He woke up with chirping.
Goban sat in his bed just to see the Torchic he brought home.
He gave him an expectant look, and the dwarf chuckled.
He had brought the chick to his forge since he could leave him alone and he simply loved the place, not at all affected by the heat, even helping him with his own flames and blazes.
Well, he wouldn't be labeled as Fire Type if he couldn't handle some head.
Having him in the forge was actually fun, as he would walk around and point at things with his beak as if questioning, showing more interest in everything than his own students, making said students jealous and eager to dedicate more to the forge, just bringing more fun for the little chick, who'd jump from workbench to workbench and throw a tantrum to get Goban's attention from time to time.
(Turns out the chick learned a thing or two about the forge in that day and was calling Goban to show that the student was doing wrong or to make him (and consequently the rest of those present) stop to eat, a thing most blacksmiths forget to do during work)
It was such a productive and calm day that even Goban was surprised.
"Come on little fella"
The chick jumped in his arm, quick to climb his way to his head as he got off the bed to prepare for a new day.
He was curious to see how today was going to be like.
***
One day after the meeting, Eli was in front of his grandfather's house/shop with the rest of the core members and he was a bit nervous.
His sister said that their grandfather has some Pokemon too, and that they were older than the ones she and Aiden had, so he decided to check it out and see how they were.
He had to admit, he was a bit worried about their safety.
During the meeting, Aiden and Helena explained their experiences with the Pokemon, and, honestly?
He was extremely suspicious.
How safe flame spitting chimps and baby eagles that could send flying attacks could be?
They didn't come immediately because Eli and the rest of the core members wanted to learn as much as possible about the Pokemon they already had in hand.
And, actually, they weren't half bad.
Despite being clearly young, Sky had a strong offense and a defense that didn't fall behind.
Fiama was fast and agile, and really smart too, she knew when to and not to do something, especially if it's something that seemed to lead to trouble, asking first (in her own way) if it was ok, unlike Sky, who would jump into anything that looked like a challenge.
They were small and childish, but their attack could hurt, despite their age.
So yeah, when he heard that his grandfather had four of them, he got worried.
And he took the opportunity to look at the creatures with the help of the rest of the core members, along with his sister and brother-in-law.
So they entered.
The sound of a bell echoed as he opened the door.
"Welcome!"
His grandfather was there to receive them as he attended a customer.
But that was not what made him stop.
It was the creature standing on his shoulder.
It spoke to them, with a young voice.
Not young enough to be called a kid, but not old enough to be called an adult.
"Hello!"
Helena greeted the group with enthusiasm, along with Sky, who chirped happily.
"You look happy"
Aiden approached, Fiama was in his arms, both of them greeted the pair with a nod.
The creature's smile stiffened a little before it covered it with its wing, looking flustered.
"... You must be imagining things" It said.
But his grandfather wouldn't let the creature escape its doom.
"He's been like this since-"
"Look at the time! I need to tend my feathers! Goodtoseeyougoodbye"
The creature jumped from his grandfather's shoulder and proceeded to run away by jumping in any stable superficie capable of supporting his weight with such a grace that he could swear he saw Barbara nod in acknowledgement.
"Maverick!" His grandfather called.
But it was too late, the creature, apparently called Maverick, had already fled.
His grandfather let out a sight, a playful one, like he used to (and still do) when he and his sister did something that seemed amusing.
He turned to them with a small smile.
"He was happy all day after Penelope gave him a name" He explained "He have been introducing himself to every customer since we opened"
"It was harder amusing"
Eli stopped to look at the person whom his grandfather was talking to, and his eyes went wide.
"Aunt May?"
May Benedict, his grandmother's best friend (and practically sister at this point) that he and his sister saw as their aunt, was a chef, a well known one.
Well, hard not to be when you are one of the few with the Chef class.
She was the typical gossip lady of the neighborhood, she had a Karen hairstyle and a foul mouth when she wanted to, but when it came to food, she was a demon and an angel at the same time.
No one dared to starve of waste food on her sight.
But even with her attitude, visible wrinkles and clearly dyed hair, she was still in good form.
She smiled at them, green eyes full of vitality.
"Our little flower told me that she and her husband had some company now and I came to take a look" She said with a laugh and a slap in his grandfather's arm "That Maverick boy remind me of Richie when he was younger"
His grandfather seems flustered for a moment, coughing his embarrassment out.
Even though Friedrich Armstrong was the most famous Berserker in history, with a great number of awards and medals, he still got flustered and nervous around his sister-in-law.
"I was going to introduce her to the rest of everyone" He said "And I think you guys came to meet them too, am I right?"
Eli gave him a helpless look.
Was it that obvious?
Well, he might as well take the opportunity.
Then he just let himself be taken to the residential area, not knowing what to expect.
But he was utterly confused when a green thing flew to his face.
***
"This is quite good!"
Sunny and Lane's family were really startled when Rotom started to talk, Raff took a moment to notice that he didn't need his skill to understand him.
It was a pleasant surprise.
Rotom was now using his new Pokedex form, and Raff could tell that he liked it a lot.
"Give them an introduction!"
The Sister was excited, even though her body language didn't show it.
"I was going to!" The Rotom bickered.
He floated over to where Lillipup was, showing his back to her and the screen showed a picture of her.
"Lillipup, the Puppy pokemon, of Normal Type" He said "This Pokémon is courageous but also cautious. It uses the soft fur covering its face to collect information about its surroundings. It is far brighter than the average child, and Lillipup won't forget the love it receives or any abuse it suffers"
Well, she does seem an engenius one, but turns out it is a species trait?
Really interesting.
Rotom moved to the next, the Poochyena.
"Poochyena, the Bite pokemon, of Dark Type. It bares its large fangs and barks vigorously to try to intimidate opponents, but this is actually a manifestation of its cowardly nature. Poochyena pursue their prey in packs. Once the prey is exhausted, the pack finishes it off. But sometimes the prey retaliates, and the pack flees"
"Hey!" Said Poochyena snarled.
But the Rotom gave him no mind and proceeded to move to Houndour.
"Houndour, the Dark pokemon, of Dark and Fire Type. Houndour hunt as a coordinated pack. They communicate with each other using a variety of cries to corner their prey. This Pokemon's remarkable teamwork is unparalleled. To corner prey, they check each other's location using barks that only they can understand"
"It's like a secret language!" Lana said.
"I taught our pack how to understand barking!" Said the Houndour with pride before looking at Raff "And I'll teach you too!"
"It would be wonderful" He said as he patted the Pokemon.
The next in the line was Zorua.
"Zorua, the Tricky Fox Pokemon of Dark Type" Rotom introduced "It changes into the forms of others to surprise them. Apparently, it often transforms into a silent child. To protect themselves from danger, they hide their true identities by transforming into people and Pokémon"
She smiled before jumped high, spinning mid air and shining with a pink light, she grew in size and in the next moment they were staring at a second Lana bearing a mischievous smile.
He was surprised by that.
There was no physical difference between them.
Ha watched as Lana approached the Zorua, who mimicked her actions with perfection.
"It's impressive"
Sunny was completely mesmerized, Raff could understand the feeling.
He had seen a Beast with the ability to mimic other creatures, but not so perfectly.
Mimicking was one thing, but perfectly transforming into another being a whole new level of transformation.
"Her abilities are limited as a Zorua" Nature said "Being able to only transform herself, but once she evolve into a Zoroark, she will be able to create all kinds of livid illusions, be it around herself or others, and even mimic one's voice"
That was impressive, and much needed.
An illusionist in the battlefield was a wonderful ally and a terrible foe.
The Zorua jumps once again and transforms back to her original form mid air as she snickers.
Rotom then turned to the siblings.
"Raboot, the Rabbit pokemon, of Fire Type, it's the evolved form of Scorebunny. Thanks to its soft and fluffy fur, Raboot can easily heat up its fire energy and produce flames with more power. While it prides itself on its varied kicking moves, it can also deliver powerful headbutts once its flames have heated up its forehead"
"Wait" Raff said "Scorebunny?"
He saw the file of the recommendations, he knew Scorebunny.
But to say that Scorebunny and Raboot were related was quite surprising.
"Most pokemon evolve" The brother said "The evolution process can be quite drastic sometimes and change the pokemon completely, even the personality"
"We were so full of energy back when we were Scorebunnies that I don't even know how we are related" The sister added.
Nature chuckled at it, looking amused.
"Evolutions work a bit like Beasts and Demonic Beasts mutations" He said "They transform in a new being, and, sometimes, the evolution can affected the personality as well, in Scorebunny's case, the change in personality is a racial trait, while in some cases, like Charmanders, it has a chance of happening"
That made him curious.
"How does evolution work?" He asked.
With all this talk about evolution, he became increasingly fascinated.
Rotom explained it after rearing the question.
"Pokemon evolution is a very complicated thing" He said with crossed arms "The most simple type of evolution is strength based, once a pokemon reach a certain level of strength, that can vary from each pokemon, and they'll break the restrains of the former form, just like Scorebunny, Raboot and Cinderace"
The Rotom uncrossed his arms and showed three pokemon on his screen
A Scorebunny, A Raboot, and a third bunny that he assumed to be Raboot's evolved form, Cinderace.
It did have an interesting appearance.
"The next one" Rotom continued "Is the conditional evolution, were a pokemon needs to reach certain standards, like Rockruff, that need specific hours to evolve"
He showed a little puppy surrounded by three canines, each with a symbol that represents the day time they need to evolve.
"Or Espeon and Umbreon" Rotom added "Who need a high level of friendship and specific moments of the day to evolve, and Sylveon, who needs to feel affection toward its trainer, all different conditions and evolution even though they evolve from the same pokemon"
He showed a brown fox surrounded by eight fox-like creatures, all of with a name under them, so he soon found the ones Rotom mentioned.
"And with in this picture you can see the third type of evolution" Said the Pokemon "The resource related, this type of evolution require you to use a consumable to evolve a pokemon, like the rest of Eevee's evolutions, that need elemental stones"
He then showed all the stones by their corresponding evolution.
"Now we have the trading evolution!" He said "It's very commun for trainers to trade their pokemon with other trainers using a special machine that will give you the rights to use the PokeBall your pokemon occupies, put the process for some reason can also be used to evolve pokemons to a new form, like Poliwag, who have both strength and trading evolutions"
He showed the evolution line of Poliwag, who evolve to Poliwhirl and can evolve to Poliwrath by strength or Politoad by trading.
"Is recommended to make the trading process with a person you trust if you plan on trading your pokemon back to you" He advices "Many scammers can run after pretending to do a fair trade"
That made Raff nod.
It wasn't so far from beasts comerse, and the incident of the false tamed Demonic Beasts was proof of that.
"The last is a quasi evolution and is know as such since is temporary" He said "It's called Mega Evolution, it can achieved when a Trainer with a Key Stone and a pokemon in their final form with a Mega Stone of its species have a great relationship, then the pokemon can grow into a new form, but it consume energy, so they won't last forever"
Nature took the opportunity to approach and show the stone in his necklace.
"This a Key stone" He said "And my Audino, Faith, have an Audinonite, the Mega Audino Stone"
He then pointed to Houndour.
"Houndour can also Mega Evolution once he evolve to Houndoom" He explained "All you and him will need is a strong bond, a Key Stone and a Houndoominite, the Mega Houndoom Stone"
Rotom then showed the evolution line of Audino and Houndour, the least one having a symbol that looked like the stone in Nature's necklace, but with different colors.
And he had to admit, Mega Houndoom was cool as hell.
"But"
Nature gave them an apologetic smile.
"I don't have the materials necessary to some of these evolution right now" He said "It will take some time before we start to sell evolution consumables and mega and key stones, and I still need to receive the blueprints for the trading machine from my friend"
Well, that was disappointing.
He was imagining how cool it would be to appear in a fight with a hellhound-like canine.
But yeah, these things were stones, it must be hard to mine them.
And he saw crafters making blueprints, he wouldn't blame Nature's friend if they took long to make it.
"Hey boy"
He turned to the brother, now standing by his side.
"Didn't you want to ask something?"
He was confused for a moment, but then he remembered, turning to Nature.
"Can I see the orchard?"
Nature was a bit surprised by the question.
"I don't really mind" He said "But may I know the reason?"
"Raboot said me and my uncle smell just like this orchard" Raff explained "Elves and their descendants have the same smell of the World Tree, so I'm curious about this orchard of yours"
That made Nature pause, a conflict expression on his face.
"I… might not be able to show you the Orchard" He said "For safety reasons"
That made all adults immediately alert, he saw his uncle tense up.
But Nature soon waved his hand in a tentative way to calm them down.
"Don't get me wrong" He said quickly "The Orchard is not dangerous for any of you, well, maybe to Raff and Sunflower, but not in a bad way! I- I'm making things worse, aren't I?"
"Pretty much" The sister said.
He definitely was, Raff was a bit wary now, his uncle now had a hand in his spatial bag in his belt.
"Can't blame you thought" Said the brother "It's hard to explain without mentioning what you shouldn't, and it's also my fault, I was the one who mentioned their smell"
That just makes Raff more confused.
He watched as Nature sighted, rubbing a hand in his arm and not making eye contact.
"Yesterday I showed the Orchard for a few customers and talked about it, one them said to not tell anyone about one of the things we have there" He explained "He said that it would put the ranch in danger, that people would come to take it if I told others, so I thought 'Ok, I just need to not talk about it', but I forgot elves have good senses for life energy, and there's a chance of putting us in danger if I brought you there since that thing is the very reason why we can food all year along"
He paused, then added.
"And you might pass out with the overflow of life energy"
Oh.
Oh.
The guy has a treasure here with tons of life energy capable of probably knocking out a pureblood elf, and they were the ones asking to see said treasure.
It was like coming to the World Tree Guild and asking to see the World Tree.
If it was just Lane and his family, it would be fine since they couldn't feel life energy, but he and Sunny were of the elven race, they might discover exactly where the treasure was and steal it and consequently steal the food source the treasure provides.
Yeah… it was like going into the World Tree and trying to snatch the healing fruits under the guild's nose.
"I'm sorry" He said with a simple bow.
"We overstep the boundaries" Sunny said.
With a quick look, he saw how relieved Nature looked after their apology.
"It's ok" He said "But since I can't show you the Orchard, what about I show the Nursery? We have some eggs that are about to hatch"
As disappointed as he felt about not seeing the orchard, he got curious about the egg, and so did Lana.
"Yes!" They both said.