“I don’t know,” said Sunny. “The two of you might be fine, but I’m not sure I’m strong enough to go through the Greenforest.”

  “I think the Professor might be overestimating all of us,” said Darren. “Wish won the tournament, but he’s not a Pokémon I can use at a moment's notice. Auri is powerful but also hindered by her Pupitar stage. She’s currently less agile, and her moves have less reach than before. On the other hand, if the Professor has faith in us, maybe the dangers of the Greenforest are overblown. He isn’t stupid.”

  “Can we?” I asked. I had plenty of reasons to want to accept Professor Leaf’s request, and I was more than aware most of them were more emotional than logical.

  “You want to go? Shouldn’t surprise me, really,” said Sunny.

  “Let her make her case,” said Darren.

  “She wants to impress Professor Leaf and she loves adventure,” said Sunny before I could answer. She wasn’t wrong, though I wouldn’t say I loved adventure so much as I was coming to believe it was necessary to be a good trainer. Ducky’s stories, as well as the one told by the old couple we met in Crescent, kept coming back to me whenever I was losing heart. Pokémon trainers were people who could stand fast in any situation and not be daunted by any danger. I was a little disappointed by the Circuit so far, but I was coming to understand it was just the commercialised aspect of a truly honourable calling. At least, I had to believe that. All that said, there was another reason I wanted to accept the offer.

  “There’s another thing,” I said. “And maybe I’m being a little selfish, but I need the money. I don’t want to rely on my parents for my journey, and as I am, I don’t have enough to keep going much longer.”

  It was hard saying those words. I always found it difficult to admit my weaknesses. Flaaffy leaned towards me, as in tune as always with my emotions.

  “I can figure something out,” I added after a beat of awkwardness. “And worse comes to the worse, I can ask my parents. I’m just stubborn, as usual.”

  I was saved from further embarrassment by a loud intruder jumping through the door.

  “Found you!” said Jade to a mixture of annoyed and awestruck looks from the other people hanging around in the lobby. She didn’t seem to care and came right over to our table.

  “Can I come with you to the Greenforest?” she asked.

  “No!” said Quentin, rushing in after her. “You can’t. You’ve got a photoshoot lined up, and we can’t risk it in there anyway.”

  “But think of all the bugs. And I’ll be safe with them,” she said, pointing at us as if we were seasoned bodyguards. Quentin, to his credit, restrained himself from groaning out loud, though he clearly wanted to.

  “We aren’t sure if we’re going that way at all, in the first place,” said Sunny, avoiding my eyes.

  “Wait, you aren’t?” asked Jade.

  “We feel it’s too risky,” said Darren.

  “I mean, it’s true certain parts are dangerous, but if you stick to the path, any competent trainer can make it through,” said Jade. “And if you’re worried about getting to the ruins, by the sound of it enough bounty hunters must have gone that way to scare off the more territorial Pokémon.”

  “In any case, you’re not going with them,” said Quentin. “You have to start acting more professionally, or you’ll damage your reputation.”

  It took a while to convince her that she should not, in fact, go to the Greenforest with us. Her points, however, had begun to sway Darren. It was more than just the promise of safety. The allure of another strong Pokémon to add to his team was also enticing him.

  “What do you say, Sunny? We did say we might go to the outskirts anyway when we were planning our route. And with Kurt accompanying us we should be fine. It’s mostly bug and grass types there after all. He’ll probably be able to deal with everything himself.”

  Once Darren switched sides, Sunny wasn’t long to follow, and Jade was left complaining about how she should come with us since she had convinced us to go. Quentin wasn’t having it. Our minds made up, we decided to leave the next day. There was no point in wasting time, and as it was, chances were we were going to miss the tournament at Wavecrest. It was nearing the end of October, and it was on in mid-November, so it seemed likely. We would be in time for the back-to-back tournaments in Silverwind and Caprice in December though, and from there, we could either go to Everrock or skip straight to Bagatelle, assuming the earthquakes up north had calmed down somewhat. We could then participate in Wavecrest’s May tournament on the way back. Adding the one in Crescent in July, we had a solid route with plenty of tournaments to enter.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  As luck would have it, Professor Leaf was occupied when we went to the university, so we waited in an on-campus cafe by the library, taking shelter from an autumn shower that had come quite suddenly. My brother was finishing class in a few minutes and said he would join us, but he had to swing by his dorm first because he had something to give me. Jade had left to do model stuff after hugging Sunny farewell, leaving the three of us alone with our Pokémon. I clung onto Flaaffy, finding comfort in the wool around her neck. It wasn’t quite the same as when she was a Mareep but I was finding the optimal positions. She stroked my hair taking full advantage of her new paws. Every now and then, she pressed lightly upon my scar, hidden under my braid. I hadn’t realised she still thought of it.

  Darren was polishing Auri. He hadn’t quite managed to keep his promise of keeping her out of her pokeball at all times – her evolution had made things too awkward in that respect – but he did have her out every chance he got and treated her with a care that bordered on spoiling her. Sunny had taken up half a bench and was lying down on it with her three Pokémon on top of her. It was a rare sight, seeing Coral and Caviar next to each other and not bickering, but the mood was relaxed enough that a truce seemed to have formed.

  That was the state in which Godfrey found us.

  “Comfortable, are we?” he asked.

  “Very,” I said.

  “I’ll leave you to it then. Bye.”

  “Wait! My present,” I said, sitting up and breaking free from Flaaffy.

  “Present? Who said anything about a present?” he said.

  “You said you had something to give me,” I replied.

  “Quite so, I’ve the bill for all the private lessons I gave you.”

  He was close enough that I could kick his shin, so I did.

  “Scrafty. Tell me what it is or I’ll tell Mom you were texting in class.”

  “Ouch, fine, but just so you know, she wouldn’t care. Especially since it was to my dear, sweet little sister. Now close your eyes.”

  I did, and held out my hands outstretched. He placed a hard, metal rectangular thing on them. It took me nearly a second to figure out what it was.

  “A laptop!” I said, opening my eyes. “Your laptop,” I added, a little puzzled. “Don’t you need it?”

  “I was going to get a new one anyway,” he said. “You just rushed me into it a little bit. But I couldn’t let you go without it. A couple of days of study isn’t going to get you anywhere. Make sure you use it properly, and don’t be downloading games or anything onto it. Deal?”

  “Deal,” I said. I put the laptop down and gave him a tight hug.

  “You said you were leaving tomorrow, yes? At what time?”

  “Early,” I said, still hugging him.

  “I probably won’t be able to see you off. I have a test in the morning.”

  “That’s okay. Thank you.”

  He stayed with us until Professor Leaf arrived. Godfrey couldn’t hide his worry at the Professor’s request and made me promise to run at the first sign of danger. It was a promise I would be unable to keep.

  The talk with the Professor went by quickly. He offloaded a bunch of maps, potions, and repels on us, and gave us lists of things to look for, things to look out for, and things to avoid at all costs. He said Kurt had been given a more in-depth lesson, and to rely on him for direction. He gave us his contact number, said he should be waiting at a Pokémon Centre nearby, and left in a hurry complaining about a class of first years he had in twenty minutes.

  We waited for the shower to end then headed over to meet Kurt. He was sitting in the lobby with headphones sitting on dark copper hair, and his back turned to us, so I was able to see he was watching a replay of his match against Darren on his phone. His Vulpix was on his shoulder, watching the screen just as intently as he was. Darren announced our presence with a cough. Vulpix fell, and Kurt almost dropped his phone in surprise. He recovered smoothly, taking off his headphones and stretching out his hand.

  “Pleased to meet you again,” he said. “I am Kurt of Sandfire. I hope we get along.”

  Vulpix mewled and Kurt remembered to include him too.

  “And this is Pixie. He’s still young, but I trust you can acknowledge his strength.”

  We introduced ourselves in turn and he listened to each of us with his eyebrows scrunched, and eyes locked with whichever of us was speaking. He was twenty, older than any of us, but he treated everyone with a seriousness that was almost cute. It was easy enough to like him, and I knew that we would, indeed, get along.

  “Of Sandfire?” I asked after we finished the introductions.

  “Yes, my family is directly descended from the Sandfire tribe that gave the town its name,” he said. “Back before the hero united the region. They weren’t a major tribe, like the Skyriders, Spearstorms, or Anvils, but they were proud, and we still are.”

  “Cool,” I said, not knowing what else I could say to that.

  “The Professor already told you we were going to the Greenforest with you,” said Darren.

  “He did,” he said, then he glanced up, as if remembering something.

  “I should probably show you the rest of my team. Come, follow me.”

  He took us outside, to where the Centre had a space for trainers to exercise their Pokémon and released his four other team members.

  “This is Crater, Warrior, Snebby, and... Capsakid.”

  Crater was a Numel who immediately started chewing lazily on Kurt’s hand. He took out an Oran berry and fed it to the thickskinned, yellow quadruped. Warrior was a Charcadet, a species I wouldn’t have recognised a couple of days ago, my studying was already coming in handy. He looked more like a little kid with a helmet on than a Pokémon. He was also far more enthusiastic than Crater and gave us all a sharp bow. The most impressive of the group was Snebby. She was a Magcargo, and even from a couple of metres away, the heat coming off her was enough to make me step back. The large, stone shell on her back shifted continuously, cracking and spouting flames like a living lava flow.

  Finally, there was Capsakid. Kurt’s gaze lingered on him the most, though it seemed to be in confusion rather than anything else. Capsakid tilted his head and yawned.