“Arceus, I can’t believe you did that yesterday.” Claire groused, as we were walking out of the northern gate of Sandgem Town. She had been grumbling about my disappearing act when we had met up for dinner, though I had a feeling she wasn’t really mad. Given that the first thing she had done was hugging me and thanking me for finding someone for Cliff to travel with, I had a feeling she was just fine.

“It worked, didn’t it? And be honest, did you really want to have that talk with him, or would you have preferred to send Lucas his way, while we skipped town, leaving them to sort themselves out?” I poked, before fixing her with a stare.

“You did explain why you didn’t want to travel with him, right?” I asked, only to get a sigh in response.

“I tried, but I don't want to hurt him. He’s been a friend for years, just not that way…” she tried to explain, and a sigh escaped my lips. Why did people have to be so… human?

Shaking my head, I mentally went over the route we had to take again. It would take us about a week to reach Jubilife-City, at least if we remained on the recommended, regular Route. There were a couple of Pokémon-territories we had to avoid, unless we fancied trying to battle it out with the inhabitants, all of whom would be above our level.

“What are we going to face on the way?” Claire asked, as we stepped into the forest.

“More Starly, more Bidoof, maybe some Kricketot and Shinx. At least if we stay on the regular route, we should be fine.” I replied, recalling the reports I had looked at in the Centre.

“We might want to cut through one wild area, it’ll save us a day of travel, maybe even two, and I think we should be able to deal with the Pokémon there.” I added, the added challenge sounded right to me. Just following the regular path would only make us regular, once we reached the end of it.

“You sure about that?” Claire didn’t sound too happy about the idea, but the area I wanted to cut through was near the latter half of the path, so I had enough time to convince her.

For most of the day, we continued walking along the route, following the path hundreds of trainers had taken over the years. There were a couple of Pokémon attracted by the noise, but they were nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing exciting, but maybe that was for the best. While Claire and I could quickly dispatch them, I decided to use them to train Prince Charming and Vio, pushing them to shore up their weaknesses.

For Violet, it meant to wait and dodge, to only use her mental abilities at the last moment or even after avoiding an attack. During the first combat, she was struck head-on. The image of her getting run over by a Bidoof and rolling along the ground hurt me deep within my chest, but if I wanted her to get stronger, I needed to steel myself. There’d come a time, when she was faced with an opponent like that Poochyena she had been fighting when we met, a foe that managed to corner her. And then, she’d hopefully be able to avoid it, until her mental abilities could make up the difference or I called her back, letting a more suitable combatant deal with it.

Once she managed to send the Bidoof careening into a tree, knocking it out with a combination of physical impact and mental anguish and longing caused by her Disarming Voice, I explained what I was planning, profusely apologised to her for the pain she had to face. Given that she was happily trying to hide behind my leg while I was rubbing the Potion into her body, I was relieved, knowing that she forgave me.

For Prince Charming, the special training was the opposite, instead of letting him savage his opponents with his claws, I pushed him to use his Fire-attacks, to remain at a distance while letting them burn, disorienting them with smoke, like Marcy’s Stunky had tried with us. It worked, for the most part, though it took him more energy to accomplish his battles. Creating Fire took a lot of energy out of him.

“Dani?” Claire spoke up, as we were beginning to make camp. There was something odd in her voice, a seriousness that hadn’t been there the whole day. Not that we had talked about anything serious, mostly we had been walking in silence or trying to pass time with silly word-games, or discussing the shape of particular trees or clouds. Anything even remotely interesting.

“I’d like to ask you a question.” she announced, her tone oddly formal.

“Well, Miss Claire of Twinleaf-Town, Daughter of Grace, what is your question?” I asked, standing straight, my arms linked behind my back, as I was staring down at her, mostly to poke fun at her seriousness.

“Where are you from?” She didn’t get poked, she maintained the seriousness. And asked the question in the most serious tone I had heard from her, yet. Letting out a slow, soft sigh, I considered how much to tell her. And decided that, if I wanted her to trust me, I needed to trust her, too.

“There’s a simple answer to that and a much, much more complicated one.” I prevariated, before deciding that tea was needed for this talk.

“Sit, I’ll make us some tea.” I told her, putting the preparation for our camp on hold. Making tea with a Charming heating-element didn’t take long, and soon, I was holding a hot mug of steaming tea.

“The simple answer is, I don’t know.” I told her, getting a frown and a ‘huh’ in return. “And that gets us to the much more complicated one.”

“A little over a month ago, Cynthia discovered me on the slopes of Mount Coronet. Before she found me, I encountered three Pokémon of incredible power. I’m talking, right out of myth and legend here. My memories of what came before that are vague. Fragmented, misty and incredibly confusing. Lost.” I paused, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

“Quite frankly, I have no idea where I’m coming from, or even when I’m coming from. Not my idea that there’s temporal distortion involved, that one’s courtesy of Cynthia.” I explained, Claire staring at me wide-eyed.

“Are you shittin’ me?” she blurted, the expletive slightly amusing to me. My speech had been somewhat influenced by the mostly formal manner used by Cynthia and Joyce, and I thought Claire had imitated the way ‘grown-ups’ were speaking, in order to get taken seriously.

“It would be a fun prank, wouldn’t it?” I grinned, though my heart wasn’t in it. “But no, I’m not ‘shittin you’,” I let out another sigh, “Sometimes, I wish I were. It might make some things easier.” I quietly added, when I was suddenly engulfed in a hug. I barely managed to keep my hot tea from spilling all over Claire and myself, as that would have ruined the moment.

“Arceus, I’m so sorry.” she said, her voice soft, almost quivering.

“No idea if he’s directly involved but it’s as good a suggestion as any. There are few beings with the power to command the Lords of Time and Space, let alone the Renegade Lord.” I replied, speaking just as quietly.

“Your family? Your home? Friends, anything?” she asked, and I could only shake my head in response.

“Vague images. A pair who might be my parents, though their names, I don’t know. A male, my age, always my age, my twin. The day I received Charmander, the moment I named him Prince Charming, my brother standing next to me. That’s one of my clearest memories. Others are a lot less clear. A weird house, with countless other houses around. Strange, gleaming metal objects. A bright sky, bright enough to blot out the stars. Nothing makes sense.” For a moment, I closed my eyes, a tear escaping as I remembered the image of my parents, standing next to my brother, waving as I walked down the path leading away from our home. My heart filled with the desire to go forward, to become the very best.

Letting out another sigh, I gently rubbed Claire’s back, trying to ease myself out of her hug. It was comfortable, but not the best way to communicate.

“Anyway, after Cynthia found me, half frozen because I was dressed and prepared for summer, not for the end of winter on the slopes of Mount Coronet, she gave me my coat and brought me to the League. Helped me adapt. Your Aunt Joyce and Cynthia taught me, together with a couple others, what it means to be a Trainer. Making them proud is one of the reasons I want to see this path through to the end.” I explained, once we had a bit of distance between us. For one, it was a lot easier to drink tea without a teary-eyed Claire wrapped around you.

“I have no idea what to say. But I promise you, for as long as our paths align, I’ll walk together with you. You don’t need to walk alone.” she solemnly said, sounding so very serious. For a moment, I considered telling her that I had my partners with me. That Prince Charming and Violet would accompany me, until my path came to an end.

“Thank you. For as long as our paths align.” I promised, taking her offered hand and pulling her into a hug.

Maybe, people being human wasn’t too bad from time to time.