“Harrison, don’t you have a Psychic type? Can it understand you?”, Gavin asked while foraging for firewood. He picked up a small log and set it down quickly when he noticed that it was covered in mud and falling apart. Luckily, there were no small bugs in this world or he’d probably have unleashed an infestation as the rotted log cracked noticeably.

  “Yeah but also not quite. They’re better than other Pokemon especially at the beginning but there’s still a bit of… a language barrier?”, Harrison murmured in response. He picked up another rock and set it in place. The circle fully made and ready for a campfire.

  “Aren’t you guys starting a bit too early?”, Christine commented while pointing at the bright blue sky and the sun which showed no signs of setting anytime soon.

  “The earlier the better. I’m not interested in chasing the wildlife around”, Harrison stated, glancing at the other groups which were still messing around.

  One of the students held out their granola bar to a wandering Kricketot. Whenever the Pokemon turned around, he would run to where it was facing and insistently offered his food. A failing endeavor.

  Logan let out his Shinx and ran around with it while they both enjoyed the fresh air.

  A kid then screamed as a bundle of leaves fell on top of his head as he was napping under a tree’s shadow. The plant cloak on the Burmy fell apart and it then began to panic as it scrambled under some shrubbery. The kid swatted at it in panic and a teacher stepped in when it started escalating.

  Gavin then dumped a pile of somewhat and mostly adequate sticks, small logs, along with some pinecones that could serve as firewood on the side.

  “Guess we’re ready then. Don’t really need the fire right now though”, Harrison stated.

  “Then let’s go explore and maybe find some berries”, Gavin suggested.

  “I’ll ask the teacher”, Christine chirped as something fun was finally happening and rushed to ask for permission.

  “Tent?”, Harrison asked.

  Gavin sighed and nodded.

  The duo then began setting up each of their three tents. With the two of them, it was easier to stretch the material taut and expand the tent to its proper size.

  Hammering a peg into the ground, Gavin asked, “Would you drink from a Water type if you ran out of water?”

  “Yeah. I’d probably have to”

  “Even if it’s probably like their saliva?”, Gavin slightly grimaced.

  “I’d probably have them learn Water Pulse instead. Any move where it’s not them drooling it out”, Harrison admitted, having completed the second tent.

  Gavin then moved onto the third tent. He tilted his head in confusion when he found a sizable log on top of part of the tent. He then dragged the tent away and repositioned it away from the log and any other potential obstacles.

  “Hey Harr-”, he began.

  “I’m back!”, Christine shouted from a distance.

  Slightly out of breath, she then said, “They said it’s okay as long as we’re back by dinner and keep the alerts on us”

  “Really? I thought they’d say that we shouldn’t wander too far from the group”, Gavin stated in confusion.

  “Perks of the group”, she said, pointing directly at the two Pokeballs on Harrison’s belt. He rolled his eyes.

  “Fine, fine. Let’s head out before it gets dark”, Harrison said, standing up.

  Pointing towards a certain section of the woods, Gavin clarified, “Let’s head this way. I found a lot of sticks there. Some Pokemon probably left it”

  The three then headed deeper into the woods away from the main camping grounds in the afternoon sun. The heat and light began to subside the deeper they went and the further they went, the thicker the brush and the denser the foliage became.

  “It’s kinda nice in here”, Christine said as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the coolness of the gentle breeze which had been amplified by the minimal sunlight as the rays struggled to shine through the dense foliage above. There were many tall trees and plants which had flourished in the area but didn’t crowd each other out of nutrients as there were plenty of gaps for sunlight to enter.

  A pattern could be observed from the rays of sunlight and the placement of the trees.

  Shouldn’t forests be a bit more random or is this the work of the Rangers and other conservationists?

  Harrison thought about it but he was not too familiar with how they maintained forests. The games didn’t care about making the world feel alive and the anime focused more on the shenanigans of characters. Work and how things were done had always been left unsaid.

  The group then stopped as Gavin ceased to lead the way. Something caught his attention.

  “That’s a reallllly big acorn”, Gavin said, pointing at a huge acorn attached to a massive tree. The massive tree seemed to tower above the rest of the forest. The branches began where some trees stopped growing.

  “Do big trees make big acorns?”

  “Uhh.. I don’t think that’s how it works”, Harrison stated as he continued scouring the sky.

  The wind then picked up and the acorn shook. The acorn then launched itself directly towards Gavin. He had intended on screaming but the sound had been stifled by the acorn tackling him directly on the stomach. Knocking him off his feet.

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  He then sat on the ground dazed and leaning against a tree as he held the acorn in his hands. It was shivering constantly and his panicking eyes darted towards Harrison who looked unamused.

  “You done yet?”, Harrison asked, the question not directed towards Gavin.

  The acorn then stopped and blinked. Revealing that it had eyes and the shivering had been its laughter.

  “Seed?”, it asked curiously.

  “Oh. It’s just a Pokemon”, Gavin stated, very relieved.

  “What else would it be? A walking and talking acorn even if undiscovered would probably still be labeled a Pokemon”, Harrison said even though he wasn’t fully sure of how scientific consensus worked in the Pokemon field. He assumed the logic would be that anything sentient with or without mechanical components would be considered a Pokemon, no matter how mysterious or wondrous the entity appeared to be. He briefly considered the mechanical portion but remembered that tons of mechanical Pokemon were considered Pokemon even if they were created by a person.

  Well…. Maybe if the Pokeball didn’t work on it then perhaps, it wouldn’t be a Pokemon?

  “Seed!”, the acorn jumped and pranced around.

  “What’s it saying?”, Gavin asked. Harrison just shrugged.

  “Uhh.. then what’s it called?”

  “Seedot the… Acorn Pokemon. From Hoenn”, Harrison answered. How creative, he thought sarcastically.

  “No wonder I’ve never seen it before. A Pokemon all the way from Hoenn. I wonder how it got all the way to Sinnoh”, Gavin said in wonder as held the Seedot up to the sky.

  “Dot?”, it wiggled and flailed in the air.

  “It probably didn’t come all the way from Hoenn. Most Pokemon are harder to find outside of their native region”, Harrison stated.

  Some Pokemon could be found anywhere such as Magikarp which was in probably every body of water due to their hardiness despite lacking any power until their explosive evolution. Most however were only considered common in their native region but still had some presence in other regions although they were far more rare and were harder to find most of the time.

  Birds were a good example as Harrison mainly found entire flocks of Starly but he had seen a Pidgey here and there along with even a Taillow. He really wanted a Rookidee but they were not found in Sinnoh and were rarer than most birds likely due to Corviknights being highly sought after and being different from other birds.

  There were numerous reasons why this particular Seedot could be in Sinnoh such as migration, being released by a Trainer, or being born here after an earlier generation of Shiftry settled but none of that mattered because the Seedot was alone and they could not communicate.

  Harrison then stepped forward and faced Seedot.

  “Is there anything different about that tree that made you choose it?”, he asked as the tree was massive but most importantly, was distinct and seemed to be of a different species when examined closely and compared to the rest of the forest.

  “Dot?”, it just wiggled and seemed to shake its head.

  “Hey, uhhh, where’s Christie?”, Gavin asked as he continued to look around.

  Gavin then gently set down the Seedot as he and Harrison continued to look around in circles. Right as panic was about to set in, Christine burst out of a bush and with a wide grin said, “Hey guys, look what I found!”

  She then held out dozens of huge berries and some even tumbled to the ground due to the sheer quantity she plucked.

  Harrison smacked her head lightly.

  “Why did you take so much?”, he asked. There was a limit to how many berries someone could take before it began to affect the plant but more importantly, the food supply of wild Pokemon.

  “I didn’t take much. There’s a lot of them”, she said before urging them to follow.

  They then left the area with the massive tree and entered a clearing full of berry bushes and berry trees. There was enough to take a hundred and barely dent what was available.

  “Oh, neat!”, Gavin stated and began to pick out a few himself. He then pointed behind them and they saw that Seedot decided to follow them.

  “Oh, what’s this little cutie?”, Christine asked as she knelt down. As her hands were full, she just hovered over it with a smile.

  “That’s Seedot. It’s from Hoenn”, Gavin said as he offered a berry and watched it take a bite.

  “Dotdot”

  “Let’s head back”, Harrison suddenly ordered. His face full of caution as he took in his surroundings.

  “Why?”

  “We can still handle a few more berries”, Gavin stated.

  “Yeah but doesn’t it seem weird. There’s so many berries here and not a single Pokemon”, Harrison observed.

  Gavin then looked around to confirm.

  “Now that you mention it, yeah. Other than Seedot, I haven’t seen anything in a while”, he said before looking at Christine.

  “I haven’t seen any either”, she said while shaking her head.

  The group then took a few more berries and began to head back to the camping grounds with Seedot in tow. The afternoon sun started to set and as evening approached, they finally got back to the camp.

  “Oh, that’s a lot of berries”, Logan remarked as he saw the three exit the dense foliage.

  “Aah, right on time. Any later and we would have had to start looking”, their teacher began while handing out food to the various groups. A pack of meat, a liter of water, some marshmallows, and even some corn cobs.

  Noticing Christine’s look, she then added, “Yes, even with Harrison. He might be responsible but his group isn’t”

  Harrison then gestured to his hands full of berries and said, “Teacher, we found a lot of berries but there were no Pokemon”

  He then looked at Seedot which stayed behind the three.

  “Well…. other than that one”

  “That is a bit strange. Wild Pokemon usually love berries”, she then resumed handing out the food.

  “I’ll mention it after I give everybody their dinner. The other kids are starving”, she stated as she walked to the other groups.

  “Guess that’s that”, Gavin said with a shrug.

  The three then returned to their tents and started setting up the campfire.

  Throughout the campgrounds, they could hear the crackling of fire and the sizzling of meat as everybody began to prepare their dinner. Sitting on stumps and logs, the school children chattered excitedly.

  That’s a lot of logs, Harrison thought.

  Knelt on the floor, Christine struck two rocks repeatedly until a spark ignited. She then slowly but methodically fed the fire air and fuel until the flame was steady.

  “It’s kind of easy with flint”, Gavin stated as he watched the fire.

  “Yeah but it will be even easier with a Fire Type”, she chirped as she wiped the soot from her hands.

  On the outskirts of the campgrounds, the only adult available was visibly confused.

  That’s strange, the teacher thought. She had intended on leaving the campgrounds to grab more food as not everybody had received their dinner but the path she usually took led to a dead end.

  As she turned around to ascertain where the path actually was, the subtle sounds of shifting branches and trees extending eluded her.