Ash's Arc

Chapter 4 of 14

By morning the ringed beast was gone, but its trainer's mark stayed in Ash's mind. He could not chase a stranger. He could get stronger. He fed his fire pig from his last ration and let the yellow mouse ride his shoulder. Then he faced the road with a new question. To win a championship, he needed his first official challenge. He had no idea where to find one. The land ahead was dry and cracked. Ash walked until the dust coated his boots. He saw no signs, no buildings, no people. Just heat and stones. His fire pig snorted and stopped. Ahead of them, a small beetle rolled a ball of packed dirt across the path. Its face was bright magenta under a thick black moustache shape. It pushed the ball with its back legs, steady and slow. "Hey," Ash said. He crouched near it. "You live out here. You must know the way to town." The beetle ignored him and kept rolling. Ash pointed at the horizon. "A battle site. A gym. Anything." The beetle changed course. It rolled its ball straight toward a rise in the ground, then stopped and tapped the dirt with one leg. The ground moved. Three brown heads pushed up through the soil, close together, each crowned with long golden hair that swayed in the hot wind. They studied Ash with small dark eyes. His fire pig backed up. The mouse's cheeks began to spark. Ash raised both hands, palms open, the way he greeted wild things. "I'm not here to fight," Ash said. "I'm looking for the nearest place trainers register." The three heads turned toward each other, then dipped as one. They burrowed sideways through the dirt, leaving a shallow trench that pointed east. Ash followed the trench with his eyes. It ran toward a shape he had missed in the haze. He walked closer. A low building sat against the rocks, its roof flat and its walls marked with a battle emblem. Beside its door floated a steel-blue creature with red eyes and pale claws, a guard on watch. It scanned Ash, then his two Pokémon, and drifted aside to let him pass. Inside, a woman at a desk looked up. "New trainer?" she asked. Ash nodded and set his hands on the counter. "I want to register for the League challenge." She slid a form across the desk. "Sign here. This is a sanctioned site. Win here, and you earn your first badge." Ash signed. His hand shook a little. The beetle and the golden-haired trio had led him true, and now his name sat on an official list. He had a place to fight and a first badge to win. Then the woman turned the form back around and frowned. "You're the boy," she said. "Someone came through asking for a trainer with a fire pig. He left a message. He said he'd see you at the battle."