Gothitelle, now known as Margô, proved to be a great company on her first day in the mansion.
She helped him clean the house and do the rest of the chores so quickly that they soon found themselves with nothing to do, so they stopped for some tea and chatted calmly, using her powers to write in a notebook to talk to him, she also showed him a few receipts using the berries they bought.
No need to say much, they soon started to try a few things using the ingredientes of the mansion and the ones they bought.
When it came the night, Margô went to her Poke Ball by herself after a simple bow and they both went to sleep.
On the next day, they woke up at the same time, surprising each other before they properly started the day.
Nathan was surprised to discover that Goban was up already when he left Margô preparing the breakfast and went up to knock on his door.
He suspects the cause to be the young pokemon in his head.
The little thing seemed so happy and proud, he couldn't help but chuckle.
It was a great morning, and, consequently, a great day.
***
It was a terrible day.
Abigail returned to Golden Lion with her party, and they were all interrogated the moment they set foot on the guild.
It was nothing but stressful.
("Fuck you mean they have a deity?"
"They don't have a deity"
"Then what do they have?"
"They have four deities"
"Like it's any better!")
She still had a headache from the previous day, and the buzzing of the phone wasn't doing any better.
All she honestly wanted was a cup of that tea she had at the ranch.
But she had work to do.
Today was a busy day.
***
"So pokemon came from eggs?"
It was quite surprising since most look like mammals, they actually come from eggs.
The boy had brought them to the Nursery, a place with many eggs, most practically identical to each other, in incubators.
An Audino that he assumed to be Faith, if the Mega Stone in her necklace was any indicative, was touching one of the eggs with the strange tendons under her ears, and a giant horse was laying anxiously on the ground.
Rotom was quick to give an introduction.
"Mudsdale, the Draft Horse pokemon of Ground Type, the evolved form of Mudbray. This Pokémon has been treasured not just for its physical labor but also because it produces high-quality mud used for making pottery. Its legs are fortified with mud and harder than stone, and they can reduce a large truck to scrap with one kick"
It was a good introduction, but Sunflower chuckle while seeing the giant powerhouse fuzzing over a single egg.
"Audino, the Hearing Pokemon of Normal Type. Audino's sense of hearing is superb. Not even a pebble rolling along over a mile away will escape Audino's ears. This Pokémon has a kind heart. By touching its feelers, Audino can gauge other creatures' feelings and physical conditions. And a little bonus, no mana is used on the process"
Now that was an outstanding ability.
To identify the physical health of a person one needs to flow their mana through another's body, but mana can be a double-edged sword, as mana intoxication can be a great problem.
The excess of mana in the body will cause mana intoxication and will paralyze the body until all that excess is expelled.
Even healing can cause mana intoxication if not cautious enough.
Lana immediately darted to the Mudsdale the moment she saw his enormous figure.
Said Mudsdale acknowledged her presence and soon started to worry for the egg and the little girl trying to climb him.
"Lana!"
Lane was quick in taking her away and apologizing to the Pokemon and the boy, who chuckled and waved it off.
"That happened everyday" He said "It's just that his been more used to pokemon children by now"
He waited a moment for Faith to take away her feelers from the egg to give a proper introduction.
"Faith is one of the main healers of the ranch" The boy explained "And Fergus help taking care of the children, but he also like to help in the Nursery"
They watched as Faith used her notebook, Sunflower was a bit stunned by the fact that she was writing, but decided to ignore that in order to read what she had to say.
(The egg will hatch in a few moments, would you like to see?)
She wrote in cursive, and by the World Tree, her calligraphy was beautiful.
He knew many elves who couldn't write as beautifully and would be so jealous.
Cough! Cough! Sister.
Ahem!
Back to the point.
Raff agreed in a heartbeat, Lana didn't know cursive very well, so her father explained to her the situação, and she too agreed.
"She can tell when the egg will hatch too?" Yuko asked, surprised.
"Audinos feelers are as sensitive as their ears" The said "And Faith is extra sensible, she can even tell what Pokemon will be born from the egg"
(It 's an Axew!) She wrote.
Rotom also gave showed them what it had about the species.
"Axew, the Tusk Pokemon of Dragon Type. This Pokémon lives in nests that are made in the ground. People in ancient times used its tusks as cooking knives. If you see peculiar teeth marks on boulders or trees, it means an Axew is likely living nearby"
"A dragon?" Sunflower said surprised.
"More or less" Said the boy "They Are classified as Dragon Type, because they are dragon-like in some aspects, but some dragon types don't really look like dragons, and some pokemon are not Dragon Type even though they look like dragons"
"Like Charizard!" Rotom said.
It showed the picture of a Charizard and it, indeed, looked like a dragon, but its types were Fire and Flying.
How curious.
But he was still amazed about Audinos abilities, and intended to ask more.
Bit didn't had the chance.
Because the egg started to glow.
***
May was harder amused by the pokemon, or so they were called.
She had come to see them personally after she saw them in her daily video call with Penelope.
Sure, the Maverick boy gave her a scare when he first spoke, but he proved to be a great company, just like Richie did when they first met, even though it was for different reasons.
She had met the monkey, Cedar, he was a fuzzy little thing that had a good rhythm and a green thumb, like Penelope has always been.
The goat, Faun, was stealing vegetables in the garden, the little glutton, just like she used to do when she was young.
And Lyka, the big mutt-like wolf, with a sharp tongue and good muzzle and ears for drama, just like the three of them have from time to time.
They were a good company.
And now she kind of wanted one for her.
"For the last time May" Richie said with a sigh "You can't take Faun with you"
"But you would still have three!" She bickered "I want a little guy for me too! And I'm a chef! I'll make everything he wants to eat!"
Penelope was laughing, Helena's friends and Maverick (Seated in Penelope's recycling chair's arm) were watching from the side with lost expressions, Eli was hiding his face in his hands, Aiden was offering his little chimp, Fiama, and Cedar a few berries (She tasted some and absolutely love it, she will buy them in a bulk latter if she can), said monkeys was sitting happily in his arms like nothing was happening around them while Helena, her baby eagle, Sky, and the very cause of that discussion, Faun the goat, where eating all the snacks in the table.
Lyka was just chilling, watching the circus burn from his bed by Penelope's reclining chair side and eating his food (it was a pebble-like thing, she tried after he offered, it was actually good).
He seemed satisfied with the show.
"That's make me think of when Eli started talking" Penelope said to Helena's friends "He once ran to her asking for food and she tried to steal him, Richie chased her across half the city"
As his friends chuckled at the revelation, Eli tried to bury himself in the sofá.
"Just share custody already" Lyka said at some point of the discussion.
Both stopped their discussion, none of them missing how Maverick asked Penelope what 'custody' means.
They stared at each other for just a few seconds.
"All on weekends?" She asked, knowing well he wouldn't agree with more.
"Deal" Was his response.
She then turned to the crowd, the children had their eyes on her.
"You brats will stay the weekend with aunt May!" She said "Fiama, Sky and Maverick included!"
"Excuse me!?" Maverick said, offended, as Lyka cackled.
"Ok" Helena accepted without hesitating while stuffing a cookie in her mouth.
"I expected this" Aiden said calmly.
Rest of the children cried out in acknowledgement, making May smile.
Good old aunt May would show how good she was with kids, regardless of the species.
"I am no brat! I'm nineteen!"
Or age.
***
Witnessing the birth of a pokemon was something really amazing.
More amazing was the fact Faith was right.
An Axew was born from that egg.
And the little boy had attached himself to his leg.
"He seems to like you Sunny" Raff commented with a smile, his new little gang snickering at jis situation.
"Yeah" Sunflower said helplessly "Its seems so"
He had been trying to separate the pokemon from his leg for some time, it even gave Lane time to pay for everything and return.
He looked down at the pokemon with eyes full of uncertainty, and the Axew looked up at him, eyes full of expectation.
When the Pokemon first attached himself to his leg, many thoughts passed through his head.
Why is he so small?
Isn't he too cute to be associated with a Dragon?
Is that how Raff felt when one of the beast cubs got attached to him?
Was he a father now?
That overwhelmed him a little.
He couldn't take the kid.
It's not like he didn't want the little guy, it's just that he really didn't have any beast core on him at the moment.
"Nate?" He called for the kid "Can you help me here?"
The kid was holding his laughter as he approached.
"Sorry" He said, voice failing him a little "Axews tend to be very amicable"
"I can tell"
He watched as he crouched and started to make the same cries the Axew made.
Oh, so he didn't just understand, but also talked in their language?
They chatted for a while and the Axew reluctantly let go of him and came to Nate, who picked him up calmly.
But then he showed a more serious expression.
"Can we talk in private for a moment?" He asked.
Sunflower halted a little before nodding.
Nate left the Axel with the kids (much to Lana's delight) and Yuko and brought him to the café where Lane were waiting.
The boy was direct on what he wanted to say.
"Mister Lane mentioned that you guys are part of a guild" He said.
"Yes I am" Sunflower confirmed "I am World Tree's guild master"
The boy nodded after his answer, before hesitating a little.
"To be honest" He started "I found a problem about the ranch that me and my friend weren't expecting, and it's related to hunters"
Sunflower cringed at tge information.
Hunters were without a doub the best force of any empire.
They are strong, agile, smart, and capable a various fields, but they tend to cause a lot of trouble.
World Tree was fine, his guild had strict rules about behavior, so not many are willing to risk their carries because of a atitude problem, and Soaring Sky was actually pretty good, he met the knew guild master and her council, as brutal as they might look, they did a job not only by keeping their people in check, but also stoping other guilds when they started to cause trouble.
But the problem was Golden Lion, the noble playground.
They were the most problematic guild in all four empires, but since the guild master is part of the royal family of the Golden Empire, no one other the Emperor himself can do anything to stop them.
So he wasn't surprised when Nate gave an explanation to what happened.
"A group of Hunters overestimated themselves, I think they were from a guild since they all had the same golden lion on them, they came here to fight Demonic Beasts and lost their way after being chaced by some High level Demonic Beast, for their luck, some pokemon where passing by, but the next group might not be as lucky"
That was definely something he expected from Golden Lion, but it still make him sigh.
A high level Demonic Beast?
That would be complicated.
"So you want our help to eliminate the Demonic Beasts?" He asked.
That wouldn't be that hard, but to gather and convince people to participate on an extermination quest on the Tide Hill, would take time and patience.
Would the boy even have the money to pay for a quest of this magnitude?
He was starting to imagine how much it would cost and how many people he would need when his line of thought was interrupted.
"No"
He stopped, mind went blank.
It took him a few moments to recover.
"Excuse me?"
The boy smiled a little at that.
"Some of my pokemon can deal with Demonic Beasts" He said "Eliminating the Demonic Beasts is the same of cutting short part of our food supply, we need them to feed the carnivorous pokemon, what I wanted help with is something more simple"
Sunflower watched in disbelief as the boy took a map from his fanny pack, opening it on the table.
It was a map of Tide Hill's whole extencion, a very detailed one to be honest, it showed the forest area, less covered areas and even where the Demonic Beasts were moving.
"I wanted to surround the are of the hill with fortified fences and signs to notify the Hunters about the Demonic Beasts" He said "Putting a barrier to lock them in would make them agitated, and there's no way I'll be able to sustain it, I'm already having to deal with the barriers and arrays inside the Ranch, the cost of something of this magnitude will deplete my reserves in less than a month"
Sunflower was still dumbfounded with everything when the boy took something more from the fanny bag.
"I can provide food, shelter and protection for free for as long as it's needed since I'm the one asking for the help" He said "And, as a payment, I can give you this"
It was a piece of skin.
But not any skin.
"Is that Thunder Cat pelt?!" Lane hissed by his side.
The pelt was perfectly processed and preserved, its vibrant yellow fur with black stripes was as stunning as the one he had sawn a decade before and with an unmistakable static energy emanating from it.
It was the pelt of a Thunder Cat, an S rank Demonic Beast by birth, but could rank up depending on the environment.
It wasn't as strong as many S rank, but it moved so fast and its electric attacks were so precise that made it extremely difficult to kill or run unharmed, but its pelt could be used to make a cout that gave a gigantic boost in agility and thunder magic.
Just the pelt, without adding bones, fangs or even claws, could sell for more than billion if put in audition.
That is, if it was an S rank Thunder Cat, if it was above, it might go to the trillion house.
Many guilds, even the smaller ones or the ones from other empires would try their luck to get it.
And yet, this boy was offering such a treasure for a quest of putting fences.
More unbelievable was what he said next.
"I have many materials from the Demonic Beasts my pokemon had hunted, I will give them to you as payment, well, minus the meat, the children need it"
"There is more?" They both said at the same time.
Just the Thunder Cat pelt could pay for everything, it was even too much considering that the boy was offering food and shelter during the whole quest, not mentioning protection.
What kind of protection would they even receive?
"Tapu Koko and Tapu Fini had been hunting all kinds of Demonic Beasts in the last two years" The boy said "Taku Koko go out more them Tapu Fini, and he is used to scouting the area with some rescues, he's fast enough to cover the hove area of the hill"
Well, apparently, they would receive protection from the same thing that killed the Thunder Cat.
Now he had recalculated the value.
But that wasn't nearly the start, they would still need many hours of proper negotiation, reunite the people, prepare transportation…
It would be so much work…
But he did have an idea.
"Hey kid, what about we do like this…"
Things were going to be interesting.