The Pidgey cooed, and Leo, laying flat on his belly watching the bird hop across the ground in search of seeds or bugs, cooed back.
This Pidgey had been hanging around him for the past few hours, noticeable by the almost reddish tint to its feathers that other Pidgey lacked, and Leo had decided now was a good time to bird watch, and perhaps make friends.
The Pidgey seemed indifferent to his calls for the most part though.
Sighing, Leo sat up, wincing slightly as his back twinged in pain from his fall with the Geodude a day ago.
He hadn’t even found any flint, either.
Thankfully the Slowpoke were still fishing their hearts out, providing Leo with enough easy food.
He honestly didn’t know what he’d do without them.
Though speaking of food, Leo eyed the grasshoppers that buzzed and flew through the air every time the Pidgey got too close.
It had been a bit of a discovery for Leo to realize this world had actual bugs like Earth, not just bug pokemon.
The small, normal-sized and shaped bugs were a staple food source for many critters, and important for the ecosystem.
Pokemon were just…too big to fill that role, Leo figured.
Ever so slowly, Leo reached out and snagged one of the locusts that had been lounging on a grass stalk just in front of him.
It was…time for lunch, and Leo figured he should at least try to eat the bug.
He’d heard somewhere that grasshoppers were excellent sources of calories.
“Through the lips, over the gums, look out stomach – you’re not gonna like this,” Leo whispered, trying his hardest to ignore the buzzing in his hand as he, in one swift motion, popped the grasshopper in his mouth, bit once filling his mouth with disgusting bug juices, and swallowed.
This was immediately followed by gagging and retching that echoed throughout the meadow, startling the Pidgey and causing it to shoot off into the air with an annoyed squawk and the flapping of wings.
“That was vile,” Leo hissed through his teeth, holding the back of his hand to his mouth and fighting back the urge to vomit.
“I’ll probably just stick with ants.
At least they just taste like salt,” this was a fact Leo could attest to, as he had eaten quite a few ants when he was a kid.
His brother had dared him to, so he did, and lo and behold he liked the taste.
“I want a hamburger.
And chicken, or fruit,” Leo said wistfully.
His diet almost exclusively consisted of nuts and fish, neither of which were seasoned and thus, bland.
Plus he had to go through a lot of work just to get a few pine nuts.
It made him really appreciate the ease of access for food in his previous world, which brought him around to thinking about proper nutrition.
Leo did have a few concerns about the variety of his diet and whether he was getting all the proper nutrients, but again, there was little he could do.
Maybe if he understood what plants were edible or not he could do something about it, but he didn’t, so the point was moot.
Glancing at the sky next, Leo frowned.
The temperature was already starting to drop despite it being midday, and on the horizon sat ominous grey clouds.
A storm was coming and he didn’t really have any real shelter from it.
There weren’t any convenient caves nearby, no rocks to hide under, and his trick with the pine needles to keep warm wouldn’t really help with staying dry.
Leo rubbed his chin, trying to think of something that might help…
The meadow in front of him was useless, and the tall pines weren’t really helpful either.
Further down the river was a bunch of willow-like bushes, dense green things with heavy, almost minty-smelling leaves that could probably provide some cover, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to crawl in there after watching an Spinarak scuttle its way in the bushes earlier.
Leo shuddered just thinking of the massive green spider.
He may have gotten over his fear of spiders years ago, but that didn’t mean he liked the horrific creatures.
Much less one that was a foot in diameter.
I wonder how Spinarak tastes…Leo thought randomly before shaking that image out of his head.
He had almost imagined the Spinarak like a land crab, and though he’d heard of people eating the massive bird-eating spider in his old world, he wasn’t quite desperate enough to follow suit quite yet.
No, his top priority was to find shelter from the storm, and, as he tended to do now, he turned to the Slowpoke for help.
On the other side of the river bank was the Slowpoke herd, having crossed over sometime the previous night, and were hanging out next to a rocky outcropping, sunning themselves on the rocks and lounging in the shallow waters.
The rocks could be an option, but that would mean crossing the river.
The murky waters didn’t look dangerous, and the current wasn’t fast, but Leo wanted to avoid that if at all possible.
He didn’t know why, really, he just didn’t want to cross the river.
Besides, the rocks wouldn’t keep him dry, they’d just shelter him a bit from the wind – thus, useless.
“Slooow,” one of the Slowpoke called, yawning immediately after.
The rest of the herd yawned as well, almost like it was choreographed.
Leo bit back his own yawn, the effort making his eyes tear up.
“Right, let’s go take a look around, see what I can find,” Leo said, standing up slowly and gingerly.
His knee popped painfully as he stood, and he grimaced.
“Should be fun,” he told himself through gritted teeth, and moved off into the forest.
After about an hour and a half of searching, during which time he ran across a colony of Oddish led by a foul-smelling gloom that had eyed him warily, Leo stumbled across a god-send.
A copse of trees at the base of the mountain, about a mile from where Leo had last seen the Slowpoke herd, stood tall and dense, but most importantly, they were of a different species of tree than Leo had seen around.
Aspens and tall pine were common, but the grove consisted mostly of a blue-spruce lookalike with big bushy branches that bent and touched the ground, completely covering the base of the trunk.
And when Leo pushed aside the branches it revealed a completely covered area free of tree branches that Leo could easily lay underneath and ideally stay dry.
“Finally, some more good luck,” Leo breathed in relief, smiling to himself.
He hadn’t found a good stone to help him start fires yet, nor was the hand drill method working, so he was glad something else had gone right.
Plus this grove consisted almost entirely of these same trees!
So if he got bored of the first tree, then he could move!
It was a good thing he found the trees, too, because not an hour later, while he was busy trying to find a good whetstone for his knife along the river, it started to rain.
Leo pocketed the smooth river stone he had been examining, squinting up at the sky as it began to drizzle.
He could still see sunny skies to his left, in the direction the storm was heading, but to his right was nothing but increasingly dark storm clouds and the rumbling of thunder.
Leo sucked in a deep breath, enjoying the scent of rain and letting the misty droplets slick his hair.
“Gotta love a good storm,” he said, trying to remain upbeat as he headed back to his tree, sliding underneath the branches and laying still, pleased to see he was right, and that he was being kept dry for now.
He’d have to see if that stayed true if the rain picked up, but for now he remained hopeful.
After a few moments of watching the rain through the branches, Leo pulled out his knife, flipped it open, and pulled out the stone he had grabbed.
He didn’t know if it was the right coarseness to get the best edge, but the blade was dull enough as it was, so anything would help.
The sound of metal scraping against stone filled Leo’s ears for the better part of an hour, at the end of which his knife was a fair bit sharper than it had been.
Left with not much else to do as the temperature continued to drop and the rain picked up, Leo pulled a few of the branches aside to watch the rain.
Most critters seemed to have the same idea as Leo and were hiding, but some had different plans.
Five Wooper came waltzing out of the river, shaking their little blue bodies in the rain and happily skipping about, shooting jets of water and globs of mud at each other as they played.
Lei chuckled quietly as he watched their antics.
They traipsed about for a while, whooping and playing and shuffling in the mud.
Leo noticed one digging up plants and chewing on something just a little ways away from the river, which he made a mental note to check out when it stopped raining.
But they didn’t stay out for long, and vanished back into the river just as quickly as they had come.
Then another brilliant idea he should’ve thought if earlier flashed into Leo’s mind and, shuffling through his backpack, which he had stowed beneath the tree before the rain hit, he procured his water bottles, filled with murky river water as they were.
Leo promptly dumped those out and placed them beneath streams of rainwater pouring from the tree he lay under to fill up.
There, he thought with a small smile, laying down.
Now I have something to drink besides river water.