#102 Exeggcute
Exeggcute, the egg Pokémon. This Pokémon consists of six eggs that form a closely knit cluster. The six eggs attract each other and spin around. Should the number be reduced to less than six, Exeggcute will attempt to replace the missing member with similar-sized Pokémon. When cracks increasingly appear on the eggs, Exeggcute is close to evolution – Nurse Evergreen.
Flying on Pidgeot's back, Nurse Isabelle descended in the yard of the Celadon gym. Immediately, a young woman ran out to meet her, as Isabelle had arrived at least once a month this way.
"Nurse Isabelle!" the woman yelled out. She wore a green dress with a petticoat underneath for extra volume, so her arrival was extra dramatic.
"Oh, hello. Thank you, Pidgeot. Would you like to rest in your ball now?" Pidgeot rubbed his head against Izzy's cheek and nodded, so Isabelle withdrew him. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" She asked the girl that had come to meet her. The girl seemed younger than Izzy but had a really pleasant face. Red, curly hair framing the freckles all over her face, and doe-like, green eyes.
"Probably not, but Miss Erika talks a lot about you. You're her friend, right? You're basically famous in the Celadon gym. I'm Juliet. Bulbasaur and I are rather new here. I really wanted to meet you and so when Miss Erika mentioned you were coming over, I volunteered to meet you."
Isabelle smiled at the grass type trainer. "Nice to meet you, Juliet. Is Erika busy?" Juliet nodded, seeming sorry to say it. "No worries. I'd be surprised if she had nothing to do. Erika mentioned new guests in the gym?"
"Yes! Please, follow me!" Opening the door, Izzy first waved at the older lady at the counter, as she did every time she came here, before suddenly thinking of a good plan for Ivysaur. She summoned her own starter.
"Hey Ivy. Guess where we are? I'll be here for probably an hour at least, so have fun." Ivysaur growled his approval and ran off in that waggly way of his.
"Ooh, an Ivysaur! He looks so big and strong. How did you get him that way?" Juliet sounded genuinely impressed.
"Sunlight and water. They're not unlike the plants in the greenhouse of this gym. I have him loose quite often, so he can enjoy the sun. More often than not, he spends his time napping in the sunlight. The amount of sunlight the Bulbasaur line receives determines how big they grow. In rainy, cloudy areas, the Venusaur are much smaller than in humid, tropical regions. Understand what I mean?"
Juliet nodded eagerly. "That makes perfect sense. They really are quite plant-like, aren't they?"
Isabelle nodded thoughtfully as they walked through the lush garden that was the Celadon gym. "So, when I spoke to Erika yesterday, she mentioned you have something for me?"
"Exeggcute. We've founds loads of them, burrowed in the ground. They're not the normal grass types we train, but they are welcome, of course." Juliet was right. Occasionally, the tops of the eggs could be seen, burrowed in the ground. "At first, we thought they were Pokémon eggs, you see? So we dug some up. They did not like that much…" She winced at the memory. Isabelle could understand. Annoyed psychic types, even those who are secondary psychic, could cause quite some trouble.
"So, what do you need me for?" They crossed a grassy field, where Erika and her mother Ingrid gave lectures on the grass type Pokemon and how to care for them.
"Well, Miss Isabelle, we wanted to know if they're harming the plants."
Izzy shook her head. "I am no botanist, but that's unlikely. They're grass types, after all. There are shards of leaf stones around here, though. I was there when Erika's Weepinbell evolved, so the Exeggcute might evolve as well. Still, they're basically trees and should not be much trouble. They might even be useful in a fight."
They walked around a bit more before Isabelle had a thought. "Wait, you said you dug some up?"
"Yea... is that bad?"
"Only if you damaged them with a shovel, which I doubt. Can I see the ones you've dug up?"
Juliet brought them to a Vileplume, whose sweet scent made Izzy instantly feel better. The exposed Exeggcute were nearby, their silence revealing them as partial psychic types as they did not near to use their mouth to communicate.
"I can see why you would mistake these for Pokemon eggs. I imagine Oddish like to bury their eggs to keep them safe until they hatch, only to pop out of the ground like carrots." Juliet laughed at the image. "But no, I can't see anything odd on them. They seem to be behaving normally. Maybe it's a Vileplume with an especially sweet scent luring them in, or they simply chose the Celadon gym as a location to evolve?"
Excited, growly sounds caused the girls to look up. Ivysaur and a peculiar Bulbasaur came running, racing each other, bumping their noses together.
"Rosie!" Juliet exclaimed, identifying the curious Bulbasaur. Unable to help herself, Izzy knelt down on the grass and gently cooed at the Bulbasaur to come.
Her skin was darker than a normal Bulbasaur's and she was also smaller than her own had been. It is almost like this Bulbasaur has been hatched and kept in a dark place, but that did not seem entirely it. Rosie was very healthy and energetic. Neglected Bulbasaur were not. Also, her bulb different; there was a peek of red between the leaves, which had a different texture. Her scent was off, as well. Sweeter, like …
"Rosie is a rose?" Isabelle asked, unsure whether to believe it herself.
"I'm not sure, actually. She certainly is unique. Even her vines are thorny, so I guess she is, but is that even possible, Nurse Isabelle?"
Izzy nodded slowly. "Yes, I guess it is. A subspecies of Bulbasaur. How interesting. Professor Oak would love to see this, probably. How did you get her?" Isabelle took her phone out to take a photo of Rosie, as well as scanned her with her Pokedex to log the discovery.
"She was a wild one. One day, I found her here, sniffing the leaves. She never really left, so I caught her."
Not only Izzy thought Rosie smelled sweet. Ivy kept trying to get to the rose Bulbasaur, sniffing loudly. He acted truly peculiar.
Eventually, the two of them left. Izzy actually had to withdraw Ivysaur to his Pokéball to get him to come. It broke her heart how reluctant Ivy was to leave. When she had arrived at her mother's where she would stay the night, Izzy received a text on her phone.
"What did you think of Rosie? xx Erika"