The change upon leaving Eterna Forest was as distinct and obvious as it had been when entering. It was as if the air itself became a little less dense, no longer stagnant and hemmed in by the weight of countless ancient trees, a breath of fresh, cold mountain air flowing through the woods around us. Where before, the trees had been the size of buildings, they quickly shrunk to a size I could encircle with my arms and the underbrush became less dense, no longer chocking the path before us.

That path, previously a vaguely recognisable trail was a lot easier to traverse, still following the White River, and now, that river even became worthy of its name. Rapidly flowing down the mountain before us, it cascaded over the rocks bubbling and frothing with white foam.

“We are out.” I slowly exhaled, glad that we had managed. It had taken two days longer than planned, mostly due to Claire’s slow recovery, but we had done it and had enough food to easily get to Eterna City if nothing bad happened on the way.

“We should have planned better.” Claire stepped up next to me, studying the border between Eterna Forest and the lesser woods around it, just as I had done. “This part was far harder than the previous parts, I’ve got no idea how we could have managed if we were natives of Eterna City or Floaroma City.” she mused, the hoarseness of the previous days now completely gone.

“I doubt you could manage. Hell, even now it was a thing of luck that we got through.” I admitted, a shiver running down my spine. Not only during the night when the Gastly attacked, even the days after we had been vulnerable while she recovered from the poison.

“Makes me wonder why the guidance at Floaroma City was so…” she paused, searching for the right word, “lacking.”

“Maybe simply a problem of time. When we were there, the attendants have been incredibly busy. Or we were simply unlucky to run into the Gastly, or whatever it was.” I shrugged, before rolling my eyes, “Or the attendants have a hidden and vicious agenda, trying to lure overconfident travelling trainers to their death, by sending them through Eterna Forest.” I suggested, my tone dramatic to the point that Claire chuckled.

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” she declared, her voice taking on the pretentious tone of someone quoting a well-known truth.

“Who said that?” I asked, not quite sure if I had ever heard it said quite like that.

“I did, obviously.” she grinned, rolling her eyes at me, “I might not be the first who said so, but I most certainly said it, you are my witness.” she poked her tongue out and now it was my turn to roll my eyes, letting it go. It was a good adage, even if I didn’t know the origin.

“We should get to Eterna City in a few days. Just need to head up the mountains.” I changed the topic, as we continued our way, the path ahead quickly getting steeper as the mountains rose around us.

“Finally, we won’t have to constantly fight bugs and those silly otters.” Claire cheered.

“True, instead there’ll be more Rock- and Ground-types.” I nodded, looking at her belt, “Did you manage to train your Nuts to learn a Grass-type move?” I asked, given that she had spent some time trying to teach it, with little success. It hadn’t learned Razorleaf so far, but it had started to turn the Growth-move, used by Grotle to absorb strength from the ground and the sun, into a move to Absorb strength directly from his foes. It wasn’t battle-ready just yet, but I had a feeling that it had quite a bit of potential, even if Nuts was more a physical attacker like Su and Myna than a user of special attacks like Grotle, Vio and Charm.

“If we find a suitable foe, we’ll have to see. I think Nuts is ready.” she declared, her voice filled with ambition. Since Su had evolved, she had stepped up Nuts training quite a bit, even letting him fight in slightly unfavourable match-ups. It wasn’t to the point that he was in danger, but it was clear that she was pushing things up a notch.

“You can take the next Buizel.” I nodded and we kept walking.

Soon after, we heard slightly different splashing sounds from the river and exchanged a glance, before slowly moving towards the river. When we got close, we went prone, crawling to the edge and looking down.

In the water, there was a pair of Buizel, splashing water at each other, peacefully playing. They were sitting on some rocks, just above the frothing water, as if looking for fish. Not that such behaviour made sense, as far as I was aware, Pokémon rarely hunted, as they simply got a lot more of the mineral nutrients they needed from berries and some even dissolved in water.

“Interrupt them?” I asked Claire, getting a nod in reply.

“I’ll take the left one,” she replied, moving a little to that side.

“Su, your turn,” I whispered, sending out the recently evolved Su. He had fought a few times, but still wasn’t fully used to the changes his body had undergone.

“Nuts, get its strength!” Clarie commanded, seizing the momentum.

“Su, pounce and shock the right one,” I called out, watching with a smile as the two Buizel whirled around, focusing on the two threats. A small part of me felt a little bad at interrupting their play, but really, if they had noticed us, they’d have attacked on their terms.

Just as they did now, even as Su was bounding towards them, they shot water towards him, forcing him to jump aside to dodge. It killed his momentum, but he wasn’t hurt.

Meanwhile, Nuts was surrounded by a green glow and after a moment, it connected him to the left Buizel, forming a vine-like tendril in the air. The Buizel let out a squeak of surprise, focusing its water gun on Nuts, giving Su an opening to attack, now that he wasn’t harassed by both of them.

Water splashed against Nuts, but he had solidly braced himself, and the drain simply continued. It wasn’t a swift tactic, certainly not as fast as Su’s attacks. Su was rapidly closing in, either avoiding or simply taking the water attacks on his mane, letting the coarse, sturdy fur take the blasts until he managed to get into range of the Buizel.

From then on, it was over. He was now physically stronger than the Buizel, allowing him to simply bowl the otter over and sink his claws into it, electricity sparking around them, swiftly knocking the Buizel out. It was hardly a fight, with Su only lightly wounded by the blunt trauma caused by water.

However, the other Buizel wasn’t foolish. Faces with two foes, either of which was capable of defeating it, it did the wise thing and turned tail, jumping off the rocks it had been sitting on and rapidly accelerating down-river.

The vine of energy tried to keep latched on, but the Buizel was quick enough to escape out of range.

“Su, get it!” I shouted, watching as my partner rapidly chased after the water-bound Buziel. If it had been in calm water, the Buizel would easily escape but between the countless rocks and the shallow, rapidly shifting currents of the cascading rapids, its speed was greatly reduced. Su demonstrated incredible feline agility, bounding between rocks sticking out of the river and the riverbank, catching up before the Buizel could leave our sight.

What followed could barely be called a battle. He pounced on the Buizel when it had to leave the water to cross a couple of rocks, electricity sparked all around, and seconds later, he dragged the Buizel ashore, knocked out.

“Well done, Su!” I called out, cheering him on as he started on the way back.

“Nuts, well done. You managed to get the attack right, next time, we won’t let the Buizel get away.” Claire praised her partner, moving down the shore to give him some physical attention and make sure that neither he nor the Buizel had any lasting damage.

“I’ll check the other one.” I offered, walking towards my partner. Compared to Su’s earlier display, I needed a lot more time. He met me halfway, taking his time and I gave him a brief petting, which he accepted with surprising grace.

“You’ve done really well,” I told him, making sure that his paws were dry before calling him back into his Pokéball.

Sliding down the bank, I checked the knocked-out Buizel, nodding when I was certain it would be fine, with a little rest.

“Everything alright here?” I asked once I was back with Claire.

“Yes, I think so,” she replied, looking a little disappointed.

“Hey, your partner managed just fine with his new attack. If the Buizel hadn’t run, Nuts would have easily won.” I tried cheering her up, getting a sad nod in return.

“Yeah, next time.” she nodded, and we continued our way, up the White River.