Slowly, as the night continued on, Claire’s breathing started to ease. It was an utter relief, as I had little idea how I could have helped her if she didn’t get better on her own and for the first time, the actual danger of being a travelling Trainer was truly apparent to me. There were only the two of us out here, the next civilisation we knew about was days away, easily a hundred kilometres with difficult terrain between us. There’s be no help, not unless we managed to help each other.

We had some first-aid supplies, back at the camp, but if those would be enough to treat whatever ailed her, I didn’t know, nor did I know if the change in breathing was indicative of a full recovery or if there would be other problems remaining.

Luckily, I had Charm to lean on and Vio acting spoiled towards me, showing her trust in me, their affection helping to buoy me up, making sure I didn’t dwell on my problems.

When the sun started to break through the canopy above, Claire was starting to stir, for a moment obviously unaware that the pillow she was nuzzling into was my lap. I felt myself blush brightly at her behaviour, as it touched some rather sensitive parts of me, but luckily, she wasn’t awake enough to realise what she was doing.

Gently, trying to keep her somewhat unaware, I removed her face, letting her rest on my lower thigh instead. It didn’t take long afterwards for her to fully wake up and for a moment, she was obviously disoriented.

“Where are we?” she asked, her voice hoarse and raspy. Reaching down, I gently pulled her into a somewhat upright position, so we could look at each other while talking.

“What happened?” she slowly blinked, obviously confused.

“During your watch, our camp was attacked by a Gastly. You and Myna managed to keep it back, but you inhaled some of its poisoned gas and after we fled for some distance, you passed out.” I explained, momentarily calling Vio and Charm back, so they could get some rest.

“It wasn’t a dream?” she asked, reaching up to touch her throat. “It hurts,” she whispered, leaning against me as if seeking support. Placing an arm around her, I tried to give her some warmth and strength, holding her as some tears started to fall from her eyes.

“You should check Myna. She was hit quite hard yesterday if you remember?” I prodded, once her tears had stopped. Her reply was a simple nod, as she pulled out her Pokédex and Myna’s Pokéball, placing its aperture against the scanning port. Looking over her shoulder, I was able to see that Myna had passed out and was slowly recovering, her status indicating just how severe the injury had been.

“Let’s return to camp, I’m hungry,” I suggested, trying to use the mundanity of my statement to combat the horror of the previous night. Again, Claire nodded and we had to do some gymnastics to get up.

Clarie was still weakened, her body not fully cooperating and both of us were stiff from remaining in the same position too long, a situation not helped by Claire resting on my leg and cutting off circulation.

Luckily, there were no witnesses to the two of us moving as if we were eighty and not eighteen. It took a lot of grumbling, groaning and moaning but we managed to cooperatively, with support from the tree I had been resting against, get up and start moving. Or maybe stumbling would be a more accurate description, neither of us in any state for strenuous activity.

Stumbling through the forest, likely looking either like drunks, toddlers or maybe drunk toddlers as we leaned on each other, we started to make our way back towards camp. It was a good thing that Charm had been the one leading the way, the devastation he had caused by tearing through the forest giving us an excellent trail to follow. I hadn’t noticed during the night, but he had ripped through multiple clusters of tangled undergrowth in his quest to get us to safety. some of it was even scorched by his efforts.

The way back took us almost an hour, with me helping Claire to keep her footing on the difficult terrain. Judging the distance, it was only about two, maybe three, kilometres and luckily, the camp hadn’t been destroyed by the Gastly or any other Pokémon that may have attacked during the night.

The only evidence that the Gastly ever had been there, were drooping plants, dead grass and a general, fishy smell that lingered in the air.

“Get some more rest, Claire.” I told her, getting one of our sleeping mats from the tent, placing it in one of the few sunny spots and making sure that Claire was as comfortable in the sun as possible.

In the meantime, I quietly moved around camp, preparing some breakfast and making sure that there really wasn’t any lingering danger. For example, if it had poisoned our food supply, we would be in serious trouble but luckily, there was no evidence of that.

For the rest of the day, I hung around near camp, making sure that Claire was taken care of, between training my partners and keeping watch, trying to keep myself busy so I wouldn’t constantly worry about Claire.

The one bright spot in all that was the river, which turned out to be a relatively constant supply of wild Pokémon, mostly water-types that Su fought with delight. The Buizel that swam in the stream were excellent swimmers, with long, otter-like bodies, somewhat similar to Bidoof in physiology but a lot sleeker and less… dumb.

When I noticed the splashing noise for the first time, I quietly sneaked over, peering over the edge and seeing one playing in the water, looking as if it had the time of its life. After a quick scan with my Pokédex, I decided that there was no way in hell that I’d try to catch a Pokémon that had even a vague similarity with Bidoof, not without a pressing need.

With a grin spreading over my face, I pulled out Su’s Pokéball and sent him out next to me, trying to time it so that a particularly loud splash would cover the noise. The Buizel had just jumped into the water and when it came back, Su was already next to me, peering down as well.

Waiting for a chance, Su and I waited until the Buizel dived back down again and my eyes remained focused on it. Just as it was about to come back up, I spoke.

“Su, pounce, now!” I urged him and despite the water still hiding the Buizel, Su trusted me and made the leap of faith, or maybe his eyesight and sense of timing were good enough. Either way, he managed to land on the Buizel’s head, sparks already flying off his claws, right as it came up. The sudden attack quite literally shocked the Buizel and for a moment, it appeared to be utterly stunned. Su didn’t let go of that chance and continued to attack until the Buizel started to thrash around, water splashing everywhere.

After giving it yet another shock, Su jumped away, landing on the shore with feline grace while the Buizel dove back down, hiding under the water.

For a few moments, nothing happened while I carefully tracked the Buizel under the water surface. Luckily, the water was wonderfully clear, making the concealment less effective and when it was about to come back up, I called out.“Dodge, now!”

My call was just in time to allow Su to leap aside when a spray of water inundated the area he had just vacated and Su’s counter-attack was swift and likely painful. While he preferred to use his lightning directly, and it was a lot stronger when he could sink his claws into our foes, he was perfectly capable of using his thundershocks from a distance, which was what he did.

With a crack of thunder, a spark shot from his tail, leaving an afterimage as it struck the Buizel, catching it right at the head as it tried to dive down away. In the opening caused by the debilitating shock, Su leapt with claws leading, managing to score another set of brutal blows on our foe, before retreating to shore.

The Buizel dove down again, but this time, I could see that it didn’t try to remain at a distance, instead, it sped forward, its tail giving it an impressive thrust and it leapt out of the water with surprising grace and ferocity, trying to pounce on the waiting Su.

I managed to call out another warning, and Su met its pounce with one of his own, the two Pokémon meeting mid-air, one trying to bowl over the other with a sudden Quick Attack, the with claws clad in lightning.

There was a crack of thunder as they met, and Su was tossed away, barely managing to land on his feet but the Buizel was hit a lot harder, to the point that it landed in a heap, twitching with static electricity. It was no longer capable of fighting and Su moved over briefly, giving it a glance full of disdain, before hopping back towards me.

Standing, I looked at the small Shinx that approached me, plopping down in front of me, its body language disdainfully asking me to praise and reward it. For a moment, I considered it and he truly deserved some praise, Kneeling down before him, I happily gave him scritches, not letting him get away from his deserved reward, even if he soon looked as if the world owed him special food.