Chapter 8: Winter Wasteland

Route 217 was a wide, snowy path that spanned six hundred miles south. The southern end of the route intersected with Route 216, which turned east towards the Coronet Mountains. The passage was framed on either side by dense woodland, with a few smaller trees littering the open expanse.

Daniel chose to walk a short distance from the edge of the forest. He reasoned that it would give him the most flexibility for escaping danger. Abomasnow were too bulky to venture into the tightly packed trees and weavile avoided open plains. Drift and Sasha followed along beside him, having little issue with the snow or cold weather. He left his magby and piplup in their pokeballs for travel though. Kai had problems walking through snow as his high body temperature melted the snow and left him in constant contact with water. Slater was newly caught and prideful enough that Daniel didn't want to deal with the penguin while walking.

He spent five hours trudging through the snow covered route before calling a stop for his first day of travelling south. Based on the sun's position, he only had an hour two of daylight left which would give him time to set up camp and run his team through a training session. He chose a spot just inside the treeline as the trees would provide him some respite from the wind and snow.

Before he started setting up his tent, he released all four of his pokemon, directing them to start warming up for the night's training session. He turned his back to his team and began breaking out his tent. As he did, he heard a rush of water followed by a pained quack. Daniel spun around to find Slater pummeling Kai with water guns.

His other pokemon reacted quickly. Drift tackled the piplup and held the penguin down with a series of angry grunts. Sasha teleported between the magby and the piplup to keep Kai from retaliating. The whole event lasted all of a few seconds, but Kai was left drenched with steam rising off of him.

"What the hell, Slater?!" Daniel exclaimed at the water type. The penguin just glared at him as Daniel's starter let him up from the ground. Though the piplup couldn't understand his words, Daniel was sure that he understood the anger and intent behind them. "That's not okay. We're your family now."

When Slater turned his beak up to Daniel, he addressed his sandshrew, "Run him through drills. Show him he's not number one." The icy shrew gave a resolute nod before grunting at the penguin, forcing the water type forward.

Once he was sure that his starter had his newest team member under control, Daniel knelt down beside his magby. The fire duck still had small vapors of steam wafting off his body and his breath was ragged. Despite the exhaustion and pain the pokemon was in, Kai had a raging fire burning in his eyes. It took Daniel repeating the magby's name multiple times to garner his attention.

"Don't go after him, Kai," he said, "We both know you can beat him. He knows you can beat him. That's why he took the cheap shots." Kai gave another withering glare at the penguin, but nodded obediently.

"Thanks, bud. Take it easy tonight, okay?" He turned from his pokemon and began setting up camp in earnest before having his team work on move development.

The next morning started with a short session of stretches and yoga prior to travelling. And while Slater did not attack anyone, the piplup did refuse to participate until Drift pounded him into the snow a couple times. After the short session, they continued the journey south. Daniel did ask Sasha to keep her mind open to anything worth hunting though. He had enough food for the journey, but it would help his bank if he could save some of that food for later. They traveled for another five hours before stopping to train while there was still daylight.

It was the following day that his meditite sensed something. A quick scouting trip later, she returned with news that there was a single sawsbuck drinking from a river inside the treeline. Daniel unfolded his bow and had Sasha teleport him downwind from the deer, hidden among the trees

The large buck was in its winter form. Its pelt a darker brown with the stomach and breast a crisp, snowy white. The white antlers on its head each sprouted to four, velvety points. Due to the constant cold, all deerling and sawsbuck stayed in their winter form this far north. The ones living in areas with more season diversity would shed their darker coats for something lighter brown and sprout flowers and leaves from their antlers once winter faded.

He had Sasha start to meditate to bolster her attack. While she did so, he laid out his plan in a whisper, "Sasha, when I shoot my first arrow, it's going to try to run whether I hit it or not. So the moment I shoot, teleport in and hit one of its front knees with a force palm, two if you have time. Then get out before you get hurt."

Once his meditite was done with her meditation, Daniel nocked an arrow and took aim at the sawsbuck. With the release of his breath, he let the arrow fly. He missed the sawsbuck's neck, which he was aiming for, though the arrow did connect with the deer's hindquarters. A split second later, Sasha appeared on the far side of the animal and hit its front left knee with a pair of force palms. There was a sharp pop and the knee bent in a sickening way. Sasha teleported away a second later.

Daniel stepped out from the trees as the sawsbuck collapsed to the snowy ground, unable to truly support itself with an arrow on one side and a dislocated knee on the other. Upon seeing him, the deer pokemon charged up a translucent orb of green energy between its antlers. Daniel was forced to dive to the side to avoid the energy ball attack. He quickly drew another arrow and fired before the sawsbuck could charge up another attack. This arrow did connect with the buck's neck and the animal fell still a minute later. Daniel looked behind him to see that the attack had disintegrated a tree behind him, leaving just a stump.

"The steed almost defeated you," Sasha said telepathically. Daniel couldn't tell if the meditite was concerned or disappointed.

"I got cocky. Sawsbuck aren't known for long range attacks," he responded. While true, Daniel knew that his pokemon made a valid point and he needed to learn from this experience.

Daniel released the rest of his team into the clearing, intending to institute a full day of drills whilst the sawsbuck was cooking. One glance at his new piplup squashed that plan as Daniel had no desire to micromanage the penguin pokemon while trying to cook at the same time. Instead, he decided to set a precedent of taking a more relaxing day anytime that needed to spend a full day hunting and cooking. He pitched the idea to his team and was met with an excited approval from each of his pokemon.

Concerned that Slater would make a break for it in the river, Daniel set a return radius of fifty feet on the piplup's ball before getting to work skinning the sawsbuck. The radius was large enough that the penguin would still get to enjoy the water with some level of freedom. Still, it didn't take long for the pokeball to ding, alerting Daniel that Slater had been returned. The teal penguin was visibly confused when Daniel released him again. It took Slater another couple outings to figure out the radius he was provided. Daniel was pleased that the penguin was able to determine the boundary himself and wasn't upset by it.

Once he didn't have to release Slater every couple minutes, Daniel settled in to take care of the sawsbuck. He took his time skinning the beast, working slowly to preserve as much of the dark brown pelt as possible. He was surprised to note that while the brown fur of the deer was quite coarse, the snowy white areas were surprisingly soft, more akin to a buneary's velvety coat. Daniel also made sure to save the velvety antlers of the buck, as those would likely sell for a decent price like the pelt.

He sat back to observe his team once the meat started cooking over the open flame. Drift had set up away from the heat of the fire. The ice shrew looked to be building a family of snowmen, a hobby Drift had picked up in some down time they had while camping with Cal. Already, the sandshrew had two different snowmen consisting of a few balls of snow stacked atop one another, and he was working meticulously on a third. Daniel held back a chuckle at the serious concentration on his starter's face.

Daniel couldn't see Slater, though there was a small pile of wishiwashi building on the bank of the river. He saw the penguin playing in the water earlier, though he apparently switched to hunting.

Kai had settled down inside the boundary of the fire, wanting to get as close to the heat source as possible. Like Daniel, the magby was silently watching the rest of his teammates with a content, peaceful expression.

"You don't want to train at all, Kai?" Daniel asked of the fire type. Even on the restful days since getting the magby, all the pokemon wanted to do was train.

Kai simply shook his head with a snort and scooted closer to the orange flames.

Checking in on the final member of his team, Daniel found Sasha in a downward dog position a little ways away. Seeing as she wasn't paying attention, Daniel quietly made a snowball before whispering to Kai to pay attention. He lobbed the projectile at his meditite, forcing back laughter even as the snowball was in flight.

It stopped in midair just short of the meditite's behind. Sasha, while holding the pose glared back at Daniel, quickly determining her assailant. With a blink of her eyes, the snowball was sent careening back at him. Daniel scrambled backwards in alarm, but was unable to avoid getting beamed in the face by the shockingly hard frozen missile.

As he wiped the ice and snow from his reddening face, Kai fell to his side in laughter while Sasha adopted a highly satisfied grin. "Justice is best served cold," she said.

With his pride wounded, Daniel fired back, "The saying is 'revenge is best served cold', not justice." He noted that Slater was now on the bank of the river, watching the exchange curiously beside his pile of minnows.

"I do not need revenge when I win in the first place," Sasha said with a shrug, finally coming out of her pose.

Daniel was saved from walking into any further blunders by Drift. The ice shrew roared, in an attempt of ferocity, before charging. The sandshrew leapt into the air and came crashing down atop his family of snowmen in an eruption of snow. His starter's mischievous laughter emerged from behind the cloud of snow and sparked a round of laughter from Daniel, Kai, and Sasha as well. The piplup on the riverbank just shrugged and turned away, choosing to enjoy his fishy snack instead.

Their travel schedule was quickly established in the following days. Daniel would wake his team up as the sun began to rise for a short strength or flexibility training session. They would travel south for around five hours before calling a halt to work on move development before dark.

It was during the second week of travel that his new piplup finally started understanding what Daniel was telling him. The fact that Daniel knew the penguin understood him only made him more frustrated when the water type disobeyed. In addition to the piplup's insubordination, halfway through the second week he attempted to attack Kai once again. Like the first time, Drift and Sasha stopped the attack before too much damage could be done. Daniel had to return the piplup before his magby could retaliate.

"Hey," he started, slowly stroking the fire type's back, "calm down, bud." Daniel wasn't sure if it was smoke or steam rising off the magby. Kai responded with an indignant huff. "He's proud. He wants to be the best but knows that you're better. I know it hurts, but take it as a compliment."

Again, the fire type blew him off. Daniel could see the fire burning in the duck's eyes. He decided to take a different tactic with his magby. "Okay, I'll make you a deal. Don't get back at him this time and if he tries again, you can show him who's boss." The angry inferno in Kai's eyes was replaced by an eager gleam and he gave a nod in agreement. "You're not allowed to hurt him. He's part of the team. But you don't have to take it anymore," Daniel clarified.

The scenario wasn't ideal. Daniel didn't want animosity to grow between his pokemon. At the same time, Kai would grow bitter if this continued and Slater would become a bully without consequences. He hoped that this would provide enough consequences to curb the piplup and give his magby enough room to blow off steam.

With one half of the troublesome duo dealt with, Daniel released Slater to address the penguin. The piplup gave a haughty look towards Kai before Daniel commanded the water type's attention. "This is unacceptable," he began, "You and Kai are teammates. You are brothers." Slater scoffed out a squeak. "Regardless of what you think, that is the truth. I don't know what else to do to stop this behavior, so here it is. If you attack anyone in our family again, there will be retaliation. If you go after Kai, he will respond. Is that clear?"

The penguin brushed his words, so Daniel repeated himself with steely resolve, "Is that clear? If it's not, I'll let Kai go now." Slater glared back at him for a moment before nodding. "Good, now start working on move development. Drift, you're working on ice shard. Sasha, endure and detect. Kai, let's start working towards a better flame wheel so you can develop flame charge later. Slater, bubble. We'll work towards bubblebeam later."

The following days went well considering he had a petulant penguin and it was constantly snowing. Based on where the GPS on his pokedex located him, he was making good progress south. Even taking into account the day he lost to cooking, Daniel figured he was still around a quarter of the way through the route.

At the end of the second week, Slater made his third bid on taking out Kai. Daniel had been expecting it for a couple days and it seemed the rest of his team had as well. As he turned from giving his pokemon their drill instructions, the piplup shot a bullet of water at the magby. By the time Kai started forward to retaliate, Daniel had turned back to watch the event take place.

The fire type lunged forward, dodging another water gun in the process. When he reached the piplup, Kai unleashed a thunder punch with a much stronger and more consistent current arcing across his fist than his first attempt weeks prior. Daniel noticed the penguin give him a startled glance before the hit connected. Slater staggered backwards, though Kai did not pursue him. Once the piplup regained his composure, Slater leaped forward to tackle the magby. Kai sidestepped the attack and responded by blowing hot embers at the penguin. The water type squeaked in pain but didn't retaliate.

The fire and water type pokemon glared at each other for a few long, tense moments before turning away to work on drills. As the fight settled, Drift and Sasha too began their own training. Daniel was proud that Kai had listened to him and not gone overboard in his response to the attack. He also felt a surge of pride that Slater fought back, though he was unable to place why that was.

The day was fairly sunny, given that winter was taking a firmer hold on the region. The sun was prominent enough that even Kai was able to enjoy the journey outside of his ball. Drift, similar to when Daniel first caught him, was rambunctiously jumping into mounds of snow.

The weather was so nice that when an alarm on Daniel's pokedex started ringing shrilly, he almost muted it in favor of enjoying himself. A glance at what his dex was signifying though had Daniel feeling very appreciative that he didn't silence the alert. Two different alerts were illuminating his pokedex's home screen: 'BLIZZARD WARNING' and 'WINTER STORM WARNING'.

Even seeing the warnings, Daniel almost kept walking.

"Drift, we need to find a snowdrift. One big enough to build a shelter inside of it," he said as the reality of an upcoming blizzard set in, thankful that he had set up a severe weather alert for the trip. Luckily the storm wasn't scheduled to hit until early the next morning, which would give him time to build a snow cave to withstand the blizzard.

The sandshrew gave a determined nod and pressed his short snout to the snow before scrambling off. Daniel snorted, mentally comparing the scene to classic cartoons with a granbull tracking a delcatty. After checking that both Sasha and Kai wanted to remain outside their balls, Daniel and his pokemon set off in pursuit of Drift.

Daniel wasn't sure exactly how Drift did it, but within half an hour, they were standing in front of a large snowdrift on the side of a massive boulder. "Sasha, I need you to teleport to the forest and find a long, strong branch about an inch wide," he waited until his meditite teleported away before turning to address Drift, "Buddy, we need to dig a cave into this snowdrift. Starting from the ground, I need you to tunnel up. I'll help remove as much of the snow as possible."

With a pokemon that was designed to tunnel through ice and snow, the process of digging into the snowdrift was much faster than Daniel remembered from building snow forts with other children in elementary school. The memories were bittersweet. As kids, Daniel and the other kids his age would spend weekends camping in similar snow caves, acting like explorers in the wild. As they got older, the other kids turned to academics, as was typical for kids in Snowpoint City, and snubbed on the more adventurous lifestyle Daniel had fallen in love with.

The tunnel travelled several feet into the snowdrift and was large enough for Daniel to crawl in on his hands and knees. Once the tunnel was done, he directed Drift to excavate a domed cavern at the end of the passage. The floor of the cave would be a step up from the floor of the tunnel to help trap heat in the cave. Additionally, Daniel and Drift shaped two higher benches inside to allow for Daniel and his team to remain even higher above the cold.

Snow caves were incredibly useful in keeping people alive during winter storms in the wilderness if there was enough time to build one. The thick walls of snow were surprisingly insulative against the below freezing temperatures outside. The temperature inside would sit right around freezing due to the snow, but it wouldn't drop below freezing like outside the shelter. Having the cave itself sit far above ground level kept snow from accumulating in the cavern and added another level of heat retention.

At some point, Sasha returned with the branch Daniel requested. He used that to poke multiple holes into the roof of the cave for air supply. He kept the stick in the cave in case the holes filled snow during the blizzard.

Daniel and Drift finished their construction project as snow was just beginning to fall slowly from the gray clouds. Aware that the weather could worsen in an instant, Daniel released his team and made a small fire to enjoy some semblance of warmth before the storm hit. As his team huddled around the flickering flames, Daniel explained what was about to happen.

"Tonight a blizzard is going to hit," he began, "Depending on how long it lasts, we might be stuck in this shelter for days. We have enough food to last for a couple weeks, but we will be cold and trapped inside."

In the light of the oncoming weather, Daniel noted that each of his four pokemon were paying attention. He was surprised to see a look of fierce determination on Slater's round face, as the piplup normally acted like he didn't need any help. That did give him some hope that tempers wouldn't flair too much inside the cave.

He continued with his explanation, "That means we need to be patient with each other. I'm looking at you Kai and Slater. No fighting. If that shelter collapses, we're in trouble. Drift will be able to venture out to check the weather every so often. And we'll keep a candle going to make sure we have enough oxygen.

"This is going to be hard. This will be a test for all of us. When we go into the cave, we're stuck in there. But I know we can pull through. You guys in?"

He received a round of resolute nods from each of his pokemon, though challenging glares were exchanged between Kai and Slater. They enjoyed the fire for a little while longer as the snow increased in intensity. Once the flames stopped producing enough heat to warm all of them, they retreated into the snowy fortress.

The shelter, while cold, was surprisingly comfortable. With thermal blankets separating the snow's cold from Daniel's body heat and a fire type cuddled into his side, he was relatively warm. Sasha and Slater commandeered the other bench in the cave while Drift was curled up on the ground, preferring the colder ground.

A charmander's tail candle flickered gently on a shelf carved into the wall. The candle was developed for mining expeditions. It was supposed to burn for weeks without going out as long as there was enough oxygen. The candle was designed to go out and give miners about an hour to renew their oxygen source or to escape the shaft. They set up shifts to keep an eye on the fire. Each pokemon knew that if the flame fluttered out, they were to wake Daniel to open up new air holes.

The shelter shielded the group from the wind and the cold. Even with air holes poked into the roof and the entry tunnel, the cave was eerily silent. The thick snow walls drowned out the sound of the wind and weather. Without any indicator of the world outside, Drift ventured out every morning to check if the blizzard had ended as he was the only one able to safely withstand the storm.

The first day was easy, albeit boring. Aside from the tension of the ongoing storm, there were no problems between the group. Kai and Slater clearly avoided each other, but didn't cause any problems. Daniel sent a message to his parents, letting them know he was okay despite the weather and he would call them once the storm abated. The message didn't go out immediately due to connectivity issues, but it would send if the pokedex ever managed to gain service.

The second day the candle went out the first time. Daniel was awake at the time and was able to quickly reopen the air holes.

Day three tensions started to grow. The difficult duo exchanged threatening growls and glares. Sasha snapped at both of them before Daniel could intervene. Their water supply ran out as well. Kai lit a few pieces of charcoal in a pan. They set a pot full of snow atop the coals to melt the snow for more water.

Sasha woke him up on the fourth night once the candle went out. The air holes had iced over, forcing Daniel to poke new holes for ventilation. The following day tempers finally spilled over. Kai snarled at Slater over a perceived slight. The piplup viciously responded with a blast of water soaking both Kai and Daniel.

While Daniel sputtered and shivered, Kai lunged across to the other bench, throwing a fire punch at the water type. It took half a minute before Daniel could recover enough to break the pair apart. "Cut it out!" he yelled, "Both of you!"

He forced Kai to one side of the shelter and stood between the opposing types. As he looked between the two, he noticed the wall of the cavern near the short lived battle had started to melt. "Do you see that?" he exclaimed, pointing at the section of wall. Droplets of water were falling from the top and running down the sides. Both pokemon examined the damage before turning back to him.

"It doesn't look serious now, but what happens when the roof melts through? How long do you think we last when snow is actively falling on us and we're exposed to the wind? Now behave or you're both sitting the rest of this out in your balls."

It was a threat and they both knew it. The pokeball technology, while great at putting pokemon in physical stasis, left the pokemon mentally aware. Because of this, most pokemon didn't enjoy spending large periods of time inside their balls. Daniel had also hoped that maybe the pair would start to get along while stuck in the cave.

Both Kai and Slater gave him contrite looks before turning away from each other. Satisfied that the pair wouldn't compromise their shelter anymore, Daniel stripped out of his drenched clothing down to his underwear and wrapped himself in a blanket to stay warm.

The weather didn't let up for another four days, leaving the team stuck inside the shelter for over a week. Fortunately, Kai and Slater took Daniel's reprimand seriously and didn't cause any more problems, though they did continue to glare at each other whenever they were both awake.

On the ninth day of being trapped inside the snowy cavern, Drift came in grunting happily. The ice shrew excited tugged on Daniel's pant leg before leading him and the rest of the team outside of the shelter.

The sun beamed down on them like a glorious light from heaven. Daniel let out a deep, happy laugh at the warmth shining on his face. Similarly, his pokemon jumped with joy at being out of the shelter. Though they quickly turned away from each other, Daniel saw Kai and Slater share an excited bump against each other.

He felt his pokedex vibrate multiple times as the device reconnected to service towers throughout the region. Alerts coming through about the weather along with multiple messages from his parents and even Leader Berg asking about his well being. He quickly dialed his mother's number and waited for her to pick up.

"Mom, I'm okay."

The weeks following the blizzard felt like heaven. They had the freedom to move about. The weather was surprisingly good for the days immediately after, though they did suffer through multiple days of constant snowfall.

Daniel kept up the schedule of short mobility training sessions in the morning and attack development in the evenings. Kai and Slater's disputes escalated to nearly once a day. They were short, though passionate. Each time, the magby stood victorious over the piplup, despite having a type disadvantage. Daniel did have to break the pair up a few times when tempers grew too hot. Outside of their fights and bitter glares, the pair did not associate with each other. Daniel wasn't pleased with the animosity between the two, but he had yet to come up with a way to reconcile them.

The weeks saw huge improvement for each of his pokemon. Drift had a good working knowledge of ice shard from the TM Leader Berg gifted him. He was able to form and throw the blade of ice quickly, though not his accuracy still needed work. Daniel's starter was also working towards developing ice punch and strengthening his defense curl to eventually graduate to iron defense.

His meditite was now able to push her fast to eleven days. She still had a long way to go before evolving, but the meditite had pushed her fasting drastically since Daniel caught her. Sasha managed to combine her meditation with an attack to develop power-up punch which would slightly boost her attack while actively attacking her opponents. She was also able to use her psychic subtype to detect oncoming moves and defend against them. They started working on this technique after she protected against Daniel throwing a snowball at her at the beginning of the journey.

Kai, the competitor that he was, was able to perform thunder punch consistently. The magby was also showing improvement on using flame wheel. The move required the fire type to cloak himself in flames and charge an opponent. Daniel hoped to develop the move further into flame charge which could boost his speed, and into flare blitz which was one of the strongest fire type techniques known.

The newest member of the team had the most improvement. The piplup gained enough speed and dexterity to use peck and get away without taking a hit. Slater showed this multiple times in his attempts to dethrone Kai. Slater also progressed his relatively wimpy bubble attack to a threatening bubblebeam.

Daniel felt they were making great progress south. At six weeks, they had traversed nearly two thirds of the snow covered route. Even taking a day every week or so to stop to hunt and rest and factoring in the week and a half delay from the blizzard, they were making great headway through the route.

It was a beautiful day, eerily similar to the day the first blizzard hit. But there was no warning from his pokedex this time. The clouds crept into the sky with deceptive sneakiness. Even as the snow gently began to fall from the sky, Daniel wasn't alarmed.

It took an hour from the first snowflake for the temperature to drop. The precipitation picked up, the wind grew more violent, visibility decreased rapidly. With the sudden shift, Daniel realized how much trouble he was in. "Drift, we need to find shelter now!"