As the sun sank towards the horizon, the two children came back home, full basket in hand and their lips stained purple. Lance put his basket down for a moment, stretched his limbs, then turned towards the children bearing a grimace.

“Alright kids, here you are. Now, did you learn your lesson?”

Blitzer and George both nodded. “Yes. Don’t go out exploring when you’re too young,” Blitzer said. George puffed his cheeks up like a hamster while listening.

‘ Well, at least we can repeat the lesson to ourselves .’

“Good. Off with you.”

With a wild shake of his tail, the Druddigon went back to his house on the hill at the edge of town. Blitzer and George sped off towards the village square, the former grinning intensely.

“Haha! He totally bought into it!” Blitzer said. George's eyes opened wide; Blitzer’s cheers had attracted the attention of every pair of eyeballs in ear range. Without further ado, he threw his hand in front of the Charmander’s mouth and nodded awkwardly at all the dumbfounded stares they were receiving.

‘’Maybe don’t celebrate too loud, Blitzer…”

“Oops… hihi.”

With George having quieted the mood, the two made their way to Blitzer’s hovel. A few knocks on the door later, Nera answered.

“Blitzer! George! You’re back!”

“Yes! And we’ve got the berries!” Blitzer smiled.

Nera quickly wrapped her forelegs around Blitzer, who likewise returned the gesture. “I’ve been worried sick about you! You’ve been gone for so long, I was starting to imagine awful things. Oh, I shouldn’t have. I really shouldn’t.”

“Nope! I’m still here! It’s like I’ve told you, mom. No one bests me so easily!”

‘ Well, what about me ?’ George looked on unamused at the two. ‘Don’t just leave me standing… ’

“You two must be hungry after an entire day of fighting. Come on in, it’s about time I got to work on dinner…” Nera suddenly sniffed a lungful. “...Wait, is that… Persim? Why does your mouth smell like Persim, Blitzer?”

“Oh, well, you see.” Blitzer sheepishly scratched the back of his head. “I did get a little hungry on the way back, so uhm… I snacked a little, heh. And George did, too.”

George shook his head. “I only had one. You had like four, Blitzer.”

Nera chuckled. “Why now, you both must be famished! And why wouldn’t you be? You’re both hard workers, and hard workers deserve a good reward! So come on in.”

Once inside, the three of them were greeted by the sight of Nero laying slumped out over the table, his head resting on top of his forelegs as if passed out from a drunken stupor.

“Please tell me you didn’t get hurt back there.”

“Of course we didn’t, dad! We’re better than that!” Blitzer said. Nero peeked up from his forelegs, carefully studying the two children’s bodies for himself.

“Hm. Okay, it doesn’t look like you’re too scratched up, aside from a few spots. Wait, what am I saying? You’re not all scratched up?” Nero’s head shot up. “Well now, color me surprised! You managed to get out there and come back without any injuries!” he said, his voice now much happier sounding.

“Yeah, we did really well today!” Blitzer ran up to his father as if he wanted to show off a report card. “We’ve got a whole basket full of berries, and we got a whole bunch stronger, too! George even learned how to breathe water!”

Nero grinned. “I’m glad to hear that life’s been treating you and your friend well. I sure hope it stays that way.”

“Indeed it will!” Blitzer said with a cheer. George raised his hands in a mocked cheer with a fake smile. Of course, if it hadn’t been for Lance, their time in the Azure Hills would’ve been way worse than a few scratches. But it was best not to tell Nero that. George liked getting to leave the hovel unsupervised, not to mention how Blitzer felt about it.

After dinner, Blitzer and George went back to their room, leaving Blitzer’s parents alone for the night. They were both exhausted after the day, and eager to go to bed early. Well, earlier than usual, anyway. George still wanted answers to the Soldier question. Soldiers enjoyed pushing others around, but a little pushing wouldn’t inspire so much fear. Not that easily.

“Aah, I’m tired, and yet I’m still not spent! Maybe I’ll stay up a little longer,” said Blitzer, before throwing his mouth wide open and stretching his arms.

“Yeah, that’s fine by me,” George said, dropping himself down on his straws. They felt a little more comfortable than in the morning. Either he was getting used to the straws, or he was just that tired. He couldn’t tell.

“Don’t go to sleep right away, I need to show you something!” Blitzer held up a toy in front of George. It was some sort of paper spinner, albeit one stained with dirt. “Watch!”

He breathed on the toy, careful to make sure no flames got out; the toy’s center spinned around like a fan, making whirlwind sounds all the while. If you followed it for too long, your head would spin. Even knowing that made it hard to resist the urge to look. It was a hypnotising thing, simple yet clever. Blitzer blew on it a few times more, giggling all the while. “Hahaha! I could do this all day!”

“Oh, that’s nice,” George muttered, clutching onto his scalchop. Such a simple toy, yet Blitzer could get so much joy out of it. George’s thoughts wandered off to his own toys, back at the foster’s home. By now, either they had all gone into the garbage, or some other kid was playing with them to relieve some stress.

‘ If only I could have been so happy with a toy… that would have been very nice, wouldn’t it. Maybe I wouldn’t have to feel so bad about playing with toys at my age. After all that yelling from the headmistress, maybe… maybe I wouldn’t even be here .’

“Hey, what’s the matter?” Blitzer had noticed George sulking to himself and put the toy down.

“Me? Oh, it’s nothing,” George replied, his tail curled around his body.

“Are you sure? You don’t look so well.”

George gulped. “I’m just tired, that’s all. It’s been a long day.”

“Well yeah, it’s been exhausting, but you don’t look very exhausted to me. More like you’ve seen a ghost,” Blitzer said, pointing a finger in a lecturing manner in front of George. George sighed, and steeled his nerves.

“Okay, that wasn’t entirely honest. My mind’s still on the Soldiers we saw back at the bridge. You knew right away who they were, just like that,” George said, imitating the snap of a finger. "You didn’t second guess yourself either, it’s like you’ve been taught how to recognize them, if that makes any sense to you.”

Blitzer sat down on his own bed, careful to not drop his toy or to let the flame on his tail touch the straws. George reflexively reached for his scalchop; there was no turning back now.

“Recognizing Soldiers isn’t hard. They’re all wearing something black. Whether that’s a wristband, a scarf, or anything else, you see it, and you’ll know. Did you see what those Pokemon were wearing on the bridge?”

George reflected back on the encounter, picturing himself back on the bridge: the waters raged below, and the sun shone with volcanic intensity. Overwhelming as it was, he forced himself to concentrate on the two Pokemon there. ‘ Hm. Well, they were a Machoke and a Crawdaunt… hang on. Wait a minute. Yeah, the Machoke had a scarf on… or was it a helmet? I only caught a glimpse of it, but it was dark. And the Crawdaunt had… some kind of ribbon or band ?’ With a thump of his tail, George dropped his scalchop. “Ah, I think I know. The Machoke had a scarf, and the Crawdaunt had something around his tail! Right?”

Blitzed clicked his tongue. “Well, it was actually a helmet and a chest band, but close enough.”

“Oh…” George took his scalchop back into his hands. Blitzer shrugged.

“Close enough. But yes, that’s what Soldiers were. That’s how you recognize one.”

George held onto a frown. The questions had only begun. “But why are they all wearing something different?”

Blitzer shrugged again, then blew on his spinner. George’s eyes dashed back and forth over the room; the shadow of the spinner flickered anxiously.

“No one really knows. Kind of like this, I don’t know why it spins, but it does.”

“Okay…” George slumped back against the wall. “Do you know how many of them there are?”

Blitzer looked away and shivered. George felt his own body shake as well; as if thousands of spiders had fallen into the room. An audible gulp from Blitzer made him clutch onto his shell with the intensity of a nail.

“Well, um…” Blitzer sounded as if he was being choked. “I’ve only ever seen about ten at the same time,” he muttered, “but there are supposed to be thousands… no, tens of thousands of them. Each stronger than the whole village combined. And that’s why everyone is afraid of them. Make one upset, you’ll get the rest.”

George breathed in deep. ‘ But the ones on the bridge didn’t look that strong .’

“Can I ask you a question, George? Why do you want to know this?” Blitzer asked.

George backed up against the wall, as if cornered by Blitzer. “Because nobody has been telling me anything. All I know about the soldiers is that they’re bad and that they serve some queen.”

Blitzer sighed. “But George, I don’t know much about them either. No one in the village tells me anything either.”

George’s eyes went wide open. “Wait, why?”

Blitzer shook his head. “They say that I’m too young to know more, and that’s all they tell me. No matter how much I ask, nothing. Or they just tell me to go away.”

“But even you have to know something more than just this, right? You’ve lived here for almost all your life!”

“You know, we haven’t actually had many run-ins with Soldiers here in town, ever. Yesterday was the first time in a long time. Although, I think we’ll be seeing more of them now, what with the whole not being happy about being ignored.”

George sat and listened, his breaths sounding increasingly tired with each exhale. Blitzer’s voice lacked any semblance of sincerity. There had to have been more that he wasn’t letting on. With how late it was, and George being glad to be on Blitzer’s good side, he had to let it slide. For now, at least. Still so many questions remained in the dark. But George had his ideas already. Him waking up here, the soldiers he’d heard on that first day, it all had to have been connected somehow.

Blitzer went on to throw his mouth wide open in a yawn. “So, do you have any idea what we could do tomorrow? Because I can’t think of anything, really.”

George shrugged. “Go exploring again?”

“Eh, maybe. But where?”

“Greenfield Forest?”

“But we’ve already been there.”

“Well, we both want to get stronger, right?” ‘ Especially now that I’m being hunted. ’ “We could train there tomorrow.”

“That sounds boring to me. I want to explore something new,” Blitzer said. George stared at him, unamused. ‘ I thought you were the one that wanted to get stronger so badly. ’

“Okay. Well, if not that, can we go back to what we were going to do a day ago, and meet with the other kids in the village? I’d like to meet them.”

Blitzer nodded. “Sure, if that’s what you want to do, then I’m all for it. Even if the kids might not like me.”

George raised a brow. “What do you mean, don’t like you? Why would the other kids not like you? You seem perfectly fine to me.”

Blitzer clicked his tongue. “Well, erhm… I was playing with them once, and uh, I didn’t really look where my tail was going, and, well, uh… it didn’t end so good,” he said, covering his face with his hands to hide a few awkward chuckles.

George slapped his forehead. ‘ You know, for being born with it, he sure forgets about it easily. ’ ”Great. Well, do you think they’ll still accept you, or is that not going to happen either?”

Blitzer gave a quick shrug in reply. “We’ll see. It’s sure worth a try.”

“Okay then. But say that it goes completely wrong tomorrow, do you have any other suggestions? Anything else that we can do in this town?” George’s head leaned further and further to one side, even with him propping it up by one arm. Time doesn’t slow down for anyone. Ready or not, you best be prepared for anything, preferably as fast as possible. Especially basic sleep.

Blitzer curled up on his straw bed. “I don’t know. The café, maybe.”

“There’s a café in the village?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you see that big building in the main square?”

George thought back to earlier in the afternoon, while he slowly slid onto his side until his head came to rest on the straws underneath. Nothing in particular came to mind, however. The town’s board, some houses flanking the square’s perimeter, and some Pokemon gathered around. Besides that, just an empty slate.

“Not really. All I remember are houses and other people.”

“You didn’t see that big building? Or the crowd around the entrance?”

George rolled onto his back. “The crowd, maybe. I didn’t notice any café, though. You were louder than everyone there put together.”

“Oh well.” Blitzer followed in George’s footsteps and rolled over lazily. “Anyway, that’s the café. There’s a bunch of Pokemon gathered there. But I doubt they would let us in. Only adults are allowed in there. Believe me, I tried.”

George’s eyes were drawn to the wall. “Then that’s not going to happen.”

“Probably not, no.”

“Alright, so who do you think we should meet first?”

“I was thinking of Jinni. I still haven’t apologized for last time. Or Corst. Or Junior. Or actually, maybe Alcia-”

“Maybe we’re better off deciding that tomorrow, actually,” George said, then yawned.

“Sure. I’m too tired to think, anyway.”

Blitzer and George bid each other good night. Not too long after, George was half dreaming and half daydreaming, kept from proper sleep by the company of Blitzer’s snores. Perhaps tomorrow he’d finally get a little peace after three days of being dragged along into the unknown.