Frank came to a decision, as he huddled down at the base of a tree, wearing his lab coat reversed to act as a poor blanket. He hated this forest. He didn't dislike it, no. He wasn't generally disapproving of it. It wasn't that he was simply having a bad time while being in the forest, though that was accurate too. He had a firm, directed hatred for this forest in particular.

  Why did he develop such directed hatred? Because this forest clearly hated him first! He had spent all day walking forward, trying to use strategies he half-remembered from survival videos he had taken in at some point in the past.

  Never meander around, keep your vision focused on where you're going. If you have to divert for an object, try and maintain right-angle turns so you could always turn back to approximately your original heading. It seemed sound to him, even if he wasn't entirely sure it wasn't bogus.

  Anyway, after a day of firmly walking in a straight line, he hadn't found a single thing to drink. He was really feeling the thirst, now, and he was having cravings for even the awful, reheated coffee he had that morning. He was willing to lick dew off the leaves, if there had even been dew to lick. That was his first grievance with the forest.

  Along his walk, he had seen berries several times, which would have helped quench his thirst and hunger... but they were guarded by literal swarms of Pokemon. The first had an entire hive of Beedrill staring him down with furious buzzing. Yeah. Beedrill were absurdly territorial, if Frank recalled right.

  They hovered side by side, a good dozen of them. Frank glimpsed flashes of yellow on the trees behind them, near the berry bushes, and decided... "No thanks! I choose life!" He raised his hands, and slowly backed away, making it damn clear he wasn't going anywhere near their gathering. He was watched the whole time, and Frank was pretty sure even followed to make sure he was really leaving.

  After that, he ran into the natural counterpart- a swarm of Butterfree. Surely these guys are going to be less hostile, right? It's a butterfly, not a stinging beast. Wrong! So very wrong! Frank openly approached their grove a short while after the Beedrill, but was promptly performing an impromptu dance as he jumped back and forth, dodging air slashes and having to lean back and limbo under crisscrossing psybeams. It took MissingNo teleporting the pair away, backtracking a short distance, to escape unscathed.

  To make a long story short, the rest of the opportunities for food ended in similar experiences. Frank didn't want to risk MissingNo in a one-on-army battle, because if anything happened to them, he was really screwed. He had no healing, after all, and he didn't want to experience how being a helpless trainer works in reality. Frank doubted he'd wake up in a Pokemon Center. He doubted he'd wake up at all.

  So that was his second grievance with the forest. Now, his current issue with the forest? It was so noisy. He was exhausted after walking all day, and he just wanted to curl up and sleep through the darkness, lacking any real source of light. MissingNo levitated nearby, to keep guard. Fortunately, the static-cloud didn't seem to need to sleep. But this racket!

  Bird chirping, bug chittering, even snake hissing. Rustling through bushes, snapping branches, sounds of fighting. Why had he been able to take a relatively calm stroll through the day, as long as he avoided walking directly into a problem, but the night life around here was thriving in all the worst ways.

  Fingers curled into fists, and he abruptly stood up, rubbing at his eyes after a couple hours of failed attempts to sleep. "That's it!" Frank shouted, an aggressive, borderline-manic glint in his eyes as he adjusted his goggles. "I'm done! I hate this forest! I hate walking! I hate being lost! I'm DONE!" He roared the last words, then turned his attention to MissingNo.

  "Hey, buddy, do you know any fire-type moves?" He asked, his voice dropping to a more normal, conversational volume but bearing a dangerous undertone.

  MissingNo bobbled in place, rising and lowering in what Frank was starting to understand as his Pokemon's equivalent of nodding. "Then LIGHT THIS PLACE UP!" He jarred his volume right back to maximum, pointing dramatically at whichever tree had the misfortune of drawing his ire first.

  A small, levitating fireball formed in front of MissingNo as it charged an ember attack, lighting the area around them in a red hue. "Actually, couldn't I use that to see, to walk through the night..." FWOOSH.

  The ember launched off, interrupting Frank's sudden surge of rational thought, and it burst against a tree, lighting up the bark and some fallen leaves with a crackle. This was manageable, for a moment. Frank could probably take off his coat and smother it. That was the rational thing to do, right? Realize that you have alternatives to starting a forest fire?

  ... Nah. "MissingNo! Again! More fire! Burn that tree, all the way up!" He cackled in wild laughter, lost in his delight at venting his pent-up, borderline irrational rage at the trees around him. Hands on hips, head tipped back to arrogantly peer upward slightly as he stared down the rising flames, striking an almost stereotypical villain pose.

  MissingNo crackled a static-y noise in reply, and the embers continued to form, splattering upward along the tree trunk toward the canopy. The flames naturally wanted to spread upward, and birds scattered from the treetops overhead, though he couldn't see clearly enough to tell if it was Pidgey, Spearow, or something else.

  Light bloomed, standing out vividly in the darkness, far more than the smoke rising. "I should have done that this morning, then someone would come and get me, following the smoke. There's got to be trainers who fly over this forest instead of taking the land route, right?" Frank mused to himself. He just needed one to notice him, and even if they couldn't fly him out, they could give directions and maybe let him snag a meal.

  "Hm. I don't actually want to like, burn up a whole forest worth of Pokemon. Hey, MissingNo, do you know a water move, too?" When MissingNo bobbled in place in affirmative, he made a sweeping gesture. "Spray down the area around this tree, then. The ground, and if you can, the other nearby trees. Contain it from spreading!"

  Was this remorse, or just a return to rationality? Forest fires were a danger to anyone in a forest, which, you know. Included Frank himself. Just as MissingNo started spraying water, a large, dark blur swooped down from overhead, slamming down into the ground nearby.

  "What's going on here!?" came a sharp, assertive voice, as a man leapt down from the back of the landed Pokemon. A Fearow, and someone in a vaguely official-seeming uniform, wearing red and black hues with a beret that looked like it had a League symbol on it. The newcomer noticed the odd, levitating... thing? Whatever it was, it was spraying water at the fire, so he nodded and tossed out another Pokeball to assist.

  A stocky, blue-hued turtle popped out, with white wispy tufts near the ears, and a tail like a rising waterfall. "Wartortle, hydro pump!" The turtle raised a short arm tipped in stubby claws in imitation of salute, opened its mouth, and launched a literal firehose of water at the tree. It broke off branches and made the tree sway from impact, but it was doing a much better job at dousing the flames.

  Once that was dealt with, the man tugged a flashlight off his belt and clicked it on, aiming it toward Frank. He swept it up and down his figure, immediately taking in his dirty state, the lack of a bag, and the general aura of weariness. "Well? What's going on?" The figure repeated, settling the light rather rudely on Frank's face, blinding him in the darkness.

  Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

  "Get it out of my eyes!" Frank hissed, blocking the beam from his eyes with an upraised hand, unable to see the other person past the glare. "I have no idea! I've been lost for days, wandering the forest randomly! I saw the light and headed toward it, thinking I had found someone's camp, but instead I found a roaring inferno! Naturally, I had my Pokemon step in to try and control the burn!" Frank lied as smoothly as he breathed, managing to put in a tinge of desperation and frustrated offense at being questioned for helping.

  The other man lowered the light toward the grass below, just generally illuminating the space between the two. "Vernon, ranger." He reported, stiffly, then his tone grew slightly more gentle. "Sorry for questioning you, but we take fires very seriously around here. Did you antagonize any fire-capable Pokemon? If it's a failed capture, we need to know. You won't be in trouble, but this isn't a normal area for fire-types, so, we'd file a report one is in the area and keep an eye out for further fires."

  Frank let out a long sigh, shaking his head. "No, really! I haven't seen a single fire-type since I got lost in the forest, I swear!" It was even true! MissingNo wasn't a fire-type, after all. Well, probably. He wasn't actually sure what it's type was, but... probably not fire. Right? "Can your bird fly me out of here? I haven't had anything to eat, my backpack was stolen last night when I slept, and I couldn't track down the culprit. I'm in no condition to walk out of here."

  The ranger, Vernon, tapped his flashlight off his opposing hand, his expression mostly hidden in the darkness as the firelight was rapidly fading, the beam of the flashlight swaying across the ground. "I'll still need to write up an incident report. Do you still have identification? I can take you with me, but if I can't put an official name to a face, I might have to detain you when we get to town. Don't worry, just overnight until we can verify who you are."

  Frank pumped his fist in delight at the idea of getting out of the forest, before following the rest of the sentence. "Oh, no, I keep my Trainer ID in my wallet, and I didn't lose that, so I can give you my number for your report." He smiled, trying to seem cooperative. After all, the ranger could still decide to leave him here.

  The firelight had died down, a large puddle forming around the base of the ruined tree. The grass was sodden and the ground squelched as the Wartortle stomped over alongside his trainer, who rest a hand atop his head in a patting gesture. Frank took the moment to return MissingNo to his Pokeball, trying to avoid any questions on it for now. He was exhausted, and not in the right mindset for more explanations.

  Vernon recalled his Wartortle as well, and started to dig into a bag slung over his Fearow's back, the large, long-beaked bird shuffling slightly aside to display the bag toward the ranger, while it kept its stare aimed firmly at Frank.

  Staring back, honestly, Frank wasn't impressed. He always remembered Fearow as some big monstrosity of a bird, especially since it was often jokingly compared to Zapdos. This one, though? Either it was a runt, or Fearow weren't as big as he expected, it was barely four-foot tall. The ranger alone would look a little ridiculous on its back, and how was it going to carry the both of them? Pokemon absurd strength aside, there wasn't going to be room.

  "That's good then." Vernon chimed in, and pulled out what looked to be leather straps of some kind. "Well, I can use a medical lift harness to have Fearow carry you in her talons, but it's not going to be a fun trip. It's an emergency airlift option, not a passenger flight. If you don't like that, I can just give you directions." He paused, looking at Frank's disheveled state, "And a canteen. I can't do anything about food, though, you should be fine. It's only about another day's walk to town."

  Frank started to ask 'which town?' before catching himself. If he was lost in the woods, that was one thing. Not knowing which woods he was lost in was going to be really, really hard to explain. "Honestly, I don't care if I had to get carried out by my shoulders, I'm dying for civilization again. Strap me in, or whatever you have to do, and please get me out of this damned forest."

  It wasn't a hard process, it was basically having Frank lay down on a collapsible medical stretcher, which he attributed to more Silph Company borderline-magic-bullshit. He was strapped down firmly, to the point where Vernon was only satisfied with it when Frank couldn't so much as wiggle in place. "I know it's tight, but we can't have you falling out mid flight. Just try to contain the motion sickness."

  Frank cocked his head aside, quizzically, about the only thing he could still move. "I don't get motion sick, though?" He commented, and Vernon released a low, amused laugh.

  "Right. Hope you still think that in five minutes. Fearow, up! Let's go!" He climbed back onto Fearow's back, tucking his knees down and resting them against the bird's back and sitting atop them, rather than straddle. It looked uncomfortable, but it was likely a posture designed to avoid interfering with the Fearow's wingspan and flight motions.

  The straps attached to Fearow's taloned legs tightened as it flapped and lifted off with seeming ease, Frank listening to the wind rushing past him as they broke out past the canopy and into the open air. He just wished he could look down and admire the view, maybe get his bearings.

  Flapping motions made his stretcher wobble and shift, and it was not a smooth ride. Jerking up and down, bouncing erratically whenever the straps connecting him to the bird overhead turned or shifted. Nope! Time to close his eyes. He might not be able to sleep, but watching the swaying was not going to do good things for his mind.

  While he managed to not get sick on himself, Frank was very much woozy and unsteady when they finally landed, thankfully in the light of bright street lights. As he was being unstrapped, he noticed the bright red roof overhead, and the Pokeball logo. A Pokemon Center. Perfect.

  Frank rose up in a wobble and dusted himself off. "I can't thank you enough, Vernon. I think I was going crazy in that forest." He stuck out a hand for the ranger to shake, grinning broadly.

  Vernon shook it, chuckling. "Try and stay out of trouble. I'd hate to coincidentally run into you at another fire..." He remarked. Oh. Perhaps Frank's lie hadn't been quite so readily believed, but the ranger didn't seem to be making things difficult for him. Maybe it was the lack of proof, or maybe it was because it had been restrained to a single tree and he had taken measures- belatedly- to try and keep it from spreading.

  Taking out a notepad and a pen, the ranger stuck his hand toward Frank. "Just let me see your trainer ID, I'll jot down what I need to put you on the report, just for the record. And there will be a record, so to be clear, 'I found a fire on accident' will probably be examined with closer scrutiny in the future, alright? So, try not to be that... unfortunate."

  The other man crooked a small smile. Seeing someone doing something risky to be found was pretty common in the rangers. It was only if it devolved into a serious problem or for repeat offenders they really pressed the issue.

  Frank complied, taking out his wallet and passing it over. It really did only take a second to jot down his name and trainer ID, and then it was passed right back to him. "Go inside, you look like you've been through hell. The center has rooms for trainers to stay in, and they should have plenty. It's been slow recently, with most League challengers having passed by the Gym by now. If there really isn't a room, ask for directions to the ranger station, and we'll get you through the night, though it might be in a holding cell."

  'Vernon seems like an upright guy! Of all the people to find me, he was probably the best-case scenario', Frank mused. "Thanks a million, man. I owe you one, as soon as I have any way to pay you back." Frank assured him, flashing a smile and a thumbs up.

  Vernon packed away his medical stretcher, and hopped back onto his Fearow. He returned the thumbs up gesture, and they were off, swooping low over buildings and across town, it seemed.

  Frank moved toward the welcoming light of the Pokemon Center, and the doors opened automatically despite the late hour... or early hour? He wasn't sure if it was late enough to be called 'early morning' yet.

  A pink-haired woman behind the counter gave a soft gasp of surprise as she spotted him. The stereotypical Nurse Joy, right down to the circle-loop pigtails. "Are you injured?" She asked, concerned, spotting how dirty and ragged he seemed to be.

  A raised hand waved off her concern, shaking his head. "No, I just got back from being lost in the woods, sorry. I heard there were rooms? I... I really need to crash and get some sleep."

  Nurse Joy nodded her head, smiling in a mixture of relief and encouragement. "Of course. The trainer rooms are down the hall, I'll register you as a guest for 105, that's the third room on your right. It isn't fancy, but I imagine all you want is a shower with hot water and a soft bed, right?" She teased with a gentle tone.

  "Something to eat and drink first wouldn't go amiss, but otherwise? That sounds like heaven to me, Nurse Joy."

  She nodded, and raised a hand to gesture over toward a far wall. "The cafe isn't open right now, and won't be for several hours, but you can get something out of the vending machines to tide you over." The remark sounded a little apologetic, but Frank shrugged it off.

  "That'll do for now. Goodnight, Nurse Joy."

  "Sleep well!"

  "That's the plan." Frank remarked, and after a quick stop to buy a couple cans of berry juice and a fistful of something that resembled granola bars, he moved to his room and feasted like it was a fine, five-course meal, showered, and then crashed into the bed. He managed to mumble "What a first day..." before he was asleep in moments.