They left the darkness of the cave, their eyes struggling to adjust to the light outside. They left the place which had changed their lives forever.
No more was the solitary abra who slept alone in some dark silent place. No more was Kotami so adverse to expressing his feelings as he had already showed them all to abra, there was nothing more to hide.
Outside the sun was shining and the tree cast a shadow on the forest floor. For those who knew the forest and the dangers within, this serene scene was almost like a sick joke.
Some caterpies were scuffling between trees and some metapods were hanging from branches.
Wow, I would never have thought I would see so many Pokémon together in my life. Kotami was shocked by the sights around him.
As Kotami was soaking in the scenery, abra reminded him through the psychic link: 'Kotami we have to focus, we are lost in the middle of this gigantic forest and the path is nowhere in sight'
The duo also needed to find water. Fortunately Pokémon were much more sensitive to humidity and thus places which held water.
Whilst chasing the scent of water, they faced against a rattata which got too close, abra's confusion made it derail as it spun around and started aggressively bumping its head against a tree.
They had similar encounters along the route, sometimes running away and others facing their enemy just to quickly end the fight with moves like psybeam and confusion.
What was routine for abra seemed incredibly exciting to the countrybumpkin Kotami who had never seen many Pokémon to begin with, let alone Pokémon fighting in the wild.
As his fists clenched he thought: abra, one day we are gonna battle and defeat some super strong Pokémon, I know it!
Abra sympathetically smiled and did not say anything.
The cheerfulness of Kotami was beginning to affect himself too, like a tsunami breaking through his solitude and old fears from his mother's kidnapping.
All of a sudden they saw a clearing where a water stream slowly made its way through the ground.
Pokémon all around drinking from it, there were even sworn enemies like rattata and arbok drinking from it with no signs of aggression. A gigantic two meter tall uraaring was also drinking from it.
'Let's drink and go' abra said through the link.
"Okay" said Kotami still not adjusted to communicating mentally.
***
After carefully drinking from the stream, trying not to disturb other wild Pokémon, they went back the way they came from and continued on their path.
Kotami training and trying to send his spiritual sense towards a caterpie to read its thoughts.
"Caterpie!"
The caterpie feeling something wrong, angrily turned around trying to find what exactly was disturbing it.
'You will need a lot of training, but this is a good a start as any Kotami' abra chimed in through the link.
'W-
*grunt*
As they were talking they heard noise from close by and decided to see what happened. They could always teleport a couple hundred meters away with abra's teleport,, so they felt safe enough.
"Ugh I'm done for…"
In a clearing behind a tall bush, a middle age man was sprawled on the ground. His body bleeding from several spots, and some purple swelling visible on his skin.
He was probably poisoned and at his wit's end.
"Those damn johto bastards ambushed us" he said as he clutched his spilling viscera.
Kotami frowned as he and abra guardedly looked at the dying man.
"Hey kid, before I die do me one favour." The man who saw them softly said with blood spurting out his mouth.
Kotami still suspicious asked: "what is it?"
"Free these Pokémon. They were conscripted in the war and wear a collar bound to their pokeballs which will kill them if they desert or disobey their trainers"
"Those johto bastards annihilated our team, a huge ambush was waiting for us approximately twenty kilometres from the border"
As the man was on his final breath, Kotami was wondering what to do. Normally as a cautious guy, he wouldn't get anywhere close to those pokeballs, he would just turn around and leave running.
After seeing the innocuous state of the man and remembering abra's mom kidnapping, he finally mastered the courage to walk up to the pokeballs.
Their transparent top allowing him to see the Pokémon inside.
As he saw the pidgeot, houndoom and wheezing inside the pokeballs,unbeknownst to him abra was looking at him, unspoken emotions and surprise in his eyes as he witnessed kotami's decision, a feeling of tenderness stirring inside abra's heart.
Meanwhile, the man on his last breath said:"get out of here kid, it ain't safe. Go right for about seventy kilometres and you will get to viridian city. And say to those Pokémon that I'm sorry."
The man could now barely speak anymore as his tongue was swollen and he quietly fainted due to the poison's suffocating effect.
As the man was travelling to the underworld Kotami released the three Pokémon inside the pokeballs.
Three flashes of red light manifesting in front of him and abra as pidgeot, houndoom and weezing came to be.
As they were warily looking at him Kotami grabbed the first pokeball and smashed it with his foot, the collar on the pidgeot's neck breaking and falling off, a shard of it clinking against a stone.
The three Pokémon were astonished and shot Kotami a look of gratitude as he slowly went through each pokeball,their collars falling off.
After he was done they looked at him, called out their names and departed back into the forest without looking back.
***
After he was done, Kotami silently approached the trainer and felt his pulse. None. His skin getting colder to the touch. As he contemplated the trainers final moments, abra called out to him.
'Kotami, look'
As Kotami turned around to look he saw a pokeball hovering in the air.
"What is it? Was there another Pokémon?"
As Kotami was making its way to it the ball came to him by itself and abra stayed silent.
After taking a few steps the pokeball came in sight. Kotami looked at it, but saw no Pokémon inside, a few moments later realisation sparking in his mind.
"An ownerless pokeball" he carelessly screamed in the middle of the forest, his face filled with glee.
Feeling Kotami's glee abra's squinted eyes smiled, he reached with his hand to tap the button as he said
'I can't follow you into viridian city outside of a pokeball? Can I?'
"What? Wai-"
As Kotami was processing what had just happened, a red light engulfed abra and sucked him into the pokeball.
As the pokeball clicked, abra immediately came out.
They stared at each other for five minutes as Kotami was struggling to hold in his tears.
With a whisper, his voice barely making it out of his lips,he said: "thank you".
Then they both turned around and started heading in the direction of viridian city.