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Chapter 17

Once we had all fully awoken and I had the big bag strapped onto my back again we were all ready to continue our journey through the forest towards the checkpoint somewhere further in. As we start moving I notice how sore parts of my back are due to the bag rubbing against my back and fur the wrong way.

"My back is all sore. Are you sure that we have the bag on right?" I complain.

"Of course it's sore. The backpacks are designed to be worn and used by humans. You are not a human. So naturally there are going to be some discomfort from wearing something that is designed to be worn somewhat comfortably by something that is both far larger and built in a completely different manner than you. You think I found it comfortable to wear? So get over it. If you behave well enough the next town we get to during our free time I'll see if I can find some means to make it so that you can wear it more comfortably but until then just deal with it. It's not like you're the one getting beaten up from the battles."

Shoul looks over to Allen and gives him a disapproving look.

"What did you want me to do?" Allen asks while confronting Shoul, knowing that he would likely respond towards his comment to me, "Say 'oh, I'm so sorry your little Weakness, allow me to magically alter the bag so that it stops making your back hurts?' We don't have any of the materials I would need to modify it out here and unless you want to carry it in his stead I would suggest you keep those looks to yourself."

As we begin walking again something occurs to me. My body is sore from all of the abuse from wearing the bag and it'll probably only get worse as we keep going, especially if we get into a lot of battles between now and whenever Allen or what I'm guessing more likely, Shoul can find something to make carrying for this much less abrasive on my back. But what I notice is that the others have also not had had anything to ease any of the abuse that they have gained from all of the battles they've dealt with since when I was made the trainer. From watching how the others handle themselves after being in the ball it does seem to make their abuse seem less obvious, though it looks to be more a general fatigue and soreness rather than any specific injury.

Still, considering that this place has been considerably easy for me, even with the injuries I had gotten while fighting Shoul I have it much easier compared to them. Course knowing this makes me feel very guilty for having brought up my own discomfort when everyone else was already just as bad if not in worse of a state than I am. As such for the few battles we have early in the morning I try not to make any comment about how raw my back was getting from moving the bag around.

After a few of the battles that seem to have become the norm for us I notice that the sense of foreboding from something watching us seems to have diminished somewhat, as if the individual watching us has decided to go and leave us alone. I would like to hope that that means that he's going to leave us alone but with the sound of running water up ahead I'm more tempted to lean towards the notion that instead whoever it is out there is simply taking a detour to cross without us being able to see them. A sort of dread comes over me as I realize that in order to continue on our way to wherever this checkpoint place comes we'll have to cross the water, potentially having to go through it.

"I hear water up ahead," I state. "We should go back to the path."

"Why? We're making good enough progress as we are. We haven't even run into a single trainer so far today."

"Yeah, but they'd probably put something on the path so people could cross without getting wet right? I wanna go on that."

"Is the little Sunshine afraid of getting a little wet?" Allen teases.

"N-no," I stammer, more than slightly lying. "But I can't swim. And even if I could I probably wouldn't be able to with this thing on me."

"The bridge will be fine," Shoul responds, deciding for Allen that we will go and head back to the path to the extent he grabs one of the straps to the bag and steers me back towards the path.

The concept of not having to get wet thrills me to the extent that my tails wag a little while before I think to try and still them so as to not get hit by Allen. Allen certainly looks very much displeased at Shoul having challenged his authority but does follow the rest of the group.

"I suppose. I wouldn't want to be in the water with Sparky over there anyway," he justifies his concession of power this time. "If we were in the river and he sneezed he could very easily kill the lot of us."

When we get to the river I'm somewhat disappointed by how it was. Last time I was this way I was much further into the forest and it took me a good while walking down the length until I had found a spot that was narrow enough and shallow enough that I could jump over it without much risk of drowning in the process, though I did unfortunately get a little bit wet. This is not really much better. There was a manner of a bridge, yes but it was more like a log that was cut down and placed over the gap and secured in place. I'm sure it was safe but it wasn't very high so if there would be the chance of me getting a bit wet here too. As I reflect on my disappointment I realize that with the way humans seem to have their cities that this place would be equally handled with those hard ground materials.

I sigh and begin walking towards the bridge, such as it is. I make sure to be as close to the center of the thing as possible. I'm confident that I should have no problem balancing on this thing, even with the bag on my back. In fact I could probably make it well across if it was as narrow as I was wide. Still as I cross I look to the side and frown, knowing full well how much trouble I'd probably be in if I were to fall and a part of me is also always paying attention to what Allen is doing. I would not put it past him to try and have some fun with me by trying to splash some of the river water at me. The others I don't think would be that cruel but Allen might.

"You know, since we're probably fairly close to the checkpoint and no longer in all that much of a rush I probably could teach you how to swim if you wanted," Allen teases.

"No, no. I'm okay," I quickly stammer out, not backing up due to the risk that act could make me lose my balance.

"Are you sure? I'd be more than happy to help you in that regard. I imagine we all could enjoy a nice little swim together," Allen continues.

"Lay off," Shoul responds.

"Spoil sport," Allen shrugs as he hops off to the other side of the river.

"I think the idiot could probably do well with getting a little bath in the river. Might be amusing to see if the moron can figure out a way to practically drown in a few inches of water. Would improve the smell as well."

"Are you saying I stink?" I ask, somewhat offended.

"But it's such a nice smell, darling," Caleb tries to comfort me, though his remark does little more than to give me a neck shiver so powerful I can't help but shake my head in response.

"And no, you may not. At least not with that bag on you."

"Huh?" Shoul asks.

"He may not try and remedy the problem by cleaning himself now. If he needs to bathe tough luck to him. I've read about how many fire types will go about cleaning themselves without the aid of water and I don't want him doing that anywhere near our bag."

"I still don't see why that would be such a bad thing. How do they clean themselves?" Shoul asks.

"Well, let me put it like this. Fire types clean themselves in a similar manner as you walking batteries. So how does your type keep yourselves clean?"

"Well we do it either by normal grooming, by swimming or by a somewhat draining process by which we hyper-ionize the air and then create a discharge removing any dirt from our bodies and... oh."

"Yeah, there you go."

"That would be bad."

"I'm not that stupid. I know better than use that except when I'm not around anything that can burn or that I care if it gets destroyed," I complain.

"Shut up," Allen punches me in the shoulder hard enough that it hurts. "We weren't talking to you."

I whine at the blow and side step a bit away from him to try and keep out of his reach again, but the punch seems to have been futile anyway since the conversation had stopped anyway. I sigh and listen to the sounds of the forest, enjoying the peace as best I can though it is still somewhat short lived as I can sense that the one that's been watching us the past few days is most likely nearby again. I can't see him nor can I hear or smell him the slightest bit. It's just some part of me, perhaps the same part that sees what people are doing in those battles before they do them, knows that he is there. It doesn't take much longer before we're caught in a fight with another bug pokemon and like all the other battles it ends up being incredibly easy, especially since it was one of the ones that do nothing but sit there and take the abuse. But while doing this the unknown individual watching us seems to have moved in closer to just within what I can pick up. I still can't conclusively say that something is there. The noises are still too faint and far away to not be potentially just the normal rustling of the grass and he's still downwind of us.

After our next fight with one of the random pokemon I choose to stage a little protest against putting the bag back on again.

"Get over here right now or I will make your life miserable and then force you to wear it and make it as uncomfortable as I can possibly imagine."

"It already is and you already do," I complain. "I'm not asking for long. Just give me a few moments to relax and not have to worry about a big heavy thing on my back."

"I'm sure a five minute break will be fine," Shoul adds.

"And I say no," Allen states before starting to march his way towards me. At first I try and back away from him but quickly end up having to turn around to try and get away. It is when I was turning away that he catches up to me and yanks with all of his might on two of my tails, shooting pain all throughout my body as his pull makes me airborne for a few seconds. Once close enough to do so he then punches me squarely on the side of the jaw. "I was not giving you the option, Fuzzbutt. We're going to be travelling together for what might be a long time and I'm not going to let us all grind to a halt just because your back hurts a little. Grow a pair and toughen up."

"Stop beating him up like that!" Shoul demands.

"And what would you have me do? This is the easy part of all of this. Many people end up giving up because it gets too hard and where we are now is as good as it's going to get. We're going through fairly even terrain on good weather and only really have to deal with the odd bug, half of which don't even put up a fight. If we pamper the little baby on his every whim at this stage he won't be able to make it later on, regardless of what he wants so keep quiet. All of you, I want no more talk so as to not attract any attention from the other trainers."

"But we haven't seen the slightest sign that one is even in the area," I complain.

"And I said keep quiet," Allen states before kicking at my side, an act that causes me to fall over.

Though it did hurt I don't make a comment. Shoul and Sanaline help me back onto my feet as best I can and I begin walking again. I don't really blame Allen for the way he is. I would almost guess that he might be able to sense that the rogue is nearby just as I can but is unable to notice that he has or maybe even he was given that dream as well and is just as concerned about the rogue as I am but doesn't know how to deal with it properly. I remain quiet though ever since that last little interchange between us all I can sense that the individual that was watching us is no longer content at just watching and has already started moving closer. He takes his time and for some reason there still don't seem to be any humans near this way. Once I'm sure that not only is someone there but that he's coming right for us I speak up again.

"Allen, can you do something for me?" I ask, my face pointed towards where the intruder is still hiding but coming ever closer.

"Yeah, what is it? Can't you see I can't stop because of every little complaint you may have? Didn't I already tell you I wanted you quiet so as to not attract unwanted attention?" Allen turns and looks at me, and probably was more than thinking about hitting me for the outburst but stops when he sees the expression on both my and Shoul's faces as both of us are staring in the exact same direction.

"I need you to help get this bag off me and then you need to write on something 'Have found Rogue, need help.' Make sure the thing you write on is small enough that Caleb can carry it."

"Why do I have to be the one to go get help? I'm not as useless as you may think."

"You can fly and you can get further away from the group than any of the rest of us. We still don't know exactly where the checkpoint is. You would be able to find them much easier above the tree line. You need to do this, there's no other way," I inform.

I could tell that Caleb was still somewhat hurt by my decision to have him run away to seek help while we might be in danger but he seems to comply well enough. Allen doesn't actually take the bag off me but rather reaches into the bag and pulls out a piece of paper and a writing utensil and begins writing on a piece of stone, the act of pulling on the bag causing me to fall over. Shoul moves over and helps me out of the bag, though he does so in a manner to try and not leave himself open to be attacked. Finally Allen finishes and rolls the paper up before handing it to Caleb who immediately takes off after looking at us all one more time.

I watch him fly off in the distance a moment before turning towards where the intruder is located, knowing full well that he's heading right towards us. I imagine that soon we will all find out just how dangerous this rogue really is.

"I don't think we should use the device for this one," I comment.

"Are you sure?" Allen asks. "That could get us into a lot of trouble."

"Yeah. We need to move ourselves to try and surround him. From the very way he feels I feel that he must be a lot stronger than any of us. Probably more than all of us together. What we need to do if we have to fight is to have me, you and Shoul try and surround him and attack them with our long distance attacks whenever we can and if he rushes to run away while the other two keep at it."

"Well what am I supposed to do?" Sanaline demands.

"You won't be in this fight," I respond, my head still turned to the direction he's coming from.

"What? That's not fair!" she complains.

"Look, you don't have any attacks that you can use against this guy. Instead I want you to protect our bag. Do what you have to but make sure that he doesn't get at our balls and that device thing. I don't know what would happen if either of those are broken but it'd probably not be good. Make sure they stay safe no matter what."

"I understand," Sanaline sulks but nods her response as a figure begins to move out of the grass approaching them.