Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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New Beginnings - Chapter 44
🕑 Added 2024-08-13 18:36:58 +0000 UTCAfter calling about his website, sending some pictures for the web page, and hashing out some of the finer details; such as sending the contacts to sign, color schemes, and a personal rundown of changes he could make on his end once the website was done… several hours had passed.
Joyce had left to explore the ranch with some of her pokemon, spending her day not by his side. That was perfectly fine, as he had plenty to do by himself as well. As he closed his laptop, his front door opened with force. Ethan jumped from the surprise, but as Ursaring ducked her head down and squeezed into the doorframe, he was stupefied. “Well then, welcome back.”
Ursaring took a moment to scan the inside of Ethan’s home, as this was her first time seeing the indoors of his new home (Having seen the inside of his rough cabin and shack), then came up to Ethan with heavy, sure-footed steps. She held out her hand, then dropped an item onto the table in front of him. The item bounced three times before Ethan could tell that it was a scuffed, silvery, paint chipped Ultra Ball. Underneath the paint was a perfectly reflective metal, reminding Ethan of titanium. The Ultra Ball rolled across the table before gently knocking into the corner of his closed laptop.
“Ursa.” Ursaring grunted as she pointed at the ball to Ethan, then to his hip.
He smiled. “As I said, I’d be more than happy to have you here on my ranch…” Ethan slid his gaze to the Ultra Ball. “But, you know, we’ve known each other for a long time… I’m not sure how you feel about it, but I’d be happy if you didn’t just want to stay here. I’d be happy to be your trainer. I want this place to be a sanctuary for all pokemon. While I don’t think I could train you properly as a battler, I have a feeling your old trainer did that well enough, given your strength. I’d want you to protect this place like you do for your children… They’d be happy here…”
Ethan trailed off, waiting to see how Ursaring took his poorly done sales pitch. He liked Ursaring, he truly did. When he was alone, it was Pachirisu, Ursaring, and her two Teddiursa which made living a little bit more bearable. They’ve come to respect one another, and he was indebted to Ursaring for not only sparing him when he was lost, afraid, and defenseless, but for being the one who found him the help he needed. He truly believed that Ursaring would be happy here, and that living here would be better for her children.
Ursaring stared into his eyes, her gaze searching. Ever so slowly, she nodded and swatted her Ultra Ball to roll off the table and into his lap. Ethan grabbed the scuffed Ultra Ball, then looked to Ursaring. “When was the last time you went into your ball.”
Ursaring gave Ethan a small smile, but shrugged. “Want to go in for old times sake?” She nodded, so Ethan sent out the thing beam of red, which sucked her into her old ball. He wasn’t sure if pokeballs were like the anime, where the pokemon could hear from within, but he talked to her just in case. “Welcome to the family. Shake about when you want me to release you.”
And just like that, Ethan got his answer to his question. The Ultra Ball in his palm shook once, acknowledging his words. “I’ll watch over your kids. Take a well-deserved break.” Ethan whispered as he stashed the Ultra ball into his pocket—the six slots of his belt already filled. He’d need to find some sort of safe or cabinet to hold the ‘home away from home’ of his friends, but that could wait for now. Maybe he’d order one if and when Smeargle learned Teleport.
As Ethan walked out onto his patio, the faint blips of teleport caught his attention. Joyce’s Clefable, Cleffy, teleported around in front of his home. Next to the patio stairs, Smeargle stood there painting on his easel. Smeargle was engrossed in his work, his tail flinging to and fro as he painted the scene before him, but something special was happening as well. From his vantage point, Ethan could see the magical sight of Smeargle’s painting moving. The painted Clefable faded, then appeared across the canvas in a brand new pose. The tip of Smeagle’s tail was glowing with a bright white, signaling that he was using a normal type move, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to guess that it was Sketch.
He wasn’t sure when they started this unique training session. It could have been a few hours ago, once Smeargle left, or ten minutes ago, when Cleffy found some time, but neither of the pokemon looked like they wanted to stop. Occasionally, Cleffy would teleport behind Smeargle to see the painting, get excited, then teleport back to continue onwards with her teleporting.
Ethan sat on the stairs behind Smeargle and watched on. “Can you make all your paintings move like that?”
Smeargle simply shook his head, too focused on his artwork to elaborate.
Ethan shifted his eyes between the mesmerizing artwork to the teleporting Cleffy, who paused in a pose every time she stopped. “Is this move harder to learn than the others you’ve sketched?”
Smeargle rapidly nodded his head. His tongue was sticking out, as it usually did, but he tucked it in when he truly focused.
Not wanting to interrupt Smeargle’s learning and fun, Ethan ended his questions there. “Come find me once you learn the move, then we can go get you some more art supplies. We can also show some of the others what a city is like. I’m sure Pachirisu and Shuckle will be shocked.”
Smeargle nodded again, hurriedly waving Ethan away with a free hand, telling him to go away and let him work. He laughed as she scooted around the easel and made his way off into the meadow to check on the pond pokemon.
As he made his way through the meadow, he spotted Joyce by the pond. She was there with her Pikachu, Chansey, and Floette feeding the pokemon. Chansey was carringly giving the Feebas and Magikarp bits of berries, smiling the entire time. It was obvious that the pink caregiver was perfect for a Nurse Joy if this was how they all acted.
Floette floated over the pond as she hugged her flower, annoying the resident Krabby who snipped and snapped at the floating pokemon. Ethan couldn’t tell if Floette was doing it on purpose, but given how grumpy this Krabby was, he didn’t think it was her who started it.
Pikachu was fishing with her tail in the water, using it as bait to attract the Magikarp who nibbled on the exposed appendage. She squealed and batted them gently when they nibbled, but it was obviously in a playful manner.
Joyce was cutting up some berries into smaller pieces as she finally caught wind of him watching. Not wanting to interrupt their little outing, he just gave her a wave and a smile, then walked away. She could enjoy her free time however she wished, and he didn’t want to intrude.
Going back the way he came, Ethan took the time to inspect the sprouts which the Oddish and Gloom planted during their ritual. They looked exactly the same as they did the day before, so he was sure that they were doing fine. With Blitzle and Gogoat gone, there weren’t any threats to their existence. They would be undisturbed until they ‘hatched’ or grew-up… Ethan wasn’t actually too sure about what would happen to them when the time came.
After passing by Smeargle and Cleffy, which earned him a minute glare for passing into the picture frame, Ethan found Munchlax, Dunsparce, Shuckle, and both Teddiursa by Shuckle’s den hole.
Both of the Teddi’s were wrestling, using moves like Tackle and Lick as they brawled it out. Shuckle, Munchlax, and Dunsparce were eating a lunch of berries as they watched the two teddy bears rough-house with one another. Ethan narrows his eyes at Munchlax’s large pile of berries, but after judging that it wouldn’t even amount to ten percent of Munchlax’s weight, he let it slide.
Shuckle watched the fighting with a face of worry, but he never moved to stop it. Instead, he flinched every time one got hit, retreating into his shell little by little. Dunsparce noticed, giving him a pat on the shell in assurance as he nibbled on his small pile of berries, which caused Shuckle to stop his retreat.
The speedier of the two Teddiursa kicked its kin off of him, then hit quite a nasty tackle. Its sibling fell to the ground with its head bouncing heavily on the grass, causing a loud thunk to be heard. All the pokemon nearby perked up in concern, and Dunsparce even began wiggling forward to check if the young teddy bear was okay. If Ethan was to put it into game terms, that for sure would have been a critical hit.
The Teddiursa who had tackled its sibling got up and took a few steps back, while holding its hand up to its mouth and looking around for its mom. In doing so, it spotted Ethan, who had sped forward to check on the hurt Teddi. As he strode forward, the Ultra Ball in his pocket wiggled back and forth. So, Ethan did as promised and released Ursaring next to the fallen Teddi, who had tears growing in the corner of its eyes.
Once the crying Teddiursa saw its mom, the waterworks began to flow as it raised its hands up crying. Ursaring picked it up and held it close to her chest while rocking back and forth. The other Teddi walked forward and murmured its name, seemingly apologizing to its sibling.
“It wasn’t on purpose.” Ethan said as he caught up to where he released big mama. “No rest in parenting.”
Ursaring snorted as she continued calming down the hurt Teddi, checking over its head for any injuries, finding none. Ethan walked over to Shuckle and asked for him to grab some Sitrus berries from storage. Instead of going to fetch the berries, it seemed that Shuckle had some in his shell already. He took three from within his shell and handed them to Ethan, who then walked up to Ursaring, transferring them to her.
Ursaring wordless took the berries from him, then gave them to the crying Teddiursa who had calmed down to simple hiccuping sobs. It slowly munched on the berries it sniffled.
Ethan knelt down to pick up the other Teddiursa, who watched nervously as its sibling ate the berries. “They're okay. You guys are tough. It was an accident.” Teddiursa nodded when Ethan said it was an accident as it sucked on its paw in nerves.
Ursaring grunted and began speaking to her children, who both responded as if having a conversation.
“Ursa Ursaring Ring.”
“Teddi Ted.”
“Te—-Teddi.”
Ursaring then elbowed Ethan before pointing at the pokeballs on his hip. Picking up what she was putting down, Ethan recalled both the Teddiursa for some rest. He clipped the balls back onto his belt as Ursaring called out to be recalled as well.
With all three bears in their balls, Ethan turned to his berry bud. “You see how they stopped once one got hurt?”
Shuckle pulled himself forward, coming up to Ethan as he nodded. “That’s what would happen if you got into some fights around here. It would stop once someone got hurt. If you ever want to battle, I want you to tell me. I—I want you to be able to defend yourself if the need arises, and to do that, you need to learn how to fight back.”
Ethan picked up Shuckle and gave him a hug. While hugging, he whispered. “I’m not like you guys, Shuckle. I cannot defend myself against a pokemon…”
Shuckle pulled his head back from the hug and looked at Ethan with shock and worry.
“If I get attacked, I’m depending on you, Pachirisu, Chatot, and the others to defend me. You don’t have to love battling, but you need to be able to defend yourself… and me. I don’t have a shell to hide in. All I have is you guys.”
Ethan placed Shuckle back on the ground and looked him in the eyes. “Remember that when push comes to shove. There will come a day when you have to fight for what is right, or what or who you want to protect. Have fun with your friends.”
Leaving Shuckle with those words of wisdom, Ethan walked back to his home.
Someday, there would be someone who didn’t care about what this place meant. They would come to steal, poach, and destroy. It wasn’t a matter of if… it was a matter of when.
Hopefully, he and his pokemon will be prepared for it.
Comments
Tyler Kimball
If it does happen, Ethan is going to be a monster. He doesn't know too much about the darker side of things in the world of pokemon, but he was born and raised where mass shootings, gunshots, and murder wasn't uncommon. (USA) He's be more than happy to educate offenders to his ranch. Stand your ground laws or not. No mercy to those coming to harm.
rizen
I get super strong "The Doctor" vibes from Ethan. there's eventually going to be a "when a good man goes to war" arc and it's going to be brutal.
Jerkface
When that day comes ursaring’s just gonna be like “oh so it’s that kind of day huh” and then commit a murder
Duke of Coffee
(Someday, there would be someone who didn’t care about what this place meant. They would come to steal, poach, and destroy. It wasn’t a matter of if… it was a matter of when. Hopefully, he and his Pokemon will be prepared for it.) Flag.
