The One-Month Badge

I leaned back against the crumbling stone wall outside the Oreburgh Gym, staring up at the sky with a kind of dazed expression. In my hand was the Coal Badge, glinting in the mid-morning sun. Tyrunt sat next to me, his mouth opening and closing lazily, like he was imagining chomping something—hopefully not my brand-new badge.

"Hey, Tyrunt," I said, twirling the badge between my fingers. "Do you realize it's been a whole month since we started this whole journey? One month, and this is the first Gym we've managed to beat."

Tyrunt blinked, cocking his head at me, like he couldn't care less about the concept of time. I sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I know you don't have a calendar in that prehistoric brain of yours, but a whole month, buddy. Thirty days, all for this one little shiny piece of metal."

He yawned, jaws stretching wide, and then nudged me, his nose bumping against the pocket where I'd stashed the badge. I laughed. "No, you don't get to chew on this one. It's our first real proof that we're getting somewhere."

I thought back on everything that had led up to this moment—the climb up that mountain, catching a half-wild Rhyhorn, selling it just to afford reviving a Tyrunt, then the grueling training we'd gone through to get even a little bit better. There had been the first humiliating loss at this Gym, and then days upon days of getting beat up by wild Pokémon and new trainers. Honestly, the idea that it took an entire month to beat one Gym made me feel... well, kind of pathetic. Weren't the good trainers supposed to breeze through the first few Gyms in, like, a week or something?

I glanced at Tyrunt. He didn't seem to care about the timeline. His eyes were closed now, his chest rising and falling with deep breaths. He was exhausted. We'd put everything we had into that Gym fight, and somehow, it had been enough.

"Alright, buddy, I think we've earned a real break," I said, reaching over to scratch his rough scales. He let out a pleased little growl, not even bothering to open his eyes.

I couldn't help but laugh a bit. "We're a pretty weird team, aren't we? It takes us thirty days to beat one Gym, and we do it with a bite to the neck. Not exactly the heroic 'one-hit KO' kind of story you hear about."

Tyrunt cracked one eye open, giving me a look that screamed "Does it matter? We won." And, honestly, he was right. It didn't matter if it took a month or if it was a scrappy, desperate win—we'd actually done it. The whole time I'd been stressing about how long it was taking, and how hard it was to even get Tyrunt to listen, I hadn't realized just how much progress we'd actually made. He was still stubborn, sure, and still had a habit of biting first and thinking later, but we were starting to get each other.

And besides, it wasn't like the Gym had been a pushover. Roark's Cranidos was tough—much tougher than I'd expected. That headbutt move could have ended things in an instant if Tyrunt hadn't gotten that bite in. The way Roark looked when we managed to take Cranidos down? That was something I wouldn't forget anytime soon.

I sighed, staring up at the clouds. "You know, maybe that's what it takes. Not rushing through everything, but just... figuring it out at our own pace. I mean, I bet some of those big-shot trainers with fancy starter Pokémon don't know what it's like to have to train every single day just to make a move hit."

Tyrunt let out a deep huff, which I took as his agreement. I gave him a nod. "Exactly. We worked for it, so we're keeping it, no matter how long it took. And hey, next time maybe we'll only take, like, twenty-five days to win."

He let out what I could only describe as a prehistoric snort, and I shook my head, chuckling. "Okay, okay, maybe twenty days then. I'm setting ambitious goals here."

After a moment of silence, I stood up, dusting off my pants. "Alright, come on, let's find a place to rest up properly—maybe one of those inns that actually has decent food for once. No more sleeping under a bush or gnawing on wild berries, I promise."

Tyrunt slowly got up, his legs a little shaky. He stretched out, his jaws snapping on reflex at a passing leaf, and then he looked at me with what I guessed was his version of approval.

We made our way back into Oreburgh City, walking slowly, taking in the sights now that we weren't just focused on finding a place to train or planning how not to lose to Roark. People were bustling about—some of them noticed the badge pinned on my vest and gave nods of approval, others smiled, and a couple just looked at Tyrunt like he was about to chew their ankles off. Honestly, they weren't wrong.

"You know, Tyrunt," I said as we approached a small Pokémon Center-turned-inn, "even if it did take us a month, I think we did okay. And just imagine how cool it'll be when we tell everyone we beat Cranidos by biting its neck."

Tyrunt growled, giving a satisfied stomp. The little guy was definitely proud of his victory chomp.

I pushed open the door of the inn, glancing down at him. "But, uh, maybe don't show anyone a live demonstration, okay?"

He didn't answer, obviously, but the gleam in his eyes told me that promise was probably already broken.

As we walked in and the receptionist gave us a wary smile, I couldn't help but laugh. One month for one badge. Maybe this journey wasn't going to be a sprint, but as long as Tyrunt and I could keep biting off more than we could chew—literally and figuratively—I figured we'd be just fine.