for a while and nearly breaks free a few times. Every time it gets close, Bea knees Makuhita in the side and forces it back into a submission pose.
Bea keeps the pokemon pinned until it stops struggling. She gives it a look, only to see it nod before she releases it and stands up. Once she is up, she helps Makuhita up as well. The pokemon looks at her with a grumpy look and turns its head away sulking. Bea just smiles lightly at its reaction.
“Since you lost, you will follow me from now on. Nice to have you along partner, we will train lots to make you stronger.” Bea says with a smile as she pulls out an empty pokeball. Makuhita perks up a little at the mention of training before fist bumping the pokeball and disappearing with a click a second later. The ball doesn’t even shake as Makuhita completely submitted to being captured.
“Congrats Bea!” We both say as soon as the button on the pokeball stops glowing.
“Thanks! I didn’t expect to find another fighting type around here. Guess I got lucky.” She says with a big grin on her face as she gives both of us a hug in her joy. “That’s one for each of us, now we just need to find one for you, Frost.”
“Yeah, good luck finding an ice type around here.” I say with a snort. I got lucky that Zephyr picked up an ice type somehow from being around me, but I also had a number of things happen that could have caused it. I doubt I would be as lucky with my next pokemon. “It’s why Ice type specialists are rare, ice type pokemon are hard to find outside of cold regions. Maybe I could find a breeder or something. Or maybe I could find an Eevee somewhere and evolve it to be a Glaceon.”
“I’m sure you will find something.” Flannery says while patting my shoulder as I slump slightly in dejection.
“You never know, maybe you can find out how Zephyr changed and repeat it for another pokemon? Create your own ice type team?” Bea offers helpfully.
I give Bea a wry smile before replying. “I’ll get right on that, who knows maybe all they have to do is get caught by me.” I start to giggle at the thought of that. There is no way that is possible.
We glide through the next few hours with little excitement other than chatting with each other. The few times we run across a semi aggressive pack of pokemon, we quickly fight them off without spending much effort. We mainly seem to fight random packs of Zubats that we seem to disturb with our talking, but a few moves and they retreat to go after easier prey. Before long we are looking for a place to step up camp again. After finding a good spot to set up, we go about setting up the campsite. When I pull out my tent, Flannery looks at me like she wants to say something for a few moments before deciding to ask her question.
“Say, Frost babe, what is with the snow in your tent?”
I blanch for a moment as her question throws me off guard before I try to quickly think of an excuse. I take a moment to finish placing my tent properly and quickly think before replying to her.
“Well, you know how I wear hardly any clothes at all?”
“Yeah, it’s quite nice honestly. Though you don’t seem like the type that would like to wear something like that. I saw how put off you were by that guy at the entrance.” She replies while nodding. I give her a long stare at her statement at the start of her reply, but she just gives me the cutest little smirk that makes me blush slightly before I look away from her.
“Ahum, yes well, I seem to have a condition that causes my body temperature to be much higher than normal. I have to wear very revealing clothes to let as much heat as possible escape through my skin. Grandpa decided to help me out after we found out about my condition by importing a bunch of Never-Melt ice that we shaved down and turned my tent into a snowscape that is extra cold so I can actually sleep.” I tell her the story I thought of. It isn’t far from the truth but it’s not exactly true either. The snow in my tent is special but it isn’t Never-Melt Ice, at least I don’t think it is. Both of them look at me like I have two heads until they give me a slight pitying look. “Oh don’t give me that look. I have found some special clothes that I can wear, but one is currently badly damaged and the other is way too over the top to wear normally.” At my remark they start giggling softly before it slowly turns into full blown laughter.
“Over the top is correct! Don’t get me wrong, you looked awesome in it and were quite awe inspiring, but you went with the whole ‘Ice Queen’ vibe way too hard.” Bea remarked after she calmed down with her laughing.
“‘Queen’ you say. You should have heard some of those boys in the stands, half were drooling over you and the other half were worshiping you as a Queen and wondering if asking if you could step on them and degrade them would be possible.” Flannery teases me with that damnably cute smile. I wish I could be bold enough to tease her back.
“Both of you hush. Keep this up and I won’t cook tonight.” I reply in a pouty voice as I turn my head away and feign pouting.
“N-now now, no need to go that far right? We were only teasing you.” Flannery panics at my statement about not cooking.
“R-right, we were only joking Frost. Please cook for us!” Bea joins in to coax me into cooking tonight.
I let them squirm and beg for a moment before turning back to them with a big smile on my face. “Of course I’ll cook. I would rather have something edible to eat, I can’t trust either of you to cook something I could actually eat.” The both of them pause in their pleading with a funny look on their faces which causes me to start giggling uncontrollably. The two of them snap out of it before tackling me and they start tickling me in revenge. Soon our campsite is filled with the joyful sounds of laughter from the three of us.
Once we calm down, I get cooking and decide to make a dish that neither of them have had before. In my old world, before my parents had me, they traveled to a number of countries and my mother would always learn to cook something from there to remember it. I happened to learn a few recipes when I had helped in the kitchen and what I was making was one of the easier recipes to remember and make, beef and date tagine. Once everything was finished and our dishes were clean again, we decided on the same watch rotation as the night before, so the two of them climbed into their tents as I made myself comfortable at the edge of the camp with my back to the light.
Skadi settles on my lap as I grab my music player off my hair and start to fiddle with it. I press on the face of it and a holographic screen pops up that looks similar to Spotify. I browse through the different music and find that you can find any music on here. Maybe it was the talk of snow earlier, but I felt like listening to some christmas music so I found a station that plays Trans-siberian Orchestra and other bands across the multiverse with a similar style. Content with my music choice for the night, I place it back in my hair, near the hair tie for my ponytail.
The next hour is filled with me humming along to christmas music that I recognized. When “Carol of the Bells” my music player started playing it louder than normal as it sensed that I enjoyed the song. Part way through, Skadi gets up from my lap and looks up at me before growling slightly. I raise an eyebrow at her and then turn my head to see what she could be growling at. As I turn my head, I notice something golden at the corner of my eye so I twist my upper body to see a brass bell with a red and white kumihimo coming off the back of it floating nearby. The bell has two little arms and two stubby legs and just above the split in the bell are two eyes. I look at the floating bell like pokemon, but it doesn’t seem aggressive. I take a moment to pull out my phone and open the pokedex to find out what it is.
[Chingling the bell pokemon]
[This pokemon enjoys music and will oftentimes be found near concerts or other places where music is common. There is an orb inside its mouth. When it hops, the orb bounces all over and makes a ringing sound. It can deafen foes by emitting high-frequency cries.]
“Ching, ching chingling.” The pokemon seems to sing along with my music that is currently playing in my ears. I smile at it slightly and leave it alone as it doesn’t seem to want to attack, only to listen to music with me. I reach up and adjust the music player to play random songs again before going back to watch as I calm Skadi down. She settles back in my lap but keeps an eye on the Chingling floating near my head that is “singing” along to my music. The rest of the watch goes by slowly but uneventfully as eventually Bea calls me from behind.
“Who’s the new friend?”
“Hmm? Oh you mean this Chingling? I dunno, it just randomly came up to me during watch and decided to hang out with me.”
“Did you catch it?”
I shake my head. “No I didn’t. It was friendly so I decided to leave it alone.”
“How about catching it? If it doesn’t mesh well with you, you can always release it. It’s unlikely you will be able to find a true ice type before the next gym.” Bea says while shrugging.
I think over her words for a bit and I look at the Chingling, still hanging out without care nearby. “Hey Chingling, would you like to travel with me?” It looks at me for a single moment before making a nodding motion and going back to “singing”. “I guess that does it then. Welcome to the family.” I pull out one of my empty pokeballs with a snowflake on it before gently tapping Chinglings head. The pokeball just beeps once to let me know that it was captured successfully before I let it back out.
“Ling~” It makes a gentle ringing noise as it rubs against my cheek happily. I pat it gently and realize it feels cool to the touch like brass normally does. Now that it has been caught I scan it with my pokedex again to get the rest of the data for it.
[This Chingling is Male]
[Chingling has the ability Levitate]
[Chingling knows the following moves: Tackle, Growl, Cosmic Power, Wish, Astonish, Confusion, Ominous Wind]
“You are quite powerful aren’t you?” I smile a little at his happy response before getting up and stretching. I look over at Bea who just smiles sleepily at me.
“Alright I’ll go hit the sack. Hope you have an uneventful night.” I give her a quick hug before I retreat into my tent, quickly pulling off my clothes and setting down into my nightly meditation.
