Tommy rose from the sand and winced in pain. He had been exposed to the sun for over three hours now and his shoulders, neck, and back were starting to burn pretty badly in spite of the sunscreen he had applied before he left for school that morning. Despite the pain he knew he would be in this afternoon, it was nothing compared to the pain Ashley would be going through. Her skin was the fairest of the three of them and yet she still wore the smallest swimsuit, her black bikini revealing a lot more skin than Nessa’s modest swimsuit was. Ashley was beginning to turn pink almost everywhere that her skin had been exposed to the sun.

“You should put on some sunscreen and some clothes,'' Tommy suggested seriously to her as he retrieved all three of their bags. “You’re going to be in serious pain tomorrow. I think you might actually need medical attention if you expose your skin to the sun any more than you already have, especially this afternoon. You might have to drop out.”

“Sure, will you rub the sunscreen on for me then?” She asked Tommy teasingly as she lay sprawled out on the beach, still heaving in great breaths from the gauntlet. Tommy couldn’t believe that she had actually just made a joke.

“I’ll do it,” Nessa said, frowning at Ashley. Tommy rifled through his bag and pulled out his bottle of sunscreen which he tossed to Nessa.

“I’m going to head into the cave and find a place to start setting up camp,” he told the two girls as he threw on a shirt. He grabbed all three of their heavy bags with difficulty. “I’ll see you both inside when you’re done.”

Tommy headed into the cave and saw a massive bonfire roaring right in the center of the large domed antechamber. He had no idea where Zach had gotten the firewood to create such a monstrous fire but wasn’t going to complain, thankful that starting a fire from scratch and collecting wood was one less thing he would have to worry about this weekend. The center bonfire was ringed by eight smaller fire pits equidistant from one another. Tommy chose one in the back of the cave as he remembered his mother saying it was going to rain tomorrow and Sunday; he didn’t want their camp to be anywhere near the cave entrance. He deposited the girls’ bags near the center by their fire pit and got to work setting up the campsite. He had Nessa's tent set up and Ashley’s tent halfway done by the time the two girls found him and walked over.

“Thank you for setting up my tent, Tommy,” Nessa smiled at him. “You didn’t have to do that though.”

“Yeah, what gives?” Ashley agreed. She dug through her bag and found a giant shirt that she threw on, “I still owe you for carrying me through the swim.”

She seemed much more agreeable after having her life saved in the ocean by Tommy. She had been scowling at him less as the morning progressed and actually speaking to him as if he were human - so that was a nice change of pace.

“It’s no trouble,” Tommy tried to brush off their gratitude. “It would be a great help though if you both organized any food you brought. I apologize for not packing much, I should have brought food for a team of three instead of just myself. Everything I brought is there in the middle next to your bags.”

He pointed to a small package of sausages, a broken down chicken, some boxed up vegetables, an assortment of dried nuts and fruits in a small container, and a half a loaf of bread.

“Help yourself to some of the trail mix if you’re hungry but try not to eat too much,” Tommy stood and dusted himself off as he finished with Ashley’s tent and moved over to get started on his own. “We need to make sure everything lasts until Sunday night when we leave.”

The two girls looked at each other and a guilty look passed between the two of them. This time it was Tommy’s turn to frown.

“Tell me you guys brought food?” He asked, a bit of panic creeping into his voice.

“All I brought was fruit,” Ashley admitted while looking shamefully at the ground. She walked over to her bag and pulled out a bunch of bananas and some strawberries.

“I brought some trail mix,” Nessa winced as she produced a container from her bag the same size as Tommy’s and placed it on the ground next to his. “I really thought we were going to Cianwood for our trip, I thought we would be able to eat in the city. I’m so sorry, Tommy.”

“It’s fine,” Tommy said to the two girls. He hoped his voice sounded normal and calm because inside he was panicking. “Let me just finish up with camp and then I’ll take a fishing rod and catch us some dinner. We all thought we were going to the city, so no harm done. I’m sure I can catch something for us.”

“Let us help you fish,” they both said immediately.

Tommy nodded his head, “Sure that’s fine, we’ll hopefully have a better chance of catching something if all three of us go. We’re taking the food with us though because I think there are actually some groups who brought no food at all.”

Tommy shuddered at the thought of having to go the entire weekend without any food, just hoping you could catch a fish to eat for dinner so you didn’t starve. He passed the two girls his water jug which he had already taken a big drink from. They sat on a log next to their fire pit, looking totally defeated as they tried to take the smallest sips possible from Tommy’s water jug while watching him finish setting up his tent.

“Okay let’s gather all of our food together and put it in my bag which I’ll bring with us,” Tommy told them as he finished up. “I think some of these kids are desperate enough to try and steal our food and water so we have to stay alert.”

“And I think we should head into the cave actually,” Tommy said while looking at his PokéNav. “The middle of the day isn’t usually a good time to fish; we’ll head outside to the water maybe around 5 or so. Hopefully the sun is a little lower too since Ashley is scorched and I’m a pretty burnt myself.”

Tommy strapped his pack on and the three of them headed deeper into the cave. He hadn’t seen anyone venture into the cave complex yet, but wondered to himself if one or two groups had already headed further into the cave before them. He hoped his group would be able to forage some food that they could eat for dinner; he wanted to save the food he had packed from home for as long as possible, especially since he was now going to have to share it between three people.

Tommy had no idea what he should be looking for as they made their way through the twisting passages of the cave complex. He, Ashley, and Nessa passed small bunches of mushrooms growing up from cracks in the floor and there were different colored lichens hanging from the wall, but Tommy didn’t feel comfortable picking anything not knowing what was poisonous or safe to eat. He hoped no one was desperate and hungry enough to stuff a mushroom in their mouth without knowing if it was safe to consume; that would definitely be the quickest way to go to the Pokémon Center and end your expedition.

After a brief ten minute walk, the narrow and damp corridors opened up into a second domed room, not quite as large as the cave entrance but still quite big. Glowing mushrooms and plants clung to the walls and ceiling of the room, bathing the room in an eerie green light and casting odd shadows this way and that. There was a small pond in the center of the room and Nessa pointed out a group of students already bent over by the edge, examining the water.

Ashley, Nessa, and Tommy made their way over to the pond and the group of three boys stood up and called out cheerily.

“Hey there,” one of the boys said, smiling as they walked up. “Fresh water here in this pond; nice and crisp, thank goodness. None of us brought any so we were worried we might have to withdraw.”

Tommy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was like once the new school year started and everyone got a taste of battling, everything that they learned from the past 3 years escaped right out of their head. He couldn’t fathom how anyone could think to travel anywhere without bringing fresh water with them, especially the ocean. Tommy vowed to hug his mother one hundred times over when he returned home for checking his travel list and travel gear so many times.

“You haven’t drank any yet right? You’re going to boil it first?” Nessa asked them. The boys glanced sideways at one another and swore.

“We just took a mouthful each so far,” one of them said. His eyes were wide like he had just ingested some toxic sludge. “That’s not enough to make us sick right?”

Nessa shrugged, “I don’t know. But I wouldn’t drink anymore before boiling it. Go back to your camp and get a pot to scoop some of the water up then you can boil it in your fire pit.”

The boys took off running back the way they came, leaving Tommy alone by the pond with Ashley and Nessa.

“Should we collect some?” Ashley asked while looking at her reflection in the still and glassy surface. She glanced over at Nessa. “We can get a fire going and boil some ourselves.”

“I think we’re okay for now,” Tommy interjected, “I brought enough water for tonight and tomorrow, and then it’s supposed to rain tomorrow night. We can collect some rainwater which I think will be better than this cave water. If it doesn’t rain we can always come back here if we need to.”

“Okay,” the two girls said, agreeing with him.

“Should we go back?” Tommy asked. “I don’t want to waste any more energy when we don’t even know what we’re looking for. How can we know if anything in here is even edible?”

“Why don’t we use our encyclopedia?” Ashley said while holding out the PokéNav on her wrist.

“Brilliant!” Nessa said. She smiled kindly at Ashley for what may have been the first time ever. “I had forgotten all about it, it’s amazing you remembered.”

Ashley waved her hand in the air like it was no big deal but Tommy saw her grin as she looked down at her wrist. The three of them each spent a moment opening up their PokéNavs and Tommy tried to navigate around it to find the Whirl Islands. He didn’t have much luck but after a minute he heard Nessa say that she found what they were looking for.

“Here is the page on flora and fauna of the Whirl Islands,” Nessa said to them, grinning from ear to ear. “And it looks like some of the mushrooms and plants in here are edible. Zach is the one who supplied the information to the database, he must have spent a lot of time the last few years doing research on these islands.”

She pointed out various mushrooms around the edge of the pond that were edible according to the information in the encyclopedia. Tommy and Ashley scooped up handfuls of everything Nessa pointed to and put them in an empty container that Tommy pulled from his bag. They didn’t take everything, leaving some for the other students, especially those who didn’t have any food. After a few minutes of harvesting around the edges of the pond, they were finishing up when a soft breath of wind gusted into the room from further down in the cave. Tommy felt gooseflesh rise on his arms and the back of his neck as soft whispers seemed to be carried forth from the bowels of the cave.

“Did you feel that?” Ashley spoke, a small hint of panic in her voice. She was rubbing her exposed legs up and down trying to get her own goosebumps to settle. “Did you hear a voice?”

“Yeah,” Tommy tried unsuccessfully to suppress a shudder. He looked in the container that he was holding which was close to full with various mushrooms and fungi.

“Can we get back to the fire?” Ashley asked meekly. “Did we collect enough?”

She didn’t bother to wait for a response and raced towards the tunnel that would lead them back to their camp. Nessa and Tommy hurried to catch up to her.

“Let’s try to catch a couple of fish,” Tommy suggested as the three of them walked back into the cave entrance ten minutes later. He didn’t want to sit down and get comfortable just to have to get up again, but he also was keen to get out of the cave into the sun for a little while after hearing those eerie whispers. He silently hoped he would never hear them again.

Tommy kept his pack with him as he collected a fishing rod and exited the cave back into the sunlight. It was only 4:30 and he thought that the fish might still be resting as the sun beat down mercilessly in the western sky, but they might as well get started anyway. Tommy pulled his fishing cap out of his bag and offered it to Ashley, it would keep the sun from her neck and face which were both extremely red and looked very painful in the sun. She accepted it without complaint for once and put it on her head; her face turned a shade redder than her sunburn but Tommy pretended not to notice. He glanced over at Nessa who was walking on his other side to apologize for not having an extra hat to offer to her.

“Don’t worry about it,” she smiled at him and shook her head before he could open his mouth.

Unfortunately for the three of them, the reef was on the western side of the island which meant they had to sit in the direction of the sun. When they sat down at the edge of the beach, Tommy pulled two shirts from his bag and offered one to Nessa as he placed the other one on the top of his head and neck; she thanked him and followed suit. Tommy normally enjoyed fishing but he always sat under his oak tree in the shade and when he fished it was meant to help him relax. As they were about to fish for their survival, Tommy didn’t think he would find this enjoyable at all.

He placed small bits of chicken on the ends of everyone’s hooks, since no other bait was around, and then he cast out into the water as far as he could reach. The water had risen further as the day progressed so Tommy had to cast all of the lines to reach the reef. The three of them sat in silence as time moved forward, everyone immersed in their own thoughts after a horrible first day.

As the minutes and hours ticked by the sun crept across the sky, inching its way closer to the horizon. Tommy frequently checked his PokéNav; they had been out here fishing for almost three hours and he hadn’t felt a single fish nipping the end of his line the entire time that they had been at it. He was famished, not having eaten anything substantial since breakfast which was well before they left the school. He was just about to suggest they head inside, to cook the chicken he had brought, when he heard Ashley sniffling on his right. He looked over at her and saw that she had a couple of teardrops leaking down her face as she was staring out over the water, her eyes unfocused. Unsure of what to do or say he turned to Nessa for help; she too looked dejected as she watched the sinking sun.

“This has been a humbling experience,” Ashley spoke softly under her breath. She held the fishing rod in one hand and pulled Tommy’s hat low to cover her eyes with her other hand. “I really underestimated the severity of this expedition, and the first day isn’t even over yet. I don’t want to imagine what Zach has planned for us tomorrow.”

Tommy hesitated for a moment but then gently placed his hand on her back and rubbed small circles, unsure of the correct words he should say to make her feel better. She whimpered softly and Tommy remembered she was severely burned so he apologized and started to withdraw his hand.

“Feels good,” she mumbled into her knees, which were hugging her chest inside of her baggy shirt. Tommy put his hand back and gently started to rub her back again. The sun was sinking lower on the horizon now and the water appeared as if it were on fire, brilliant shades of reds, oranges, and yellows reflected across the ocean’s surface.

Nessa leaned into his arm on his left side making his heartbeat start to quicken even further. He placed his fishing rod down, he didn’t know why he was still holding it after three miserable hours, and wrapped his arm carefully around Nessa, feeling his face flush as he did so.

“I want to apologize to you, Tommy,” Ashley said, her voice still barely a whisper. Tommy turned to see that she was staring at him, her head resting on her knees. She had begun to shake as tears fell from her beautiful green eyes in greater amounts now. “I called you baggage this morning before we left and it was an awful thing to say. I treated you poorly all week just because I thought you wouldn’t be able to battle. You’ve taken care of me, of both of us, all day and I wouldn’t have been able to even compete in the first event if it wasn’t for you. You saved my life in the water and it’s my fault you got hurt this morning and that you have a black eye now.”

“I’m sorry,” she hiccuped.

“Nothing that happened to me this morning was your fault,” he told Ashley. He was extremely conscious of the fact that he was seated in between two beautiful girls. If he was honest he felt like crying too, this had been one of the worst days he had had in a very long time, and the back of his eye still throbbed dully in his head. But he willed himself to not break down, he would stay strong through this experience. “Ashley, I don’t want you to worry over anything you said or did. We’re a team and we have to look out for one another. I don’t think an apology is necessary but I’ll accept it if it makes you feel better. Let’s start over, deal?”

She smiled at him, her teeth shimmering in the waning sunlight, and he felt his breath catch for a moment. “Deal.”

“Besides, I strongly feel that tomorrow is going to involve our Pokémon,” Tommy continued. “I mean we haven’t even used them at all today.”

“Our Pokémon!” Nessa said, causing Tommy to jump. She pushed herself away from his side and laughed a delirious sort of laugh as she buried her face in her hands.

“What about them?” Ashley asked. Tommy was happy to see Nessa smiling again, he had decided he didn’t like when she was upset.

“We can just call out Shellder and Totodile and have them swim out to the reef,” Nessa said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “They can catch all of the fish that we could ever need.”

Ashley cocked her head sideways momentarily, then flipped onto her back in the sand and laughed up at the sky. “We’re so stupid. Zach probably put those fishing rods there on purpose to mess with our heads.”

Nessa and Ashley each pulled a Pokéball out and tossed them, summoning Shellder and Totodile into the rising water.

“Please,” Nessa implored. “Catch us some fish.”

The two little water Pokémon scuttled away and within two minutes were returning to the beach with food. Shellder had two small to medium sized fish clamped in his shell and Totodile was hauling an absolute monster up to the shore. That one fish was big enough for Tommy, Nessa, and Ashley to get full from, even without the other two fish that Shellder brought. Ashley and Nessa were jumping up and down and hollering, their spirits reinvigorated. Tommy looked around at all of the other students who were now openly eyeing their group, mutinous expressions on their faces.

“Hey, guys?” Tommy started. He looked down at his PokéNav and saw it was getting close to 8.

“What is it Tommy?” Nessa asked cheerily.

“The sun hasn’t set quite yet,” He told them. “Do you think they can go back out a few more times to get more fish?”

“This is plenty for us though,” Ashley said while frowning. “We probably couldn’t eat all of this even if we wanted to.”

“You think we should get some for the other students,” Nessa stated as she followed Tommy’s gaze to the group closest to their location.

“Yes,” he quickly agreed. “A little generosity will go a long way, especially since everyone is probably starving.”

“Can you go get us some more of those littler fish?” Ashley asked the two Pokémon. They scampered back to the water to catch more. Shellder and Totodile made three more trips before the sun set and then it was time for Ashley and Nessa to recall their Pokémon. The beach was almost submerged now and many students had already given up and gone back inside the cave. When Tommy, Nessa, and Ashley went inside they travelled to each campsite, passing out their extra fish. They kept the large one for themselves but passed out all 11 of the other fish that Totodile and Shellder caught. All of their classmates thanked them profusely as they dropped food off, some of them even had tears in their eyes when they thanked the two girls.

The three of them returned to their campsite in high spirits. The two girls brought some dry kindling over and then went to grab some coals from the main bonfire while Tommy started preparing the fish. He took his knife and cutting board from his bag and began to scale and debone the fish; he removed the head and tail from the body and then started cutting some of the mushrooms they had foraged from the cave earlier. The girls had returned and gotten the fire started while he was working, and when it was hot enough he put some oil in a pan and tossed in his mushrooms. He then quickly filleted the fish and removed its bones, his practiced hands moving almost automatically as he reminisced all of the fish he caught and ate back home on the ranch. He was able to get six filets from the massive fish so he stored three away and threw the other three on the fire now that the mushrooms were starting to color.

“How do you happen to have everything we need conveniently packed in your bag, when no one else seemed to have brought anything?” Ashley asked when she saw Tommy bring a small amount of salt from his pack. He threw the salt on the fish and then sat back; nothing left to do but wait.

“My mom triple checked my bag before I left,” Tommy laughed. “She kept throwing more things in saying it’s best to be over prepared. I didn’t think I would be able to walk with my backpack because it was so big.”

“Remind me to thank her when we get back,” Nessa said. “Is she picking you up from school on Sunday evening when we return? I didn’t get to meet her since I wasn’t able to visit your house with everyone else.”

“Yeah, as far as I know,” Tommy said. He flipped the fish and salted the other side. “Just a few more minutes and it will be done.”

“This might be the best thing I’ve ever smelled,” Ashley said, drool practically dribbling from the corners of her mouth.

“It’s just salted fish,” Tommy said modestly. “It’s only because you’re starving. If I had access to a full kitchen I could do more for you guys.”

“You’ve done more than enough,” Nessa said, eyeing the pan in the fire. Tommy heard her stomach rumble and smiled to himself as she blushed deeply.

“Okay, it should be done now,” Tommy told them. He plated up the fish and mushrooms and then handed them over to Ashley and Nessa.

Everyone took a bite of the fish while it was steaming hot and sighed in pleasure. Tommy did have to admit it was good, but he hadn’t eaten all day so he figured a salted rock might taste good right now.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Tommy said as Nessa and Ashley were about to start shoveling more food into their mouths. He turned and began to rummage through his backpack all the way to the bottom. “I made something for you guys.”

“You did more for us?” Ashley asked incredulously, “Tommy, we're never going to be able to pay you back for all of this.”

“Well not for you, for your Pokémon,” he told them as he surfaced with some sealed containers. “And I already told you, you owe me nothing. We’re friends now and friends take care of each other.”

He passed large boxes to both Ashley and Nessa. “That’s why I didn’t pack more food for us, sorry. I made some food for your Pokémon. It’s sort of a generic blend that I made at my house last night. I could do something more specialized for each of them but that’s all I could carry in my bag.”

“For Totodile and Gible you can garnish a bit of their Pokémon food with the fish we just cooked. I’m not sure what Litwick eats since he’s a ghost,” he told Ashley. He passed an Oran berry to Nessa, “For Shellder and Feebas.”

He started to reach behind himself, towards his bag for his Pokéball to call out Solosis, but was knocked backwards off the log he was sitting on and slammed into the ground by Nessa and Ashley. They were both hugging him tightly and thanking him over and over again.

“It’s no problem! Really, it was no trouble!” Tommy was struggling to be heard over their profuse thanks. “Guys eat, please. Before your food gets cold!”

They finally let go of him and returned to their seats around the fire.

“This is the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me,” Ashley smiled bashfully. “You’ve turned one of the worst days of my life into the best, thank you.”

“Please, you’re overexaggerating,” Tommy said, feeling very flustered. “Like I said it was no trouble, we’re all friends and I only did what a friend would do.”

“Thank you,” Ashley mumbled while looking down at the ground.

Tommy smiled at the girls then he called Solosis from his Pokéball, allowing Ashley and Nessa to tend to their own Pokémon. Tommy hadn’t really gotten to interact with Solosis much since before his very first battle at the beginning of the month, and he was excited to see his friend again. Solosis trilled happily upon spying Tommy and hopped right up into his lap; Tommy grinned and patted the little guy on his green head.

“Hey there, buddy,” his mouth was starting to hurt from having smiled so much in the last hour. “How have you been? We haven’t gotten to talk much in a very long time, I’ve really missed you.”

Solosis gurgled happily in Tommy’s lap; he bounced up and down excitedly and went over to meet the other Pokémon who were already eating. Gible growled softly at Solosis as he wandered over, causing the green blob to whimper and retreat.

“Be nice,” Ashley said between mouthfuls of her fish, as she thumped Gible on her head.

“It’s okay,” Tommy told her. “Gible just doesn’t want to share her food. Come over here Solosis, I have some for you.”

Tommy opened a small box and put it in front of Solosis. It was the same recipe he made last time for Solosis but he had added in some fruit. Solosis bounded over happily and started munching away.

“Only eat half. I’ll give you the rest of it tomorrow,” Tommy told him. He looked up at the girls. “Make sure you save some for your Pokémon tomorrow. That’s all I managed to bring with me.”

“I packed some food too for them, but nothing homemade,” Nessa smiled down at her two Pokémon as they happily ate the food Tommy prepared. “Can I have this recipe when we get back? I’ve never seen them eat like this before.”

“Me too,” Ashley smiled at him.

“Um, maybe,” Tommy said, but quickly elaborated. “Not because I don’t want to, but it’s just a family thing. I can prepare some more for your Pokémon though, I wouldn’t mind.”

“There’s no way I can…” Ashley started.

“Okay,” Nessa said while nodding at Tommy. “I would owe you any favor if you continue to make this for my Pokémon.”

“Me too…” Ashley said. She covered her face as she looked down at the floor.

“R-Right,” Tommy stammered, not sure if he was interpreting what they had just said to him correctly. He reached down and grabbed the food box from Solosis that was now half empty and put it back into his backpack. Solosis bounced into Tommy’s lap and settled as Tommy reached over to grab his plate of now cold fish. He didn’t mind that his food was cold though, his friends were all happy and that was what was most important to him.

“The food was delicious,” Ashley and Nessa said to him, as they finished their own food. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” he smiled at them weakly. His thoughts were all in a jumble now.

“Can we do anything to clean up?” Ashley asked him.

“No, I can clean up,” Tommy said after swallowing his mouthful of food. “You guys had a long day so why don’t you rest up.”

“Absolutely not!” Nessa stood, put her hands on her hips, and scowled at Tommy. “You’ve been doing everything for us, plus you have a head injury. Tell me now what you need me to do and don’t even think about doing anything else tonight.”

Tommy chose not to argue further so he quickly finished his fish and then suggested they could wash all of the dishes he had cooked with.

“Not with our drinking water though,” Tommy told them as Ashley reached over for a jug. “If you want to clean them you’ll need to go out to the ocean. Just rinse them off, but please be careful. The tide is probably high right now and it’s very dark outside. Then rinse them quickly with a little of our drinking water to wash the salt water off when you come back inside.”

Tommy grabbed another log to put on the fire while the girls left for the front of the cave. Solosis had fallen asleep in Tommy’s lap while Tommy had been eating and the rest of the Pokémon were settling in around the fire as well. Tommy himself was beginning to nod off when the two girls returned with the rinsed dishes.

“Sorry, were you asleep?” Nessa asked. “We were trying to be quiet.”

“Almost,” Tommy recalled Solosis to his Pokéball and stood up to stretch. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small bottle of aloe which he handed to Ashley. “That should help your sunburn, Nessa can apply it for you again. I’m probably going to go to sleep so here’s the jug of fresh water. I just drank a bunch while you were both outside the cave. Do either of you need anything else?”

“No,” they each grasped one of his hands. “Really, thank you for everything today.”

He blushed fiercely, hoping his sunburn hid the fact from the two girls.

“G-Good night,” he stammered. “Wake me in the night if you run into any trouble.”

He quickly grabbed his pack and crawled into his tent and onto his bedroll. He heard the Pokémon around the camp being recalled into their Pokéballs and the two girls bidding each other good night.

Tommy closed his eyes and fell asleep instantly.