After a few more days of prep and rest, we’re finally ready to start moving again, which is great news for me I was starting to get antsy, sitting in this cave and doing nothing. Everyone else could occupy their time with training, or in Percy’s case learning to craft with Kami, but I didn’t have the same luxury. At least Guide seems more comfortable with me. We’ve gotten to know each other well over the last few battles.
The most interesting thing that happened in pretty much our whole time here, was when Sujin decided to try and move Captain Pan from his original ball to an apricorn one. I know he wants to bring Pan with us, and I do agree it’s a good idea, but he could have waited for assistance or something. I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard the screaming.
Pan’s a strong mon, so we should have expected he wouldn’t transfer easy. I was worried we’d be in for a long battle, trying to subdue the Ampharos without hurting him too much, but Sujin got lucky and managed to get Pan inside an apricorn ball after only a few rounds. It was a bit anticlimactic, but it meant less work for me.
At that point, we had our teams picked out and moved to their new pokeballs, our supplies gathered, and a plan for how to enter Katoto. We waved goodbye to our chancy hosts, and set sail for Katoto. Or… set sub? Whatever, point is, we were finally off to get answers.
Once we determined we were in a good range from the shoreline, we docked the sub a few feet under the water’s surface and swam to the top. Thanks to our flying Pokémon, we didn’t have to swim the rest of the way at least.
Katoto is a… strange place. That really feels like an understatement, but I can’t think of a better word to describe it. The air itself feels different, and the whole island has a presence of sort. And I’m not even one of the spiritually attuned members. I can only guess how off they felt when we landed. The deeper we walked into the forest, completely blind without access to our tech, the larger the trees seemed to be. One’s roots were about as tall as I was, and the branches looked like they were miles above us.
We got to the clearing that had been our first goal, only to hear another scream, this one from Darna. In the clearing, by the lake, Darna and her Blastoise were being chased by a 10ft tall, rolling red bolder of all things. We found ourselves only able to watch in shock as it rolled to a stop, and these long, noodly appendages spilled out.
It was a Pokémon. What kind, I still don’t know. I feel like that’s going to happen a lot without our Pokedexes.
Our group immediately went on the offensive, believing this thing was a danger to Darna and us. But the battle was short lived, when a crit razor leaf from Percy’s Bayleef knocked the thing out in one hit. If that wasn’t strange enough, two more of the same Pokémon showed up. These ones much larger, and much angrier.
Turns out, the first boulder-mon was only a baby, and for some reason was being attacked by its own kind. After a nail-biting fight that we managed to win without being crushed under 20 tons of rock, we seemed to have one the appreciation of this boulder-mon.
Actually, it seems pretty attached to me in particular. Right now, we’re following its lead through the wilds of Katoto, it seems to know where its going which is more than the rest of us can say.
I don’t know what waits for us farther in this island, but after such a harrowing introduction, I’ve got this feeling that things are going to get messy. Actually, I’ve had this bad feeling for a while. There’s this shiver that makes my hairs stand on end that’s been following me all day. And touching the boulder-mon causes these weird sensations that leave me feeling a bit faint. I hope it passes soon, the last thing we need is someone getting sick on this adventure.
That’s all I’m documenting for now.
-Kali Jyne