Very small incident

"Much prettier," Neil muttered.

But the third catch truly caught their attention.

After a few false alarms and tangled lines, Elicia suddenly gasped.

"Guys—I think this one's real!"

Together, she and Neil helped reel in the line. What surfaced was unlike the others—a shimmering, slender Feebas, with dull eyes but a strange, haunting quality in its scales. Ayan leaned in, finally intrigued.

"A Feebas?" he asked. "That's actually rare." 

"Maybe the guide wasn't lying," Neil muttered, visibly impressed. "If there's Feebas, maybe there really is a Milotic."

This world didn't know the conditions of evolving Feebas to Milotic, and they only knew that Feebas would sometimes into Milotic just like Magikarp to Gyarados. But that was very rare and though there were hopes of evolution but it was mostly one in a million, or maybe one in ten million. 

"Lake's always full of secrets," Mr. Rehman said cryptically.

Still, neither Neil nor Elicia decided to keep it. Elicia gently released the Feebas back into the water, whispering, "Go find your destiny, pretty girl and maybe evolve to Milotic one day."

A while passed—enough for the sun to dip a little lower—before Neil caught something again. This time, it was fast, aggressive. The line bent hard and whipped side to side.

"I got it! I got—WHOAAA!" Neil yelped as a Corphish shot out of the water, claws snapping madly. The moment it landed in the boat, it lunged at Neil with surprising speed.

"Hey, back off!" Neil tried to shield himself with the rod.

Before anyone else could react, there was a sharp screech from above.

Pidgey, always alert, dove like a bullet from the sky, ramming straight into the Corphish's side. The crab-like Pokémon was thrown off-balance, rolled to the edge of the boat, and with a final splash, vanished beneath the lake's surface.

The boat rocked violently. Everyone froze.

"…Whoa," Neil breathed. "Thanks, buddy." Corphish's attack came so suddenly that nobody expected and though it was a very low level Pokémon and might just end up hurting and that too not fatally of it's attack had landed, it didn't mean that one would be ready to welcome such attacks.

Nobody likes to get hurt, unless one loved the gym a but too much. 

Neil exhaled loudly and slumped back into the boat, clutching the sides as if to ground himself.

"That thing nearly took my fingers off," he muttered. "Okay, yeah. I'm done. No more surprise seafood today." Mr. Rehman gave a bit of nervous laugh. At most times the low level Pokémon of the lake were just calm and feared humans. 

It was really unlucky that they caught quite the rowdy Corphish, and he being the guide was also responsible for the safety of the people on his boat and in order to save his energy, he had taken back his Quagsire back to his Poke ball as it would mean that he would have to row the boat for an extra weight. 

That decision almost came back to bite him. He vowed secretly not to take students again into his business. After paying for the hour, the group headed back to shore, the boat gently gliding toward the dock. Elicia wanted to bargain for lower price since they almost died but Neil wasn't in any mind to haggle and just gave the money and walked away from the lake. 

He seemed to have been traumatized a bit. Once they stepped away from the dock and onto a solid land, Elicia turned toward Ayan, brushing a lock of wind-blown hair from her face.

"Thanks, Ayan. And your Pidgey—wow. That was fast. If it hadn't been there…" 

"Budew could've handled it too, I bet."

"Budew's still pretty new. She's learning, but not as quick on reflex as your Pidgey. Your bird's… very mature and strong."

Up above, Pidgey let out a proud chirp, circling lazily overhead like a guardian still on duty. Neil, meanwhile, flopped down on a nearby bench like someone who had survived a war. Seeing this Ayan too sat and opened his backpack to snack on. He shared his food with others and Neil thus calmed down a bit. As they relaxed on the grass and shared a few laughs—Neil finally back to his normal self—it happened.

Each of them got a ping in their shared group on P-messaging app on their mobile. They were asked to gather near the dormitory where they were supposed to stay at night. So they had to get up and walk to the location. 

It was time for assignment. Every excursion/outing would carry an assignment to be completed, and this time too it wasn't an exception. 

"Please don't let the assignment involve more fishing," Neil muttered as he stood with Ayan and all the others students. 

"Maybe tree climbing this time?" Ayan chuckled. 

They joined the crowd funneling toward the open clearing, where rows of logs had been arranged as makeshift benches. The lake shimmered nearby, painting silver ripples as the late afternoon sun danced upon its surface.

Their homeroom teacher, stood at the center with a clipboard in hand, flanked by a couple of rangers. One of them—tall, broad-shouldered, with a no-nonsense face—stood with arms crossed.

"Alright, everyone," she began, "I hope you've had a good taste of nature so far, because now it's time for your actual assignment." 

Murmurs of anticipation spread through the group.

"Each of you will be placed into teams of three. In your team, you are to take five unique photographs of five different wild Pokémon. Sounds simple? Well, here's the catch—you cannot photograph the same Pokémon species twice within your team."

That got everyone's attention. 

"That means you'll need to find fifteen unique Pokémon across your group over the next two days. The more interesting and diverse your photos, the better your score. We're looking for creativity, caution, and teamwork."

Some students whispered among themselves, already planning their squads. Others looked around anxiously, as teams had already started forming. 

"You can take help from your Pokémon if you have any," she said while looking at Ayan and Elicia.