Chapter 51: Campfire

Just a busy work week. For those new, I do work during the week.

*****

It was now late into the night. Viridian City's canopy shimmered with the glow of the moon. Its moonlight came out to peek through the trees' thick foliage. Even some fireflies came out from slumber, illuminating the forest in a yellow-earthen glow. It painted a pretty picture, to say the least.

Three figures could now be seen seated across a self-built campfire. Neatly aligned rocks could be seen in a full circle. Wood was currently burnt, and every so often, an ember would spark out of it, popping. It was steady, and it created a nice ambience. The trio's Pokemon were out and about too. Ricky assigned his newly evolved Charmeleon to tend to the fire in hopes to start controlling his fire energy. Ricky had hoped Charmeleon could learn stronger moves like Flamethrower before he would evolve into a Charizard. Practice makes perfect!

"Make sure you don't burn the firewood to a crisp alright, Charmeleon?", Ricky said to his Charmeleon. He didn't want the smell of the lit fire to overpower the marshmallows they were currently roasting. Presently, Serena was on his left, while Lillie was on his right.

"Char.", Charmeleon responded. Listening to Ricky, every so often, Charmeleon would ignite his tail, shooting out little embers at the firepit, keeping it lit. Even this simple action counted as training. These embers weren't even as big as a normal Ember was. Controlling one's moves allowed one to fine-tune how much energy a Pokemon could release during battle. This helped consume less or more stamina, depending on the situation. Ricky had heavy focus on his Charmeleon presently, as he plans to use him against Brock, despite the disadvantage match-up.

Apart from Charmeleon tending to the fire pit, the trio had kicked back and relaxed. Unlike before, the trio were no longer bound by schedules they had to follow, apart from restocking their supplies in a week. Goofing off like this was entirely possible!

"I didn't think I'd get an opportunity to enjoy a night out in the woods like this. Camping is pretty fun, huh?", Lillie questioned. She constantly turned her stick. She had a couple marshmallows pierced into it at its tip. She turned them slowly, not wanting to roast them too quickly.

Serena also had a relaxed expression in her eyes as she was roasting a stick of her own. Unlike Lillie, however, Serena had two of her Pokemon out next to the folding chair she was currently seated on. It was her Shiny Litten and her just-caught Shinx. Despite just catching Shinx earlier in the day, the two hit it off. Serena was hesitant at first, as cat-like Pokemon were pretty territorial. But knowing the two were both her own Pokemon, Litten and Shinx had become quick friends. They were currently taking a cat nap at the foot of Serena's chair.

The warm radiance the fire released provided an enjoyable atmosphere for them to snooze away. Serena didn't have plans to train these two right away, so she decided to let them do whatever they wanted. Looks like they wanted to chill and laze around. Seeing Charmeleon on fire duty, Litten felt zero desire to help. Serena was fine with that.

"Uh-huh. And these two are such cuties, aren't they? I didn't think Litten and Shinx would hit it off this quickly.", Serena said, looking at the red-white cat and the blue-yellow cat Pokemon resting peacefully beneath her.

"Catching a Shinx in the Kanto Region is even more surprising, in my opinion. Guess Pokemon from other regions do wander into this place from time to time. I heard Pokemon migration was a huge thing in ages past when we humans were just starting out. I can't remember the name of the region where they settled though.", Lillie responded, tilting her head to the side to ponder. Ricky was quick to realize what Lillie was referring to.

"You must be referring to the land of Hisui where rumors of the legendary Pokemon Arceus once roamed it. I recall seeing some notes during my studies that this region eventually became what is now Sinnoh. Sinnoh is connected to Kanto, just like Johto and Hoenn. They're all islands that connect to each other. Things change up once you reach Unova and beyond where flight time is much longer.", Ricky explained.

"Yeah. Those are the regions we should consider exploring first. I do love my home in Kalos, but it's such a long way out. Sounds like you have interest in exploring Johto next?", Serena asked, wanting to confirm again where my next interest was.

"Sure am.", Ricky happily replied. 'I know Johto is discredited a lot in other stories I've read as there isn't a lot to this region compared to others. But it's home to some powerful Pokemon like Tyranitar.', Ricky thought to himself. Plus he wanted to go in order for the most part, and that meant Johto was up next. He could take an express bullet train right through Mt. Silver to reach it!

That was still a ways off, though. The trio had to do the hard part first, climbing part of Mt. Silver to reach the Indigo League, and pass through Victory Road. The bullet train crossed right to left, while this other path walked straight up through the mountain.

As Ricky said that, The trio was disturbed by Lillie's stick suddenly bursting into flames, catching on fire.

"Dang it.", Lillie said, seeing a couple of her marshmallows now entirely burnt to a crisp. Seeing this earned a giggle from Serena.

"Hehe, you can't be distracted in thought while doing this, Lillie. Or else you'll burn 'em like that!", Serena said, joking.

"It's my own fault being distracted like that. Thankfully we have a lot of marshmallows to spare~", Lillie responded. Sadly there weren't waste bags or anything here in the wild forest, so Lillie had to toss her burnt marshmallows back into the fire, and incinerate them. Once her stick was empty, she simply placed a couple more on them, and carefully paid attention this time. Ricky was also melting some chocolate and it was able to make for a nice dessert.

"Even the s'mores you make are delicious.", Serensa said, savoring every last bite after their s'mores were complete.

"I'd expect no less from you, Ricky. Hobbes put you to good work it seems.", Lillie also said, praising Ricky.

"Heh. Mr. Hobbes definitely put me through the wringer alright. But looking back on it, I am grateful to him.", Ricky replied.

"He's your primary butler, right, Lillie?", Serena questioned.

"He is. Hobbes has been in service to our family for many years now. I'm just as grateful to him as Ricky is.", Lillie nodded.

Taking a moment of silence, Ricky glanced down at his side. He saw Amber resting peacefully. Her snowy fur glistened in the darkness under the light of the fire. One of Ricky's other Pokemon, Rowlet, was perched on a sole tree next to their encampment. Rowlet was releasing some hoots as Rowlet enjoyed some moonlight. Ricky's other Pokemon were now sleeping inside their Pokeballs. All of their Pokemon had their fair share earlier in the evening during their meals.

The trio only chose a select few to remain out of their Pokeballs during the late night.

"Say, now that we've finished eating our dessert, why don't we go over the info of our new Pokemon? We registered their entries and all, but I still want to see what kinds of moves they got.", Serena suggested to the two.

"Sounds good to me. I might even decide to use Mankey as my second Pokemon against Brock. I do want to give Mankey a good round of training.", Ricky responded.

"Then let's get out our Pokedex.", Lillie said, reaching into her Item Pouch to grab out her Pokedex. Ricky and Serena grabbed out theirs, and navigated to their respective pages. They last checked their Pokedex info on Route 22 before registering their Route 2 entries. Ricky opted not to let the Pokedex display the Pokemon's bio, and instead, just displayed their general info instead, including the moves. Ricky was quite happy with what he reviewed.

[Mankey]

Normal Variant

Nature: Adamant

Gender: Male

Ability: Defiant

Known Moves: Fury Swipes, Focus Energy, Scratch, Leer, Encore, Night Slash, Counter, Power Trip, Meditate, Close Combat

[Shinx]

Normal Variant

Nature: Adamant

Gender: Female

Ability: Guts

Known Moves: Tackle, Leer, Thunder Shock, Thunder Fang, Trailblaze, Double Kick, Howl, Night Slash, Eerie Impulse, Magnet Rise

[Caterpie]

Normal Variant

Nature: Naive

Gender: Female

Ability: Tinted Lens

Known Moves: Tackle, String Shot, Bug Bite, Electroweb, Snore

"Wow. Even Caterpie lucked out. This Caterpie knows all the moves it can learn. That can be quite handy, considering a normal Metapod's only known move it can use is Harden. Given training, it can learn moves like Bug Bite, but Caterpie is starting out with 'em outright. Plus there is Butterfree, who can Gigantimax...", Ricky uttered, still torn on whether or not he should release this Caterpie. This marked his seventh Pokemon, discounting Mew. Otherwise it would be his eighth.

Ricky was actually in a bit of a handicap, compared to other trainers. One of his Pokeball slots was occupied by Mew. Considering that Mew was out and about roaming doing whatever it pleased, it's not like Ricky could toss its ball into the digital storage space. If he did that, that would cause Mew to get sucked into it. He didn't want that. So he opted to leave one of his six slots to Mew.

Additionally, Amber also occupied a slot. That meant he could only use four right now. Rowlet and Charmeleon occupied two of those slots. Knowing that he wanted to train up Froakie as well, that meant he had one slot left. For now, that position is left to Mankey, prompting his Galarian Slowpoke and Caterpie to remain inside his Pokedex. Thankfully, Ricky did not need to pull out their balls to see what information they had. He could simply use the Pokedex and be done with it.

And after he reviewed that, he was on the defense of releasing Caterpie now. Lillie saw hesitation in Ricky's eyes.

"Why not keep Caterpie around for the time being? She'll be easy to train too. They evolve very quickly!", Lillie suggested.

"Might as well.", Ricky nodded. As he said that, he continued to listen to several Bug-Type Pokemon sound off all around him, signaling the buzzing night. The moon was high up in the sky, peering through the canopy of the trees. While it was not completely covered, he could see a starry sky in the skies above.

More time had passed before they realized it. Charmeleon already finished his firepit duties, and the firepit was dimly lit now. It wouldn't be long until it was fully extinguished. Charmeleon was now curled up into a ball, sleeping. His tail's embers flickering, as if responding to the dimly lit embers of the firepit.

"Why don't we get some shut-eye for now? We can try reaching the heart of the forest tomorrow, and potentially find some Pokemon Trainers to battle. I'm sure we're not the only ones in Viridian Forest.", Ricky said to the two. Serena raised her arms and yawned.

Most of their Pokemon were asleep, aside from Ricky's Rowlet, who was continuing their hooting. Unlike other Pokemon, Rowlet enjoyed soaking in the moonlight, considering Rowlet was an owl.

"I'm pretty beat. We had a long day. Tomorrow kicks off the start of a new week, and the itch to battle is growing! We need some good rest to prepare ourselves.", Serena answered with a yawn.

"Hmm-hm.", Lillie also replied, feeling tired.

Seeing they were all tired now, the trio recalled their Pokemon, and cleaned up the fire pit, putting it out. They didn't want a fire to spread, so Ricky took a few moments to remove the rocks, and scattered them. The surroundings returned to normal as if they never had a campfire to begin with.

Their tent was still pitched, so they all wandered inside, and got ready to sleep for the night.

The next morning dawned before the trio realized it. Their second day inside Viridian Forest has begun!