"Sizzle, sizzle—"
The charcoal underneath had hot fat hissing out of the skin of the roasting lambs, and once a coat of seasoning went on, the hiss grew louder, the smoke thicker, the smell better.
"That smells wonderful. When can we eat?"
The Torchic pushed his way to the front and stared without blinking.
He had started that fire himself, after all.
"No need to rush. A little longer."
Vance said it with a smile, settling the Torchic down, then took hold of the basting brush with his psychic power and worked all three lambs at once.
The Gyarados wanted to eat, so they would cook; and the spot was a good one, well suited to a barbecue.
Arriving here had put Vance in the mood for it as well, so he had set up and started grilling on the spot.
The Gyarados watched the surroundings out of a pair of savage eyes, and the menace coming off him kept the Pokémon looking on from further out from coming any closer.
One Pokémon, though, was watching the scene without once taking its eyes off it.
It was a Pokémon shaped like a pterosaur: grey hide, blue eyes, two horns sweeping back from its head, the inner faces of its wings purple, a pair of sharp claws on each wing, its great mouth open on a row of saw-edged teeth. It looked like very bad company indeed, and thoroughly vicious with it.
For sheer viciousness it was a match for the Gyarados.
Any Trainer standing there who took out a Pokédex and scanned it would have learned that this Pokémon was called Aerodactyl, a Fossil Pokémon, a vicious species that had existed since ancient times, a tyrant of the air and an apex predator.
The smell had probably drawn it in; for the moment it kept its distance and watched Vance cook.
Drool hung at the corner of its mouth, but the Aerodactyl still had its instincts in hand and did nothing rash.
That Gyarados looked like trouble. Going in blindly might get it hurt.
Which was why, vicious and overbearing as it usually was, it had altered its hunting method for the day.
It sniffed. Even this far off the smell came through, and the greed in its belly stirred until it could hardly hold still.
"Easy, easy. Find the right moment first. Let them get careless, and then I go."
With that, the Aerodactyl crept a little closer still, ready to make its move.
Meanwhile, while Vance was grilling, a flock of Spearow came down out of the sky behind two Fearow, ignoring the Gyarados's show of menace entirely. Fearow are the very picture of a bad temper; they cared for none of that. There was good food, so in they went.
"Roar, roar—"
Warnings having done nothing, the Gyarados simply attacked: a Hydro Pump went up and knocked several Spearow out of the air.
"Nothing worth catching anywhere around here."
Vance said it, setting down the seasoning.
Making this much of a show here was partly meant to draw in a Pokémon or two of decent aptitude, ones he could catch.
He would be moving about inside League territory from here on, and more Pokémon would make that easier. He could not send out the Gyarados and the other one every single time; and the more work he did, the greater the risk of being found out.
More Pokémon would be better.
What drew Pokémon in was not only the smell of the food itself, but a seasoning Vance had mixed specially.
"One suitable one will do. A little short on aptitude is fine, I'm not fussy — Gym-class is enough."
Vance looked round the circle and was disappointed all the same: nothing he wanted. Their aptitudes ran low and their strength was poor, most of them Novice or Intermediate, coats dull and lustreless, bodies thin — you could tell they were not usually well fed.
Up in the sky the Fearow and the rest of the Spearow kept pressing down, only to be cut off by the Gyarados; by the look of them they had no intention of leaving easily.
With the Fearow overhead, Pokémon looking on from every side, and a few of them making attempts that the Vigoroth turned back, the whole scene had become a mess.
"Whoosh—"
Just then a rush of wind came in from a distance, extremely fast, mixed in behind the Pokémon and appearing all at once.
"Something's coming!"
Vance gave the warning the instant he felt it, but the shape was too fast, and it drove straight in at him.
"Roar—"
The Gyarados was tied up for the moment; the Vigoroth flickered into place in front of Vance, fists up, set to fight.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"
But as it came close the shape changed its line, slipped past Vance and the Vigoroth in a few movements, appeared behind them, opened its great mouth and took one of the roasting lambs, then wheeled up and away — knocking the other two over as it went.
That last move had been a feint. The shape's real object had not been Vance, but the meat behind him.
"That's an Aerodactyl."
By now Vance had seen the shape clearly. An Aerodactyl, of all things.
But his things were not so easily eaten. That lamb had a seasoning of his own making on it.
"Roar, roar—"
On the other side the Gyarados, free at last, gave a furious roar. Stealing it was one thing, but knocking over what was left as well — the Gyarados had never had any patience to begin with, and this he would not take.
He raised his head and fired a Water Gun, and the Aerodactyl dodged it nimbly in the air.
> **Name:** Aerodactyl (male)
> **Type:** Flying, Rock
> **Ability:** Rock Head
> **Aptitude:** Gym-class
> **Level:** 35
> **Moves:** Fly, Wing Attack, Bite, Supersonic, Thunder Fang, Fire Fang, Ice Fang, Roar, Agility, Ancient Power, Double Team, Flamethrower, Rock Slide, Aerial Ace, Stone Edge, Rock Tomb
"Well. Not a bad aptitude on this Aerodactyl."
Looking over the Aerodactyl's data, Vance nodded. Its aptitude came up to what he wanted.
"An Aerodactyl, is it. Good of it to come — a Pokémon like this is exactly what I'm short of." Vance laughed, struck by his own luck: running into an Aerodactyl here, of all places.
He needed a Pokémon to travel on, and here one was.
An Aerodactyl makes a very good mount, too — fierce-looking, and it flies. Out in the field that would be enormously convenient.
"Good of you to come, Aerodactyl. Now that you're here, don't think about leaving."
Vance shouted it at the sky.
Overhead the Aerodactyl dodged the Gyarados's attack neatly and then settled, at its ease, on a huge boulder.
Crunch by crunch, it ate down what it had carried off in its mouth.
"Roar, roar—"
Perhaps it was saying the meat was good, or perhaps it was jeering; the Aerodactyl waved itself about and looked at the Gyarados with derision in its eyes.
"Rooaar—"
That was more than the Gyarados could take. Another volley of attacks went out, and the Aerodactyl slipped aside a few times and dodged them all.
"Not bad, not bad. That Aerodactyl is quick."
Vance said it with a smile, not in the least put out that his own Pokémon could not land a hit on it.
Watching the Aerodactyl carry on like that, Vance badly wanted to tell it: Aerodactyl, you are still too young.
Young was good, though.