The sound of the cold breeze of the night is drowned out by the crackling of the campfire Lazarus and the rest are sitting next to.
"Today will be our last day here," Lazarus says.
Aurora, who was taking a nap, wakes up and looks at Lazarus.
"You guys have already achieved the things I wanted this training session to achieve, so we have no reason to stay here any longer. More training at this place will not yield any additional benefit now, so we need to change our training strategy if we want to see more gains. It's time we start fighting the wild pokemon that are around here."
Kamish has an excited look in his eyes. Sol is also eager to test his strength against other pokemon.
Aurora, despite what happened to her at the start, is sad to leave this place. It was almost starting to feel like home. She also wouldn't have learned so many different things if they had not come here.
Lazarus feels the melancholy Aurora gives off through the psychic link that connects them all.
"Are you sad to leave this place behind, Aurora dear?"
Aurora nods. These last few days have been the most fun she has ever had. This small hill is so much more fun than anywhere else they have been at, the scenery at the Jubilife battle arena was bland, but here it's beautiful. The fights and training at the arena felt like work, here it's the exact opposite.
Lazarus smiles, "Well, you shouldn't get attached to one place. In our journey, we will travel all around the country and then the world. We also have a lot of things to look forward to seeing in the Fields as well, we have barely explored what the Horseshoe Plains has to offer. Tomorrow we will see more pokemon and more of the environment around us."
Aurora nods, she isn't as curious about things as Eidolon is, but she wants to see all the things Lazarus mentions.
Eidolon asks Lazarus about how the rest of the Fields is going to be. If it will have the same pokemon or if they will find the same type of grass everywhere.
"The Obsidian Fields are very diverse and can roughly be divided into three regions depending on the ecosystem. First is the Horseshoe Plains, which is where we are right now. This region has open fields, barely any trees, lots of grass and pokemon that grazes on that grass. After this, we will reach Aspiration Hill, the ecosystem of which is very different compared to the plains, we will see a lot of Bug and Grass type pokémon there, there will be a lot more trees and even more flowers.
I have also heard that you can smell the honey and flower nectar in the air, even I look forward to seeing if that is true or not. Then we reach Verity Fields, where we will see water pokemon, there are a lot of rivers in that place that empty into Lake Verity. So yeah, lots of fun places. After we finish the training, we will go to a city nearby and take a flight to Canalave City and take on our first gym challenge."
And so in the warmth of the fire, the pokemon are content together, and with the sound of distant pokemon in the background, another day passes in the fields.
Lazarus opens the zipper of the tent and goes outside.
No matter who goes to sleep first, Lazarus is always the one to wake up first.
He does some bodyweight exercises and then prepares for breakfast.
He sets the table and the stove and uses half a dozen nutrient packs to make breakfast for the family.
By the time he is done, everyone else is also awake.
Sol comes out yawing. He waves Lazarus good morning and sits on one of the folding chairs and awaits food.
Aurora, Eidolon and Kamish come out next. Kamish taps Lazarus on the shoulder and takes to the skies to do his early morning flying, Eidolon follows him.
Aurora yips at Sol and Lazarus and takes her seat.
"Here you go, guys." Lazarus places food at the table for everyone. Eidolon and Kamish will be back in a few minutes.
They eat their food in silence, this is one of their rule, early mornings are only for eating and preparing yourself for the rest of the day, and all that is best done in silence.
Sol notices Lazarus drinking something in a transparent cup, it smells good, so he asks what it is?
"You mean this?" Lazarus motions to the coffee mug in his hand.
Sol nods.
"It's coffee. It comes from the seeds of a plant. We roast and grind the seed into a powder and then add hot water to it. Would you like to take a sip?"
Sol finds that interesting and nods.
"Here." Lazarus hands him the coffee mug.
Sol cups the mug in his hands and smells it first. It smells of nuts and earth. And then takes a sip.
He doesn't know what he was expecting the coffee to taste like, but it wasn't this. He makes a weird face after the fluid enters his mouth and hits his taste buds.
He looks at Lazarus and wonders why his trainer would drink something like this. Maybe he is drinking it wrong?
Sol takes another sip, thinking the taste would be different this time. Nope, still the same bitter taste.
He nods and pretends to like it.
Aurora sees that Sol seems to be having an interesting experience drinking the coffee. Now she wants to drink too.
She paws at Sol, asking him for a sip.
Sol gladly puts the mug to her mouth and helps her drink it.
The moment the coffee hits Aurora's taste buds, she gives Sol the side eye. Something seems weird with the drink, she was expecting something sweet like the berries she likes to eat, but this tastes worse than the grass she tried when they first arrived here.
It doesn't take long for her to spit the coffee onto the ground.
She looks at Lazarus, feeling betrayed. How could he make her drink something like that?
Lazarus looks at the scene in amusement, "Hey, don't blame me, you are the one who wanted to drink it. There is a reason I don't ask you guys to drink coffee."
So she looks at Sol with grudging eyes for not warning her before she tried the drink.
Sol shrugs and takes another sip. Trying to gaslight her into thinking the drink actually tastes good, and she is the one who doesn't understand.
Aurora doesn't buy it.
Kamish and Eidolon arrive back.
Kamish dives straight into the food and starts eating it like he hasn't eaten in a while.
Aurora looks at him with annoyance and decides to punish him a little.
She asks Sol for another sip of the coffee.
Sol understands what she is trying to do and happily decides to become her accomplice.
He acts like he doesn't want to part with his precious mug of coffee until Aurora scolds him with a bark, after which he reluctantly lets her drink the coffee from his mug.
Aurora fights back the urge to vomit the coffee as she gulps it down. Then Sol takes back his precious cup of coffee, not giving her more.
Aurora, of course, starts whining, asking for more.
Sol refuses.
Kamish and Eidolon notice the two, as Lazarus tries not to laugh out loud.
Eidolon doesn't care about the drink as he can't drink fluid, but he is curious what the fuss is all about.
Kamish, however, can drink fluids and wants to drink this particular type of fluid since Aurora and Sol are fighting over it.
Kamish floats over to Sol and taps the mug with the end of his tail, asking for a sip too.
Aurora tries to hide her glee when Sol points to his mouth and asks Kamish to open his.
Kamish opens his mouth and awaits the drink.
Sol empties the entire mug of coffee down into Kamish's mouth.
It takes Kamish a second or two to register the bitter taste of the coffee, and when he does, he freaks out.
He tries to vomit it all out while flapping on the table like a Magikarp.
Lazarus starts laughing as Aurora gives him and Sol a victory grin.
Dragon force starts coursing through Kamish, and seconds later, a hot blue colored energy comes out of his mouth, which manages to vaporize the coffee molecules from his mouth.
Lazarus stops laughing and looks at Kamish in astonishment, "What the? Did you just manage to learn Dragon Breath by drinking coffee?"