A Buizel Tale -Chapt 9-

The sun shined brightly in the sky overhead. Tide was on his rock and I was about three feet away on the grass. "Are you ready to begin your training Ty?" I nodded eagerly with a grin on my face. "Okay then, let's start off simple. I want you to build up your strength a little by climbing the cliff face and leaping into the water. Use your sonic boom to send up a splash of water while slowing yourself down. Do this ten times, Go!" "Yes sir!" I ran off to do as told.

My training had begun and I felt great. I climbed up and jumped in several times. At first it was hard to land as Tide had instructed, but by the time I got to ten I was making a perfect landing. When I occasionally looked a Tide's face, I noticed the he looked proud. This single fact made my insides smile and urged me on. Some wooper had stopped their activities and watched my training out of curiosity. My next task was to weave through a line of about fifteen trees using my aqua jet attack. More than once I rammed into the solid wooden trunks. I managed to dent a couple of trees, but soon I managed to control my aqua jet without difficulties. Tide would have fit in well back at my home lake, but those thought didn't matter now.

It was late in the evening when my training stopped. Tide and I found some good berries and ate them as our evening meal. Not only was this uniquely colored floatzel a great mentor, but he was becoming a great friend too. I would be sad when I had to leave this place. The sun was setting and giving the surrounding forest a beautiful glow. When the sun was no longer visible in the sky, we went inside Tide's cave. I sat on my nest and he sat on his. We shared stories until we became tired and fell asleep.

We woke early the next morning. Tide stretched. "No real training today, but if you wanna practice on your own, go ahead." He grinned a little. I merely yawned and rubbed my eyes. I was still somewhat tired from yesterday, but I got up on my feet anyway. Tide walked over to the water and dived in. I scratched the back of my head before following his lead and leaving the cave. As I crawled onto the grass I could hear various bird pokemon singing. There where a couple clouds, but nothing more than that. Today seemed like it would be another nice day. I just sat down in the soft dew coated grass near the pond's edge and let my fur absorb the sun's warmth.

Naturally, I dozed off while relaxing in the sun's rays. When I had awoken a few hours later, I realized that it was around noon, so I figured that I would find some food. I walked in the direction of my favorite oran berry tree only to find a crowd of pokemon watching something. As I got closer I saw what they were all staring at, and frankly the fact that no one else did anything kinda bothered me. An unfamiliar bayleef was by the tree with one foot on a murkrow that lived nearby. The poor bird pokemon had started to screech for help. The bayleef was using it's vines to whip it's victim over and over again, I imagine that it was trying to silence the irritating cries. I decided to intervene.

"Hey you! Stop that!" The bayleef turned it's head and launched a single razor leaf at me. I jumped back in surprise. "Stay back or i'll crush it!" I had a feeling that the bayleef was serious. I was about to say something else, but it spoke again. "Like I said before, this tree will belong to me from now on! Not a single pokemon will eat from this tree except me! If anyone even dares, i'll treat you the same as this murkrow!" I bared my teeth at this comment. Noel had raised me to always help others in need. It was important to her that we did this because her older brother works as a pokemon ranger in a far away land. Well, that's what she told us anyway.

I talked to a vulpix sitting close to me and we came up with a plan to get the murkrow free. We waited until the bayleef had turned it's head in another direction. When it was facing away, I took it by surprise with an aqua jet to it's left side. Just like we had planned, it stumbled back a few steps. At that precise moment, Vulpix used it's quick attack to snatch Murkrow and get it to saftey. I was the one at risk now, and I knew it. The bayleef snatched me in midair with it's vine-whip and slammed me to the ground. "I thought I told you specifically to stay back! Now look where you are!" The bayleef's face carried a menacing expression as it's vines constricted my body bit by bit. I fired a powerful watergun at it's face and managed to get free.

I was about ten feet away from it at this point. The crowd of pokemon had thickened, yet no one made any move to help me. A barrage of razor leaves came my way and pinned me to the tree I was fighting for. As painful as it was to have four razor sharp leaves pinned through my skin and into the tree bark, I struggle to get free. The bayleef let loose another wave of leaves. I figured that this was the end. I'd never find Noel. I braced myself for the impact, but I had no need to. A razorwind came out of nowhere and knocked aside the leaves. The bayleef looked as confused as I did, until Tide slammed into it full force with an icefang attack. I've never been so glad to have good friends like him.

Tide had just saved my life. With a little more effort I escaped the leaves, but now the skin over my shoulders and knees were bleeding. I walked over to where Tide was. The bayleef was on the ground and unconscious. Tide motioned all the pokemon away except for a stantler and a spinerak. "Could you two carry this pokemon as far away from here as possible?" Both nodded and proceeded to relocating the limp bayleef.

When it was just Tide and I under the tree he sighed. "You did a good job today, but you almost got yourself killed. You really should think before you attempt stuff like that." I grunted. "I'm sorry Tide, just promise me that tonight you'll listen to the whole story." He patted my back. "Sure thing buddy. Now I would imagine you haven't eaten anything yet, so go ahead. I'll see you again later." He waved to me and walked off again in the direction of the pond. I grabbed a few berries and started eating them. The oran berry's juices inside of me caused my pain to stop. My cut were still open wounds, but they would heal in time.