Chapter 5 To Petalburg
Felix walked out onto route 102. Procyon was still nervous from the time at the pokecenter so Felix kept her in the pokeball. She had read that pokeballs had been set up to simulate the most comforting environment for the pokémon though they could not simulate food or water. She figured allowing Procyon some time to decompress would help the nervous pokémon.
It was for a similar reason she didn't let Oak out. He had seemed distressed even before the fight with Lepodoptera and allowing him some quiet time seemed the best thing to do. If his stress kept up then she'd take him to a center and have him evaluated, but she wanted to get to Petalburg first.
Lepodoptera however was different. After her initial capture she'd taken to Felix and was more than content sitting on the girl's shoulder twittering about nothing. Occasionally Felix would take a moment to stop on the route and let the caterpillar pokémon munch on an interesting plant near by. "Wurmmmm," Lepodptera would coo during these stops enjoying the new variety of food she had access too. Bug pokémon needed a lot of food to keep going when they were younger, most evolved bugs could get away with less.
It was one of these stops that Felix noticed something hiding in the grass. A small brown pokémon who looked like it was wearing a small hat was sleeping enjoying the sunshine. Felix pulled out her pokedex and set it to silent, not wanting to disturb the pokémon's rest. She flipped it open to see the top screen flash to life with a picture of the pokemon and the smaller screen with a small blurb about the species. The pokedex claimed it to be a seedot, a small seed like pokemon.
Lepodoptera's cooing had stopped with a small shhh, sound as the caterpillar jumped next to Felix looking intently at the pokémon before them. The seedot opened its eyes noticeing the two for the first time. Silently a gleam flashed over it, as it seemed to reset its stance. Felix's pokedex changed the blurb to another set of words, Seedot used Harden. It said still in silent mode so it couldn't speak the attack.
Felix kept still thinking that if she didn't move the seedot would relax, after all she had just wanted to watch it. Too bad Lepodoptera had other ideas. The caterpillar jumped forward and tackled face first into the waiting grass type. The seedot blinked in response setting up another harden as it was tackled by the caterpillar again from the side.
The seedot reset its defence again and Lepodoptera let out a warning call slamming into the even reinforced seed pokemon. The seedot glared annoyingly at the caterpillar and began to glow red. Felix's pokedex flashed and she glanced down. Seedot used Bide. The flash snapped her back to where she was, Lepodoptera was her pokemon, she couldn't just let it beat up the seedot. She had forgotten that she hadn't been watching two wild pokemon interact like she did at home.
"Lepodoptera come back!" she called. The caterpillar pokémon seemed to not hear her and prepared to strike the seedot down again, saliva dripping from her mandibles. Thinking fast Felix grabbed for Oak's pokeball and tossed, hoping the stronger pokémon could help Lepodoptera see reason.
"Zigg!" cried Procyon as she was tossed out of the ball. Felix blinked, she had grabbed the wrong pokeball. The seedot glowed a darker red, distracting Procyon who let out a growl at the seed pokémon her tail lashing. A red blast erupted from the seedot but seemed to pass through everything unharmed. Since the seedot wasn't damaged it had no energy to hit back with. Procyon jumped and tackled the seedot causing it to roll away from Lepodoptera, making it impossible for the caterpillar to remain in the fight, despite her attempts to follow the new combatants.
The seedot glowed red again and Procyon released another growl, frusrated that her tackle had done very little damage. As she readied herself for another tackle a pokeball flew through the air and hit the seedot on the head, causing the grass pokemon to disappear in a flash of white light. The ball didn't shake once before it clicked signalling that the seed pokemon was caught.
Felix walked towards Procyon, scooping up Lepodoptera as she walked. "You two should be ashamed of yourselves." She scolded picking up seedot's pokeball. "He wasn't doing anything to either of you, and we have plenty of food for you to eat, there is no need to be hunting."
Lepodoptera let out a small "Wurmm," understanding that her trainer was mad at her. She rubbed her head against Felix's face asking for forgiveness for not listening.
Procyon flattened herself to the ground, scared of Felix's voice. The small zigzagoon looked even smaller as she cowered. "Goon," it whined.
Felix sighed. "I guess it's not your guys' fault. After all you're probably hungry and a seedot probably looks like a tasty chestnut." she said bending down and slowly scooping Procyon into her arms. The zigzagoon took a small sniff at Lepodoptera who had taken to sitting on Felix's shoulder, only to get a face full of silk.
"Goon!" She cried indignantly as she struggled attempting to grab and eat the small caterpillar.
"Enough of that," Felix scolded again as she moved Procyon so she was facing away from Lepodoptera. "We'll find a spot in the shade and feed you both," she said as she began to walk, "I'll introduce you to Oak and you too can get to know Juglans the seedot better," she said speaking the name that had come to her after she had mentioned what Juglans had looked like.
The spot she chose was a well shaded area by a small stream. She let out the two grass type males, Oak and Juglans while she announced, "Lunchtime! Don't want a repeat of what just happened with Juglans."
Oak looked around surprised at the two new pokemon added to their group. "Tree-ko?" he asked examining the small zigzagoon and the silent seedot. It was forgotten in a few minutes when his stomach let out a loud growl, showing how hungry he was.
"Yep, caught some new members while you were in your pokeball," she told him as she pulled out several packs of pokefood and read the instructions before seperating them out into piles on the ground with a dish for Juglans and Lepodoptera to prevent the others from getting their share of the food. "Sorry I don't have enough dishes, you'll have to do without until we get to petalburg, I only grabbed the second one because Alex talked me into catching Lepodoptera."
Procyon sniffed her pile cautiously before beginning to dig into the food as quick as she could. The dry pellets tasted okay, and food was food. She wasn't going to question where it came from as long as she got to eat. Lepodoptera let out soft cooing noises as she ate from her bowl, her part being smaller than the rest since, according to the package directions, it should be treated as a supplement, not a meal, when the bug pokemon was in a habitat where they could eat the vegetation. Juglans remained silent as he munched his food watching his new trainer and the other members of the team as he ate.
Only Oak wasn't happy with the situtaion. "TREE!" he'd cried indignantly at Felix when he saw that he wasn't getting a dish, and that Juglans was using the dish that Felix had gotten for him, a green dish with stylized treeko tails around the edge of it.
"Easy Oak, its just until I can get to my dad's. Then everyone will have their own dishes," she told him trying to reason with her.
"Tree-KO!" he kicked his pile of food and stormed off jumping into a tree and laying there closing his eyes.
"Oak! Ugh, it's just one thing after another," Felix sighed as she gathered up his food pellets and stuck them in a plastic bag. She'd offer them to him later, she wasn't in the mood to deal with a pokemon temper tantrum, and without her books she didn't know where to start.
She sat on a rock and watched the others continuing their meal, Lepodoptera having left the main group to shimmy up a tree and munch on the leaves. Savoring the peace and quiet she pulled out her book, thinking that now would be a good time to start reading it again. She read silently for a few moments before she was interupted by Oak who was suddenly down from his tree prodding and glareing at her. "What?" she asked hopeing that he'd come to his senses and would at least eat now.
"Tree," he said pointing at the book.
"What? You want me to continue reading?" She asked as Oak nodded.
"Treeko." He got comfortable on the grass sitting watching her expectantly.
"Well alright then," Felix turned the book back a few pages and slowly began telling the story of red and his journey to becoming a champion.