Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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New Beginnings - Chapter 26
🕑 Added 2024-06-24 17:20:01 +0000 UTCAfter setting up the three Simi-monkeys to start their training, their trainers nearby and observing, Ethan saw his little berry bug trudging up the road with a new friend by his side.
Shuckle used his long noodle limbs to pull himself over the cobblestone path while he chatted happily with the Dunsparce who flapped its little wings as it talked back. A week ago, Ethan would have been shocked by seeing his timid friend chatting with a random pokemon and becoming friends, but his little guy had come a long way. It also helped that Dunsparce was similar to Shuckle, both living underground and hiding from would-be predators. From what little he could recall about Dunsparce as a pokemon, they were often seen as being weak. Maybe things were different here in real life, but he liked to think that was another piece of common ground between them.
“Shuckle! I need your help with tutoring! Don’t worry, your new friend can watch.” Ethan said with a smile as Shuckle flailed its arms and withdrew his head in embarrassment. Apparently, Ethan was the embarrassing dad. But, even if he was embarrassed, it didn’t stop Shuckle from coming over and making grabby flails with all four of its limbs with a smile, asking to be picked up.
Ethan hoisted his shelled pokemon up to cradle in his arms as he wandered over to Mawile and Noctowl. Seeing Ethan approach, both the pokemon perked up and walked or hopped away from their trainers, forward to meet him out in the field. Their size differential was slightly humorous, as Ethan hadn’t seen too many giant pokemon—Noctowl, standing a head over Ethan’s six foot, fit the bill of being giant in his mind.
When he placed Shuckle down on the ground, Ethan watched with an at ease smile as Shuckle took in the two pokemon in front of him. He inspected the small Mawile curiously, but went stock still upon seeing the enormous avian, quickly withdrawing into his shell and actually using the move.
Ethan nudged Shuckle’s shell with his foot. “Shuckle, they won’t hurt you. I’ve told you this before. At long as you’re on my ranch, you will be safe. Would I have asked you to come over here if I thought you were going to be attacked?”
Shuckle slowly stuck his head out of the backside of his shell to look at Ethan. After a hesitant shake of the head, Ethan nodded with a confident, beaming smile. “Great! Now, I want you to stand here and use Withdraw as both Mawile—That’s the small one, and Noctowl try to learn moves on you.”
Shuckle looked at Ethan with mouth agape in abject horror. Ethan was confused by the reaction, but he schooled his face as he realized he just told Shuckle that he wouldn’t come to harm then asked him to sit there as a target. He quickly and worriedly waved his hands with a forced smile as he took a step toward Shuckle, who retreated and used Withdraw once again.
“Ooooh Shuuuuckllleeee.” Ethan said in a sing-song voice as he knelt down. “Listen… They aren’t going to harm you for real. Remember what I said about your defenses? I wouldn’t call on you if I thought you’d get hurt. It’ll be like when Pachirisu helped you learn Power Split. You’ll be doing the same for these two pokemon.”
In response, Ethan was greeted by another blue sheen of Withdraw. “If you don’t want to do this, give me a loud shu—”
“SHUCK!!!” The muffled voice of shuckle screamed from inside his shell, cutting Ethan off.
With a sigh, Ethan picked Shuckle up and placed him by Dunsparce, who was sitting by the side of the field watching everyone train with interest as he flapped his wings and idly dug gouged into the ground with its thick tail. “I’m sorry, Shuckle.” Ethan whispered as he walked back to help out the final two pokemon.
—-------------------------------------------------
After a few hours of training, Ethan could already see that a lot of the pokemon had improved significantly on learning their respective moves—Especially Sneasel and Chatot.
While Ethan had one-hundred percent lied about him keeping track of the score, it didn’t seem to matter. As it turns out, Chatot had a competitive side to her. What quickly started out as a fun game of keep away and steal, quickly turned into a battle of egos. Sneasel had even managed to use the move Sucker Punch successfully once already, but it had apparently been a fluke, as they’d never done it again since.
Chatot had managed to steal a few of the Oran berries so far, but not with the move Theif. At the moment, both pokemon were covered in scuffs and hadn’t taken a break. They only paused once Sneasel bent down to grab another berry and found that the small pile they’d started with was gone. In its place, was Ethan's feet.
As he looked down at the Sneasel who gazed up at him with confusion, Ethan held his grin back. “Time for a break. We’ll start again in an hour. For working so hard, each of you go and grab whatever, and however many berries you want.”
Without needing to be told twice, Chatot sped off through the trees, causing several of them to softly glide to the ground, knocked loose from her warpath.
“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫”
Sneasel stood there awkwardly, still winding down from their intense game-turned-battle. Seeing an opportunity, Ethan nodded off toward the berry field to have Sneasel follow him along as he guided her through his many different options. As they walked through the rows of trees, he spotted several of the other pokemon scouting around for their favorites, some with their trainers.
“So, I know that wasn’t a real battle… but how would you rate Chatot in terms of strength?” Ethan asked conversationally as Sneasel inspected a few of the nearby berries. It held up a hand and did a see-saw motion.
Ethan hummed. “I know she couldn’t beat you, if that’s what you're worried about. The type advantage alone would be rough and she hasn’t battled a trained pokemon before.”
Sneasel gave him an inquisitive look, slightly surprised by the information. It held its chin as it tapped a foot on the ground, mimicking a deep thought before holding up three claws.
Not knowing what the three meant, Ethan started guessing. “Three… berries? For the information?”
Sneasel scoffed and rolled its eyes, thinking Ethan an idiot. It looked at the dirt and dug its sharp claws into the ground, scraping a tiny picture. It carved eight deep furrowing lines into the soft earth with trivial ease, then tallied off three of them.
Ethan tried to decipher the meaning, taking into account that this pokemon was a battler of a trainer. The only thing he could think of that had to deal with the number eight that they would care about would be badges. “Three badges?”
Sneasel tapped its temple with a smirk and sauntered off to inspect more berries as Ethan thought about what that meant. Was Chatot at the strength of a three badge trainer? That was… pretty good? Most trainers made it to four badges, so he considered that great for a pokemon not used to battling. It probably helped that Chatot as a species didn’t evolve and were already in their ‘fully evolved’ form.
Sneasel and Ethan wandered around his fields until Sneasel’s arms were full of the apple-like Leppa berries, the orange and yellow spinning top shaped Figy berries, and some Lechi berries, which looked to be a favorite of many types of pokemon. All of them were super spicy, so Ethan grabbed his fair share to hand out to Growlithe for when he came across the pupper.
And coming across the fiery-dog didn’t take too long at all, as when Ethan and Sneasel came out the other end of his field of trees and gazed out into the meadow, a beautiful heartwarming scene was breaking out in front of him.
Growlithe prowled through the taller grass, its rear end shaking while stuck up high in the air. No doubt in preparation for its pounce on the all-too-knowing Blitzle who pretended to be unaware. With a playful yip, Growlithe launched out of the tall grass and flew by the Blitzle who laughed as it blitzed away– a very apt description of the pokemons name.
As the electric equine laughed and galloped away from the barking hound, its mane buzzing and thrumming with electricity, it was caught unaware by the stealthy Gogoat who had laid in the grass to blend in with the surroundings. For such a large pokemon, it hid quite well. Its surprising and playful tackle brought them into a large heap on the ground as Growlithe finally caught up and added himself on top, creating a dog-pile.
Ethan smiled at the playing pokemon, then laughed loudly as Pachirisu and Smeargle dove from the nearby grass to join in. Their screams of battle reminded him of the Teddiursa.
“PACHI!”
“SMEAR!”
Off to the side, glaring with grumpiness from the pond’s singular jutting rock, Krabby snipped its claws in an angry wave, releasing bubbles from its slightly foaming mouth. The Maril, who he was sure were a couple, watched the show contentedly as they floated on top of the water.
Sparing a look toward Sneasel, yielding Ethan with the sight of an older teen looking down on the childish behavior of its younger siblings, making him laugh even more. Sneasel pretended he didn’t exist, simply chomping on some of the berries he had as he watched the pokemon play.
“You could join in, you know? Your trainer isn’t here to see. What happens on the ranch, stays on the ranch.”
Sneasel glanced at Ethan just to make sure it wasn’t being made fun of, before swinging its gaze back to the playing pokemon. It thought for a moment, shrugged, dropped its berries, then darted into the tall grass with a smirk.
Ethan watched Sneasel as it joined in on the game of what looked to be tag for a few minutes before going to his garden, picking some food, and heading toward his home to prepare himself some food.
As he washed his vegetables on his patio by the Oddish, the shaking of leaves drew his attention. He slowed in his washing as he peered over his patio to see one of the snoozing Oddish vibrating. Fearing something was wrong with it, he placed his vegetables to the side and hopped off his patio, landing with a thud as he walked closer.
The other Oddish, hearing the shaking leaves, all slowly blinked their sleepy eyes open and turned to look at their companion. As soon as they saw what was happening, every single one of them instantly pulled themselves from the earth like onions and began to dance with smiles in a circle around their vibrating friend.
“Oddish-Oddish!”
“Oddish-Oddish!”
“Oddish-Oddish!”
“Oddish-Oddish!”
“Oddish-Oddish!”
They sang their names while spinning and twirling in a large circle, which slowly widened and shrunk with their dance.
Ethan took a few steps back, confident that nothing was wrong with the Oddish, given their companions happiness.
Then, the vibrating Oddish was suddenly encapsulated in a blinding white light. Ethan shielded his eyes with his arm to shield them from the blinding light, but still did his best to witness what he assumed was an evolution. The first one he’d ever witnessed.
Half of the leaves which rested on top of the Oddish flattened, while the other half curled into themselves, creating four round orbs on the top of its head. At the same time, the Oddish’s normally small body ballooned to triple the original size. Where there used to be a small mouth and two tiny, beady eyes, now had a large gaping mouth and two large eyes. Two tiny arms sprouted out from its sides, then once that was complete, the blinding white light faded, revealing a new pokemon.
With a giant sappy smile with drool drooping out the side of its mouth, the new pokemon was swarmed by its excited brethren.
“Gloooom.” The formerly squeaky voice was now a low baritone as it yawned out its name.
Ethan felt happiness well up inside his chest. “Congratulations!” Ethan said as he stood back and let the pokemon have their moment with one another.
The Gloom gave him a nod of recognition as it patted the heads of its now much smaller friends and family. Ethan took out his phone and used the PocketDex to scan the new pokemon, as well as the smaller ones.
“Oddish - The Weed Pokemon: Oddish is nocturnal, spending its days buried in the ground to gather sunlight, with only its leaves exposed. At night, it roams fields and forests, absorbing moonlight to nourish itself. It can often be found leaving trails of glowing spores as it moves. When threatened, Oddish emits a strong, bitter scent from its leaves to deter predators and ensure its safety. When happy or content, it releases the fragrant aroma of Sweet Scent."
“Gloom - The Weed Pokemon: Gloom releases a foul-smelling odor from its pistil to ward off predators, an aroma so potent that it can cause fainting. Despite its smell, the nectar it produces, which has the appearance of drool, is incredibly sweet and often sought after by collectors in the creation of perfume. Glooms nectar enhances the growth of all plantlife, acting as an excellent fertilizer. Gloom is most active at night, absorbing moonlight to enhance its growth. When it is happy or content, its odor becomes pleasant and soothes and calms those nearby.”
Ethan lowered his phone and took a deep breath. “This day is getting more and more interesting.”
