Hard Enough-Chapter 280 - Knight’s tale

Knight leaned to the left while digging his tail into the ground as the stream of water shot past him. His body ached as he clenched tired muscles and threw himself into a sprint to close in with his foe.

The Poliwhirl blanched as Knight closed the distance between them in a second, his fist pulled back and crackling with a Thunder Punch as he swung.

“Hey woah, can’t we just be frie—” screamed the Poliwhirl only for Knight to slam his fist into its face and send it flying. It hit the ground and tumbled over itself a few times before going flat.

Knight exhaled mightily, enjoying the way he blew huge bursts of dust away from himself. Behind him, his tail began to wag as Brock sent waves of positivity and joy at his performance along their bond.

It was nice being able to know with absolute certainty that your trainer supported you and loved you. Knight knew it was a different sort of love than that of Titan and Bertha, or even that of Brock and his siblings.

It was the love of friendship.

Of strong bonds and belief.

Feeling it made Knight’s heart swell and the pain fade as he grinned, tail wagging faster and faster.

On the central podium, the referee for the match raised his flag. “Poliwhirl is unable to battle! The score is now four to zero!”

“Tch! Damn big lug of a pokemon! I thought I lucked out, but it’s just as strong as some of his others!” growled the trainer Brock and Knight were facing as he tapped his hand back and forth against two pokeballs on his waist.

Knight could tell they were hesitating, but it seemed to be getting worse the longer they took.

Oh no! What if it was stage fright? Knight didn’t want his foe to get embarrassed like that!

“You can do it, kid!” he cheered, shooting the opposite trainer a helpful thumbs-up, which to them only sounded like ‘Agg-ron!’

Brock became very amused by this while their foe stared uncomprehendingly at Knight.

Oh dear, Knight was confusing him! That wasn’t his intention! He shifted and began pumping his arms up and down. “Don’t give up! Fight on and keep your head up!” he shouted, hoping his impromptu cheer would lift the kid's spirit.

“Is… your pokemon alright?” asked the kid.

Brock held a hand in front of his face while his shoulders shook.

For some reason, Brock was holding in his laughter, which Knight thought was rather silly. If he was happy, it was better to let the world know.

Laugh, Brock, laugh, Knight urged.

Brock shot Knight a fond as he coughed. “Uhuh, sorry about that, something in my throat. Uhm, no. There’s nothing wrong with Knight. He was just cheering you on. He wants to have a good fight and for you to put your best foot forward.”

“Aggron!” Knight cheered, nodding his head rapidly at this translation.

The kid blinked. “Your Aggron… is cheering me on?” he repeated, to which Brock nodded.

The kid blinked again before a huge blush ran up his features. “Well tell him he’s going to regret it, cause I’m coming at him!” growled the kid as they shot Knight a venomous glare.

Sadly for them, poison types weren’t effective against Knight, so he just smiled merrily and gave another thumbs up. It was good they were in the right headspace.

“Argh! It’s not ideal, but I’m confident in my pokemon!” roared the trainer as they sent out a Fearow.

“Tch, a metal rock head eh?” chirped the Fearow as it hovered slightly off the ground.

“Hello! I’m looking forward to a good fight!” Knight replied with a small dip of his head, acknowledging his new opponent.

“Fearow! Use that new move we worked out!” ordered the kid.

Fearow’s wings snapped once, and it shot into the air, causing Knight’s head to jerk upwards to track it, only for recognition to flash through the bond.

“It’s about to do a Ground type move! Dig! Now!” Brock commanded.

Knight dove forward, parting the ground like it was mere mud as his head gouged its way deep underground.

A large tremor rocked the field as Brock fed a steady stream of information. Apparently, the attack Fearow had used had gouged a massive line of earth out of the arena.

Wow, Knight was sure glad he wasn’t there to face that move! It would have hurt!

Brock let Knight know where his foe was, having only touched the ground briefly in its sweeping attack. Knight stilled his body, readying it for what was to come.

‘Go!’ Brock urged and Knight surged upwards, gripping at the rock as he did so that when he leapt out of the earth, he did so while carrying a boulder in his grip.

Knight locked eyes with Fearow as it furiously tried to beat its wings to reverse its flight, only for it to make itself as sitting Farfetch’d as Knight tossed the boulder.

“It was nice fighting with you!” Knight shouted.

“Fuck yo—” replied the Fearow before it got smashed out of the air.

With the boulder pinning it, Fearow was unable to even struggle to show it was still in the fight, not that it was going to with how it had collapsed into the ground.

Knight shook his head. A lot of fights were like that these days. They used to be challenging duels, where it became a punching fest or a battle of endurance but Knight had noticed that since they’d started fighting stronger trainers the fights in Brock’s Gym had become easier.

Knight was starting to feel a little bad for some of the trainers that he got to face as their pokemon just weren’t strong enough. These days it only took one solid hit for them to crumple.

Knight would have to ask Titan about it later. He could also ask Bertha but she tended to give big stories. Titan was better as he helped you understand.

“Urgh! Fearow! Blast it! Last pokemon let’s go Nidorina!”

Knight felt some of the fighting spirit drain from Brock at the newly revealed pokemon. The little blue pokemon’s ears twitched adorably and Knight kind of wanted to reach out and pet it. It looked that cute.

“Oh dear, master’s pride has gotten him into quite the situation, hasn’t it?” said the little Nidorina with a rather regal tone.

“I’m afraid it has, my dear lady,” Knight replied with his customary head bow of greeting while falling into the various games he’d played as ‘Sir Knight’ the defender of Suzie and Cindy whenever they came out to play.

“Oh? What’s this? A gentle pokemon? A shame we meet on the field of battle and not elsewhere then!”

Knight allowed himself a chuckle. “A travesty to be sure!” he stated, slipping into his role easily.

Nidorina fluttered her eyes at him and Knight felt something come over him. A desire to defend this poor defenseless pokemon. Who was set upon harming her?

Brock’s amusement returned, only to be followed by a grim determination that cut through Knight’s infatuation.

Knight blinked uncertainly, as something dark shuddered through him ripping through the haze that had clouded his senses. What had just happened?

“Nice try kid!” Brock called out, locking eyes with their foe.

“Tch!” said the suddenly far less cute Nidorina.

Deny it, came the order from Brock, and Knight did as Bertha had suggested in situations like this.

He patted both hands to his chest and wiggled his body back and forth. “You’ll never get this,” he said flatly as he used Taunt.

Nidorina’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, you’re going down punk!” roared Nidorina.

Hmmm, as Brock would say, it was super effective. Brock’s amusement was once more bubbling over in the background at how this final match-up was playing out, but a wave of determination stopped him from doing anything as rude as laughing in his opponent’s face.

“Knight, let’s end this!” he declared and Knight responded by unleashing another Earthquake only for Nidorina to spring into the air but leading with its legs.

“Coming at you hot stuff!” roared the Nidorina.

Knight ducked under the kick. It was bad form to commit to a leap unless you had worn your foe down or they were unable to move. Knight knew this from long, gruelling matches against Hypnotoad. It reminded him of an overeager Aron that liked to over-commit.

Knight’s arm shot up and caught Nidorina in his hand.

Nidorina squawked in shock at this sudden reversal only to stiffen when her position finally registered to her.

“Oh, can we try this again?” she said.

Knight let her go only to then swat her straight into the ground, where she became embedded.

“Ow,” she whined as she struggled to get out.

Knight pulled a fist back, not looking forward to what would come next. With an apology on his lips, he prepared to finish the fight.

“Stop! I withdraw her and forfeit!” declared the trainer.

Knight relaxed, pleased he didn’t have to strike an already down-and-out foe. “Urgh, anyone get the number on how many Tauros ran over the top of me?” whined the Nidorina before she was withdrawn.

Knight watched the beam recede, troubled by how this match had played out. It had been rather easy, all told.

Perhaps too easy? Was he just bullying weak pokemon?

Knight ignored the applause he was receiving as he pondered this, only for the hand of his trainer, Brock, to stir him from his dark thoughts. “Hey buddy, you alright there?”

Knight nodded and gave Brock a thumbs-up, which got a chuckle in reply. “You did great out there, bud. Good job,” Brock said even as his eyes continued to search Knight’s own, probing for any sign that something was wrong.

Knight bobbed his head and allowed himself to look up, his spirit rising at the many people cheering and clapping for him and Brock. Others applauded the young trainer, which helped a little in affirming that this wasn’t just about beating on the weak.

“—nice tactics at the end there with the Nidorina primed to use Charm and Attract like that. It slipped past my notice for a second there until Knight started getting a little too into being all gallant and noble,” Brock said to the young trainer.

The trainer and Knight both coughed in embarrassment. Knight knew that some of his friends would tease him about that.

“Really surprised by the difference from getting my eighth badge to fighting against your Elite team. People hype it up but yeah, it’s really a different level altogether isn’t it?” said the trainer.

Brock nodded in response, “Bit of a reality check no?”

The trainer slumped. “I’ll say, urgh. I’m going to have to spend a lot of time in the battle clubs to win back my safety net again.”

Brock nodded. “I’d also recommend spending some time in Mt Moon with your Nidorina if you want to strengthen her. She’s certainly got some spunk otherwise,” Brock offered.

“Mt Moon? I suppose fighting against rock types would help to lock in the lessons I learnt today even if it was a lot of Steel, Ground, and Electric moves that did me in,” replied the boy.

“Heh, you're paying too much attention to the moves and not the pokemon. The way certain pokemon grow and move is dependent on their types. Mt Moon will be good for you in many ways,” Brock said leadingly.

The boy nodded and departed with a slight wobble in his step, causing Brock to hum thoughtfully. “They’re getting more resilient, at least from all the fighting they’re having to do to advance with this circuit,” he said aloud.

“What’s that?” Knight asked.

“Hmm?” Brock blinked in surprise. “Oh, just noticing that we haven’t had any whiteouts from people facing us in the Elite Challenge yet. It’s nice; it shows that they’re getting stronger.”

“I smashed that Nidorina into the floor,” Knight said, gesturing at the point where he’d embedded the Nidorina. He still felt like they were bullying them a bit.

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Brock coughed. “Better in that, they’re more resilient. They’re mostly still first-year trainers. But no, a lot of the gap you’re experiencing is that we’re way stronger.”

Brock then raised a hand. “And we’re not bullying them. We’re showing them the way forward by giving them strong examples to live up to. It’s not often that trainers would get to fight such high-calibre pokemon in their first year. It gives them an understanding of how far they have to go bud.”

Knight nodded slowly, processing this. Brock left him to think about this but Knight didn’t get much chance with Chansey sprinting out to render aid to him.

“You took a few scuffs there! I’m going to have to buff those out!” she said as she threw him on a healing bed before bringing out a metal buffer that buzzed as it twirled the two pads on it.

“I don’t,” Knight started to say, only for the pads to start working on his metal plates.

“Oooooooooooh, that feels amazing,” he groaned as sore muscles were vibrated and the buffer sent a gentle tingle throughout his entire body.

“Ha? What were you about to say?” sneered Chansey as she worked the machine over Knight’s body. “I am the medic! Not you! Trust in my prognosis! I’ve seen Brock do this for you! This is merely follow-up treatment!” she cackled as she deftly healed up all the aches and pains with a jackhammer-like buffer.

Knight would have to say that Chansey had the skills to be an amazing healer in shovel loads. She really cared about him and the others; she just did it in her own special way.

The door to the reserve bounced open, but no footsteps could be heard causing both Knight and Chansey to pause. “Hey Knight, that was a great fight!” cheered Link as he floated his way into the room with his pink wings fluttering along behind him. “Oh wow, that looks nice! Are you taking good care of Knight?”

“I was! Until you came along!” snapped Chansey, whipping the metal buffer at Link threateningly.

Knight turned his head and waved at Link. “Hey, thanks!”

Link bounced back and forth, dodging Chansey’s attempts to knock him away from them. “You were really cool throwing off that trick at the end and then catching her like you did! Although… I do have to warn you…” Link scratched at the side of his head sheepishly. “I don’t think the triplets really understood what was happening so.. expect them to ambush you.”

Knight allowed himself a chuckle. “An ambush you say? How ominous,” he lay back down. “I best be ready to put my best foot forward.”

Link nodded. “Oh indeed, also Titan and Gawain were thinking of helping out with a trainer patrol through the city if you were interested?”

Knight’s tail began to wag giving away his answer. If he got the right young trainer then a trip to the ice cream shop was guaranteed. Bertha had made sure to train the young ones.

“Link! Stop distracting the patient!” snarled Chansey as she swept the buffer in an arc only for Link to dodge easily.

“Ah ah! Sorry sorry! Just one more thing! Brock is setting up to help Missy evolve her Magneton; if you want to come to watch?” Link offered.

Knight grunted out a response but it was lost as Chansey gave up on knocking Link away and instead turned the buffer back onto Knight.

It sounded like she’d made it louder somehow but that must just have been Knight’s imagination.

When Chansey declared him fit and healthy, he rose from the bed. “Thanks Chansey! I feel great!” he made sure to shake his body out, enjoying how loose it felt after being buffed out.

Chansey merely grunted and thrust a flipper towards the door, signalling he should leave. Link started to follow only for Chansey to intercept him. “Oh no! You’re not going anywhere! You’ve got a health check-up! Get on the bed!” she barked.

“Awww again? You’ve had me on the bed three times this week! I’m not training that hard!”

“I will be the judge of that!” commanded Chansey before she stabbed her flipper at the door. “You! You’re healthy! Get out!” she barked at Knight.

Knight hurried out the door. Wow, Chansey really liked to make sure Link wasn’t hurting, wasn’t she? She had him in there at least three times a week these days!

Knight was so caught up in thinking about Chansey and Link that he forgot about Link’s warning.

The ground shifted around him and Knight suddenly found himself tipping forward.

Instincts long ingrained into him through training with the others kicked in and Knight launched himself into the air in a flip that saw him turning in preparation to face whoever was attacking him.

When a trio of small shapes launched at him, he deftly wove around them, plucking them out of the air like the errant pups they were.

“Unhand me!” “Faithless cur!” “Have some shame!” screamed the triplet of Larvitar as they squirmed in Knight’s hands.

“Oh hello, girls!” Knight greeted easily, plopping the three kids on the ground. “That was a good pitfall trap!”

“Thanks!” replied the girls before dropping their smiles. “Stop letting other pokemon reduce you!” they barked as one.

“Reduce me?” Knight asked.

“Yeah! They made your small thing big by being all ooohhh look at me!” replied one Larvitar knowingly.

The middle Larvitar nodded. “Yeah! You were all gaga over her! Bertha explained everything! She said you were reduced!”

The last one merely nodded. “We heard Bertha talking about it! You got reduced!”

Knight tilted his head. “But if I got reduced I would be smaller?”

The trio blinked at this and turned to look at each other in clear confusion. “Does that mean his small thing got smaller?” For some reason this comment made Knight feel like he should be insulted. He wasn’t sure why though.

The other two shook their heads. “He doesn’t look smaller?” “Was Bertha lying again?”

Knight raised a tentative finger. “Maybe you misheard?” he suggested.

This suggestion earned a trio of scoffs from the triplets. “We know what we heard!” “Yeah!” “Maybe your brain got reduced! It’s plenty small!”

Knight could have been offended by this but he decided to instead turn things around. “If that’s the case I think my heart got bigger with you girls cheering for me!” he grinned at them.

The triplets all blushed at this. “Shut up!” they chorussed while blushing. “We’ll be using you as a training dummy later!” Yeah!” they all barked at him.

“I look forward to it. Now, Brock was going to do something fun, let’s go watch, but make sure to be quiet. We don’t want to disturb the humans too much,” he suggested.

The girls quickly nodded at this, and as he marched towards Sanchez’s lightning cave the girls toddled after him in a line like the Aron would.

When they entered the cave they found several others waiting around, all of who were wearing dark sunglasses. Bertha offered a wave from where she was lounging against Titan.

“Well fought today,” Titan nodded in greeting.

Sanchez turned from where he was dancing in front of the cave mouth. “Oh! Hey buddy! Great match! You were all like! Blam! Kapow! Powah! Owowowow!” he shouted while the yellow feather stuck in his beard shot sparks.

Knight eyed the feather carefully as others shifted away from Sanchez, with only Bertha and Titan remaining in place.

Something they’d learned since the fight with Zapdos?

Resistance didn’t mean much when a Legendary was involved and some of that was passed on to Sanchez. Idle zaps could send tingles throughout the body where before they could be ignored.

Actual attacks from Sanchez these days actually hurt rather than being annoyances.

“Were we too late?” Knight asked, only to get shakes from the others.

Titan reached into a nearby bag and produced four sets of dark sunglasses that could be fitted on pokemon heads. Once everyone was wearing them he nodded into the cave and Knight moved to get a good look as sparks began to build up. Within the cave a number of Geodude with small black rocks on their heads along with some Graveller were rolling around creating more and more static charge.

Arcs of lightning shot from the walls to the ceiling and then down into the floor.

In one corner a small room had been set up with dark glass where Brock and the other humans were sitting in special insulated suits in case the room failed them.

At the centre of the room between two spikes of metal on the roof and floor a Magneton floated.

“Come on! Stop trying to hit me and hit me!” squawked the metallic trio of voices of Magneton as arcs of lightning coursed through it.

Sanchez rubbed his chin. “I think it’s my time… to shine!” he said, rolling into the room and instantly generating a surge of electrical energy.

Titan facepalmed. “The humans told him to stay out. They wanted to get accurate readings for this… guess that’s out the window now,” he muttered as huge flashes of lightning coursed through the room.

Knight turned and made sure the Larvitar triplets had their sunglasses on as the lightning intensified. They each grumbled at this but accepted his actions as in their best interest as Sanchez laughed and the room became blinding to look at without glasses on.

Knight almost missed it when it happened but the light changed as all the lightning in the room began to be absorbed into Magneton only for its body to glow from within.

The light of evolution overtook Magneton and Knight felt his breath hitch in his throat as he and everyone got to watch as Magenton’s form shifted and changed before their eyes, coming shorter but heavier in frame.

The instant the evolution was done the antenna that had formed on top of the new pokemon’s back began to collect all of the lightning while the magnets at the base fired off waves of electricity.

A droning whine began to play out through the cave that made all of the Geodude and Graveler that had been unleashing their electric type attacks stop.

Sanchez continued to dance, unleashing jolts himself which caused the trio of eyes on Magnezone to narrow and respond with more lightning of its own.

The tone grew louder as the two pokemon began to play a game of one upmanship.

“Sanchez that’s enough!” Titan roared, cutting over the noise and causing Sanchez to stop.

“Ahahaha! Sorry! Sorry! I got too into it! Wow you’re a cool guy, new guy!” said Sanchez towards the new pokemon.

The magnets twirled and the pokemon blinked. “This one is not a ‘guy’ nor is it a ‘girl’ pokemon. We are Magnezone!”

Sanchez nodded. “Oh cool, Magnezone!”

Magnezone blinked. “This application is accurate,” it droned.

The closest of the Larvitar triplets gave Knight a soft punch. “Dummy! What’s that mean?”

Knight shrugged. “I have no idea!”

Titan glanced back at the triplets. “I’ll explain it later,” he said firmly.

The door in the insulated room opened and a bunch of people stumbled out with rubber suits on to get readings on the new pokemon. Brock was visible thanks to his orange suit.

“Sorry about Sanchez joining in! He got a bit too fired up. Did it impact the equipment?” he asked, looking towards the smaller, woman known as Bianca.

“It was within tolerances… barely,” replied the woman.

Sanchez began to laugh nervously and rub the back of his head. The triplets began to inch forward and both Knight and Titan had to stop them from getting into the cave.

Titan shared a look with the others. “Let’s collect our humans and go for a patrol, but first, I think Mother is looking for you three for your naps,” he declared.

“Awwww big brother!” whined the triplets as he scooped them up to take them to Empress’ cave.

“No whining! Strong pokemon don’t complain about nap times!” he replied, which had the triplets instantly clamping their mouths shut.

“Have a good nap!” Knight called to the triplets.

He gave the electric cave another look but it seemed anyhting interesting was done. Brock was talking with the taller female but that wasn’t important.

Knight kept the sunglasses and joined Bertha as they walked out to the reserve shed where a trio of large vests with bright neon colours were hung up.

Knight and Bertha carefully donned their vests which declared them. ‘Pewter Gym Pokemon on patrol!’.

Bertha held hers up and shook her head. “I still think I should be able to get something a bit more fashionable,” she muttered as she donned the pink, yellow, orange, and blue vest that was a riot of colours.

Knight didn’t argue and just nodded his head as Titan joined them, donning his own much more subdued brown and white vest.

The trio of large pokemon then moved to the side of the Gym where they only had to wait a few minutes for the young trainers to join them.

Bertha slumped. “Urgh! A.J.’s here! He never takes any of us for ice cream!” she whined.

Knight shifted. “I can—”

Titan raised his hand to stop the offer before anything more could be said. “No, you’ve fought today. You get to have treats and you get to go with Greta. She’s going to need some exposure to people wanting pictures and is generally better at this.” Titan then gained a pained look on his face. “Bertha can go with Crystal… keep the damage you do to the streets as minimal as possible!”

“I’ll try but if justice needs to occur, no street lamp will stop me!” Bertha declared.

The trio of young trainers looked up at the larger pokemon.

Crystal had only a moment to ask, “Right so who wants to go w— eep!” before Bertha stepped forward and scooped up the little girl.

Titan sighed and stepped towards A.J. who straightened up as Titan locked eyes with the young man.

“So you’re with me Knight?” Greta turned her own eyes towards Knight and Knight waved shyly. “Awesome!” she declared. “We have a route we need to follow that takes us past some of the common battlegrounds heading down route three!”

Knight nodded along and they began to troop out towards the main road only to encounter the first issue.

“Knight, great fight!” “Kyaaa! So metal!” “My man!” “Let’s get photos!”

Greta blinked. “Oh, we’re going to be delayed aren’t we?” she muttered as the crowd of fans closed in around them.

Knight nodded having encountered this once before. Greta coughed and settled in to endure the issue, handling the humans as best she could when they got too pushy with Knight, afterall, one photo was more than enough for a family. Apparently not all of them needed individual photos.

Knight trusted her and soon enough they were back on the road marching into Pewter and towards route three.

They still drew a lot of attention and Greta could only sigh. “Guess we got unlucky with you being rostered on only to be called into the Elite match. I should have realised you’d be super popular after your match.”

Knight gave her a sheepish smile and bobbed his head in apology. “Roooon,” he crooned.

Greta waved it away. “It’s fine. I still want to get out to Route Three, it’s just going to take longer is all.”

The patrol that usually would take an hour ended up taking four with both Knight and Greta being out and about for most of the afternoon. Most people when they encountered the pair merely wanted photos, others wanted to question Greta about why she had Knight and others wanted to try fighting Knight themselves.

Greta usually talked these ones down but some people were determined.

“No, I want to fight with him! I bet I coulda taken him down if I faced him! Go Magmar!” shouted one kid only for Greta to flick out a pokeball of her own. “Let’s go Seadra! Hose down that oversized lava duck!” She ordered and within moments the fight was decided with nearby trainers shouting out encouragement to Greta while berating the hotheaded trainer.

“Ha! So much for taking on one of Brock’s pokemon you couldn’t even handle his Gym trainer!”

“S-shut up!” screeched the kid as he withdrew his pokemon and tried to flee only for a pair of burly tough men to appear.

“Ahem, when you get in a pokemon fight you pay the winner,” one of them declared. The other nodded sternly.

Greta, Seadra and Knight got to watch as the kid was marched back to them. He tried handing over a ten pokedollar bill only for the men to start growling like a pair of Onix.

In the end, the kid had to empty his wallet before the tough men were happy and let the matter drop. Greta hastily stashed the money. “Ah guess we’ve got today’s ice cream fund?” she muttered.

“What is this ice cream my mistress speaks of?” asked the Seadra.

Knight grinned. “You’re going to love it!” he said.

Knight grinned at this, wagging his tail back and forth before leaning down to pick up Seadra so they could join them on patrol. Greta flapped her hands at this. “Oh! I was going to… oh never mind Seadra can join us if you’re happy to carry her,” she muttered.

Knight shot Greta a thumbs up which drew a smile from Greta.

“So I haven’t seen you around before?” Knight said, turning to his carry companion as they continued their patrol.

From her perch on Knight’s shoulder Seadra preened. “Mistress caught me last week! I was the pick of her eye and she fought my entire school to catch me!”

“Oh, she has good eyes!” complimented Knight causing Seadra to preen more.

Greta merely watched on curiously. “Huh, I was not expecting that. I wish I knew what you were saying,” she said with a shake of her head.

Seadra sighed. “It is truly a shame that I cannot sing my mistress’ praises to her and have her hear them!”

Knight smiled. “She’ll learn one day. My trainer learned how,” he said casually.

“Oh splendid!” Seadra cheered.

Knight happily continued to carry Seadra around Route three, solving any issues that arose before wandering back into town. When they arrived at the ice creamery Bertha was sitting out the front with a large bucket of ice cream.

“Hiya Knight!” she said, waving her large paw. “I got into a ton of fights!” she declared with relish.

Knight nodded at this and waited as Greta got him and his new friend some ice cream.

Knight had Greta buy five more cones which he carefully carried down to Empress’ cave.

His friends Empress, Ursaring, and the triplets were sure to enjoy the treat. It was just a shame Empress spilled some of hers on him. She seemed alright with licking it off so no harm came of it.

All in all, it was a good way to end the day.