“I see the edge of the forest!” Claire happily announced, a sudden bounce in her step.

After almost three days of wandering through the forest, with a bit of marshy bog in between, I shared her enthusiasm. According to the map I had studied, we should be almost in Sandgem-Town, the fields around town just before us.

Seeing Claire start to skip ahead, I decided to accelerate my steps as well, catching up with her, which only motivated her to start running. I had to laugh at her antics, the sudden race amusing me, but that didn’t mean I was about to lose. Pushing myself, I managed to speed past her, easily reaching the treeline first and stepping out, into the grassland around town, the fence-line directly ahead of us.

“I win.” I told her, grinning as I turned around.

She pouted a little, grumbling something about cheaters with far too long legs, but goodnaturedly humoured me, bowing and cheering as if I had just won the League Championship.

“So, what’s the big thing you are missing, after these days in the forest?” I asked, after we passed the fence and were now well and truly in the area of Sandgem Town. While there always could be wild Pokémon who had made their way past the fence, attacks inside town were exceedingly rare.

“A real bed!” she instantly replied, only to pause, apparently thinking for a moment. “Or maybe real food? Nothing against your cooking, but porridge for two meals a day, with dried rations for the third is…” she cringed and I could only agree. Real food, cooked by someone else, sounded quite divine.

“What about you?” she asked and I instantly blurted out the thing I needed most.

“Warm shower.” My instant reply caused her to giggle, though the thoughtful look on her face made me wonder if she reconsidered her reply.

“That’s a good one, too.” she nodded and we continued our way across the field, seeing our destination giving us a boost of energy that pushed us forward. Knowing that we’d sleep in a bed, eat real food and have a warm shower was quite motivating.

Crossing the three kilometres around Sandgem didn’t take long and soon, we stood at the gate, a bored-looking guard greeting us.

“Hello there. Please remember that Pokémon are to be kept within their Pokéballs outside of designated facilities or in emergencies.” he greeted us, his tone telling me that he had given the same warning hundreds, maybe thousands of times.

“Certainly. Could you tell us where we can find the PokéCentre and the Gym?” I asked, a polite smile on my face.

“Sure, just follow the main road. You really can’t miss the Gym, biggest building in town and all that.” he turned, pointing towards a blocky tower some distance away. “The Centre is right next door, so you can’t miss that, either.” he added with a grin, waving us through.

“Thank you.” I nodded, stepping past.

“Let’s go to the Centre first, take care of our partners, get some rooms and refresh ourselves, then go to the gym. That work for you?” I suggested, getting a nod in return.

Once more, it was curious how twitchy I became, simply from the people around us. Even if there weren’t many on the streets, the hair on the back of my neck told me that there were hundreds of people in the houses around us, thousands in the town. All those people, each with their own mind and agenda. It was almost enough to drive me back into the forest, and that after only three days of quiet and solitude.

Getting to the Centre didn’t take long and soon, we entered, looking at a room so very similar to the one we had met in, just a few days ago. There were a few people present, but the only one we were interested in was the middle-aged woman manning the counter.

“Good afternoon.” I greeted her, presenting my League-Card. My actions were mirrored by Claire next to me and both of us received a greeting in return.

“We’d like you to check our partners and to take a room, if possible.” I added.

“Certainly. If you would hand over your Pokéballs, I’ll take care of it in a jiffy.” we both nodded, getting a small token in return, when we handed over the Pokéballs.

“For rooms, do you mind rooming together?” she asked and for a moment, I exchanged a look with Claire, before shrugging. While I’d have preferred to have a room for myself, I wasn’t about to raise a fuss about it.

“That’ll work.” Claire quickly agreed, a smile on her face.

“Now, could you tell me which Route you took to town? And do you know how to fill out the standard League-form?” she asked, reaching down into a drawer, coming up with a key.

“We came from Twinleaf, took the recommended Route and didn’t stray from it. Route 2-01, it is, right?” I replied, trying to pull up a vague memory of Robert explaining about the questionnaires, but given that I had been running across some shifting gravel at the time, I only remembered some words, no meaning.

“Ah, I see. It’s a nice route for your first journey. Let me explain to you the form, it’s about which Pokémon you encountered, how many and if there was any damage to the path or the water-sources on the way. We need to keep an eye out to avoid deterioration, so regular reports are important.” she smiled, pulling out a form, placing it, together with a pen and the key, before us.

“It should be rather self-explanatory, but if you have questions or anything is unclear, please ask.” she added. Given that there was someone waiting for service, I took the form and the two of us stepped aside.

Quickly reading the form, I realised that it was fairly simple and straightforward. A box to indicate the Route, with comments if our path had diverged, a box for the Pokémon we encountered, asking for a daily estimate of encounters, a box for comments on the path and major obstacles, all in all, it was a simple thing. Claire and I took a moment to sit down and fill it out, before returning it to the counter.

“Already done? Thank you, you could have taken your time, though I appreciate that you took it seriously.” the lady told us, after giving it a brief glance.

There was a ping from the back-room, and she raised her hand, bidding us to wait as she went into the back.

“And here are your partners, if I could have the chits back?” she asked, exchanging the chits we had received earlier with the Pokéballs, each with an information-page, giving us the results of the treatment. While it was possible to gauge the state of your partner from experience and feeling, having a technical report helped to hone that experience and avoid mistakes. That the Centre also replenished their energy and made sure to heal any deeper injuries that Potions couldn’t easily fix was just a bonus.

“Thank you for your help.” I thanked the lady, happy to have my partners back, as we stepped away, quickly finding our room.

The room was just like the room I had lived in during the time at the League, small and sparsely furnished but after three days of sleeping on the ground, that didn’t matter at all.

“I’ll do the laundry, if you want, I’ll throw your stuff in with mine.” Claire offered, just as we entered.

“Thanks a lot. I’ll have a shower first, if you don’t mind.” I replied, after a brief second deciding that the clothes I was wearing could go into the laundry, too. Stripping off right in front of Clarie felt a little weird, but given the close proximity in the forest, I had seen her exposed and I was quite certain she had seen me. It was simply unavoidable.

After a long visit to heaven, where hot water poured down on me, beating against my skin and washing away any dirt and aches, I left the bathroom, all dried off and wearing a fresh set of clothes, one that had been bought specifically to wear in town. Much less sturdy, compared to the other clothes, but comfortable and somewhat stylish.

“I’ll take care of the laundry, why don’t you have your shower next?” I suggested, slightly amused when Claire disappeared in the bathroom, before a slender, tanned arm held out the clothes she had just been wearing. Noticing that she had forgotten to take in new clothes, I barely managed to stop myself from laughing, curious how she would play that.

It turned out, she didn’t. Or it might have been a simple coincidence, that she remained in the bath for half an hour, while I waited for the laundry to be done, and by the time I returned from putting it up to dry, she was out, dressed and ready to head to the Gym.

“Check out the Gym, or do you need food first?” I asked, knowing which I preferred.

“Let’s go to the Gym first, we can have a nice dinner afterwards.” she replied and we made our way next door, to visit my first Gym.