Chapter 11 – Before He Left
Ryan knocked on the lab door at half past eight.
One of the researchers let him in not the same one from the first day, a different one, older, who pointed toward Rowan's office without being asked like Ryan had already become a recognizable fixture. Rowan was at his desk when Ryan came in, reading something, and looked up without surprise.
"Ryan."
"I'm going to Jubilife," Ryan said. "Delivery job, three packages for Henrika at the berry market. Probably two or three days depending on the weather." He paused. "I just wanted to let you know."
Rowan looked at him for a moment. "Route 204?"
Rowan set down what he was reading. "Route 204 in winter is manageable if you're prepared. The wild Pokemon are less active in the cold but less active doesn't mean absent. Particularly near the water." He paused. "Do you have a tent?"
"I'm getting one today."
"Potions?"
"Also today."
Rowan looked at him for another moment with that measuring look that Ryan was starting to read as something between approval and caution. "Come back in one piece," he said, which was probably the closest he got to saying be careful. "And come see me when you're back. I want to hear how Deino handles himself on a real route."
"I'll tell you everything," Ryan said, which was almost true.
Rowan nodded and picked up his reading again. Ryan took that as his cue and left.
---
The outdoor supply store was two streets from the lodge, sandwiched between a bakery and a place that sold fishing equipment. Ryan had walked past it three times since he'd arrived and now he pushed the door open and went in.
It was the kind of shop that smelled like canvas and rubber and the particular staleness of things stored for a long time. A man behind the counter looked up and went back to whatever he was doing. A Machoke was reorganising shelves at the back, moving crates with the efficiency of something that did this all day and had made peace with it.
Ryan worked through the shop methodically.
Tent first compact, single person, designed for cold weather, the kind that went up in under ten minutes if you knew what you were doing. 8,000. He turned it over in his hands and put it in his basket.
Sleeping bag rated for winter temperatures. 5,500.
A proper backpack, larger than the bag he'd been using, with a frame and straps designed for carrying weight over long distances. 6,000. He tried it on in the aisle, adjusted the straps, decided it would do.
Potions he bought ten, which felt like either too many or not enough and he wasn't sure which. 2,000 total.
A first aid kit, basic but complete. 1,500.
A small portable water filter for when he was away from towns. 800.
Rations dried food, the kind that lasted and didn't need cooking if necessary, enough for four days for him. He'd need to figure out Deino's food separately, but Deino had eaten the berries he'd brought to the forest without complaint and there were berries along most Sinnoh routes in winter if you knew what to look for. He grabbed an extra bag of the dried poffin mix that the Pokemon Center sold, the kind Joy had shown him Chansey gave to recovering Pokemon. 1,200.
He stood in front of the fishing section for a minute.
Route 204 ran alongside water for most of its length. He'd been thinking about it since the training session in the forest Deino needed to practice against real Pokemon, not just targets. Wild Pokemon near water meant variety. And fishing meant he could control the situation more than stumbling into something in tall grass.
He picked up a basic rod. Nothing fancy. The kind that did the job without being precious about it. 2,500.
At the counter he laid everything out and watched the total come together.
"27,500," the man said.
Ryan handed over his ID and waited while it processed. He watched the balance update on the small screen 38,400 becoming 10,900 in one transaction.
That was most of what he had.
He picked up his bags.
10,900 left. The delivery would bring in 9,000 if Henrika paid what she'd quoted Joy. That would get him back to roughly 20,000 enough for a few more weeks at the lodge, enough to eat, not enough to be comfortable about.
He'd have to be careful.
He redistributed everything into the new backpack on the front step of the shop, fitting things in with the particular efficiency of someone who had thought about this before leaving. Tent at the bottom, sleeping bag rolled tight above it, food and water filter in the middle section, Potions and first aid at the top where he could reach them quickly. The fishing rod strapped to the outside.
He stood up and settled the weight across his shoulders.
Heavy but manageable.
---
Henrika at the berry market was a small woman in her sixties with quick eyes and the manner of someone who had been doing business long enough that pleasantries were a formality she got through fast.
"Ryan?" she said when he found her stall, already reaching under the counter. "Joy said you'd come. Three packages." She set them on the counter one by one solid, sealed, moderately heavy. "Address is on each one, all in the Jubilife commercial district. Recipient signs the delivery slip, you bring the slips back to me." She looked at him. "9,000 on return. Half now if you want."
"Half now is fine," Ryan said.
She counted out 4,500 and slid it across without ceremony. Ryan put it in his jacket pocket and picked up the packages, fitting them carefully into the top of his backpack where they wouldn't shift.
"Weather's holding for the next two days," Henrika said, already turning back to her stall. "Might turn on the third. Don't dawdle."
"I won't," Ryan said.
---
He stopped at the Pokemon Center on the way out of town.
Joy was behind the desk, mid-conversation with a trainer about something, but she caught Ryan's eye and held up one finger. He waited. The trainer left and she turned to him, taking in the backpack and the fishing rod with one quick look.
"Off then," she said.
"Two or three days. Delivery to Jubilife."
"Theo's covering your shifts," she said. "He already knows." She paused. "You've got Potions?"
"Ten."
"Antidotes?"
Ryan stopped.
Joy reached under the desk and set two Antidotes on the counter. "On the house. Route 204 has Budew in the winter sometimes and they're not always friendly." She looked at him steadily. "First time on a proper route?"
"Yeah."
"It's not like the forest outside town," she said. "Wild Pokemon on a route are more territorial. They're used to trainers passing through so they won't attack for nothing but if your Pokemon initiates they'll fight back properly." She slid the Antidotes across. "Take these."
Ryan put them in his bag. "Thanks."
"Come back in one piece," she said. "I'm not training someone new again this month."
Ryan almost smiled. "I'll try."
He pushed through the doors and out into the cold morning air of Sandgem. The town was properly awake now a Roserade outside the flower shop arranging a display, two kids arguing over something near the fountain, a trainer heading in the direction of Route 219 with a Piplup trotting beside her.
Ryan stood on the main street for a moment with his backpack on his shoulders and his fishing rod strapped to the outside and Deino's Pokeball on his belt.
Then he turned north.
Route 204 started at the edge of town where the last buildings gave way to open land a dirt path wide enough for two people, grass on either side gone winter-brown and stiff with frost, the tree line further back than he remembered from looking at it on the map in the lab. The cold hit him properly the moment he was clear of the buildings, cutting in from the north with the particular edge of a Sinnoh winter.
He pulled his jacket tighter and kept walking.
Behind him Sandgem Town shrank and then disappeared behind a rise in the ground.
Ahead of him the route stretched out, quiet and wide and cold, and for the first time since he'd arrived in this world Ryan felt something that wasn't quite fear and wasn't quite excitement but lived somewhere between the two.
He kept walking.