The rest of the day was spent watching our Pokemon exercise and train while we walked, putting out a small fire when a trainer spooked Ionia, causing her fire to drop onto a patch of dried grass, and a lunch consisting of the pb&j supplies Adrian got for us while our Pokemon got berry soup.

  We even luckily stumbled upon a small stream which let Tirtouga follow along with us during the afternoon, him practicing his aim with Ancient Power by trying to hit blobs of water Staryu would send up into the air.

  The rest of our Pokemon, getting a rest from training all morning, watched in awe whenever a rock hit a blob and burst it in a shower of droplets.

  We also made small talk between each other, discussing basic stuff to get to know each other better including our goals for the circuit this year. I still didn’t have a goal I could settle on and feel like it was truly me, Lani wanted to go on adventures (though I suspected she had deeper reasons), and Adrian wanted to be an Ace Trainer, both because he wanted to help others, and for a more… unique reason.

  “Wait so let me get this straight,” Lani blurted, “You want to become an Ace Trainer because the hair looks cool?”

  “Well not exactly,” he defended, “it’s kinda like a tradition, like how in Kanto they dye their hair an indigo color while being trained as one,” as he spoke his eyes started shining a bit, “here they dye it this really pretty pink color, and like, it isn't required, but I actually like the traditional style the women use with the twin tails and all, so I want to try that out. It’s why I’m growing my hair out after all.”

  I thought for a few moments, “Why not use the Pokemon Center treatment program for that sort of thing?”

  Adrian groaned, “I tried, but unless you’re trans or nonbinary, you go on a wait list since it's purely cosmetic and still fairly new as far as medical technology goes. And since I’m not trans, and I refuse to invade that space for anything, especially something as small as my hair style and color, I decided to just do it the old fashioned way.”

  I decided to ignore the bring sounds in my head from a rge part of what he said, and instead focused on something I could reasonably confront.

  “Hey, hair is important. It shapes so much of how we look and are perceived by ourselves and others.” I offered a comforting smile, “This is clearly important to you, so don’t downpy it like that.”

  “Yeah, I wasn’t trying to make fun or nothin’” Lani pcated, “was just surprised is all. Don’t often hear that as the reason for it.”

  Adrian looked at his shoes, “thank you for understanding, back home I always got comments about how my natural hair color is so nice or whatever, and that if I dyed it, it was a waste or whatever.”

  “Mom supports me about it though,” he said with a smile, “says that ‘hair is a renewable resource when it comes to big changes with it’, and it really isn’t nearly that big of a deal as others make it.”

  I felt a twinge of jealousy, my hair being purple is what caused me to lose out on getting a starter Pokemon way back when, because Egg Donor nearly id an egg when she saw.

  “She sounds nice,” Lani spoke with a smile, unaware of the thoughts circling in my head, “I hope we get to meet her sometime.”

  “So do I!” Adrian chirped, “She wants to visit me up in Nimbasa ter, but that’s still touch and go right now.”

  I spoke up, “I mean if anything you could video call her if pns fall through or something.”

  He nodded, “True, but it isn’t really the same you know?”

  We fell into a thoughtful silence for a bit and watched as Tirtouga continued to burst blob after blob to the cheers of our Pokemon. He was improving incredibly quickly, being able to start picking off the targets as they juked around in the air wildly.

  “I still can’t think of a good name for Tirtouga.” I grumbled as Tirtouga burst three water blobs at once.

  Lani patted my shoulder, “You’ll think of something, just let it come naturally.”

  “What about ‘Fjord’?” Adrian spoke after a few moments, then upon seeing our confusion expined further, “it's like a river that's at the bottom of deep canyons and cuts far innd.”

  I hummed in thought, “It does have a nice ring to it… Probably should ask him about it.”

  I walked over after calling for a break, not wanting to cause an accident due to startling either Water Type.

  “So Adrian had an idea for a nickname for you.” I began. I then reyed the name and reasoning for it. A few moments of discussion ter, I turned around with a smile on my face. “He likes it!”

  Adrian, Lani and our Pokemon all walked over, and congratuted him on his new name, Fjord bowing his head in thanks to Adrian while Oxide gave him a hug, which then ended in an accidental zap.

  She instantly apologized, confusion pying out from both her and Fjord, especially as Fjord started struggling to even move.

  Frowning, I reached into my bag and brought out a cheri berry. “This should help things if I’m right about what just happened Fjord.” He slowly bit down on the berry, and started to slowly gain back his movement as he chewed and swallowed.

  “Yeah definitely paralysis,” I mumbled as I reached for my Pokedex, “Which is odd since Oxide didn’t use Nuzzle.” I scanned Oxide to confirm my suspensions, there at the top of her profile was something I completely forgot to check back in Nuvema, and now that I thought about it Michael even mentioned it.

  You’ve had an untrained version of Static this entire time.” I groaned before facepalming. “I can’t believe I forgot to check. That’s my fault you two, sorry about that.” I looked at Fjord. ”If you want to continue training you can, but until the paralysis fully wears off it will be a bit more difficult.”

  Rather than decline more training, this seemed to invigorate him more than the cheri berry did. His song leaping into a marching beat, he called out to Staryu in what was most likely a request to continue. We all quickly stepped back to give them all room, and while the fading paralysis made his aim a bit sluggish, he was still decently able to hit his shots.

  I shook my head before turning to Oxide who looked a bit upset at her accidental discharge. I picked her up and put her back onto her spot on my head, and started walking down the path again. Adrian and Lani hung back a bit to make sure the training Pokemon were following along, and to give us a bit of privacy.

  “You're not in trouble, Oxide, it was a complete accident.” I comforted, “All this means is that you have a bit of extra training to do to learn how to control it, which I’m sure we would be able to find. And the more you master it, the better you’ll be able to force it to work if your opponent actually is able to nd a contact move on you assuming Nuzzle isn’t an option.” I looked over at Fjord and Staryu and chuckled, “And if anything Fjord seems to love training under it.” A lightbulb went off in my head.

  “Oxide if you have an easy way to paralyze, we can train various ways to battle under the effects, and train Ionia’s various healing capabilities!” I excimed. “This opens up so much for us to work on!”

  ***

  Later that night, I proposed an idea to my team that we could do ter over dinner. In short Oxide would try and use static to paralyze the team, and we’d try to train under it, both to find improvements we otherwise wouldn’t find otherwise, and to make paralysis a smaller issue when battling against Electric and Grass Types.

  After we had finished, Ionia would then practice Aromatherapy to cure everyone. It wouldn’t be a thing we’d do all the time so we didn’t introduce bad habits or anything.

  But it would be a vitally important way to train up everyone’s ability to push through debilitating status conditions once we reached a baseline where Oxide could apply it quickly and Ionia had Aromatherapy trained to a point where she could use it when tired.

  The three of them all heartily agreed to the idea, but for different reasons. Fjord was excited to push himself, Oxide wanted to make sure she wouldn’t accidentally paralyze anyone ever again, and Ionia was excited for two reasons.

  First; she would learn another move, which naturally had my partner excited.

  Second, and something the others didn’t realize, was that learning Aromatherapy would provide the baseline she needed to start training her Healer ability which would take less effort and require no focus in return for it only having a chance to affect a member of the team other than herself during battle.

  After deciding to enact the strategy, I had them continue their training for another hour or so: Oxide training Thundershock and her electricity reserves, Ionia with Mystical Fire, and Fjord working with me to go through each of his moves to ensure they all were nice and strong.

  By the time we had to stop for the night, we were all a bit worn out. Thankfully Adrian had taken over as the ‘tent pitching member’ of our group. I quickly got into my pajamas, and fell asleep with an arm draped over Fjord’s shell, while Oxide and Ioni were cuddled up on top of me.

  Sleep came quickly.

  ***

  I dreamt of a forest, somewhere vaguely to the north west. Lostlorn maybe? The air seemed to have a mystical quality to it, inviting me deeper.

  Ionia’s mother would have a fit if she ever found out that I acquiesced to that invitation whether it was a dream or not.

  Further in, I came upon a small clearing full of Pokemon, they were all pying a game of tag, their hearts singing with happiness. Suddenly a melody wove through the branches of the surrounding trees, and I found myself listening to it as it reyed a message hidden in the depths of it.

  “You have doubts about your calling.”

  “I have doubts about if I’m truly ready for something like this.” I replied to the melody using a song of my own. “Their Songs need freed, but I only just became a trainer, and I don’t have the drive for adventure like Ioni does, nor the goals to strive for like Adrian has.”

  Allow yourself time to accept your position in the tapestry of fate, and do not falter in the face of evil. We are all counting on you.

  I ter woke up, the memories of the strange dream running through my fingers, until I couldn't recall the clearing or the songs pyed any more.

  DeliriousSprite