Pokemon: Fate's Path

Chapter 8

Freya Stark

I continued leading the others through Dreaded Bog, tugging on Josef's arm nearly constantly now every time he slowed down. "Come on! The ground's already drier here, don't you want to rest somewhere you won't look like you crapped yourself like a baby?"

"I don't care! I just want to stop walking!" Josef whined as he practically let me drag him. "I wish I was back home..."

I heard Jay give an unhappy scoff. "Can we just leave him behind? He's so annoying..."

"No." I responded. "We have to stay together."

"Ughhh." Josef groaned tiredly. "Please can we rest?"

Soren shook his head. "I'm not stopping here and getting more mud on me."

"What does it matter?" Josef argued. "You're already covered in it!"

I laughed, Jay and Soren were both covered in mud after their little playful spat. It had been enough to distract Ivan and me from the distance we had to walk, obviously Josef hadn't been distracted but why he was complaining I didn't know. He had been able to catch a pokémon after all. Everyone else was empty handed, I mean I could've found a better pokémon than his lotad within a few minutes but I wasn't about to go off doing that now; I wanted to take a break too after all but I wasn't going to complain like a child.

I noticed Jay nudge Soren and nod towards Josef with a smirk on her face. Hiding my own smile I let go of his arm and moved over to Ivan to give them an open target. "So, do you think we'll be good against this gym? It's fairy type."

"Well I've been training so despite the lack of an obvious advantage I'm sure I can get the badge. What about you?"

"I only have Pichu still... And I'm thinking of becoming a pokémon Rescue Member instead of a trainer."

"You mean a pokémon Ranger?" Ivan asked.

I shook my head. "No, Rangers can't catch pokémon and keep them. Rescue Members can, though they're encouraged to only keep rescued pokémon to rehabilitate them and send them off to other trainers or back into the wild unless they can be trained to help other missions."

"I've never heard of them." Ivan replied. "But they sound a lot like Rangers."

"It's a Drucan thing. That's one of the reasons why I came here." I heard Josef give a shout of anger and suffering and laughed as I turned my head to watch him go face first into the mud.

"Now who's covered in mud!" Jay growled loudly as she grinned and got off his back so he could get up.

"No... not my jacket... I just got this." Josef whined once more.

Soren stopped dying of his own laughter long enough to respond. "It's j-just... mud! J-Josef, it'll come out!"

"You knew they were going to do that didn't you." Ivan stated as he watched.

"Yeah."

He shook his head while smiling. "They next town will think swamp monsters have come to attack them."

"They should probably get a bit washed off before then, I doubt they'll want to be covered in that much longer." I looked around, Soren's mudkip was sitting off to the side with Jay's eevee watching the scene play out. The water type could clean them off with his water gun if we couldn't find a stream at least.

"Guys, we need to find a place to stop for the day, I don't know how dry the land is up ahead but I'd rather sleep where I won't get covered in mud." Ivan called out, reading my mind.