Looking at the path, bending back towards the east, and at the landmarks I had looked up at the SandgemGym, I glanced over to Claire. We had been travelling for four days now, since leaving Sandgem Town and I had broached the topic of venturing off the beaten Route a few times, with mixed results. When asking right after she had successfully battled a wild Pokémon, she was all for it. If asking while nothing had happened for a while, or while we were camped during the evening, she was hesitant, almost scared.

But now, we needed to make a decision, one I was giving her a veto in. Unless she accepted the path I proposed, we would continue on the regular Route, taking an additional day to reach Jubilife City and potentially missing out on some difficult, but hopefully rewarding, challenges. Just for those challenges, I was willing to leave the Route, the shorter path was just a coincidence. Depending on results, I might even try to push for taking an extra day in the area, just for some additional battles.

According to the information, the area should be teeming with Bug- and Poison-Pokémon, both of which would provide interesting match-ups for my partners. For Claire, it was less favourable, her Twiggy would have a tough time with either for a long time, only gaining an advantage against Poison if he ever managed to evolve into Torterra, but Myna would have a good match-up against the Bugs.

“So, decision-time.” I prodded and she studied me for a moment, taking a deep breath and blowing it out slowly.

“Let’s do this.” she finally decided, her voice almost completely steady. I would have to make sure nothing bad happened in there, if only because without me, she likely wouldn’t even consider going off the Route just yet. Maybe never, there were some relatively secure Routes that would allow her to reach the Badge-number necessary for the certification she wanted.

“Let’s do this.” I agreed, a grin spreading across my face.

At first, there was little change as we walked off the path we had been walking on for the last few days. It was still the same forest, and the first two Pokémon we encountered were a Starly and a Kircketot. By now, I had stopped counting the Starly we had faced and knocked out, the number in the dozens, and while Kricketot were less common, we had stumbled across some fifteen, maybe twenty of them in the last few days. Neither was the challenge I was looking for.

Emboldened by our early success, we continued pushing onwards, when I stopped dead in my tracks, Claire almost running into me. There was something weird in the air, a smell that didn’t quite fit. A little spicy, a little stinging. Unexpected, but not completely unpleasant.

Whatever it was, it didn’t belong and things that didn’t belong, were often a hint that there was something going on.

“I smell something.” I told Claire, closing my eyes for a moment, trying to pin-point the smell, before turning a little and following it, checking our new heading with a compass to make sure we didn’t get lost.

After we had walked for a few minutes, with me stopping and smelling every so often, I finally spotted the source of the smell. There, hanging in the trees, trying to conceal itself with a mantle of leaves harvested from the trees around it, hung a Burmy. From our position, it was almost perfectly concealed in its mantle, but given that the leaves weren’t all from the same sort of tree, it was obvious that something was hiding.

“Over there.” I quietly whispered to Claire, pointing it out. “Mine.” I added, taking out Prince Charming’s Pokéball.

“Your turn, buddy.” I whispered, giving the Pokéball a caress, before pressing the button to send my partner out. As always, he appeared in a flash of red light, giving me a glance as I directed him to his target.

The sudden appearance of an opponent made the Burmy shiver with surprise,some of the leaves it had wrapped itself in falling to the ground, even as a dim, neon-green glow started to envelop it, far from the pleasant, emerald glow caused by Twiggy’s Grass-type attacks.

“Don’t play, burn it with Embers.” I ordered Charm, and as if he had already known what to do, he spat his fire, the stream concentrated and on-point. A few burned away some of the leaves concealing the Burmy, while most of them struck the Pokémon head on. The few that missed, lost their energy and faded, as soon as Prince Charming stopped focusing on them, in an effort to save his strength.

The squirming of the Burmy got worse, as the Fire had to hurt terribly, even without considering the loss of its concealment, and the glow around it turned into dozens of small, buzzing projectiles, reminding me of a swarm of insects that streamed towards Prince Charming.

“Smoke them, dodge.” I ordered and instead of belching out flame, Prince Charming let out a cloud of dense, ash-coloured smoke, disappearing within. I could vaguely make out the light of his flame, but trying to hit him with only that would be difficult.

The neon projectiles vanished in the cloud, and I heard a soft growl as Prince Charming got hit at least once, but there was little I could do about it. Four times more, Prince Charming spat out Embers at the Burmy, the squirming and burning getting worse with each strike, while the Burmy launched more and more of the buzzing projectiles into Prince Charming’s Smoke Screen.

Finally, the Burmy’s grip on the tree it had been clinging to loosened and it dropped down, out cold. The flames on its body continued to burn for a moment, before fading, leaving behind the smoking, black-coloured bug. Without its protective coat, we could finally see it and quite frankly, I wanted it to get its coat back on, a giant, shiny-black caterpillar was not something I wanted to actually look at.

“Well done, Prince Charming.” I called out, watching my dear partner walk out of the smoke. Checking him, I realised that he had taken quite a bit of damage, not enough to count as critical, but the fight hadn’t been as one-sided as it had looked from a distance.

“You did good.” I praised him, already applying Potion. “Do you feel yourself getting stronger? A few days ago, your Embers wouldn’t have been so on-point.” I continued, giving him some love, before sending him to rest in his Pokéball.

“We should move on. Who knows if anything is going to investigate the commotion.” I told Claire, before consulting the compass to correct our direction of travel.

“Yeah. That looked intense.” she glanced at the downed Burmy for a moment. “Let me do the next battle.” she added, squaring her shoulders.

As I walked on, I thought there was a muttering of, ‘I will not be left behind.’, bringing a smile to my face.

We continued on and as we moved, I periodically sniffed the air, trying to detect if there were more Burmy around. It was almost time to make camp, when Claire gently took hold of my shoulder.

“Do you hear this?” she asked, making me pause and focus for a moment, trying to spot what she meant.

“There.” she prodded, and finally, I noticed a soft, chirping noise, sounding like it was coming from far away.

“Go see.” I nodded, letting her take the lead.

Following the noise didn’t take long, and soon, we reached a small clearing, the noise getting progressively louder, the chirping clearer.

“I’ve got this.” she muttered, maybe to encourage herself, maybe she was telling me. Either way, she pulled out Myna’s Pokéball, sending her partner into battle against the noisy bug. Stepping a little to the side, so I could see past her, I was finally able to see what was making the noise, a bug almost as large as I. Its carapace was a shiny, orange-red, very similar to the Kricketot it had evolved from in the past and horribly for blending in, but given that it was deliberately rubbing it’s two long, arm-like feelers against each other to create the noise that had attracted us, I didn’t think it was intent on hiding. There was something uncanny about it, an almost humanoid figure, but so obviously alien and bug-like, the combination of traits making me uncomfortable.

“A Kricketune.” I muttered, mostly to myself.

Ahead, Claire had already given Myna orders to move, staying out of reach as she was probing the bug’s moves, her shrill growls disturbing its sensitive auditory organs. For a moment, the bug was watching the bird fly overhead, when a tiny amount of neon-green light gathered around the two feelers it had used to make music.

“Split.” Claire ordered, and Myna was surrounded in white light for a moment, before there were two of her, if only for a moment, one banking to the left, the other banking to the right, making it impossible to detect which was the real one, as the Kricketune was making an impossible leap, slashing through one of the avian forms. The wrong one, as it turned out, fading away in the wake of the attack.

“Quick Attack, knock it up.” Claire ordered, as the bug was spreading its small wings, trying to turn its leap into controlled flight. But it had taken the fight into its opponents realm, and there, Myna was Queen. Before the Kricketune managed to get control, a white-glowing, living projectile slammed into it from below, turning it over and destroying its previous efforts.

“Great, Wing Attack, don’t let up.” Clarie called and Myna did just that, sticking to the tumbling bug, the azure light of flying-attacks shrouding her wings, as she slammed them into it again and again. The bug desperately tried to defend with its feelers, the glow progressively getting stronger, but in its position, there was little it could do to exert force. It was at Myna’s mercy and there was none to be found.

By the time the bug landed on the ground, it was already looking incredibly roughed up and while it had managed to land an attack or two, they had lacked the strength to leave a lasting impact.

“Up again, take your time.” Claire commanded, and Myna did just that, taking the high-ground again and letting her growls play merry hell with the Kricketune. It tried to follow Myna’s movement above and finally, it briefly lost its footing, staggering on the uneven ground.

“Fast.” Claire called, and Myna must have been waiting for such an opening. She was instantly surrounded by a white glow, almost disappearing from view, before crashing into the bug, sending it sprawling.

“Wing Attack for the finish.” Claire told Myna, a triumphant grin on her face. Myna did just that, successfully striking the bug and finally knocking it out.

“Time to leave.” I told Claire, as she was almost done applying Potion to Myna. Their battle had been swift, but loud. Who knew if there was something coming.