With wet firewood, the team had to fall back on Valerie’s gas stove to get a meal going. Stella sat back for now. She had a slightly remorseful look on her face, her hands were in her lap, and her eyes were fixed on the ground.

  “I’m sorry…I never made a campfire…”

  “It’s alright,” Valerie smiled back at the girl, “You’re new to this stuff, right?”

  “Yeah…”

  “Then simply learn and do better next time.” His trainer was adjusting the strength of the flame as she placed a pan on top of the stove, “Fair warning, too, if you started a fire here before clearing the area, you might burn down the whole forest. You don’t just wanna start a campfire anywhere.”

  “Alright! I’ll read up on it when we get to Pewter City!” She hugged herself close to Valerie, “Thanks!”

  “That’s the spirit!” She smiled, returning to adjusting the stove.

  ‘Granted, someone who doesn’t go camping a lot doesn’t really know about the fact that branches and wood need to dry out before they’ll burn in a fire.’ Larry rationalized, ‘I wouldn’t have known that you can’t just use every piece of wood on the forest floor.’

  “You said you are, umm, doing the Contest Run?” Matt questioned.

  “Yeah,” Stella answered far more tersely than when answering Valerie.

  Sybil appeared next to Larry as Valerie began preparing their food, but Larry waved Valerie off, while pointing at the ground, indicating he’d eat soil instead. She gave him a brief nod before continuing to prepare Sybil’s and Patrat's portion, “Stella, do you have any Pokemon? I’m preparing the portions for our Pokemon right now.”

  Pulled out of her meek introversion, Stella quickly retrieved a Pokeball from her belt, “I’ve got Mory. Thanks for preparing the food, but she’s got her own mix my mom gave me.” She chucked the Pokeball to her side, “Come out, Mory.”

  What appeared was a miniature Skarmory, about the size of a small child, the bird was still far too large for the forest. A memory from when they flew away from Mt. Silver came back to Larry, of the Skarmory that attacked the Fearow they used to fly back.

  Where the previous Skarmory had been large and Fearsome, this one looked smaller, more cared for. It didn’t have any bruises on its body, instead, a perfectly reflective metallic sheen shone off its entire body. Its torso was one large metallic mass, or armor, without any seams. Meanwhile, its wings looked outright deadly, their edges gleaming dangerously, it was obvious that the bird wasn’t made for any other environment than the battlefield. Yet, even now, it held a noble air about itself, standing proudly and without much regard for the other Pokemon present, ‘That Skarmory looks really majestic, even though it is slightly small. It’s even smaller than Sybil.’

  “I get why you kept Mory in its Pokeball. I doubt it’d be much use in a forest.” Valerie looked the majestic bird up and down, clearly impressed by its metallic sheen. When the bird caught her gaze, though, it simply scoffed before turning its head away from her, “Um…Did I do something to it?”

  “No,” Stella shook her head, “I only got Mory shortly before setting off, but…” The young girl paused, “He doesn’t get along well with me…”

  The large bird gave her side-eye before once again turning its head to the wilderness, “Hmph…”

  ‘A troublesome Pokemon?’ Larry wondered, ‘He certainly doesn’t look that nice.’

  “Well, I think getting to know your Pokemon is a good start.” Valerie tested, “Tell me about Mori.”

  Stella looked uneasily between her Flying-Type and her new friend, “My mother owns a Skarmory, she’s Mory's mother, and Mory really looks up to her. Mom decided to hand Mory off to me before I set off, but we never really talked much before then…I think he doesn’t like that I took him with me…”

  “Skar! Mory!” “Of course! You idiot!” Skarmory cawed out loudly, its razor-sharp wings flaring outwards in challenge.

  Stella cowered back at the Pokemon’s intimidation, “Hyeek! We’ve only been traveling for three weeks or so, but Mory always returns to his Pokeball when he can…”

  Skarmory simply scoffed in return, returning its gaze to the forest.

  Stella's lip was quivering, “I don’t know why he hates me so much…”

  Valerie enveloped the young girl in a hug, “Don’t worry, all Pokemon are different, there’s bound to be a reason for Mory’s behavior and a way for you two to become friends.”

  “Y-Yeah…” Matt spoke up behind her.

  The young trainer reciprocated Valerie’s hug, wiping a tear on her sleeve, “Thank you, Valerie.”

  “Now, let’s get everyone some food!”

  After everyone was handed a bowl, Larry was about to go take a meal of his own, but Valerie coaxed him over quietly, “Psst! Hey! Larry!”

  Valerie closed in and whispered a quiet question into his ear, “Can you try and find out what Mory’s problem is? I really want Stella to feel good about her journey, and an angry Skarmory isn’t going to help with that.”

  ‘Hmm…I am kind of curious as well…And if all it takes is some words, I don’t mind having a quick chat.’ Larry nodded to her request, “Sure, I’ll see what I can find.”

  “Thanks, Larry! I’ll make sure to pay you back for it.” Valerie quickly wondered what she could do, “Ah, right, we’ve still got that Earthquake TM, how about we teach you that?”

  “Who else were you going to teach it?” Larry asked sarcastically.

  “Oof, yeah. You got me there. Ok, let’s also look for some treats in Pewter City when we get there. A city with a Rock-Type Gym Leader bound to have some tasty rocks, right?”

  “Now that sounds better!” And so Larry went to dig himself out a nice meal

  …

  Later in the evening, everyone had retired into their own tents, and Larry finally found Mori had planted himself down in a little nest of grass, relaxing somewhere near Stella's portion of the clearing. So he did as any annoying and nosy person would and simply walked up to him, “Hey, Mori!”

  The Steel-Type simply glared as he approached, seemingly more than content simply tuning out his voice.

  “It's nice to meet you, my name's Larry!” Larry didn’t dare step too close to the bird, lest he be turned into diced Larvitar. “Considering we’re going to be traveling together, I thought it’d be nice to get to know each other!”

  Mori’s glare intensified at the invitation to chat, “What if I don’t want to get to know you?”

  “Well, that’d be a real shame, wouldn’t it?” Larry pivoted, “I’m a great conversationalist, and there are so few Pokemon who love to chat! It’d be great to find someone else to talk with!”

  “I don’t talk much,” The Skarmory turned his head away, “So I’m not much use.”

  “Aww, don’t be like that! You’re doing great right now, I wanna get to know you better!” If he wanted to find out anything about Skarmory, he needed to get chummy with the bird. His impression of a more personable person than himself was just the right way to approach this. First, he had to get into the Flying-Types' good graces, “That metallic sheen of yours is so pretty! What did you do to get it to look that way?”

  Mori inspected his own body, curiosity piqued by the sudden change of topic, “What?”

  “I wanna know what you did to get such a clean and shiny metallic reflection on your wings and body!” Larry repeated animatedly. He needed to pivot from this introductory topic sooner or later if he wanted to go down the path of finding out what Mori’s deal is, so he added small hints of the actual topic, “You look amazing, but from what Stella mentioned, you haven’t been long together. So I’ve been wondering what you did to look this way.”

  “Well.” Mori seemed flabbergasted by the question, actually considering an answer instead of simply deflecting again, “Aurora always cared for all our looks, if it's Mom or me. She always made us eat Iron.” By the end, Mori had a nostalgic expression on his face.

  Larry finally found a lead, ‘So it's Stella’s famous contestant's mother, who made him look this way. The fact that he doesn’t call Aurora herself Mom, but instead the Skarmory, means he wasn’t as close to her as expected. Yet, he still seemingly holds her in high regard.’ Psychoanalyzing the bird was easier than expected, though nothing was confirmed yet. If Larry wanted to find out more about the trio, he needed to find out Mori’s opinion on Stella.

  “Oh.” Larry intoned with understanding, “Then…are you still eating Iron now?”

  “No,” Mori intoned derisively, before backpedalling, “Well…not as much as I used to…because of that girl…”

  ‘That girl, huh?’ Larry could see the issue now, “Considering your attitude towards Stella, I’ve got to ask. Is she treating you well?”

  Mori snorted scornfully, “She’s treating me fine. It’s clear she doesn’t have a single idea of what she’s doing though, she’s a moron.”

  Without prompting, the bird continued its tirade, “She’s mixed up the portions of my food multiple times, she can’t talk clearly, and flinches anytime I move. I love Aurora and my mother, but they raised a helpless girl who I’ve been tasked with protecting.”

  “I liked my living arrangements with my mother, only for her to throw me out of our nest one day and into the arms of that idiot.” He continued, firmly committed to his roasting of his trainer, “She can’t do a thing right, and the only good thing about these arrangements is that I get to watch her trip and fall all day long. Why was I chosen? I barely knew the girl!”

  ‘He really doesn’t respect her, wow.’ Larry was awed by the venom the bird spat. Skarmory doesn’t even learn Poison-Type moves, but Mori would be a prime candidate to do so in Larry’s eyes. ‘I don’t even have that much hatred in my heart for anyone…Wait a minute.’

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  “I’m sorry to hear that…” Larry continued his prodding. If the bird really didn’t want to be by her side, then Larry could always give it a way out. “I didn’t think it’d be this bad. Should I try and communicate your problems to Stella? I can write human languages and could try and get your issues fixed. Maybe she could send you back to Aurora and your mother?”

  “Nah…It’s ok.” Mori deflected weakly.

  ‘Weird. Maybe he’s just a really big crybaby?’ Larry stopped his prodding, instead moving the conversation to the other side, “Stella’s a contestant. How’s your training been with her? You’ll want to give a good showing for your first contest in Pewter City, right?

  “Training's been…well…” The Flying-Type stopped himself short.

  “Not making good progress?” Larry guessed, receiving a depressed nod from Mori.

  “It’s not my fault!” Mori defended himself, “The girl is just the worst at giving instructions!”

  “I see…That’s not good…” Larry already saw a bit of his old self in the bird, ‘Ok, Mori’s probably someone without a drive to do things who's been pushed out of his comfort zone.’

  Larry hadn’t done much research on Stella, but while the girl was generally clumsy, she wasn’t a terrible coordinator. It was obvious that most of Mori’s complaints were based on his experiences back home with Aurora and his own Skarmory mother. He expected greatness at every move, but received a girl who, just like him, was doing everything for the first time.

  In a way, it was funny. The bird complained about training, but hadn’t been forced to fight to defend his trainer even once during their travels.

  His next topic of complaint was that he hadn’t needed to fight even once, with both trips down Route 22 and up Route 2 ending largely uneventfully. It seemed obvious to Larry that Mori was just bitter about suddenly being kicked out of his nest and saddled with a trainer to look after.

  ‘I think I’ve at least gotten a good picture of Mori.’ Larry concluded, ‘I don’t think Stella is as helpless as he makes her out to be, she’s just a young girl on her journey with little experience, mirroring Mori himself.’

  “Well,” Larry began, “I know it’s a long shot, but I hope both you and Stella can find a way to work together. It’s never nice when you can’t work well together with your partner…”

  “Yeah…It’s not nice…” Mori agreed.

  “I’ll let you get back to relaxing for now, bye!” Larry waved his goodbyes to the bird as he walked back over to Valeire’s tent.

  ‘Now, how do we go about getting these two closer…’

  …

  “I see…” Valerie nodded at the text he’d written up, “Mori doesn’t really think he’s a great fit for Stella and doesn’t want to work with her.”

  Larry nodded to her statement. Inside Valerie’s tent, Larry sat next to Valerie and explained Mori’s woes to his trainer. The girl was lying inside her tent, her sleeping sack on her side. Sybil was inside her ball, her humanoid size far too big for the one-person tent.

  His trainer stroked her chin, pondering the best thing to do, “Hmm…What to do…”

  Urging his trainer, he pointed at her phone, intending to write another sentence.

  When he was done writing, he pressed the text-to-speech button, “I think Mori needs to be motivated. He doesn’t see a reason to work with his trainer.”

  The TTS voice held for an awkward second in the middle, “He was forced to work together with her, so now he needs a reason to stay with her. Else Stella needs to find a new partner and send Mori back home.”

  “I doubt that’s an option.” Valerie answered in a pensive tone when the read-out finished, “Stella sounded like she didn’t know what to do with him, so I doubt she can simply send him back.”

  Larry took the phone from him again, writing out another sentence, “I think Mori wants to do good as well, I think his mother put him up to it.”

  “I see…Some Pokemon do send out their young to prove themselves.” Valerie noted, “I’ve heard some powerful human families also set up their children with the young of their partners. You think this is the case here?”

  He nodded sharply, “Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense why Mori is still here. He could fly back home anytime he wanted.”

  “Yeah, so our best bet is to inspire Mori and to make Stella a better trainer.” His trainer concluded, “Let's come up with something tomorrow while we're walking.”

  Larry could only agree, a whole day of wandering through a forest had sapped him of energy as well. He'd worry about getting a good night's rest today and helping Mori tomorrow.

  …

  Deconstruction of their camp had gone quicker than the construction, and by the crack of dawn and after breakfast, thanks to Valerie's trusty cooker, they were once again on their way to Pewter City.

  Larry knew he wouldn't be able to, but he’d seriously have to thank Michelle for her thoughtfulness in how over-packed Valerie was.

  Unlike her, Matt used a large, well-used hiking backpack, and while Stella apparently shared her budget, also owning a space-defying backpack like Valerie herself, the girl hadn't pulled much out of it other than her own tent.

  The girl was largely a mystery anyway, ‘I know so little about the contests I could barely tell you how they work. You just do fancy moves in front of a judge, right? It's like a freaky mix of talent show and beauty pageant crossed with everything Pokemon.’

  Larry wouldn't deny that Mori looked impeccable, but he also didn't think Skarmory were prime candidates for contests, ‘As a former NEET, I understand Mori’s distaste for actually growing up and leaving the nest, but I think he doesn't quite understand what that actually means, mostly because of Stella.’

  “What are you thinking?”

  “WOAH?!” He jumped when Patrat appeared next to him. The Pokemon threat of Viridian was negligible at best, so Sybil had resolved to stay inside her Pokeball instead of walking with them, only Larry on ground level and Patrat on top of Matt's shoulder were present at the moment.

  “-Sorry!” The rodent apologized quickly, “I-”

  “It's alright,” Larry assured the Normal-Type, “I was a bit too distracted there. We're supposed to keep watch.”

  “We are!” Patrat agreed as he surveyed around himself once again in neurotic, jerky swings of his head.

  The air was slightly more awkward with the newfound knowledge around Patrat. Larry could still hardly believe what the energetic rodent went through to end up in Matt’s possession.

  “What were you thinking about?”

  “Mori and Stella aren't working well together.” Larry confessed as he passed his eyes over the deep forest to their sides, a Spinarak sat on a tree trunk in the distance harmlessly, “Valerie and I want to help them.”

  “How?”

  “Well, talking to him, it's obvious Mori doesn't want to be here. So we need to find a way to motivate Mori or to bring Stella to send him back home.” Larry explained.

  Patrat's scanning head stopped, he didn't turn to address Larry, though, "Does he want to be here?”

  “That's the thing.” Larry sighed, “He deflected when I asked, but it feels like he isn't even sure himself. It's like he doesn't want to go home, but he also didn't want to do all this. Or…Well, if I had to guess, it's probably all a bit much for him.”

  The Normal-Type sniffed humorously, “Hmph! I get that!”

  A second of silence passed before Patrat turned to him with a clap of its tiny rodent hands, "I've got it! Right! If Mori wants to find out if he wants this, he needs to experience it!”

  “Hm?”

  Patrat turned and sped up onto Matt's shoulder with practiced ease, scaling the teenage boy in mere seconds before he wrenched at his head, “Give me your phone, idiot!”

  “Ack! Fine! Here!” Swiping the phone from his grasp, Patrat quickly typed in text and handed the device back to his trainer.

  “Huh? Seriously?” The two whispered to each other for a second before Patrat nodded in confirmation.

  “U-Umm Stella?” Matt hesitantly spoke up between them.

  “Hm?” Everyone's eye fell on the large boy, and he retreated a step at the sudden attention.

  He pointed a hesitant finger at Stella's belt, “D-Don’t you want to release Mori? I-uh, I think he could be useful.”

  “Really?” The girl spoke just as hesitantly as Matt himself, clearly not used to talking with others, “Mori wouldn’t be able to fly around here.”

  “Err- Yeah…” Matt sputtered at the watertight argument, “But I-”

  “I think it would be helpful having him out,” Valerie said to Matt with a smile, seeing what the boy was attempting, “Flying-Types need good eyesight to catch their prey, so he’d be great at keeping watch.”

  “Y-Yeah,” Matt nodded vigorously, “That’s what I was about to say. Yup.”

  Stella looked hesitant, but unclipped the ball from her belt anyway, “If you say so…Come out, Mori.”

  Mori appeared with a shake and stretch, apparently having been roused from his sleep by the release, “Skar…?” “What now…?”

  “Sorry, Mori,” Valerie knelt to the bird's height, “Flying-Types have excellent eyesight, and we need some more Pokemon to keep watch as we go deeper into the forest. Are you up for it?”

  The bird huffed greatly and rolled his eyes as he shook his wings with multiple loud clangs, “Mori…Skar..” “Fine…If I have to…”

  “Just make sure you keep your trainer safe, Larry over there’s got me and Patrat has Matt’s eye, ok?”

  …

  Contrary to Larry’s guesses, Mori wasn’t absolutely helpless in the Viridian Forest.

  Sure, the bird looked badly out of place, his gleaming silver plumage looked the most fitting in a mountainous region or against the sunny sky, but in the fauna and greenery of a forest, it just did not fit.

  His behavior as a guard, though, Larry might even call it a bit overeager.

  “Hey! YOU!” The bird cawed loudly at a line of Seedot on a tree up front, “Get out of the way!”

  The row of Seedot seemingly took notice of the fact that they were being addressed, but didn’t answer back. Instead, they simply stared down at the bird.

  “What are you looking at, HUH?!” The Seedots' apparent disrespect hit Mori hard, “YOU WANNA FIGHT?!”

  “Mori.” Larry tapped the bird's side, making the bird jerk a sharp wing towards him. He raised his hands in a diffusing gesture as the bird turned to him.

  “The others are just going around them.” He pointed at the human group, which was in the process of simply walking around the tree, following a small foot path that had seemingly developed due to the gang of Seedot.

  When Mori saw his trainer smile at him apologetically, he simply sniffed in annoyance before following after the girl. When she turned, she almost slapped herself in the face with a branch, if it weren’t for Matt’s timely support.

  ‘So we’ve got a Skarmory with a short fuze and a trainer who's a klutz…What a great combo.’ Larry burrowed quickly underground, appearing behind both the tree and in front of his group.

  Mori had already once again taken the front, with Patrat in the middle on the shoulder of his trainer, which left the rear for him. The bird was vigilant, yes, that much was true. It was also true that the bird saw practically anything as a challenge, it seemed.

  A few minutes after their run-in with the Seedot, they happened upon a grouping of trees that were all packed to the brim with Kakuna. Larry’s knowledge let him know that messing with a bunch of Beedrill in the making was about the last thing they needed today. He could see a Beedrill hanging around at a distance and could even spot a few heavyset Weedle also meandering around the branches.

  “A growing Beedrill hive…” Valerie muttered in front of him, earning the others' attention, “We should stay cautious, they’re very territorial.”

  Everyone nodded back and got started walking, but halfway past the trees full of Kakuna, a Weedle appeared out of the tall grass on the sides of their path. It slowly craned its neck in their direction, its little, beady, bug-eyes unappreciative of the group of Pokemon and people approaching it.

  “Move it.” Mori intoned casually, a slight tone of authority in his voice.

  The Weedle quirked its head to the side, seemingly translating the two words out of Mori’s mouth live. “Out of the way, pipsqueak!” The bird called out, louder this time.

  “Mori! Quiet!” Stella whispered at the diminutive Steel-Type.

  “Don’t tell me what to do!” Mori cried back, its tone fittingly reduced, “And you! Move!”

  Larry could see the eyes of the Kakuna on the trees around them beginning to fall onto them. He was beginning to get anxious, ‘Is this idiot trying to get killed?!’

  Finally, the bird seemingly had had enough of the disrespect and slapped the small Bug-Type to the ground using his wing, back into the high grass. Everyone held their breath at once, and every gaze followed the yellow Bug-Type into the grass. For a short second, everyone exchanged glances with each other, ‘...Maybe that was ok?’

  “Weeeeeeeeeeeee!” Then the crying began, loud and shrill like the trill of a whistle.

  SNAP!

  CRACK!

  Firstly, every single Kakuna around them dropped into the High Grass underneath their trees. Then, flashes of light exploded out of the grass before the buzzing began.

  BZZZT!

  BZZT!

  BZZZT!

  Out of the high grass came dozens upon dozens of Beedrill, stingers held at the ready.

  Mori looked around himself dumbly for a second, but before he could get to throw out a funny quip at their predicament, Valerie took the lead, grabbing the arms of all the humans around them and running along the now clear path.

  “We’ve gotta get out of here, right now!”