Pokémon: Exodus (G)

[Kentucky Fried Torchic]

Chapter Two
Katarina awoke stiffly with the early rising of the summer sun. It took her a few seconds to acclimate herself to her surroundings, but the events of the past day soon came rushing back to her. After he had rescued her, the pokémon who had helped her had walked with her for a few hours more, and the pair soon straying off of the well-worn dirt road. The lengthening shadows of the trees as the sun sunk towards the horizon had made Katarina uneasy, so to ward off her fears, she had begun to talk at length. At first, she had asked Exo about himself, but since she had not been able to get much out of the pokémon aside from the fact that he was a cubone, Katarina had filled the silence by talking about herself. That had gotten them past the edge of the dark forest, but it was still a long way to the nearest village, so they had continued in relative silence until they had been forced to set up camp on the low rolling plains.

Even with only the blanket she had used for her picnic as a bed and her backpack for a pillow, Katarina had fallen asleep almost as soon as she had lowered her head to the earth. She had not seen Exo go to sleep, and this morning he was either already or still awake in the same position when she awoke. When he saw that she was up, the cubone said in his usual gruff voice, "Let's go."

The small brown-scaled creature rose up off of his haunches and started to walk in a northeasterly direction. "Wait!" called Katarina after Exo as she clumsily sprung to her feet and followed after him. When she was finally walking in parallel with him, she asked, "What about breakfast?"

"You can eat while we walk."

"Eat what? I've got hardly any food left because of that poisonous pokémon yesterday!"

Exo lifted up his gleaming-white club which he had been using as a walking stick and gestured ahead of them. "I scouted ahead while you were sleeping. There is a grove of bushes with wild berries about halfway between our camp and the village. You can pick something to eat while you walk."

Katarina grumbled under her breath, but mostly kept her complaints to herself. Yesterday, she had enjoyed a gentle start to her journey, complete with a warm homemade breakfast. Today, by contrast, Exo pushed both of them hard and pressed forward with surprising speed given his diminutive stature. Katarina's legs were soon sore and her stomach was growling fiercely by the time that the two of them reached a small grove of bushes that sported a fair variety of berries. Katarina picked a bit of everything for herself, sometimes going out of her way or doubling back to investigate a bush that she thought looked particularly inviting. By contrast, Exo simply grabbed some berries off of whatever bush he passed on the straight line that he was forging through the wilderness. On more than one occasion, Katarina had to rush to catch up with him, but the break-up of the monotonous march was worth the strain in her opinion.

After this impromptu meal, the morning passed by slowly and in silence save for the rare update on their progress from Exo, invariably delivered using as few words as necessary. Yesterday morning, Katarina had been able to easily walk for long bouts without saying a word, but today was different. The quietude was much more stifling for her since it was being implicitly imposed on her by her companion's refusal to engage with her.

When they neared the village, Katarina's heart leapt. Not only was it a clear milestone on her journey to Tinko City and Professor Oak and a chance to stock up on some food for the rest of the trip, but she would have the opportunity to talk with someone, anyone, else. Trailing after Exo, she climbed a grassy ridge and saw over its top a welcoming collection of single-story buildings spread out around a central square. The most impressive was the church, of course, but Katarina thought that she could also make out a few professional services and homes. There were also a few smaller stalls set up for some sort of local market.

Katarina took in all of these details excitedly. By contrast, Exo the cubone's single comment about the community below them was, "There it is." Then he carefully made his way down the other side of the sloping hill and continued towards the village.

"Have you been here before?" asked Katarina as she followed after her guide.

"A few times," answered Exo begrudgingly.

When she realized that was all that she was going to get as an answer to that particular question, Katarina followed up with another one, "What's it called?"

"Brookdale," said Exo without even sparing a look backwards at her.

Katarina quietly repeated the name to herself a few times. She was not sure if a village of this size would show up on her map, but if it did, or if she asked someone for help approximating the village's location, then she would have an idea of how far she had come over the past day and a half. "Brookdale," she said one final time with a smile and then turned to Exo. "What do you want to do first?" Katarina asked him.

He did not answer her, but instead kept walking. Katarina did her best to stare holes through the back of the skull that Exo wore as a helmet, and was rewarded with a heavy sigh from her travel companion. Exo said, "I said that I would escort you to the nearest settlement. Now that we are here, you are safe."

"Wait! We're not there yet!"

For a moment, Exo deigned to spare a look back at Katarina, but then he said, "Close enough," and continued walking towards the village.

Katarina wracked her brain for something that she could say to change the standoffish pokémon's mind, but without success. But even if words failed her, the girl still seized upon the rudiments of a plan. "What are you going to do here in Brookdale?" she asked Exo sweetly.

There was a momentary hitch in the cubone's steps, but he answered coolly enough, "I am only passing through."

She nodded noncommittally at his answer, but Katarina kept shadowing Exo as they reached the bottom of the hill and the two of them passed by some of the scattered homes that had established themselves on the outskirts of the village and finally entered Brookdale proper. After they were within the village, at various intervals Exo slowed or stopped but Katarina matched those changes of pace and never passed him. After the fourth time that this happened, Exo finally turned around and asked her, "What are you doing?"

"Walking," said Katarina with exaggerated innocence. "I suppose that we're just going to the same place."

Exo's eyes narrowed and he said evenly, "And where would that be?" He stood as motionless as a statue and watched the girl fumble for an answer.

The show did not last for long. Katarina was distracted by something in the air and was taking greedy sniffs with her little nose. "Do you smell that?" she asked.

"No."

Ignoring the curtness in Exo's answer, Katarina said, "It smells like food. Good food too! Come on, aren't you hungry? Those berries were good, but they weren't very filling."

"Maybe not," admitted Exo reluctantly after a long pause.

"Then let's go!" Katarina grabbed one of Exo's paws and started dragging him toward the source of the smells.

Exo grumbled something that Katarina did not hear, but he let the girl lead him until they came to a cozy-looking building with a wooden façade and mismatched sets of tables and chairs arranged in front of it. A few men and pokémon were seated there, drinking from glasses with condensation gathered enticingly on the side and served by a harried-looking tangela. The pokémon's blue-green vines were outstretched in every direction to clean off tables, refill drinks, and to take payment, and the poor waiter's eyes were darting wildly as it worked to please every single one of its customers.

After it had finished dealing out the beverages on its serving tray, the tangela took note of the new arrivals. "Table for two?" he asked in a burbling voice that both Katarina and Exo had to strain to understand, muffled as it was by the mess of vines that hung in front of his mouth and all over his body.

"Yes, please!" said Katarina after she had deciphered the tangela's speech and she followed the pokémon after he said something that had sounded to her ears like "right this way". She was still holding onto Exo's paw, but he was curious enough that Katarina did not have to drag him through the open set of double doors and inside of the building.

The exterior of the restaurant had been interesting enough to Katarina, but inside she found even more things to delight her senses. There was still the smell of cooking food, but now it was suffused with smells of smoke and wood that made her feel like the guest in the home of an old friend. Along with a bar and a door to the kitchen, there were also more of the tables and chairs, all made out of wood and of different designs, but they were interesting enough that Katarina was willing to overlook the lack of coherency. The most thrilling thing to the girl, however, was the pokémon, she was not sure what species it was, seated at a piano and plinking out an up-tempo rendition of some children's song. When Exo and her stepped inside, the smiling, pink-faced pokémon with wild blue hair sticking out on either side of its head spun around in its chair and waved at them without saying a word while the piano kept playing, even without its fingers touching the keys.

"Exo, look!" said Katarina excitedly, but it was obvious that the cubone did not share her enthusiasm. He was scanning the room slowly and methodically, and only agreed to come further inside the restaurant after he had scoped out every inch of it for possible threats and exits.

The tangela led them to a table near enough to the doors that they got a nice bit of breeze and pulled out their chairs for them with two vines that extended from his body. While he was doing this, more of the tangela's appendages distended and the waiter provided a glass and a small menu each for Katarina and Exo. Then he mumbled something that could have been, "Your water will be here shortly," retracted his vines back into the tangled mess of his body, and waddled away to check on the other customers.

"Isn't this place great?"

Exo did not say anything in reply but instead looked at his empty glass skeptically. His stoicism could not deter the girl, however, and she looked at her menu with a wide smile on her face. For the first time since she had left home, she was going to have a nice warm meal.

"What looks good to you?"

"What do you mean?" Exo asked. Katarina started to tell him what the different items on the menu were, but they were interrupted by the arrival of their water.

It was sloshing over the side of a large pitcher and being carried by a gangly boy a few years younger than Katarina. He was grimacing in concentration and only relaxed when he set the water on the table, splashing the surface and the menus and earning a small cry of displeasure from Katarina. After he caught his breath, the boy hefted the pitcher up again and sloppily filled Katarina and Exo's glasses.

Exo took it all in stride, saying, "Thank you," in a monotone.

"What'll it be?" the boy asked brusquely.

After sparing a glance at her companion, who still looked profoundly disinterested in the entire restaurant experience, Katarina said, "We'll have the stew, please."

"Two stews. Got it." Then the boy hurried off and disappeared into the restaurant's kitchen. He reappeared a few minutes later with two bowls filled to the brim with broth and with chunks of vegetable, meat, and potato floating enticingly in it. As he neared the table, both Katarina and Exo edged away from the boy, which turned out to be quite wise since the steaming hot stew splattered over the sides and spilled dangerously close to where they had been sitting just moments before.

Fortunately, the rest of the meal passed without incident. After Katarina overcame his initial reluctance and Exo tried the stew, even he had to admit that it was quite delicious. She had a hard time getting much more out of him than that concession, so they ate quietly and took in the sights and smells of a restaurant entering its busy midday hours. If she did not have somewhere to be going, Katarina would not have minded spending a few hours just resting her tired feet and enjoying the homey atmosphere. But it was not only her desire to continue her journey that got Katarina moving again. There was also the matter of paying for the food that she and Exo had eaten.

The young boy came over the second that Katarina had set down her now-empty bowl and insisted, "You and your pokémon gotta pay up now. We need these seats for the lunch crowd."

"I'm not her-" started Exo, but Katarina delivered a well-aimed kick to the cubone under the table and finished for him, "He's not my pokémon, but my father's. I'll go get the money from him and be right back."

"I suppose that's all right," said the young boy even though suspicion was already creasing his forehead. "Be quick about it though!"

Never letting her smile falter, Katarina hopped off of her chair and motioned for Exo to do the same. The two of them walked out of the restaurant with Katarina leading the way. Once they were outside again, and out of earshot of the waiters, both human and pokémon, Katarina finally motioned for the cubone to speak, and he said, "I don't understand. Your father is in Brookdale?"

"No," Katarina said and then, after quickening her pace and heading to the center of the village, she explained, "I didn't bring any money! I didn't have any money to bring! We stole that meal!"

"You stole that food," said Exo evenly. "I was unaware of the situation."

With a small snort, Katarina fired back, "No one was forcing you to eat, and you weren't complaining about it either."

They walked a little further and Exo asked, "Why not explain the situation to the humans in charge? They cannot fault you for honesty."

"Maybe, but they can make me work for them to pay for the food that we ate, and I only have six days to get to Tinko City."

The girl and the pokémon were at the village square by then, and they saw that it was positively abuzz with small carts full of produce whose owners were raucously advertising to anyone within earshot. Piercing through that din, however, was the voice of a boy who had taken up a spot at the very center of the square. He looked to be about Katarina's age, if not a little older, and was dressed in an old gray army coat and cap that were both too big for him, but wouldn't be for too much longer. The boy was standing atop of an overturned crate and cupping his hands around his mouth to make sure that everyone knew that he was offering: "Excitement! Glory! Riches! All these things and more can be yours! All it takes is a bit of courage, a bit of luck, and a loyal pokémon at your side!"

A small circle of onlookers had gathered around the boy and he was clearly relishing the attention. "You there, sir! The man with the sandshrew! Wouldn't you like to go home from market today with some extra coins jingling in your pocket?"

"Oh, give it up, Spencer!" a man in the crowd shouted; Katarina could see that it was the same man who the boy had singled out. "Everyone in Brookdale is wise to your tricks by now!"

"You wound me so, Gerhard!" the boy cried and pressed his hands to his breast. "But no tricks, not today, no sir! And this is no mere game of chance either, Gerhard, but as true a test of skill as you could hope for. And the prize…" The boy, Spencer, closed his hand, and when he opened it again he was holding a brightly-polished silver coin in-between his thumb and pointer finger. "…is well worth it."

Katarina had made her way to the front of the boy's audience, with Exo not far behind her. She could see the excitement that the silver coin had awoken in the crowd, even on Gerhard's face, because she could feel it in herself. Still, although the hook was baited, no one was biting, yet.

Then, Spencer made the coin disappear through his fingers just as quickly as he had produced it and snapped his fingers. A small bird pokémon stepped awkwardly from behind of the box the boy was standing on. It had a proud bearing, haughtily tipping its head back like a show pokémon, and its plumage was a mixture of red for its wings, white for its body, and brown for its head and tail feathers.

"Hey, that's just a spearow!" exclaimed Katarina before she could stop herself. The same kind of bird pokémon was a common sight flying over her family farm and there were a few rough "scarerows" around the acreage to deter the spearow from stealing their crops. This one did not look particularly impressive, especially with one of its wings wrapped up in a white piece of cloth, and, instead of the species' customary glare, the best that this spearow could manage was to look sullenly at Katarina.

If Spencer was thrown off by this unexpected interjection, he gave no sign of it. "So it is, miss, so it is!" he called out more to the crowd than to Katarina. "Don't let his name fool you! Ace is just your garden-variety spearow, no different than the ones you might see any day while working in your fields!"

Some of the men were nodding unconsciously at that, but they still demurred until the man named Gerhard said, "I'm going to regret this, but tell me what your game is, Spencer, and I'll consider it."

"It's a simple game of fetch!" At his signal, Ace the spearow ducked back behind Spencer's makeshift platform and returned with a circle made out of wood that had been carefully woven together. "You and I will each have five rings to throw, and if your sandshrew can retrieve the ones that I throw before my Ace can bring me the ones that you throw, then you win the prize!"

Katarina and Exo beside her looked at Gerhard and his stocky pokémon. The sandshrew with its yellow armor on its back and stubby little limbs didn't look like it would be the best choice for this kind of challenge, but Gerhard had thick muscular arms from a lifetime of hard work. Katarina thought that he could probably throw one of those flimsy rings pretty far.

Evidently, the farmer thought so too because he handed off the reins of the ponyta pulling his cart to one of the other men in the crowd and pulled a small collection of coins made out of duller metals. "I'll take your wager, Spencer, because I'm sure even a scrawny little trickster like you can't beat me with a broken-down pokémon like that."

"Hey, I resent that remark!" cawed the spearow, but he was silenced by a darting glance and a hiss from Spencer.

To his audience, the boy said, "It's a wager, folks! Now, stand back, all of you! Trust me, you do not want to get in the way of these pokémon!" After the crowd had reluctantly taken a few steps backward and his spearow had hopped over to Gerhard to give him five of the wooden rings, Spencer tipped his army cap upwards at a jaunty angle and said to his opponent, "Ready, Gerhard?"

"You've got this, Buddy," the farmer said to his sandshrew, whose pointed face was not displaying the same level of confidence, but Gerhard ignored that and announced to Spencer, "We're ready!"

"Then, let's go!" shouted Spencer, and he threw his first ring a fair distance away. It landed between two farmers' carts and as quick as his pudgy little body could carry him, Buddy the sandshrew was waddling towards it.

Gerhard grinned and took his first ring in hand. He reeled his muscular arm back and swung it forward in a heavy arc. All of his power was behind that throw and he fully expected it to clear the roof of one of the houses that bordered the village square. Instead, there was a ruffle of wings and, quick as a flash, Ace the spearow had taken flight and seized the ring nary a yard from where it had left the farmer's hand, leaving his white bandage to flutter gently to the earth.

"What?" sputtered Gerhard. "You cheated! That pokémon's not injured at all!"

"I never said he was," said Spencer with a shrug that the spearow mimicked as soon as he had dropped off his pilfered ring at the boy's feet.

Gerhard could only sputter angrily, even when his sandshrew came trundling back over with a ring in its paws. The poor pokémon was oblivious to what was the cause of all of the commotion and looked from Gerhard to Spencer and back again fruitlessly.

"Want to give up?" asked Spencer in a voice that was suffused with good humor. As punctuation, he flicked his wrist and Buddy the sandshrew went ran off without a second thought. Then the boy presented the ring that he had pretended to throw with a grandiose flourish of his hand.

"Not on your life," grunted Gerhard through gritted teeth and he proceeded to see the competition to the bitter end. His misguided sandshrew completely forgotten, he threw two more of the rings in the same style as his first throw, but Ace the spearow plucked them out of the air just as easily as he had the first one. Gerhard tried something different with the last two rings and threw them in opposite directions at the same time. Ace grabbed the first one in his beak without any difficulty, and then spun his entire body around and beat his wings furiously to go after the second ring like a bullet fired from a gun. That one never touched the ground either, and the spearow returned to Spencer looking plenty proud of himself. By contrast, Buddy the sandshrew appeared not ten seconds later looking profoundly put out by his failure to locate his target.

As much as Gerhard blustered and complained, it was clear to the watching crowd who the winner was. The farmer reluctantly gave over a handful of coins to Spencer and said, "That's the last trick that you're going to pull on anyone around these parts. I'll make sure that everyone knows about you, Spencer. You'll have a mighty hard time finding anyone stupid enough to play one of your rigged games from now on."

"Excuse me," said Katarina as she stepped up to where Spencer and Gerhard were standing. "I'd like to give it a try."

A roil of emotions went across Spencer's face in an instant before he alighted on friendly dismissal. "Sorry, little lady," he said as he went back to counting his coins, "I don't want to ruin this lovely day for you by taking your money." The boy glanced up at Katarina and flashed a smile that was somewhere between charming and oily and added, "Although I bet you're plenty cute when you're mad."

"What?" asked Katarina as she blinked back her shock. "No, I mean it! All I have to do is get your rings, right?"

"Yeah, that's all you have to do all right," Spencer said with a sigh. "But look here, doll, do you even have a pokémon to challenge us with?" Katarina looked at Exo who had been watching this situation unfold with very muted interest, and some measure of respect crept into his voice as Spencer asked, "The cubone? That's your pokémon?"

Exo started to say, "I'm not her-", but Katarina interrupted him by saying, "He's not just some performing pet like your bird there! If I'm going to get his help…" At that, Katarina shot Exo a pleading look and mouthed "please", but she was all business when she turned back to Spencer and said, "…then the stakes are going to have to be a lot higher."

"What did she call me?" squawked Ace, but Spencer waved his consternation away.

"What did you have in mind?"

"The silver that you were offering that man and the money he gave you just now," said Katarina.

Spencer took off his peaked cap and tucked some flyaway strands of his black hair back into place. "Are you sure about this, doll? I mean, I've got no hang-ups about cleaning you out, but it doesn't make me too happy neither."

"I'm sure. Can I talk to my pokémon first?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Take all the time that you need."

As soon as they were huddled together, Exo told her firmly, "I'm not your pokémon, Katarina, so why should I help you?"

"Well, we didn't have any money to pay for our food today, right?" The cubone did not say anything, so Katarina had to fill the silence with more whispering, "Well, if we win, then that solves that problem. And I know we can do it. I've got a plan."

Exo did not look her in the eye, but he still said, "Fine. I'll help you." Katarina pretended not to hear the edge in his voice. Instead, both of them stepped forward to face off with Spencer and Ace.

"Ready?" the boy asked after Ace had given Katarina her set of wooden rings.

"Ready."

With a theatrical sigh, Spencer took one of his rings and threw it lazily into the sky. Before the wooden circlet had left his hand, Exo had already flung his club into the sky and it spun in a wide arc until it intercepted the ring in its path and brought the projectile to a halt. It dropped out of the sky and, after his weapon had completed its circuit and came flying back into his outstretched paw, Exo trudged over to where the ring had fallen, not ten yards away from where the children and pokémon were standing, and picked it up.

"Not bad," said Spencer approvingly. "But now it's your turn, doll."

Katarina took a ring in each of her hands and looked at them carefully. Then, as swiftly as she could, the flaxen-haired girl threw one ring as hard as she could to her left. Just as he had in the previous contest, Ace the spearow took flight and furiously beat his stubby wings to overtake the ring. He had just taken it in his beak when Katarina dropped to one knee and sent the ring in her other hand sailing low over the ground in the opposite direction. With masterful precision, the bird pokémon reoriented itself midair and darted after his spinning target. The spearow's eyes were focused solely on the ring and he was rapidly closing in on the ring. As the distance shrunk, Ace opened up his wings and put his clawed talons forward to snatch the ring off from where it had landed on the grass of the town square.

But Katarina had aimed her throw well, and Ace did not realize until it was too late that his path to the ring took him through Spencer's legs. With a startled caw that mingled with the boy's own shout, the spearow tried to change course, but he had built up too much speed. Ace crashed into Spencer with such force that he knocked the boy off of his feet and the both of them were left in a heap on the ground. Exo, who had deposited his own ring by Katarina's feet sometime during Ace's flight, briskly walked over to the boy and the bird and with a single, smooth swipe of his club scooped up the four rings which Spencer had dropped when he fell.

"We win," said Exo. Spencer started to argue the point, but in changing position to address the cubone, he had situated himself atop of Ace and the spearow gave a horrible squawk and pecked at Spencer's side until the two of them disentangled themselves.

After the scuffle, the boy looked noticeably unenthusiastic, but he had to admit that they had lost. The thin layer of dirt that had accumulated on his clothes and cap made him look more like a kid than before, and Katarina was quite comfortable striding boldly up to where Spencer was dusting himself off and thrusting out her hand.

"Our prize, please!"

"Okay, okay," said Spencer as he rummaged around in the deep pockets of his long gray coat. "Are you sure you don't want to go again, doll? Double or nothing?"

Katarina laughed brightly at that. "No thanks! I'm pretty sure that trick would only work once."

"All the best tricks only work once, doll," said Spencer with a grin as he handed over the sizable trove of silver and bronze coins.

"It's funny though," mused Katarina. "I didn't have any money to give you if it hadn't worked." The boy's mouth worked its way open and closed a couple of times without him saying anything, so Katarina took her leave of Spencer. "It was nice meeting you! Thank you for the money!"

As she and Exo walked away, the two of them could hear talking behind them. "You really should have asked if she was good for the money, Spence," said Ace irritably as the spearow continued cleaning the earth out of his feathers. "That was pretty stupid of you."

"You're one to talk, birdbrain! You're the one who knocked me over!"

Ace shot back, "You shouldn't have been in my way," and the boy and pokémon fell into squabbling.

They were paid no mind by Katarina and Exo as they walked toward away. The girl was humming softly to herself and seemed oblivious to her traveling companion's slower pace. They had gone for several minutes without talking when Exo cleared his throat and said, "Katarina, I think that I've given you more than enough help. Now that you have that money-"

"What's that, Exo?" asked Katarina, still distracted by the thoughts inside of her own head. "Can you hold on for a minute? There's something that I have to do." And with that, she walked up to the door of the building that the cubone recognized as the restaurant where the two of them had eaten before and went in. Curious, Exo followed her at a distance and took up a post just inside its double doors.

He watched as Katarina intercepted the tangela on its way back to the kitchen with a tray full of dishes and said, "Excuse me, but we didn't pay for our food earlier today." The pokémon said something that Exo could not make out, but there was no mistaking the excitement in its voice when Katarina used both of her hands to scoop the coins that she had won from Spencer onto the waiter's tray. Her winnings made an audible clatter as they splashed bronze and silver against the surface of the wooden tray. Most of the other customers in the restaurant were watching Katarina and the waiter curiously at that point, and only returned to their food after the girl politely said a polite farewell to the tangela and walked back towards Exo. Wordlessly he followed Katarina back outside into the bright afternoon sun.

"What was it you wanted to talk to me about, Exo?" she asked a few moments later.

He thought carefully and then, in a low but not unfriendly voice, he said, "It's nothing of importance. We should start heading east again."

"That's right!" Katarina suddenly groaned. "We've hardly done any walking today! How am I supposed to make it to Tinko City in time?"

"I know the area," answered Exo even as he gently guided her into following him. "I'll help you."

Soon the two of them had left Brookdale and were on a road heading towards the coast again. Once again, a silence broke out between them and once again Katarina tried to mend it. "I think that I forgot to thank you for your help, Exo," she said.

For a while there was no response, but just when Katarina was about to give up, her words bore unexpected fruit as Exo haltingly replied, "I am happy that I was able to help you, Katarina."

Those words only whetted the girl's appetite for conversation and she continued, "That was really neat, I mean, the way that you threw your stick into the air and it came right back to you like that."

"It's not a 'stick'," said Exo, "it's a bone." Katarina's face blanched, but the cubone allowed himself a small smile underneath his mask and the two of them kept walking, and talking, as they walked together.