The mountain sloped gently upward from the cliff, pine trees covering the hillside and preventing much in the way of small plants from growing as they blocked the sunlight.
Off to his right was an aspen grove, the white-trunked trees grouped together densely.
Amusingly, no branches grew on the lower part of the aspens’ trunks, instead only growing near the top and giving the grove a whole “dark, evil forest” vibe as it cast the ground in shadow.
…
What caught his eye, however, was the few bushes that filled some of the space between the aspen and the pine, with pink…dots, covering the bush.
“What in the world?” Leo muttered, forcing himself up and taking a step forward.
He paused, and looked at the slowpoke.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back,”
Excitement surged through his veins as he got closer, a wild grin stretching across his face as he identified the dots as fruit.
Pink berries, to be precise, which made him think these were the titular Berries of the pokemon universe.
What kind he wasn’t sure, but who cared?
Berries!
Fruit!
Sugar!
Leo hastily plucked the fruit from their bushes, popping a few of the sweet, pink fruits into his mouth and relishing the sweet juices that exploded into his mouth with every bite.
He groaned in appreciation, watching between chews as a ledyba buzzed up, snagged a berry for itself, then flew away munching happily.
That made Leo pause in his eating, glancing down at his arms, where he had started placing as many of the berries as he could grab.
“I should be more careful,” Leo muttered, sniffing the air.
The sugary sweetness of the fruit wasn’t only confined to the berries themselves, the scent wafting through the air and filling the entire area with the smell of berries.
Heck, even one berry itself, when Leo raised it up and smelled it, smelled so sweet and delicious he had to eat it right away.
But that meant that if he could smell it, pokemon could as well, and they had better senses of smell than he.
The last thing he wanted to do was attract a hungry ursaring because he had a backpack full of berries.
That, however, didn’t stop him from stuffing his face and taking a fair amount down to the slowpoke to eat.
He’d ended up taking almost all the ripe fruit off of the bush because of it though, leaving the green and therefore unripe fruit be.
“Yeah, you like those don’t you?
Me too,” Leo asked, feeding the slowpoke berries one-by-one.
It smacked its jaws loudly as it happily munched away, licking Leo’s fingers in between chews to get berry juices off.
He smiled at the little creature and patted his own, full belly and smacked his lips, readjusting his sitting position and glancing up at the sun.
He’d sit here and rest a few more hours before moving on, after eating so much he was sure he’d want to get a nap.
A sudden warm, wet feeling around his hand had Leo jerking back, yanking his hand out of the slowpoke’s mouth as it sucked the rest of his berries out of his hand, juices running out of its mouth as it chowed down.
Leo made a face and flicked his hand, slowpoke slobber flying everywhere.
“Ew,” he said.
“Don’t do that again, you little monster,”
“Sloow,” the slowpoke replied, bits of berry falling out of its mouth as it did so.
Leo smiled fondly and scratched its head, looking back upstream as he hummed a little ditty to himself.
It’s amazing how far a little food can go in improving my mood, Leo thought to himself, leaning back and lying his head against the soft grass, tilting his grass hat so it shielded his face from the sun.
The sun was a little intense for him to sleep right here, so he’d retreat back into the trees eventually to take a nap, but for now he just wanted to enjoy the sunlight.
…
“It’s gotten colder,” Leo noted, pulling himself out of his debris pile – the pile of pine needles and other debris he made to sleep in almost every night – and rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm up.
His breath came out in white puffs.
“I mean, I know mornings are always cold, but not this cold.
Makes me wish I hadn’t let the fire die.
Though I hope this is just a cold front, and not the promise of something worse.
Pretty sure it’s still summer after all,” he mumbled, hopping up and down to get his blood pumping.
Behind him leaves rustled as his slowpoke companion crawled its way out of Leo’s bedding, the pokémon having served as a personal heater during the cold night.
After two more weeks of travel the slowpoke had gotten a little bigger and harder to carry, but conversely could walk further on its own and generated more heat at night.
Since the cold front had blown in, Leo appreciated the extra warmth.
He smiled when the slowpoke butted up against his leg, yawning heavily and blinking up at Leo with big, dopey eyes.
“I want to get an early start today, so it’s breakfast on the road.
The weather is worrying me,” Leo said, bending down and scratching the slowpoke behind the ears.
It let out another soft call and wandered towards the gently flowing river, about a hundred feet to Leo’s right.
With how far down they’d descended in elevation while following the river he shouldn’t have to worry about snow too much, and there still should be a month left until Slowking’s estimation of when winter would arrive, so he was feeling pretty good about the journey, all things considered.
Even if his pace had slowed significantly due to the baby slowpoke he ought to have plenty of time to make it to the city.
Not that he minded the pace.
Leo appreciated the slower pace, it was easier on his body and allowed him to gather more food, not to mention that caring for the little one was far easier than he had initially expected.
Maybe it was because it was a wild pokémon that it had to grow up relatively quick, but slowpoke was almost self-sufficient at times, even finding its own food every once in a while.
It still couldn’t fish, despite Leo trying to show it how, but he had faith the little guy would figure it out somehow.
“Still need to find a name for you though.
After I figure out whether you’re a boy or a girl,” Leo muttered, watching the sun rise over the snowcapped mountains, igniting the white tips with the colors of orange and yellow…
“Oh crap,” Leo said suddenly eyes flying wide open as he stared at the snowy mountaintops.
They were incredibly tall at this point, rising thousands of feet higher than Leo, to the point where the timber line could still be seen – trees ceasing to grow above it.
Back in his old world snow wasn’t uncommon on those kinds of peaks, even this time of year.
The problem was they hadn’t been white yesterday.
“Buddy, we need to go!” Leo called, grabbing his backpack and skarmory feather, rushing to where slowpoke had wandered off to.
Almost immediately he froze, gaping at the white creature that loomed over the little slowpoke as it sat at its feet, looking down at it with crimson red eyes.
A single, curved, scythe-like horn curled from the side of the canine’s head, and when it looked at Leo he felt his blood run cold.
An absol was not but inches away from his slowpoke.
He knew the lore of absol, he knew what its appearance could mean, and while a part of him was ecstatic at seeing one of his favorite pokémon of all time, he was now terrified.
“Um, can I help you?” Leo asked softly, taking a slow step forward.
The absol didn’t make a sound, simply turning and slowly walking further downriver.
After walking about twenty feet, however, it stopped and looked over its shoulder at him.
“Uh…” Leo said dumbly.
Did it…did it want him to follow?
It jerked its head downstream, and Leo swallowed thickly, setting his shoulders and trying his hardest to remain outwardly calm as he moved over to the slowpoke, opened his backpack, and convinced it to slip inside, where it shuffled around a bit and closed its eyes after eating one of the two potato things Leo had.
With a grunt of effort Leo slipped his bag back on, standing and gripping the hilt of his skarmory feather as he nodded to the absol.
It held his gaze for a moment, then promptly loped off downstream.
…
A/ N: The Story Needs More Power Stones 😉