Come morning, things didn’t make any more sense. Reading through the notes I had made during the night, I was only more confused, wondering just where some of those ideas came from. If they came from my subconsciousness, what did it want to tell me? Was I trying to convince myself that my appearance on Mount Coronet had been due to some sort of higher plan and not just…

What? What had made me appear there, if not the Pokémon who had been there in that moment, especially the first one. The Renegade Lord, as it was commonly called. But why had that incredibly powerful Pokémon, powerful enough to largely remain a mystery, only spoken of in legends, with very little actual, usable data to even begin estimating what it could do, brought me there? To this time, to this place?

Or was I just searching for meaning in the action of an alien being, with motivations I couldn’t even begin to fathom, trying to impose my human perspective on its actions and interpret them through my own framework? Was it something utterly random, just like a human stepping on an ant didn’t plan to do so and had no great, malicious agenda to crush that specific ant. But the ant might try to elevate its own status, imagining that the human had stepped specifically on it because its pheromones were especially fragrant, or something like that. Not knowing that, at the end of the day, it was nothing but an ant to the human.

Letting out a sigh, I closed my eyes, trying to centre my mind. As so often when needing something to focus on, I pictured Charm’s flame, the way it flickered back and forth, the slight changes it underwent according to his mood, the myriad details that made it what it was. The focus needed to do so allowed me to push past my doubts, my mind completely filled with his flame. Into that flame, my doubts went, alongside the confusion, to burn up and not bother me again.

They would return, self-doubts were nothing if not renewable, but it only meant I would have to burn them again.

“Thanks, Charm.” I opened my eyes again, giving the Pokéball at my hip a caress. Without him, I might have gone insane, just knowing that he was there was invaluable to me.

That thought stopped me dead, a detail of last night’s dream suddenly springing to mind. There had been no Prince Charming, my dear partner. But what did that mean? My earlier doubts returned, to the point that I called him out, simply to hold him close and have a tactile reminder that he was there.

“You must think I’m silly, don’t you?” I asked, as his arms wrapped around me once more, his flame flickering in front of my face, giving me something to focus on. When Charm didn’t answer, I continued to lay out my worries and doubts to him, some of it repeating what I had told him during the night, others newly acquired worries, stemming from my examination of the notes I had made during the night.

As always, he patiently listened, occasionally giving a soft growl or grumble, but patiently holding me, letting me get it all off my chest. Once I was all talked out, I felt a lot better. Sniffing myself, I realised that I could use another bath. The sudden dash during the previous night, alongside two nights of sleeping directly on the ground had left me a little fragrant.

Walking over to the tent, I checked on Claire, making sure that she was peacefully sleeping. She looked quite a bit better than the day before, no longer imitating a days-old corpse, instead, there was some flush to her skin and while her breathing had a slight hitch to it, it sounded a lot better.

For a moment, I considered waking her up, weighing the dangers of taking a bath without anyone to keep watch against the detriments to her recovery waking her might have.

“Claire, wake up.” I gently shook her shoulder, getting nothing but a grumble in reply. Not letting that discourage me, I continued, until she was awake again.

“It’s morning, we’ll have to move soon.” I reminded her, before asking, “Do you want a bath now, or would you like to wait?”

Given that her skin was covered in a cold sweat, the idea of a bath should be an attractive one and indeed, she soon stopped grumbling and got up. Her movement wasn’t back to normal but it, too, looked better, making me optimistic that she was on the road to recovery.

The morning preparation took a lot longer than I would have liked but after some time, we both were washed, fed and ready to move again.

“I think I’ll be able to ride on Grotle.” Claire decided, undoubtedly aware that she had massively slowed us down the day before and if we continued to dawdle, we’d have to ration our food before getting to Eterna City.

“That’s okay.” I nodded, “Do you feel up to fighting, or should I try to intercept as many Pokémon as possible?” I asked in reply and there was a moment of silence before she nodded.

“I should be able to fight, but please, keep an eye open? I might miss something and harm my partners.” she pleaded, her confidence clearly shaken.

“Certainly, we are companions after all. I’m sure things will work out, your partners got your back.” I tried to encourage her, getting a wan smile as she climbed onto Grotle’s back with only a small bit of help.

Grotle was quite fast, for a tortoise. He was still slower than our normal pace but compared to the prior day’s pace, it was clearly faster. That he easily managed to carry both of our packs was another bonus, allowing me to relax a little and focus on the path and spotting wild Pokémon.

Just as the day before, the White River provided a large part of our challengers. Some Buizel, maybe the same I had fought the day before, returned and Claire contemplated their appearance for a bit, before deciding that they weren’t what she was looking for. She was after a fluffy, cuddly partner, and while the Buizel had some fluff to them, their sleek and slick physique wasn’t quite what she had in mind.

And so, every so often, she slid off Grotle when one of them came close to shore, leading to a shoot-out between the tortoise and the river-otter, a solidly-rooted plant getting sprayed with water, while the otter desperately tried to dodge out of the way of barrages of Razorleaves. It was barely a fight, but given that the alternative would be to send Nuts roll into the water, it was the better option.

On the other hand, Su and I continued the demonstration why felines were natural predators to many water-dwelling creatures, adding to the advantage bestowed by the type matchup, with Su’s electric easily trumping the water-typing of the Buizel.

By the time afternoon rolled around, we had easily smacked down a dozen of them, and just as Su jumped off the latest victim of his vicious attacks, he landed on the shore, a white light radiating off him.

A grin spread over my face, realising that the last two days of relentless battling, combined with the battles of the days prior, had been enough to push him across the divide between being a Shinx and a Luxio.

With Clarie and me watching, his body started to morph in the centre of the light, growing taller and a mane spreading around his neck, the dark, rougher patches of his fur growing to provide additional protection to his head and neck.

When the light faded away, he stood easily twice his earlier height, now more the size of a lynx instead of a housecat, with a lot more bulk and power to his frame. Gone was the adorable cuddle bug that I just loved to bully, replaced with a graceful and almost intimidating predator.

A part of me wondered if I would need a new name, but after a moment, I decided that who he was inside wouldn’t change, just because he was now in a new, improved form.

Stepping up to my newly evolved partner, I went down to my knees, happily fluffing up his fur. For a moment, he looked at me with rebellion in his gaze but I was having none of that.

He was the Pokémon and I was his trainer, nothing would ever change that, certainly not his evolution. After a brief staring contest, his rebellious attitude deflated and he accepted the petting I was bestowing on him. Just as the world should be.