Pokemón : The Price of caution

"Little Root Town?"

"Vul?"

After about thirty minutes of walking, the treeline had thinned until vanishing altogether, showing the ragged man and little fox on his shoulder a quaint hamlet with an ocean port to the south. The muggy forest air faded away in favor of a rolling breeze smelling of salt.

"Must be Little Root," Lee muses aloud. "That Taillow and Zigzagoon were pretty concrete evidence that this is Hoenn, and this place is much too small to be Slateport or Lilycove. We won't have to run all over hell's half-acre to find Birch then. I guess something had to go right for us, eh?"

Vulpix says nothing, but the short purr in her throat tells Lee she acknowledged his words.

"Here's hoping Birch finds us to be enough of a scientific curiosity to be worth helping," Lee says as he walks, "because if not, things could get rough for a while..." he finishes with a grimace.

Vulpix noses Lee's cheek with a demure "Pix," making the man smile and reach up to pet her. Vulpix accepts the affection with a small smile of her own, even leaning into the hand.

Lee grins. Again, a childish giddiness pushes away the day's negativity and all the buzzing questions all thanks to the fact that he has a real pokemon! He is a Pokemon Trainer!

'Or I'm one in spirit at least. I know it's not as simple as having a pokemon = trainer. Paperwork, here I come.' Lee thinks. A moment later, another thought hits him. 'Oh shit, I have no legal ID here. I seriously doubt my drivers license and zoo ID will work. It will certainly add some credibility to my story, but Jesus, having no paperwork for either myself or Vulpix is going to be a bureaucratic nightmare. I bet all the money in my wallet is useless too, and I know my credit card is trash now.' Yet another problem on the pile fails to bring down Lee's spirits though. 'Because If I don't think positive at this point I'm going to have a fucking stroke.'

Lee and Vulpix clear the flat, grassy clearing to the east of Little Root and into town proper, where a handful of townsfolk walk here and there around the apparent shopping district they stumbled into. Several Pokemon are out with their humans too. A Machop down the street lifts up one end of a car with little strain as a man changes a flat tire. A Poochyna holds its own leash, looking bored as its teen girl owner slips inside a small shop to gawk at handbags. Down a sidestreet closer to the pier, an Alolan Marowak and a tanned, shirtless man put on a street show for a small crowd of cheering people and pokemon.

It's... Wonderful. Simply wonderful.

"Vul?"

Lee snaps back to awareness when his own pokemon questions him. He tilts his head to meet her big brown eyes. "Ah sorry about that, love. I guess I got caught up looking around."

Vulpix accepts the apology with a short purr in her throat, then says; "Vulpix vul?" with an inquiring tone. 'What now?' he interprets it as.

"First, we find Birch," Lee begins, holding up a finger. "Then, we give him the abridged and edited version of our story," another finger goes up. "Finally, make a case that we're interesting enough to help. If I can nab a job, we can grease the wheels of quite a few of our problems."

"Just from the look of you, you must have some story."

Lee tenses and Vulpix's jumps, almost slipping off her human's shoulders. Lee turns around slowly and blinks at who he sees.

Grinning with his hands held behind his head is a young Brendan Birch, son of the man Lee is looking for.

Brendan's eyes widen when Lee turns. "Oh jeez man. You didn't look that bad from behind," the preteen winces, trying not to touch his own face when he looks at Lee's burns. "Uh, do you need a hospital visit?"

Lee waves the kid's concern away. "Don't worry about it. It can wait until later. My name is Lee, and this is Vulpix. And you?"

The boy smiles. "Brendan Birch. Nice to meet ya!" he says, thrusting a hand out for a handshake. Lee takes his hand and gives it a single firm shake. "I'm gonna guess when you say you were looking for Birch, you mean my dad, right?"

"Depends, is your dad Professor Birch?" Lee asks, playing dumb.

Brendan nods. "MmmHmm! Hoenn's own Premier Pokemon Professor!" he exclaims with obvious pride. "What do you need to meet him for? Some kinda research project?"

"Of a sort," Lee says with a nebulous wave of his hand, sidestepping the topic. "I have a proposal for him, one regarding... the raising of pokemon in a unique training environment. I'm certain the results will produce pokemon that deviate significantly from the norm and might even shift the paradigm of modern pokemon training."

'I hope he doesn't realize I'm full of shit.'

Brendan raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms. "Thats awful vague and scammy sounding. And you don't look like the professor type." Lee shrugs. "If I just blurt out the details, what's stopping anyone from taking my idea and taking credit for it?"

And indeed, a few people have stopped to watch the professor's son and the torn-up stranger talk.

"That makes sense..." Brendan grumbles. "I don't think dad has anything scheduled for today anyway, so I don't see the harm taking you to the lab. You looked kinda lost."

"We blew into town just today," Lee replies, following once Brendan turns and starts to walk. "Vulpix and I appreciate the help, by the way."

"Vul!" Vulpix chimes in.

Brendan grins and looks back. "Hey no prob! So how long have you been a trainer anyway? You must be really traveled if you've got a Vulpix! Can I see the rest of your team?"

Lee and Vulpix share a look. The little vulpine doesn't need to say anything, as her eyes alone tell him 'consider your words.'

"Not that long, actually, and Vulpix is my only pokemon." 'At the moment.' Lee reaches up to pet Vulpix along her neck. "It all actually ties into the proposal I have for the professor. How about yourself? You must have an impressive team with a professor as a dad."

Brendan either doesn't notice the focus shift upon him or ignores it. The boy slumps and groans. "I don't have a pokemon yet. Dad won't bend the rules for me. Once the newest starter batch shows up from the breeders, then I can finally start being a trainer!" He says, perking back up and dramatically pumping a fist.

'Sunny kid,' Lee muses, still gently stroking Vulpix's plush fur and making the little fox slowly relax across his shoulders. "Any idea who you want?" "Mudkip, no contest. Ever since I saw Wallace's Swampert one-shot the finalist Chesnaught with a single Hydro Pump in the Ace of Aces tourney last year, I've been set on Mudkip and one day Swampert," Brendan gushes with a grin, his eyes alight. "Did you see that tourney?! Chesnaught was thrown off his feet by that Hydro Pump and almost went through the arena wall!"

"I must have missed it."

The boy scoffs as the lab begins to take shape in the distance. "I've got it saved. When you're done with dad I can show you. It was insane!"

📖📖📖

🪄✨This novel is available in pdf format with more than 600 if you want you can visit our store🪄✨

⬇️⬇️⬇️

🪄✨https://magicpages.tiendup.com/🪄✨