David set his bag down in the clearing.

Instead of starting to unpack the tent as his growing habit, he pulled out Pidgey’s pokeball. He had no plans to head back into the city today, but he didn’t plan on spending the rest of the day in the clearing either. 

Pidgey appeared in a roosting position and made no move to get up once she recognised the clearing.

“Hiya Pidgey. Are you up for some flying practice?”

Pidgey let out a chirp and flexed her wings as she began to stand. She was nearly up and moving when she froze.

Pidgey sat back down.

“Is that a maybe?” David asked, confused.

Pidgey looked at him to make sure he was paying attention then pecked towards his bag. David looked at the bag then back to Pidgey.

“Huh?”

Pidgey pecked forward again.

David walked over and examined the bag. He opened it and.. The Leppa berry. He took it out and turned to Pidgey.

“You want the berry before you train?”

Pidgey pecked forward. David rubbed his face. She had been happy to practice flying yesterday - without needing a bribe. Maybe giving an incentive for the Peck training had backfired.

“You already had your breakfast. No berries until dinner later.”

Pidgey squawked and buried her beak into her wing.

“But.” David closed his eyes and resisted the urge to rub his forehead. ”If you train now and later, you can have the first pick of the berries we find today.”

Pidgey fixed him with her gaze and David felt that familiar chill. He took a breath but held fast. He couldn’t back down. They needed to start good habits.

Pidgey relented with a slow peck. She stood, raising her wings and David hurried to get some distance away.

 

-.-

 

Pidgey managed four takeoffs and flights without needing encouragement. At the end she fell into a roosting position, worn out.

“Great job Pidgey.” David approached and crouched in front of the Pokemon. He reached his hand out towards the crown of her head, but paused inches away.

Pidgey turned towards his hand, inquisitive.

David pulled his hand back. “Just.. great job. You feel up to trying Peck out again?”

Pidgey let out a low squawk and lifted shaking wings.

“No?” David asked, trying to puzzle out the gesture. “Your wings are tired?”

Pidgey let out another squawk and David stopped to think. He went back to the bag and pulled out ‘How to wing it!’. He flicked to the page and looked at the instructions again.

Direct your Pokemon to channel Flying Type energy.

“Ah! You don’t have any flying energy left.” The leaflet had stated taking off was energy intensive.

“Hmmm.” He didn’t want to call the session here. They had barely started. He flicked back to the other move that he’d earmarked.

“Do you think you’d be up to practicing Tackle?”

Pidgey tilted her head considering him and then pecked forward. David settled down and began to read the instruction out loud.

“Tackle is one of the first moves learned by any Pokemon.. yadda yadda yadda. Direct your Pokemon-” He glanced at Pidgey ”-to channel Normal Type energy throughout its body. Step one is complete when the Pokemon is able to maintain this energy while staying still.”

He put the leaflet down and looked at Pidgey. How did he get her to channel Normal type energy? Did they start with some kind of mediation or chant? Was it a tai chi kind of thing or-

Pidgey closed her eyes and within a few seconds a grayish-beige haze appeared around her. It shimmered, not moving as much as vanishing and reforming in place.

“Woah,” David murmured. He was watching literal magic happen.

Sure, the leaflet said Pidgey used Flying type energy to take off but this was visible. If only slightly. Unable to help himself, he reached forward and brushed the haze with his fingers. There was a resistance against his fingers and the haze concentrated rapidly, growing stronger and thicker under his finger until

Pop!

David’s hand was flicked back in the air and away from Pidgey.

Pidgey opened her eyes, then narrowed them at David as he cradled his arm and stinging hand. There was a slight welt on his finger. Not enough to bruise or break the skin, more like his hand had been smacked with a stick.

“Sorry,” He said to Pidgey with a smile. He was about to wave for her to start again but something occurred to him. “Can you try to do it with your eyes open?”

She wouldn’t be able to close her eyes in a battle.

Pidgey pecked forward, a little hesitant now. David felt a slight chill before Pidgey shook herself and turned her gaze away from him. David counted down the seconds until the beige haze appeared. 23 seconds. Noticeably longer than with her eyes closed, and far too long to be used in a battle. He could see why the move wasn’t recommended for use until it was perfected.

This time David retrieved a stick and used it to trigger and disperse the Move. Pidgey wasn’t as ruffled this time as she saw the stick coming.

“Again.”

 

Pidgey got faster as they practiced and after the fifth try she got the haze up in 19 seconds. Progress was slow, but it was there. However, after that final Tackle Pidgey was either tired of being prodded or bored with the exercise and stuck her head under her wing.

Maybe it was time for a break but David had one last idea.

“Would you like to practice some more flying?”

Pidgey turned her head to him quickly and raised her wings. Those wings shuddered a little and Pidgey drooped.

“I know you’re still tired but I was thinking I could help you take off.”

Pidgey tilted her head at him.

“I pick you up.” David mimed lifting something up with two hands above his head. “And then you fly down.” He made a gently pushing motion, like he was throwing a basketball into a hoop at ground level.

Pidgey fixed him with her gaze for a moment before chirping.

“You want to,” David said, heart sinking a little. Of course she did.

He walked closer and kneeled down to pick her up, careful to avoid touching her wings and trying not to think of how her talons could slice through the ground. He lifted her slowly, trembling a little as she shifted in his hands. Then she was above his head. David closed his eyes.

“Ready?”

Pidgey gave a light chirp and David gave a light push. He opened his eyes frantically, worried he had just thrown her crashing to the earth.

Instead Pidgey had her wings out and was stable as she swooped around the clearing and back to David.

Landing, she hopped forward until she was next to him and chirped.

“Again?”

 

Pidgey didn’t tire of flying so much as her wings did. It was still early though and David wanted to get a little bit more practice in before they stopped for a berry hunt.

“Feel up to some more Peck training?”

Pidgey turned to him and pecked forward. She looked quite happy after all the flying. David set a thick branch in front of her and settled in.

 

`Thunk`

The sound brought David out of a daydream and he snapped his eyes to Pidgey. The Pokemon was bowed forward with her beak embedded into the branch before her.

She had done it!

“YES!” David screamed, jumping up. He scrambled over to congratulate her.

But Pidgey didn’t pull her head back and sit up.

“Huh. You alright Pidgey?”

A strangled noise rang out.

He inspected her closely, looking for injuries. Then it dawned on him. Pidgey had half done it. She channeled flying type energy and ‘Peck’d the branch. But she had lost control of the energy on contact.

She was stuck.

He rushed forward and lifted the branch off the ground, reducing the pressure on Pidgey’s neck.

“One second, let me help,” David said as soothingly as possible as he placed a hand on the shaking bird’s head. He steadied her head in place and with his other hand he began to wiggle the branch. With a light pop the two separated and Pidgey squirmed out of the his hand and away, squawking all the while.

When she finished making noise, David held the branch out towards her and pointed to the beak sized hole.

“You did it Pidgey.”

Pidgey upon hearing this stopped moving. She began to puff herself up and preen.

“Yes, yes. Great job figuring it out so quickly!” David said and clapped. Pidgey drank it up.

“But can you do it again?”

Pidgey’s eyes narrowed.

 

-.-

 

Pidgey was able to consistently generate flying type energy on her beak when David called a halt to the training. She’d only managed to maintain control after contact with a branch only once but David could sense she was starting to get bored of the training.

Instead they were getting ready to head into the woods on a berry hunt. Well, David was getting ready. Pidgey just hopped around behind him, watching him as he worked.

David didn’t want to carry his bag but he didn’t want to leave it in the middle of the clearing for Meowths either. So he searched the trees around the clearing until he found a suitable branch and hung it up out of sight and hopefully out of reach.

He retrieved the crate that Benny had given him that morning and they set off. Today they were heading back to Saffron through the woods instead of following the path. He decided to tell Pidgey about sports as they walked today. It was an awkward conversation and not solely because he was the only one speaking. How did you explain a football to a bird? A tennis racket to a Pokemon? The best David could do was talking about training and practicing tricks. It was the closest thing that he thought Pidgey could relate to.

After about an hour into their search without any luck David was starting to realize that Berries were limited in supply and Pokemon didn’t like all of their favorite treats being taken. He’d need to look in newer areas if he wanted to keep foraging for food.

Like the day before, Pidgey’s presence warded off Pokemon. They saw another colony of the yellow plant Pokemon which David steered them clear of. He was happy to get closer to some Oddish they saw though. The little blue Pokemon were very funny to watch as they wobbled about.

When he got a little too close to the colony of Oddish, Pidgey squawked and started to flex her wings at him. David looked at her in bafflement until a sickly sour smell filled the air. The Oddish started to make a lot of noise and David decided to retreat. A larger version of the Oddish came out from behind a tree as he did. The leaves on its head were a browny red and large mushroom-like bulbs crowned its head.

It didn't look like Oddish final evolution, Vileplume, which meant that Oddish had a mid stage evolution that he had forgotten about.

Pidgey and he left the clearing and as they walked away David pondered the situation. Pidgey had just warned him. Two days ago she had acted the same before he had met the larger yellow plant Pokemon. He would need to pay more attention to her in future.

 

They made it out of the woods with a single berry and lots of herbs for David’s dinner. He was sensing a pattern. The woods towards the path and closer to the city were more traveled and there was less for him to find. The other direction held more Pokemon and restricted zones.

He needed to check the route map again. He might be able to identify areas in the zero badge zone that were less traveled.

David estimated it to be around 3 o’clock now and he didn’t expect to see anyone in the league booth that had sat empty for the last few days. So he was surprised when he rounded the corner of the booth and found Fred and Machop doing sit ups.

“22. 23. 24. And 25!” Fred sat up and pushed off the ground to his feet. The teenager was tall and gangly with limbs that hadn’t filled in yet, but he moved through the exercises with a practiced ease. He hadn’t noticed David and Pidgey yet. “Nice work Machop! Push ups next. Another 3 sets to go.”

Pidgey let out a questioning low squawk as they stood there. Both Fred and Machop heard this and turned.

“David!” Fred half said, half cheered before turning back to Machop. “You finish the set buddy.”

“Hi Fred,” David greeted as the teen walked toward them. He indicated the Pokemon beside him. “This is Pidgey.”

He was sure that Fred knew what kind of Pokemon Pidgey was but it felt weird to not introduce her. Should he name Pidgey? Was naming Pokemon a thing here?

“Hello Pidgey!” Fred greeted the bird with the same enthusiasm he put into his training.

Pidgey hopped back a little under the attention but then began to preen as she got used to Fred’s inspection.

“David, you have a second?” Fred asked, wiping a bead of sweat dripping from his ginger hair and indicating to the side.

David looked around and saw no one else but he still nodded and followed.

Pidgey hopped over to where Machop was bouncing up and down against the ground doing push ups.

“Have you thought about it? A battle?”

David looked at Pidgey who had moved around in front of the Machop’s head and was bobbing her head up and down in time with his pushups. He frowned. He’d just gotten her two days ago. Was she ready for a battle?

“Nothing complicated. Just to the first knockdown.” Fred began, seeing his expression. “Machop is very young and excited from the tournament. I want him to have a taste.”

David looked at the two Pokemon again. Machop had stopped his push ups and was flexing and showing off to Pidgey. Was Pidgey ready for a battle? She had learned Peck today and should have a type advantage. She was tired from training earlier, but she should have recovered  enough along the walk here. And Machop had been training too. Fred’s Pokemon had to be tired too.

“Just until one of them gets knocked back? We keep it light and easy?”

Fred nodded eagerly.

“Alright then. You okay if I let them know?”

Fred smiled and led the way back. The two Pokemon looked up and towards them as they arrived back. David stepped away from Fred and raised an arm to point at him.

“I challenge you to a Pokemon battle,” David intoned. He stared down the baffled teen and Pokemon until the moment passed. Then he reached up and scratched his head.

“Sorry. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”