PokeWild

David stopped in his tracks. He’d nearly missed the traces. It was easy to get distracted during the patrol around the grove, especially in the morning.

Frayed edges of metal poked out near the base of the fence. The hole was small, even a young Pokemon would have had to squeeze through after making the cuts.

David plucked his pokeball out of his sling and released Pidgey. She sprung to her feet and scanned the nearby woods. After verifying that there were no Pokemon around, she turned back to him and let out a low tired chirp. Pidgey stared at him reproachfully.

He indicated the broken fence. “We’re searching for whatever made this.”

Pidgey hopped closer to the fence before turning back to watch David.

David sighed and led the way into the woods. Maybe it was a bit much to expect from her.

Pidgey was the first to spot any further evidence of another Pokemon. She hopped away from David’s course to bow her head down towards the ground. When David joined her it took a couple of seconds to spot the purple hair. A Rattata then.

“Great job.” David gave her a pat.

As they set off again, David tried to decide if she had understood him. It was quite hard to tell these days. He spent so much time talking to her, but he never knew how much she took in. Had she been searching like he had? Or did she consider the grove her territory now and other Pokemon were to be hunted down?

He didn’t come to a decision before he heard the sounds of eating. The squelching sound carried through the quiet woods without issue. It was occasionally accompanied by a rustle as the Rattata disturbed the berry bush it was eating from. His eyes narrowed. Hopefully the Rattata hadn’t knocked too many of the unripe berries off the bush. He knew Oliver would give him shit for each one.

David and Pidgey passed by another few trees and stopped.

The sharp blade glinted as it pointed at them. A branch fell in the blade’s passage. Razor eyes weighted them.

David tensed, hand gripping Pidgey’s pokeball and preparing to run.

The Fearow ducked its head down and resumed picking its meal out of the leaves and purple fur. Tawny wings settled. The vicious creature had decided they weren't worth it's time.

David recalled Pidgey who raised no fuss. He backed away slowly until he was out of sight. He continued at this slow pace for another minute, feeling behind him with a hand to avoid trees until he was sure it was safe. Then he began to run.

-.-

“Just the one Fearow?” Oliver confirmed.

David nodded, still trying to regain his breath. He’d lost weight since coming to this world. Too much weight he now realized being back on regular meals. Some of that weight had taken his stamina with it.

Oliver pushed past him out onto the patio. Instead of striding off it towards the grove as David expected, Oliver sat down at the table and waved for him to take a seat.

“Skip the rest of your morning patrol. The Fearow should be gone by this evening.”

David paused before he took the seat. “Shouldn’t we fight it off? It’s already destroyed one of the bushes.”

Oliver shook his head. “Cost of business. I could scare off the Fearow, but it wouldn’t be easy. Even if that battle doesn’t damage the grove, who’s to say that the Fearow won’t make a mess out of revenge before it leaves. Flyers are hard to pin down.”

“Ah.” David said. He settled down in the chair with a sigh of relief. After a second to relax he held Pidgey pokeball out. He didn’t know how much awareness she had outside her pokeball. “Do you mind?”

Oliver shook his head.

Pidgey appeared in a bright flash, tense and prepared for a fight. She relaxed as she took in the patio.

“Might as well do breakfast now.” Oliver said with a grumble as he pushed himself up off his seat.

-.-

The training battles continued much as they had the day before. There were some surprising moves or calls but as a whole nothing changed. Each match ended in roughly the same way. No one had done enough training to upset the groove that the group was settling in.

After a one-sided match against Martin and his Oddish in David's favor, he was ready to call it and start some group training. Sarah and Danny took their place on the pitch, but a series of boos stopped David and Martin in their tracks before they joined Tulia and Terry at the sidelines.

David narrowed his eyes, but the jeering wasn’t for him. A crowd had gathered two pitches over. He hadn’t experienced any heckling as bad as the first day, but the crowd occasionally made a fuss about particular matches. Any fight against one of the locals with a Grass type really.

“Want to check it out?” He asked the rest of the training group sitting on the sidelines.

Martin nodded and stood. They couldn’t make out much with the number of spectators around the pitch in question. As they got closer though, Martin was bulky enough that people got out his way.

They soon had a good view of the battle. Or beat down, David should say.

A trainer wearing a matching blue scarf and jacket faced down a panicking man wearing a red shirt. On the pitch, a Pidgeotto was toying with a Bellsprout.

The Pidgeotto was nearly four times larger than Pidgey. It dwarfed the Bellsprout’s thin stalk and flower head.

David couldn't help but compare Pidgey to her evolution. They shared so much in comparison. From their shared pattern of dark feathers around their eyes to the same fan shape of their tail. An unaccustomed eye would even say the coloring across the rest of their feathers was the same, but David could see some subtle differences. However, where Pidgey’s talons were overly large for her small body, Pidgeotto’s fit. The evolution’s crest had extended from Pidgey’s small tuft to a brilliant red stream behind the Pokemon’s head. The red color change was reflected in the Pidgeotto’s tail feathers, though in a less vibrant way.

But for all their similarities, David couldn’t see any of what made Pidgey, Pidgey in the battle before him.

Red shirt bellowed out orders, the latest of which was a call for Sleep Powder. The trainer in blue didn’t bother responding.

The Pidgeotto blew away the Bellsprout’s attempt with a contemptuous flap of its wings and launched itself forward. It picked up the Bellsprout by its stalk and began to shake it about. With a toss of its head, the Bellsprout was thrown up into the air. The Bellsprout landed limply with a heavy thud. A few seconds later it was recalled in a flash.

The trainer in blue walked across the pitch and held their hand out to Red shirt. Red shirt trembled in rage and said something. The trainer in blue replied and pushed their hand forward insistently. Spitting on the ground, Red shirt handed over a pile of notes and stalked off the field.

“Come on,” Martin said to David and led the way back through the crowd.

Around David, people were mimicking Red shirt’s spitting. He had to take care to avoid getting caught. Something Martin didn’t have to worry about.

Once they were far enough away from the crowd, David tapped him on the arm.

“What was that?”

“A new trainer made a stupid mistake or bet,” Martin said glumly.

“What? But that was a Pidgeotto? How is that allowed?”

Martin shrugged in resignation. “They probably only got one or two badges last season. Evolved over the break. All okay by the rules. The guy in red should have known better.”

“It’s hardly his fault,” David argued, indignation rising. The beat down had resurfaced bad memories. This was far from an alleyway, but it felt the same.

Martin raised an eyebrow at him. He gestured back at the pitch. “That, happens every year. Flying types first. Fire types soon after. Saffron’s psychics will be here in a month or so when they’re full enough of themselves. High wagers and lots of insults. Every year. That guy should have known better.”

David digested that for a second.

“That’s why you were so insistent on going over the rules for our first battle.“ He stated.

Martin twitched and missed a step.

”So why did Sarah approach me?”

Martin steadied himself but he still seemed uncomfortable. “She’s stubborn. And your Pidgey seemed happy.”

It was David’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

Martin shrugged and considered his answer. “I was against it. But she convinced me and I figured better to get it over with. Clearly I was wrong. You aren’t like them.”

David hummed and took the peace offering.

When they made it back to the others, Sarah and Danny’s battle was still underway. At Tulia’s questioning gesture over at the dispersing crowd, Martin informed her that ‘predators’ had started to arrive. Tulia groaned and Terry palmed Sandshrew’s pokeball.

They called a halt to their battles soon after and made their way over to their private training spot amongst the folded up seating.

“We should start fighting proper battles.” Terry suggested before everyone split up into groups.

David tightened his grip on Pidgey’s pokeball. It was the right move to make. Both the ‘predator’ battle and his tight timeline told him that, but he still had an issue. Pokecenter healing. How could he get it without appearing back on Team Rocket’s radar?

“I think so.” Martin agreed.

A chorus of yes went round until David voiced his own agreement.

The group split up into two groups, Grass types and other, and began to train.

-.-

David called out to Oliver when he arrived back at the farm, but there was no sign of the man. Two glasses and a jug of water had been set out on the patio table, as if for a meeting, but he decided not to linger to discover of whom.

Instead, he set off into the grove and busied himself with moving his tent to another clearing.

Oliver had been by at some point and left a roll of fence wire and metal cable ties behind. It didn’t take much to put two together and realize what his job for the evening was.

When he felt Pidgey had rested enough he set off on patrol. It was slow-going with each step taken only after checking for the Fearow. In contrast, the fence repair didn’t take long. A pricked finger from a sharp edge of the fence wire was the only hitch in the patrol.

There were no sightings of the Fearow during his patrol through the woods either. Just signs of its passage which made David glad that Oliver hadn’t left him a shovel too. Thankfully Pidgey wasn't too interested in investigating.

After the patrol he made his way back to the farmhouse. This time Oliver was sitting out on the patio. A box of food for David’s dinner and a berry was on the patio steps. Which was odd as usually Oliver wouldn’t be around if he was leaving food out for David.

The elderly man was stock still, sitting opposite where he usually sat, with both hands spread flat against the table. He was staring blankly at the jug of water and glasses that had been left out earlier. He responded to David’s greeting with a low grunt, not tearing his eyes away.

Only after David’s report did the farmer look at him. Oliver stared like he’d never seen David before. He didn’t say anything, just let out another grunt to acknowledge that he’d heard. But as David was walking away he caught part of a mutter.

“-like a swarm year.”

-.-

When he turned to Pidgey after dinner, she hopped up and away before he could speak.

“Training?”