A Chance Encounter v1

A Chance Encounter
Note: Due to Pastebin lacking italics, text within /'s is intended to be italicized.

	Wiping the sweat from his brow with one hand and hoisting his pack back onto his shoulder with the other, Jack continued up the rugged path before him. While the mountain itself lacked an official name, Jack and the other residents of Remoat Valley, the village situated at its base, referred to it as Verdant Point. The nickname certainly was fitting given how the mountain was covered in a lush blanket of trees. Jack would often wander up Verdant Point on particularly pleasant days when he was a wee nine-year-old lad to enjoy being surrounded by nature, and that hobby has barely changed at all ten years later.
	Sunlight filtered through the leaves above him and the occasional twig snapped underfoot as Jack made his way through the trees. Like his countless other journeys up Verdant Point, he was far from alone. Groups of Oddish playfully chased each other through the brush further in the woods and a Sudowoodo on the other side of the path was trying its best to convince the curious Tailow perched atop its head that it was a genuine, albeit short, tree. Thankfully, it seemed like the local Ursaring was nowhere to be found. Quite a few of Jack's hikes were cut short by the grumpy bear as it chased him back down the path. /It's probably too busy napping in a tree somewhere to bother me/, Jack thought, /which is totally fine by me/.
	After a few more hours of walking, Jack finally made it to the point where the mountain's trees thinned out and slowly transitioned into steep, rocky slopes. Feeling adventurous, he decided that he was going to climb up a little further than usual this time. Glancing at the sky above, Jack noticed that the clouds were starting to get bigger and darker, but he dismissed them. /Even if the weather does take a turn for the worse/, Jack thought, /a little rain on the way back to the village would be more refreshing than anything else/. As he started up the winding path ahead of him, Jack heard the sound of stones clattering against one another. He turned to locate the source of the noise, but all he managed to catch was a glimpse of a black tail before its owner disappeared behind an outcropping of stone. Jack couldn't recall seeing any Pokemon with a tail like that before on his previous hikes, but he decided to let it go in favor of continuing up the mountain.
	Stone crunched underneath his boots and the breeze started to pick up as Jack climbed, but aside from that it was quiet. Too quiet, almost. Jack knew from his past hikes this far up Verdant Point that Geodude and other Rock-types lived in the area, but so far he hasn't spotted a single one. "They must be hiding," Jack muttered to himself, "but from what?"
	As if in response to his question, lightning flashed overhead with a sharp crack as rain began to batter the cliffside in sheets. With a sinking feeling, Jack realized just how dark the clouds had gotten. He had expected a light shower, and instead he was caught in the middle of a full-blown storm. /No wonder why there weren't any Rock-types on the way up/, Jack thought as he frantically hurried back down the path. Unlike the foolish hiker, they were smart enough to take shelter before the storm hit.
	The relentless onslaught of rain was making it difficult to see the path ahead, and the gale forced Jack to bring an arm up to shield his eyes. Despite going downhill as fast as the storm allowed, he felt as if he was merely inching towards the forest below him. His next footstep brought his boot down onto a rock jutting out from the path. Unlike the other rocks, however, this rock began to shudder. Before Jack could look down at the strange rock, it suddenly heaved upwards, throwing Jack's foot off of it and knocking him off balance. At that very moment, a gust of wind caught the teetering hiker off-guard. Jack tried to set his foot down behind him to help brace himself against the wind... and his eyes widened as it caught nothing but air. Almost in slow motion, Jack fell off the edge of the cliff. Something occured to Jack as he started to tumble down the cliffside: Geodude like to curl up into balls, causing them to look like ordinary rocks. They also hate being stepped on, as many unfortunate hikers have come to learn. Before Jack could laugh at his own stupidity or even scream, he smashed against a boulder. Everything went black.

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	Jack was floating in a void as black as pitch. He couldn't see anything, not even himself. Everything was cold. Empty. Wait, that wasn't true. Where there once was total darkness, there now was a lone point of light. As Jack drifted towards it, everything started to get warmer...
	Jack's eyes fluttered open. It took him a few minutes to process what had just happened. Through some kind of miracle, he had just lived through falling a considerable distance down a rugged mountain cliffside. He wished he hadn't, though; while he didn't think anything major was broken, it felt as though his entire body had shattered and was pieced back together like a jigsaw puzzle. His right leg felt especially horrible. Looking around, it seemed as though Jack was sprawled out in some sort of cave. The sun was peeking in through the mouth of the cave, illuminating its rough, gray walls.
	With some difficulty, Jack managed to prop himself up against the cave wall behind him. While he was still seated on the firm stone floor, it felt a little better to sit upright. From this new point of view, he could see hints of trees just outside the cave. "Just where did I end up after getting knocked out," Jack croaked. His throat was dry, and his voice reflected that in its raspiness. He felt around his back for his pack, but it was nowhere to be found. /It must have slipped off during my tumble/, Jack thought bitterly.
	As if someone drew a curtain shut, the radiant sunlight filtering into the cave was cut off by something standing in the cave's mouth. It was far too short to be a human, and the shape was all wrong; a Pokemon, perhaps? Whatever the silhouette was, it seemed to be carrying something in its mouth. With a start, Jack exclaimed, "my bag!" It took him a few seconds to realize what the object was, but that was his pack alright. The mysterious figure padded closer, and as it did so it started to become less of a silhouette and more of a distinct creature. It was predominantly coated in fur as white as snow, and its black face housed a set of red-and-white eyes accompanied by a curved horn jutting out of the side of its head. Each of its four legs ended in paws adorned with three pointed claws each; they clicked against the stone below as it walked towards him. Once it got close enough to see him, its eyes widened and it picked up the pace, making a beeline for Jack. He could have sworn that he saw this Pokemon before, but he just couldn't put his finger on where.
	Once the Pokemon arrived by his side, it set his pack down, leaning it against the cave wall. It stared at him for a few moments, tilting its head as it examined him. Once satisfied, it turned around and strolled back towards the mouth of the cave. Jack regretted not having a Pokedex at the moment, but he wasn't an actual Pokemon trainer; why bother getting one when it would sit around gathering dust most of the time? Instead, he opted to dig around in his bag, and after a few moments of feeling its contents he fished out his field guide. It was battered with age, the corners bent and the edges ragged, but it listed the various Pokemon that could be found around and on Verdant Point. Jack flipped through the pages, positive that this Pokemon's entry was hidden somewhere in the list. Sure enough, a pair of red-and-white eyes soon stared back at him from within the booklet. It was an Absol, the Disaster Pokemon, and he hasn't come across a single one in his several years walking in the forests and scaling the cliffs of Verdant Point. Until now, that is.
	Half wanting to step outside the cave to get his bearings and half wanting to get another look at this new Pokemon, Jack struggled to stand up, using the wall behind him as support. He tried to stifle his pained grunts, and was met with little success; every part of his body still hurt like crazy. In a blur of movement, the Absol was back by his side, gently pushing him back down onto his hindquarters with one of its paws. Confused, Jack looked up into its face and was met with an expression of pure concern. At that moment, his stomach decided to remind him that it's been empty for who knows how long with a loud growl. With his mind now geared towards food, Jack made to get up once more in order to forage. However, the Absol set its paw on his shoulder before he could attempt it, shaking its head.
	Jack was no Pokemon whisperer, but he could tell that it wanted him to sit still, which was fine with him given how he could barely manage to sit upright as things were. Once it was sure he wasn't going to try to go anywhere, the Absol turned to head back to the cave mouth once more, albeit more briskly this time. As he stared at its black tail swaying slightly from side to side as it walked away, something slid into place in his mind. He saw that tail back when he started climbing up the mountain! Combined with how strangely the Absol was acting, this left him with a single question burning away inside. "Hey," Jack called after it, "were you the one that brought me here? Did you save me after I was blown off the path?"
	The Absol stopped in its tracks and stared back at him. It heard him clearly, for it smiled and nodded. Before Jack could say anything else, it turned back towards the exit of the cave and ran out, leaving him to his thoughts... and his empty stomach.

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	After an indeterminate amount of time spent pondering, Jack still had a hard time wrapping his head around the situation he was in. What would possess a wild Pokemon to go so far out of its way to rescue some human it had met not even an hour prior? It certainly seems like it's a wild Pokemon, anyways, given the current circumstances. The way it responded to his question along with with what it already did for him led Jack to believe that it didn't have anything sinister planned. If it did, it would have carried said plans out long before he woke up. Was this really just an act of kindness carried out on a whim?
	A dull ache in Jack's gut reminded him that he was practically running on fumes. Another search in his bag was rewarded with a small pouch of brown cloth. He fingered open the pouch, and was glad, if surprised, to see that its contents were mostly intact. He turned the pouch sideways and tapped out a few of the delicate, pink berries. Before he headed out for Verdant Point, he thought to pack some pecha berries in case he got peckish, and at the moment he was much more than peckish. Barely remembering to pick off the berry's leaves, he popped one into his mouth and bit down. The berry's soft flesh gave in easily to his ruthless chewing, coating his tongue in a sweet juice. Sadly, the berry, like all pecha berries, was hollowed out, so a lone berry by itself was a mere morsel.
	Just as Jack finished gobbling up his third pecha berry, he heard the familiar sound of claws clicking on stone. Looking up, he spotted the Absol returning from wherever it had dashed off to earlier. It clearly hadn't come away empty-handed... or empty-mouthed, rather; it was carrying what seemed to be a branch laden with berries, a berry falling to the floor below now and then as it gently swayed to and fro. Since Jack was in no shape to forage on his own, it decided to do it for him. "Well, that's certainly one way to pick berries," Jack said wryly as he set his pouch aside. The Absol chuckled around the branch in its mouth as it started to lower its bounty onto the ground. "I may be famished," Jack interjected, "but surely you want some berries of your own after a long day like today, right?" The Absol rolled its eyes before tossing the branch up into the air.
	As it reached the apex of its arc, the Absol's claws began to "glow" a dark, almost black purple, as if they were sucking in the light around them. With a single swipe that left fleeting trails of inky shadows in its wake, the branch was neatly bisected before touching the ground. That explains how the Absol happened to come back with a fraction of a berry tree in the first place. As the Absol laid down with its half of the branch, Jack inspected the berries. Given how round and blue they were, the unfortunate berry tree that the branch came from was an oran tree. Being leagues tougher than pecha berries, he couldn't just bite down into one, and his attempts to get through the skin of one with his fingernails were met with little success.
	Jack started to reach for his bag once more to look for something sharper, then stopped as the Absol began to detach berries from his branch, puncture them with the tip of a claw, and roll them back over to him. Now it was his turn to roll his eyes, though he still appreciated the assistance. While watching it poke holes in the berries, a thought occurred to him. "Hey, do you want some of my pecha berries," Jack asked as he shook out a few of the intact ones from his pouch to show the busy Pokemon. It stared at the pecha berries for a moment, white pupils widening at the sight of the small, pink fruits, before fervently nodding its head. "Sweet tooth bothering you, eh," Jack joked as he poured out the rest of the intact berries for the eager Pokemon.
	With a small mound of sweets tempting it, the Absol picked up the pace, and soon all of Jack's berries sported small, blue flesh wounds. With the food finally ready, the pair dug into their colorful harvest. Whereas the outer skin of an oran berry was significantly rougher and tougher than a pecha berry, its inner flesh was much softer. Its taste also covered pretty much every flavor the pecha berry did not; the berry was a little spicy, had a hint of sourness to it, contained inoffensive amounts of bitterness, and left a dry aftertaste, but no single component outshone the others. After eating the inside of one berry, Jack discarded its skin and plucked another off the ground to repeat the process once more.
	After his gnawing hunger was finally sated, Jack set down his last berry skin and finally noticed just how late it had gotten. The sun was no longer casting light into the cave, rendering it considerably darker, and he bet it was quickly approaching sunset outside. Jack was still curious as to where they were, but he decided not to push it; resting was much more appealing at the moment. Taking care not to disturb his right leg, which still throbbed with pain whenever he so much as thought about moving it, he slowly transitioned back into a lying position, only this time using his bag as a makeshift pillow. The Absol, having finished its berries as well, felt the same way he did. Resting its head on its forelegs with its horn curving upward into the air, it peeked at him one more time through a half-open eye before falling soundly asleep.
	Jack certainly couldn't blame it for giving in so quickly; it isn't every day you find yourself taking care of a stranger who can't even stand on his own two feet. Despite the cave floor not being nearly as comfortable as his bed back in Remoat, he felt himself slipping away, a fog of exhaustion creeping into his mind. With a yawn, he let himself float away into a much-needed slumber.

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	Jack was tumbling through a mixture of empty space and rain as cold as ice, completely powerless to slow down or halt his descent as the unforgiving rocks below rushed up to meet him. Staring at his impending demise with an all-consuming panic, he reached out for something, anything, to latch on to. However, his desparately clawing fingers caught nothing but the wind howling around him. After what felt like an eternity, Jack was mere feet above the ground and closing the distance fast. He clenched his eyes shut, waiting for the impact to come...
	With a gasp, Jack's eyes shot open, taking in the blurry stone above him. He stared at the ceiling for a few moments as his vision cleared, and then let out a long sigh of relief when he realized that he wasn't in danger of becoming a Jack pancake. Blinking the last bit of sleep out of his eyes, Jack looked around the cave. Light was starting to leak into the cave once more, confirming that it was morning. Off to the side, the Absol was still sound asleep, its head nestled between its forelegs. Jack couldn't help but smile at the sight; the Absol was rather adorable as it peacefully dreamed about whatever it is Pokemon dream about.
	Finally, Jack turned his attention back to himself. Unsurprisingly, he felt as sore as one would expect to feel after sleeping on a cold, solid stone floor all night, but at the same time he felt oddly refreshed. It felt as if something was missing, too, but he couldn't quite figure out what that was. Suddenly, it hit him: aside from the aforementioned soreness, his body didn't hurt anywhere near as badly as it did when he woke up the day before! Half out of curiousity and half out of desire to work the sleep out of his muscles, he stretched his arms over his head, a grunt escaping his throat in the process. Instead of his arms screaming in protest like they did yesterday, they responded with nothing more than a dull ache.
	A night of rest can do wonders for the body, but recovering almost completely from a tumble of that severity? Despite how miraculous this was, Jack could not help but ponder how he managed to recuperate so quickly. All he did before going to sleep last night was attempt to stand, emphasis on attempt, and eat berries with the Absol. Nowhere in between waking up yesterday and falling asleep did he take any kind of wondrous cure-all.
	It didn't take long for the pieces to start clicking together in Jack's mind, though. Of the few potential culprits, the oran berries had to be the ones responsible for this! A well-known practice amongst trainers was to give their Pokemon a few oran berries before a battle to help dull the pain of any wounds they would happen to receive, a behavior that even wild Pokemon have been sighted doing. In backwater settlements much like Jack's, they were also used as a home remedy for pain due to their apparent medicinal properties. Whereas a few oran berries were enough in most cases, he happened to have consumed an entire meals-worth of them. While this most likely was not a permanent solution to his injuries, Jack was willing to take anything he could get.
	With no overprotective Pokemon watching over him, he was free to get up and wander about with reckless abandon. Using the cave wall behind him as support once more, Jack eased to his feet as quietly as he could to avoid waking the Absol from its slumber. His plans were quickly dashed against the rocks, however, as he started to put weight on his right leg. With a stab of pain as sharp as the Absol's claws seemed to be, he let out a cry as he collapsed to the ground clutching his leg. "Yeah, definitely fractured something," Jack thought aloud through gritted teeth. The oran berries may have managed to soothe most of his aches, but healing something like this was far beyond what they were capable of.
	The commotion caused by this realization was more than enough to wake the Absol up, it would seem, as its eyes shot open and focused on the shuddering figure laying before it. After determining the rather obvious source of his distress, it shot Jack a vexed glare and shook its head, clearly tiring of repeating itself. Once the pain coursing through his leg finally started to recede, Jack decided to return the favor. "Well, I hate to break it to you, but sitting around in this cave won't fix my leg. I need to go back to Remoat to get it treated, and I can't do that without being able to stand up on my own," Jack said as he returned to a sitting position, taking care not to bump his broken leg.
	The Absol laid there for a while longer, mulling over his words, before it finally let out a sigh and stood up. It started walking towards the cave mouth, and nodded towards it when it saw that Jack wasn't making any attempt to follow it for once. Half surprised that he managed to convince the Absol so easily and half relieved that he might finally get to go outside, Jack slipped on his bag, climbed to his feet, and limped along the cave wall, taking care not to put any weight onto his injured leg. By the time he made it to the cave mouth, the Absol was already outside, gazing about as if looking for something.
	Jack took a few moments to take in the clearing just outside the cave. Thankfully, the sky above was much clearer than it was on his fateful hike up the mountain; he had just about enough rain for one outing. Clouds were not the only thing missing from the scene, either; aside from the Absol, there was not a single Pokemon to be seen or heard. Gazing through gaps in the trees surrounding the clearing, Jack tried to look for any sign of Remoat Valley, but was met with nothing but more forest. Of course it wouldn't be that easy, Jack thought to himself. Meanwhile, the Absol's eyes settled on a dead tree not too far away from the cave. It walked up to the tree and examined its branches, though Jack couldn't tell why.
	After finding a branch it deemed satisfactory, it leapt into the air and hacked at the base of it with its claws, which once again left fleeting black trails in their wake. While the Absol's claws weren't enough to cut the branch off in a single slash, its weight exceeded what the now-damaged base could support. With a dull crack, the branch tore free from its home and tumbled to the ground, shattering into several pieces upon impact. Sifting through the resulting twigs and bits of wood, the Absol found a relatively straight section of branch that it then kicked back towards Jack. Upon closer inspection, the length of wood was actually long enough to be a functional walking staff.
	Jack picked up the makeshift staff and tested his weight against it, and to his surprise it managed to support him despite it consisting of old, dry wood. "Thanks for the branch, Absol," Jack said as he started to make his way across the clearing, to which the Absol replied with a smile. Walking was still slow and hurt a lot, but it wasn't nearly as unbearable as it was without the crude staff. With Jack's newfound boost to mobility, the pair made their way into the forest ahead of them in search of a way back to the village.

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	Weaving through the trees was slow-going thanks to Jack's leg. Roots jutting out of the ground were constantly threatening to catch his staff and send him tumbling to the dirt below. After the first time that happened, the Absol made sure to walk alongside him just to be safe. Slow as it may have been, they were still making progress; Jack still couldn't pinpoint where he was or spot Remoat Valley, but the forest definitely felt more familiar than it did a while ago.
	The trek was a rather uneventful one, too; aside from sounds produced from the two of them weaving their way through the trees, the forest was uncharacteristically quiet. Just like the calm before the storm hit, it was as if the Pokemon were hiding. Unlike then, however, there were no signs of any impending disaster, so what could they be hiding from? Jack tried to not let it bother him, instead opting to focus on looking for landmarks or, better yet, the village itself.
	After ensuring that the boulder they were passing by wasn't the same one as the last three, Jack decided to break the silence. "Y'know, I just wanted to thank you again for taking care of me after I fell down that cliff," Jack said, "because without you I definitely wouldn't have been able to make it back to civilization." The Absol rubbed its head against his free hand as its way of saying "You're welcome."
	"One thing I still don't understand much, though, is why you decided to help me in the first place. At the time, I was just some stranger who happened to take a particularly nasty spill somewhere near your home. Why did you decide to show so much kindness?"
	The Absol stopped in its tracks and faced him, thinking over the question. Lacking the ability to understand Pokemon, it seemed like Jack had to help it find an answer. "Had nothing better to do," he suggested, but was met with a shake of its head. "Didn't want to leave a mess on your territory," Jack jested. The Absol rolled its eyes before shaking its head again. "Hmm... were you just unable to ignore someone who was hurt and needed help," he offered. This time he received a nod and an affirmative "Sol." Bingo. "Well, I appreciate your selflessness," Jack said as he pet the Absol's head. It was surprised for a moment, not expecting him to return the favor, but it quickly got over it and leaned into his hand.
	The exchange was interrupted by the sound of a twig snapping behind Jack. It seemed as if someone, or something, else decided to show up; the Absol's eyes widening certainly supported this assumption. Before he could turn around to identify the source of the sound, however, the Absol tackled Jack to the ground. His surprise almost masked the renewed pain in his leg. Almost. "Absol!? What was that-" Jack started to say as it got up and put itself between him and the source of the sound, but cut himself off when he looked at the tree he used to be standing next to. The tree's trunk was now sporting five long gouges where his head used to be. Speechless, he finally looked behind himself.
	Jack was hardly surprised by what he saw: that damn Ursaring that constantly gave him trouble on his hikes decided to pay them a visit, and it was as angry as ever. What surprised Jack a lot more, however, was how this time it actually tried to sneak up on him with malicious intent instead of just scaring him off. It was possible that it wanted to take full advantage of his moment of weakness. It was also hard to believe that something as large as it was capable of stealth in the first place. Regardless, the Absol was not happy that something just tried to hurt its charge; it stood between the two of them, ready to pounce. Despite being almost completely helpless due to his injuries, Jack slowly reached for his staff.
	The combination of the human once again intruding on what it thought was its territory and now another Pokemon working up the courage to challenge it were too much for the Ursaring's already fragile temper. With a roar, the hulking Pokemon charged at the pair, wanting nothing else than to crush them both. The Absol was not about to let that happen, though; with a leap, it intercepted the Ursaring's charge, scoring its brown chest with its claws. The Ursaring was an old, stubborn Pokemon, something Jack knew all too well; a few scratches weren't going to put it down. With a shove, it knocked the Absol off of it before it could continue its onslaught. Jack scrambled backwards as quickly as he could to give them more room as the Absol twisted to land back on its feet.
	Even if its claws left some nasty marks on the Ursaring, the Absol needed something stronger to knock it out. The Ursaring let out another cry and began to lumber towards the Absol once more, intending to remove the actual threat from play. The Absol ran to meet the angry Pokemon in its charge, keeping its head lowered. Just as the two met, the Absol stabbed forward with its horn. The savage blow halted the Ursaring in its tracks, forcing the air out of its lungs. Instead of submitting, however, it interlocked its paws together and swung them towards its assailant. The Absol gasped when it saw that not even its horn managed to knock its opponent out, and before it could retreat the Ursaring's paws struck it in the side like an organic hammer, sending it flying through the air.
	With a sickening thud, the Absol smashed against a nearby tree before falling to the ground, unmoving. Pokemon may be a lot sturdier than humans, but an attack that ferocious worried Jack. A nasty smirk crept onto the Ursaring's face as it ambled over to the Absol. Jack could tell it wasn't satisfied with just one blow, and his mind started to race as it approached his friend. He had to do something, anything, to distract it. With a surge of adrenaline helping him ignore the searing pain in his leg, he shot to his feet and charged towards the Ursaring. Just as it turned to face him, Jack smashed his staff into the side of its head, splintering the end of it in the process.
	Despite putting all his strength into the swing, it only managed to make the Pokemon even angrier. With a bone-chilling roar, it reared back to swipe at him. Jack tried to block the attack with his staff, and, while it didn't connect with him directly, the impact knocked the staff out of his hands and numbed his arms with its sheer force. The staff flew well out of reach into the nearby brush, not like it mattered much anyways. While backing away from the Ursaring, Jack's good foot caught on a root, sending him flat onto his behind. Without his staff and the adrenaline coursing through his blood being rapidly replaced with icy terror, Jack was limited to scrambling backwards away from the enraged Pokemon. Wounded or not, it was more than capable of catching up to an escape as pitiful as Jack's.
	Unleashing another cry of pure anger, the Ursaring raised its paws and interlocked them again, aiming to smash Jack into the forest floor. Instinctively, he raised an arm to defend himself even though he knew it could break it as if it were made of porcelain. Powerless to do anything else, he closed his eyes and waited for the roar to cut out as its arms connected with his fragile body. Everything suddenly went silent... but no shattering blow came.
	Jack opened his eyes to figure out why he wasn't dead yet. Looking up at the Ursaring, its arms were a little over halfway from their original position to him, but aside from that they refused to budge. Its mouth was still agape, emitting a silent roar, and its eyes had rolled back into its head. Before Jack could wonder what happened to it, its arms fell to its sides and it slumped to its knees. Jack quickly saw where this was going, and he rolled out of the way just as the Ursaring was about to fall face-first onto him. Looking back at where the Ursaring was looming over him, it became clear to Jack who saved him.
	Standing on shaking legs, the Absol raised its head from its ramming position. With the Ursaring standing still and distracted, the Absol had just enough time to return to its senses and aim for a pressure point in the Ursaring's back with its horn. Combined with the damage it had already sustained, this coup de grâce was too much for the Pokemon to handle, knocking it out cold. Jack was so relieved that he could have hugged the Absol, but for now all he was capable of was saying, "You did it!"
	The Absol noticed that Jack was missing his staff, and after a little bit of looking spotted it lying a few feet away from him. As soon as it went to grab it for him, however, it stumbled; it was still a little unsteady after receiving that wicked blow from the Ursaring. "No, no, I can get it," Jack said as he crawled towards the branch. While one end of it was broken off in the struggle, it was still barely long enough to use as a walking staff.
	Jack's leg was still on fire thanks to all the exertion he just went through, but at least he could walk again. He made his way back to the Absol, who was starting to regain its balance. "I would love to stick around and catch my breath as much as the next guy," Jack said, "but I would prefer that we put as much distance between ourselves and this thing as possible." The Absol nodded in agreement, giving the unconscious Pokemon one last glare. "The good thing about that attack, though, is that we may be closer to the path back to Remoat than we think. It should be somewhere this way," Jack said as he started to hobble away from the battle site, the Absol following closely behind him.

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	Before long, Jack found himself setting foot on the familiar dirt path that he had walked along for years. It was almost the same as it was when he walked up it before this all took place; with the Ursaring not on the prowl anymore, the other Pokemon started to come out of hiding. Birdsong now filtered through the canopy above while small Pokemon scampered through the brush below. It was almost peaceful enough to make Jack forget that he brushed with death not once, but twice on this outing.
	After taking it all in, Jack turned to the Absol. "Well, I think this is where we part ways. I should be able to make it the rest of the way to Remoat Valley from here," Jack said. It really was a shame that he couldn't spend more time with the Absol after all it did for him, but he also needed to get his leg checked out before it got even worse. The Absol most likely felt the same way judging from its long face. With one final wave, Jack turned back towards the path and started to limp back to the village.
	"Sol."
	That sounded like... Sure enough, when Jack looked over his shoulder, he saw none other than the Absol looking up at him. "Look, I already said I can make it the rest of the way to the village. It isn't too far away," Jack said as he turned to face the persistent Pokemon. Instead of giving a response, it avoided eye contact with him and grumbled. Something was bothering it, and it wasn't about his leg. "I can tell something is on your mind. What, are you having a hard time saying goodbye," Jack asked. Still avoiding eye contact, the Absol slowly nodded its head. "Trust me, I'm having a hard time, too," Jack said gloomily, "but it's not like I can just make you my partner or anything-".
	At the mention of "partner," the Absol instantly perked up, its eyes twinkling. So that was what it wanted. "Okay, okay. How about this: you can live with me for a few days to repay what you did for me, and from there we can decide what to do," Jack offered. Given the grin that split its face and its excited nodding, it was safe to assume that it agreed. "I don't have any Pokeballs to my name," Jack said, "but I don't think that will matter much. I would like it if I could call you something other than Absol, though. Is that fine?" The Absol thought about this for a few moments before shrugging. Assuming the nickname fit it, it was most likely fine with it.
	While trying to think of a nickname for the Absol, Jack couldn't help but remember how quickly it transitioned from a diligent caretaker to a vicious bodyguard along with how quick its attacks were. After some more pondering, one idea stood out from the others. "Oh, I know, Absol," Jack said, "how about Quicksilver? I think it fits." The Absol considered the nickname for a bit before finally nodding. "Heh, glad you think so, too," Jack said. With that out of the way, he pet Quicksilver's head. "I certainly never thought I'd meet someone like you when I set out for a hike yesterday," Jack said, "but here we are. Let's go home."
	With that, the bruised and battered team of two spawned by a chance encounter turned their backs to Verdant Point and continued on down the path to Remoat Valley.