Life In The Undergrowth
Noah spent two hours reading the book on Rattata, as well as the information on the pokemon in the forest, and any other free information provided to him, although it was much to Mark's dismay who was itching to explore.
In the information he had learned, he found that the pokemon in this forest were comprised of much the same pokemon that were offered to them, but gave no direct indicator of their location, but Noah still speculated they were somewhere in the region of Viridian city, but not anywhere near Pewter City, otherwise there would be Weedles and caterpie.
Rattata's, Pidgeys, Spearows, could be found, as well as some others, namely mankeys, and nidorans, albeit rarely.
"Sorry to keep you waiting for so long, give me a moment to put these away then we can go."
"Wait" Mark stood there smiling widely, then he pointed to his Rattata, "Me and Ashley decided to nickname our Rattata, so you have to as well."
"I do?"
Mark nodded, while Ashley had a helpless expression, "It was all his idea."
Seeming to ignore that remark, Mark continued, "My Rattata is named Nath, shortened from Nathaniel after my father, and her Rattata is named Sarah after our mother, which is shortened to Sar, but I'm pretty sure It's a male," He then turned his head back to Noah with a grin, " So, what are you going to name yours?"
Noah wanted to laugh at Mark, who had willfully decided things for him, but he played along with a smirk, "Top"
"Top?" Both children expressed confusion, then Mark asked curiously, "Why Top, is it short for something?"
Noah nodded seriously, "It is, it's short for Top Percentage"
With confusion, Mark looked over at Ashley as if he wondered if she might know the answer. That's when Noah couldn't help but smile wryly, "It just means excellent Rattata"
Smiling, Noah finally put his books away, and strapped his big backpack tightly, "There's still lots of sunlight left, shall we go?"
.
Without food, the three thought it prudent to keep their pokemon in their balls for the time being, even upon venturing into the forest, this was in an effort to preserve their stamina.
Mark was almost hopping as he urged Noah and Ashley to keep up, while Noah could only smile at his enthusiasm as he kept a steady pace.
In the thick of it all, the calls of pidgey and the long-distance squeaks of the rattata could be heard everywhere, and it was obvious that this forest absolutely reeked of life.
Coming upon a hollow log, a wild rattata poked out its head, "LOOK, THERE, GO NATH!"
Throwing his ball, Nath emerged and looked around curiously, and in response, Mark stamped his feet, and pointed to a fleeing rattata that had long since abandoned the hollow log, "GO GO, IT'S GETTING AWAY!"
Seeing Mark dismayed, Noah shook his head, "I think that one got away, but next time I think we should be a bit more cautious and not announce our presence, don't you think?
Mark nodded sadly, while digging his feet into the dirt, "Sorry, I got a bit ahead of myself"
In response, Ashley laughed, "A bit? You can say that all you want, but you're always like this."
With his face reddened he replied, "No I'm not, let's go, I'm getting hungry."
"Sure, sure" Walking beside Noah, she asked, " That scary man says Team Rocket is always watching us, how do you think they will do it?"
"Hmm," Looking around, Noah doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary, so he shook his head, "I'm not sure, perhaps we are followed in the air by a flying pokemon, but thinking about it, I think it's probably best we don't try to find out."
.
A short time later, the three were crouched behind a large tree.
Noah peered over at it, then ducked as the object of his attention lifted its head, then he said, "We will have to catch it by surprise before it can fly away."
Some distance away, a pidgey can be seen pecking at something, perhaps gathering worms for lunch.
Noah continued, "We only have one shot at this, so let's just give it a go, Mark, Ashley, command your Rattata to follow after mine, if Top lands the tackle and drags the pidgey to the ground with its fangs, that's when the pidgey will most likely use sand attack or something to knock him off.
Noah narrowed his eyes, "At that time, that's when you two will ambush it when it least expects it!"
Noah had noticed, that despite Top's reluctance to be around him, he was still somewhat willing to follow his orders, even despite having just met him a short time ago, "Alright Top, you know what to do"
Watching the Trio of Rattata creeping up behind the pidgey, the three kids unintentionally held their breaths.
Top glowed with white colorless energy, and with an agile leap, its tackle landed, knocking the pidgey on the ground.
While the Rattata sunk its fangs into the pidgeys wing, the pidgey shrieked, and a bloom of dust suddenly raged between the two, Top got knocked back, but was otherwise unharmed.
As the pidgey was attempting to take off and escape, that's when the others struck!
Like a volleyball, Nath knocked the small bird right into Sar, and in an instant, which in turn sent it straight into the ground, it was all over.
Having not gathered enough elemental energy to defend in the right places due to the surprise attacks, the pidgey fell to the ground unconscious.
Mark and Ashley cheered and ran over to the pidgey, but when they got there, they only stood over it with hesitation.
Noah noticed their pitying expressions as he too stood over the small bird pokemon.
It softened him as well, but he knew he had to face reality, "If we don't hunt, we can't pass the test."
The two didn't respond, so he sighed helplessly, "If you don't want to do it, I will do it for you."
Ashley turned and Noah could see tears in her eyes, "Sorry Noah, I just can't"
Pulling out the pocket knife he kept from the bag, Noah bent down, and whispered to himself, "I don't like this either."
"Watch closely, pokemon have a strong lifeforce, so to prevent suffering, or getting hurt in the process, the book suggests to kill it like this."
Mark spoke up, "Noah, you don't have to be the one to do it, The Rattata cou-" Noah interrupted, with a wave of his hand, "It will be the same either way, it will die."
Holding the pidgeys down, he tried to steady his hand, then lopped the pidgeys head off in one swift motion.
The book had stated that a knife would be very ineffective on a conscious pokemon, but while unconscious a beginner stage pokemon can't muster its elemental energy to defend, and this pidgey was no exception.
Having watched the whole thing, Ashley was unsteady on her feet, she motioned away, and then puked to the side.
Looking at his bloodied hands, Noah thought back to his life on earth, and he wondered how he had changed so much in such a short time, he wondered if the him back then would have approved of the actions, the actions of taking the life of a pokemons, but he soon chastised himself with a mutter, "The me from earth is dead... I need to kill if I want to survive in this one, whether I like it or not."
Despite his words, he found he was without the will or the appetite to pluck and prepare the dead bird pokemon, so he left the corpse on the ground, and wiped the blood off his hands using a cloth napkin from his bag, "This small pidgey isn't going to fill our stomachs, we should give it to the Rattatas to keep their strength up… maybe we will keep the next few."
.
A short time later, the three Rattatas were gnawing on the carcass hungrily, after less than two minutes it could be seen that they left the feathers but were unsparing of even the bones, which they crunched with some relish.
Mark had comforted Ashley who was looking a bit better now, while Noah passed her a waterskin, " You should drink, vomiting can lead to dehydration."
"Thanks, Noah, and sorry, you are younger than us, yet you had to do that because I couldn't…"
He shook his head in response, changing the subject, "The Rattatas look done with the meal, let's return them to conserve their energy… we are going to have to do this again, and again."
In a dense spot, the three soon found another Pidgey, and by luck, they managed to subdue it in much the same way, the combination of the three rattata proved their worth.
Having done it once, Noah found that delivering the killing blow proved much easier, and using one of the garbage bags provided to him, Noah let the Pidgey stew in its own juices as they searched to add more corpses to the collection.
After this hunt, he had inspected his Rattata, and he noticed the 0/30 exp had changed to 1.4/30 exp, meaning it was 0.9 exp for each shared pidgey kill, while Marks sat at 3.4/30
The group continued teaming up, and while most of the time the pidgeys and spearows were able to get away due to bad luck or poor coordination, they still managed to prepare many pidgeys, rattatas, and spearows for supper. Still, despite all their searching, they hadn't run into any other pokemon types in the forest.
With the waning of the sun, the group decided to call it there for the day.
Noahs had made it a habit of inspecting after every battle, and he found that exp was given even when they didn't manage a kill, however, it was a fraction.
From all the constant hunting, his Rattata was 12/30 exp, still quite a ways from level 4, but Marks was already 28.5/30, a stone's throw away from it, but he could only accept the disparity because he wouldn't allow himself to entertain thoughts of jealousy.
He thought this seemed like slow going, especially when their Rattatas were level three, but then he reasoned that none of those fights were fair, so it was to be expected. How many champion-level pokemon ganged up three versus one to get to where they were, how many of them didn't constantly challenge the odds to become powerful?
.
Dividing the labor, or rather assigning roles everyone was comfortable with, he had Ashley pluck the birds, while he, as well as a somewhat more spirited Mark, did the butchering and cleaning.
The guide had mentioned spit-roasting to be a good way to cook when you are without a modern kitchen, but he was having a hard time cooking it evenly, and most of his attempts ended in a dry and overcooked piece of meat. This was made worse by the fact that they lacked seasoning.
Despite all this, hunger can make anything taste better, and they ate without complaints.
After choking down the meal, he saw Sar curl up in Ashley's arm, while Nath rubbed Mark's leg in contentment, seeing his companions getting along so well with their pokemon, he turned to his own, but there seemed to be a kind of distance between them that he wasn't sure how to bridge, so he let it be for now.