They’d been lucky to leave the cave during morning, Larry finally wasn’t blinded when leaving the caves of Mt. Silver. Valerie craned her neck up to see the sun slowly rise over the mountaintops just to their right as they exited with a smile on her face.
“Alright, let's get the fliers ready.” Maxine unclipped Fearows' Pokeball, and the Pokemon appeared in a flash of red and a loud “CAW!”
She caressed the Pokemon's feathers, “We’ve got an injured Pokemon, so we’ll be flying back to the Center we came from, alright?”
“Fear! CAW!” The Pokemon responded with a clear, “Yes! Let’s go!” Maxine quickly unlatched her bag and started pulling out the gigantic saddles. It looked more like a magician's routine, as the saddle, barely large enough to hold in two hands, unfurled as it was pulled out of the tiny backpack.
The others released their Fliers as well, two gigantic Pidgeot and Noctowl, respectively. Valerie and Larry watched with clear interest as the Pokemon contorted themselves to allow the saddles to be strapped onto their back.
Larry walked up to Fearow, as its saddle was being tightened to its torso, “That saddle… Is it comfortable?”
Fearow eyed him with its signature sharp glare, before giving a soft “Caw…”, “It's not…”
“Then why don’t you tell her?” Larry questioned. The Flying-Type huffed out a response, “It doesn’t matter, these harnesses have always been uncomfortable. Besides, how would I even tell her that?”
“Let me try!”
Larry walked over to Valerie and pointed over to Fearow, “Hm? What's up, Larvitar?”
Leading her closer to the Pokemon, he pointed closer at the harness, “Are you talking about the harness?” He nodded and put his arms on his chest and made a choking motion, “The harness is choking Fearow?”
Clapping his arms together, Larry nodded with a smile. He pointed at Maxie and gestured as he opened and closed his mouth, like he was talking. Valerie immediately got the idea, “I see, I’ll tell her!”
She walked over and immediately told her, and as they talked, Fearow stood next to Larry in open-beaked amazement, “How did you do that?!” it cawed at him in loud amazement.
“I mimed the problem to my trainer, she’s really good at understanding Pokemon.” Larry smiled back at the gobsmacked Pokemon.
The Fearow still looked confused, unsure of what had transpired, but once Maxie walked over with a confused look, Fearow was forced to come to a conclusion, “Valerie told me your harness isn’t comfortable for you? Is that right?”
Smacking Fearow to shake off its confusion, Larry nodded back at Maxie and urged Fearow to follow suit. It nodded back to Maxie's question bashfully.
“That's good to know,” She smiled at the Flying-Type, “Once we're back in a city, let's get it refitted, alright?”
This time, Fearow smiled as it nodded and gave an energetic, “Caw!” saying a simple, “Thank you!”
Valerie also closed in on the Pokemon and gave it some advice, “I know it isn’t easy, but next time, tell someone if something is bothering you.”
…
With a quick refitting of the straps that held Fearows' saddle in place, the Flying-Type already felt far more comfortable than before. Larry also asked similar questions to the Pidgeot and Noctowl, but the two of them were lucky not to be suffering quietly.
Just as the group was about to finish packing up, a threatening growl from Arcanine alerted the group to danger.
All eyes fell on the cave entrance. Arcanine stared into its darkness before it barked out a challenge, “Your ambush failed, face us.” After a short, silent stint, two beat-up Magmar made their presence known as they snuck out of the dark cave and into the sunlight. Bruises, the same ones from their fight, still marked their bodies.
“You defeated our Patriarch,” The left one spat out hatefully, “and you think you can simply leave like that?”
Arcanine stood in front of the group protectively, with Larry finding a space next to him, “What makes you think you can beat us?” Larry challenged.
The right Magmar looked down at him with derision, “Without your other Pokemon friends nearby, you guys are nothing. What will a small baby and a single Fire-Type do against the two of us?”
‘Do the two not know that Graveler and Lairon are simply inside their Pokeball?’ Looking back over to the ranger, Larry saw Maxie stand protectively in front of Valerie, while the other two rangers kept close to their fliers.
“We’ll beat you,” Arcanine spoke confidently before turning to Larry, who completed the line skillfully, “And then you can go crawl back to your Patriarch and not pick such stupid fights anymore.”
“You dirty-!” The right Magmar started the battle with a Scary Face, which made Larry take a cautious step back, before remembering the fight. The Magmar charged at once, and Larry immediately dug himself underground, the soft, we,t and loamy dirt of the outside allowing him to practically swim through the sediment.
Arcanine shot off towards the enemy as well, “Extreme Speed, Arcanine!” Maxie instructed.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Larry surfaced a few steps back, opting to protect Valerie from any stray Fire Attacks aimed at her this time around. He didn’t even see Arcanine start the attack anymore, as the Pokemon quite literally blurred into nothingness, before the right Magmar was suddenly launched backward. Arcanine itself appeared in a satisfied hop just next to him in front of their trainers.
The left Magmar looked at its companion, who was slowly picking himself back up with apprehension, suddenly far less enthused to fight. It charged some kind of Fire-Type Attack, but Valerie spoke at the same time from behind Maxie, “Larvitar, Rock Slide!”
A series of boulders grew above Larry's head, and as the spray of flames exited the mouth of the Magmar, so too did his stones launch forward, completely nullifying the Fire-Type Attack. Before the stones could impact their target, though, a small green thing launched itself out of a stray bush on the side of the clearing.
The thing impacted the left Magmar in the side of its face, throwing the Fire-Type to the ground and rolling to a chaotic stop itself as the stones flew above them and crashed into the side of the mountain uselessly. It quickly rolled back onto its feet before hopping onto the Magmar chest and pecking at its face violently.
“S-Stop this! S-Stop pecking at me!” The left Magmar cried out. It tried to grab at the small green bird only to find nothing but air, as the thing seemingly teleported away to safety.
‘Is that a Natu?’ Larry turned his head to the sight in front of him. The mysterious little bird stood completely still, watching as the two Magmar slowly recovered and collected their bearings.
Right Magmar had since recovered, but instead of attacking, it tried to help out its friend, “Brother! I’ll get the pest off of you!” It took a deep breath before a small light meandered out of its mouth, a Confuse Ray. The light curved through the air, taking its sweet time until it reached the Natu, which was still standing completely stock-still.
The light spun around the Natu until the Pokemon suddenly shimmered for a short second. The small light of the Confuse Ray turned around and snaked its way back towards the right Magmar. Its eyes were drawn to the Confuse Ray instantly, and as it wound around the Fire-Type, it wobbled unsteadily until the right Magmar fell to the ground in a confused daze.
“Damn you!” Left Magmar cursed the Natu, who still had the same piercing, focused gaze on its face since it had jumped out of the brush. The bird itself didn’t look much better off than the Magmar, it was caked in dirt and even had sticks and leaves stuck between its feathers.
Natu didn’t respond, so Magmar quickly looked between Arcanine and Larry, Natu and his unconscious brother, who was lying on the floor in a daze, before deciding the best course of action, “Damn it! This isn’t the last time we’ll face off!” It grabbed at its brother's tail and dragged him back into the cave behind him.
Everyone, including the Pokemon at the scene, stood quiet for what felt like a minute, but was probably more akin to a few seconds, until Arin broke the silence, “What…Just happened?”
“No idea, man…” Nick massaged his temple, clearly exasperated at what just happened.
Maxie finally went away from covering Valerie and looked around the group. “Everyone alright?”
Everyone nodded, including the Rangers' Pokemon and their fliers. She sighed in relief before running a hand through her hair, “Well, that's a positive at least…”
Valerie walked up to Larry and kneeled down to him, holding out a flat hand, “Good fight! High Five!”
Larry hopped up and reciprocated the High Five with a smile, but he couldn’t help but turn to the small green bird staring a hole through him and straight into his trainer.
“You know who that is, Larvitar?” He shook his head in response to Valerie's question. The Natu had helped them, though, so Larry felt obligated to thank the Pokemon.
“Hey, thanks for the help!” Larry closed the distance to the Pokemon, but its gaze never left his trainer, “Uhh…Hello?” Even waving an arm in front of the Pokemon's eyes seemingly didn’t faze the Flying/Psychic-Type.
A few seconds later, it blinked, its eyes refocused, and it turned to Larry, giving off a stoic, “Natu.” in response, “The pleasure is entirely mine.” Natu turned back to Valerie, hopping over the short distance to her in a few adorable hops.
“Natu, Naatu.” The Pokemon had a sophisticated, if not slightly young voice, as it addressed Valerie, bowing regally, “Young trainer, the time of our meeting has finally come.”
“U-Umm, Larvitar!? What’s going on?” Seeing the adorable little bird Pokemon bow its head before her, Valerie was left confused, “Why is it bowing before me?”
“Naatu. Na-” The bird looked up at her with its piercing gaze. “I am petitioning for a space in your roster. Dear trainer.”
Now Larry was the one to reel back in surprise, ‘What?! Do Pokemon really just do that?! How does he even know about the whole Pokemon and Trainer dynamic?!’
“Umm?” Valerie looked at the Rangers for guidance, but Maxie could only shrug in confusion, “I don’t know what it wants either, Val.”
‘I should probably interpret here…’ Larry thought to himself, ‘Do I want this Natu as my teammate though? What kind of Pokemon just walks up to their trainer and confesses to wanting to be caught?’
He had to get to the bottom of this, so Larry initiated, “Why do you want to be on Valerie's team? How do you even know about Pokemon teams anyway?”
The Natu turned gracefully, bowing to him, “My wish is for myself to see the best future. And for that to happen, I need to join your trainers' team.”
“And why is that? And you still haven't answered my second question.” He crossed his arms, standing in front of Valerie possessively.
Natu wasn’t concerned in the slightest, simply nodding its head wisely, “Ah, yes. The answer to both of those questions is the same.” It straightened up just a little more before proudly announcing, “I have seen the future.”
Larry quirked an eyebrow, ‘It saw the future?’ He really had to crawl through his Pokemon knowledge, but he vaguely remembered something about their line being known for future-sight, ‘Guess it still is a Psychic-Type…’
Valerie had long since taken out her phone and scanned the Natu, the thing rattled off a swath of information in a bad text-to-speech voice, “Natu, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. The Natu moves around by hopping and always seems to be staring at something. Natu evolves into Xatu and skillfully picks food from cactus plants, avoiding buds and spines.”
“So you’re a Natu, huh? You’re kind of cute!” She walked around Larry and petted the thing around the red feather on its head, and its eyes finally closed in delight at the sensation, its childish innocence winning out against the calculated psychic part of its brain.
‘I guess it did save us…Valerie’s going to need more members sooner or later…’ Sighing, Larry addressed the Natu, “Alright, I accept. You can be part of Valerie's team, but you’re going to tell me the whole story when we get somewhere safe.”
“I thank you…” Natu was practically melting under the female Pokemon trainer's practiced fingers, already pretty much just lying in her arms.
Tapping Valerie on the leg to get her attention, Larry pointed at his own Pokeball and then at the Natu, ‘This little thing better make itself useful…’
