Training

Smaug would need extra vitamins and berries added to his food in order to get all the nutrients needed for his coming evolution. Smaug would need to work heavily on gaining mastery of his flame control before he evolved as his control would become pretty much shot upon his evolution due to a high increase in power if he didn't. After training was done for the day, she should focus on massaging the part of his back where the wings were and along Smaug's horn-protrusion to ease the aches that were bound to form closer to when he evolved. Training into exhaustion was encouraged as it would ensure his increasing aggressiveness didn't cause more trouble than it was already going to. And lastly, she should avoid pitting him against lower skilled pokemon as it would likely making him even more aggressive due to how weak they were.

After Smaug evolved and she couldn't reach a pokemon center, Vali had to make sure Smaug's wings were fully formed and there weren't any visible abnormalities. Smaug was not to battle anyone until she was able to bring him to a pokemon center. He was to limit the about of fire-type moves he used. He was to avoid flying until after he was cleared by a Nurse Joy. She was to keep him away from her other pokemon if he proved to be aggressive upon evolving. He was not allowed to go near any water unless it was in a water-bottle and only if he needed a drink. And he would need to place his tail flame in a camp fire for at least two hours in order to make sure it stays lit if he's exhausted after evolving, she had to make sure his tail flame didn't die down to a flickering flame otherwise he'd be crippled.

Needless to say, Vali was not going to leave Celadon until after Smaug evolved and was cleared by Nurse Joy.

Zaria whistled as she read over the lists Nurse Joy had given her, "Damn, I didn't think so much went into evolution."

"It's mostly with pokemon that go through drastic changes with their evolutions," Vali explained as she rubbed between Eevee's ears as the fox-like pokemon curled up in her lap, "Since evolution occurs in the span of a short few moments, it can cause a lot of pain for those that have drastic changes. It's one of the reasons that trainers with members of the Nidoran-line are warned to avoid going near their pokemon if they managed to evolve them into their final state,"

Zaria gifted Vali with a raised eyebrow, "Why do you know so much about evolution?"

"I was curious about what would happen to my pokemon when they evolved and Professor Oak was more than happy to indulge my curiosity," Vali shrugged lightly, "I wanted to better understand my future partners and what better way than to help ease any pain caused by evolutions,"

"Are you going to become a scientist when you finish traveling if you're not going to become a member of the Elite Four and an ACE?" Zaria handed the lists back.

Vali placed them into her bag as she said, "No, I may be smart and understand some of this stuff, but I honestly don't have the patience for all the schooling required for a scientist. I'm also not one of those people that can stand being stuck in an enclosed space for however long it takes to research something," She leaned back against her head board, "To be honest, I really want to be a photographer if I don't succeed in becoming an Elite or an ACE. If it comes down to it, I'll become one of Professor Oak's wandering data collectors. They can go wherever so long as they gather date for the Professor."

"I think I can see it," Vali looked at her in confusion, "You're one of those people that prefer being away from cities and stuff. The idea of you traveling to parts unknown to collect data for Professor Oak while taking awesome pictures no one else has is something I can honestly see you doing with a smile on your face,"

Vali smiled as she ran that thought through her mind, "Yeah, but who knows what will happen in the future. For now, I'm going to focus on enjoying my journey, training my family members, bonding with them, and gaining new ones when they show themselves."

Zaria snickered with a smirk, "You're definitely an odd one, Vali. I've never met someone that calls their pokemon family. Precious friends, yes, but not family."

"I'd rather create a family that can watch my back through bad situations while I do the same than a pokemon team that only obeys me because I'm their trainer," Vali shook her head softly, "What's the point of having powerful pokemon when there isn't true trust and love?"

Zaria opened her mouth before shutting it and shook her head, "You get really philosophical sometimes, Vali."

"Mostly when it comes to things like my team," Vali looked down at Eevee with a soft smile.

Eevee would always be a member of her family even if he left them.

Vali took Idril aside a few days after she gave her pokemon their TMs. It was time to teach Idril how to find precious stones with a heavy emphasis of Fire Stones. Taking out the fragments of the Fire Stones that Professor Oak gave her, she was happy that they didn't seem to really react to her. She felt the faint sparks of power inside of them, but that was it. Maybe once Idril had learned how to find Fire Stones and they weren't near civilization, she'd see what she could do with them. Vali picked up one of the bigger pieces and held it out to Idril. Idril sniffed at the fragment before sneezing and looking at her, "Idril, this is the fragment of what's known as a Fire Stone. They're what Balto's species use to evolve into Arcanine like the Pack Mother we visited with during our time on Route 7," Idril nodded while giving the fragment a curious look, "One of things Sandshrew and Sandslash can do is find evolutionary stones like a Fire Stone. I want you to memorize everything to do with this fragment so you can find Fire Stones later. After all, we might end up with more family members needing one. Can you do this for me?" Idril nodded and Vali handed the fragment over, "Once you're reasonably sure that you have it memorized, I'll hide a fragment and you'll have to find it. Okay?"

Idril nodded and Vali left her to it for now. It would take a lot of time and patience for Idril to learn how to find Fire Stones. With any hope, Idril will be able to find them with reasonable accuracy though she was definitely going to keep the fragments around just in case she end up with another pokemon with the same ability.

During the two weeks before her gym battle, Vali set her pokemon on a strict schedule that would ensure they were ready for what was probably going to be the first of many difficult battles now that the kid gloves had come off. While Erika was the newest Gym Leader, she had to be strong enough to take over for the last one and pass the qualification test all Gym Leaders took in order to become one. Theoretically, anyone could become a Gym Leader so long as they were able to take the test, have no less than four members of the current big eight's approval, and had at least two pokemon able to last a full two minutes again the weakest Elite Four. They also had to pass whatever test the proceeding gym leader set which usually involved acting a gym trainer for at least a year. Considering most gyms were inherited by a member of the main founding clan of the city it was in, most people didn't try to become a gym leader even if they had the skill unless Viridian City was once again changing Gym Leaders.

Vali doubted that Erika would use her strongest pokemon against her since she was a rookie trainer, but that didn't mean she shouldn't prepare for the worst. She took to watching the trainer videos on Erika and looked through the message boards which was the best place to go to for information when it came to the newest gym leaders. Learning that Erika was extra rough on those that insult the smell of her gym made it very clear that she needed to breath through her mouth, Balto would need to get used to the over powering scents if she wanted to make sure he was effective during the battles. Erika generally used a Victreebel, a Tangela, and a Gloom. She wondered how Erika had managed to get her hands on a pokemon like Tangela which were generally kept in reserves or bred by private breeders due to their rarity. It was something she was definitely going to ask the Gym Leader once the battle was over and hopefully she would get to learn some new stuff about the odd pokemon.

Vali had to wince when one of those that had been practically decimated by Erika complained about how strong her Venusaur and Maganium were. Yeah, she had no interest in having her butt handed to her by one of those. Erika probably had a host of non-Kanto grass-types if she had a Maganium which were as exclusive to Johto as Bulbasaur were to Kanto. Erika was likely waiting until after her first year to switch things up which was a good thing if only because none of the pokemon were unfamiliar to her save for Tangela. Obviously, Erika was going to be one of the Gyms she wasn't likely going to try her hand against once she finished her badge run even when you considered type differences unless her pokemon were on a higher level than they currently were.

With the knowledge of the pokemon Erika had and a tentative knowledge of her current style, Vali began to focus her pokemon's training. As it was probably going to be a 3 on 3, Vali chose Arwen, Celina, and Smaug. Arwen was doing very well during battles and it would be a good idea to see how she did against a gym leader. Celina would be able to take care of any powder movies tossed at her and would be hard to grab on to while in the air. Smaug would probably need a little push by the time her gym battle happened and evolving at the end of a gym battle would ensure he would be pretty much fresh while his opponent would be exhausted. The only reason she considered using Smaug at the moment was due to the fact she knew he wanted to evolve during a battle not to mention it would be safer for him to evolve during a battle because of the increased adrenaline would keep him from falling unconscious. In the event of the gym being too small for Celina to comfortably fly, she was having Balto train hard as well.

Terra and Idril weren't being left out on the hard training especially since it would ensure that they'd be more powerful when they got to their prime. Vali focused on mastering their attacks and gaining stamina as well as endurance. Outside of the ground, Sandslash and Tyranitar were fairly slow though the former was a lot faster than the latter. With that in mind and after a talk with Nurse Joy, she filled up some balloons with soil mixed in warm water. After they were done their warm-ups, the two had to dodge the water balloons. With the amount of soil she added the mix, the mixture wouldn't harm either of them while it built up some resistance to water which was needed if they were to reach elite level. Neither of them were happy about it, she was sympathetic, but didn't stop until they were too tired to dodge.

As a result of her improvised training method, they were improving their stamina and endurance bit by bit each time Vali had them do this training. Combing her seeker and pokeball throwing skills, the two had to work hard to avoid her throws. If it hadn't been for the fact she cleaned them up afterward and offered them treats for a good days work, they probably would've rebelled by now. At the very least, she was including the others during various parts of the day.

All of her pokemon were annoyed with Eevee since he was never forced into participating. They may understand that he wasn't going to train unless he wanted to until he was cleared to actually battle other pokemon, but that didn't mean they had to like it.