The food smell wafting down the east path seems a bit too good to be true. It has to be some sort of trap. You remember an old saying, 'if it smells too good to be true, you're good as food,' or something like that. You walk up the north path instead.
You walk for a bit keeping an eye out for food. You don't see any. Up ahead you see something laying on a rock. It's a charmander that doesn't look in good health. This is not a charmander's natural habitat so it's strange to see it here. It doesn't notice you. It's sobbing as you walk up. "Hello?" You ask it.
It jumps up, you've scared it, it tries to breathe fire but all that comes out is a small puff of smoke. "Oh sorry, I thought you were trying to eat me. You wouldn't be the first thing today."
You laugh, "I feel your pain. What are you doing here? You're far from home."
"I was a trainer's pokemon but he let me go, said I was too weak. That was a few days ago. He just let me go into the woods. It's so scary here."
"So are you going somewhere?"
"Yes, to the north plains. A nice pidgey told me he was from there and that there are a lot of charmanders. So I thought I'll try going there and hopefully they'll let me join one of their gangs. Then I won't be so alone and vulnerable. "
"Hey. That's a good idea," you say. "I'm heading north as well. Why don't we stick together so we aren't so weak."
"Yeah! Will be like a team. All predators will fear us!" He lets out a tiny growl.
"What's your name by the way, mine is Lulu."
"Zuk! Nice to meet you Lulu," he smiles.
You walk down the path with him for miles. He tells you about his asshole trainer and you tell him about Thunder Mountain and your quest to become a raichu. It's nice to have company on the road. You come up to another fork in the trail. He doesn't hesitate and starts going down the right path.
You stop him, "hold up, where are you going?"
"I'm going down the right path. That's what I've done for the past few days and always go down the right. It's worked so far."
He's lucky he isn't just going in circles. "Uhh, look, you have to take into consideration a few things, like this," you take him to an outcropping of rock just off the right trail, "see?"
"See what?" He looks confused.
"Right there. This rock has scratches on it. Three claw marks to be exact."
"And?"
"So this is obviously a territory marking. Probably for a lycanroc. They have three claws and they like to dig into rock."
"Ohhhh. So wait, what does that mean?"
"It means if you go down the right path you are walking into a lycanroc's territory and that means you're as good as his dinner."
"Oh I see now, but why would he tell us that?"
"He doesn't want us to see it, he wants other lycanroc to see and stay out of his hunting grounds."
"Oh cool. You're so smart Lulu. Let me try on the other path and see if I can pick up anything." He walks over to the path and sniffs around for a bit, "oh, I think I found something!"
You walk over. It's pawprints, "good Zuk. That looks like rattata prints." You look around for a bit, "and it looks like he was walking, you can tell by the spacing, and there are no other footprints following him."
Zuk cuts you off, "so that means he felt like he was safe to go down the left path."
You tell him, "Good, and I don't see any other marking or any other signs of predators down this path. So I'll let you choose. Do you want to go down the path with a hungry lycanroc or down the rattata approved path?"
"Let's go down the left path!" He chirps and you both go down the trail.
You walk for a while, both of your stomachs rumble. He looks worse off than you, like he hasn't eaten in days. That's when you see it. Three razz berries sitting in the middle of the trail.
He starts to run towards them, mouth watering. You place your hand on his chest. "Hold up guy. Something doesn't seem right here," why would these just be sitting here like that? You look around, up, down, everywhere but you don't see anything. It must be safe.
"Well?" Zuk asked.
"I guess it seems okay."
He rushes forward and starts chomping on one, "oh it's so good Lulu, come have one!"
You walk over and pick one up. Your mouth waters. Even if you think it might be a trap, you can't stop yourself. You are so hungry and you eat the razz berry quickly, it tastes so good. You check if you have enough energy to Thundershock. You don't but one more berry should do the trick.
You look over to the remaining berry. It sits in between you and Zuk. He looks at it pitifully. He says, "you can have it. You've already saved my life today, you deserve it."
You feel bad. He's so skinny you can see his rib cage. This is probably his first food in days and he is so nice to offer it to you. Maybe you should give it to him. Then again, you'll be defenseless if you do. What do you do?
