Jay Wolfe

I let Curse back out of her pokéball once I got it back and rubbed her behind the ears in greeting. I was glad I won the battle but perhaps I should've used Litten instead, after all, Curse had already gone through one tough fight in the past few days and I had just put her in another one. Oh well, I guess I couldn't change it, besides, she didn't seem to mind. I glanced at the door as Soren came back in with Professor Syagrus, I could've been nicer to him though afterwards before he left... he seemed like a nice trainer after all but- but I had been too concerned about Curse to pay him any attention. I stood up and slung my bag onto my back.

"Let's get going, Curse, I'm sure we can get through part of Whispering Path if we get going now." I left the pokémon Lab with a slight look over my shoulder to watch Soren picking up Finn before turning my head back around and walking out.

I was nearly to the path when running footsteps reached my ears. "Hey, Jay, wait up!"

I turned around to see Soren slowing down and coming to a stop a few feet from me. "Mind if I come too? It'll be more fun to have someone else tagging along."

I wasn't too sure, he could get in my way later on and wasn't he kind of like my rival? We were both aiming for that champion position probably, so that could cause some problems down the road but... Soren was a nice person and he was right about company being better, especially if there were any robbers out there. I smiled and gave a nod. "Alright."

I started walking again back into Spectral Woods, as long as we didn't stay in the denser part after dark I was sure we would be fine this time. The silence we were walking in was nice, a bit tense but peaceful for the most part. I was content watching Curse walking out in front, and was also well aware of the fact that if another trevenant tried attacking Litten's attacks would do actual damage to it, we wouldn't have to run from another battle again.

"I heard Plolis' gym leader Salem is tough, how do you plan to take him on?" Soren broke the silence with his question.

I pulled up the map and pressed on Plolis to get Salem's information. "It says he's a ghost type trainer, Curse shouldn't be hurt too badly in a fight with him though... she won't have any moves to attack him either. I'll have to find some pokémon here to fight with."

"I see." He took out Finn's pokéball. "I should too. I don't think Finn can fight all of Salem's pokémon on his own."

"Vee!" I stiffened as Curse gave a warning before a white blur jumped down from a tree branch and rushed forward.

"Dodge it!" I ordered before moving out of the way as well.

The wild zangoose skidded to a halt, its claws ready to swipe in another attack. I scanned the area, no seviper nearby, we must've just gone into this pokémon's territory. It gave another growl before going in for a scratch attack, which Curse once again dodged while awaiting my orders.

"Curse, use-"

Soren sent out Finn and moved in front of me. "Hold on, I want to catch it... Um, if you weren't going to..."

I stepped back. "Go ahead, I don't want it."

"Finn, use water gun and follow up with tackle!" Soren commanded and I watched as Finn hurried to follow its trainer's commands.

The zangoose was fast though and the smaller pokémon was on the ground in seconds after a quick attack. I glanced at Curse who was watching the battle as well, she was faster than Finn but I was pretty sure zangoose was still faster even without using quick attack. A heavy thud drew my attention back to the battle to see Soren on the ground with Finn lying on his chest, the zangoose was on all fours snarling at them, clearly wounded now as well. At least they had gotten some hits in despite the quick attacks and scratches.

"Are you okay?" I questioned.

Soren looked over at me. "Of course. Hey, Finn, you still up for the battle?"

"Kip!" Finn's spirit was high for a pokémon that was almost beaten, I had to admire it slightly.

"Alright, same thing as last time got it?"

I didn't know what he meant by that considering I hadn't been paying attention but I soon figured it out as zangoose went in for a quick attack and scratch combo while Finn shot a water gun at the ground. The slick mud and grass caused their opponent to crash down onto the ground and gave Finn the chance to tackle it again, unhindered by the muddy path.

"Nice!" Soren took out a pokéball and threw it at the muddy white and red pokémon.

We both waited in silence as the ball rocked back and forth, watching to see if zangoose would be caught or break out. I was about to think the latter considering how long it seemed to be taking before hearing the familiar sound as it stopped rocking and clicked.

"I caught it...!" Soren picked up the pokéball and grinned. "Nice."

"Don't get too excited, it was one pokémon." I responded before adding onto my reply. "But that was pretty impressive how you dealt with its speed."

"Come on out zangoose!" Soren called out his new pokémon and the zangoose gave a huff as it stared at its new trainer. "Hey zangoose, I'm Soren and that's Finn."

"Zan." It grumbled before glowering at Finn and giving a nod of respect. "Zan, zan goose."

"Um... yeah." Soren seemed a bit confused as to what it was saying and I held back a laugh. "Do you mind if I call you Slash?"

"Goose?" It looked down at its claws for a moment before nodding. "Za!"

"Okay, that settles that matter then." I started walking again. "Come on, let's keep going. We need to get out of this part of the forest before something else shows up to fight and our pokémon get too tired out."

"Right." Soren returned both of his pokémon before running to catch up to me. "So how much farther do we have to go?"

I pulled up the map again and showed him. "See that trail up there? That's Split Path. It's not an official route like Whispering Path, the one we're on, and it's a bit more overgrown and rugged. If we can get to it though I think we might be safe to rest there for the night and continue on our way tomorrow unless we want to try our luck getting to Pearl Island on a ride from a fisherman but there's no guarantee someone would be there."

"I want to take on Salem." Soren replied.

"Alright. Then once we reach Split Path we'll see how dark it is, but I'm pretty sure we'll get to Plolis tomorrow considering the distance we still have."

We continued walking along the path, keeping an eye out for any other aggressive pokémon, but I mainly left that to Curse considering I was busy listening to Soren talk. He didn't seem to like silence too much I was beginning to notice, not that I did, I just didn't really like speaking much. There wasn't really anything I felt like saying that would lead to an interesting conversation or rambling... so I kept quiet most of the time. I knew he was trying to get me to talk, and I would occasionally, but unlike him I didn't know how to keep something interesting. In my own opinion at least.

"You're so going to lose!"

"No I'm not..."

I stopped as voices came from up ahead along with the sounds of a battle. "There are more trainers here."

"Well it is a forest path so I would think there would be other trainers around, come on, let's go see the battle." Soren started running and I sighed before running after him.

"Pichu, use thunder shock!" I saw a blond girl give out the command while her light brown haired opponent struggled to give their own pokémon an order.

The second girl's igglybuff whimpered as it rolled onto its back, obviously wishing to be doing anything other than battling. "Igglybuff! Uh... can you use defense curl again?"

"Buff..." The round pink pokémon curled up, shaking from all the attacks it had already taken.

"Give in yet?" The blond asked.

The second girl looked defeated and nodded. "Yeah..."

"Alright, we win Pichu!" She glanced over as she noticed us. "Hey who are you two?"

I hesitated to answer but was saved from speaking when Soren walked out. "I'm Soren and that's Jay, we're going to Plolis but saw your battle and decided to watch."

"You're trainers too?" The girl looked like she was ready for another round of battling. "I'm Freya Stark, I just got here from Johto."

The light brown haired girl slowly joined her companion. "I'm Esme Petty, from Kanto... I um- This is my partner Igglybuff."

"Your pokémon wasn't doing too well in that fight." I commented.

Esme looked down sadly. "I know. I'm not very good at battling... When I met Freya on the way here she promised to help me out a bit but Igglybuff just isn't very good at fighting."

"You have to be ready with commands Esme." Freya retorted in a tone that suggested this had been said before. "Anyway, we kind of got lost trying to get to the city, you said you two were going to Plolis right? Mind if we tag along? I'd love to take on the gym there!"

"Sure, you can come with us. Maybe we can train together before we take on the gym." Soren offered.

I couldn't help but glare slightly at the two others before blinking and smiling in agreement, a bit confused as to why I didn't like them. I didn't even know them enough to form an opinion of like or dislike for any of these trainers quite yet. "Sounds great, we have a few hours left of daylight, I think we should get to a safer spot in the forest by the time the sunsets."

"Oh good..." Esme sighed in relief. "There were so many pokémon here that tried attacking us already..."

"It wasn't that bad." Freya laughed. "I mean you caught that big scary caterpie didn't you?"

Esme blushed and we all joined in with Freya's light teasing laugh. "Yeah but Caterpie isn't what I meant by scary..."

"Yeah but your face was priceless when it fell out of that tree." Freya started walking again as I took the lead, maybe this was going to be more fun than I thought.

We certainly all seemed to be getting along okay for now. I smiled a bit, having travelling companions was nice compared to the solitude I had walking to Rookrust, sure Curse had been nice but humans were just a bit better to listen to. I slowed down a bit, where was Curse anyway?

"Guy look!" Freya shoved forward and took out a pokéball. "I found a shiny eevee!"

I looked over her shoulder to find Curse eating some berries under a tree, though she looked up as Freya approached. "Um Freya...."

"Shh, you'll scare it away before I can catch it." Yeah, like she hadn't been loud enough to scare away half the pokémon in the forest. Freya threw her pokéball at Curse, who jumped aside before running over to me. "Hey, wait!"

I picked up Curse. "Always wandering off aren't you?"

"Vee!" Curse gave a happy call before glancing over at Freya.

"Wait, that's yours?" She exclaimed, putting two and two together. "That's so... unfair! I wanted a shiny... When we get to Plolis I challenge you to a battle with your eevee then. I at least want to say I've battled a shiny pokémon!"

"Um, okay." I agreed, aware that Esme was now staring in awe at Curse as well. Perhaps I should start leaving her in her pokéball...

"Yes!" Freya laughed. "I won't go easy either. Pichu and I will wipe the floor with you!"

Well if that was what she thought would happen so be it. But I was positive I could beat her.