Chapter 012

Solaris thrilled again but this time more mellow compared to when he used Growl. He started running towards the unsuspecting rock and leaped, the claws under his body gleamed wickedly with normal type energy before he lashed out vertically from upper to downwards. Clan's eyes rose in appreciation when he saw, the faint but visible claw marks that were left in the wake of Solaris's attack, on the rock. It wouldn't be much now, but Clan was confident in Solaris, they would refine this move until it would be enough to truly damage a rock pokemon's defence and tough exterior.

The Torchic line are infamous for their wallbreaking capabilities, Clan would be an idiot to not take advantage of such ability.

"Nice, Solaris. Now use, Peck."

Solaris's beak glowed wickedly in normal type energy, his beak shocked Clan as it elongated to double its normal size after it had enveloped completely with white light. It looked like a lance but a bit wider. Solaris came running towards the same innocent rock again, but it was apparent his speed was affected by the weight of his lengthened beak. Solaris stabbed the rock multiple times, Clan regarded the move as he saw the half an inch holes from the attack.

It had done more damage than Slash that's for sure. They had a ton of work to train on. Clan noticed something. To clear it up, he turned towards Solaris and asked. "Solaris. Are you much comfortable in channeling normal energy on your beak than your claws?"

Solaris chirped in agreement. He then began chirping and showing Clan the reason why, he began leaping around and slashing uncomforably at the air a couple of time after that he would run and pecked at the air with precision.

Clan tried to understand Solaris's gestures. Then, after a moment of a trainer watching his pokemon in a rather comical fasion in the field, his eyes lit up in comprehension.

"Are you trying to say that, with all the motion from pacing around and leaping when you use Slash, you have more trouble in channeling your normal energy compared to when you use Peck?" Clan roughly guessed.

Solaris happily thrilled when his trainer quickly caught what his gestures implied. But, his mood suddenly changed as he began to chirp in disappointment, he kicked a pebble and then glared at his claws.

"Eey... what's wrong, buddy?" Clan murmured softly, as he walked up to his starter and laid a hand on the chic's warm head.

"Torchic." A disappointed chirp came in response.

"Did you trained by yourself many times, but no matter how hard you try it never gets better?"

Clan's soothing voice warmed Solaris, but he was an affectionate and emotional pokemon so when he heard Clan, his eyes began to water.

More disappointed chirps responded to Clan.

"Then your worries have come to an end, my friend." Clan returned with enthusiasm. "You've got me, and together we will make sure to hone your moves quickly. And when you do, you will have so much strength that our first Gym Battle would be a piece of cake."

For once, the words of his trainer touched a raw nerve inside the adorable little pokemon. Perhaps... perhaps, it wasn't bad to have a trainer like Clan after all. Looking up, Solaris washed away the tears in his eyes and he gave a grin as he chirpped. "Torchic!"

"Yes" Clan returned the grin with one of his own. "Now, all we have is to do some training, and I have some ideas as to how we would come to that."

...

"You can keep going a little longer! I believe in you!" Clan shouted words of encouragement to Solaris as he jogged laps around the clearing. He was nearing his end, but Clan wanted to see how far he could push himself.

One would notice that Solaris's claws were gleaming in normal type energy as he jogged around the small field. It was a method Clan came up with - by indefinitely channeling normal type energy like how you do to activate the move Slash in Solaris's claws, he would gain proficiency on managing his channeling.

And the method seems to be working, at the first few laps, Solaris's channeling would somehow be interrupted as it flickers out in continuance, but by the more times he failed, and the more constant he channeled the energy on his claws, the longer he coped in managing it.

Clan was overly impressed by this. Not only is his mentality challenged but his body was also physically doing some training in, it had already been 43 laps in, Solaris was really pushing himself here.

When he saw his pokemon doing so much in his training left Clan astounded. He was already so exhausted, but he was still pushing through. Clan smiled and then nodded in determination. His pokemon can't be the only one training. With that thought, Clan run towards his pokemon and jogged beside him.

"Me and you both, buddy. Come on!"

Solaris was at lost for words when he saw his trainer jogging at his side. He was looking at him with a smile of inspiration which fascinated Solaris. He returned that with an enthusiastic thrill, even if he is already fatigued and worn out, he can't leave his trainer also jogging by himself.

A few more laps around the clearing and Solaris with Clan finally collapsed, bringin her grand total to 59.

"Haaa... that was... great... Solaris. Way to push... eh?" Clan was sprawled on the grassy ground, on his stomach was the little fire-type who was adorably catching his breath.

"...Torchic." Came a drained response. Solaris was dead beat, his entire leg was twitching constantly by all the jogging.

"Solaris, that was some exercise. Let's continue training tomorrow, we will arrive at Jubilife City, I estimate would be by afternoon. We can continue our training at a Pokemon Center's training grounds." Clan said off the top of his head.

"Torchic." Solaris nodded his understanding before closing his eyes, he continued resting on Clan's belly.

Clan gazed at the now darkening sky, his thoughts blank. So this was the feeling of experiencing a pokemon journey, huh? In fact, It was still his first day and he still hasn't really experience much. He knew that some days wouldn't be as fun as today, he would come across some shits someday, but he still smiled in enjoyment.

"Coooo, cooooo... coooo." His musing was broke off when he hears cute adorable snores coming from his belly. Solaris fell asleep from all the activities they had done today.

Clan gently sat, he lifted Solaris from his belly and then began walking towards his already prepared sleeping bag. Good thing they had already prepared some firewoods for a source of light. Clan lit up a dried leaf with a lighter, it quickly combusted and he placed it under the pile of branches, logs and whithered leaves. A fire warm enough to keep Clan and Solaris from freezing was then created.

Before going into his sleeping bag, he first change clothes because he sweated a lot earlier from the jogg. Then, he drinked to the very last drop his mineral water from the the plastic water bottle he had in his bag. He stored his used clothes after satisfying his thirst.

Finally, he put his bag between his legs and opened the frontmost and and smallest compartment, and then reached into it, his upper limb going into it almost halfway up to his forearms, which would have been physically impossible had it not been for the technology waved into the bag.

Clan pulled out a pillow which he gently situated Solaris on. It was just enough for his small size to nestle on it. Clan smiled at his adorable starter and said his quiet and silent goodnight.

Before he went to his sleeping bag, he poured a pile of dirt he had gathered over the dwindling flame, extinguishing it. As he slid into his sleeping bag he looked at Solaris, who was layed comfortably close to him.

Soon enough, he too, had fallen asleep, tired after their first day on the road.

...

Clan yawned as he woke up and stretched his stiff and sore muscles. He looked around and notices the small chic pokemon still laying next to him, he was adorably rubbing and nestling on his black comfy pillow while he cooed and chirpped blissfully.

"Do you liked your pillow, Solaris?" Clan chuckled when he responded with a thrill of delight. He leaned down when he got out of his sleeping bag, to pet his starter before he yawned again.

Clan looked at the beautiful blue-white sky and noticed the sun was already fully up, he turned towards his bag and opened the compartment where he stored his pokedex. When he saw the time, he sighed in relief, it still had around two hours before noon. Thankfully, he hadn't overslept.

They started their day with a breakfast, it was the same meal. Pokemon food for Solaris and a sandwich, for Clan he ate two protein bars and a single sandwich. After updating Solaris what they would do for today, he returned him to his pokeball before beginning to tidy up his sleeping bag, he then shoved the highly compressed sleeping bag into his sling bag.

They already finished eating and Clan really wanted to arrive at Jubilife City in noon. One thing he noticed was that he was feeling so sore and every move brought aches and pains. Additionally, sleeping in a bag really wasn't that comfortable, he badly wanted to arrive at a city to have a rest on a comfy bed.

After doing all that was neccesary that had taken about an hour, Clan was ready to continue making their way towards Jubilife City. He was also planning on fighting as many trainers as he could on his way, that's why he had decided to return Solaris in his pokeball so that his opponent wouldn't have any clue what he would brought out.

It didn't take them long to find their first opponent.

"Hey, you! Do you want to battle!" A youngster around Clan's age that have been walking around a few dozen feet away from the main road suddenly called to him while brandishing his pokeball. He had brown hair and brown eyes and was wearing a green cap, a white shirt and brown shorts with a normal looking backpack.

Clan smiled while he grabbed his own pokeball out of his pokebelt. "Sure. One on one?"

The brown-haired boy nodded as he pulled out what seems like a smartphone. "For sure. Standart rules?"

Clan nodded in agreement and he looked down at his pokedex when it beeped. Clan raised it infront of his face, ignoring the impressed expression on his current opponent's face when he saw his pokedex, to see that he had recieved a one-on-one battle request from Xander Letter with standard regulations on the League App. Clan quickly accepted the match, noting that the winner will be transfered two hundred pokecredits from the loser at the end of the battle.

They walked towards a clearing to initiate their battle. Since the brown-haired, Xander Letter was the challenger, he was the first to call a pokemon.

"Go, Pachirisu!" Xander released a squirrel-like pokemon that had mostly white clean fur with a faint blueish tint and it has a light blue stripe which originates at its forehead and extends to the tip of its tail. A large white tooth grows out of its mouth, and its eyes are a deep gray. On it's cheeks are two circle-shaped red pouches, it have tails almost twice as big as themselves, with three spikes around the middle.

The pachirisu stood on his hind legs and it yelled its name energetically before glaring at Clan which showed he meant business. Clan was all for it.

Clan looked at the squirrel, then released Solaris and the adorable chic pokemon immediately turned towards it's trainer questioningly when it had saw a pokemon and some human adjacent to them. His trainer grinned. "We're going to battle them, Solaris. Don't hold back."

Solaris's eyes flashed with excitement and he turned back towards Pachirisu with a deep thrill in his throat. When the other pokemon had caught sight of Solaris it tensed up and looked significantly more focused, his cheek pouches sparking with blue electricity.

Xander's eyes widened. "Woah! Isn't that a Torchic?" He turned his envious eyes towards Clan. "Are you one of the top three trainers who was recieving their starters this season?"

Clan proudly smiled to himself and nodded. "Yes."

"Man. How lucky." Jack didn't hide the jealousy and envy that was in his voice.

Clan felt a pang of irritation at his words. 'Lucky? I worked my ass off studying all kinds of pokemon theory day and night, doing lots of field work around the forest of Twinleaf by my own, watched Arceus knows how many battles between seasoned trainers and had done it all without anyones help ever since I was ten! How is that lucky, huh? I earned to be where I'm now!" Clan thought in annoyance, one could see his face contorting into one.

While Clan didn't voice his thoughts out loud towards Xander's words, Solaris felt the subconscious shift in Clan's disposition and his adorable eyes narrowed dangerously towards their opponent as his thrills intensifies, much to the consternation of Pachirisu and Xander's confusion.