“Go on,” said Trim. Sunny proceeded with her story.
“At the distance we followed, I could neither see them through the water, or hear them, or have any way of knowing we were after them. Miss Song was, though. She guided us into darker waters, and I felt the pressure building up around me again.
“I was nervous, of course. I had a few doubts about me being there. Not even for myself, I didn’t feel like I was in much danger, or anything, not like in-, never mind. Point being, I was nervous about ruining the operation somehow. Aria was putting a lot of trust in me, and I wanted to live up to that, but it’s stressful, you know?
“So I stayed as still and quiet as I could, holding onto Hector as he stayed on Miss Song’s tail, and she led us into the abyssal depths of Lake Rin. It wasn’t too long before she stopped. Lake Rin isn’t that deep, after all. From there, we proceeded with even more caution, if that was possible. Aria readied an underwater camera she had, and, after a few minutes of drifting forwards slow enough that our presence wouldn’t ripple through the water, in the dim light still filtering from the surface, I saw them.
“The Clamperl had made their nest in some kind of ravine. A fault in the lake floor split open, a dark maw just waiting for us to enter. The Clamperl populated the rocky shelves of the crack. When open, their pearls glittered like stars in the night sky. Most of them, however, were shut. The poachers scaring them into Withdrawing into their shells.
“The two men, Canis and Felix, rode a Samurott and a Starmie, respectively. They were barely visible as silhouettes, but the light of their own torches illuminated their Pokémon and what they were doing. Samurott was using his horn as a can opener, wedging it into the crack between Clamperl’s shells and leveraging it open by brute force. He was struggling, clearly. There are few things stronger than a Clamperl that does not wish to open up, including, sadly, their own shells. In the war between them, Clamperl seemed to be defending well, but with a jerk, and a high-pitched cry, a chip flew off the top shell. The Samurott, who had snapped back in recoil, approached again and resumed his onslaught. It was clear there was only one way this was ending.
“The Felix was going through Clamperl faster than his brother. It wasn’t easy to see what Starmie was doing to them that made them burst open like they were. At first, I thought it must be using some kind of psychic force to make them split, but Aria pointed to a slight abnormality in the way the light from the poachers’ torch looked, and I realised its method was much simpler. It was using Scald to cook Clamperl from inside, and create a pressure within the shell that no Pokémon had any chance of withstanding. Once open, the poachers checked if the Clamperl had a pearl, and moved on to the next one.
“Both methods, naturally, infuriated me. I could barely stop myself from going in there straight away to put a stop to things; only the fact that Aria wasn’t doing so, and that I would achieve nothing if I did, held me back. Aria wasn’t idle. She was building a collection of photos that would, hopefully, be plenty of evidence to finally lock those guys up. I had to remind myself that the goal wasn’t confronting them, it was to catch them in the act and to retreat. That’s the way things would have gone too, if it wasn’t for the Basculin.
“We were about to leave when, from nowhere, a school of Basculin rushed us. I don’t know if we were just unlucky to be in their way, or if they had noticed the presence of strangers in their lake, but one moment we were in still water, and the next I was being knocked around by what felt like hundreds of cannonballs. Hector used Protect after barely a moment, though at the speed the Basculin moved, that was still plenty to do damage to both him and me, and Aria had things under control, Miss Song and Purple Blood, her Tentacruel working together seamlessly to disperse the Basculin. The tragedy was that it was inevitable we would attract attention.”
“Dinner’s ready!” said Trim, carrying over the saucepan. He placed it on a spot on the table that wasn’t occupied by ceramic. It smelled good, and waiting for food while listening to Sunny’s story had increased my appetite something fierce. It was chickpea curry, and the right mixture of spice and sweetness was irresistible. The three of us ripped into the food in silence, other than the scraping of forks and of it being shovelled into our mouths. As good a storyteller as Sunny had become, hunger still won over entertainment. It was a short five minutes before the plates were empty and stacked beside the sink, and I asked Sunny to continue.
“Where was I?” she said. “Oh, yes, the poachers saw us, and probably guessing correctly what we were doing, they came to us to break the camera or something. I don’t know what they were thinking. The way Peter had described them made me think they were particularly cunning and difficult to catch, but honestly, they seemed kind of sloppy and careless. Maybe they didn’t expect to be followed even after seeing the rangers’ boat? Or I don’t know what.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Anyway, whatever their plans, their strength was no joke. We, I mean me and Aria, were still struggling with the Basculin when they attacked. I was suddenly crushed by Psychic, I felt my bones straining, and my breath was completely cut off. It only lasted a moment, Hector fired a Mud Shot at Starmie, which was easily dodged due in no small part to the slowness of it through water. But it served its purpose, and Psychic was interrupted, Starmie being distracted. Unfortunately, it also distracted Hector, and the Basculin took advantage of it to Headbutt us again.
“Meanwhile, Aria was engaged with Canis. Miss Song confronted Samurott, and the two Pokémon tore into each other with a fury that far exceeds any tournament battle. Miss Song fought by keeping a distance and attacking with long-range moves like Moonblast. Samurott didn’t make things easy for her, rushing her with Aqua Jet any time she managed to gain some space and using Slash when he was in close range.
“She had also called up Torchlight to deal with the Basculin. That’s her Lanturn. Torchlight really lit up the darkness, quite literally. A few Discharges and Thunderbolts were more than enough to scare off the Basculin around him, and, ignoring everything else going on, he focused on his singular mission of getting rid of every Basculin around, blasting them with electricity precisely controlled not to spread throughout the entire section of the lake we were in and fry us all. It finally gave me some space to breathe, finally having to deal with only one thing, Felix’s Starmie, which was already all Hector and I could do to hold it off. We fought defensively, aiming to gain time rather than to win. It was the right thing to do. While we were battling, Purple Blood came up behind the two brothers and caught them with Wrap, his tentacles binding them tightly. Their Pokémon, engaged as they were, couldn’t help them, and once Purple had them, they were forced to recall them or risk escalating the confrontation in a manner nobody wanted.
“It was quite an adventure, and I don’t know how useful I actually was to Aria, but she said later she was happy with me, so I think I wasn’t too bad. There was only one more thing worth telling, though it’s more funny than serious. We made it back to Silverwind with no further issues, Purple dragging the suspects behind us, and we met up with the police and rangers on the shore. There, Canis and Felix were officially arrested, and a whole lot of questions and discussions took place. I’m a little tired of it all, and that’s not what I wanted to tell. Eventually, Aria and I were allowed to get changed into comfortable, dry clothes, and I was feeling good, as you can imagine.
“We were about to go home, finally free from everything. The police station is right next to a jetty, which is where Aria and I were standing. We heard a commotion behind us, coming from inside the station. Later, I learned the suspects had attempted to escape. They never made it out the door, but who did burst out of it, destroying it in the process, was one of their Pokémon, an Emboar. Aria subdued him without too much trouble, but not before he’d crashed into me, knocking me right back into the lake. You laugh, and Aria laughed. I wasn’t laughing. I had to walk home drenched, looking like a drowned Glameow. But okay, it was a little bit funny, I guess.”
The conclusion of Sunny’s story was followed by a whole lot of questions, which she answered with the pride of someone who had achieved something good and knew where she wanted to go from there. I was caught up with the excitement of her tale to notice it, but it came up with one of Trim’s questions.
“Sunny I, I don’t know how much right I’ve to say this, but was it necessary to put yourself in danger at all?” he asked.
A rare flicker of anger crossed Sunny’s face. It was short, and I don’t think he even noticed it, and Sunny responded calmly, but more firmly than she usually did.
“Actually, Dad, this is what I want to do. I don’t mean just being a trainer, I mean putting myself in these situations. The circuit is fun, I like being with everyone. But I’m never going to be the champion. I don’t particularly want the title. Aria works as a Coast Guard, basically a ranger specialising in water terrains. She’s agreed to take me on as an apprentice. I’ve decided, and I asked just before Emboar slammed into me. She thinks I’ll be a good fit, and she said she was glad to take me on. It’s not always going to be a dangerous job; most of the time it won’t be, but sometimes it’s going to get rough. Aria thinks I’m able for it, and after today, so do I. I’m not scared of what could happen, the only thing holding me back till now was that I wasn’t ready to quit travelling with Darren and Calla. So, I’m sorry, Calla, but I won’t be any longer. I’m going to Popplio Town with Aria after this to help rebuild. It’s what I find worthwhile.”
There were a lot of feelings going on inside me as she said this. I was still young, and apart from family, and the odd hired farm worker, there were few people I’d ever gotten really close to. In a lot of ways, Sunny was my first friend, real friend, that I could rely on to always pick me up if I needed it. It hurt something awful to have it confirmed that she was leaving, and selfishly, I wanted to tell her to stay with us, at least for the year. To delay the apprenticeship for a while. I didn’t, because I was also proud of her. I think, I’ve been pretty clear in my admiration for Sunny, because she absolutely deserves it, but it’s also been obvious that she lacked a strong purpose. It was why I was worried she’d drop out of the circuit without having a backup plan. I thought her lack of motivation would kill her journey and she’d go back to Nocturne, or something. That, I would have had issues with. Hearing she’d found a path, and one she was solidly pursuing was inspiring, and I couldn’t tell her not to.
It would also have been hypocritical of me. With the way I was forming my own plans for the near future, I was going to have to leave Sunny anyway. But that’s getting ahead of myself. I congratulated Sunny, and even though we still had a handful of days together, that night we celebrated like it was the last time we’d ever see each other.
