Chance Chapter 7: Promise

Let's face it: Floaroma and Jubilife are close compared to other towns, but they're still sixteen miles apart. Add that to me being exhausted after the night before. Reeeeeally didn't want to backtrack.

…Later, Lucas.

It was great knowing I was strong enough to beat Galactic singlehandedly, though. Trust would have no problem against Gardenia. Hopefully the buizel wouldn't come into play, though I'd train him in case.

Oh yeah. Had to name the buizel.

For inspiration, I brought them out on the way out of Floaroma. Training. I'd watched other pokemon use flame wheel before, so I taught Trust the steps involved. The buizel I told to shoot water forward as far as he could, so he'd have a more forceful watergun. We approximated the distance with steps; he gained 12 steps over the course of an hour.

Around the rocky hills above the riverside, I figured flame wheel out.

"Wait, Trust, you need to use your tailflame too," I said, "cause otherwise you only get half the fire you need for a wheel."

He tried that out. Nope.

"From your mouth, think pure heat, rather than chunks of embers."

Trust spat some embers from his mouth, then more embers, then some flame.

"Like that!"

He went for it: leaped into a somersault, heightening his tailflame and breathing somewhat real fire. He hurtled forward in a genuine flame wheel. I cheered, then realized he was zooming toward a cliff edge.

"Trust! Stop!"

The buizel shot forward like a bullet, passing the rolling monferno and swerving around at him. Trust barreled right into him, and both tumbled back from the collision. The buizel was holding his head.

"You guys okay?"

Trust was fine. The buizel nodded, still clutching his head.

"What if you inflated your air sac when you collided with something?"

He shrugged awkwardly, like there was a problem with that.

"You could try it out sometime, anyway. Let's keep going."




"Okay," I decided, "We're gonna go rock climbing."

Because we'd made it to the little inn by the forest, and it was late afternoon and we had time to kill. It was always best to start a forest in the morning; it minimized the nights spent in the woods. Besides, rock climbing was a useful skill to have, seeing as Galactic's final destination was the biggest mountain in Sinnoh.

After Trust's near cliff dive, the day had been fairly uneventful. I'd started formulating what I'd say to Megan, but my thoughts escalated really quickly ("so Lucas died and I internally died with him and subsequently cut everyone out of my life") so I trained with Trust and the still-nameless buizel to take my mind off it. I was teaching Trust flamethrower (it was closely related to flame wheel anyways) and the buizel aquajet (water energy in front, swim towards the source). Trust kept getting bits of embers in his fire, but he was learning quickly. The buizel was having difficulties placing the energy source – he put it too close to his mouth and did a reverse aquajet once, which ended in a detour into the bushes as he emptied his stomach of water – but he'd figure it out.

I was starting to feel it again: the Trainer vibe. That swing of things. What I'd given up on after Lake Valor. It's the feel for the job. Funny how you can miss something terribly, and only realize it after it's back.

Oh, and there was the backpacker. He had a machop (typical) and a geodude (also typical). I got the buizel to fight, because I knew Trust could handle it.

The machop packed a punch, so after the first hit I made sure the buizel kept his distance, mostly going with waterguns. I got him to charge up a waterpulse, too, since the machop was slow (focus the energy source, make it grow, fling). Buizel ended up knocking out the machop with a quick attack from behind.

The geodude whipped up a sandstorm straightaway. "Close your eyes. Watergun, spin in a circle," I said, serious fight mode on. He hesitated before doing it, but executed the move just fine. It's one of those you-can't-evade-me type moves (obviously not true, but you've got to be a fairly experienced trainer to know the trick). Took the geodude down in one hit.

So, yeah. Here we were rock climbing now. Trust scaled the cliff wall as if it was horizontal. The buizel eyed the wall and reached up for a hold. Finding himself too short, he jumped, this huuuge jump, and landed on his feet on a narrow ledge over my head. But he couldn't get a handhold fast enough, and ended up falling over backwards. He executed a backflip that would have been impressive had he not landed on his back. The flotation sac around his neck inflated post-tumble.

I laughed something between a giggle and a chuckle. He shot me an annoyed look and I sobered up quickly.

Right, they're not used to minor pain yet.

With a short sigh, I glanced back up to check on Trust. He was almost at the top. "Hey, you're good. You don't have to go farther," I called up.

He yelled a monkey taunt back and kept climbing.

I slid my backpack from my shoulders and set it to the side. Rock climbing wasn't my favorite, but it was a necessary evil.

My hand grasped the warm, rough surface of the rock above me. I found another handhold, then a foothold. Making slower progress than Trust, I gradually gained height.

How high am I, actually?

I looked down.

Holydamnholydamnholydamn.

I felt my palms get cold, and I let go of one hand to wipe it on my jacket. Enough time to slip.

Falling sucks. And it's short. Throat tenses, can't scream. Usually it doesn't feel wet, though.

It took me a bit to understand, and at that point I landed on my back with a soft thud, which was nothing like you'd expect after a twenty foot fall. Also, my back was soaked.

"Bui?"

It was the first time I'd heard him speak. He was watching me. "Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks."

What ran through my head was the promise I never made to Megan and Tricia. The staying safe one.

I asked the buizel if he was okay with the name. He liked it, even after I warned it was usually a female name.




We spent the night at the little inn and headed towards the forest. Trust and Promise chatted on the way there. It could have been about anything.

"Mon, mon, monferno, mon."

"Buizel."

…literally anything.

Around 10 am we left the hills for good and entered Eterna Forest. I knew these woods well. My mom and dad used to take me on vacation here, and the only parts we'd never been through were the easiest parts to navigate, last time around.

Owen was in late Eterna someplace. I didn't really need another fire type, logically, but that was okay. I was still looking forward to seeing him again. Liana would have to wait until I found Quasar and taught him fly.

But it would happen. That much I was sure of.

The scent of damp wood and earth flooded my lungs as I breathed in fresh forest air. It had drizzled in the woods the night before, but the chances of rain today were low. Trust had lowered his tailflame without me asking him to; Promise was wandering ahead but staying reasonably close. It amazed me how I had picked up such mature pokemon.

We walked down the pavement until we hit the slightly more obscure dirt path. A few minutes in, we reached a small clearing. A trainer sat on a fallen tree, their face hidden by a map. The trainer's hair reminded me of Lucas's, dark with flecks that sparkled in the light. Lucas's looked softer than this, but the similarity warmed me nonetheless.

The trainer must have been completely absorbed in the map; only after we passed by did he say, "Oh, wait, excuse me–"

I turned around. He asked, "Do you know where…"

He stopped, partly because he recognized me, partly because he realized I recognized him. "Have I met you before?"

I was still trying to figure it out. "Yeah…"

Ohh.

Jubilife. The trainer who rescued me, the one in the blue and gray stripes. He was wearing that sweatshirt now, under a black raincoat.

"You, uh, helped me out in Jubilife."

The connection spread across his face. "Oh yeah… how's your hand?"

The one I punched a wall with. "It healed."

"That's good."

"Yeah."

There was a silence. Dislike for this guy who'd just reminded me of my newfound comparative weakness surged through my stomach. Trust and Promise watched, waiting for me.

"Well, nice seeing you," I told him, turning and continuing on my way.

"Wait–"

I turned back around coldly, though he seemed really sheepish about it. "I've been lost in this forest for days. Which way is Eterna?"

I gave him an incredulous look. "On the opposite end of the woods. It's that way–" I pointed. "–but you'll have to take twists and turns in other directions to get there."

He looked distraught. "Ugh… Is that where you're going?"

"Where else."

I hated him for not sounding guilty when he pitched his bright idea:

"Could I travel with you?"

I paused. Holy damn. The walking, talking reminder of what happened in Jubilife, crossing the forest with me. What a waste of a beautiful three, four days.

"I'll keep your pokemon in good health," he offered.

"I've got my own supplies," I said, a bit offended.

The main problem was it seemed wrong to refuse. On the bright side, though, this could be me repaying him for saving me. No debts owed. Rescue forgotten.

"Sure thing. Come on," I agreed at last.

He visibly relaxed. "Thanks – I'm Thomas."

"Evelyn." He was reaching out for a handshake. I pretended not to notice.