The grassy plains transitioned into a rocky inclined path around noon the next day. Ethan, finding the mood fitting, had snatched a solid walking stick from one of the last trees he'd passed just thirty minutes beforehand. With a little exertion and a heavy breath, he continued to climb upwards as the looming walls of Mt. Coronet boxed him in like a cage.
In truth, it wasn’t that bad. He still had a good hundred meters of space to walk through before the steep cliffs of the mountain became impassable walls, but the sheer size of the mountain on either side of him gave a feeling of anxiety. Pachirisu was scouting ahead, unfazed by the rocky terrain and enjoying diving into the nooks and crannies of the many boulders and rocks laid about, which had obviously tumbled from up above long long ago.
The temperature of Sinnoh had been on a steady increase the past few weeks, as winter fed into spring. Yet, the temperature of the mountain hadn’t quite caught up yet. It was cold, not freezing, but close to it. In the looming shadows left by the cliffs or large outcroppings of rock and stone, snow laid at rest in the chilled dark.
So far, he hadn’t managed to spot a wild pokemon. Though, he’d seen some of the signs of their passing—footsteps or etchings left in rock from either tooth or claw.
Sweat dripped from his brow and caused his long hair to stick to his forehead, which was very annoying… but it was freeing to be climbing a literal mountain in an unfamiliar world. His walking stick slammed into a gap in between the gravel he walked upon. With a heavy tug, Ethan freed it and took a look around. “Pachirisu, where are you?” He called out, voiced raised.
“Pach!” Pachirisu cried out from up ahead, and Ethan saw his first friend's head pull itself up from behind a rock.
Ethan narrowed his eyes and held a hand up to his brow to shield it from what little sun managed to find its way down to where they were. “What do you have in your mouth?”
Pachirisu’s cheeks were bulging out. Being no stranger to his pokemon and his habits, Ethan felt trouble brewing. “Is that something I need to tell you to spit out?” He warned.
The sound of Pachirisu spitting out some of the smooth rocks he found to his liking was… unpleasant, to be frank. Thirty seconds later, Ethan arrived at Pachirisu's rock and found his little guy sorting the now moist stones. “If you want to keep some nice and smooth rocks, just let me know and I’ll take care of it… you don’t need to…” Ethan just waved in Pachirisu’s general direction. It got the point across.
“Pa-Pachi!” Pachirisu pointed to one of the rocks, which he liked the most, and picked it up to show it to him.
Ethan was about to decline the nice gesture of sharing saliva rocks, but blinked at the rock in question. He laughed in disbelief. “That’s a Smooth Rock, but also not.”
With one of the many rags he kept in his vest, Ethan gingerly accepted the offered rock much to Pachirisu’s pleasure. It was a stone, with four jagged yellow crystalline points fanning off of it. It wasn’t smooth at all, and must have been a pain for Pachirisu to shove into his cheeks. It was, and wasn’t a Smooth Rock—A held item from the games.
“I forgot you have Pick-Up as your ability. Find anything else?” Ethan asked, now looking over all the stones. His squirrel showed him his collection, but Ethan didn’t spot anything other than just nice looking rocks out of the rest. “If you find an evolution stone, I won’t tell Chatot about you taking her shoulder spot while she’s been gone.”
The betrayal hit deep for his squirrel, as Pachirisu gave him the most affronted look he’d ever seen. Then, Ethan got his shins feebly smacked in retribution. With a quick scoop, Ethan plucked Pachirisu off the ground and into his arms and stuffed some of the admittedly very nice rocks into his Silph Co. bag. After thirty seconds of being a tickle monster, tickling Pachirisu’s fluffy tummy, a faint tumbling of gravel and stones caught his attention.
Up ahead, on one of the sheer ledges a looming metallic glint peered down at them from its perch. Slowly, Ethan stopped his attack and placed Pachirisu back onto the ground, not taking his eyes away from the predatory gaze locked onto them.
“We’re leaving.” Ethan’s hand went towards his pokeballs, a move the Skarmory watching them caught with ease. The Skarmory’s metallic wings flared out a bit in agitation from the threat—one which the wild pokemon seemed to be well aware of. “We don’t have to fight.”
This is one of the rare situations in which his empathy ability seemed to backfire, as the Skarmory knew he was afraid. The battered and beaten steel wings of the massive metallic avian showed off its previous battles as it crouched low and prepared to dive.
Ethan hastily chucked out a pokeball as he ran for one of the rocky outcroppings for cover. “Pachirisu! Discharge! Tinkatuff! Fake Out!”
From zero to one-hundred, his stroll down route 211 went from peaceful to terrifying. Pachirisu deftly hopped from stone to stone, climbing upwards as the Skarmoy pushed itself off its perch to dive bomb them. With a mighty jump, Pachirisu jumped straight into the air and sent a burst of jagged yellow lightning bolts out and around his body. “Ri-suuuuuuuuuuuuu!”
Tinkatuff, now fully materialized, had a wicked gleam in her eye as she hefted her hammer and charged towards the giant metal bird. Ethan, finally safe behind a bunch of rocks, peered over and watched as she swung her hammer straight into the wild Skarmory as he dipped and dove through the wild and erratic lightning from Pachirisu’s discharge. The clang of metal on metal echoed out, the sound reverberating across the mountain pass they traveled through.
Skarmory visibly flinched from the collision before its sharp talons could raked out towards Tinkatuff in a quick use of Metal Claw. In a flash, Skarmory tried again, only to have its talons clash into blue hexagonal panes of Tinkatuff’s Protect.
“Pachi!” Pachirisu zoomed through the air, landing on the hovering bird as its wings beat enough air pressure to send the pebbles and gravel on the ground rolling away. Then, his buck teeth glowed in a brilliant white light. “Risu!”
Skarmory screamed out a harsh metallic cry which nearly deafened Ethan. His hands clamped to the sides of his head to protect his hearing, but he still kept his eye on the sudden battle. Metal Sound?
Pachirisu’s Super Fang did a tremendous amount of damage, causing the metallic bird to fall from the sky—even if it wasn’t that high up to begin with—and it landed in an ugly and disgruntled pile of limbs. Tinkatuff’s swift Brutal Swing to the side of its head as it re-orientated itself sent it back down, head slamming and rebounding off the ground a sound reminiscent of a metal pole being dropped rang out. Ruthlessly, Tinkatuff hammered and hammered the downed bird with a savage barrage of swings, deforming the metal of Skarmory’s wings as her foe continued to scream in anger and pain. Broken razor sharp feathers loosened and fell as the Skarmory fought and scrambled to get away from the mania’d Tinkatuff’s attacks. Eventually, it caught Tinkatuff in the chest with a Metal Claw with one of its talons, giving it just enough room to launch into the air and away, fleeing from the fight in a slow and jerky flight.
Pachirisu scampered over to Ethan, checking him over with nervous chittering as Tinkatuff began throwing rocks at the retreating hunk of metal. None of the stones got remotely close, but that didn’t seem to deter his pink metal maniac from throwing more. Soon, she transitioned into using her hammer as a baseball bat, batting stones off into the distance with disturbing accuracy. Without even looking, Tinkatuff’s hand, which was reaching for more stones to throw, grabbed one of the broken feathers of Skarmory…
All attention faded from the now gone Skarmory onto the new source of metal she had on hand. She dropped to her butt with a happy cry of her name and began looking over the bits of sharp metal with fervor.
“I’m okay, thanks for checking Tinkatuff…” Ethan lamented as he cautiously left his spot behind a boulder. Pachirisu, once content with Ethan being okay, ran over to Tinkatuff and smacked her on the head, disappointed in her lack of care. The two began to argue as the adrenaline began to fade from Ethan’s system. With a low thud, he sat down, losing strength in his limbs.
“Why?” He asked himself quietly. The Skarmory had fought them, but why? Was it hungry? Was it looking to prove itself? He’d never know, but it didn’t change the fact that random acts of violence weren't just an Earth thing. He’d know this was a thing that happened, but he’d hoped that his little trek down the route would have been peaceful.
His thoughts derailed as he felt a tug on his bag, and he watched as Tinkatuff tried to pry it open while it was still attached to his hip. In her hands, she had a bundle of razor sharp metal she was trying to stuff inside. “Stop,” Ethan placed a hand on her head with apathy. “I’ll put them in.”
Twenty minutes later with the metal and rocks stored, Ethan felt ready to start moving again. He picked up his walking stick which he hadn’t even realized he’d dropped, then started off up the mountain once more. This time, he kept a wary glance at the ledges and alcoves hidden within or created by the rocks and boulders that lined the path.
—---------------------------
It was a little after midday, around two P.M, when Ethan heard the sound of footsteps approaching his little impromptu resting spot. Smeargle and Shuckle were out with him now, helping him make lunch as they took a break.
Turning towards the sound, Ethan spotted not a pokemon, but two teenagers coming from the direction he was heading. They looked tired, but were also in pretty good spirits as they chatted with one another. The young man was grimy and dirty from dust and debris, but smiled at the young woman as she spoke at length about something with excitement.
Ethan called out, seeing as they hadn’t noticed him. “Hello!”
The two stopped in their tracks, then finally looked ahead of themselves to spot Ethan around the little fire he had going. A pot of water was boiling as Shuckle dropped some sliced potatoes inside with his long yellow limbs.
“You guys alright?” Ethan asked, mostly because the young man needed a wash, badly.
The two were still a little bit away, and they turned to talk to one another in a short private discussion. If he had to guess, they were probably talking about him and whether they should stop and talk to the stranger in the wilds. Seemingly done with their little talk and having come to a decision, the young man gave him a wave. “You got some spare water and a rag?”
Ethan nodded and waved them over as he turned to grab what was requested. “Come on over!”
As they approached, Ethan asked Smeargle to use Scald into a separate pot. Like a wizard, Smeargle waved his tail about like a wand, then a beam of boiling hot water sprayed out to fill it up.
“You guys hungry? Come over and sit down if you want.” Ethan told them, once they were no longer in yelling distance. “I’m Ethan.”
“Richard, and thanks.” He thanked Smeargle, who handed him the pot of water.
“It’s very hot. Be careful. You get into a battle?” Ethan asked, gesturing towards the dirt and grime.
“Rebecca, and no, this idiot just crawled through a crevice because he thought he saw a Beldum. Turns out, he found—”
“Nothing, I found nothing.” Richard spoke quickly, cutting off the young woman. Rebecca seemed to catch on, quieting and nodding.
It was obvious they’d found something, but didn’t want to tell the stranger. Ethan wouldn’t blame them. They could keep their secrets. “Hows the path up ahead? This is my first time going on this route.”
Their faces eased as he let the matter slide. Rebecca sat down next to Smeargle and looked him over with interest as she replied. “Lots of the same as this. Going downhill is much harder than going uphill, though. Easier to fall.”
“Hmm…” Ethan hummed, thinking. “We got into a little fight with a Skarmory a few hours ago. It fled, but be careful down the path.”
“Uggg.” Richard groaned as he wiped his face with the hot water. “We had to battle two this week! All the other pokemon either didn’t care about us walking or ran away. Those things though! They just want to fight! Expensive to take care of, or I would have thought about catching one.”
“Expensive?” Ethan asked.
Richard nodded. “Oh yeah. They rust. If they get wet, they gotta dry off immediately. There’s some oils that you can buy to coat them to make them waterproof for a time, but still… You also gotta take care of their feathers, as they get bent and battered when battling.” He waved his hand about, encompassing the pain of taking care of one. “It’s a hassle.”
Ethan snorted. That didn’t sound too bad, in his opinion. “I have a Snorlax back home. If I didn’t have a ranch, he’d eat me out of money.”
Both of them cringed just thinking about the cost of a Snorlax.
An hour later, a much longer time that Ethan had originally planned to stop and rest, they’d all gone their separate ways. It was nice to talk to two random trainers along the route. Unlike the time in Eterna Forest, he didn’t even need to battle them.
Hopefully, that trend would continue as he made his way back home.