Viridian Forest woes

The next two days were fairly relaxed, but the days after that were not. The first Beedrill nest was passed by quickly and quietly with the rather violent bug types merely watching them pass by. The second one, about three miles from the first, was harder to get through as the Beedrill were agitated due to the presence of a flock of Spearow. They managed though and didn't start having truly bad luck until the fourth day inside the forest. They were chased off the path by not only a large swarm of Beedrill feuding with a second flock of Spear led by a mated pair of Fearow which meant dodging not only the pissed off bees, but also a bunch of pissed off birds as well. They also had to run into two dens filled with aggressive Raticate and their Rattata babies. When it started to look up on the sixth day, they found themselves in a rather harsh thunderstorm with abnormally cold rain.

Steven quickly had Claydol create a shelter for them once they managed to find a relatively high hill. Steven pulled out a steel grey cube-like device that she recognized from one of the catalogs she'd gone through since she'd decided to become a trainer. It was about the size of his palm and expensive as hell. He tapped a button in the center causing it to glow red like a pokeball and pointed it towards the ground. A large pile of dry wood appeared and Steven had Claydol construct a fire pit before he began placing some of the wood down before asking Vali, "Can Balto or Smaug light this on fire?"

Vali released Smaug and gestured to the fire pit, "Mind lighting the wood in there?"

Smaug nodded and spat out an ember at the wood immediately causing it to catch on fire. Vali thanked him as she released her other pokemon. Steven smiled lightly, "Good. We should probably change into some dry clothes."

Vali nodded in agreement and turned away from Steven to get out some dry clothes. Even with changing into some dry ones, Vali was still cold and cuddled Balto to her chest. Her other pokemon curled up around her though Smaug laid his laid on the ground to prevent it from burning her, she spoke as they got settled down, "How long do you think the rain will last?"

"I'm not too sure though it shouldn't last more than a day as it isn't storm season," Steven looked at her in concern, "Are you alright?"

"Just cold," Vali was grateful for her pokemon, "I'll be fine as soon as I warm up," She looked at him, "How come you aren't shivering?"

"I've been colder," Steven told her as he leaned back against Aggron, "Though I will admit that it's a bit surprising that it's so cold right now. I didn't think Kanto got any out of season weather,"

"Strange things do happen," Vali leaned back against her book bag and looked at her drying clothes which sat by the fire, "How long until they dry off?"

"They should dry off by tomorrow. I'm surprised your shoes didn't end up soaked through," Steven said looking at her shoes.

Vali flushed lightly as she rubbed between Pikachu's ears earning a soft chaa of pleasure, "I might've used what magic I could to prevent to make them truly water resistant. I can't do much, but small things like that aren't too hard."

Steven chuckled softly, "It makes me wonder what else your can do."

Vali shrugged only to stop when Pidgey nipped her ear showing her displeasure at the act, "To be honest, I'm not too sure what all I can do. Without a wand helping to guide my powers, it's difficult to use them. I'm trying to train myself, but wandless magic is really hard on the body."

"Really?" Steven looked at her curiously.

Vali nodded lightly as her mind went back to when her wand stopped working for her, "Had it been about a year ago, I wouldn't have been able to make my shoes truly waterproof which out going unconscious and the spell failing. Sirius has it a bit easier than me mostly because of his animagus form."

"The 'grimm' right?" Steven asked earning a nod, "Do you think you'll be able to do something like that?"

Vali shook her head, "Not any time soon, maybe in a few years."

The rain didn't let off for two days and traveling through Viridian Forest slowed down considerably until the mud dried. It slowed further when they came across another nest of Beedrill and a third den of Raticate. They were even more aggressive than the last ones and Steven's Metagross had to create psychic barrier around them to keep from getting hit by any attacks. By the time they made camp, all of them were too tired to train and Claydol ended up keeping up some psychic barriers since there was a chance that the aggravated pokemon would attack them. They also weren't the only ones to face any problem thanks to the storm and had come across multiple bug catchers or other trainers that had gotten hurt because of the aggressive pokemon. Of course, they did come across one casualty from the aggressive pokemon and were given a show of the true nature of pokemon.

Vali covered her mouth and swallowed back the bile that rose up in her throat as Steven ushered her away from the scene. A boy, he had to be younger than her by a year at least, was being feasted on by a whole group of Raticate and Rattata. When they were far enough away, Steven stopped pushing her and she finally released the contents of her stomach into a bush. She felt Steven pull back her hair, but focused on getting rid of what was in her stomach. By the time she was done, she was shaking and could barely hold the water bottle Steven gave her. It took her a few minutes before she could properly focus and by that time, Metagross had appeared and held two pokeballs in their hands. Steven took them as she asked, "W-where did they get those?"

"I had Metagross go back and collect the boy's filled pokeballs," Steven explained making her pale at the reminder of the scene they'd passed, "I'll be sending them off to Professor Oak once we get to the pokemon center in Pewter," He looked at her in concern, "Will you be alright?"

Vali nodded after drinking a bit more water, "Y-yeah. I just didn't expect to see anything like that so soon into my journey or that those pokemon would be doing it. I mean I know they're omnivores, but..."

"It must have been the storm," Steven theorized as he placed the pokeballs into his bag, "We'll have to be more careful while we travel the next few days," He placed a hand on Vali's shoulder and squeezed lightly, "I'm sorry you had to see that, Vali. While it's better that it happened sooner rather than later, it is still a bit much for a new trainer,"

Vali closed her eyes, "I-it's okay."

Steven didn't say anything in reply since there really wasn't anything he could say. While they taught the true nature of pokemon in schools, they also made training a pokemon seem like a fun adventure. Later that night after they'd gone to sleep, Vali had woken up due to a nightmare with the boy's body being replaced by Sirius'. Steven had woken up to her screaming, but instead of getting angry, he had simply pulled her into a hug and held her as she cried. He hadn't asked what she'd seen only offered her words of comfort and let her fall asleep against him. In the morning, she had gotten embarrassed, but Steven waved it off and said that he hadn't minded it as well as expected it.