The furrett scrabbled in the dirt, the weasel-like pokemon digging up nuts and mushrooms and munching on them happily.
Leo watched from his spot up in the pine tree, lounging like a panther on a thick branch ten feet of the ground.
One arm dangled over the branch, his opposite leg hanging down as well, while his chin rested on his other hand – eyes watching the wildlife that passed below.
The furrett, so far, had been his most frequent companion, and he found watching the playful creature to be a blast.
Everything seemed to be a game to it.
Even when it would pick up a pinecone to dig at the nuts hidden inside, it would flip it around and toss it in the air, playing with it like a ball or something.
Then it would race around trees, seemingly chasing its own tail, scrabbling up and down tree trunks and rolling in the dirt; just having a grand old time.
Every once in a while another pokemon would appear, mostly rattatta or various bird pokemon, and the furrett would go charging off, chasing the pokemon in what appeared to be an impromptu game of tag.
A game only the furrett seemed to be playing.
Had it not been a game, Leo was sure the pidgey it had pinned to the ground earlier would have been killed or eaten, not set free with a proud swish of the furrett’s tail.
Speaking of pidgey, off to his right a pidgey chirped and Leo whistled back, the noise catching the furrett’s attention as it looked up, holding a half-destroyed pinecone in its paws.
It chittered something and went back to work, bits and pieces of the pinecone flying everywhere as it tore it to shreds.
Leo hummed to himself, pondering the merits of taming a wild sentret or furrett.
Though in the games they were weak pokemon, he’d always held a soft spot for ferrets and weasels back in his home world.
Plus it would be great to have a companion that was more knowledgeable about foraging than he – they were sure to be able to find all kinds of goodies to eat.
Maybe they’d even find one of the famed berry bushes from the games, and wouldn’t that be great.
Leo missed fruit.
Unfortunately, it was doubtful he’d be able to tame this furrett.
If Archibald’s journal was anything to go by, it was far easier to tame baby or young pokemon, or, barring that, adult pokemon with the aid of another pokemon.
Which means he’d have to search for a young sentret, if he decided upon the furrett line.
“I’ll just keep my options open, I guess,” Leo yawned, sitting up and stretching.
The movement startled the furrett, who sat bolt upright and stared at Leo with wide, unblinking eyes.
Leo waved at it with a smile, grabbing the branch with both hands and dropping into a hang before letting go and hitting the ground with a thud.
By the time he looked up the furrett was gone, pinecone forgotten as it scrambled off.
Leo laughed, scratching the back of his head and walking away, his torn shirt billowing annoyingly in the gentle wind.
He’d have to find a replacement for it soon.
Maybe he’d try making a grass shirt, right around the time he wove the hat he’d been promising himself he’d make for…well a long time.
How many days or weeks had it been now?
“Problem is that I can’t make anything better than that.
I have no idea where to start with tanning a hide, and I still haven’t successfully hunted anything yet,” he said with a frown, shoving his hands in his pockets.
“Should probably get on that last bit,”
A pidgey, different than the one he’d just been whistling to, as evidenced by the shortened length of its tail feathers and smaller body, flitted onto a tree branch in front of Leo.
It chirped and Leo responded with another whistle, to which it whistled back.
Leo grinned at it.
“What about you, huh?
Want to be my pokemon partner?
I can help you find food – well, not really, but the point stands,” Leo asked.
The pidgey just cocked its head to the side and chirped again before it flew off in a furious beating of its wings.
“Thought not.
Why would you?
You’re probably wondering what this funny looking two-legged is even talking about.”
With another sigh, Leo shook his head and continued on, no destination really in mind.
…
Leo fumbled with the long blade of grass, watching the sunflora out of the corner of his eye as he tried to mimic the way they formed the grass whistle.
He folded it length-wise, and tried to curl the edges into a dome to blow on it, but nothing seemed to work.
He scowled and tossed the coarse blade of grass, plucking another, shorter one, and attempting to blow on it.
He glanced one more time at the sunflora, who were happily blowing away on their instruments now, pulled the blade of grass taut and tried again, blowing on it length-wise.
When a sharp whistle sounded out, Leo grinned happily.
Then he flinched and leaned back behind the bush he had been using as cover, watching the sunflora through the branches.
They glanced his way for a moment, then cooed softly to one another and continued to play with their whistles.
Leo let out a breath, relaxing slightly.
He didn’t want to spook the placid creatures, watching them was quite a bit of fun, actually, though he held no real hope of befriending or taming them.
Maybe if he could find a sunkern, but at that point the real question was how much kelp a sunkern could actually be.
He’d seen the tiny pokemon around, and doubted their usefulness in his situation.
Leo shrugged and turned back to the sunflora, peeking around the bush and listening to the tune they were playing, trying to memorize it.
He hummed along to the tune, tapping his leg with one hand as if adding a drum beat, as his eyes tracked a few hoppip as they floated through the blue skies on a gentle breeze.
Soon enough the sunflora quit their playing and turned to face the sun, their large yellow faces basking in the noon-day sun’s rays.
Leo remained still for a few more minutes before slowly standing up and backing off, leaving the sunflora behind.
He supposed it was just about time for lunch and a nap, midday was perfect for naps, but first he had a whistle to play around with.
Muttering to himself as he walked, Leo blew on the blade of grass and recoiled sharply when it sounded much more like an animal cry than the musical tune the sunflora had been playing.
He frowned and tried again, blowing at different speeds and only succeeding at playing an intermittent noise.
A brief wind blew, making his torn shirt billow and flutter annoyingly.
“Harder than it looks,” he muttered, pausing in his walking to rework his grip on the grass, trying to work it again.
A few sharp, short blasts of noise later that were sounding increasingly like animal cries, Leo was broken from his focus by a sharp tug on his pants leg.
He looked down in confusion, freezing when he spotted the bellossom standing right next to him, smiling up at him and still gripping his pants leg.
Leo dared not move, but the bellossom had no such qualms.
With a simple motion it let go of his pants, reached down to its petal dress, and plucked off one of the leaves, offering the yellow leaf up to Leo.
Unsure of what else to do, he slowly reached out and grabbed it, eyes never leaving the bellossom, whose smile was unwavering.
The pokemon cooed softly, holding both hands beside its mouth and blowing softly.
Leo cocked his head to the side and glanced at the leaf, then back at the bellossom.
No way, he thought, realization as to what the bellossom wanted slowly dawning upon him.
He brought the leaf to his mouth and, holding it like he had been holding the grass, put his lips on it and blew.
At first there was no sound, so Leo readjusted his lips and tried again, this time a clear, ringing sound echoing out.
With a giggle the bellossom twirled, a soft ringing reverberating from it.
Leo gaped.
The bellossom laughed and, with a wave, wandered back to the small gaggle of oddish hiding poorly in a section of short grass.
Leo started walking again, slowly, glancing over his shoulder at the bellossom that was playing with the oddish now, paying him no heed.
He blew on the leaf experimentally again, rubbed his forehead, and groaned as he finally regained his mental faculties.
“That’s just…wow,” Leo murmured.
That bellossom showed a level of intelligence and understanding he had not been expecting, with a very simple action.
It opened up a whole new slew of possibilities to Leo, though he needed some time to process all this.
Really, he’d known that in the anime and such pokemon showed high degrees of intelligence at times, but he hadn’t been expecting it.
Up until this point, he’d only really seen the base “animalistic” side of pokemon.
Meaning they weren’t stupid by any stretch of the imagination, but they weren’t…human, either.
“Once again, I am shown how little I actually know about this place,” Leo muttered.
“I’m just bumbling about like a freaking child, aren’t I?”
…
A/ N: The Story Needs More Power Stones 😉