Each of the adults talked to Ian one on one, likely asking, pleading, or threatening him to take care of me. But for the rest of the day I packed up the little I would take with me. The next morning I took my keychain from its drawer, having a Tyrantrum and Ian's final form in a flat rubber format on it as my two favorite Pokémon. I would add to it later when I actually caught the additional team members but those two would stay. 

I knew there was no way I was going to ever capture a Tyrunt early on but a boy could dream can't he? Fossil Pokémon were only rarely found outside the Jurassic and it was flagged only for trainers who qualified for the conference with 8 badges out of the 10 possible badges as it was really dangerous. 

"One day" I told myself as I attached it to my backpack as the lone accessory of the grey bag.

I had slept well and taken some oil for rust and cleaning steel and a couple soft rags and cleaned Ian before we went out. My mom brought out an old camera and took a couple pictures of us next to a tree before grandpa had enough "Come on, let the kid go on and start heading towards Blossom city. If he gets too far behind he won't make it in 3 days."

Mom sighed "But he's my last kid going off, can't I get just a few more?"

Grandpa smirked "No." Good going grandpa, she's already almost filled out the film in that camera and Ian is starting to give me looks.

"Ok then, sweetie? Don't do anything you will regret" she said in the same tone. She only used sweetie when she was thinking about punishment for one of her kids. In this case it was only a warning and gave me a hug one last time. "Your father would be proud of you dear, don't waste this chance."

Grandpa gave me a firm handshake and nodded "You'll do well."

Finally I moved onto grandmother. In her hands were 5 letters which she turned me around to put in my bag "Read the one marked with an X first, good luck boy on your first gym battle and be sure to teach Ian his egg moves before he starts getting too old." She gave me a short bow which I returned.

"What are the letters for?" I asked.

"Just read the X marked one when your ready" she responded.

I went over to give Sawk a bow, Graveler 4 fist bumps, and Skitty a pet. I turned and walked down the path towards the first gym and Blossom city which was a couple of villages and a town over. I looked back and waved as Ian floated beside me. They all waved back, my mom crying until I got out of eyesight.

"It has begun Ian, the start of our journey to greatness" I told my Pokémon. He sheathed his sword once in response. I'd keep him out if I could, something about him made me feel safer.

"Let me just read the first letter real quick and then I can start trying to teach you how to learn the 3 egg moves you could learn. Can you keep a lookout for me?" he sheathed once before floating with his ribbon holding his sheathe while his blade pointed at the surroundings.

I turned my bag around and grabbed the letters. They were all unmarked except for the Xed one and I couldn't see much in them even holding them up to the rare patch of light scattered around the forest. 

Putting the others away and opening the one I was told I saw a letter.

It read

Letters of Advice

Rules:

-Only ever open in a time when you are safe and in need of help, be it with advancing in your training or making hard decisions

-Only ever open one at a time

-Commit each letter to memory to the best of your ability

-Burn them once you have read them and committed them to your memory to the best of your ability

-Try to keep them safe and absolutely don't lose them

"Huh, I wonder what they say" I was tempted to just open one and find out but the first rule was highlighted "in need of help". It seemed like something grandmother would do so I decided to follow the instructions, she knew what she was doing with things like this.

I told Ian about the rules and he just twirled around as if nodding. Supposedly in about a week we would form a deep enough connection for me to understand him and be able to feel TE. It had something to do with the pokeball he was kept in but it wasn't explained in much detail as what I could do with the abilities I would gain.

"So you have three egg moves that you can learn and I want you to learn at least two of them. They are destiny bond, wide guard, and block and block is the one I'm not sure its worth it to learn." He seemed to know about them already but sheathed once in acknowledgment. 

"Do you want to learn block?" he pondered it before sheathing once.

"Alright, let's start with wide guard first since its easy to practice without an opponent. It will be tough but it will help you dabble in another of the type energies. So you know what a castle wall looks like?" One sheathe "Good, well the main idea is that you make a wall of rocks like that. It will start off on the smaller scale but I'm sure you can make a big one one day. Try to first feel the rocks around you without touching them."

He does so and for a while we walk in silence. I see him quickly unsheathe his blade again and turn towards our right and shoot past me. There I see a Ralts who's horn is glowing before a couple small pink loops head towards me. Ian tanks them three of them well before reaching Ralts and using scratch twice before I think to speak up.

"Use furry cutter instead!" I panic, trying to remember the three moves Ian knows. The Ralts doesn't like being beat up and Ian slices through a double team copy as 2 more Ralts appear flickering nearer to me. I pull out a hunting knife to defend myself and drop my bag in the time it takes the Ralts to get to me. It's smaller than me but it can use moves and I can't. A close up confusion expels from the right one's horn and I get hit in my knife arm with the loops washing over my shoulder before dissipating. 

Ian is still reaching us since he is slower than even me and my muscles are cramping up in my arm. Its painful and I try to back away towards the left illusion to try to reach Ian. With my free hand I grab a pokeball and toss it at the Ralts. This act buys me a couple seconds and I'll make it to Ian as the ball cracks open after violently shaking. This ones not getting caught yet and I don't even want a Gardevior! 

An angry Ralts appears and starts aiming at us again, focusing on Ian with confusion since I'm faster. Ian is still slow so knowing I'm faster I grab his hilt and move his ribbon onto my arm. The sheathe is already left behind, floating on its own as the main body sucks energy out of me as I run towards the Ralts with him in my non dominant hand. I dodge more confusions as the Ralts gets tired and even block a few with Ian to his annoyance. He resists them well but is fading fast.

Ian uses his energy to drop his ghostly floating effect and start building up furry cutter. The Ralts tries to run away but with its short legs I'm faster. I feel my arm has gotten better and I grab Ian with both hands, slicing sideways to hit the Ralts. The hit sends it flying onto its back and I stab it two more times before I see spirals in its eyes showing unconsciousness. It appears that it has light wounds but that's because of the protective field of TE Pokémon constantly keep up. Without it or with an exceptional power difference they will die and get injured much more.

Ian has visible notches in his blade and a frayed ribbon while my arm is redder than normal and has a fading pain in it. I don't set Ian down, he is quite light despite being a steel type but I do use him as a walking stick for a little. He points towards the Ralts with his ribbon but I shake my head "Not my type of Pokémon and I don't know anyone to sell it to." He keeps doing it and I get the feeling he wants to kill the Ralts "I mean, I'm not against it but its momma might not be far away. Parents understand unconsciousness in a fight but they do not just let humans kill their children." As we near my backpack he escapes my grasp and just flies towards the Ralts "No wait!" I try to run after him but he gets there before me and wraps his ribbon around the Ralts.

Ohhhhhh, he just wanted to recover a bit. I watch before telling him to cut it out and then walk back to my backpack once more. Damn wild Pokémon that want to fight to get stronger. I mean it was a great first battle...maybe I can survive a few more attacks.