When the light faded away, I once again stood in awe at the changes Nuts had undergone. The massive, round seed pod had become a vaguely humanoid figure, still a wooden shade of brown, with a leaf growing from its head. His physique was somewhat similar to Vio’s, a little bulkier and without her easy, almost floating grace but with a pair of clear eyes that studied the beaming Claire.

“You did great, Nuts.” she cheered again, almost dancing. It had come as a surprise that Nuts had managed to catch the Staravia in mid-air and I had to admit, I had underestimated Nuts agility and determination.

“Well done.” I complimented Claire and her partner, both had done a good job. Even f a part of me was annoyed that she had snatched one of the few interesting encounters, I wasn’t petty enough to rain on Nuts’ evolution parade. Curiously, Nuts didn’t look as intimidated by me as before, still somewhat wary but there was a distinct difference between the caution it had displayed before evolving and the almost challenging gaze it had now.

“Honestly, given that we have yet to reach the lake near Eterna City, I doubt we’ll get there today,” I told Claire, getting a sad look in return.

“Yaaay…” she fake-cheered, letting out a sigh. “Well, at least Nuts managed to evolve before we got there.”

After spending yet another night in the wilds, we continued on our path, steadily climbing the mountainous terrain. Luckily, it wasn’t a constant climb, mostly a gentle slope upwards, with the river slowly streaming downhill.

Only about half an hour after setting out for the day, we crested a brief, steep climb, next to some rapids in the white river, and looked across a wide valley, with a lake in the middle. For a moment, I was utterly stunned, the reflection on the lake was simply gorgeous, a perfect image of the mountainous terrain behind and the sky above, a picture I wanted to remember forever.

Maybe halfway around the lake from our position, we could see Eterna City, built right next to the lake. Even from the distance, we could see a few small boats on the water, likely fishermen who supplemented the food harvested from the fields around. Compared to the barren, cragged valley we had wandered up through, the wide valley was an oasis of green, covered in meadows with a few shrubs but no trees. The town itself was quite large in and of itself, almost twice the size of Floaroma, but still a lot smaller than Jubilife.

As we walked through the valley, we could slowly make out more details, the contrast between some ancient parts of town and other newly built ones. The most impressive thing, by far, was a building standing on the edge of town, a shrine-like building stretching towards the sky.

“What do you think that is?” I asked Claire, not remembering if I had read anything of interest about Eterna City. The town itself hadn’t been too interesting for me, getting there had been the priority of my research.

“It should be the Shrine of Freedom. It’s dedicated to the Lords of Space and Time, asking them to keep the Chaos and the Renegade Lord at bay.” Claire replied with surprising confidence. When I raised an eyebrow, she chuckled a little, before continuing to speak.

“One of the people I talked with came from here. They told me that Eterna City was founded as a stopping point for pilgrims heading to Mount Coronet and the Spear Pillar Shrine there,” she explained, and I nodded, the history of relatively little interest to me.

We made our way across the meadows and the fields, noticing a few woolly beasts grazing on one of the slopes and for a moment, I wondered if those were Pokémon or actual animals, but we were too far away. If it were Pokémon, a group of fifty would make for a serious threat but given that the town seemed to be placid, I doubted it.

“Welcome to Eterna City.” the guard at the gate gave us a nod, “Please be reminded that Pokémon need to be kept in their Pokéballs at all times,” he told us, his voice a little stern.

“Certainly.” I nodded, pulling out the badge case that held my identification, only to be waved off.

“Just go in. You’re trainers, that’s obvious, or you wouldn’t be here,” he said, his voice completely lackadaisical. Exchanging a glance with Claire, I shrugged and continued to question the guard who didn’t seem to care about guarding.

“Excuse me, where are the Gym and the Pokécentre?” I asked, only to get a loud sigh in response as he visibly rolled his eyes.

“Follow the main road towards the docks, take the third road to the right and you can’t miss the Centre. The Gym is on the other side of town, just go there and ask around,” he explained, his voice making it obvious that he didn’t care to help.

No longer willing to bother with the guard, Claire and I simply walked past him and when I looked over my shoulder, it looked almost as if he had gone back to sleep. I could only shake my head, as I quietly muttered to Claire, “What a charming fella. I’m certain he is the life of every party.” My voice was filled with enough sarcasm to coalesce and drip from the air, getting a chuckle from Claire.

“Maybe he just had a bad day or something. He might be a nice guy at heart,” she argued, but I could hear her heart wasn’t in it. When I raised an eyebrow, she simply shrugged.

“Well, or he hates his job, but sitting at a gate and playing watchdog is the only thing he’s qualified for. Who knows,” she suggested.

“Not sure why there are guards in the first place. I mean, the ‘wall’” I made air quotes around the word, “is barely worth the name. Hell, if I wanted to get in or out, I’d simply climb the damn thing.”

“Tradition?” she suggested, but her voice betrayed that she had no idea why the guards were there either. “They check on the way out and make sure that only Trainers leave, so…” she shrugged again, both of us very well aware that getting around the guards would be trivial unless there were magical, invisible walls that kept everyone on the well-trodden paths.

We dropped the question and continued our way to the docks. Luckily, the directions given by the most helpful guard who had ever guarded a useless wall turned out to be better than his attitude and we easily found the Pokécentre.

It was constructed in a solid, brick-and-mortar style, with red tiles on the roof and pleasantly grey walls. Walking in, we arrived in a lobby similar to the ones we had seen before, with a reading-nook and a currently empty counter.

Walking up, I noticed a small, silver bell and pressed it, a soft ringing sound rippling out.

“Coming.” a voice called from the open door to the backrooms and moments later, a frazzled looking woman came out, her long, curly hair looking as if she had been hit by a whirlwind. There was a pen behind her ear and a pair of glasses sat on her head.

“Good morning, what can I do for you?” she asked in a rush.

“Good morning, we just came in through Eterna Forest and need to report a dangerous Pokémon encounter,” I explained, noticing her turning a little pale. “While we were unable to make a positive ID, I believe that we were attacked by a Gastly in Eterna Forest, near the White River.”

“Oh, bother,” she cursed, before starting to rapidly flip through papers, clearly searching for something.

“Dammit, where are my glasses?” she muttered, blinking as she stared at the papers.

“On your head?” Claire quietly suggested, causing her to freeze for a moment, reach up and put them down. Claire and I exchanged a brief glance while the woman continued until she finally held up a piece of paper.

“There it is.” she triumphantly declared, holding it towards us, “Please, fill out as many details as possible.”

“Could we get a pen?” Claire asked, a bit of mischief in her voice.

“Of course,” she replied, fluidly taking the pen from behind her ear, spinning it in her hand and handing it over.

Taking the pen and report, I looked at the detailed questions and filled them out to the best of my ability, while Claire dealt with the normal report, noting the Pokémon we had encountered, details on the Routes we had moved on, all those things necessary to keep the Routes working as smooth as possible.

“There you go,” I told her, once I was finished. “Also, could you take care of our Pokémon?” I added, getting a nod in return.

“Sure,” she took our Pokéballs, handing over a chit to both of us, “Do you need a room as well?” she asked, already taking out a pair of keys.

“Yes, thank you. Could you point us to the Gym as well?” I asked, happily taking one key, handing the other to Claire.

“On the other side of town, you need to follow the road along the docks, it’s near the walls there. Look for the large house with the earthen-brown roof, it should be easy to find,” she explained.

“Oh, and I’d need to see your trainer cards as well,” she finally remembered, giving us a bright smile.