Sunny POV

  “Alright you two, let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Sunny looked down at the two new additions to her team. She was glad to have them, if only they would stop fighting for half a minute. She understood why, though: a few days ago, they had been mortal enemies. Wingulls in particular, she remembered reading, could hold a grudge for a lifetime.

  It was a clear, Sunny day (the mist had finally broken early that morning), she had finished her chores and finally had the time and space to train her Pokémon. The space in question was the field where the rather unfortunate battles had taken place last week.

  “Caviar, you’re up first. Show me what you’re capable of.”

  Her Wingull looked at her blankly. Sunny sighed. Most human accustomed Pokémon picked up a vague understanding of language, if not the words themselves, then the tone and inflections of their trainers. Wild Pokémon, she was learning, had to be taught slowly.

  “Hector, would you like to demonstrate?”

  Her starter wooped and blasted a Water Gun into the air. She tossed him an oran berry which he swallowed in one gulp. Caviar was smart enough to follow suit. He decided to aim at Coral causing her to lash out at him with a Poison Sting. She pushed them

  “That’s it. Stop fighting or you’re both out of the team. You get a sliver of oran. Well done for using Water Gun but never aim at a teammate. Deal?”

  Caviar gave her a betrayed glare.

  “No, don’t give me that look. If you want the rest of the berry, use Water Gun that way,” she pointed at the air. “Water Gun.”

  Caviar tilted his head, as if considering what to do. He opted for squirting a dribble of water into the sky.

  “Come on, now. You can do better than that. Water Gun.”

  He honest to Arceus rolled his eyes at her before finally complying. Sunny tossed him the rest of the berry and praised him profoundly. Coral puckered her lips, as if trying to spit out a stream of water too. Sunny laughed and cuddled her.

  “That’s okay, Coral. I don’t think you learn Water Gun. At least, it doesn’t say so on Webdex. How about you show me a Poison Sting?

  Coraline whimpered dejectedly, her tentacles drooping. Sunny stroked her with her left hand and mimed being a whip with her right arm.

  “Like this, see?”

  Coral stretched out an appendage, the spines on it turning dark purple. She made a feeble lash at the grass beside her. It wilted. Sunny gave her half an oran.

  “Great work, Coral, but can you put a bit more strength into it? For me?”

  The second Poison Sting left a small crater in the soft earth, and a dead patch of grass a metre and a half across.

  “That’s my girl. Here you go, have the other half of the berry.”

  As Coral munched on her treat, Caviar cawed and, seeming to have understood what Sunny was asking of them, Growled cutely. It was a far cry from the terrifying rumble of the Audino in Nocturne City which still woke Sunny up with cold sweats on occasion. She resolved herself to bring Caviar to that level. For now, he deserved another berry. This started of a competition between the Wingull and the Mareanie, each showing off the moves they had in return for berries, praises, and cuddles. The results were roughly what Sunny expected from reading through Webdex pages. The Webdex was the most complete database on Pokemon available. Even the official Pokedex app used it as its main source, though even the app paled in comparison to the extensive website. One of its main innovations was that it divided up a Pokémon’s strength into levels based around their ability to learn and use certain moves. This feature was notoriously unreliable among trainers, however, with different versions showing wildly different information. From the best she could tell, she would put Caviar in the low ten to fifteen level range, and Coral on the high end of the same range. She was, quite possibly, stronger than Hector by that metric, something Sunny was surprised to find made her feel slightly uncomfortable. She dismissed the feeling. Coral and Caviar were fighting again. Coral had been able to show off one more move than Caviar which had irritated the flying-type to no end.

  “Caviar and Coraline, that’s enough. Well done both of you. Now, let’s talk strategy.”

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  ***

  A couple of hours later, Sunny back flopped onto the grass and stretched. Coral curled up on her chest, depriving Hector of his favourite seat. He made do with leaning against her shoulder. Caviar poked his beak into her line of sight.

  “You be good now, okay?” she told him. “And don’t go scaring Calla. She’s being nice not making a fuss after she trusted us with her fears.”

  Caviar didn’t respond in any meaningful way, which with him could mean he hadn’t understood a word she said, or he wasn’t bothered to reply. It would have to do.

  Her thoughts turned to her current host. A young girl with a semi-permanent scowl temper wasn’t what Sunny was expecting her Pokémon Journey companion to be, but Calla had certainly grown on her. If she had to choose a word for her, which she was going to, it would be ‘sharp’. The girl could send a Glare that could cut right through you, something Sunny was sure she got from her grandma. She was a sweetie underneath it all, with a big heart and a Wailord load of courage. Never mind the fact that she was venturing out into the wilds at fourteen, just the way she had faced down that Drifloon while she was trembling from being so near a flying-type was amazing. When Sunny was fourteen, she had been, well, probably hiding in her room from her alcoholic mother, or in the bathroom from her school bullies. Fourteen hadn’t been the best year for her. If it had been Calla, she would probably have kicked the bullies in the shins or thrown the geography book at them. The big one with all the maps and lists of Pokémon habitats their professor made them memorise. That had been a waste of time. She didn’t remember a single one of them. The Webdex had more accurate and up-to-date information than any book anyway.

  “Okay team, it’s getting dark. Let’s head back inside.”

  Caviar went back into his pokeball while Hector and Coral chose to stay outside, Hector in her arms, and Coraline hanging around her neck. The Mareanie was almost too touchy-feely, even for Sunny, but she couldn’t say anything to those big yellow eyes.

  On her way to the house, she saw Darren training in another field in the distance. She smiled. If Calla had been an unexpected addition to her journey, then Darren was the heart and soul. She’d only met him about a year ago, but he was a friend she felt she had known forever. She wouldn’t have made it out the door without him. Or taken care of Hector, or started rock climbing, or doing much else of anything except being stuck in her room gaming.

  “Ugh, I’m going to miss the release of Pokémon Life 3,” she complained to herself. As well as all the other hyped-up releases for the year. Mobile games just weren’t scratching the itch, and the computers in Calla’s house still used dial-up internet for some mindboggling reason. They took five minutes to load a website, never mind playing an MMO.

  “No. Bad Sunny. You said you weren’t going to think about video games this year. This year, you’re a Pokémon trainer.”

  Sunny didn’t feel like a Pokémon trainer. She felt like a Ditto in a herd of Tauros. A real trainer was someone like Calla, her entire life goal was to become the strongest. Or Darren. Sure, he was a softie and a goof, but he took things seriously when they mattered. She wouldn’t be surprised if he managed to qualify for the Nocturne Championship this year. He had that kind of grit to him. She didn’t think she would qualify. She simply couldn’t see herself battling on one of the big stages, with her name being chanted and clips of her flying all over the internet.

  “What do you think, Coral. Am I cut out to be a trainer?”

  She had been doing too muck thinking recently, maybe her Pokémon would have better answers than she did. Her favourite little purple blob squeezed her tighter and gazed at her with those droopy yellow and blue ringed eyes of hers.

  “I did climb down the cliff to get you, didn’t I? I guess that counts for something.”

  It was the stupidest thing she had ever done. And the best thing. It was a short and easy scramble anyway. Under normal weather conditions, and without the extreme risk in case of failure. But she hadn’t taken those into account when she saw Coral hurt. Did that make her closer to being a Pokémon trainer? Or did it just make her an idiot?

  Hector warbled and headbutted her lightly in her stomach. He had gotten really good at telling when she was weighed down by her thoughts recently and took it upon himself to snap her out of it. She stroked the little critter. She always liked Pokémon - every child did - but it took taking in Hector to realise how much she truly loved them. He was so huggable, she never needed her comfort pillow again with him around. And she had built up a pretty decent tolerance to his poison slime by this stage.

  The farmhouse was lively as usual. She opened the door to the living room and was almost bowled over by Richard, swiftly followed by a chasing Calla. The smell of supper cooking drifted in from the kitchen, it was Calla’s father turn to cook today. Calla’s grandmother was crushing Sitrus berries in a grinder by the fire. The woman was a beast. Not only did she have a Blissey capable of high level healing, but she also made potions in her free time like they were nothing. Edward was on the couch reading his book and Sunny sat beside him. Lily popped up out of nowhere and sat on her lap dislodging both of her Pokémon who protested but couldn’t do anything to the little menace; she returned them for the moment, the room was crowded enough as it was. The youngest of Calla’s siblings had that particular charm of doing whatever the hell she wanted and getting away with it by virtue of being adorable.

  Sunny suppressed the jealousy inflating within her. As much as she admired Calla for choosing firmly what she wanted out of life, she did think she was foolish for leaving such a warm family. Sunny didn’t really understand it.

  Calla’s mother came in from the outside, stretching heartily as she swung the door open. Sunny had been surprised to find out it was her, and not Calla’s father that owned the farm, though she mostly took care of the lighthouse these days. She was a formidable woman, and a gifted musician. She spied Sunny on the couch and grinned. Sunny had made the forgivable mistake of being completely blown away the first time she heard the woman on a mandolin. The next day, she had gifted Sunny a cheap harmonica and made it her mission to make sure she had a decent foundation by the time she left. To that point, she strode over, and sitting on an armchair nearby, she flicked out her own harmonica, giving it a blow and running through the scale.

  “Now,” she asked. “Where were we?”