A Dragon's Savior

You keep your body close to the ground under the shade of a canopy of leaves overhead. A large bush that you might have been happy to gorge on in better times, when the dark was there to disguise you and the rain was there to aid your movements. But as the heat in the air and the rays of sunlight trickling in through the gaps between the leaves reminds you, now isn't that time, and you don't dare budge in your hiding place.

This wasn't supposed to happen. You were supposed to have gone foraging while the nightly rains made it easier for you to move about. You were supposed to have eaten your fill of leaves and berries hours ago, and then gone back to your hiding place to rest alongside your peers.

But then you ran into that Serperior on the prowl and you were forced to hide in these bushes. You'd tried to keep an eye out for a chance to sneak past the fearsome serpent, but you were lethargic from not having had the chance to eat beforehand. One thing led to another, and before you knew it, the rains stopped and the sun began to peek over the horizon.

For some Pokémon, the night was dark and full of terrors. But with your slow gait and your frail body, damp darkness was your ally. The beating sun had long dried up that dampness outside, and it won't be until about midday until light rains come again to the island that you live on and make moving around easier again.

Or at least easy enough to try and sneak back to your den by going from bush to bush. You'd tried to rest and conserve your energy until that time came, but between your hunger and the daytime heat eating away at the damp layer of slime on your body, you kept having trouble staying awake.

Worse still, every now and then, your antennae would pick up movement from just outside the bush you were hiding in, like the heavy footsteps you sense passing by you right now. Just as in those prior occasions, you keep still and try to tell yourself that whatever is on the other end hasn't seen you. That if you just stay quiet, you can hold on and inch away back to safety. But it was your evolution that had mucus that would burn to the touch. If whatever found you set upon you…

You try not to think too hard about it. Suffice to say, you don't have such natural defenses just yet, and you're stuck here waiting and trying to remain still and quiet like your life depends on it.

Because in all likelihood, it does.

Except, this time the footsteps return. Your small eyes shrink to pins and you desperately hold your breath, when the bush around you erupts with activity. A pair of gray, chitinous horns slice through the foliage right above you, just barely missing your antennae.

You scream, and spit up a stream of blue dragonfire at your attacker before you break from the bush and slime ahead as fast as you can… which is probably pitifully slow in comparison to your attacker. You turn your eyes as much as you can and see your foe is a hulking, brown beetle, with barbed pincers at the top of his head and a mouth full of sharp, fang-like mandibles.

You remember there is a ledge just up ahead from your hiding place that goes down to the beach. Down to where humans sometimes come onto this island from the sea. If you can just make it there, maybe you can buy some time for the Pinsir to lose sight of you. Enough time for you to find another bush to hide in.

Except, the dew and nightly rains have long dried out. You hurriedly inch forward, contracting your foot as the edge comes into view. Any relief you have is swiftly quashed by the sound of an overpowering hiss. The Pinsir is behind you, coming at you lunging with his pincers, aiming to grasp you between them and finish you off. You flatten yourself against the ground as the pincers snap shut just overhead with a sharp clack and you throw yourself off the ledge.

You hit the grass below as the impact knocks the wind out of you. You lay there stunned for a moment and try to get up when you hear wings buzzing. You look behind you and see the Pinsir has followed you, evidently having seen your leap of faith this entire time. You let out a low whine as the beetle clicks his mandibles, and steel yourself for the end.

That is when you see a sudden shock of green and brown barrel in, trailing telltale flecks of fiery blue that looks just like your Dragon Breath. The blur crushes the Pinsir to the ground, before jerking back up high into the sky. You look as the Pinsir struggles against the ground in a daze, before he hurriedly scrabbles away and limps off into the brush.

Your breaths come tense and heavy as you look up, and see a towering tree above you. Or at least you think it is a tree until it turns and cranes downward. The things that look like coconuts at first glance turn out to be a trio of heads, and you freeze as they study you carefully.

"You look tired, young dragon," the Exeggutor says. "Why do you move about in the sun in such a state?"

You breathe in and out sharply as you feel an overpowering urge to flee, when it occurs to you: this Exeggutor has saved your life. Even if he is tall and imposing, if he meant you harm you, he'd have done so by now.

The least you can do as a thanks is to give him an answer in reply.

"Because I was stranded while I was foraging for food," you explain. "And I was set upon by my enemies while I was weak and vulnerable."

The Exeggutor stares at you for a quiet moment, before shaking his leafy heads. The great dragon cracks a trio of small smiles and rumbles in reassurance.

"It won't be much longer until the daytime rains, little one. This is where I normally sun myself before they come. Won't you stay and rest a while?" the tree-creature asks. "As one dragon to another, I can lend a helping frond this once."

You're still in disbelief over everything that has happened. But you need a shaded place to rest, and no bush on this island has carries sort of power your unexpected guardian just wielded.

And so, even if part of you is still wary, even if it is still afraid. Your words wind up leaving your mouth without you thinking.

"Of-Of course."

The tree-dragon rears back up, his head stretching high up into the sky where the birds might fly as shade falls on the grass around you. Exhausted, you inch forward and flatten yourself against it near the Exeggutor's legs, closing your eyes as sleep claims you.

You wake up to the patter of rain against your body. You yawn and turn your eyes skyward, finding the Exeggutor turning to glance you over before he cranes his head down to speak.

"I'm afraid this is where we must part ways," he says. "My rhythms call me to the west of the island for when the rain parts for the afternoon sun. And yours…"

The Exeggutor motions off inland, where you see your fellows inching along. Goomy and Sliggoo, making their way down from the hilltop to forage. Your eyes brighten from the sight and you start to set off, only to catch yourself as you turn back to the great tree dragon towering up into the skies above.

"I don't know how I can ever repay you," you murmur.

"Be careful and patient, young dragon," he answers. "If the fates smile upon you, you too will grow strong and tall one day. Knowing that you'll use it to help another dragon small in stature just as another did for me when I was once small and weak is thanks enough."

You don't know if that day will ever come. Especially since you're sure you've never heard of your kind growing tall enough to tower into the sky like this Exeggutor. But you give the dragon your word and begin to slime off, calling out to your peers in the distance.

You'll have quite the story to tell them after you've eaten your fill and finally make your way back home. Of how a fellow dragon saved your life, one taller and stronger than you could've ever imagined.