5 Days of Drilling(2)

The ship moved later that morning, so in safety Theodore called off the training drills until tomorrow morning where the ship was stopped once more. By that point in the morning, Khepri was definitely feeling more sore than she ever was before. Not even the long days of collecting nectar for the swarm was going to prepare her for the starting drills her trainer had prepared for her.

Theo had his exhausted starter tucked in between his arms. He mused that when his starter was exhausted she definitely was more adorable than before. Then there was her whining that her wings felt sore or so he had guessed that she attempted to communicate to him. Silently moving away from the edges of the deck, he began to intentionally scratch at Khepri's sweet spots earning him [ Feels Good ] points.

Ignoring his partner's continued whining, Theo frowned at the thought of what he was going to do for the rest of the day. Considering that the ship only stops during the night and day he had an aching feeling of not doing enough. If he was not here out on the Sea, he would be spending time browsing forums in search of training tips that were buried in all sorts of other nonsense.

Heaving out of a heavy sigh, he continued to stare out into the large expanse of water that surrounded him on all sides. He went even deeper than that with his piercing gaze and saw the plethora of Pokemon swimming just under the water. This included a cold-water variant of Wishiwashi, the old and true Magikarp, and other smaller sea-surface fairing pokemon.

He briefly considered attempting to catch one of these [ WATER ] pokemon to add to his team, but he simply felt that pure [ WATER ] pokemon just weren't for him. With that in mind, he began his search for crew-mates to tell their old tales of the sea or misadventures they had in their own glory days.

In his search he had found a middle-aged man with a slight, looser variant of the Sailor's uniform which he could only assume the job required. Upon asking if the job required the uniform, the man simply just shrugged and said that he just liked wearing sailor outfits. Continuing his quest of distracting himself from boredom, he asked the crew member if he had any tales he'd like to share.

The Sailor smiled and simply nodded as he began his own recount of his happenstance,

"It was a decade ago, when trainers were released out of the woodwork at the wee bit age of ten, I was an older lad like yourself due to my parents wishing for me to be older before going on my 'coming-to-age' journey. ." The sailor tale was a brilliant tale of ups and downs which even held Khepri's attention in some of the entranced Rapture. When his few hour long tale had finished, the sailor had a look of what Theo could only say was [ CONTENTEDNESS ].

A whimsical smile played on the sailor lips, the sailor's eyes were looking past Theodore in deep musing, and the steady breathing had led him to that conclusion. Giving a small farewell, Theodore had left the Sailor lost in thought with Khepri curled up, as much as a Combee could be, in his arms.

An easy-going smile was left on his lips as he exited the Sailor's cabin. Moving back up to the deck of the ship, he had seen the Captain was also up on the deck. Theo greeted the Captain as he came from the crewman's quarters,

"Captain Johnson, good afternoon! Saw the early-dawn tide this morning? You could see hundreds of pokemon through different species. It's really awe inspiring." A smirk played on his lips as he used both the Captain's title and name.

Johnson groaned in annoyance, "Not you too! I swear I cannot get ANYONE- Not even the mates' to use only my name." Smugly looking at the Captain, Theodore's eyes showed his amusement at the Captain's annoyance. The captain sighed heavily at the boy's antics before his eyes twinkled as he carried the conversation,

"Not the biggest tide I've seen nor even the average. It was kind of on the small side, honestly. Due to it being more summer weather, a lot of water based pokemon move south from Unova, Sinnoh, and Kalos. Towards places like Hoenn and Alola where the tide can take over the ship itself!"

Theodore nodded at the Captain's words, "I can imagine that. Just some Krabbies getting on the deck and starting their little Krabby dance." His smug smile morphed into an amused grin, "Then you have a huge dance off as other water pokemon join in."

Snorting, Johnson scratched at his groomed beard, "Of course. Then it devolves into a conga line which everyone joins in on. Then I have to tell them to bug off because we have to get to places. I tell you, they aren't going to like that."

Theodore hummed at the thought of unhappy chattering of the different water pokemon as they dropped back into the Sea, "They'd make a fuss, yes. But from what I know; most surface fairing Pokemon are usually happy little creatures."

He clicked tongue afterwards, "But if some err- Deep Ocean pokemon were making a fuss. We'd be held hostage by their parents as they continue their dance off."

Johnson frowned at the thought before sighing in exasperation, "If that were to be the case; The crew and I will handle it. You and yer starter will be safe in our hands. I know that Sailor Graham is the best of us- His tales definitely show so. You certainly heard of one of them." Johnson simply gave a warm grin at the young lad in front of him before ruffling his hat.

"Hey! Don't ruffle my hat." Theodore shared a grin even as his ears burned in slight embarrassment that he was too engrossed in Sailor Graham's story to notice that Captain Johnson had peeked in.

"Sure, sure. Lad. Graham doesn't mind telling you more stories, but don't hold him for too long. He's still a crew member and has to work, ye' hear me?" Johnson gave Theo a pointed look.

Yelping at the pointed look, "Yes, Captain Johnson. I hear you loud and clear!" Moving away from Johnson to let him continue his duties as the captain, Theodore went about the ship once more to mostly explore.

Theodore had spent the rest of the afternoon and evening exploring the transporter/cargo ship. He found many hidden compartments of the ship whether it be movable ceiling panels or quarters with movable floor boards. His own quarters, he had discovered that evening, had a small movable portion of the wall. It could see that maybe a pokeball could fit inside of there if need be.

He could only guess that he could hide a pokeball inside of there in case of pirate or terrorist attack. He frowned at the thought of attack, but shook his head at the simple thought of being successfully attacked. Generally pirates or terrorist groups, like team Aqua or Magma, don't target large cargo ships like this one.

If they did, they would immediately have targets on their back by the full force of the Pokemon Leagues of different regions. It was then that his stomach started to howl in outrage of him not feeding himself. Wincing at the pain, Theodore shook off the straps of his backpack while placing the sleeping Khepri onto the edge of his bed.

Taking out one of his pre-made lunches that he had prepared for the week and half long journey plus a little extra made just in case the journey was longer than expected, he glazed over the pristine sandwiches that included tepig ham, nutrient heavy lettuce, and rather light miltank milk-made cheese.

Taking a bite out of one of the sandwiches, he gulped and enjoyed the flavorful taste of the sandwich. While he was eating his sandwich, he dug around his backpack to find the pack of different berries that he had prepared.

Taking the pack of berries out of his bag, he placed it in front of his partner who began to sniff the different berry types. With how quirky she was, he guessed that she would start sniffing out the [ BITTER ] tasting ones first. True to some of his estimations; he saw that Khepri unconsciously moved towards the ones that she enjoyed.

He found that she tended to go towards the [ SWEET ] and [ DRY ] ones the most when she finally woke up. That meant she would avoid the [ SOUR ], [ SPICY ], and maybe [ BITTER ] berries. He frowned at what he thought was the unassailable truth of the connection of [ PERSONALITY ] and [ TASTE ] was something that could be treated by hear-say information.

He should really be looking at professionally made research documents instead of information provided by forums. Theodore noted to look at the consensus of professors on topics on any Pokemon related thing online when he made landfall at Johto.

Closing off his thought processes of comparing the differences between his findings, he made note that with the berries that his starter preferred concentrated on increasing the things that mattered most to her survival. [ SPEED ] and [ SP. ATTACK ] were some of the attributes which the berries focused on in improving.

Noting to increase her berry diet to include [ SPEED ] and [ SP. ATTACK ] increasing berry-based mix alongside oran berries, he took away the bag before she could gorge herself out on the many berries.

> " Hey! I was going to eat that. Royal Steward, I demand more berries for I am-" [ Agitation ] [ Annoyance! ] [ Complaints ]

Snorting at Khepri's complaints, Theo put the pack of berries back into his backpack while finishing up his own food.

"Yes- yes. You were going to eat ALL of them. You don't want to be the next Snorlax do you? Grow a lot of fat, will ya?" Closing the buttons and latches of his heavy-duty, top of the line backpack, Theodore flicked his starter's many faces.

> " Me? Fat? Impossible! For I am a worker drone- Aaaahhhh! Don't flick me heathen. " < [ Faux Anger ] [ Pouting ] Khepri huffed in agitation before pouting with puppy eyes at her trainer.

Ignoring her attempt at [ BABY-DOLL EYES ], he flopped his body over the bed and looked up at the ceiling while avoiding hitting his partner with his legs. He smiled at the thought of the future of what could be his future team of Titans and Pillars of the bug type.

Soon enough Theo had fallen asleep as the sky slowly turned into dusk. A small smile crept across his face in his sleep for the first time in a long time.