Paul and Dawn: First Light

Chapter 11: Training Methods

Chapter 11: Training Methods 

I had Bagon knock over a total of ten trees before lunch. By then, he was sweating and his limbs trembled, but he was still standing. He held his head high as if none of the work bothered him. 

I admired him for that. 

"Lunch time," I said shortly. 

Bagon slowly walked back to where Dawn was sitting over a fire with a cooking pot. I hadn't been paying attention, but it seemed like she had made stew of some sort. 

"Here." Dawn put a bowl of Pokemon food in front of Bagon and patted him on the head. He gratefully tore into his food, hungry from all the training.  

I sat down next to Dawn on the first tree Bagon had knocked over. It made the perfect bench. We let all of our Pokemon out for lunch and they settled in the clearing, happy to stretch and eat. 

Dawn handed me a bowl filled with stew. I looked at it cautiously. "Since when do you cook?" 

"I picked some things up from Brock. You would have known that if you hadn't just assumed I didn't know anything about cooking." She ladled herself a bowl, then looked at me. "Well, eat it." 

I smirked at her commanding tone and took a taste. It actually wasn't half bad. "Not as atrocious as I thought it'd be. I didn't even gag." 

Dawn put her bowl on the ground and leaned forward so that her elbows were resting on her legs, her face in her hands. "Can't you just ever compliment someone outright?" 

"That was a compliment." 

"Not by my standards." Dawn sighed. "Can't we just have a truce?" 

I considered it and came to the conclusion that Dawn and I would always clash. We were like the colors black and white- total opposites. "There is no truce, no understanding, between two beings like us." 

"Wow. Could you get any glummer than that?" Dawn massaged her temples. Apparently she had a headache as well. 

I ignored the question. 

"Paul, I don't want to fight with you. I want to learn how to be a better Trainer." 

"Exactly. And all you've done is complain about my methods so far. How can you learn if you're too stubborn to listen?" I took another sip of her stew... it really was good. Not that I would tell her that. 

"You're right. But still, why would you have Bagon train Headbutt like that? Wouldn't he hurt himself?" Dawn questioned. 

"Bagon is the "Rock Head" Pokemon. As you've already seen in Meteor Falls, they have very hard heads that can even crush rock without damaging themselves. Their ability allows them to use attacks that cause damage without actually receiving damage themselves. Headbutt does not have any recoil damage, although new time users usually have to learn how to get past the dazed side effect after using it. Bagon does not, therefore using Headbutt is as safe as walking for him." 

"Oh. I didn't know that." Dawn blushed. "But you're still killing the forest by having him knock over all these trees." 

"They'll grow back." Unlike your brain cells, I thought to myself. "We're done training Headbutt for awhile anyway. It's not that important of a move and he has an almost perfected one to be able to knock over a tree in three blows. What's more important is Ember, which leads to Flamethrower. That's our main goal as far as attacks go right now." 

"Ok." Dawn picked up her bowl and we ate in peace the rest of the time. Piplup seemed to be chiding Bagon about training and kept giving me annoyed glances, as if Dawn's style of training was much more suitable for a tiny Pokemon like himself.