[X] My Assistant

[Toogee]

Departing from Arasam

I’m on the road once more, so this is being written in my journal. Douken and I had a great time in Arasam. At Lima’s request, we tried the local contest hall and made it into the finals! We didn’t do too bad for a couple of first-timers, but the hall leader Troy still managed to beat our pokemon in battle. Turnip hasn’t lost too many battles before this, but he seems to be taking it well. I think it was shown on TV somewhere, so I won’t bore you with the details.

I had other motives to enter that contest. A little birdie told me that Troy was seeing my best friend, Darryn. I went to see what this guy was all about. Darryn, if you’re reading this, he seems pretty nice, but if that night was any indication, you should keep him away from any exotic beverages. And ponyta-drawn carriages. And cliffs.

The next day, Douken challenged the local gym leader Otis. Otis had a beautiful shiny charmeleon; I would have loved to gotten a closer look at the gold coloring. The charmeleon had a bad attitude though, common to the species (that’s what the nature documentaries say at least). He even attacked his own teammates! That helped Douken a lot, resulting in his first badge. From there, we hitched a ride on a hot-air balloon down Mt. Carello and have been hiking our way to the next destination.

Speaking of which, we’re on our way to Petropolis. Professor Stone said he wanted me at the museum for a “surprise,” while Douken is going for his second badge. I hear it’s a huge city, even bigger than Saffron City! It’ll certainly be a change from the wild areas I’ve been to so far.

I’ll let you guys know when I come into Petropolis.

Until next time,
Pan

Pan put her journal away as she lay back upon her venusaur Turnip. The hefty size of the pokemon allowed his trainer to take a rest upon his back while he continued the journey. Turnip wasn’t complaining: he liked having his human close by and found her leg rubbing against his neck quite soothing.

The group was traveling a worn dirt path after getting off the hot-air balloon. That was quite some time ago; Pan and Douken had to spend a couple nights outdoors as they traveled the long path to Petropolis.

Aside from the occasional passersby staring in awe of Pan’s venusaur, not much had happened on the journey. That was until they reached the top of a hill. The woman leaned up to see a wire fence with a wood frame stretching across the countryside. On the other side of the fence, herds of tauros and miltank were out grazing, dotting the green fields with brown and pink. Farther out was a group of buildings. Two appeared to be houses: one was a spacious two-story, while the other was a cozy one-story. The final building covered more square area than the two houses combined, but Pan couldn’t tell what purpose it served. All the buildings shared the same rustic appearance of old wood exteriors and tin roofs.

Interrupting the wire fence was an old wooden archway, providing entrance to the peaceful area. The black letters along the top of the arch revealed the identity of this new place.

“Loch Ranch,” Pan read aloud. “Hey Douken, do you know anything about this place?”

She turned her head around to see where Douken happened to be.