As before, the going was slow but after what seemed like an eternity they emerged from the darkness at the far end of the Ice Cave.
"Finally, fresh, open air!" he shouted happily.
"Vul-vul-pix!"
"Yeah, warmer air too out here."

     The day had turned out to be beautiful, just as he had thought it would. The two of them sat down by a tree to rest themselves for a moment, but little did they know that their excitement for the day was far from over.

     "What in the world was that?!" Tamaro said as he jumped to his feet. A horrible screeching sound was coming from somewhere very nearby. It sounded to him like a Pidgey, but if it was it was unbelievably distressed. He and Vulpix ran through the woods searching for the commotion and found it up in a tree. Tamaro's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.

     "I don't believe it! It's one of those rare Dark type Pokémon, a uh, uh, a Sneasel!" he shouted out amazed! His fascination was replaced when he realized that it was trying to force a Pidgey from its nest to steal the eggs. He had read about such things, and about how Sneasels could be really nasty. Tamaro did not want to anger it (he'd done enough angering of Pokémon for the day), and in all honesty he wanted to take pictures and draw some sketches. But the Pidgey needed help and he was the only one that could do anything about it.

     "Vulpix g-" he stopped in mid-sentence, "I guess you can't, you'll hit the Pidgey and burn the nest with your flames..." Action still called for, he climbed up on a large boulder and leapt out, grabbing the Sneasel and pulling it down as he fell. Stunned by the fall, the Sneasel broke free of his hold and slashed him nastily! The loyal Vulpix defensively used its Quick Attack to save Tamaro from further injury. Wincing at the pain, he sat up and realized he was bleeding from a small wound on his chest and a nasty slice across the left side of his face. He whipped out a piece of cloth and pressed it hard against his cheek to stop the bleeding. Then, he looked around to see what had become of Vulpix. His thoughts that his incredibly well-trained Fire type could whip the Ice type were soon destroyed as he saw Vulpix lying on the ground defeated.

     "Leave her alone Sneasel! I'm the one who stopped your egg snatching! Come and get me!" he shouted at the wild Pokémon. Without hesitation, the Sneasel ran and jumped at him. The Sneasel was so fast he almost failed to get out of the way quick enough. He now realized why Vulpix had been beaten. Sneasel's speed was simply too much for his little friend after walking cautiously on the ice all day and battling a Piloswine.

     "Take a rest Vulpix! You've earned it!" he said as he turned to face the furious Sneasel once more. Carefully reaching back to his pack, he selected a Pokéball and expanded it. "You only won because Vulpix was tired! Now I suggest you beat it or you'll have to face a new and fresh Pokémon!" he threatened. Sneasel stood very still other than moving its razor sharp claws around. It was obvious that Sneasel was not intimidated, and indeed wanted a fight.

     "All right, you asked for it! Go, Ampharos!" he said as he threw the ball toward Sneasel's direction, still holding the side of his face. Ampharos popped out of it's Pokéball and stood about 8 feet from Sneasel. Tamaro was not about to waste any time getting this nuisance taken care of.
"Ampharos, Thunderbolt!" he ordered and his Ampharos executed the attack perfectly. Sneasel was quite shocked by the sudden attack, but the instant Ampharos eased off the power the Sneasel dashed forward and used a Slash attack. "Ampharos, Headbutt!"

     The battle went on for awhile, neither Pokémon backing down a bit. Despite being cute, Ampharos was third in its evolution line, and that always meant power. This time Tamaro knew power was what he needed, but he was utterly speechless when Ampharos collapsed before the tired Sneasel. He returned the Electric Pokémon to its Pokéball and thanked it for the excellent job. Sneasel was definitely weakened now, but still did not want to quit. Tamaro had to choose a different Pokémon but his remaining choices were all terrible for this particular battle.
     "Psychic types don't have any effect against Dark, and my water Pokémon don't battle well on land..." He said to himself as he pondered what move to make. Sneasel did not give him time to think about it. It lunged at him again. Tamaro dived to the ground to avoid the attack and had to pull out a Pokémon quickly.

     "Go Cloyster!" he said, unable to believe he could be caught so unprepared. Cloyster was his best choice at the moment. "Open your shell and use Ice Beam!"