Monster Trainer Academy, page 15
Was that a dream? Did she really come into my tent last night and do some crazy things to me?
I quickly dressed and waited for… things down below to calm down a bit. Once I was good to go, I stepped out of my tent into a gorgeous, golden morning. The sun was still pretty low in the sky, casting angled rays through the lush trees, telling me it was early. The forest was still moist with morning dew that still clung onto the grass and the trees. The morning birds were already awake. Their happy songs echoed loudly all around us. I was kind of surprised they hadn’t woken me up earlier.
“How did you sleep?” Abigail grinned and winked at me as she meandered over and stood next to me. She hopped up and gave me a quick kiss on the lips.
Abi’s tone, the flirtatious glint in her eye, that electric kiss, it all had me knowing for certain that last night actually happened. I smirked back at her.
“It was the best night’s sleep of my life. Well, maybe second best.”
“What’s the first best?” she asked, sounding slightly offended, but only in a joking way.
“Well, I still don’t know if it was night or many nights or whatever, but when I woke up here under that tree outside of Harper Village, I felt like I had slept for years. It was a really restful sleep, too.” I remembered the feeling well since it had only happened a few days ago.
It seemed pretty weird that I had really only been here for about three days. It felt like weeks had gone by, but a lot had happened in the past couple of days.
On day one, I had woken up in a strange new world, rescued and bonded with Titan, met Abigail, become a Monster Trainer, battled Benny, and met Claudette. It was a lot, but a lot of really good stuff.
Yesterday, we fought Grayson, Sarah, and Dom, and now today, they were our new friends and travel buddies. A lot could happen in a little time. It made me really wonder what other sorts of crazy things would happen, even just today, but that was something I’d have to find out as we went along.
Abigail giggled, a sound as musical as the singing birds around us. “That’s fair, but I don’t know if you were really sleeping.”
“I definitely was unconscious at some point. Isn’t that basically the same as sleep?” I shrugged and leaned over, bumping her slightly with my body.
She giggled gently, making my heart flutter just a bit. “I guess you have a point.”
I leaned in closer to her so that I could whisper in her ear. “Last night was amazing.”
“I’m glad.” Abi winked at me and gave me another kiss. Then she walked over to where Bawfa now stood, munching on some grass. Sarah, Claudette, and Grayson were loading up some supplies on the beast while Titan, Dargo, Kiba, and Thom gnawed on something on the ground. Aki flitted by just then with a happy Pearl riding on his back, which I thought was hilarious since Pearl had wings, too.
I watched them fly by, and then I packed up my little tent, rolling it as tightly as possible. I shoved it into my pack along with the other items I had out and made sure to put my leather vest back on. I was about to dig some berries or meat out when my hungry nose caught a whiff of something yummy.
Dom sat cross-legged next to a fire with a pot of something hanging on a makeshift spit. He stuck a wooden spoon into the pot and stirred a light brown liquid with chunks of meat and some greenery.
“It’s rabbit stew,” Dom told me as I wandered over to get a better look at the delicious smelling food. “Claudette caught the rabbits this morning.”
“It smells amazing.” I inhaled another breath of the food.
“Dom’s apparently quite the cook,” Claudette called over from Bawfa. Hse heaved another sack up onto the giant beast, who looked as bored as ever, but really he was just content.
“I was just planning on having some meat and berries,” I chuckled.
“Now that you’re traveling with a hunter and a cook, you’ll be getting fine meals out here in the woods.” Claudette sauntered over to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “You have nothing to worry about with us around, Tyler.”
I laughed at the spunky woman, who I realized had probably been awake awhile if she had already been out hunting. “I was never worried.”
“Aw, you.” Claudette cinched her arm around my neck and tousled my shaggy, black hair, probably making it look messier than it usually did.
“The stew’s ready,” Dom announced after he held the spoonful of liquid soup to his mouth. He blew on it and then tasted it.
“I have some bowls and spoons sitting right there.” Claudette pointed to an assortment of both wooden and leather items next to the fire.
I noticed an interesting interaction between Grayson and Sarah as they both went to grab their bowls. They each tried to pull the top leather one from the stack and engaged in a little game of tug-o-war before Grayson graciously let Sarah have the bowl.
That wasn’t the interesting interaction part, though. The interesting part was how they both smirked at each other like they were hiding some secret between them. I could only guess what it was because Abigail and I had been giving each other the same secretive, flirty glances.
I grabbed my own bowl and waited until everyone had lobbed spoonfuls of the hearty stew into their bowls. Of course, Claudette, Abigail, and Sarah all wandered off and sat next to Bawfa. Claudette and Sarah used the big beast as backrests while Abigail sat facing them.
Dom ate and then cleaned up the rest of the stew and campsite. He threw the rest of the scraps to our little herd of monsters who had already gotten a few rabbits to themselves.
I took my bowl over to where Grayson stood with his back to the camp, leaning up against a tree.
“What’s up dude,” I asked. I stopped next to Grayson and shoved a huge spoonful of stew into my mouth.
Grayson didn’t say a word. He just turned and smiled at me.
“What’s that all about,” I asked and stuffed some more stew into my mouth.
“Well, you know how all the girls slept in a tent last night,” Grayson started to say.
I nodded, wondering if this was going where I thought it was going. “Mmmhmmm.”
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t sleep, right, and I was just laying there trying to shut their giggles out,” he flicked his eyes back toward the women. “It took a while, but I finally fell asleep only to be woken up.”
“Woken up by what?” I asked, pretty much already knowing the answer.
“You won’t believe it, dude,” Grayson boasted with a smile on his face that stretched from ear to ear.
“I think I might,” I remarked, raising my eyebrows at him.
Our eyes locked, and Grayson knew that I knew. He slapped me on the side of the arm, almost making me spill my stew, but I used my amazing skills and balanced it well enough that only a little bit of it sloshed over the side.
“Oh, sorry,” he chuckled, sounding like a happy little kid. “But yeah, dude, Sarah totally came into my tent last night.
“What happened?” I asked, wondering if his night was as awesome as mine.
“Well, I mean, we’ve been traveling together awhile now, and sometimes we would make out and stuff, but we totally did other stuff last night.” Grayson rested his chin on his shoulder as he peered back at where Sarah was with Claudette and Abigail.
“Similar things happened to me last night.” I slurped another big spoonful of stew up, worried that Grayson might try to slap me again and spill more of it.
“Which one?” Grayson teased.
“Definitely Abigail, although I wouldn’t have been opposed to both,” I snickered.
“Do you think Claudette went into Dom’s tent?” Grayson asked, trying to be serious, but his composure broke, and he spat some stew out at the tree next to him.
“Dom wishes,” I laughed, but didn’t want to make fun of the guy. “Man, he can cook, though.” I held up the pull and shoveled more stew into me.
“Actually, Dom does fine with the ladies mostly because of his cooking, and also he’s a big teddy bear.” Grayson smiled as he spoke about his friend.
“Are you two boys done sweet-talking each other over there?” Claudette called from across the camp. “It’s about time we get a move on.”
“Well, congrats, dude.” I winked at Grayson and patted him on the back as I turned back toward the others.
“Hey, thanks. You too.” Grayson walked alongside me.
We both sipped the rest of the stew out of our bowls until they were virtually clean. I handed them to Claudette, who stuffed them and the cooking utensils back into a sack. Dom helped her hoist it back up onto Bawfa.
Once the camp was clear and we were ready to go, we set off, but not before Claudette made sure that every little thing was picked up.
“It’s called leave no trace camping, and it’s kind of the law, but a lot of trainers, especially young ones, don’t seem to care about those kinds of rules.” Claudette huffed as she ranted, something that was becoming very endearing about her.
It was kind of the same with Abigail. Whenever they talked about something they were passionate about, something in me jumped a little bit, but I wasn’t quite sure what that was all about yet. All I knew is that they were cute and got like ten times cuter when they were adamant about something.
“Yeah, I don’t like that either.” Grayson shook his head as we crunched along the dirt road again. “One of the best parts of training is getting to be out in the wild, and if people don’t clean their shit up, then it makes it a lot worse for everyone else.”
Claudette clapped her hands together and pointed her index finger at Grayson. “Exactly. This guy gets it.”
We all shared a good laugh and continued on with cheerful conversation and lots more laughter. It was really a nice dynamic with all of us, and it was kind of funny to think that we had all basically been mortal enemies just yesterday. I guess we still had some differences and disagreements, but it seemed like everyone was willing to put them aside to get along.
Part of me wondered how things would change once we got to Haven City. Even though Abi, Sarah, Dom, Grayson, and I would all be attending the Trainer Academy, maybe their friendliness toward us would change once we were around our peers.
Since Grayson was from Haven City, I knew that he would have his own friends and things to deal with when we got there. I just hoped he wouldn’t turn on us once he was back on his own turf, but time would tell if he was genuine or not.
I also was a little worried about what might happen with Claudette. She wouldn’t be attending the Academy with us and would have to do her own thing, setting up shop and selling her wares. It sounded like she had planned to travel for quite a way with us, but what if something happened and she had to leave Haven City before we were done at the Academy, or what if she wasn’t able to continue on with us once we were finished?
I took a deep breath as all these thoughts and worries swam around my head. That’s all they were: thoughts and worries. There wasn’t really anything I could do about it now except either to ask them about it or just wait and see.
As much as I wanted things to go on how they were right now, I knew that change was inevitable and would keep happening for as long as I was alive, well, unless I got another chance after that at yet another life, but I probably wouldn’t.
“Are you okay, Tyler?” Abigail asked as she walked next to me through the forest. “You got really quiet all of a sudden.”
I smiled warmly at the brown-eyed girl next to me. “I was just thinking, that’s all.”
“Thinking about what?” Abi asked sweetly and slid her hand into mine.
“Just about how much has happened in the past few days and what’s going to happen next,” I said thoughtfully. “Also, I’m really glad to have met all of you.”
“Man, thinking about all that is going to get you down, T,” Grayson replied, slapping a hand on my back. “Once we get to Haven City, you won’t have to worry about anything. I’ll show you guys around with your own personal tour.”
“I thought you hated Haven City,” Claudette teased Grayson.
“Okay, so it gets boring sometimes, but I haven’t been there for a couple of months. Maybe I’m a little excited to be home.” Grayson rolled his eyes as he admitted he was homesick, but he smiled.
“What are your plans when we get to the city, Claudette?” Sarah asked.
“Well, I had planned to stay in Plott Town until I sold most of my wares, but now that I’ve got a good group to travel with, I’ll sell my stuff in the city and wait around until you guys are ready to head off to the next destination.” Claudette smiled and nodded at Abi and me.
Just like that, my fears were relieved. Not only was Grayson cool with sticking together when we got to the city, but also Claudette seemed like her plan was to stick with us for a long time. While it was still true that any of that could change or even that Abigail could decide she didn’t want to hang out with me anymore, it seemed like for the foreseeable future, I had myself a good group of friends.
What seemed to me to be the one constant, though, was Titan. I watched the little feathered dragon as he trotted along in front of us with Dargo on one side and Thom and Kiba on the other. The trio playfully nudged each other and chased each other around the road, sometimes heading off into the trees a little way.
I knew it was possible that a monster could choose to leave their trainer, but there was something about the bond Titan and I shared that felt really permanent. It was like he was becoming a part of me somehow, and every day, I could sense more of his thoughts and feelings.
I wasn’t sure if that was the same for a lot of trainers or if Titan and I really did have something special. Either way, I was extremely grateful for his companionship and for the ability to train such an awesome monster.
As our group strolled along through the trees, I wondered how I had gotten so lucky.
14
The closer we got to Haven City, the closer a range of rolling mountains reached out toward us on our right-hand side. I couldn’t quite see the mountains through the dense foliage, but Abigail, Claudette, and Grayson assured me they were there.
The few times that I was able to see far beyond the trees, like back in Plott Town, I had seen evidence that these mountains existed all around us, but for now, I could only feel the effects of my changing surroundings as we traveled closer to the foothills.
The main change in terrain informing me of the nearing mountains was the slight change in incline. So far, the terrain had been pretty flat with hills here or there, but nothing too crazy. Now, we were slowly trekking up a noticeable incline, even if the road did take us down some hills at times.
We also started to see more rocks and boulders off in the trees or near the road. Any formations or rock piles that we did see, Titan, Kiba, Thom, and Dargo were climbing up them as fast as they could. Thom, Kiba, and Dargo had to scramble back down the rocks, but Titan just opened his wings and leapt off the top, soaring back down to the road.
The other reason I knew just how close to the mountains we were getting was that Abigail had shown me on a map. There was one inside of a Trainer Manual that we got, which also reminded me that I had a little map of the region on my GameGrip.
“If you check in your Trainer Manual or your map, you can see the region. We’re probably around here.” Abigail pointed to a spot along the road.
We were basically traveling along the edge of a mountain and about to start heading northwest up into the foothills where Haven city was.
“Don’t worry, we won’t have to do any hiking or mountain climbing,” Claudette appeared over Abigail’s shoulder and smiled. “Although that would be a lot of fun. Great job knowing where we are, though, Abi.”
“I know a thing or two about maps,” Abigail shrugged nonchalantly, but had her huge, bright smile on her face. “Actually, I just know a lot about this region. I really love Hana, not only because it’s my home, but it’s the place where my Monster Trainer journey began. I’ve spent a lot of time studying it.”
“It is a beautiful place,” Sarah chimed in as she walked happily next to Grayson. “I love all the trees. It’s pretty different from back home.”
“Are you guys from around here?” I asked both Sarah and Dom, realizing I didn’t actually know all that much about them or where they were from. I had kind of just assumed they were all from Hana, but it didn’t sound like that was the case.
Sarah shook her head of brown curls. “I’m from the Sono region. It’s called ‘The Land of Lakes,’ and it’s the region just west of this one. We don’t really have all that many forests, or at least not ones like this that are so big, but we have three huge lakes.”
“Sono is region number 2 for Trainers. That’s where we’ll be able to go after we hit level 10,” Abigail informed me as she flipped a page in her manual to a map of the entire continent of Haloft.
It looked like a blob that was wider running east and west than it stretched north and south, but it was definitely a huge place. The land was dotted with various mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, volcanoes, and all kinds of amazing natural geography. The landmass was also buttressed on all sides by an ocean shaded in blue.
We silently studied the map, giving me a better idea of Haloft now. The blob-shaped continent was divided up into six territories. Hana was roughly in the middle, the starter region, and then the levels grew higher as you went basically clockwise around and over Hana until you reached region 6, which was Parta, directly east of Hana.
Each region was a pretty good size, with Hana looking like one of the smallest. That meant that I had a lot of exploring to do. I knew there was no way I could see it all, but at least my route forward as a Monster Trainer would allow me to see parts of every region.
I was still only a level 2, though, and that meant I had to go up eight more levels before I could even leave the Hana region, and for the foreseeable future, I would be attending the Monster Trainer Academy in Haven City. As for now, I was on a road leading me up into the foothills where the capital city of Hana was nestled against the mountain roots.
