Tyler's Search, Chapter 12: A Fighting Chance

    The battle had left him tired but elated. He could finally tap into his energy! More importantly, it meant he had a chance against Pokémon who could attack from a distance or who might be bigger and stronger than him. He still wanted to test it, though, to be sure it wouldn’t fail him the next time he was in a fight.

    Now, how did I do it, again? Thinking back for a few minutes, Tyler realized that each time his power had activated, he had been focused on reaching something – first the trees, then the Chikorita. Narrowing his eyes, Tyler settled on a nearby bush – but then realized that since nothing around him was moving, he might not be able to tell if it worked or not. After pondering the problem for a moment, he went over and shook the bush, but the branches stopped waving before he was ready to try again. He tried for a minute to come up with another way to test it, but came up blank. Finally, unwilling to give up without at least trying to use his power again, Tyler faced the bush and charged, focusing as hard as he could on it.

    He did feel something change again. The sounds of the forest suddenly became dull and muted, and things somehow felt different. This time, though, he didn’t reach the bush; the effect lasted barely a second before things went to normal again, and Tyler realized that wherever his power was coming from, he didn’t have much left. Still, though, it was there, and hopefully it would come back with some rest. Tyler was still breathing hard, tired from the fight. As short as it had been, it had taken more out of him than he expected. Maybe his high-speed attacks drained him more. Maybe he was just tired from four days of travel. Tyler didn’t know, but he could tell that he needed to stop and rest.

    As usual, his first task was to find food and water. Food was the easy part, as his nose quickly led him to a berry bush. It had a lot of fruit on it, though it looked as if something had been nibbling at the leaves. Water took him longer to find, as he had left the stream behind that morning, but after a while Tyler was able to find a small pool that had been shaded by the trees. The water wasn’t very fresh, but he didn’t care much; he was tired, and all he wanted to do by then was find somewhere to lay down, even though the sun was still high in the sky. Dragging himself over to a bush, he pulled himself underneath and lay down. He didn’t feel like sleeping at first, so he just lay there, peering out through the leaves and thinking.

    Discovering his energy… that was big. Tyler had only known it was there for a few days now, ever since Ryan had asked him about it. Thinking back, he wondered why Mother and Father had never mentioned it. He was sure they knew – they had to. Why hadn’t Father taught them how to do that when they were training? It didn’t make sense.

    He shook the thought away. There had to be some reason for it. Father and Mother had always done everything they could to take care of Tyler and his siblings. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to use it when he was an Eevee. After all, Ryan had his own experience as a Cyndaquil, and Cyndaquil could already breathe fire when they were young. Tyler shrugged that one away too. He had the power and he could use it. He would need it if he was ever going to be able to get his family away from the Catchers, so he couldn’t waste energy worrying about whether it was good for him. Unless using it actually started hurting him. Then he would have to reconsider.

    Tyler’s thoughts turned to the rest of what Ryan had told him. The Quilava had said that he could make himself stronger or faster. He had figured out how to move fast – he had to focus on reaching a target. Somehow that triggered the power inside him. How can I make myself stronger, though? Maybe it was something else he needed to focus on, though Tyler didn’t know what. Or maybe he still had to focus on a target, but differently. Or… Well, I’m not sure if my power actually makes me run faster. I still feel like I’m running normally, it’s just everything else slows down. But then, I hit that Chikorita and she went flying – just like Ryan said. I must have been going faster, or I wouldn’t have hit her so hard. Maybe to make himself stronger, Tyler had to focus on himself? He didn’t really know how, though. Trying to focus on making himself faster hadn’t worked. Finally, he sighed and gave up. Tyler was tired, and his power seemed to be exhausted as well, so he wouldn’t be able to test any ideas for now. The best thing he could do right now was rest.

    As he lay and watched, he saw several Caterpie and Weedle peek out of their hiding places, then come inching out onto open ground. They must have been waiting for him to leave. He realized tiredly that there must be Caterpie and Weedle all through this part of the woods. Hadn’t the Rattata mentioned something about that when they were fighting?

    Tyler sighed and shook his head. It didn’t really matter right now. He wasn’t going anywhere, not for a while at least. Laying his head on his paws, he closed his eyes, trying to get some rest.

    When Tyler woke up, it was late afternoon. He felt worse than before, though maybe he wasn’t quite as tired now. It only took him a moment to figure out why: his shoulder was throbbing with pain where the Weedle’s sting had hit. It had poisoned him after all! Tyler shuddered. He was glad now that he had pulled the stinger out immediately – it was probably the only reason he’d made it this far. He might have even lost the battle and been caught! Probing his shoulder with a paw, he could tell that the wound itself wasn’t bad, but his shoulder had swollen painfully from the Weedle’s poison. Luckily it wasn’t too tender, just aching. The rest of him felt just as bad, with an occasional wave of pain making him wince.

    He simply lay there for a few minutes, trying not to panic. Tyler had never been poisoned before. Before leaving home, he’d never had any kind of real injury. Out here, he’d gotten scratches, cuts and bruises, but all of those would get better after a few days. Poison, he didn’t know about. Maybe it would just keep getting worse. A memory flashed through his mind – Mother, limping along in front of him, getting weaker all the time. Now it was happening to him.

    Tyler knew he couldn’t just wait around. He had to do something, before it was too late, so he struggled to his paws. It was harder than he had expected, and for a moment he just stood there, feeling perilously weak. Then, gritting his teeth, he started his painful way out into the forest again. He couldn’t stop here, not now. Hopefully he could find someone – or something – that would help.

    There were more Caterpie and Weedle out than before, and they looked up at him as he emerged from the bush. Frightened and weak, Tyler shied away from them, limping in the opposite direction. More seemed to come out as the day stretched on and shadows lengthened, though, and soon he found himself in what felt like a slow, deadly game of tag, trying to stay as far away from all of them as he could while he pressed on. He hadn’t been afraid like this since the morning he had run for his life from the Catchers.

    Tyler noticed several Pidgey and Spearow around, too. They would fly through the trees, occasionally diving down out of his sight. He didn’t know why, until he saw one pass by with a Caterpie in its talons. This wasn’t like home at all, at least not how he remembered. Still, the Pidgey and Spearow ought to be friendlier than the bug Pokémon. It was worth a try. If Weedle were poisonous, since there were so many here, the Pokémon around here had to know how to deal with the poison – didn’t they?

    He saw one of them, a Pidgey perched on a branch a little way away. It was watching a small clearing where at least ten of the bug Pokémon were crawling around. Hoping it would be friendly, Tyler came closer and shouted, a little weakly, “Hey!” Combined with walking and the effects of the poison, even that effort made him pant a little.

    At the sound, the Caterpie and Weedle became instantly alert, hissing and arching their backs. The Pidgey watched them for a few seconds more, then huffed in frustration, lifting its wings and flapping over to berate him.

    “Did you have to shout like that? I was hunting, couldn’t you tell? Now it’s all gone to waste. Are you some kind of idiot?”

    Tyler cringed back a little. This wasn’t what he’d expected at all. “Sorry,” he offered in a small voice. “I was hoping you could help me.”

    “And why would I do that, when you just ruined my hunting?” The Pidgey stared at him for a few seconds, daring him to respond.

    “Well, I hoped…” Tyler began, the words trailing off. He took another breath and tried again. “I got hurt. A Weedle poisoned me, and it’s getting worse,” Tyler added, cringing a bit as a wave of pain swept over him, emphasizing his point. He looked pleadingly up at the Pidgey. “Please, can you help me?”

    The Pidgey looked him over for a minute, then sighed, sympathetic but obviously still irritated. “Listen. Can you still walk?”

    Tyler nodded.

    “Good. There’s a bush…” The Pidgey cocked its head and narrowed its eyes, estimating, then pointed with a wing. “that way. Not too far from here. The berries help with poison.”

    Relief flooded through Tyler, and he started to breathe more easily. There was a cure for the poison. He wasn’t going to die. Once he had his emotions under control, he looked the Pidgey in the eye. “Thank you.”

    “You’re welcome,” the Pidgey responded gruffly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I still have dinner to catch.” He turned, then stopped. “You will be all right, won’t you?”

    “I think so.” Tyler answered. He still didn’t feel well, but he was pretty sure he could make it to the bush.

    “Good.” The Pidgey flapped his wings and flew off, leaving Tyler alone again.

    Still weak, but buoyed by new hope, Tyler turned in the direction the Pidgey had indicated and started walking. All the bug Pokémon had moved away from the noise, so he was alone at first, but as he went on they started to show up again, and he found himself circling around them. He was careful not to lose his way, though, and after a few minutes of walking he could smell the bush he was looking for – at least, he hoped it was the one he was looking for. Following the scent, he proceeded more confidently until the bush came into view, a canopy of small leaves mostly concealing its round, light-colored, pinkish-orange fruit.

    He would have broken into a run at the sight, but he didn’t have the strength at the moment, so instead he limped forward as quickly as he could. After a minute, he finally arrived next to the plant, pushing through the leaves. One of the first things he noticed was that there were only a few mature berries on the plant. He guessed that a lot of the Pokémon in the area would come here if they got poisoned by Weedle or something.

    It took him a few tries, but rearing up on his hind legs, he finally caught a berry’s stem in his teeth and pulled. It came loose, tumbling out of the bush alongside him. Tyler picked himself up off the ground and limped the few steps to where it had fallen, laying down on his side to eat it. It was one of the larger berries he had seen, and it would probably fill him up by itself. He just hoped that it worked on the poison like the Pidgey said it would.

    The berry had soft, sweet, juicy flesh, and Tyler enjoyed it despite how serious his situation was. Just to be safe, he ate the seeds too, crunching down on them with his back teeth. He still felt the same, but supposed he would have to wait a while before things hopefully got better. Now that he had eaten the berry, though, he didn’t feel as worried. With the sun gone down and darkness creeping across the sky, he decided it would be best to sleep for the night. If he was still sick in the morning, the berry bush would be close by.

    Still wary of running into bug Pokémon, Tyler took the time to slowly burrow his way into the thickest part of a bush. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it was safer, and Tyler was in too much pain anyway to care how it felt.

    Tyler woke with the sun the next morning. He felt a lot better; all he had left to show from the poison was a sore shoulder. He worked his way out of the bush, then stood in the morning sunlight and stretched, paying special attention to his shoulder. For a few moments he just stood there, heartened by the fact that the poison was gone and enjoying the feeling of just standing there, free of pain and breathing normally; then he shook himself and looked around. It seemed like the Caterpie and Weedle had all gone back to wherever they liked to hide. Hopefully that meant he wouldn’t see any more until evening. He didn’t really want to run into them even then.

    He took a few minutes to plan things out in his mind. The battle, and getting poisoned, had interrupted him, but now that he felt better, Tyler set his sights on getting to the next town. Hopefully he could get to it that day with enough time to plan his next move and get inside at night to look for signs of his family. Maybe his newfound power would be able to help him too, though he wasn’t sure how right now.

    It took him a few minutes, but he was able to find his way back to the road without too much difficulty. After finding something to eat and drink, Tyler was on his way to the town that lay somewhere back in the forest. This was going to be a good day.