Chapter no.13

At some point in everyone's life, the fire that burns within us dies out. An interaction with another human being sets it ablaze and causes it to explode into flames. Everyone ought to have gratitude for the people in their lives who can reignite the spirit within. ~ Albert Schweitzer

"Always pay attention to the guidance offered by other people. Ignore it, and continue to learn from your own mistakes. When you take the instruction of others and combine it with what you have discovered on your own, that is when you will start to make real progress as a trainer."

- Cynthia Rivers, current holder of both the 43rd Sinnoh League Championship and the 21st World Championship titles. (The 29th of March, 3012)

......

Regardless of how much I thought I knew about travelling before taking Route 103, I realised that I was woefully unprepared for any kind of journey. I had been able to avoid all of the trainers along the path once they realised that Xander was still too inexperienced at battling, and thankfully, they had told me to battle a few more wild creatures before I bothered trying my luck in trainer battles. I was able to avoid all of the trainers along the path. A few people even suggested that I capture another Pokémon so that I could pit my two teams against each other in battle training. It turned out to be a clever plan.

But the most difficult obstacle for me to overcome was the passage across the route; there was a large body of water that completely covered the path. This large river received water from the nearby sea that extended around Slateport and eventually emptied into a small lake located to the east of Oldale Town. Even though it was an impressive sight to watch the waves wash over each other and the various native Pokémon to leap from the depths of the water, it did not assist me in crossing the water.

Regardless, I opened the gate and let Xander out, then I sat down on the bank to watch as he joyfully waddled into the water and started floating along the surface of it. He was unaware that we were in a situation in which we needed to cross the river, and he didn't appear to care about the situation either.

The thought crossed my mind that perhaps I could convince him to swim across with me, but I quickly dismissed the notion. Even with his natural proclivity for water, the rapids were going to be too difficult for me to negotiate; I can't even imagine how difficult it would be for a creature of his size. We needed a different kind of animal, one that could either fly or swim across those spaces while also being able to carry us on its back.

I required the services of another Pokémon.

In spite of this, I was still plagued by the issue I had encountered earlier when I realised that catching another Pokémon would necessitate training it and ensuring that it knew and trusted me enough to allow me to ride on its back while it swum or flew. To the hell with it, I had to have enough faith in it to sit on its back in those conditions.

After what seemed like an eternity of doing nothing but watching Xander, I finally heard a voice that was familiar to me.

"You should be aware that simply staring at the water will not cause it to part for you. Unless you've got some kind of supernatural abilities or something..."

As Adryan started walking towards me, I rolled my eyes and gave him a dirty look. Of course it would have been my good fortune to run into the obnoxious thug twice in the span of a single day. It was obvious to me that he was trying to help, but the fact remained that he was driving me absolutely bonkers in the meantime.

As he sat down beside me, himself staring at my Pokémon swimming in the water, he casually remarked, "Be quite cruel of you to stand on that Lotad of yours and get him to swim across." "Be quite cruel of you to stand on that Lotad of yours and get him to swim across." "Remember his name, what was it? Oh, you're right! Xander!"

When he heard his name, my Pokémon immediately poked his head above the water and looked in our direction. Knowing that I had trained him well enough that he would respond even when someone else called out his name made me grin when I thought about it. Teaching him to fight to high standards remained a challenge despite our best efforts.

When I turned my head to the side, I caught a glimpse of Adryan grinning at me as he stretched his arms forward. "So, how many other Pokémon do you have in your collection? If you needed assistance in training him, I'm guessing they can't be anything like a Lotad, which means there can't be any grass or water types among them."

I just stared at him, for a moment toying with the idea of outright lying. I knew that if I told him the truth, he would have been interested in seeing them, so I decided to tell him the truth instead. "He is the only Pokémon that I own. My travels have only been going on for a week so far."

"No shit..." Adryan murmured something thoughtfully to himself. "So you're just going to sit here and think about how you're going to get across the water? Do you not allow your Lotad to swim around like I thought you would?"

I grimaced and shook my head before biting my lower lip and giving a headshake. "Both of these, in fact. While I was trying to decide what to do, I had the idea that he might benefit from going for a swim." I came to a stop, did a little light stretching, and looked around for somewhere that would be slightly cooler for my body to rest in. When I turned my head to the side to look at Adryan, I saw that he was sitting there looking perfectly content in his trench coat and scarf as if the heat had no effect on him at all. "How could you possibly be wearing that given the current temperature?" I asked with a long, drawn-out groan while fighting the urge to fan myself with one of my hands. I was standing there with sweat dripping down my forehead, but he didn't even have a single drop of moisture on his! It was absolutely not fair.

He gave a wry grin and shrugged his shoulders before letting out a muffled laugh. "My mother has always had a passion for anything related to fire. The number of different kinds of fires that we had in the house ensured that it was always as hot as a sauna when I was growing up. When compared to the weather at my house, this location feels like you're in a refrigerator." He laughed as my jaw dropped as I realised how bizarre it sounded and he understood. "Let me tell you, if you had grown up with me, you would be scurrying around right now trying to keep warm!"