Counterbalanced – Chapter 19
"Scout… Scout, wake up."
The girl's eyelids flew open, and her green eyes immediately scanned her surroundings.
Alex was crouching down beside her, his pale face strangely lit by the campfire.
She yawned, and stretched out, half of her wanting to roll over and go back sleep, and the other half wanting to know why she'd been woken up.
She blinked repeatedly, and rubbed her face as she sat up.
"…Wuzgoinon…?"
Alex gestured at her to come closer.
"The egg is about to hatch. You wanted to see, right?"
Her head cleared up in a matter of seconds, as she was reminded of the events earlier that evening.
The squealing from the egg had grown louder by the hour, and the first crack in the shell had appeared right after dinner.
But nothing much happened after that, and she had soon nodded off to sleep near the campfire.
Chase and Yena were sitting in the grass, close to the egg.
It had been removed from his glass case, and was now simply resting on its blue blanket on the ground.
Alex and Yena's Pokémon were all observing the events in their own way – Zigzagoon was lying flat on its stomach, sometimes inching forward, hardly able to contain its excitement. Its spiky ears were up, ready to catch any sound coming from the egg.
Tauros wasn't as thrilled, but was simply standing nearby, quietly keeping an eye on them.
Oshawott was sitting on Yena's right side, often looking up at his owner's face.
And Munna was hovering back and forth between Alex and Yena, at least until Alex had enough of her, and pushed her away quite decisively.
Despite the warmth from the campfire, Scout shivered, and quickly snuggled up to Alex, joining them in the circle they had formed around the hatching egg.
Alex accepted her presence without a word. Comfortably nested against his new, warm sweater, she sighed happily.
Chase might be like the father she never knew, but Alex had been special to her from the moment he had joined the Gray Guardians.
She rarely trusted new kids from the very start, but there was something different about Alex, and she had taken a shine to him immediately.
Even as he fought with the older kids at the Gray Guardians, and cursed at anyone within hearing range, she felt like he was always looking out for her in some way.
The egg in front of them made a cracking noise, and her attention snapped back to it.
Some small holes had opened up at any place cracks crossed eachother on the egg, and the sounds from the baby Pokémon inside grew even louder.
Scout's eyes quickly went from one face to another, wanting to see if the others shared her excitement.
Chase caught her looking at him, and gave her the tiniest of smiles.
She grinned, and her eyes strayed on to Yena.
She was staring at the egg intently, and even at her young age, Scout could tell this was an important moment to the blond girl.
Scout turned her head, looking up to Alex.
"Is Yena going to be the new Pokémon's mommy?"
Yena giggled nervously at her question, and an amused grin spread across Alex' face.
"I guess you could say that."
Yena had her Pokédex in one hand, still not knowing what Pokémon would come out of the rough, yellow-white egg.
And in the other hand, she had an empty Pokéball, for the baby Pokémon to be put into upon hatching.
The egg was shaking – once, twice… Then some more cracks appeared in the shell.
Scout could hardly sit still.
"It's hatching, it's hatching!"
She could hear Yena gasp - the egg shell started to fall apart as the baby Pokémon inside had finally gathered enough strength to break free.
As Scout was sitting so close to Alex, she could tell he was holding his breath, and from the corner of her eyes, she could see Chase moving forward, even if it was just an inch or two.
Zigzagoon couldn't contain a high-pitched bark once as a small claw appeared from the egg, as if he was overflowing with excitement.
His tail was wagging frantically, whipping up a small cloud of dust behind him.
Alex put one hand on his Pokémon's back to keep Zigzagoon from approaching the hatching egg.
The top of the egg fell off.
As soon as it did, Alex gently pushed Scout aside, told Zigzagoon to stay put, and leaned forward to the egg, carefully peeking in.
As soon as he had an idea of how the Pokémon was positioned inside the egg, he grabbed what remained of the shell, and turned it counterclockwise until he felt like the egg was placed exactly right.
Yena looked confused as Alex leaned back, returning to his place in the grass.
She whispered, even though there was no need to.
"Why did you do that, Alex…?"
He smiled.
"You should be the first thing it sees."
The words had hardly left his mouth, when the rest of the shell broke apart.
The small Pokémon, quite tired from its struggle to freedom, lay quietly among the scattered pieces of egg shell.
It blinked against the campfire's light for a moment, then finally set its eyes on Yena, as Alex had predicted.
Yena's expression was one of a kind – she was smiling down upon the newly-hatched Pokémon.
Her mouth formed the words of admiration to the baby Pokémon, but no sound came out.
She stretched out her arm, putting her hand on the Pokémon's belly. It softly squealed, and grasped her hand with its little claws.
A metallic voice from Yena's Pokédex broke the spell of the moment.
'Sandshrew, the Mouse Pokémon. It lives in deep burrows in arid regions with minimal rainfall.
It can roll itself instantly into a ball.'
The baby Sandshrew was barely thirty centimeters long.
Its eyes were a very deep shade of dark blue, almost black.
The majority of its body was yellow, its rough skin divided into a brick-shaped pattern.
The rest – its soft belly, along with its nose and claws – was white.
Yena finally found her voice back.
"So… you're a Sandshrew, huh…? I've… never seen one before."
She ran her left hand over its rough skin.
"You must be a Ground-type…"
She glanced at Alex, who nodded.
Sandshrew was still holding the fingers of her right hand, clinging to the first person it had seen.
Scout got up, unable to sit still any longer.
She leaned over Sandshrew, studying the young Pokémon.
She giggled when Sandshrew looked up at her.
"Is Sandshrew a boy? Or a girl?"
Yena lowered her shoulders, looking baffled.
"I honestly don't know, Scout…"
Fortunately, Sandshrew answered her question, by nodding at Scout.
Scout's hand gently touched Sandshrew's head.
"You're a girl?"
The Pokémon nodded again, and Scout laughed, jumped up.
"I solved it! It's a girl!"
Yena looked amazed.
"But Sandshrew only just hatched…! Can she understand what we're saying?"
Alex spoke up.
"Baby Pokémon are not like human babies.
They can understand us from the moment they hatch."
Chase scraped his throat.
"The Pokéball, Yena…?"
"Oh, right…!"
She held up the empty Pokéball.
"You must be tired, Sandshrew… You'll be able to rest for a while in this Pokéball…"
She tapped Sandshrew's forehead with the Pokéball, and the Pokémon disappeared from the blanket.
The Pokéball quickly gave a clicking noise, confirming Sandshrew's capture.
Yena looked around at the others, holding the Pokéball to her heart.
"This is really special. I've seen Pokémon eggs hatch on tv, but this was different…"
Alex grinned, looking quite cheerful.
"Congratulations."
Oshawott climbed on Yena's lap, and she put her hand on his head.
"You'll have to look out for Sandshrew, Oshawott… Like a big brother?"
The water-Pokémon nodded, and put his little paws on the Pokéball to strenghten his promise.
Munna lowered herself so she was leaning against Yena's shoulder, letting her owner know she would protect the new addition to their team as well.
...
The weather was changing.
Yena's light jacket had often been unnecessary at the start of her journey, but she was glad she was wearing it, now that the wind was gaining in strength and clouds were gathering in the sky.
Autumn was approaching fast.
She had kept her blue jacket closed as she made her way through Nacrene City, and the strange looks she had received while walking through the streets had made her smile. She sighed happily as warm air greeted her when she opened the door to Nacrene Museum with her left hand, while her right hand was undoing the buttons on her jacket one by one.
Alex followed her inside, grinning as Sandshrew's small head popped out of Yena's jacket.
The young Pokémon had been happy to curl up against Yena's warm body, protected from the wind.
"Saaaa…"
Sandshrew's claws provided her with enough grip to climb up to Yena's shoulder, where she held on to the side of Yena's face to stay in balance.
Happy to have such a high vantage point, Sandshrew curiously studied her surroundings.
At one week old, Sandshrew had turned into quite a lively little Pokémon, ready to play at any given time.
She had been quick to bond with Scout and Zigzagoon, as they loved a good game of chase, tag or any other activity that consumed a lot of energy.
But Yena was the one she ran to when something spooked her, or curled up against when she finally had enough of playing.
Alex had been surprisingly helpful in the first couple of days of Sandshrew's life, providing very useful insights in a baby Pokémon's diet, and other needs.
Yena had happily accepted any advise he gave her, and even if Alex' understanding of things puzzled her a little bit, she was glad to have found something that interested him.
She was also feeling quite relieved to be away from Chase's watchful eye for a moment.
In the time that she and Alex would be challenging Nacrene City's gymleader, he was taking Scout to a playground next to the Pokémon Daycare on Route 3. Yena felt like she had learned a lot from the red-haired man already, but his comments on the mysterious, unknown events that would occur at Castelia City made her nervous. He refused to tell them more about it, but occassionally reminded them of the fact that they should hurry up and challenge the gym.
Alex' voice pulled her back into the present.
"Didn't Lenora say we should visit the library at the back of the gym?"
She nodded absently. Then, making herself focus on the task at hand, she looked at her companion.
"She also said something about solving riddles. Let's go and see what she meant."