Prompt #44: The seeds planted long ago are finally beginning to sprout...


"Aggron? Aggron, where are you?"

Scratching his head as he continued to puzzle over exactly how one could lose a giant, metal-plated dinosaur, Steven poked his head into the last room of the house he hadn't checked.

When his search still came up empty, he sighed with a defeated shrug. He had been planning on training with Sidney that afternoon, and he knew Aggron wouldn't want to miss a chance to battle. But he certainly couldn't ask a pokemon that was nowhere to be found.

Very nearly ready to give up and ask Skarmory to be his sparring partner instead, Steven noticed Claydol had bobbed up to his side with a quiet whistle.

"You wouldn't happen to know where Aggron went, would you?"

He had been expecting an answer in the negative, so when Claydol's eyes slid toward the door leading to the backyard, Steven found himself nearly laughing as the realization dawned.

"Right, the garden! How could I forget?"

After thanking Claydol for its wisdom, Steven quickly made his way outside. The porch door swung wide, and the sight that greeted him was equal parts amusing and endearing.

Hunched over on all fours was Aggron, pressed so close to the ground that its snout was mere inches above the dirt. It was quietly rumbling to itself as it inspected the garden, sweeping its massive head side to side over the different patches of soil. The handwritten signs at the corner of each plot were purely for Steven's sake; Aggron would never forget which berry it had planted where with the utmost love and care.

Since they had moved to Mossdeep, Aggron had lamented the lack of rich soil in which to plant berries and trees. The island was simply too rocky to support more than the basic mosses from which it earned its name. Sure, there were the mangrove stands in the salty shallows at the south of the island, but Aggron was never that fond of the ocean, and berry trees didn't like the saltwater anyway. So to appease the gentle giant, Steven had carted nearly a ton of fresh, loamy topsoil to his house and arranged a private garden just for him.

It had been just over three weeks since Aggron planted the first berries, and it had checked on the garden nearly every day, like clockwork. Thus far, there hadn't been anything more to do than simple weeding and watering and waiting.

But as Steven watched Aggron's latest sweep, it gave a startled snort and froze in place, lowering its nose even tighter to the soil. At the comical motion, Steven raised a hand to his mouth to stifle the laugh that threatened to spill, lest it break Aggron's intense concentration on the object poking out from the dirt just in front of its snout.

A single slender shoot had found its way up from the ground, and it gently danced in the breath from Aggron's nostrils. The gigantic steel type was staring so intently at the seedling that Steven feared that it might instantly burst into flame even though Aggron didn't know any fire type moves.

Thankfully, he didn't need to have any water on hand, as Aggron quickly rose on its hind legs and plucked the watering can from its side. Gently dousing the soil and seedling alike, Aggron was back on all fours watching as the water soaked into the ground.

Steven watched for a moment longer to see if Aggron would grow tired, but it stayed transfixed on the small sprout, the tip of its tail twitching every now and again. With a smile, Steven shook his head and went back inside the house. He'd have to ask Skarmory after all; there was no way he would get the overprotective steel type to give up the watch over the precious new life sprouting up from its garden.