10 Chapter 10: Resting Underground

Once he confirmed that Larvesta was his, Xander summoned the Pokemon from its Pokeball. After being caught, its attitude did a complete 160, acting very friendly toward the pair, especially Fenris who had beaten it.

'Guess he's the type that respects the strong,' Xander mused to himself while reaching down to pet the little guy's head. Its entire body was hot to the touch, almost to the point of burning Xander's hand. Larvesta purred under his touch and leaned in closer to signal that he wanted more.

Fenris looked at how Larvesta was acting and shook his body before sitting on the ground to continue resting. Xander noticed that since Fenris had evolved, he preferred to rest as much as he could, completely different from his previous form which was a ball of energy. 

It was a weird change of pace but Xander knew that he had to enjoy it while it lasted. Once he evolved again, he would have even more energy than his first form. 

'Hmm. Now that I think about it, I don't know much about Larvesta or Volcarona except that the latter has the highest evolution level and is considered the strongest of the non-Pseudo or Legendary Pokemon.'

Xander pulled up his Poketech and pointed it toward Larvesta.

[Larvesta. The Torch Pokemon. In ancient times, Larvesta was worshiped as the emissary of the sun. However, it was also viewed as a burden since it often caused forest fires. This Pokémon was called the Larva That Stole the Sun. The fire Larvesta spouts from its horns can cut right through a sheet of iron.]

"The Larva That Stole The Sun? Guess that means you must have pretty hot flames. Grass types must be really afraid of you," Xander mused, remembering that this Pokemon had 2 typings that could be used to counter the Grass-Type.

"Larve, Lar!" Larvesta whined when he noticed that Xander had stopped petting him

"Sorry, little guy. Can't pet you for too long or I'll get burned. Let me get some gloves that can help," Xander apologized to the little guy.

He walked over to the pair and pulled out a potion bottle from his backpack before spraying the duo and rubbing it in. Although Fenris' shell was tough, it still received some damage from Larvesta's attacks. Larvesta was even worse. He was struck with two powerful attacks from Fenris so he definitely needed medical attention.

Larvesta gave out a sound that sounded like a huff in frustration before it crawled over to Fenris and climbed up its shell to rest on the left side of it. 

"Sorry, buddy. I know it stings but it will make you feel much better in the morning," Xander shook his head at the pair before turning around to see how Cynthia was faring in the water. But when he saw the Pokemon swimming over and Cynthia holding onto the fin of a fish, he could tell that she had accomplished her goal and caught the Feebas. 

"Congrats," Xander pulled out a few towels from his backpack, giving one to Cynthia and Lucario before trying to scoop up Vulpix to dry off the little princess himself. But before he could catch her, she dodged to the side and instantly cooled her body down, causing ice crystals to appear all over it. Vulpix then shook her white fur, scattering the various crystals around the ground with her fur instantly dried. 

"Showoff," Xander laughed to himself before walking over to Cynthia and drying her hair with the towel in his hand. "How'd the battle go?"

"Pretty good. Gabby was able to swim just as fast as she moves on land so we didn't have any problems with that. Since there was no type advantage, the fight was just about who was stronger. And no one is stronger than Gabby!" Cynthia praised the Gabite while looking over at it to which Gabby nodded in response.

Xander shook his head at the pair, not wanting to bring up that Gabby got beat by Vulpix just the other day. Though Gabby having a 4x weakness to all of Vulpix's ice moves did give the little cub a pretty good advantage. 

"Let's rest here for the night, then. We already got rid of two powerful Pokemon so the rest should be careful about attacking us," Xander suggested to which Cynthia nodded in agreement. Xander began to take out their sleeping bag and rations while Cynthia changed out of her swimsuit. 

When she was done, she walked over to Xander and the Pokemon to join them for dinner which consisted of protein bars for the kids and Pokekibble for the Pokemon. 

Cynthia blanched when she saw the bar before nibbling on it with a depressed face.

"We need to get to the city ASAP. If I have to eat one more protein bar..."

"You do," Xander interrupted. "That's gonna be breakfast tomorrow."

Cynthia glared at the boy who used an imaginary zipper to shut his mouth before lifting his hands in surrender.

"How come neither of us know how to cook? Shouldn't you have learned that?" Cynthia complained 

"I did but I can't make food magically appear. We ran out of ingredients. Most only last a couple of days and the paths where we could get new stuff were already pillaged by other trainers.

Once we get our bikes or some flying Pokemon that we can ride on, the time between towns and cities will be much lower so we don't have to worry about running out of fresh food then," Xander began to list the reasons why they hadn't brought many ingredients in the first place. 

"Fine. After we get to Veilstone City and get our badges, let's head to Sunyshore so we don't have to double back after traveling all over the place," Cynthia suggested, already planning out their route

"Good with me. They are an Electric-Type Gym so neither of us should have too much trouble. It's gonna be Pastoria City where we struggle. We might wanna get our 4th Pokemon before we head there and do some heavy training with them between," Xander suggested. Even though they were on a 6-month time limit if they wanted to make it to the Pokemon Conference, they still needed to make sure that their Pokemon were strong enough to actually get high placements or even win it. 

"Ugh. That Water-Type Gym is gonna be a pain since Gabby is weak to Water," Cynthia complained mentally

Xander nodded in agreement. Although neither Fenris nor Vulpix were weak to Water, they didn't have an advantage over it and his newest member was actually weak to Water. 

"Hopefully, we can get some Flying, Grass, or Electric Pokemon by the time we get to Sunyshore. If not, we can take a week or two to go looking for some good ones," Xander suggested while picking up the bowls and having Larvesta burn the wrappers. 

While he was doing that, Cynthia was giving the Pokemon instructions on where to sleep. Since they were in the wild, it was too dangerous to have the Pokemon stay in their balls so all of them would sleep around the pair. 

"Perfect. Lucario, you're on first watch. Wake up Fenris when you get tired, ok?" Cynthia smiled at Lucario.

"Lu, Lu," the Pokemon agreed while leaning against the nearby tree. With their watcher in position, the two young trainers climbed into their double sleeping bag and were able to fall asleep in moments.