“Snorunt’s mine!” Tommy heard Aubrey exclaim. He barely caught the trophy as Aubrey unburdened herself and prepared to engage the wild Pokémon in a battle.

“You better catch her!” He cheered his friend on excitedly. “Don’t let her get away!”

“Drilbur, go get her!” Aubrey commanded her Pokémon. “Use Hone Claws, then Metal Claw!”

Drilbur sharpened her claws on each other, a horrible screeching sound echoing throughout the cave as the mole psyched herself up to fight. Her claws gleamed wickedly in the sputtering torchlight and she charged across the ice straight at Snorunt who barely had the chance to squeak in surprise. The wild Pokémon didn’t stand a chance as Aubrey’s Drilbur was on her before she even knew what was happening. Drilbur’s sharpened claws rent deep gashes into the side of the small ice Pokémon and it was knocked out as it was flung helplessly across the frozen room.

“Wow, one hit?” Tommy looked on in amazement. “And I thought I was actually catching up to you ever since I caught my first Pokémon.”

“Maybe someday Tommy,” Aubrey smiled. She unclipped an empty Pokéball from her belt and hurled it across the room in Snorunt’s direction. “We can still fight though anytime you feel like losing.”

Tommy chuckled as the Pokéball enveloped the wild Pokémon and then quit shaking and he watched Aubrey slide over to collect her new spoils. Drilbur waddled over to where Aubrey stood and looked on proudly at her trainer and new friend.

“You have a Potion or do you need to borrow some?” Tommy asked her.

“Yeah, can I borrow yours again?” Aubrey asked. “I don’t have any with me and I want to meet Snorunt before we go back down the mountain.”

He slid his way over to where Aubrey was standing and rifled through his bag to find the Potion that Nessa had given to him.

“I want to meet Snorunt too,” He smiled as he passed the item over.

She grabbed the Potion from his hand and nodded her head, calling Snorunt out of her Pokéball. She sprayed the Ice Pokémon a few times with the medicine and then passed the Potion back to Tommy who stored it away in his backpack.

“I hope Snorunt and I get along okay,” Aubrey said nervously as she eyed the wary Pokémon. “It took me almost the whole month to get Drilbur to trust me. I didn’t think I would be able to use her on this trip at all.”

“Well I’m here so it should be fine right?” Tommy grudgingly acquiesced.

Aubrey looked over and smiled at him but quickly stopped when she saw the look on his face. “Yeah, thanks for your help then.”

Snorunt continued to cower and squeak in fear, trembling in front of the two humans that were looming over it.

“It’s okay Snorunt,” Aubrey said. “I’m your new trainer, Aubrey.”

“Yeah, we’re all friends now,” Tommy smiled down at the Pokémon.

He watched Snorunt shiver and warily sidle over to where he and Aubrey had crouched down. Aubrey removed her glove and extended her hand which Snorunt eyed momentarily. Eventually it bowed its head and Aubrey grinned as she touched her newest companion for the first time.

“She’s cute,” Tommy laughed as he watched the two of them interact. He reached his hand out too and was able to touch Aubrey’s Snorunt. It was like touching an ice cube, it was so cold.

“Alright, you rest in your Pokéball,” Aubrey stood and stretched. “We gotta travel all the way back down the mountain, then I’ll heal you at the Pokémon Center.”

She promptly recalled it to its Pokéball which she then secured back to her belt. Tommy scratched Houndour behind her ears as Aubrey collected her gear and then the two of them headed back towards the entrance of the cave with their Pokémon. On their way back they ran into two other groups but neither one of them looked up for a fight when Aubrey informed them that their destination was just ahead and that there were still plenty of trophies to snag. After getting lost once or twice trying to retrace their steps, and fighting another endless supply of Zubat, the two of them eventually made it back to the mouth of the cave; they took one more quick break before braving the snow outside again.

Tommy switched his Pokémon once more, returning Houndour to rest in her ball and calling Yanma out to help locate the safest and quickest path down the mountain. He put the trophy in his backpack; hopefully no one would know that he and Aubrey had one but he supposed anyone with half a brain would figure they did since the two of them were descending the mountain back towards Mahogany. They passed a handful of students, each looking more worn out and desperate than the last although it was only the middle of the second day. Still, no one had the courage or energy to challenge them to a fight and he wondered if they could make it all the way back to Mahogany Town without having to engage in a battle with anyone.

He and Aubrey retraced their path back towards the cave they had spent the previous night in. When they reached it though, they were met by a rumbling coming from somewhere inside.

“You think a Pokémon took it over?” Aubrey hesitantly voiced her thoughts aloud.

Tommy shrugged, “Yeah or a bear or something, I guess. Honestly, I just want to move on. I’m not in the mood to fight anything. I’m cold and I’m tired. We can just sleep in the forest tonight.”

Aubrey nodded, “Alright, I’m fine with that. Have Yanma keep on leading us then.”

They left the cave and continued still further until the two of them reached the edge of the forest. Tommy had been keeping track of the groups that passed them and he was on alert as they stopped to take one more break before entering the endless expanse of wood. He recalled Yanma to its Pokéball to let the dragonfly rest and Aubrey pulled out her Chikorita to help keep watch while the two of them snacked.

“Not counting us and Max and Spencer who I’m assuming got the first trophy, I counted 8 other teams passing us today as we were leaving the cave and climbing down the mountain,” Tommy told Aubrey while he chewed on some hardtack.

“So that means what? Five other teams we haven’t seen trekking up the mountain?” Aubrey asked. “Maybe some of them dropped out during the blizzard last night if they couldn’t find shelter?”

“Maybe,” he said noncommittally. “But let’s assume the worst. There are five teams in this forest that are going to try to steal the trophy from us.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “You’re probably right. You want to sleep in shifts tonight then?”

He nodded his head, “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s find a safe place to camp, eat some dinner, and then I’ll take the first watch.”

They got back up, every bone and muscle in Tommy’s body aching in protest, and made their way into the forest. The snow wasn’t as dense under the trees as the branches caught a large portion of it. Still, they had to walk through plenty of it, the crunching of their feet the only noise in the otherwise eerily still forest. After an hour the two of them found a place that looked perfect; a refuge hidden behind some trees and under a big rock that was the perfect place to set up camp. It was both dry and easily defensible as well since the stone overhang provided shelter from the wind and snow in addition to protecting their backsides from wandering students.

Tommy soon got a fire going and began to cook dinner again while Aubrey set up her tent. There was plenty of room for two tents in the clearing but since they were sleeping in shifts tonight, they had agreed on putting up only a single tent.

While he was working on dinner Tommy heard a rustling of trees and snapping twigs coming from the entrance to their alcove. He and Aubrey readied for a fight and were surprised to see Spencer and Max make their way into the clearing. The two of them had Pokéballs gripped in their hands and looked like they were gearing up for a fight as well.

“You two didn’t strike me as the kind of competitors who would try to steal a trophy from someone,” Spencer spoke solemnly to Tommy and Aubrey. “But we’ll fight to keep our trophy away from the two of you. You can’t beat us.”

“What are you talking about?” Aubrey frowned at him. “We don’t want your trophy, we have our own.”

Spencer lowered the hand that was holding his Pokéball. “You have your own? Show me.”

“Why in the Mother’s name would we do that?” Aubrey asked incredulously. “In fact, you two could be trying to steal our trophy for that matter. So why would we show you where ours is?”

“We wouldn’t do that,” Spencer laughed heartily. He clipped the Pokéball he was holding back onto his belt and produced from his bag a gleaming silver trophy identical to the one in Tommy’s backpack, brandishing it proudly in front of everyone. “There’s no honor in trying to steal the trophy from someone else. We do everything the right way! Isn’t that right Max?”

Max didn’t bother to reply and he too clipped his Pokéball back onto his belt. He looked around the clearing and nodded in appreciation. “This is a nice place, easily defensible. Would you mind if we shared this space with you? We would of course help you two repel any invaders who tried to attack us.”

Tommy glanced over at Aubrey and then back at the other two boys, “That’s fine I guess. You’re not going to ask us to see our trophy again? You just believe us?”

“I just don’t care either way,” Max unshouldered his backpack and set it on the ground. There was no malice or hatred in his voice and he spoke as if everything he said was pure fact. “It doesn’t matter if you have a trophy or not, as you would not be able to steal our trophy from us in the first place.”

“You want to test that out buddy?” Aubrey snarled. She hadn’t put her Pokéball away yet and was now brandishing it threateningly.

“Aubrey, it's fine. Just ignore them.” Tommy told her. He wasn’t scared of a fight, he would fight Max if it came down to it, but he didn’t see any point since both of their groups had trophies already. “Feel free to set up your tents, you can use the fire when we’re finished if you need to.”

“I appreciate that Tommy!” Spencer smiled enthusiastically. He turned his attention over to Max. “You’ll set up camp, while I go hunt that doe we saw earlier?”

Max nodded in affirmation, so Spencer quickly produced a block of metal from his bag that he unfolded into a small tactical bow. He strung it quickly, with the practiced hands of someone who had been doing it all his life and drew the string to test its weight. His muscles bulged under the strain of the draw and Tommy wondered if he was as strong as Darius. Spencer pulled a single arrow from his bag and then passed his backpack off to Max.

“I’ll be back soon!” Spencer called cheerily.

“You’re only bringing one arrow with you?” Aubrey asked.

He winked at her, “It’s all I’ll need. We’ll be happy to share with you when I get back. Those vegetables you’re sauteeing smell delicious Tommy.”

He slipped amongst the trees before anyone could reply. Max went about setting up two tents for himself and Spencer and Tommy debated on whether he should take Spencer up on his offer or not. A little camaraderie never hurt so he left the vegetables simmering over the fire and then went to see if Max wanted any help with the tents. The boy just shrugged so Tommy helped him and the two of them were just finishing setting everything up as Spencer stepped back into the refuge with a massive deer draped over his broad shoulders.

He produced a rope from his bag and strung the doe up in a tree taking out his knife and quickly getting to work. “Once it’s dressed I’ll give you some. And thanks for setting up my tent Tommy, you didn’t have to do that.”

“Seems like a lot of meat for the four of us,” Tommy said. “Did you guys not bring food or something?”

“Just snacks,” Spencer smiled. “I like to live off the land. I’ll donate any meat we dont use to the Pokémon Center once we get back to Mahogany tomorrow.”

Tommy watched in appreciation and amazement as Spencer dismantled the deer in a matter of minutes. He set aside everything that they were going to cook tonight and then stored the rest of it away.

“This still looks like a lot,” Tommy told Spencer.

The dark-skinned boy pulled out three Pokéballs and tossed them onto the ground. “My Pokémon need to eat too!”

Tommy smiled as Growlithe, Phanpy, and Teddiursa appeared in front of Spencer. Max threw three Pokéballs as well, calling out his Nidorino, a Shinx, and a Cyndaquil.

“Wow, you called out all of your Pokémon in front of us?” Aubrey asked. “And you have three Pokémon Spencer. Did you have those three Pokémon at the start of term?

Spencer smiled, “Yeah. I’m ranked third in the class if that’s what you’re getting at.”

What a team, Tommy immediately thought. The first ranked kid and the third ranked kid. No wonder they’re so uncaring about everyone else.

Spencer grabbed a few pieces of raw deer meat and started to walk over to his Pokémon.

“Wait, let me cook those!” Tommy shouted quickly. “It’ll taste a hundred times better.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow, “That’s a lot of work, cooking all of the meat. Besides, my Pokémon eat raw meat all the time.”

“It’s fine, just let me cook it,” Tommy replied and beckoned the boy over. “Bring it all over here. I’ll cook your portions too.”

Spencer shrugged and moved all of the cuts of meat over to where Tommy was seated and he quickly got them going over the fire. It was a lot of meat to cook but he didn’t complain since he offered. He called Yanma and Houndour out of their Pokéballs and Aubrey followed suit, calling out Chikorita, Drilbur, and even her newly caught Snorunt as well.

“Ooo, a Snorunt!” Spencer said. “You must have just caught that in the cave, right? Lucky! We didn’t find anything good! Not even on the other side of the cave.”

“Other side?” Tommy asked, the gears in his brain snapping into place. “There was a trophy missing in the collection room when we got there and I was wondering why we didn’t see the two of you coming out of the cave this morning.”

Spencer laughed, “Yeah, we made it all the way to the cave on the first day and just plowed right on through! Blackthorn is on the other side of the Ice Path! You know what they call it?”

“The land of dragons,” Aubrey said and Tommy looked over at her in surprise.

“Right! How could we not want to go catch a dragon after coming all of this way?” Spencer said. “We spent all morning running around over there looking for a dragon, Max even saw an Axew! It got away though!”

“You talk too much Spence,” Max mumbled. He regarded Tommy and Aubrey with what looked like a small amount of approval. “Apparently you both aren’t all talk like I thought you would be. I didn’t expect anyone else to reach the trophies until the end of the second day.”

“Yeah we almost fucked up big time, eh Max?” Spencer laughed and jabbed his companion in the ribs. “Almost missed out on first place and the prize.”

“I couldn’t care any less about winning another useless Potion from the prize catalog,” Max said. “I just don’t want to give up first place to anyone.”

Spencer laughed and smacked him on his back, “So serious man! All of the time! Lighten up, you can’t win at everything!”

“Yes, I can,” Max replied coolly.

Tommy finished cooking the first few pieces of venison and pulled out the cutting board from his bag. He sliced them all up and used them to garnish the remainder of his homemade Pokémon food which he handed over to Max and Spencer. He smiled in appreciation as Spencer put some of the Pokémon food into his mouth.

“Is this homemade?” Spencer asked, chewing carefully and smacking his lips. “It’s great! It doesn’t taste like any of that generic shit you find at the Mart.”

“Yeah,” Tommy smiled. “As a thank you for sharing the deer meat. I packed enough Pokémon food for four nights, but since we should be getting back to Mahogany tomorrow I don’t want any to go to waste.”

“Man, you’re a good guy!” Spencer smiled. “Can I get the recipe?”

Tommy smiled back. “Family recipe, no can do.”

He watched Spencer’s and Max’s Pokémon devour the food he had prepared and it made him feel good. Maybe he would ask his parents if they didn’t mind sharing the recipe since so many of his friends had asked. He served his and Aubrey’s Pokémon the remainder of the food and gave Houndour some deer meat which she chomped away at happily. Even Yanma ate a little bit, but Tommy didn’t want him to eat too much.

He cooked the rest of the meat for the 4 of them and passed plates across the fire to Spencer and Max who ate the venison as if they hadn’t eaten a meal in the last 24 hours; he recalled Spencer’s words and supposed that they hadn’t.

“Damn, you know how to cook bro!” Spencer sat back, and rubbed his stomach happily. “Even the veggies tasted great!”

Max stood up and extended his hand, “The plates.”

He took all of the dirty dishes over to the edge of the camp where he cleaned them off with snow.

“Thanks,” Tommy said, grabbing the clean plates and pans from Max’s hands. He wiped them down, put them away into his bag, and then settled around the fire with everyone else. He closed his eyes and sat back in contentment but cracked one eye open when he heard movement. He watched on in horror as Spencer’s and Max’s Pokémon made their way over to where he was sitting. He had been afraid that this would happen but didn’t know how he could get the two boys to put their Pokémon away without coming across as rude. All of the Pokémon walked up to Tommy who reluctantly smiled down at each of them.

He glanced up at Spencer and Max who were giving him funny looks as their Pokémon all crowded around him in a circle. He could only imagine how weird it must look to an outsider. “Can I pet them?”

The boys nodded once and Tommy reached out to each of the Pokémon in turn. They all growled, meowed, and barked happily as he ran his hands over each of them, scratching ears and rubbing bellies.

“How the hell are you doing that?” Spencer asked.

Tommy looked up at him and shrugged, “I don’t know, sorry. It just happens.”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Max said, Tommy saw respect for the first time in the way that Max looked at him. Max extended his hand out to Houndour who sniffed at the air but didn’t budge from where she was sitting next to Tommy.

“Looks like someone can finally do something that you can’t,” Spencer laughed. “First time for everything.”

“Can you keep this to yourselves, please?” Tommy asked the two boys. “I didn’t want anyone else to know about this, I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone.”

They both nodded once and continued to look on in amazement as their Pokémon happily interacted with Tommy.

“Will they come back to us?” Spencer asked. Tommy detected a hint of jealousy in the boy’s voice and he knew when enough was enough.

“Yeah, you can call them back,” He chuckled awkwardly, hoping he could diffuse the tension. Max and Spencer extended their hands, calling their Pokémon back over and the two boys sighed in relief as they all came back right away.

“That was cool,” Spencer smiled. “I’m a bit jealous of you to be honest. Teach me how to do that too someday.”

Tommy snorted under his breath, “Sure if I ever figure out what it is that’s happening to me I’ll tell you. Until then, keep it a secret for me, please.”

“Do you two want to turn in first?” Spencer smiled. He nodded his chin over in the direction of Aubrey’s tent. “Only one tent?”

He and Aubrey both blushed furiously and she hastily spoke out for the first time, “We were going to take turns on watch. That’s why there’s only one tent!”

Spencer put his hands up placatingly and grinned, “No offense meant Aubrey!”

“Besides, I still don’t trust the two of you!” She continued on. “Who knows what you’ll try to do if we both go to sleep!”

“In what delusional fantasy world could you possibly expect us to attack you?” Max asked lazily. “You’ve already seen that we hold our own trophy, plus you fed both of us and our Pokémon dinner tonight. Why would we do anything to either of you? We’re in your debt.”

“Besides, Tommy here seems to trust us,” Spencer added on to Max’s declaration. “Isn’t that right?”

Tommy slowly nodded his head at Spencer who smiled warmly. Aubrey shook her head and growled in frustration.

“Tommy, if we both go to sleep and they steal the trophy from us then we probably won’t have enough time to go back to the cave and get another one.” Aubrey snarled at him. “Not to mention we won’t have enough food to make the journey either.”

“They won’t steal it from us,” he assured her. “They have their own trophy already so what would be the point of stealing ours? Plus we can just steal a trophy from another group if they do take ours. They won’t though. Come on, let's go to sleep.”

“My, my, Tommy,” Spencer feigned a blush. “So bold!”

“Shut up!” Aubrey yelled and Tommy and Spencer both laughed at her.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Max said. “9 to 1. Then you do 1 to 5, okay Spence?”

“I get up at 5 every morning,” Tommy told them. “To help out on my family’s ranch. Wake me up at 3 that way both of you can get some more sleep. So we’ll do 9 to midnight, midnight to 3 and then 3 to 6. Deal?”

“Sure, whatever,” Max shrugged. “I’ll wake you up at midnight then Spence.”

Everyone said good night and retreated to their tents and Tommy got into the sleeping bag that he was sharing with Aubrey.

She slept with her back to him last night but tonight she was situated so that she was facing him directly. He looked down into her eyes and smiled, but she didn’t return the gesture.

“If you’re wrong and they fuck us, I’ll never forgive you Tommy.”