The Latios had not come down yet. Mel had given up on convincing it to come down after a few minutes and had set down the (now cold) bowl of stew next to the tree. She had changed into her pyjamas, opting to go to sleep and see if she could have more luck interacting with the legendary tomorrow. Her thin sleeping bag and the tent's groundsheet offered little padding, but the forest floor underneath was soft enough. Iona had joined her in her sleeping bag, and was already fast asleep.

'I wonder how to best approach this situation', she thought. 'It's not surprising that it is keeping its distance, and I guess that it not running away or attacking me immediately is positive'. It. Did it have a gender? As far as Mel knew, legendary pokémon often did not have genders (how did they even reproduce- mitosis?), but there were thought to be some exceptions. She could ask it tomorrow, but it would probably still ignore her, and pokémon could not talk anyway. 'What typing does Latios have again? It can clearly fly, so I guess it could be flying? Or was it dragon? Wait, it has a dual type if I remember correctly. So, dragon/flying then?'. She soon drifted asleep.

Io was sulking. After he had come to the conclusion that running away was futile (curse human technology!) he had flown himself to a sturdy tree branch. He made sure not to go so far that the human would think he was trying to escape, or she would probably lock him in that stupid ball to prevent him from escaping again. But up here, he could be angry in peace. Humans were not great climbers after all, and he doubted the Pikachu he had spotted would dare climb to him. The human had offered him food, but he had ignored her. While he was definitely hungry after his exhausting conversation with Lia, he simply refused to accept food from the human that captured him.

'Stupid human. Why couldn't she just have left me alone?!'. His stomach growled. The food she had offered him admittedly smelled pretty good. But he would wait until he could get something to eat himself.

The human had stayed awake for about an hour after letting him out. During that hour, he yearned to make himself invisible- an inherent ability of his species- so he could draw less attention, but he dared not to. The human was still keeping an eye on him, and if he suddenly disappeared she would probably think he was trying to escape. So he remained visible.

After the human had finally gone to sleep in a small tent, he made himself invisible and left the branch he was on. He made a mental note of the human's location, and took flight. He had to return well before dawn so the human would not recall him.

'Some Magikarp would be nice. I think a lake is a few kilometres north-northwest from here'. A quick glance at the stars told him to correct his course a bit, and a few minutes later a large lake came into view. Barely bothering to slow down, he dived in.

There were disappointingly few Magikarp to be found in the lake. The ones he did find were small and thin. He only caught a few, careful not to upset the ecological balance of the lake, and returned to dry land. 'How dare that human capture me while I am exhausted. She did not even give me a chance to fight back!'. He took a bite of his small prey, tearing into the dead Magikarp's meager flesh. 'I should have paid more attention to my surroundings'.

The latter was a thought he had had all night. In the end, he could blame the human all he wanted, but getting caught really was his own damn fault. He should have kept hidden better. He should have paid more attention to the sounds around him. He should have spent less time talking to Lia, no matter how much he missed her, so he would have had more energy to pay attention.

Lia!

She didn't even know he was captured. They only got to talk to each other a few times per year, on predetermined dates. After all, with the distance involved they both needed to focus hard on establishing and maintaining a telepathic link, even with the bond they shared as Eon twins. He knew it probably wouldn't work, but Io tried to establish a connection with his sister nonetheless.

He focused, ignoring the mostly-eaten Magikarp in front of him, and reached out with all the psychic force he could muster.

Nothing.

Io deflated. Predictably, Lia wouldn't expect a communication attempt so soon after their last one, and she was probably as tired as he was, if not even more so. As the slightly larger and older twin he had always had more energy, even if Lia was the more energetic of the two.

'Even if I could contact Lia, what use would it be? She can't un-catch me', he thought. 'I guess I just want someone to talk to… Heh. More so than the rest of this damn decade, anyway'. Io finished up the Magikarp and took off again.

He lazily circled in wide circles above the lake and nearby forest. 'Mum is supposed to visit soon at least. Maybe she can give me advice, or even free me!'. Io grinned slightly at that thought. If anyone could free him, it would be his mother. Well, his biological mother. 'Let's see… It's March now. The annual report is scheduled for May... that's two more months.'

Io was not looking forward to two entire months of being owned by some human, but unless he could somehow free himself he doubted he had a better option. 'Two months till mum comes. Eight months till I can finally see Lia again'. He sighed, and increased his altitude. It was a good night to fly, if just a little cold. The winter had not left completely yet.

He spent a few more hours flying at a relaxed speed, reminiscing about his childhood with Lia and their parents. After midnight he returned to the human's campsite, lying on the same branch that he left a few hours ago. He stayed invisible for now. He was still quite tired and wanted to get a few hours of sleep, and he did not want to be spotted in the open like this. He glanced at the human's tent. Maybe it was largely his own fault for not paying attention and getting caught, but that didn't mean the human was innocent. She had still captured him. She was still a human. And humans were always trying to gain power. Always using other humans and pokémon for their own gain. Lia would disagree with him on that, he knew. She thought humans were inherently good, bar a few exceptions. He missed her optimism.

He wondered what tomorrow would be like. As much as he wanted to keep ignoring the human, that might not be practical. For starters, if he wanted to be invisible without the human thinking he ran off, he needed to communicate that ability to her somehow (there was no way he would use something as personal as telepathy with her). If she wanted to put him in that stupid ball of hers again, he would also have to communicate his unwillingness. 'Fine. The bare minimum of interaction, then'. He guessed the human would travel somewhere (at agonisingly slow walking speeds), and would require him to follow along. Maybe he could find something better to eat than a scrawny Magikarp along the way.

With a few more hours until dawn, Io fell asleep.

Mel woke up to Iona gently rolling in her sleep. It was a bit chilly in their tent, and judging from how dark it still was the sun had just come up, so she opted to keep lying comfortably in her sleeping bag for a bit longer. She must have fallen asleep again, because when she opened her eyes again the light coming into the tent from outside was brighter, and Iona was standing next to her head, stretching her limbs and greeting Mel with a soft "Chaaa!".

"Hey Iona, sleep well?", she asked. The Pikachu nodded. "Are you hungry?". Another nod. Mel smiled and sat up. "So am I. Maybe that Latios will eat something today, hmm? Just remember, let's give it some space". Iona nodded a third time. Mel quickly changed into clean clothes and stepped out of the tent. Before she made breakfast however, she glanced at the tree where the Latios had presumably spent the night, only to find it empty. She started to panic slightly. 'It could have just flown to a different place to sleep, I should look around for a bit', she speculated. When she approached the base of the tree, she saw the food was untouched. Feeling slightly offended, she picked up the bowl and dumped the contents in a nearby bush. She looked up again.

"Hey, Latios? Are you there?". Nothing happened at first, but just as she was about to look around in other trees, she saw a shimmer of light coming from above her. She looked on in fascination as the Latios appeared, seemingly out of thin air, above her. It sent her a quick, slightly hostile, but mostly indifferent glance. 'It can turn invisible? Very interesting, though this will make it hard to keep track if he is still nearby. I should look further into this, maybe I could get a sample of its feathers and let uncle Jer take a look at it.'

Making a mental note to document this discovery later, she tried to make eye contact with the Latios. "I'm making breakfast, you are welcome to join us if you want!". With that, she turned around and walked back to her tent to prepare for a simple pancake breakfast. She should still have some ingredients for that. Applesauce could be used in place of eggs- carrying around eggs was quite impractical.

When they were just about ready, Mel yelled "Pancakes are ready", loud enough for the Latios and Iona to hear her. Iona came running towards her, almost tripping on her own legs, but the Latios did not react to her. Mel frowned a bit. 'Maybe legendaries eat less than other pokémon? Or, more likely, he is apprehensive of me. I'll save a few pancakes for him to eat later'. Mel frowned slightly. She realised she had just called the Latios a 'he' in her head. She was unsure if that was correct, but now that she had had some time to think, she was pretty sure there was another species very similar to Latios but the opposite gender. 'What was that other one called again? Laitos? Litais? Latias! that's it. But is Latios the male or the female?'. It definitely looked male, but looks can be deceptive. She had once earned the scorn of a Machamp after incorrectly assuming it was male.

Iona and Mel enjoyed their breakfast, after which Mel packed up the tent and her camping gear. After getting set, she looked to the Latios again. Iona was already standing beside her.

"We are continuing our way to Ironskirt, are you coming?" she yelled out to it (him?). The Latios seemed irked but got up and hovered slightly in her general direction before turning invisible. Mel sighed. "Look, you can stay invisible if you want, but I would like to make sure you are still nearby from time to time. If you see me looking around for you, could you please make yourself visible?". No reaction came. Mel sighed again. "Alright, thanks. I guess we will be going now". They resumed their journey, now with a new team member in tow.

Io was not having a good time. Like he predicted, the human moved slower than a Shuckle. And she had required he make his presence known if she turned around. So he couldn't even just fly off for the morning and return to the human at noon when she made camp again, only a few kilometres from her starting point. No, he had to stick around. He couldn't even look for food much, and could only grab a few Leppa berries- his least favourite- along the way. He hated the sour, hard juice orbs with a passion. At least they gave him the energy to keep himself afloat, but he couldn't go much longer without a proper meal. Even before getting caught he hadn't properly eaten in a while.

He had overheard the human talking to the Pikachu most of the way. Most of it was irrelevant, such as how it would get warmer in April. He did learn the Pikachu's name was Iona (Really? Half of that was his own name). He already knew the human's name from the mental scan he did the day prior, but refused to call her by name, even in his own thoughts. She did not call him by name, so he would return the favour. Io was aware that he had not exactly presented the human with an opportunity to learn his name and that he was being petty, but he did not care.

He had noticed they avoided talking about him or the events of the day prior. The human was probably aware that he could hear her. She probably did not want to annoy him. It was admittedly a smart move on her part, he did not think he would stay very calm if she was constantly mentioning how she captured him. Like she had said, she would sometimes check if Io was still following her. At these times Io would briefly make himself visible again, not bothering to acknowledge the human any more than that.

When they briefly stopped for lunch, Io remained invisible and ignored the human's offers of bread. He had found a bush with some half-rotten Oran berries a few minutes prior. While it was a meager meal (and quite disgusting, though his draconic stomach could easily handle it), he had eaten enough to keep going for a while longer.

The rest of the day was fairly uninteresting. Human walking speeds are so slow, and they barely made it out of the forest when the human decided to set up camp for the night. Another human had crossed their path earlier that day, but neither of the humans wanted to battle. After a quick chat they had resumed their respective ways. The trees here were smaller and thinner, but Io managed to find a nearby branch to rest on again. He decided to stay visible for a while so the human could see he was still there. She had definitely seen him, but luckily for him it seemed she had decided to give him some space. That is, until she finished cooking dinner and approached his tree again, like the evening before.

"Hey, I've got some food here for you. I saved some pancakes from this morning, and made some fried vegetables for dinner, if you want. I'll leave it here, okay?", she said. Io did his best to ignore her again, but his stomach growled, and he glanced at the food she had set on the ground. The human turned back to the smoldering campfire and resumed talking to the Pikachu.

Io had eaten pancakes once before. When he was three years old, he and Lia had started learning about human customs and culture. Their parents had let them eat various human foods for a few weeks. They quickly learned that it tasted great, but was not always the healthiest. He remembered liking pancakes, soft and fluffy and sweet. Pretty much the opposite of Leppa berries. But he would resist the fluffy food disks at the base of the tree. He did not need to be fed. He would acquire food on his own!

Soon, the human seemed to be tired, and walked towards her tent, the Pikachu in tow. "Sleep well!", she yelled to him before disappearing in the tent. Like the evening before, Io waited a few minutes before turning invisible and starting his search for food.

"So Iona, do you know if it has a gender?", Mel asked her starter. Iona looked thoughtful for a moment. "Pi-pika, pikachu chi chupika, cha pikachi". Mel did not fully understand what she had said, but from the tone she got the general idea. "Yeah, I'm not sure either. I think it might be male, though...". Mel scratched Iona behind her ears, to the Pikachu's delight. "I think we might make it to Ironskirt tomorrow, or maybe the day after. We are making good progress!". Iona hummed. "We also need to get some training done for you. It can't hurt to get some experience, even if we don't do the gym challenge". Iona did not react, having her eyes closed and looking like she was asleep already. "Well, let's get some sleep, alright?"

Io had even less luck than last night. He could barely focus on hunting. Between the lack of food and his lack of sleep last night, he could barely keep hovering, let alone catch worthwhile prey. Most berry bushes he found were either rotting or empty. Defeated, he returned to the human's camp. 'Just one bite of that human's food, tomorrow I need to find something good to eat', he thought. It hurt his pride to admit, but he needed the human's food right now. When he returned after a straining flight, he found the plates of food still untouched. Carefully, he picked up the plate filled with fried vegetables, and sniffed it. It smelled absolutely delicious, even if it was cold. Io hesitated for a moment. If he took just a few bites, the human might not notice he ate some of the food, and part of his pride would remain intact.

He picked up a leek from the plate and carefully bit into it. Next thing he knew, the leek was gone. He had practically inhaled it in his hunger, and it tasted fantastic.

Despite his intentions of eating just a little bit, the plate was empty within a minute.

Still chewing on some vegetables, he picked up the plate with pancakes. They smelled even better and disappeared even faster.

Content, he sighed and laid down, eyes closed. 'Damn. No pride left for me, huh', he thought. He was slightly disappointed in himself for eating the humans food, but he did not regret eating it. 'At least she knows how to make a good meal'. For the first time in days, his stomach was properly filled again. Now all he needed was a good few hours of sleep…

'No, wait, I need to get up in that tree again', he thought. He had eaten the human's food, but he would not be caught sleeping on the ground, where he could easily be reached. With some reluctance, he opened his eyes again and hovered up, which was already easier after having regained some energy. After he plopped down on his branch, he fell asleep within ten seconds.