Chapter 1- Route 204 North

  To make it to Sandgem Town from Floaroma, Erdd must make his way south through route 204, briefly going underground through the ravaged path to connect between the northern and southern halves of the route that are separated by steep cliffs.

  The part of the route closest to Floaroma town is fenced off fields of flowers and pastures for ranchers that leads into a forest. The wide dirt road narrows as it goes on as the grass encroaches on the path, winding until it leads into an opening in the cliff face that is the cave known as the Ravaged Path.

  The Ravaged path is a short and slightly steep cave that's a straight shot to the other mouth of the cave emerging into the southern part of route 204.

  Route 204 south has several ponds and lakes in its vicinity. The area immediately after exiting the Raved Path is a paved rest area, but any further out is grassy fields. After wading through the fields the road becomes paved once again and leads straight into Jubilife city.

  It is noon when Erdd decides to stop for lunch after walking with his gible, Sever. Erdd’s lunch is straightforward, he uses his portable stove to heat a pre-packaged meal.

  Sever’s lunch is considerably more involved. Erdd puts on padded gloves coated in the shed scales of his father’s hydreigon and hand feeds the gible’s meal, an assortment of berries and kibble, in order to instill in him the proper cadence of eating one bite at a time, and discourage gorge feeding. Another reason for this method is teaching the young dragon control.

  When the first berry is offered palm open to Sever, he chomps on Erdd’s hand up to the wrist in his haste to get to the food. “Sever! Release!” Erdd fires out a command, release was one that had been drilled into the pokemon since being introduced to his human kin. Immediately the dragon’s mouth snaps open and Erdd removes his hand from his pokemon’s open maw, completely dry due to the garchomp line favoring sand over water to assist in consumption and digestion.

  Berry in his closed fist he explains to the sand shark as it slowly closes its mouth again “You must control your urges, Sever. Your instinct tells you to eat anything and everything in biting distance. Your willpower will control these instincts. Sometimes your instincts are right, but here they need to be controlled. Slowly take a hold of the berry and only the berry, then you can eat it.” Erdd offered the berry to Sever as it looked on in conflict, scared he will violate the shiver leader’s instructions. Instincts warring against rational, a compromise is formed in his actions. Sever bumps into the berry with his mouth without opening it.

  The feeding continues with Sever sometimes daintily picking up his food without incident and sometimes forgetting himself to the feeding, but Erdd’s quick closing of the fist and calls of release, without the reward of food for his haste, trends the sand shark towards control.

  After lunch Erdd decides it's a good time to start a move training session so he speaks to Sever. “Happy with your lunch?” After a jubilant cry of agreement he continues “We have made it far enough into the route that nobody will mind if we tear up a tree or two so we will be practicing your moves.” Erdd pauses to check if Sever is still paying attention, to see the pokemon reverently gazing back in full focus “We will be you performing moves as I call them out like we were in a battle. Follow me”

  Erdd packed up his stove and made his way to a sturdy looking tree close to the road. He explained to his pokemon what was required for this test. “I will go through your attacks one by one. When you take the top layer of the ground and spray it into your opponent's eyes that is called Sand Attack. This is used to take the opponent off balance before a larger attack or to buy you time in a defensive battle. Now! Sever, use Sand Attack!”

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  The gible focuses and sweeps his arm on the ground, using his connection to ground to get fine and irritable particles and clumps of debris to impact the tree he is facing right oh one of the tree’s knots.

  “Ecelent job Sever. You aiming for a specific target is something I didn’t think of but is very good for practicing this move.” Erdd gave the happy pokemon a pat and scratch under the fins as encouragement before continuing. “Next is another ground move, you need to raise the earth around your target and grind them with it. This move is called Sand Tomb. Here you will focus on raising the earth and continue moving it after raising it. Use Sand Tomb, now!”

  Sever stomps the ground with his feet and channels his ground energy, causing some grass and dirt to raise itself and start viciously whirling and grinding on the tree’s trunk. After Sever concentrates on maintaining the move for long enough Erdd calls for him to stop.

  “Very good work with that move as well.” Another few scratches in places hard for gibles to reach, like the base of the tail later, Erdd resumes “Tackle is a straightforward move, run forcefully into something with the intent to damage it.” Erdd Points to the tree imperially “Use Tackle.”

  Sever waddles back to gain some distance before charging the tree as wisps of white outline his figure and he impacts the tree with a dull thunk “Good!” cries Erdd, before grabbing some kibble out of his bag and offering it to his pokemon, saying “That was excellent work, now these next moves will take a bit more out of you so have this as a snack” Erdd offers his food filled hand and the gible gently scoops the food into his mouth.

  “The next move is called Take Down, it’s very similar and uses the same motions as tackle, but the intent and energy usage is different. It is reckless abandon and fierce aggression, it is to hurt the opponent at the cost of one's self. We will only be doing this once. That tree is an intruder into your home and you shall treat it as such, Sever, use Take Down!”

  Sever glares, paws the dirt under him and charges at the tree. As he charges a white cloak of energy pours off him and creates strong contrast on his form with the shadows cast from the energy surrounding him. Sever collides with the tree with a sharp CRACK and bounces off it from the recoil, rolling to a stop with a somewhat dizzy look on the ground elemental’s face.

  Sever’s eyes come into focus to see Erdd smiling over the prone pokemon and speaking kindly. “You really did a number on that tree with that, cracked its strong bark and put a decent dent in it too. But you see the dangers in such a move now. We will have a five minute break before trying out your last move” and so the short break Erdd spent massaging and spoiling his dragon into a puddle of slackjawed bliss.

  Once the time was up Erdd instructed his pokemon once more. “The last move is called Dragon Breath. Gather dragon energy and shape it into flames in your mouth, before releasing it on your foes. This explanation is useless to you though, your instincts will tell you much more about how to use the move than I ever could. Let instincts guide you to where you wish to go but no further.” He points at the still damaged tree, “Dragon Breath”

  Sever gazes on glassy eyes, pupils quaking, mouth lulling open slowly, not looking at the tree in front of him more than a drunkard intentionally places his feet. Waiting for the feeling to accumulate until suddenly, his mouth, previously agape snaps shut and from within escapes wisps of blushish purple flame and when next the maw widens the ball of Dragon Breath emerges out into a cone of might and dominion. The move impacts the tree and rends the bark on its trunk until the energy dries up and the attack ends.

  Erdd gives his pokemon a moment to regain his rationale before speaking “Good, I knew you could do it.” Erdd crouches to give his friend a pat on the back “After seeing you in action I think our first order of business is refining the Dragon Breath attack into something you can use quicker and without needing to lose yourself in order to use it.” The small dragon nodded dejectedly at his flaws but was resolute in his gaze. “I have decided we will stay here for another two hours to work on just that, have a snack and then get moving till nightfall”

  The duo set up a tent for the night and the next day was spent traveling the winding path, with a stop at noon for lunch and a few hours spent training Sever’s moves. It is close to evening when they arrive at the mouth of the ravaged path and Erdd decides to camp for the night and to tackle the cave in the morning.

  Throughout the time spent traversing the route, not one pokemon or human crossed the path of the little man and little monster.