POKEMON RANCHER
CH. 15


Just then he turned back to me with a smile and pulled two balls from his back. Once enlarged he released two Machamps. Both of them were about the same size and almost instantly they both started to pose and continued to change poses. I guess seeing a new person they wanted to show me how buff they were.

I heard a laugh. "Alright you two showoffs. It's time to get to work." The two Machamps turned to the man and nodded. They headed off to the boxes and the man came over to me. He carried a sea stained clipboard and looked down at it. "Now each box has a number on it, so I want you to head to my boat and tell them where to put those boxes." I quickly turned and looked back at the large amount of boxes and then over his shoulder.

There had to be at least still ten ships tied up. 'Ok, he wants me to direct these two showoffs, well that's ok but which ship.' The man seeing my distress simply laughed and pointed down the dock.

"My ship is the last one on the dock and to get into the hold, there is a hatch in the front of the boat." Just as he finished, the first Machamp walked in-between us. With that I turned to Ruby and she gave me a nod and the three of us ran down the dock to the old mans boat. Once we arrived at the boat that he had mentioned, I winced. This thing looked like it was a few years away from retirement and it looked it's age.

The paint was so faded from the sun that you couldn't tell if it was once red or some other color, several of the boards on the hold had deep scratches or gouges in them, and the rails on the deck looked like they were badly bent from something hitting them from the sea. Other than that the old girl looked in seaworthy shape. Just then something smacked me in the back of my head. Turning I saw one of the Machamp's had caught up to me and was trying to tell me to move out of it's way by hitting my head with the box that it was carrying.

Quickly running up the ramp I made my way to the front of the ship, and just like the man had said there was a hatch that led into the ship. I opened up the hatch and looked down and saw a set of stairs leading down into the darkness and quickly went down. The inside of the hold was very misleading when I had first seen it. I guess the man didn't really care about the outside of the ship, but cared a great deal for the interior of it. The place was very well kept, new straps were placed along hooks on the walls, and the wood on the inside looked like it could withstand a good thrashing from boxes that could or probably would move around.

Just then I hear a grunt and saw the Machamp walking down the stairs. Just then I realized that I didn't know where to put the box it was carrying. "Combuskin." I turned and saw Ruby holding the old mans clipboard.

"Thanks Ruby." I took the clipboard from her and looked down at the sheet. It said that we needed to visit five different ports and had each of the places with a single number after the place. From my earlier days when I was working at the warehouse I had studied different maps for deliveries, and thanks to that I could tell which destination was closer than the other. So I told the Pokemon to stack certain boxes in an order of the farther islands to the back of the boat and the closer to the front or closer to the hatch.

Within an hour we had all ship loaded. So the three of us went up and closed the hatch after us with a smile on my face and a good laugh. Just then I heard the old man saying some sort of prayer. I followed his voice to find him on the higher deck and on his knees. Walking up the stairs to the wheelhouse I stood over him and waited.

"So who were you praying to?" I asked him. He stood up and brushed off his pants, then looked up to me.

"I was just praying to the god of the sea for a safe voyage." He made a sweeping motion with his hand as to indicate the rest of the ship. "Not to brag, but ever since I've been praying to the god of the sea, I haven't had a single incident with bad weather or anything." I looked over to the other ships.

"So I take it that the others do the same?" He lowered his head and shook it.

"I'm afraid not. And I believe that to be the cause of so many incidents with their fishing trips. Not to mention, when I'm out there I don't disturb the Pokemon out there. Like so many of them do." That must be the reason why Officer Jenny was looking for someone that wouldn't try and catch any Pokemon out there. Just then Ruby quickly wrapped her arms around my middle and I could feel her shiver. I guess being around all this water was making her nervous.

"I'm sorry Ruby, is all this water making you nervous?" She looked up to me and I could see the scared look in her eyes and a set of tears start to build. "Would you like to stay in your ball until we reach dry land again?" She didn't look at me, but looked up at Crystal who was still wrapped around me. Crystal looked down at her and nuzzled against my cheek. Obviously this was a power play between them. If Ruby went into her ball she would have me all to herself, but if Ruby stayed out, she ran the risk of getting splashed by a rogue wave or something. Though all this went without my notice.

She gave her a scowl and quickly shook her head, but still shivered. Turning back to the man he smiled. "It seems that you have some very interesting Pokemon there." I nodded with a sheepish smirk.

"You have no idea. It seems to me that they're always fighting over me." He placed his hands on his sides and started to laugh. Both Ruby and Crystal just looked at him and huffed. How little did he realize that, that was exactly the case if not more so.

"Well anyways why don't you untie us from the dock so we can get underway." I nodded to the man and one I had untangled myself from Ruby went about it while he turned back to the dock where his Pokemon were standing. He quickly recalled them and started the engine. Once I had the ropes untied, running plank up, and back on board, I heard him turn the engine on, rev the engine a few times, we were under way. "Would you like to go for a swim before we get fully underway?" I asked her since we would be going about 5 mph till we exited the no wake zone. She looked at the water and gave me a quick lick to the cheek and slithered off me and jumped into the water. She went absolutely livid when she hit the water. I just watched as she would dart around the boat for a while, then I walked back to the wheelhouse.

"So tell me Goren, what exactly do you need from he? It seems that your Pokemon do all if not all the work around here." He didn't look at, he just kept his eyes on the horizon.

"True. My Machokes do most of the loading and such but I need someone to protect my vessel against some of the more aggressive types out there." He pointed to the open water outside the harbor, and I could see many Tenticrool and Sharpeedo's out there with wicked smiles on their faces, but when Crystal swam to the front of the boat I could see all those Pokemon out there quickly darted away. I was almost comical the way they flew away from us as several of them would bump into each other then start fighting amongst themselves. We stayed at our current speed so that we wouldn't cause a wake in the harbor, but when he got to the out-skirts of the harbor he started to rev up the engine again. In a few moments we were skipping along the waters surface.

Just then a sense of fear started to well up in me and I looked around. As I looked around the water I couldn't see Crystal anywhere. "Goren something's wrong. I can't seem to find Crystal anywhere." He turned and looked at me from over his shoulder and nodded.

"Found her." He nodded to the back of the boat and I could see Crystal skirting the waters surface. In her eyes I could see that she had a panicked look. Fortunately she wasn't that far behind us, so I slid down the stairs from the wheel house and ran to the back of the boat. The boat started to slow then Crystal made a long whale and I placed my hands to my mouth.

"Come on Crystal, you can make it." She nodded to me and sped up her chase and once she was a little off the stern she leapt out of the water, into my awaiting arms. Once there she started to bawl into my chest, quickly soaking my cloths in sea water and tears. "I'm so sorry Crystal. I thought you were keeping up with us." I said as I hugged her tight to my chest. Just then she quickly wrapped around me and we returned to the wheelhouse.

"Well it seems that you've got your Pokemon. Now if we don't loose another Pokemon, we'll get underway." With that he pushed the throttle up and we quickly moved back up to full speed. Over the course of a few hours we covered a lot of water, unfortunately my stomach wasn't up to that kind of speed. Especially on the choppy waters that we seemed to going through.

For the remainder of the trip to the first island my time was spent with my face over the rail tossing up my last meal. It was almost comical when I did it the first time, because Crystal didn't know what I was doing, but when she did find out she quickly unwrapped herself from me and got as far from me as possible. When we finally made it to the first island I didn't think I had anything left to cough up.

As I stepped off the ship and onto the dock I could hear laughter. Someone placed a hand on my back, "Don't worry about it lad. You'll get your sea legs in no-time." Just then Crystal nuzzled my cheek and I felt a set of claws replace Goren's hand. Looking over my shoulder I saw both Ruby and Crystal giving me a set of smiles.

"Thanks you two. I'm sure I'll be fine once the ground stops pitching and rolling." It was about ten minutes before my stomach finally started to calm down and I was finally able to get up and move around. "Finally. Now that we can get started with the unloading." As I turned back to the ship I saw both the Machamps. One was handing boxes down from the ship to the other on the dock.

"Well it seems that you've finally recovered." Turning around I saw Goren with his clipboard. "All we need to do now is separate the boxes that they unload into different piles, then the people that have ordered these can come and pick them up." Giving him a nod and taking the clipboard from him I directed his two Pokemon as to what boxes needed to be removed and then set into certain piles.

When that was done two trucks pulled up and started loading the boxes. I was about to go up to these people and tell them to stop what they were doing but then Goren stepped forward and he started talking with the people. Few words were exchanged but they finally stopped talking and started shaking hands. Once that was done some money was exchanged hands and he walked back to us.

"We don't need to stay here and watch them load up their things." As he clapped me on the shoulder, he made his way down the dock and back onto his boat. Looking at Ruby she simply shrugged her shoulders and we made out way back to the boat and were underway. So it went like that for the whole day, Crystal would frighten off the Pokemon that hung around the docks. Once that was done she would jump onboard once we were far enough out. Then we were off to the next destination to unload that locations items, and repeat.

In that one day we arrived and departed at least three different locations. That night as Goren was cooking up dinner for the four of us, I was found coughing up something else over the rail. "Still haven't gotten your sea legs, hay son?" Looking up from the rail it was obvious by my green face that he was right and then some. He started to laugh a little then walked over to me and clapped me on the shoulder again. "Don't worry. By tomorrow you should be feeling better."

To be continued...Chapter End Notes:Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended