I was familiar with the warmth of Comfey relieving my tiredness, but this was the first time I’d felt her healing. I could taste the lavender in my bloodstream as the little scratches I had gathered on the run sealed themselves shut. It stung, but that, combined with a short rest, was what I needed after the ordeal. Comfey did such a good job that I had to forgive her for extending the same care to Clair, no matter how much it soured me. Needless to say, I wasn’t speaking to her, and only the danger of the forest stopped the four of us from self-imploding immediately. The kind but stern stare of Infernape might also have had something to do with keeping us in line.
“What now?” asked Clair. The malicious Morgrem looked the least affected out of all of us, as if she’d done nothing wrong. I turned my face away, pointedly ignoring her. Sunny too avoided looking at her and moved closer to me, though for my sake or her’s, I couldn’t tell. The baton passed to Luca, who steeled herself before giving her response.
“Now, we are going to cooperate until we find the others and get out of this forest. We strayed west from the path, so heading east would be logical. Alternatively, we go north until we hit the river and then go east. It might be longer, but I figure we stand a better chance of not getting completely lost that way. After all, we can’t miss the river, while some sections of the path are not obvious to identify. And then, Clair, once we’re safe, we need to have a serious talk.”
“What’s there to talk about?” said Clair.
“Don’t act dumb, you know exactly what I mean.”
“Okay, fine. I don’t know why you’re so worked up, I was only playing.”
Luca looked about to respond, but she held back at the last minute. In the following silence, Clair looked around her for support and realising she was going to find none, her smile slipped. After a moment, Sunny spoke up.
“I think we should go north too. Even if we manage to find the path, finding the others is still going to be tricky. The bridge across the river is the best meeting point.”
“Or Watty could look for our group and lead us to them,” said Clair.
“That’s a good point, but I’m not sure we should rely on him finding them,” said Luca. “He can scout them as we make our way to the river. How does that sound?”
We agreed, or at least, gave our grudging approval to the plan, and set off. With a smaller group, and having strayed from the relative safety of the road, wild Pokémon attacks were more common. Buzzkill was a terror among the trees, always catching his enemies by surprise with a Poison Jab. Flaaffy, Caviar and Vivi pulled there weight too, though Flaaffy and Vivi had to be kept apart for fear of infighting. The hostility between them, instigated by Vivi but entirely reciprocated, was palpable. I wholly agreed with my starter – Clair and her Pokémon should be dropped in a Durant hive – but I wasn’t used to sensing anything other than kindness from her.
Even with the efforts of our Pokémon, the true reason we were safe was Infernape. Most of the time, she was content letting others handle things, but she had a keen sense for when they were going to be overwhelmed, and when she stepped in, the fights ended in seconds. We encountered many different Pokémon, each more dangerous than the last, but the worst of them were still the Mankey. It was just a small group of them, nowhere neat the threat level of the entire fury, but they dogged us constantly, throwing sticks and clumps of earth at us. Even Infernape was running out of patience with them, but they were too proficient at scattering whenever she made a move on them.
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“Arceus, are we even going the right way?” asked Clair after one particularly bad skirmish with them.
“Assuming my compass isn’t broken, then yes,” said Luca. “But maybe we should take a short break.”
I sat on a slightly rotted tree stump as we caught our breath.
“What’s that?” asked Luca. Clair leaned against a dead tree, holding something in her hands. When I looked again, I saw it was a Seedot, a small acorn-like Pokémon.
“I got bonked on the head by it, I think one of the Mankey threw it at me,” said Clair. “Hurt a bunch, but he’s pretty cute, right? What do you think, should I catch him?”
Luca just shrugged, I still wasn’t talking to her, and Sunny was wandering around our rest area, not paying attention to the conversation. She had swapped out Caviar for Hector, and the Wooper was on her head looking adorable.
“Fine, whatever. Hey, little guy, wanna come with me?”
The Seedot didn’t reply either. The poor thing looked terrified, probably because of the Mankey throwing him around before, but I liked to think it knew Clair was trouble.
“The quiet type, huh. I like that. Well, it’s not a no, so welcome to the team.”
She fetched an empty pokeball and caught Seedot without resistance. She pondered for a while and named him Nutty.
“Guys,” said Sunny. “I think we should move.”
“Just a bit longer Sunshine,” said Clair.
“No, I mean we need to get away, now. And don’t look up.”
Predictably, and from Sunny’s tiny smirk, I guessed she knew it would happen; Clair did look up. At exactly the right moment for the Paras to fall square on her face. Clair shrieked, throwing the mushroom infested bug to the ground. I wasn’t able to relish in her humiliation for long. A Parasect crawled out from under the log I was using as a chair. It jerked its legs, looking more like a puppet than a being of flesh, and its glassy eyes rolled in their sockets. While jumping clear of the log, I was able to see what had Sunny so worried. Most of the trees in the area were rotting, and fungal growths bloomed out of the dead wood. The Mankey had chased us into a Parasect nest.
A lot of things happened all at once. More and more Paras and Parasect crawled out of their hiding places, completely surrounding us. The fire on Infernape’s head erupted, spitting flames that licked the branched overhead. She hesitated though. Possibly worried about torching the area with so much dry wood about. The pause cost her. From under the mushroom hoods of the Pokémon, clouds of purple, green and yellow spores buffeted out. Clair and I fell first. My muscles failed me, nausea overcame me, and drowsiness threatened to convince me to leave the whole thing to oblivion. I fought off sleep long enough to see Infernape fall, Flaaffy seconds after, and Comfey, after a rushed and failed attempt at healing me, scurry off with barely a glance behind.
Our captors kept us in a perpetual cloud of spores and powders. Whenever I awoke from the effects of Spore, Poison Powder and Stun Spore worked together to sicken and immobilise me. In and out of consciousness I drifted, for what felt like eternity. Nightmares and reality merged, and for once, I wished I hadn’t done any research on Pokémon. I remembered reading about how Parasect laid their eggs in living flesh, and their offspring ate their way out of the nest. I could feel things squirming under my skin, even if moments of lucidity told me it was much too soon for anything to have happened yet.
I saw my body from above, being dragged and stashed under leaves and twigs. I saw Luca and Clair lying next to me, and our Pokémon bundled with us. I saw no Sunny. She had been furthest when the Parasect appeared. Hopefully she had escaped. No Comfey either. The half of me that felt hurt and betrayed by her departure warred with the half that was inexhaustibly relieved she was safe. I saw Flaaffy. She was closse, but facing away from me. I had to get to her and tell her I was with her.
Waves of sickness washed over me. In between, bouts of intense anger and frustration gave me enough recklessness to struggle. At one point, I was able to move just enough to fling a nearby Paras into a tree. Another puff of Stun Spore made me collapse again. I was able to fall on Flaaffy, finding some relief with her pressed against my skin. Then the shadows darkened, and I tumbled into a sleep void of any dreams.
