After a brief shower, a mere twenty minutes of gloriously hot water pouring down on my body, I dried off and left the bathroom for Claire. After a quick look around the room, I decided to get to know our hosts, at least one of them. Walking across the hallway, I knocked on the door Lisa had indicated earlier and moments later, the teenager called for me to enter.

Opening the door, I poked my head in and realised that her room was quite similar to the one we had been given, the furniture made in the same style but her room was, unsurprisingly, a lot more lived in. On her shelves small knick-knacks were fighting for space with more books than the shelves had been built to handle, giving the room a slightly messy look at first glance.

“Hey Lisa, do you have a bit of time for me?” I asked, quite curious about her and her family. It was the first time I met someone living outside the cities and towns.

“Sure, come in,” she rose from her desk, giving me an inviting smile. “Dani, was it? I was just doing some homework, nothing that can’t be kept for a bit.” Somehow, the tone in her voice made me think that she was quite happy to keep the homework for later, regardless of the reason.

“Yes, I’m Dani,” I nodded, “Honestly, I was just looking for some conversation if you don’t mind. I like my companions but meeting new people is interesting,” I grinned, happy when she returned the smile.

“Oh, I think I know the feeling. I love my family, but having someone else, someone new, to talk is great. Why don’t you have a seat and we can chat?” she asked, gesturing to the sofa.

After sitting down, there was a brief moment of awkward silence when neither of us really knew how to start the conversation.

“What is it like, living outside of town?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“It’s just life,” Lisa shrugged, “My family has been living here for decades, ever since Great-Grandpa built the Lodge. We’re tending the fields, maintaining the property and just living our best lives. One child after the other goes for a year of travelling and either returns and lives for a while with mom and dad or go elsewhere, to start their own family.”

“So you’ve got siblings?” I prodded, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“Sure, I’m the youngest of six, My elder sister is already married and living in Veilstone City, my third brother is currently travelling as a Trainer, challenging Gyms and all that, and my other three brothers are helping mom and dad around the Lodge. I’m still working on my schoolwork, so I don’t have to help as much and next year, it’ll be my turn to travel as a Trainer,” she explained, sounding quite proud of her siblings.

“They’re all trainers?” I was mildly surprised by that but I probably shouldn’t have been. Given that they were living outside of town, training a Pokémon or two was almost mandatory, just for personal protection.

“We all are,” she nodded, before proudly showing off a belt similar to my own, one that was holding a single Pokéball.

“Cool,” I returned her grin, “Who have you partnered with?”

“Meet Haha, she’s my dear friend,” she happily pressed the button and in a flash of red light, a ball of feathers appeared, before propping out a leg and looking at me with wide eyes. The black markings around the large, red eyes were in stark contrast to the brown wings and the lightly coloured belly, giving the Hoothoot a peculiar look, making me think it was looking at the world with curiosity.

“Well, hello Haha,” I greeted the bird, studying it closely, while the bird looked at me with what I could only interpret as cautious curiosity.

“A cute little fellow, did you catch her in the wild or did your parents get her from a breeder?” I remembered that Claire had talked about the efforts to get Twiggy from the breeder and that there was supposed to be a minimum age, one I wasn’t sure Lisa had reached yet. In fact, I was almost certain she had not and given that she talked about her schooling, the other requirement to officially travel as a trainer, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of Lisa and her partner. Well, Cynthia had made an exception for me, so there might be one here, too.

“Neither, Haha is the child of Mom’s Argus. Both of them helped me raise her after Haha hatched from her egg. Once we start travelling next year, we’ll have been together for almost two years,” Lisa explained, gently stroking her Hoothoot’s feathers, after the owl hopped onto her leg, briefly showing that it actually had two legs, not just the one it initially extended.

We were about to get into a deeper discussion on Pokémon, when Greta’s voice came from downstairs, calling for Lisa.

“Mom wants me to help, I guess,” Lisa shrugged, calling her Haha back into her Pokéball and standing up.

“I’ll join you, some manual labour is the least I can do,” I stood as well, intent on helping out.

“Sure, follow me,” she invited me, walking to the door.

We went downstairs together and into the kitchen, where Greta, Lisa’s mother, was standing in front of a massive oven, juggling multiple pots and pans, looking incredibly busy.

“Lisa, can you set the table? I’m almost done here,” she assured us, likely not noticing that her daughter hadn’t come down alone.

“Sure, Mom. Dani, you can help me if you like. I doubt that either of us could help Mom, we’d just get in the way,” Lisa told me, an amused grin on her face as we briefly watched Greta move and for some reason, I had the illusion that Greta had additional hands, as she was working with a speed and precision I would only expect from a Machamp and their four arms.

Lisa and I kept chatting as we worked together to set the table and afterwards prepare a simple, green salad. Luckily, it was simple work or I would probably have been a little lost, as I had no idea how to cook. Maybe another of those memories I had lost, or maybe I had never learned in the first place.

We were still bustling around the kitchen, mostly chatting and watching Greta, when the door opened and three people walked in. If not for minor variations, they could have been copies of Gunther, all sharing the same big and buff physique and the close-cropped brown hair.

“These are my brothers, Jack, Jake and Jaques,” Lisa introduced, causing me to give a doubletake at the names.

“Don’t kid around, Lisa,” Greta admonished her, before I could ask if she was serious, “Jack, my oldest, Luke, my third child and Malcolm, my youngest son. There’s also Kedrik somewhere around, but he’s probably helping Gunther.” She pointed at them in turn as she introduced them, and they all looked over in response.

“Kids, we’ve got guests, so be civilised. This is Dani, upstairs are her companions Claire, Lucas and Cliff,” Greta called out, introducing me to the three brothers.

“Pleasure to meet you,” Lucas greeted me, not stepping closer and I noticed that his clothes were drenched and dirty. “We’ll be washing up and speak to you later,” with that, all three brothers made their way upstairs, moving surprisingly quiet for people their size.

“What did your mother mean with ‘be civilised’?” I asked Lisa in a whisper, not quite sure what to make of that instruction.

“If you weren’t here, they’d likely have pulled off their outerwear down here and gone up in their shorts,” Lisa replied, a faint blush on her cheeks.

“Oh,” I could only blush myself. Even if I had a bit of exposure to barely clad males, thanks to travelling with Cliff and Lucas, those three and their quite impressive physiques were something else.

Before Lisa and I could get deeper into the topic of scarcely clad males and their muscles, Gunther and his youngest son, Kedrik, returned from outside, looking a lot less haggard than the other three.

“Did the boys manage?” Greta asked and the image of the petite Greta worrying about the three guys, all of whom out-massed her by approximately a factor of three, and call them ‘boys’ managed to make me quietly snicker to myself.

“They brought in the trees, yes. They’ve become quite good at working with Chopsaw and Bully,” Gunther replied.

When I looked at Lisa, she quietly explained that those two were a Bibarel and a Tauros, both of whom were employed to help the family when it came to logging and moving trees.

Realising that Lisa, despite not having travelled as a trainer had been living with Pokémon a lot closer than my other three companions, I decided to try quizzing her for ways that my four might be able to help when it came to my travels. None of them had any obvious tricks, like a Wera’s Donna and her headshield that allowed her to move heavy rocks with relative ease, but maybe, Lisa had some ideas. And if not Lisa, maybe one of her brothers or her father, I had a whole evening and maybe even another day on the next, to ask their advise.

“Say…” I looked at Lisa and began my quizzing.