It had been a while since I last saw Mesprit. After challenging the league and becoming the champion of the Sinnoh region, I was too busy to get to see her for a few months now.
But now that I had accomplished my goal, I was going to go tell her the good news, and see how she was holding up. Last I saw her, she was happy and at peace from gaining her new family and getting closure from her old one... I hoped she was still doing well.
I arrived at Lake Verity rather quickly, biking up from my house. I had only just got home the previous night and had been too exhausted from my journey home to have much of a celebration besides a hug from my mother before making my way to bed. I had decided if I was going to have any kind of celebration, I'd want it to be with Mesprit, and with Sage and Azurite as well.
Dauphine lounged in the water as I climbed off of her up onto the rock of Mesprit's cave. Strawberry squeaked excitedly from atop my head. She pulled on my ears to try and turn my head to the side. "Ow, ow! What's all this a-" I turned, and saw Mesprit.. "-bout..."
She didn't look like herself. She was smaller than normal- at least I didn't remember her being so small- and she was missing her red gems on her tails and head. She didn't seem to have noticed us arriving, as she was busy playing with a little plastic ball. I blinked at her, "Mesprit... what happened to you?" I said as I approached.
From the question she noticed me and jumped, looking up with wide eyes. "Waah!" she cried and jumped up, flying back into the cave away from me fearfully. From atop my head, I could feel Strawberry tilt her head and squeak in confusion. I could relate to that.
What was all this about?
I followed her into the cave and- to my intense shock- found that there was another Mesprit inside! I could tell immediately that this one was real Mesprit. However the smaller mesprit lept up into her arms, hiding her face into her chest. She whimpered fearfully, peeking back at me occasionally with large, watery eyes. Mesprit looked up at me from the small being in her lap. "Dawn!" She smiled brightly, "it's great to see you..."
Holding the small mesprit in her arms, she lifted off the ground and flew up to me, smiling welcomingly. "I know this must seem very confusing... let me explain." she said graciously before I could even get a chance to ask. "This is Joy... she's, well, my daughter... my pride and joy~!" Mesprit bounced Joy up and down, making the child squeal excitedly. Strawberry bounced excitedly on my head... I knew already that she was itching to play with the little thing.
Seeing Strawberry's interest, Mesprit gestured for me to come closer.. I took a few cautious steps closer and found the child no longer was afraid of me, an Mesprit easily slipped Joy into my arms. I blinked down at her curiously as Strawberry jumped down onto my shoulder to get a closer look. She sniffed at her. Joy was too busy staring back up at me with her large, amber eyes, to notice Strawberry. I gave her a gentle pat on her head, and she cooed at me softly in return.
"But.. how-"
"How is it possible?" Mesprit interrupted me with a sly grin. "To be honest, I had no idea I was able to have children... It's not like me or my brothers ever thought to have families..." she smiled at Joy softly, still cradled in my arms. "I mean, since there can only be three who possess the red chain, I didn't think having kids was something we'd ever be made to do... But, looking at Joy- I understand now." She flew up to us and placed a gentle hand on the child's head, resting over where her jewel would be if she had one. "She doesn't have the red chain.. she is not the embodiment of emotion either... she's just... a normal pokemon."
I smiled at that. "I'm happyto hear that... I think you'd be a great mother."
Mesprit smiled at me brightly. "Well, it's certainly something of a... learning experience." She giggled as Joy suddenly became restless, rolling out of my grin and- instead of falling to the floor- she slowly drifted down, floating around as if looking for something. Excitedly, Strawberry scampered down my leg and called up to the child from the ground. She chirped something excitedly, gaining Joy's attention. Joy smiled brightly and laughed, chasing after Strawberry playfully.
Mesprit and I watched them affectionately for a moment before I turned to her again. "How did Azurite and Sage react to her? I'm sure it was a surprise for all of you."
"Oh, very much!" Mesprit giggled, "When we realized I was going to have a baby, Azurite was so excited.. Of course he was," she smiled to herself in amusement, "he was ready to be the best dad ever... but we had no idea of what we were doing. I was worried, because I had no experience with this sort of thing... but! Sage was very interested, of course, so she did a bunch of research about it. It was thanks to her we knew what to do!" She laughed.
I couldn't help but laugh with her. I never would've guessed they'd go through something like this while I was away. "I wish I could've been here to help," I said, but Mesprit brushed it off.
"Oh, we were fine... together we were able to figure it out. And in the end, even though we were surprised, we're happy we had her... " As she spoke, Joy and Strawberry raced out of the cave, Joy giggling happily as she was too high up off the ground for Strawberry to tag her back.
We followed after them and made our way outside. To my amusement, Joy had discovered Dauphine still waiting for us on the shore, and she gently landed on the empoleons trident-shaped horns, peering upside down from them into Dauphine's face. Both blinked at each other in confusion, that is until Strawberry tackled Joy off her head. I gasped, but before they could both fall in the water, Dauphine lifted her wings up and caught them. She stared down at the two small pokemon in her hands and then looked over to me in mild annoyance and squawked.
"Alright you two! Let's stop messing with Dauphine!" I said with a laugh. Strawberry huffed and climbed back onto the rocky shore, but Joy just smiled at me cheekily, still sitting on her wing. She turned to smile back up at Dauphine, tilting her head curiously. To my surprise, my starter pokemon then smiled back down at her, finding the curious little child to be quite cute.
A psychic aura appeared around Joy and she was gently lifted up. Mesprit carried her back over and into her arms, where the child huffed and chirped up at her, but otherwise didn't struggle. "Maaa!" she cooed softly. Mesprit smiled at her and ticked her stomach, making her giggle.
"Dawn... we were going to go on a picnic." Mesprit looked up at me. "Would you like to join us? Azurite and Sage have surely gotten it all set-up by now."
I gasped, "of course! I would love to!"
So with that, we set off. Dauphine took me across the lake with Strawberry sitting on my head again. I returned Dauphine to her pokeball and we followed Mesprit into the forest to the west of Lake Verity. We didn't travel long before we came to a clearing, where a picnic basket was set up on a blanket and everything.
Sage was lecturing Azurite about something until we appeared in the clearing, where Azurite interrupted her to smile big and excited at us. "Mesprit! You brought Dawn with you! What a surprise!" He flew up to us, not noticing Sage's sigh and exacerbated smile. She smiled at me and flew up to us at a slower pace.
"It's so good to see you, Dawn! It's been so long- are you goign to stay for the picnic? Oh! I almost forgot! Have you met Joy?" Azurite crowded me with attention, reaching down to lift my hand up and shake it, giving me a very energetic handshake.
I laughed weakly and opened my mouth to reply, when Sage spoke over me. "Yup, she knows! And she's very interested in hearing what we've been up to these past few months!"
"Sage, she can speak for herself," Azurite blew raspberries at her and she did it back at him. From Mesprits arms, Joy confusedly tried to imitate them. "So! You're back- are you the champion yet?"
"Yes! I'm the strongest trainer in the entire region!" I said excitedly. Mesprit gasped in realization and shifted Joy in her grasp just so she could facepalm.
"I can't believe I forgot to ask!" Mesprit lamented.
"You've got other things on your mind, dear," Azurite said, flying up to her and taking Joy into his arms instead. "I'm sure she doesn't mind!" He gave her a little kiss on the cheek. The sight made happiness bloom in my chest.
"Not at all," I said softly.
The group of us settled down on the picnic blanket and talked softly together. After some time, I decided to let my pokemon out to relax together. Joy, curious of the new pokemon, wen't around to meet each of them. Everyone was amazed and curious about her, especially Giratina. After everybody was acquainted, Strawberry and Joy chased each other up and down Giratinas body, treating him like a jungle gym. He seemed rather amused, especially when Azurite decided to play along as well.
They all laughed and shouted happily, spooking all the combee and butterfree in the area. I laughed watching them. Azurite would pretend to fall and Joy would get confused- until he jumped back up and playfully tackled her. He tickled her, and then She would squeal and laugh, but then would huff about becoming 'it.'
Mesprit flew up and laid on my head, something she hadn't done with me in ages. She reached her arms down and hugged me. I blinked up at her. "It's really nice to have everyone together." She said softly. "I'm glad we still have this." I smiled and nodded.
Nothing else had to be said.