Pokémon: Exodus (G)

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Chapter Three
Katarina and Exo had walked for the rest of the day, but the going was easy since they were more comfortable with one another's company. They had not talked a great deal, but Katarina had been more accepting of the quiet than she had been before Brookdale and Exo had made an effort to contribute his own observations and questions to the flow of conversation. Even if neither of them was quite satisfied with his or her own progress, both Katarina and Exo nonetheless admired the other's. They had made camp in a clearing that Exo had said that he had used many times on his travels across the Tinko region and the cubone had also produced the pair's dinner from the nearby stream and vegetation. After some struggle, he had even helped Katarina get a fire going and taught her how to maintain it. In-between bites of cooked magikarp, Katarina had thought, and not for the first time, just how lost she would have been without her guide.

The next morning, they woke up with the rising sun and Katarina felt surprisingly well-rested. She washed a little in the stream where they had camped and got ready for the day ahead. Exo had been prepared to set out before she had woken up, but he waited patiently for Katarina to finish her morning ritual and they then took off together. The plan was that they would head north in the morning to avoid walking for hours with the sun in their eyes, and would start to veer east around midday.

This far away from the farms and the people who tended them, there were more pokémon about and Katarina did her best to observe all of the facets of the little dramas and tableaus that she witnessed. As she and Exo followed their stream north, it became connected to a river and a family of plump, yellow-feathered psyduck were enjoying the cool water in a tributary where the current was not as fierce. Purple rattata and plump nidoran colored pink and blue dotted their path, and Katarina was always on the lookout for any sign of the larger nidorino. She did not realize it at the time, but Exo was also constantly scanning the lush landscape for any dangers, familiar or new.

Over the next few hours, Katarina and Exo walked at a healthy clip, but it could not continue forever that way. Katarina began lagging behind her companion, just a little bit slower at first, but soon was separated from the cubone by entire yards. It was to her great relief that Exo took notice of this and said simply, "Let us rest for a while."

Katarina did not need to be told twice and she worked her way through the waving grass and wildflowers to a spindly tree that promised at least the semblance of shade. Then, she sat down heavily at its base, took off her shoes, and grimaced. Living and working on a farm was no one's idea of easy work, human or pokémon, but it was clear that chores had not prepared her for this type of journey. Katarina's feet were blistering, and even the stoic Exo would not look at them for too long without turning away.

They rested in the paltry shade offered to them without talking, until Katarina caught sight of something in the air, circling overhead. She studied it for a few moments, shielding her eyes from the sun with one of her hands. Then a realization lit up her face and Katarina said excitedly, "I think that's Ace! The spearow from the village!"

"There are plenty of spearow around these parts," said Exo, but Katarina paid him no mind.

She stood up on shaking feet and cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, "Yoo-hoo! Ace!"

Above them, the bird tilted on one wing and began to spiral expertly down to the ground. Exo tensed up at the spearow's approach, but it was unnecessary. The pokémon landed a respectful distance away and made eye contact with Exo first.

"Oh, it's you two again," Ace remarked with an air of affected self-importance. "Just our luck."

"Is Spencer with you? Where are you two traveling?"

Ace lifted up his wings and waved off Katarina's questions with a very human gesture. "One question a time, please." Even after he saw that he had Exo and Katarina's full attention, Ace took some time to make a show of grooming himself, and only after he was done did he say, "I'm Spencer's scout." There was no shortage of pride in the spearow's voice as he explained, "He needs me to look ahead and help him decide where to go next. I gather the information, study the, um, locals, and report back."

"So, where are you heading then?" asked Katarina.

The spearow's bravado faded, and he had the sense to look a little sheepish. "I'm not sure if I should tell you." But Katarina's patience and smile won him over and Ace said, "Oh, why not ask Spencer? He's not too far away, you know." He then turned around and readied himself to take flight. "Try and keep up!"

With a running start and a rapid beat of wings, the spearow was quickly several feet in the air. Katarina and Exo followed after the airborne pokémon, the girl holding her shoes in one hand. After they had traveled for five minutes, Ace abruptly let out three short caws and was met with a complicated series of whistles.

Not long after that, Spencer appeared over the crest of a hill, still wearing his gray army coat and cap even in the summer heat. "Ace!" he called. "Did you find it?"

"Afraid not!" squawked the spearow and he lighted on the grass halfway between Spencer and Katarina and Exo.

When Spencer saw them, his face grew confused and then brightened considerably. "Hey there, doll!" he said. "I'm surprised to see you out here in the middle of nowhere! You ought to be living like a queen in that little town with all that money you took off my hands!"

"Well," Katarina started to say, but then trailed off. Instead, she decided on a different tack, saying, "I have a name, you know."

Spencer smiled at her, and his grin easily met his blue eyes. "And what would that name be, doll?"

"Katarina."

"All right then, Katarina," said Spencer breezily, "it was nice running into you and all, but Ace and I are kind of in the middle of a job."

He began to walk away, but let himself be stopped when Katarina yelled, "Wait! Where are you headed?"

"We're not headed anywhere in particular," said Ace as he fluttered to Spencer's arm. "We're looking for something."

"Looking for what?" asked Exo.

Spencer spread his hands wide and said, "Ace heard that there was some wealthy family that lost one of their precious growlithe on an outing, so we're looking for the pup so that we can return it and get a nice fat reward."

"It should be enough to get us to Tinko City!" interjected Ace helpfully.

"That's fantastic!" Katarina said with a bright smile. "We're going to the capital too, maybe-"

Spencer shook his head. "No way, doll. Not to be rude, but me and Ace here don't need the help. Besides, you've already got enough money, don't you?"

"Um, about that-"

"No, the boy is right," interrupted Exo as he suddenly patted one of Katarina's legs. "We'd better keep moving. There's no sense in getting distracted by a pair of conmen."

"We prefer the term 'charlatans!’" squawked Ace, which earned him a heavy blow from Spencer.

The boy and the spearow erupted into another round of arguing while Exo quietly led Katarina away, back towards where they had seen Ace. Katarina did not say anything, but she did not have to for Exo to explain, "You only have a short amount of time to get to the coast and find the professor who can give you a pokémon. There's no time to be distracted by those two and their antics." The cubone made the last word sound positively vile even in his low tone of voice.

"I suppose you're right," said Katarina begrudgingly, but she still craned her neck over her shoulder to watch Spencer and Ace shrinking in the distance as they walked. "Wouldn't we be safer from wild pokémon and bandits if we were part of a group?"

"Maybe," conceded Exo with a grunt, "but that pair strikes me as being the source of more trouble than help."

They reached the tree where they had been resting before without incident, and after the more leisurely pace that they had taken going to Spencer and back, Katarina said that she felt up for doing some more serious walking. They continued north, following the path of the river upstream for a good while and were looking for the bridge when they found a pokémon.

It was a small thing, with orange fur marred by jagged black stripes and was bent over on its haunches watching a small patch of grass intently. Katarina and Exo kept their distance and saw the grass begin to move, lifting up out of the earth on its own accord until the top of a blue head and a pair of beady eyes could be seen. The other pokémon saw it too and pounced on its prey with a happy bark. It was too slow, however; its target had given a small yelp and returned back underground to safety. The furry pokémon did not appear to be too disappointed by its failure as it looked happy enough with circling the patch of grass that betrayed the hiding creature's presence and preparing to pounce on it again.

"I think that's the growlithe they were looking for," whispered Katarina. Exo did not say anything, but he did not look altogether pleased. "See, it's got a collar around its neck so it belongs to somebody." She started to creep closer to the playful young pokémon.

Behind her, Exo said, "Just leave it alone, Katarina," but she was not listening.

"Hello there, little one," said Katarina as she neared the growlithe. It looked up at her, its game with the oddish forgotten. Katarina bent forward and held out a hand towards the pokémon and said in soothing tones, "How did you get all the way out here?" It watched her approach with rapt attention, and when she was close enough, it pressed its wet nose against Katarina's palm and sniffed at her hand. In a moment, the growlithe's apprehension melted away and it was soon lapping its little pink tongue against Katarina's hand and wagging its stubby little tail.

"Hey, Exo," the girl called with a lilting giggle in her voice, "it's friendly! Come here!"

Slowly, the cubone moved across the field to join them. As he approached, the growlithe tensed under where Katarina's hand was petting it and it began to growl. In a full-grown growlithe, that might have been a frightening sound, but coming from a little puppy it only annoyed Exo. Still, he kept his distance. After all, a bite from a growlithe's sharp teeth was very painful, even if it was only a puppy. "I will be fine with staying right here," said Exo with a trace of what Katarina thought was pouting.

"See, it's okay, little growlithe," said Katarina and she stroked the growlithe's fur until its growl became a kind of muted rumbling in its throat. "That cubone won't hurt you. He's a nice pokémon, just like you."

"Spare me."

The growlithe was happy to ignore Exo, as was Katarina, and the girl gently worked her way to the furry pokémon's neck and rotated the band of blue leather around to look at the jingling metal tags that hung from the growlithe's collar. They were professionally crafted, that much was obvious even to a farmgirl like Katarina, with a florid script engraved in the brightly polished metal that proclaimed that the pokémon was named "Augustus" and it belonged to the Pryor family.

She passed that information onto Exo, but the cubone's only response was, "How does this help us? We don't know where these Pryor's live."

"Maybe Spencer and Ace do," offered Katarina.

Exo fixed her with a long stare. When he spoke, it was more reminiscent of the tone that he had taken with Katarina before Brookdale, but it was the words which stung the most, "This is your quest, Katarina. If you want to be sidetracked and delayed instead of reaching your destination in time, then that is your choice to make."

"We've been pushing ourselves fairly hard today," she started to lie. Exo did not stop gazing into her eyes and as for Augustus the growlithe, he had simply lost himself in enjoying the ministrations of Katarina's fingers upon his ear. Katarina stopped and chewed over her thoughts before trying to put them into words again. "At the very least, we should let Spencer and Ace know. They can take the puppy home and we can keep going. It wouldn't feel right," she continued, "to leave him out here when he's lost, and Ace was looking too far to the south. It could be days before he and Spencer found little Auggie here."

"I suppose you are right," said Exo and he stood up from his squatting position. Then, he made a face underneath his bone-white mask and asked, "Auggie?"

Katarina shrugged. "I don't know. He looks like an Auggie to me." She stood up as well, letting the growlithe go back to playing the game he had been enjoying with the oddish before Katarina and Exo had interrupted him. Putting the fingers of one hand into her mouth, Katarina whistled a long and harsh sound that made Augustus whimper and even elicited a small flinch from Exo. "That ought to get their attention."

The girl and the cubone managed to drag Augustus away from his game, much to his consternation, to a spot closer to the river since Exo thought that Ace's flight path would likely be focused on large landmarks that were visible from high up in the air. Exo was left to tend to the growlithe for a few minutes while Katarina took off her shoes again and dipped her feet into the water's edge. Despite the slower pace that she had been enjoying for the last few hours, Katarina's blisters were, if anything, getting worse. The cool water of the river was soothing, but it was only a temporary fix. Her thoughts drifted through half-considered measures for her problem, both preventative and curative, and it took Ace flapping his way down over the water to snap her out of her daydreaming.

"All right, missy, what do you have to say for yourself?" said the spearow shortly. "I've got this great lead on the missing pokémon, right, and I'm telling Spence about it when I hear your call. I tell Spence about it and he says, 'it's Katarina,' he's sure of it, 'go and see if she needs help.' So, I fly all the way out here, wasting valuable daylight, and I find you napping! What do you have to say for yourself?"

Katarina pointed at the two pokémon sitting together. Augustus the growlithe had somehow gained possession of Exo's bone club and was gnawing on it intently while the cubone watched him with an unreadable expression. "We found the missing growlithe," Katarina said softly.

"Ah, um, okay," said Ace and he quickly began to busy himself with grooming his feathers rather than look into Katarina's brown eyes. "Thanks."

Katarina motioned for Exo to come down by the riverbank and he stood up and started to drag Augustus after him, with the growlithe growling around the bone in his mouth the whole way down. Exo grumbled something impolite about the other pokémon, but was cordial enough to Ace and, after the spearow told them that Spencer would be along shortly, the four of them waited together for him.

With the wide-open landscape, they saw Spencer long before he got to them. He was running, at least until he saw that he had an audience, and then the boy slowed down to what could be described as a brisk pace, although whether this was because he saw that there was no sign of the danger that he had feared or due to his ego no one but him could say for sure. Katarina and the three pokémon went to meet him.

He was breathing hard when they reached him, although he was trying not to show it. "So, you found our little runaway, huh?" he said.

"That's right," replied Katarina. "His tags say that he belongs to the Pryor family."

"Mhm," grunted Spencer, but his attention was focused on Augustus. Kneeling in front of the growlithe, Spencer ran his hands over the pokémon's body, expertly examining him for any injuries while the confused pokémon alternated between embracing and shying away from the boy's touch. When he was satisfied, Spencer stood back up again and produced a length of rope from his bag. "Thanks for your help, Katarina," he said as he looped it around Augustus's collar to make a rough lead. "Where did you find him anyways?"

"We saw him playing over there with another pokémon. He was trying to hunt it, I think."

Spencer shielded his eyes with his hand and looked at the spot that Katarina had indicated. After a pause, he slowly said, "He was just out in the open? Not hiding in any bushes or under any trees?" Spencer made sure that he was speaking loudly enough for all of the pokémon to hear.

"No," said Katarina tentatively.

With shocking ferocity, Spencer turned to Ace and bellowed, "How did you miss him, Ace? His fur is bright orange!"

"How many times do I have to remind you, Spence, that I don't see in color?"

"Still, he's a happy little pokémon romping around in the grass, and you missed him?"

By this point, Ace's own voice had risen to a shrill caw, "You don't know that he was there all day! Maybe he was sleeping or something!"

"Or something!" mocked Spencer, but before he could unleash another tirade, he was interrupted by Augustus sinking his teeth into the leg of the boy's pants. All of the yelling had riled up the young growlithe and he had succeeded in putting an end to Spencer and Ace's fighting, only to replace it with the former uttering some very creative curses.

After she had fought down the rose-red blush that had spread across her features, Katarina turned to Exo and whispered, "I don't think that these three should be left alone together." To her surprise, the cubone did not contradict her, but rather nodded in agreement. Then, to Spencer, she said, "Can we come with you to the Pryor's?"

The question caused him to halt his profanity and the boy had the sense to look sheepish as he said, "Yeah, I suppose that that'd be all right."

"Great! Lead the way!"

The larger group continued heading north along the river. Ace had immediately taken wing and was alternating between flying ahead to gauge the path before them and coming back to relay that information to the others. Katarina noticed that the spearow's words were clipped and his tone was very formal whenever he had to speak with Spencer. As for Spencer, he could not pay too much attention to the bird pokémon as he had his hands full trying to drag Augustus after him, tugging on the growlithe's rope leash until sweat was running down his face. He would coax Augustus into taking a few steps, only for the growlithe to abruptly sit down on the grass and refuse to go any further.

Katarina offered several times to take over leading the obstinate pokémon from Spencer, but the boy refused until twenty minutes had passed and everyone was growing frustrated with the slow pace at which they were traveling. As soon as the rope was handed off to Katarina, however, the growlithe happily started walking ahead of them with his pink tongue lolling out of his mouth and his stubby tail wagging happily. Underneath his gray cap, Spencer did not seem pleased, but everyone else was happy to get moving.

Although Exo had lapsed back into silence, Katarina found Spencer a more-than-willing partner in conversation. "How long have you and Ace known one another?" she asked as they were fording a small creek that led into the river.

"Oh, a couple of years," answered Spencer as he offered a hand to help Katarina step over a particularly treacherous piece of terrain. "I don't remember how long exactly."

"He's very knowledgeable, about how to travel, out here, I mean. Was he born in the wild?"

Spencer shook his head and looked up at the shrinking shape of Ace flying ahead to scope out the next leg of their route. "Not exactly. I found him as a chick, so he grew up with me. We travelled a lot, so he got to know Tinko like the back of his hand." There was quiet between the two children, and then Spencer said wistfully, "My parents were in the circus."

While she was still recovering from that information, Spencer turned the tables on Katarina and asked cordially, "So what about you, Katarina? What's your story, doll?"

"Um, I grew up on a farm. Further inland than this."

"A big farm?" asked Spencer.

"No, just a little one with me and my parents."

"Ah, so, what's got you traveling out here then?"

Katarina's free hand found the one holding Augustus's leash and she began to fidget, as she said, "I'm going to Tinko City to get a pokémon partner from Professor Oak."

"Wow, Professor Oak, huh?" Spencer blinked his blue eyes a few times before saying, "I don't understand. I thought the cubone was-"

"He's not my pokémon," Katarina supplied before Exo could say anything. "We met only a few days ago. He's helping me get to the capital."

Spencer did not say anything as he processed this information. After a while, he said, "You two seem to have a pretty good thing going though. Why not just ask him if he would be your partner?"

Again, Exo opened his mouth to speak, but Katarina beat him to the punch once again. "He would say no. Exo likes being a wild pokémon, I think."

"Still, Tinko City is so far away," said Spencer letting his voice trail off. His eyes darted down and then he asked Katarina in a voice scarcely above a whisper, "What about this growlithe then?"

"What?"

"Why not keep him? Just go home and pretend that you found him in the wild? Everyone loves a cute little growlithe," Spencer's voice took on a hint of a bitter tinge at that, but he quickly recovered, "and he's young. He probably won't remember where he came from, and he'd probably be happier running around a farm with you than collecting dust with a bunch of stuck-up aristocrats."

Katarina looked at Augustus, who was happily ignorant of what was being discussed as he strained against his leash to smell the base of a particularly intriguing tree. She bit her lip and felt both Spencer and Exo's eyes on her. "I- I couldn't," she said. "You need the reward money, right?"

"It's not really-" started Spencer, but he did not get the chance to finish.

"Besides, it would be wrong," said Katarina, and she was proud that her voice only wavered a little. "This growlithe, Augustus, belongs to somebody else. Somebody who gave him a name."

"But how do you whether his owner is a good person?" pressed Spencer. "He could have run away from a really bad situation."

"Or he could belong to a really nice person, Spencer. Someone nice and loving who's missing him right now. If I had a pokémon, I would never want to lose him."

The conversation was over, but its ghost lingered in the air between the travelers. Fortunately, Ace returned from his flight not long afterward and landed in front of them and, after performing a small bow, began his latest report. "There's a beedrill nest up ahead that we'll have to go around. I think that if we take a slight detour to the west we should be able to avoid them."

"Thanks, Ace," said Spencer. "Any sign of the Pryor place yet?"

The spearow cocked his head to one side as he thought. "I think that we're getting close, but even if you wanted to charge through a bunch of angry beedrill, we probably wouldn't get there before sunset."

"I don't think it would be smart to keep going after dark," Spencer said thoughtfully. In response to Katarina and Exo's unspoken questions, he explained, "These big plantations don't take too kindly to strangers wandering around after dark. Better to wait it out until tomorrow morning and then we can return this pokémon without any trouble."

"I'll show you the route that I was thinking," said Ace and he took the air only a few feet above Katarina and Spencer's heads and flew a lazy pattern around them and the other pokémon as he guided them.

For a few minutes, they had to focus solely on their walking. Katarina was starting to fall behind again, wincing with every other footstep, and the others slowed their pace to accommodate her. Spencer even offered to take Augustus's leash from her, but the growlithe snarled at him and Katarina turned him down. They were all slowing down as the sun sunk in the horizon. Ace egged them on by promising, "just over this hill!" and "only a few steps more!", until he had to fly out of reach when Spencer lunged for his neck. Eventually, even the spearow's enthusiasm flagged and, as the light faded, he started staying closer to the rest of the group.

"That's it," said Katarina abruptly and she plopped down onto the grass, "I can't take another step." To her surprise, no one argued against her and they followed suit, sitting down in the soft grass of the meadow where they had stopped.

"You said it," said Spencer with a long, contented sigh. "This is always the worst part of traveling by foot. Now if we had a wagon or a train or something, I'd have plenty of other things to complain about, but right now I can only think about my poor aching feet." Katarina nodded mechanically, but did not say anything, so Spencer turned to Ace and said, "How about we get some firewood?"

The boy and the bird headed off to a smattering of trees some distance away and left Exo and Katarina by themselves. The cubone was the one who broke the silence this time, asking, "How are you feeling, Katarina?"

"Tired." Then, Katarina took a deep breath and leaned backwards on the grass. "I'm not sure how I feel, Exo. It feels good to be helping Augustus, here." Katarina stopped to scratch the growlithe behind the ears and he let out a small yawn from where he was curled up next to her. "But I don't have the foggiest idea of where we are, and how to get to Tinko City and Professor Oak and my pokémon from here." Exo was watching her and Augustus quietly, but there was no hint of judgment in his dark eyes. "Do you think I can still make it in time?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Do you think that I should turn around and go home?"

Exo was still thinking about how to respond when Spencer came trudging back across the grass with a respectable pile of sticks and broken branches in his arms. "Wish that I could help you, Spence" sang Ace merrily as he swooped low ahead of the boy, "but these wings of mine…"

Spencer dropped the firewood in a pile with a huff, but put on his best smile when he saw how forlorn Katarina looked. "Hey, why the long face, doll?" When she did not answer, Spencer started clearing a space and arranging the wood for a fire, but he kept an eye on her the whole time he was working. He only let her out of his sight when he reached into the pockets of his coat and pulled out some crumpled-up pieces of paper and a box of matches. Exo came closer and watched with great interest as Spencer turned the pile of sticks and refuse into a respectable fire with little fuss. Spencer even gave the cubone a few matches and showed him how they worked, but had to take back the matchbox when Exo kept starting small fires in the grass with carelessly dropped matches.

"Incredible," the pokémon marveled even after his new toy was taken away from him.

Like the others, Exo was quiet throughout the group's humble dinner, but after everyone had finished eating, he looked up at Spencer and said in his gravelly voice, "You said something earlier about a 'circus', Spencer. What is that?"

"It's sort of a show, I suppose," said Spencer. "You know, like a performance?" When Exo gave no indication of understanding, the boy tackled the question from a different direction. "So, you have a bunch of people and pokémon with unusual talents."

Exo offered, "Such as starting a fire from nothing?"

"Not exactly," said Spencer and he looked to Ace for help, but the spearow only spread his wings and smirked as best as his short beak could allow. "Well, all of them, the people and the pokémon, get together and they show off what they can do to others. They get paid money to do that and travel around the country, going to new places to entertain new people."

Exo was still listening attentively, but Spencer's explanation tapered off when he saw Katarina nodding off in front of the fire. "I think that it's time to go to sleep. Tomorrow's another day." He stood up and went over to Katarina and said, "Hey, doll, why don't you go to bed?"

She put up a token resistance, but since she was rubbing her eyes the whole time Katarina let herself be talked into taking her picnic blanket out of her backpack and wrapping herself up in it. "G'night, everyone," she said and just like that she was out.

As Ace folded his wings and settled in for the night, Spencer and Exo both sat in front of the flickering firelight. "It's Exo, isn't it?" said Spencer. "Why don't you get some sleep? Don't worry, I'll watch the fire."

"It's fine," replied Exo, but he did not stop there and he and Spencer talked until the fire was nothing more than dying embers and sleep finally embraced them.