“Where are we?” I asked, looking around stunned. There was a footpath nearby, leading down-hill and when I turned around, we had a wonderful view across a valley, with some houses visible in the distance. Far closer than any signs of humanity I had seen, other than the League itself, but still a day’s march or so away from our location.

“Just a nice spot I stumbled across, a nice view and all that. That down there is Jubilife City, one of the oldest towns in the Region and we are here so you can learn by doing.” she told me, before reaching into a small pack on her waist.

“This Pokéball is empty. I want you to listen to our surroundings and find a Pokémon. For now, the exercise is to show you that your Prince Charming is interested in battling, that he craves to grow. I know that Rio, my first partner, craved the excitement of battle, her enthusiasm was infectious. And if you think the ‘mon you found would fit in well with your Charmander and yourself, don’t knock it out, just weaken it and catch it.” she explained, forcing me once again to ask for clarification.

“You say knock them out, doesn’t that harm them?” I asked. Knowing that I would have to send my Charm into battle was one thing, actually doing it, actually ordering another creature harmed, maybe crippled or killed, was a whole different thing.

“It takes a special effort to cause real harm. If a Pokémon faints in battle, it is because it uses up all freely available energy, energy that then can be devoured by the victor. Once that happens, the attacker generally loses interest and will focus on incorporating the taken energy, to raise it’s own strength.” she explained, sounding utterly calm.

“The loser will need some time to rest, especially if it can’t get any food or has been starving beforehand, but it takes extreme and extremely rare circumstances for fights to become lethal. Sadly, that doesn’t mean it never happens, just that it rarely happens. And if it happens, it’s always something to mourn.” she added, her calm demeanor cracking, deep-seated, sad emotions coming to the fore.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed away my concerns. If this was the path I needed to tread on to go forward, I would have to take it one step at a time. And the first step was, find an enemy.

Picking a direction, I started to move along the hill-side, neither heading up or down, and certainly not following the path. Pokémon were supposed to thrive in the wild, in the forest, in high grass and deep rivers. Not on paths made by humans.

At the same time, I listened closely, trying to filter out the noises made naturally, the rustling of leaves in the wind, the creaking of trees. That left the animal noises and when a squirrel darted across the path, I almost called out Charm to attack, but stopped just in time, instead flipping open the Pokédex and pointing the sensor at it. There was no reaction, no reading of P-Energy, making it an ordinary squirrel, not an unknown Pokémon.

Finally, after some thirty minutes of walking, I heard something in the distance, further up the mountain. The sound of breaking wood, of crumbling leaves and violence. Of battle.

Following the sounds, I started to jog, pushing my body and finding, to my delight, that my body had reserves I hadn’t known about, allowing me to run up the hill without losing my breath.

It didn’t take me long to step through an opening in the trees, taking in the scene. There, a large, dark-grey hound was fighting a smaller, somewhat humanoid creature. The hound’s shoulder was roughly the same height as the mid of my thigh, its eyes almost glowing with malicious light. The humanoid, on the other hand, appeared much smaller, it’s head the same height as the hound’s shoulder, but the slender limbs, mushroom-like head and general petite stature gave it a very vulnerable appearance.

As I was watching, before I could consider what to do next, the hound, almost as tall at the shoulder as Charm was when standing upright, was shining with a dim glow, the eyes filling me with dread, before it dashed forward in a burst of speed, biting down on the teal humanoid and shaking it around brutally, before sending it crash into a tree with enough force to shake some leaves loose.

Not liking the image at all, I pulled out the Pokéball containing Prince Charming, instantly pressing the button to unleash my partner.

“Go, Charm, let’s take that jackass down!” I ordered, focused on the hound. The hound eyed the new challenger and from the stance, it wasn’t about to retreat. Instead, it squared it’s shoulders, slowly moving forward. I noticed a change in it’s stance, just before the same glow appeared again and called out.

“Charm, dodge left, spin, claw!” I blurted out, my words coming in a single breath and just in time. Charm moved as I ordered, the dodge carrying him far enough to be out of range from the bite and the hound stepped into a small dip in the ground, losing its balance for a moment, right as Charm’s tail-flame flickered in its face, causing it to recoil, further disrupting its balance. Completely staggered, Charm’s claws were glowing with a soft, white light, right before he slammed them home, into the hound’s snout.

“Now, point-blank fire.” I ordered, taking a moment to glance at the downed humanoid. Watching Charm breath burning embers into the hound’s face, causing a pained yowl, I decided that I could take a moment to check on the downed creature.

Stepping over, I kept an eye on the ongoing fight but the embers were burning in the hound’s eyes, making it’s attacks wild and imprecise, allowing Charm to simply dodge away, letting the fire and exhaustion take its toll.

The small creature was still breathing, though it looked rough.I found myself reaching for a potion on reflex, only to realise that I had none. Only that single Pokéball.

The little guy, the Ralts, as a small part of my brain supplied, was hurting, looking so broken. Shifting it’s head, a pair of crimson eyes stared at me and seeing the pain reflected in them, I made a decision. I was here to find a second partner, and this one would be it.

Pressing the prime-button, I gently placed the ball against its body, taking a step back as the capture surge occurred, drawing in the energy that the Ralts was made of. The ball snapped shut and for a moment, it shivered, before stilling. Looking up, I noticed that Cynthia had only just made it to the clearing, right on time to witness Charm land another deep scratch on the hound, causing it to yowl once more, only to be hit with yet another stream of embers.

It staggered and for a moment, I thought it would charge once more, but it simply slumped down, the fires on its body fading away, leaving the beast beaten but not broken.

Suddenly, I felt my legs start to shake and slumped to the ground, the earlier strength leaving my body. But there was something I needed to do, before I could rest.

“Charm, you did great. Thank you.” I told him, forcing myself up and towards him, checking that he was fine. He had taken a few glancing blows during the thrashing of the hound, but nothing serious.

Calling him back, I looked at Cynthia and noticed a strange look on her face. There was a sort of pride, but there was also a stern look I could only call disappointment.

“Dammit, I’m an idiot.” she muttered, just loud enough for me to barely hear. “We’ll have to talk and I need to remember that you don’t have common sense. At least not our common-sense.” she told me and a cold shiver ran down my spine. Had I screwed up somehow?

“Humans don’t intervene in Pokémon fights. At most, you send in a Pokémon on your own, but even that is frowned upon amongst trainers. But NEVER attack a Pokémon and what you did to that Ralts it might qualify in its mind.” she warned me, the tone in her voice scary. Cold and utterly without compromise, it sent shivers down my spine.

“Pokémon are driven by conflict and they are naturally far stronger than humans. Even a weak Pokémon like your Charm, or that Poochyena over there, can easily kill a human, if they set their mind to it. Now, a conflict-driven being that is attacked by a human, what do you think its reaction will be to the next human? Regardless of whether they have a Pokémon on their own or not?” she asked and I realised what would happen. They would deem the human a potential enemy, a threat to be dealt with, or a challenge to grow from. And they would attack, and likely kill in the process.

“How bad is it?” I asked, dread filling me.

“I don’t know. Here, take this and call out your Ralts. Hopefully, it’ll recognise you as its trainer, despite not having been beaten by your partner.” she handed me a spray-bottle, filled with a liquid solution of the various p-Energy carrying minerals, a potion. What I had looked for earlier.

Taking a deep breath, hoping that the Ralts had recognised what I had been trying to do, I pressed the button to call it out. A beam of red light appeared and the Ralts, still looking battered but no longer as bad, appeared, looking at me with wide, crimson eyes.

When it made no move to attack, I gently spritzed some of the potion on the mushroom-like head, carefully rubbing it in, making sure not to touch the sensitive horns.

“We are lucky.” Cynthia judged and I looked over, only to recoil and fall down next to the Ralts. Around Cynthia, there was a visible, purple aura, slowly rotating around her. I couldn’t actually make out where it was coming from, it seemed to radiate from beneath her coat but other than that? Just looking at it sent a cold shiver down my spine.

“If it had turned hostile, I would have been forced to disperse it. Permanently.” she told me, the earlier steel still in her voice, but now fading, tinged with relief.

“What IS that?!” I gasped, not quite sure if the fatigue was taking its toll and I was seeing things.

“As I told you, only in rare and extraordinary circumstances do Pokémon actually kill. What you see is Graves, one of my partners, a Spiritomb, The one who does what is necessary, even if we both absolutely hate it.” she explained, slumping just a little.

“This is a mess my making, I said I’d act as your Guardian and look at me now.” she shook her head, before continuing. “That Ralts. You’ll never be allowed to trade it away, no matter what. It bonded with you, we have no idea if it would recognise anyone but you.”

Hearing that her voice was dead serious, I looked at the little guy, who was hiding behind me. Crouching down, so I was on its level, I looked into the crimson eyes, realising that it’d be with us for a long time. And that I was completely fine with that.

“Let’s get back to the League. I need to plan out the lessons you need, not just try winging it. This could have been a disaster and one of my making. For that, I apologise.” she told me, before calling out the Porygon-Z to teleport us back.