Slowpoke and Clefable

Fresh fish was the best. Poe the Slowpoke munched through the bass he had caught, bones, scales, meat, and all. The eyes were particularly nice. Once he had finished it off, he considered what to do now. His stomach grumbled, not quite full yet. So he dipped his tail back into the water and waited for another fish to bite, lured by the sweet dew his tail made.

This was a nice place. Trees were all around him; golden sunlight filtered through the leaves, leaving a mosaic of light and dark across the green and brown forest floor. The stream came from a nearby pond, both filled with good clean water that held many fish. If he turned around ninety degrees, he could fish in the pond instead. But he felt that his spot near both would attract fish from the pond and stream.

Warm air flowed over his body like the cooler waters of the stream ran by his tail. The ground below him was a pleasant squishy mud. With a roll in that, he could keep most bugs away. He wondered if there could be anything more pleasant or fulfilling than laying here on a nice day, fishing for good nourishing fish. Maybe the fish in another place would be better. But he wouldn't know until he got there. How would he get there?

With thoughts such as these, Poe's mind wandered in its slow amiable fashion. Really, it was unlikely that he would move very far from this stream and pond. He had moved quite a distance, for him, when he'd come up the stream two hundred yards over three weeks, in order to finally reach this pond. But it was always nice to daydream and plan how he might get to another body of water to fish. While he thought, he hardly noticed the times that fish nibbled at his tail tip, to see if it was something good to eat.

Just like every other day of his life.

In the evening, another Pokemon came to the pond. She was Clara, a Clefable. She had slept through the day because the woods were so terribly noisy to her. The rustle of leaves in the wind was an almost continual backdrop on which she heard Pokemon and birds calling out, footsteps walking or crashing through the undergrowth, battles breaking out for miles around her, the stream and pond continually gurgling over their rock beds. She could hear tiny noises like a berry being plucked from a mile away, and know what kind of berry it was. Ever since she had evolved, every day was tremendous cacophony. She could only sleep by mixing mud and grass and putting that over her ears, to block out most of the sounds.

In the evening and night, the noises lessened. There were still Pokemon and animals that were active during the night, but not as many as during the day. And they didn't seem as eager to battle at night either. Sometimes, she thought of trying to move away to an even quieter location. But she didn't know where to begin looking for one. So she ended up staying in the forest.

At the pond, she found a nut tree with ripened pecans, so she began picking those to eat. Later on, she could gather many of them to store for winter; that was still months away, but the nuts would keep and better to start too early then too late. She heard the slow steady breathing of another Pokemon at the pond, but that was all the noise he made. While she recognized him as a Slowpoke that had been moving his way up the stream, she didn't really know who he was. But what mattered was that he was relatively quiet, even when he caught his fish and ate them.

Once she had eaten her fill of nuts, she walked onto the pond and began to dance. It wasn't a full moon tonight, but she liked to keep in practice for the nights when she would dance in order to praise the moon. There was a goddess Pokemon that had blessed the Clefairy kind in ancient times, and they continued their dance of worship ever since. On the surface of the pond, Clara hopped and skipped to an unsung melody, fluttering the wings on her back. When she did this, she could imagine flying and dancing in the sky. She'd never managed to actually fly, but it was a pleasant daydream to keep and she could lose her mind deep within it.

All the while, the Slowpoke never moved from his spot. She wondered if he was watching her, so danced closer to the start of the stream. But when she paused, she saw that he was simply staring vacantly off into the trees, as if lost in thought. She had heard that the Slowpokes weren't very smart. But if he was thinking so much, maybe he was just lost in thought too? Like she did with her daydreams of flying.

Since he was quiet, she felt like she could try to make friends with him. Clara hopped off the pond and went over to the Slowpoke. "Hi, how's your fishing going?" She paused, waiting on an answer.

He kept looking upwards, a smile on his face. But he didn't show any recognition of her. Maybe he was amused, or thought she was rude but found it slightly funny?

"Oh, my name's Clara. I like this lake; it's one of the quieter places in the forest at night. What's your name?"

This time, his eyes shifted to her, perhaps because a shadow caused by moonlight fell across his face. While he must have noticed her by now, he wasn't speaking. Most other Pokemon would have said something by now.

Maybe they really were dumb. "Um, but if I'm bothering you, I can just go back to my practice."

His lips moved a little bit before he spoke up, thankfully not in a loud voice. "Hi. I'm Poe. Who are you, again?"

"I'm Clara," she said again. Maybe he hadn't been listening. "I said that earlier."

"Sorry, I was thinking," he said, but kept smiling. "Speaking takes a while."

This puzzled her again. So if he was thinking and not noticing, was he so smart in that he was wrapped up in his internal thoughts, or was he so dumb that he had to think through everything more than anyone else? "Why would talking take a while? You just say what's on your mind, at least I do. Sure, you need to think things through, but it doesn't take that long." Then she paused, thinking that she might want to be quiet for a bit if she wanted to hold this conversation.

It took a couple of minutes, during which he sometimes moved his lips in thought. Then he said, "It takes much time… first you must listen to the other closely, noting what words they pick, what tone they use, what their expressions may mean, what they might mean with their words and what they may not. It takes much review. Then you must formulate your response, attempting to pick words for precision and clarity, making sure as not to offend the other and answer any questions they may have. Then you must think on how to form the words; speaking is really a complex exercise of the tongue, mouth, and body. Minute differences can alter the meaning of what you say. And I usually don't choose to speak so much, but I felt you would appreciate the consideration." He spoke in a slow deliberate tone, not loud either. It made Clara grateful as listening to him didn't hurt her ears.

"I see, I think," she said. "I don't think about those things as much as you do." His lips were moving again, so she stopped.

"I consider all things, so I do things very slowly," he said.

Then he must be smart if he thought so much. Making her wings flutter, she smiled. "That's good. I might try to think on little things like you do; it could be interesting. Oh, and since you think a lot and you must listen a lot, do you know of any places that are quieter than this? I can't take noise and even here is a bit too much, especially during the day."

"I thought you might not like noise, because you make so little yourself," Poe said. Then he paused, thinking. It took even longer this time, making Clara wonder if he'd gotten off track. But then he said, "I would not be one to ask about other places. I can imagine them, but not travel quick enough to see them. If you can stand it for a little while, I would ask one of the flying Pokemon. Perhaps a Hoothoot. They must travel far on their wings, and so they would know many places."

That made sense, although she didn't like the idea of talking to a flying Pokemon. Most of them were so noisy, calling out challenges, threats, and greetings almost all the time. A night bird like a Hoothoot would be easiest, as she would have to deal with less competing noise. She regretted not having found a quieter place back when she was a Clefairy, or even a Cleffa. "Okay, I'll try that. But I may stay here too; it's nice to know I have a quiet friend around. Maybe we can talk later. Bye!" Then she skipped back out onto the lake, making a plan for confronting a Hoothoot. Or maybe a Noctowl, that could be better. She'd have to find one that was alone…

Poe noticed Clara skipping off. "Bye," he said, although she was halfway across the lake. But with her hearing, she'd hear it anyhow.

A friend, huh? He'd had a friend back at his old spot, another Slowpoke that fished at the stream there. He always wondered if she would follow him up here. Sometimes, he hoped it would happen so that they could be more than friends. But moving up here had taken a lot of effort, and he didn't feel like moving all the way back just yet. Maybe if he let those feelings simmer for a while, he would want to go.

Now, what had he been doing before Clara had started talking to him? He'd been thinking about the way moonlight changed the color of the grass to be more blue, like how the sun made their colors brighter and the shade made them darker. But what had he been doing here before that?

He couldn't remember. But, his stomach didn't feel full. Poe dipped his tail in the water and began waiting on a fish to bite its sweet tip. In the meantime, he considered friendship and how one was different from the other.

…

Clefable Soul Silver entry: Its very sensitive ears let it distinguish distant sounds. As a result, it prefers quiet places.

Slowpoke Emerald entry: It catches prey by dipping its tail in water at the side of the river. But it often forgets what it is doing and spends entire days just loafing at the water's edge.

Poe's ramble on talking comes partly from my own speech difficulties and partly from a linguistics class I took.

Clefable has lots of different Pokedex entries. It being able to dance on water is another, as is it trying to fly by fluttering its wings. One of the few where the difficulty was in choosing which one to use!