A New Dream

Humans are Complicated: Paul's POV

"What?" I asked, feeling my frustration turn to exasperation. "What are you trying to tell me?"

Torterra shook his big head back and forth and sighed, taking a few lumbering steps to the side and using his chin to point to Litten, who was still eating his food.

"Terra tor tor," Torterra rumbled and I sighed, wishing that there was a way to translate pokemon speech into actual words.

"What about Litten?" I asked glumly. 

Torterra looked up at me then shook his head and turned back to his food, picking the bowl up with his vine whip once more and walking slowly towards Litten. The little pokemon's fur began to poof out as Torterra made his way over to him but he continued to eat. Litten still seemed afraid of Torterra after our battle, but he had gotten less skittish and could tolerate being near Torterra now without hissing at him threateningly.

Shrugging to myself I followed Torterra and sat so I could finish my own dinner. I wasn't sure what Torterra was trying to tell me, but at least he wasn't ignoring me anymore. After dinner, I set Litten to practicing Double Kick for an hour while I pulled off my jacket and began to do my nightly exercise routine of push-ups, chin-ups on a tree branch, and ending with a small jog which Torterra joined me on for the first time since we left Iki Town. 

As the bulky pokemon followed after me, doing his best to keep up with my pace even though he was easily three or four times my weight, I remembered why I had chosen Torterra to come with me to Alola. Out of all my pokemon, I had a special bond with Torterra. Sometimes I felt like he was more my brother than Reggie was. 

Maybe that's why it annoys me so much that Torterra has taken a liking to that weak coordinator.

After our jog, I re-entered the clearing to see that Litten had fallen asleep, curled up next to the rock he had been bashing with his Double Kick. Shaking my head I returned him to his Pokeball, deciding that it wouldn't do him any good to keep training if he was that tired. Instead, I had Torterra run through his moves, deciding that his earthquake attack needed some work. After we were both satisfied with the attack I gave him a Nanab berry as a small reward and returned him to his Pokeball before curling up in my sleeping bag and falling asleep.

The next day I decided that I would train Litten as we traveled the rest of the way to Verdant Cave. Once breakfast was out of the way I returned Torterra and told Litten to keep up as I started running through the forest. Litten kept up with my long strides well as he jumped over branches and rocks that were in his way. 

After twenty minutes of running, I began ordering him to jump higher. He did as I asked and jumped to my waist height before falling down and running to catch up with me, since I did not slow down, and continued doing that for another twenty minutes. We both took a break and after consulting the map I was happy to see we had made good progress during our run.

We continued on our way, me ordering Litten to practice dodging, jumping, and flipping, while I rotated between walking and jogging. By the time we had almost reached the edge of the forest, I was a sweaty mess and Litten was barely able to walk in a straight line.

"Let's... take a quick break," I said, breathing deeply and trying to slow my heart rate down.

Litten's leg strength gave out and he collapsed, heaving as he lay on the ground. Wincing slightly at my sore leg muscles I sat down next to Litten and after a moment's hesitation, I reached out and stroked Litten's back, realizing that his fur was matted with sweat.

"Good work today," I said awkwardly. 

Litten lifted his tail and then let it fall back to the ground in acknowledgment of my compliment. Chuckling breathily, I patted him once more before pulling out a dish, two water bottles, and a package of dehydrated razz berries. I poured one of the water bottles into a dish and placed it in front of Litten before chugging half of the other. Pokemon calls echoed through the trees and I closed my eyes, allowing my thoughts to go silent as I simply sat and enjoyed the peaceful feeling that I could only get when I was alone.