“What do you think we are looking for?” Claire asked, as we were walking up a slope in the area we were supposed to patrol. Once we reached the top, we had quite the view, a few kilometres of heathland stretching out before us like a large, green carpet, dotted with numerous shrubs, flowers and, most likely, a couple Pokémon hiding out. In the distance, there were a few trees, indicating one of the many groves dotting the area, giving some shelter to animals and Pokémon alike. Or, in this case, possibly to whatever nefarious group might be out there.

“I really don’t know.” I admitted, looking around. “But if we see anything that doesn’t seem to belong, something man-made or some weird Pokémon that we never have heard about, we can investigate.” I suggested, getting a nod from Claire.

“Let’s head over to that forest, maybe we’ll find something odd there.” Claire said, giving initial direction to our efforts.

It didn’t take long to get to the forest, the low, rolling hills allowing us to advance at a steady pace, without the terrain getting in the way. There were two Pokémon that challenged us, a Shinx and a Budew, neither a challenge. I considered trying to catch the Budew, but ultimately, decided against it. It simply wasn’t worth the Pokéball. It’s innate values were average and I could already hear the crisp sound of the seal breaking, the Pokémon unwilling to get caught. It just wasn’t worth the heartache.

Claire, on the other hand, did try for the Shinx, its innate values a lot better than those of the Budew, giving it the innate traits needed to become a powerful attacker in the future. While it was weak now, it could certainly become a great partner, some day, but sadly, even though Claire would have loved to take it into her group, the Shinx had different plans, ruthlessly breaking the Pokéball, only to get knocked out by Twiggy.

“Such a shame.” Claire complained, looking at the knocked out Pokémon. As I knelt down, to make sure there was no lasting damage, I noticed a distinct, star-shaped golden pattern on its forehead, making the small feline look quite adorable.

“It happens.” I shrugged, before standing back up. “Let’s look around the forest here.” I added, walking into the copse of trees she Shinx had come out of.

The forest was a great deal colder, compared to the warm and bright heathland, but the fresh, bright-green leaves gave it a pleasant atmosphere. Sadly, the pleasant atmosphere didn’t last long, not when I looked around and noticed a pair of large, bright-green Caterpie crawling through the trees above us.

Just looking at their massive, black eyes sent a shudder down my spine and when one of them focused on me, it’s small pedipalps wiggling in my general direction, that shudder only intensified.

“Charm, I need you.” I muttered, calling my partner out without taking my eyes off the offensive crawler above me.

Claire must have missed their presence, as she stared at me for a moment, before following my gaze upwards, letting out a squeak as she noticed the Bug above us. When the Caterpie suddenly let go of the branch it had been clinging to, dropping close enough that either of us could have reached out to touch it, she scrambled back, while I merely retreated behind my partner.

“Get it, Charm, Fire Fang, it’s good training.” I urged him on, remembering the time we had played fetch to train his new move.

My dear partner didn’t disappoint, as the Caterpie landed, spitting out webbing towards Charm, he used his tail to burn away some of it, ignoring the strings that tried to tangle him up. Continuing his circular move, he swiped the Caterpie up with his claws, before savagely biting into it, his mouth full of fire. For a moment, a shudder of disgust ran down my spine, how could I ask my partner to take some Bug into his mouth, just as Charm shook his head from side to side, teeth digging into the Caterpie’s carapace, holding it in place while the fire scorched it, for massive damage.

Sadly, there was the other Caterpie above, too. I noticed it was crawling along the branches towards Charm, as if trying to ambush him from above.

“Toss it up, Ember them both together.” I directed him, hoping that he would be able to use the remnants of his Fire Fang to immediately use his Embers.

He did as directed, lobbing the Caterpie upwards, towards the other one and without delay, the rain of Embers followed. There were even some flames mixed within, making me hopeful for the future.

“Want me to join in?” Clarie quietly asked, having made her way over to me. I only shook my head, deciding that Charm had the situation under control, especially when I realised that he had been incredibly accurate, the injured Caterpie hitting the other one, before both got scorched by the rain of Embers, knocking them off the branch.

“No.” I quietly replied, “Charm, you’ve got that. Burn both of them, until the first one is knocked out.” I calmly ordered, watching as more embers struck the struggling Caterpie. The first one, after getting hit by the Fire Fang and a lot of burning embers, was struggling to move, fire slowly burning away the last of its strength, while the second one, mildly fried but still going strong, started to glow with a dim, white light, before launching itself towards Charm with impossible speed.

The direction I wanted to give him got stuck in my throat, as he nimbly sidestepped the Tackle, only to fish the Caterpie out of the air with his mouth - full of fire. His head got jerked to the side and I could see him stagger from the force of the Tackle, but I didn’t even want to imagine how brutal the sudden stop must have been for the Caterpie.

Again, he shook his head from side to side, before spitting the smouldering, knocked-out Caterpie to the ground, letting it curl up right beside the other one. Neither was in any condition to keep fighting, while Charm looked around, ready for more action.

“Well done, buddy.” I gave him a brief hug, accompanied by a spritz of Potion. He wasn’t really injured, but I wanted him to be in top condition. Using my hands, I cleaned off the bits of quickly decaying string still stuck to him, making sure he was looking good.

“Let’s see if there is anything actually interesting in this forest.” I told Claire, after calling back Prince Charming.

It turned out, there wasn’t.

For a few hours, we moved between the different copses dotting the heathland, making sure that nothing nefarious was hiding there. The worst we came across was a Metapod, the large, green cocoon trying to snare Myna in order to get itself enough power to transform into a Butterfree.

When its initial string-assault failed, it tried to turtle, increasing its defence by an incredible amount. After Myna struck twice with her Wing Attack, both hurting herself more than the Metapod, Claire decided that it just wasn’t worth it, calling Myna back. I considered sending out Prince Charming to deal with the hanging cocoon, but just looking at it gave me the shivers and we walked away.

When night came, we made camp on a nice, open hill with a flowing spring nearby. Judging by the distance we had covered and the landmarks we had seen we were well on our way, with a little over half of the area we were supposed to check already cleared.

As always, we switched off the nightwatch, neither of us willing to let some bored, wandering Pokémon come across our tent and rip into it. I had the first watch, and after a few hours, roughly around midnight, I heard soft, scratching noises. Looking around I noticed a small figure sneaking up between the bushes, the light-blue fur visible against the bright-green brush.

Raising my Pokédex, I briefly checked, getting the reading that it was a Shinx, one with good innate values. After a moment of consideration, I decided that I wanted to try catching it. After so many failed attempts on Grass-types, maybe this time, I would get a new partner.

“Charm, your turn.” I sent out my partner, the Shinx in the grass immediately noticing the large, burning lizard. It leapt forward, as if trying to catch him off-guard, its tail sparking with electricity.

“Avoid.” I warned Charm, who had yet to grasp the situation, but managed to duck and roll at the sound of my voice, barely getting out of the way.

“What a nasty little bugger.” I grinned at the Shinx’ audacity, the earlier lacklustre idea to catch it suddenly a lot more appealing.

“Charm, show it what it can get, if it joins us.” I ordered him, watching as Charm used his Dragon Breath to terrify the smaller creature. It was clear from the way the Shinx’ moved that it was affected, the primordial fear of dragons paralysing its movement but regardless, it tried to fight. Charm, following casual directions from me, continued to brutalise it, not trying to knock it out but carefully beating it down.

Finally, as the Shinx was staggering from exhaustion and accumulated damage, I primed a Pokéball and lobbed it over. The red vortex sucked the Shinx in and for a moment, the ball shook, before stilling.

The Shinx sealed inside.