The little guys had been small enough for Leo to hold in the crook of his arm before, but after a mere three weeks that had changed.
Still though, if winter was coming early, then the slowpoke may not have enough time to grow big enough to survive before the snowstorms hit.
…
“Right, let’s double check everything,” Leo muttered, turning away from that train of thought and glancing at the sky to judge the time.
The sun was just starting to rise over the mountaintops, the long, early-morning shadows slowly fading and warming the cool mountain air.
A fine layer of dew dusted the ground, and Leo shivered, glancing at his long-dead firepit.
At least he’d slept well last night, even if it meant he’d let his fire die.
“Ok, skarmory feathers, check,” Leo muttered, glancing at his trio of skarmory feathers laid to his right, next to all of his other supplies.
They still hadn’t seen overmuch use, but he’d keep ahold of them just on the off chance he’d need them.
Plus the longest one made for a good makeshift axe.
“Water bottle, check.
Fire starting supplies, check.
Whetstone check, atlatl check, bellossom leaf check,” Leo started listing off his supplies, shoving what could be carried in his pack, in his pack.
Last came food.
Potatoes, a pile of nuts, and a small portion of smoked fish – along with his first attempt at dried pidgey which turned out edible, but awful tasting – were wrapped in the remains of Leo’s tattered shirt.
It did him little good as clothing anymore.
“That’s everything though,” Leo said, scratching the back of his head once he was finished.
The only things that wouldn’t fit in his pack was the biggest of the skarmory feathers, and a walking stick he’d made out of the old spear haft.
He was travelling light on purpose, not that he had much to begin with.
“Nothing else I can really think of that I’d need.
The food will only last so long, but…”
Leo trailed off and looked to his right, at the slowpoke herd.
They were lazily dipping their tails in the river, taking advantage of how active magikarp were in the early mornings to eat a hearty breakfast.
Even the slowbro seemed more active than usual, happily splashing and swimming about in the river, snatching up the occasional magikarp.
“I’ll certainly miss you all.” Leo said somberly, shaking his head and hefting his pack, fiddling with the straps so it sat on his back better.
“And not just because of the food, you all were actually fun to be around,”
“Slooow,” one of the slowpoke called.
“Wish I could take one of you with me too, but I don’t think any of you want to go.
I mean, maybe Queen would, but…one does not just take a Queen from her people,” Leo said with a shrug.
“Bro,” a slowbro answered.
“Yeah, I’ll be back eventually.
Hopefully.
Bye,” Leo replied, waving weakly and heading off, following the river.
He made it maybe a mile before Slowking arrived, walking straight out of the forest and smiling at Leo.
“Surely, you did not believe you could leave without saying your farewells?” He asked teasingly.
“Of course not, but I wasn’t going to wait around for you either,” Leo replied without missing a beat.
Over the past near-month he had grown fond of the rather testy pokémon, it being his only real conversation partner.
He’d learned a lot about the world in that time, too.
Mostly about how human civilization was far less spread out than in his old world, probably due to the presence of superpowered animals.
“It is probably smart of you to get a move on so soon.
It will take a month for you to reach the nearest city, and another month further for winter to arrive.
That is but my best guess, however, and you do not want to cut it too close,” Slowking said, nodding.
Leo smiled at him and shrugged.
“That’s the idea,” he said.
“Good.
I would hate to see such a promising young man die due to stupidity,” Slowking agreed, and Leo laughed.
“I’ll miss you too,” he said.
“Goodbye, Slowking,”
“Farewell, Leo.
May you travel safely,” Slowking replied.
Leo grinned as he started walking once again, shrugging his shoulders.
“Safely?
Where’s the fun in that?”
…
The first few days of travel passed by mostly uneventfully, and he took to playing the bellossom leaf as he travelled, despite still being terrible at it.
His progress was hampered a small rainstorm on the second day, and by the third day he had run out of his dried meat which meant he might need to go hunting again, but overall things were looking pretty good.
The land around the river was relatively flat and easy to traverse, though sometimes the dense growth around more fertile parts of the river kept Leo from walking the riverbank.
The fifth day, however, held a bit of excitement.
It was early morning, and Leo had been splashing his face in the river when he’d heard something like a birdcall off to his left.
At first he thought nothing of it, until it called again, and he realized he had heard that call before – in his own world.
It was a light chirp, sharp and short, and was quickly followed by a longer yowl from his right.
Leo’s blood ran cold, his heartrate skyrocketing as he slowly shuffled away from the water’s edge, pushing his way into the dense willow brush he’d used for a bed last night and scanning the green foliage at the water’s edge.
That was the call of a mountain lion, and though no mountain lions existed in this world, he had an idea as to what this might be.
Persian.
The only other big cat-like pokemon he could remember from Kanto.
And, unlike in the games where Persian was mediocre at best, Leo knew better.
Big cats were probably the most lethal predators on Earth, stealthy, powerful, and faster than sin.
Thankfully if the two persian were talking they most likely weren’t hunting, but it still unnerved Leo.
He didn’t move that day until well into mid-afternoon, remaining perfectly still even as both bugs and bug pokémon crawled over him.
Seeing the venonat as it stepped between his legs would have been interesting, had it not been for his fear of the persian.
He could fight a fighting-type pokémon like hitmontop, who was looking for a fight rather than a meal.
He’d be lucky to survive an encounter with a predator like a persian, or an ursaring.
Leo may be stupid enough to fight a hitmontop, but he wasn’t suicidal enough to push his luck with persian.
Thankfully though, despite that setback, the rest of the day was uneventful.
The next day Leo tried to capture a caterpie that was just…sitting on a tree, and hadn’t really reacted when he approached.
Until, that is, it shot him in the face with string shot after he’d grabbed it.
Needless to say the bug got away and Leo spent the rest of the morning trying to get the sticky string off of his face and out of his hair.
That also cemented the idea he’d originally had in his mind about a partner pokemon – no bugs.
They were disgusting creatures anyway, despite how he ate them.
On the seventh day Leo found the first sign of human civilization he’d seen since arriving here, besides Archibald Oak of course.
It was a small building constructed on the edge of another lake – much smaller than the previous one, but still fair in size – and crumbling.
It had probably been a cabin at some point, but the rotting wood and collapsed ceiling made it utterly useless.
Even when Leo had searched the interior for anything of value he had found nothing.
Bits of pottery or plates, a fork rusted beyond belief, and nothing else but rotten wood.
Still, it was reassuring in a way, and Leo decided to spend the night at the lake.
So he hunted the rest of the day, managing to kill a sentret that he skinned and cleaned, making sure to keep the gut pile far away from where he’d be sleeping, and roasted it over a fire while staring up at the full moon.
The band of stars that stretched across the sky was nothing short of phenomenal – the full beauty of the night sky unhindered by pollution of his old world.
Were there even any satellites up there?
Would Rayquaza knock them down before they got into orbit?
For that matter, what other space pokemon were there?
…
A/ N: The Story Needs More Power Stones 😉