Little Mareep, Chapter 2: Troublemaker
The girl Ash had seen on the bottle was actually out in the open fields that morning, and while she was a rancher in name, today she was like a shepherd, taking care of her flock of Mareep.
She had a spring in her heeled step, frolicking over from sheep to sheep, and checking each one to make sure it was happy. They all were, of course, and each one had a vibrant shimmering fleece, so wonderfully cared for that rubbing it was like touching silk, and her fingers ran through it like it were field of barley. It was so pristine you could mistake them for being shiny types, but they were all normal Mareep - just well cared for.
A Mareep's fleece built static electricity: when they felt defensive or careless, they released this electricity at the source of their discomfort. But in Melanie Robin's company, they always felt safe. She knew each one by name - from Francina to Paul, from Little Henry to Jolly Sarah - and they knew her by sight, smell and touch. She gave them the best care that a person could give, and any static they had stored only left a warm, tingly sensation when she rubbed their fleece.
It was so soft that Melanie could sit down, bury her head into it, and think for a while. But lately, Melanie's thoughts were about how hard she had to work as a rancher.
Everyone else had help on their farm, but despite Melanie's attempts to reach out she was alone.
Every day she looked after the Mareep, after the Miltanks, and the Bellossum, and all the other Pokemon on the ranch.
Every day she picked berries off of all the trees she had grown.
Every day she had to mix her ingredients so she could ship her products to stores where they'd get ignored.
Yet no one heard of her stuff, and she barely got by financially. All she had to show for it was exhaustion; after a great many days like this, she desperately wanted a vacation.
Somewhere nice, like Olivine City, where she could lie at the beach. Or go see a concert. Or go make friends her age, who'd share her interests. Or just quietly bask in all the attention her cosmetics would get if people paid attention to them like they did Thornsworth's.
Just to be anywhere other than a big field, watching Mareep as they graze.
...Wait, how much time had passed?
Oh no. She had dozed off! At the one time when she took all the Mareep out to a field far from home. Snapping back to reality, where her glove-laced hands were still in a Mareep's fur, she rose up and did a quick head-count.
"Five, ten, fifteen, eighteen, nineteen..." She lost her breath. There was one missing. "Where is the last one?"
Melanie wanted to scream. Looking around frantically for him, she noticed that the stray Mareep - Little Henry, by the looks of it - had already wandered into a faraway field, close to to the nearby wild forest.
Full of wild, fierce Ursaring.
Buzzing, poisonous Beedrill.
Ruthless, creeping Ariados.
And other scary Pokemon.
Melanie ran. She held her cutely styled cane as tight as she could, as if that would make it alright, and ran hurriedly after the Mareep, petticoat rustling all over the place as she went.
She had made it to the end of her field, had pushed the open gate further aside, and was bolting over the bumpy, terrain of dried earth. Little Henry was looking at the forest now, but if she called out for him now she'd be able to-
-trip on the ground and lose her voice.
Curses! She moaned. She was losing time! (And she'd only just cleaned this dress.)
But the dangerous sound of a lightning bolt somewhere up ahead helped her onto her knees, and she was back on her feet in no-time.
Yet in the no-time that had passed, the Mareep had been attacked by a young boy and his Cyndaquil.
"Use Ember!" Ash shouted, and Cyndaquil spat hot blasts of fire at his opponent. The shiny Mareep was too frightened to move away from the attack, and took it head on with a cry of pain.
Ash was surprised - this Mareep was strong, after all. A wild pokemon with electric attacks at this high a level shouldn't be knocked down so easily, but it was so injured by a simple attack that it looked ready to be caught.
"Hold it in place with a leer while I catch it!" Ash ordered, and Cyndaquil leered so threateningly at the wild Pokemon that it quivered and stammered from anxiety. Ash pitied the creature, but once he caught it he could take it to a Pokemon Center.
"Stop! Go away!" The cry of a teenager not much older than him stopped Ash just as he was about to throw his pokeball.
A girl ran up to them, tapping down on the ground with a prettily stylised shepard's cane to keep her footing. She wore a wide-brimmed hat above her golden blonde hair, which was done up in a ponytail with two bangs spread across her forehead. Her skinny legs were adorned with long white stockings, her slender hands were veiled by white silky gloves. Her white dress was puffy by the shoulders, with thin green stripes running down to the double layered petticoat, and had a pink diamond in the center.
Ash had never seen such a dumb getup in his life. But he recognised her face.
"Hey, you're that-"
"Leave Little Henry alone, you big bully!"
Melanie swung her cane at him. He ducked under it by a hair's breadth, only for her to swing again in a great flurry. The shepherd swung with the speed of a master fencer, and the fury of an angered bear.
"Wait!" Ash pleaded as he ducked, leaned and backpedalled out of harm's way. With each swing she came ever closer to leaving the boy crying with pain for the second time that day. "My pokedex says this is a wild pokemon: that's why my pokeball can work on it. You must be mistaken-"
The girl landed a blow to his gut, and Ash tumbled backwards onto his backside. Melanie held her cane to him like the tip of a sword.
"No. Poachers. Allowed here!" She shouted. He opened his mouth to beg her to listen...and she stopped mid-swing. But not because of anything he did.
She raised her head at a large creature, whose shadow had just cast itself over Ash.
It was an Ursaring. A family of Ursaring. Tall, bulky, fire-breathing Ursaring.
They had been riled up from the forest by the ruckus they had made, and they did not look thankful.
The tallest one roared loudly at them, and spewed a Flamethrower attack at Ash.
The boy, in his panic, scarcely rolled out of the way, and scurried to his feet at a running pace. He looked around - the field was now full of a flock of mareep on the other side, all of whom had followed the shepherd here, and Cyndaquil and Little Henry had stopped fighting.
But Melanie was left lying on the ground, as the large bear pokemon drew closer.
Because Ash, in his haste to escape, had knocked her down, without even realising it.
He really was an idiot, wasn't he?
Melanie's foot had been injured, and now she was looking in fearful awe at the Ursaring. Even if she were physically able to move, she was terrified by the sight of the bear Pokemon. Their flea-ridden smell was suffocating her nostrils. And why did her whole flock follow her here where it was dangerous? Her distraught mind was like frozen jelly, wobbly yet immobile.
As one Ursaring drew close and raised its sharp claws for an attack, Ash ran back, grabbed Melanie and dived safely to the side.
"Cyndaquil, we've gotta go!" Ash cried, cradling the shepherd girl bridal style, and ran into the flock of mareep. All the Mareep, Little Henry included, were so terrified by the poacher and the Ursaring that they bolted with the fury of a herd back the way they came.
Ash was close to the other field, but the wild bear Pokemon were giving chase with rising fervour, embers gathering around their sharp teeth.
"Quick, where's a safe path?" Ash asked Melanie.
"My ranch, just keep running straight!" She shrieked, clearly disoriented.
He ran to the next field, surrounded by Mareep, but the bear-like pokemon were getting too close for comfort. A few more seconds and they'd be in danger.
Then Ash got an idea. "Cyndaquil, use smokescreen!"
Understanding the intent, the fire mouse spouted a black gas from his mouth, passing behind him and surrounding everything behind him, namely the Ursaring.
Emboldened with a second wind, Ash sprinted even faster, and he and Melanie were long gone by the time the Ursaring got their bearings back.
Twenty minutes, five acres worth of grassland and one river crossing later, and Ash was exhausted.
He was gasping for breath. He slanted forward, willing himself to inch forward. His shoes and pants were drenched with water and his shirt was soaked with sweat.
"I think we lost them." Melanie informed him, looking worriedly at Ash.
"Great." Ash had earned his great sigh of relief. "Can I set you down now?"
"I, uh...alright." Truth be told, she liked the feeling of being carried home, but she let Ash put her down and she leaned on her cane. They began walking ever so slowly forward, and with Ash getting his breath back, now was a good time to clear some things up.
"My name's Ash Ketchum, by the way."
"I'm Melanie Robin. Talk about a gut-bumping first impression, eh?" She chuckled, and Ash chuckled along with her.
"Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm new here: I didn't realise that Mareep belonged to you."
"And I didn't realise you were actually a kind boy who'd run back to help me." She added. "Don't sweat it; no one can know everything all the time, right?" She beamed brightly at him.
Ash was suddenly aware that Thornsworth and Misty were right - the ranchers didn't tag their Pokemon as wild or trainer types, so any Pokemon he met out there might be a vital part of someone's ranch. He had been unthinking and uncaring - things he should never be.
"I'm training to be a Pokemon master. I only got here recently, but I heard about you, I meant to say. You sell shampoo or something, right?"
Melanie widened her eyes. "You've heard about my work? Thank you! What's your favourite? The hair gel? The apple juice? The skin cream?"
"No!" Ash said defensively. When he saw the frown on the blonde girl's face, he scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, I only heard of them. I didn't buy them." He didn't really care about whatever girls fussy over their looks did, but after the clashes with Misty and Thornsworth he could do with one less angry girl for now.
"What does a pokemon ranch have to do with shampoo, though?" Ash asked.
"Oh, I make lots of things there, with some unorthodox techniques!" She began with enthusiasm. "My Pokemon help out by supplying really special ingredients you can't get anywhere else! Some perfumes and anti-perspirants from Victreebels and Chikoritas, herbal mixes from Bellossoms and Oddish with some dabs of Miltank milk, and my lovely Mareep," she patted Little Henry there and then, "use their electricity to-"
She stopped. All of a sudden, Melanie and Ash were aware of one important thing. Asides from Cyndaquil and Little Henry, not a single other Pokemon had followed them.
"Where are my Mareep?" She gasped.
"Oh no, they didn't follow us?"
"They normally always follow me, but we're not normally chased like that! Or so far away from the ranch!" Melanie's knees were shaking and her whole petticoat began shaking. Some shepherd she was: who had ever heard of a shepherd girl that lost her sheep, and didn't know where to find them?
Ash rested his hands on her shoulders. "Don't panic. I'm confident that they're safe. Cyndaquil's smokescreen protected them too, and they were outrunning the Ursaring comfortably."
Then again, Ash thought guiltily, maybe the smokescreen was a big reason why they got lost at all. "Maybe if we leave them alone, they will come home, bringing their tails behind them!" He said optimistically, but who was he kidding? That wouldn't happen even in nursery rhymes.
"We have to go back for them!" Melanie was already turning around to sprint, but the moment she started she began to fall, and Ash barely caught her in time. In her numerous trips that day she had injured her foot, making it hard to use her cane for anything more than a crawl's pace.
"I'm sorry, but you need to go back and rest. Where's your ranch?"
"Just over there." She pointed to an idyllic ranch across a river stream five minutes away. Over a small arching bridge, there were two houses, a ranch a barnhouse, a fenced-in farmland field and a small lake.
"Good thing that I was praying, as it looks like something out of my imagination." Ash acknowledged, and, carrying a worried Melanie once more, helped her home.
"...You know, your foot might be better if you didn't wear heels." Ash suggested, earning himself a slap.
'Robin's Ranch' was as pleasant and quaint inside as it was outside. Its barn and Melanie's house felt old, though it's obvious Melanie had made some modern updates. The third building looked to have been built comparatively recently, and with light machinery for all sorts of tasks.
Melanie had several chores to do that day, but Ash and his Pokemon had insisted they see to the task instead. Totodile watered the grass Pokemon; Bayleef befriended the lake Pokemon and fetched clean water; Heracross was keeping watch over the barn and performing the brave task of learning how to milk a Miltank; Phanpy collected ripe berries by headbutting their trees. Between them, Melanie's exhausting day of chores had been broken down to an easy, manageable sum.
But the fenced field, which used to be filled with Mareep grazing and playing, had only poor Little Henry standing alone.
Melanie looked at him wistfully through the window. She couldn't even say anything, as Ash handed her a cup of tea. Melanie had changed out of her fancy dress into something less dirty: a simple black shirt and blue skirt. Walking about was proving painful, she told Ash; there was no way she could get the Mareep by herself.
Ash was just as dismayed. "None of this would have happened if not for me." He sighed. "I attacked Little Henry. I got those Ursaring out of their forest. I got you hurt and the flock frightened away while trying to escape."
He put his fist into his open palm and boldy made a promise. "Well I'm going to get them back. Every last one!"
"You really mean that?" She turned and asked.
Ash nodded, and Melanie jolted out of her seat to hug him. "Thank you thank you thank you!" She sounded overjoyed, and her sadness from a second ago was now just a distant memory - but the pain in her ankle was not, and she quietly sat back down.
"I'll send my Noctowl out to go look for them. He can find some and bring them back."
"That won't work. My Mareep have never been trusting of many people or Pokemon except me. After what happened, I'm afraid they'll be extra frightened."
"Then I'll go to them. Don't worry, I'm great at bonding with Pokemon." Ash fondly remembered many adventures he had befriending Pokemon in the wild. "It'll be a cinch."
So Melanie watched as Ash went out the door and into the fenced field. She watched as Little Henry shook at the sight of the boy, who slowly approached him with kind words.
She watched as, the moment Ash got within ten feet of him, the Mareep fried him with a great bolt of lightning.
She watched Ash back off and try again, and again, for far too long. (It was kinda hilarious to watch, actually.) Eventually, Little Henry gave chase, and electricity pursued him all the way as he jump the fence, burst through the door and slammed it shut behind him.
"Lemme tell you," The dusted and blackened boy panted through his pain, smoke rising from his hat, "whatever you do with them works. I'm used to getting electrocuted...but that Mareep hurts."
Melanie wracked her head for ideas. What could they do?
The Mareep distrusted Ash because he tried to catch one and cause this mess.
But they were perfectly comfortable with Melanie, yet Melanie couldn't go exploring for them.
So if there was only one person they'd warm up to, but only one other person who could go out and find them before things get worse, then...what if the other person were...
She had an idea.
An idea the fashionista in her relished.
And she knew that Ash was not going to like it.
"Melanie?" he asked worriedly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Don't worry, my friend. I know what to do." Melanie, grinning with mischief, told him. "I just got a very pretty idea."