Rock Type

by TDR

Chapter 3

Rock Type
Another Story in Stone
By TDR

“Have you got a change of underwear?”

“ Several mom, you watched me pack my bag.” I offered, rather impressed at the poke gear design, the bag was way bigger on the inside and if not for the worry of it accidentally closing and trapping me inside I would have used the thing like a tent rather than have a real tent. You can take the practical out of the pony... no, you can take the pony out of practical, no...... you know what, that one got away from me.

“Do you have enough money?” My grandmother asked.

“Don't worry I'm sure I can beat up some other trainers for pocket change if need be, not to mention I know what berries to pick to sell for a good price.” I explained getting a small nod from my grandmother.

“Do not beat up random trainers for their pocket change.” My father added glaring at his mother who grinned back at him.

“If they challenge my grandson they better have the coin to back it up.” my grandmother chuckled.

Back home was.... interesting. My family treating me like a child about to be sent away , with hugs and check up and orders to call at every poke center.

I both hated it and loved it, never having had anything like this when I was a foal. My mother and grand mother died when I was too young to recall and my dad lost himself in his job leaving me to be raised by my grandfather alone, then my father was killed and my grandfather died.

Now. All four of them were here. Sure not as ponies, but...

I wondered how the other 10 year olds did this. I had centuries of camping out under the stars or in caves to fall back on. I could survive in nearly any environment no matter how harsh. I wouldn't want to be dumped into any of them unprepared though as I was no where near as hardy as a ten year old as I was a demi god unicorn, but I expected I had a better chance to survive than a normal kid.

My new cleffa was not getting off as easy in this departure either. My mothers vaporeon and espeon were both staring her down, as was my fathers emboar, and my grandmother's dragonite.

To Cleffa's credit she was staring right back at them her arms crossed in front of her as she did her best not to tremble before the mass of much more powerful Pokemon glaring at her. I had no idea what they were talking about over there with all the noises they were making but Cleffa was clearly having none of it.

I needed to find a name for her. Just calling her Cleffa would get odd.

“Alright that's enough mothering.” My grandfather snapped suddenly, breaking everyone's teasing, fountains of advice and general mothering. “Come on boy. I'll walk you to the river. I'm not about to offer any advice with this lot around asking if you packed enough socks or whatever.”

I smirked a little as my grandmother glowered at him, he was going to get it later for that. My father simply backed away He would argue with his father about somethings but since this was neither sports or politics he was silent. I returned Cleffa to her ball as my mother offered a last little pet to the fairy type. She thought Cleffa was adorable.

My grandmother looked worried about her though.

Gathering my bag I walked with my grandfather away from the house pausing to turn and offer a last wave. I was reluctant to leave. This was something that I unexpectedly didn't realize I lost in my time as a unicorn, though that was near constant war in truth.

We heading down the winding path from the house to the main road, my grandfather set a fair pace that I followed easily enough. He was silent for a time offering only a small wave of a nod to any we passed, though once we were past the edge of the town with the river in sight he spoke up.

“Don't let anyone know I told you boy. But your little cleffa worries your grandmother.”

“Why would a alternate starter worry grandma?”

“She's a dragon trainer.” my grandfather offered. “In Galor, Fairy types were a hard counter to dragons. There's not as many fairy pokemon here in Kanto. But if you train your partner like I know you will she's going to be a little monster. Just because they look cute doesn't mean they are not absolute beasts.”

“Of course. She was going to be that any way with my training.” I smirked as he chuckled.

“No doubt. I was a little worried you would get one of those useless electric rat things.”

“A pikachu?”

“Yep, good eating those however, and if you manage to put an arrow shaft though both of those cheek pouches of theirs, they self cook as their electricity goes off.”

“Seriously?”

“Maybe.”

I rolled my eyes at that as the pair of us stopped by the river at the edge of the bridge, the forest beyond. There were several paths I could take depending on how I wanted to take on the gyms.

The path over the river split in two and ran north and south.

To the south was Celadon City and the Gym that had the rainbow badge.

To the north the road joined up with route 3 and 4 at the foot of Mount Moon. I could take 4 to go after the water badge.
The usual choice was the water gym first then head to the rock gym simply due to typing.

I was torn between getting the water out of the way, or avoiding it fully until the end.

“ I've got something for you. Your grandmother sent away for it a while ago, an old friend of hers in Galor owed her a favor. Do be careful with it I don't want to hear it from your mother.” My grand father offered reaching into his coat and pulling out something wrapped in blue cloth.

I took the bundle raising an eyebrow at the weight before I unwrapped it my eyes going wide.

It wasn't my grandmother's sword like I actually expected. Say what you will finding out that was a thing in my previous life was nuts.

What was in the bundle however wasn't a sword, it was a fair sized ax, it would be bigger than a hatchet to an adult but not quite a full ax. It reminded me of a fire ax actually with a spike on the back end of it. It would be quite useful for firewood in truth. I had a small knife already and planned to get a bigger one when I got some money of my own, but this was … interesting.

“ I know you were doing some sword training but no one does that here in Kanto, and if you were carrying around a blade people would treat you a little funny. An ax though has a lot of mundane uses and given you're gonna be on trails and in the woods no one will bat an eye. There's still bad people out there who might think twice if you had an ax and a pokemon, but don't go threatening any one with it. This is a training trip not a combat exercise.” My grandfather warned.” That said if it's you or them, make sure it's you.”

The weapon, because that is what it was, had a haft of a lovely dark shade that I couldn't identify, it was almost blue, the blade itself was hidden by a taros leather sheath and as I pulled that off to look at it my eyes widened.

The metal of the ax and spike was of a dark make, the material unmarked by any sort of decoration or even a makers mark. There was a faint blue aura around the blade as if it was reflecting a softer light than the sun.

The grip was a tight blue leather wrap.

The only marking was where the wood went up into the metal a single crescent moon.

“ It's made of good Galor steel, treat it right and you'll be passing that down to your grand kids. The wood is from a trevanent after the spirit has moved on, and the wrap is dragonair leather. Don't worry it's from a shedding, they act like snakes when they grow more than actual dragons.” My grandfather smirked showing his rather sharp teeth. He did have a tendency to talk down on other dragon types, but never the gibble line. As if he could be more obvious. I still wanted to know how he did it though. “The sheath is just tauros leather, I doubt that's good for the tauros but I've seen you put away tauros burgers like nothing so I doubt you care about that.”

I looked over the blade and the faint glow wondering how the hell something like this happened. Did the Waning Moon follow me? It was then I noticed there was work done on the leather sheath, including a name.

“ Dr. Choppy?”

“Your grandmother's friend is an odd one, claims he only makes 'smart' weapons and tools.” My grandfather sighed. “ You better get going, you should get some miles on you before the sun goes down, prolly have a few battles waiting for you too. I'd offer some platitude about you can always come home without finishing the badge challenge, but I doubt you'll do that. You're very much like your grandmother in that regard. Take care Jer'rahd, give'um hell.”

Author's Note:

And now what i'm famous for... misleading and subverting expectations

Comments

[badninja]

Why do I think that ax is going to one of the smartest characters in this story?

[Almeryst]

I can't wait to see where this goes 🙂 nice to have a familiar character resurface. It's almost like meeting an old friend.