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SAFARI ZONE has 4 zones in it. Each zone has different kinds of POKéMON. Use SAFARI BALLs to catch them!
Safari Zone Official

Soon enough, Shinen’s kits began to grow their horns. At least, Voimakas and Kani did, Aurinko and Neula wouldn’t for another week or so yet, but the first tiny bumps on their foreheads began to show through.

When Shinen decided it was time to give her kits a taste of fresh air, she ordered Aurinko to stay behind. Her reputation had already been ruined, after having Musta walk out on her, and she was not willing to lower it even further. At least if she showed off Voimakas, Neula and even the rather average Kani she may be recognised once again. Of course, Musta wouldn’t be telling everyone about Aurinko, just to embarrass her, as, although he would never admit it, she was his too.

Saanto, whom she had told the night before at feeding time that the kits would be this morning, met Shinen outside her burrow. She had an eager look on her face.

“So where are the little darlings?” she mused.

Shinen smiled and turned back to the burrow. “Voimakas, come on out baby, it’s lovely and sunny outside.” Voimakas poked his head out of the hole he had lived in for almost a month. He blinked the sunlight from his eyes and hopped over to his mother, blinking rapidly and nose twitching.

“This is Voimakas, my darkest. I can see him growing up to be like his father,” Shinen stated, giving a false laugh.

Kani poked his head out next, fanning his ears to all the strange new sounds that only entered the home burrow as dull, muffled thuds. Everything was so much clearer outside! He wondered why Mummy made them stay in the burrow so long when everything was so beautiful outside.

“This is Kani, now my lightest,” Shinen said proudly. She enjoyed saying that her lightest kit was still average colour, despite actually having two lighter ones.

“What do you mean now?” Saanto asked.

Shinen shook her head. “The lightest, just a shade lighter than Kani,” okay, so she was almost as white as Aurinko, no-one would find out, “she died soon after she started growing fur. Runt of the litter, you see.”

Saanto nodded, but had a feeling there was more to it than that. Had Musta maybe killed the kit, because she was too light? That must be why he had left the burrow, because Shinen had thrown him out. And her laugh had sounded rather forced. She lost her train of thought when Neula’s dark blue head emerged, her ears flapping at the new sounds, eyes wide at the new sights and nose trembling at the amazing array of new scents.

“And last of all, Neula.”

“Could very well grow up to be head female with that coat,” Saanto approved, “So’s that all of them?”

Shinen nodded after the slightest of hesitations, then turned to her kits. “Okay, now don’t go too far, keep close to the burrow, got it?” The three kits nodded, then began rummaging around in the grass, sniffing at everything.

“Can they talk yet?” Saanto queried.

“Little bit. Neula seems to say the most, but the other three say a bit as well.”

“Uh-huh. Three?” Saanto turned to her friend.

“Mummy,” Neula chimed, “Where Daddy?”

Shinen sighed inwardly and silently thanked her daughter, then scanned the mob. Yes, there he was, up on top of the ridge, peering over the group of feeding poison rabbits. “Over there, sweety. Do you want me to come with you?”

Neula shook her head. “I a big girl now, go alone,” she said proudly, and with that bounded through the swaying grasses to her father, pouncing on the odd small butterfly as she did so. Shinen smiled and watched her go.

Voimakas, always willing to beat someone, had attacked some young unfortunate Nidoran, and was now sinking his teeth into her paler blue fur. Voimakas definitely reminded Shinen of Musta.

There was a thud on the ground, reverberating and vibrating through the ground, the call of “Trainer!” made its way through the mob, and every rabbit had disappeared from the surface within ten seconds of the first thud on the ground being made. At least 50 trainers came through the area in a single day, and the Nidos had developed a very safe scheme in order to avoid them that worked every time. Nidos from this group rarely got captured.

But Neula, caught halfway between her burrow and her father, had no idea what was going on. What was a trainer? Mummy had never said anything about any trainers. Was this why she made them stay down underground?

Neula whisked her head around, seeing every Nido, including her father, disappear from sight, whipping down their burrows in lightning fast streaks of pink and blue. Neula panicked, pressing her quivering blue body against the ground, trying to work out what was happening. She clenched her eyes and teeth together, willing herself to wake up in her burrow, warm against her mother’s fur.

She could feel slow, heavy vibrations of large feet coming towards her, but was too petrified to move. A massive dark shadow came over her tiny shivering form. She gulped and opened her eyes, seeing just a silhouette, so large that it blocked out the sun.

The huge figure threw a lump of something at the ground. Neula sat up and looked at it, catching whiff of the stuff. She decided it smelt even better than grass did and hopped over to it, keeping an eye on the figure, possibly the mysterious ‘trainer’. She sniffed at it again and decided that yes, it was edible. What could be bad about ‘trainers’ if they gave out yummy food? Neula turned to the trainer and smiled, thanking it for the food.

Shinen watched transfixed from her burrow as the trainer threw down the bait for Neula. She wanted oh so badly to call her baby back, but was afraid that if she did she’d attract the attention of the trainer. This particular trainer was younger than most, with long, bright yellow hair tied back in two tails. She wore a short green dress with large white spots on it. But no matter how innocent she looked, all trainers came to this area for one soul purpose, and now Shinen wished she had told her kits about the dangers of trainers before letting them outside.

Her remaining two darker kits and Saanto were squashed in next to her, peering out of the burrow at the horrific sight. Although the kits could not see what was wrong – Neula was, after all, getting free food – they could sense from their mother that their sister was in great danger, and so pressed themselves against her, shivering.

As always happened when trainers did what they do with Nidoran, the young girl, her two head tails bouncing on her back, grabbed one of the many half green, half white balls from her red backpack and threw it hard at Neula, with a harsh cry of “Pokéball, go!” The ball hit Neula brutally on her flank, and the poor young Nidoran cried out in shock and pain. The trainer had seemed so nice before, what had happened?

Shinen stared, motionless, as the ball spat a stream of red light out on her baby, engulfing her in crimson and finally, turning her to the same red light, then reducing her to nothing. The ball closed around the ball of light that was once a young Nidoran and dropped to the ground. It wobbled once, twice, a third time, then stopped still.

Shinen closed her eyes to the raucous yell from the trainer as a tear ran down her nose, dripping into the dusty entrance to the warren. She slowly turned and walked mournfully back to the burrow, not caring whether or not Saanto would follow. Kani and Voimakas were the only two to follow. Saanto had lost one of her young to a trainer before, and knew that the best thing for her friend was to be left alone to calm down a bit.

Aurinko was still in the burrow, and, in order to hear what she had missed out on, she pretended to sleep, turning her back on her mother and brothers. She was surprised to first hear her mother sobbing when she entered, but decided it was probably because she had been hit again by Musta.

Kani’s tiny voice piped down the corridor. “Don’t worry Mummy, she come back, not go forever.” Aurinko twitched her ear. Who was gone? How come?

Shinen sniffed and turned to her two remaining kits – Aurinko didn’t count. She took a deep breath to calm herself down, and let it out slowly. She must tell them about trainers. If they weren’t told, they may run into the same trap.

“My boys, what you saw just then was a trainer,” she began, “Trainers are all very different – some are aggressive, and throw rocks and stones at Nidoran. Others, like the one you just saw, are kinder, and offer food as a distraction. However, all have the same goal, to suck Pokémon into those green and white balls.

“One Nidorino here was with a trainer for at least three years, from when he was still a Nidoran. He is a very old Nidorino and his name is Opettaa. You may go and ask him about his travels with the trainer, but I will warn you now, they will most likely frighten you.” Voimakas and Kani stared unmoving, horror in their eyes.

“Why, Mummy?” Voimakas whispered.

“The only reason a trainer catches a Pokémon is in order to battle him or her against other Pokémon that other trainers have caught in much the same way. In this area, many many trainers pass by each day, hoping to capture a Nidoran for themselves.

“If ever you hear thumping feet on the ground, it means danger is coming, most likely a trainer, so run down the nearest burrow to you and hide there until the danger has passed. If ever you do see a trainer, run like you’ve never run before, or what happened to Neula will happen to you.”

Shinen stopped talking and waited for any questions. Kani and Voimakas’ eyes were wide with terror. Could that really happen? Of course it could, they had witnessed it with their own eyes just moments ago. The two kits ran to their mother, terrified out of their wits.

Aurinko had been listening the whole time. She would go to see this Opettaa and ask him herself. Surely being with a trainer could be no worse than here. If all was good, she may get herself captured, just to get away from this place. Fighting lots of other Pokémon sounded fun anyway. So, Voimakas always won the fights they had. With practice, she could get better. She’d evolve before Voimakas, all she needed was practice.

Four | Six