"You're a princess! How do you not have the money you need already?" Chadwyck asked, baffled.
"Unfortunately, when I was negotiating with my cousin, I said the only thing I wanted was my father's title as Duke of Kyukonais so that I could have control of the capital province," Helena said. "I didn't want to push for anything else because I was honestly scared of getting nothing. So the title of King of Solardie went to my cousin, as well as all of my father's assets. The money in the palace vault, the palace itself; all of that royal property is owned by my cousin since he is my father's successor."
"So your cousin took all of your money?" Chadwyck stated. "I'm still getting paid, right?"
"We'll be making money soon enough," Helena reassured. "My province is worth far more than the money he took."
"I was rather surprised that you were able to take his land," Max remarked. "It seems foolish to have no land to his name."
"Ludwig is a simple pokémon. He wants the biggest title and the shiny money. He doesn't care about - or is not smart enough to care about - his power and influence. That's why the other dukes wanted him as the new king; so that he wouldn't infringe on their power. Last I heard, they were in their Universalis meeting making Ludwig lower their taxes for them. I don't care what goes on with him, though. I am one-hundred-percent focused on making Kyukonais great."
"So where will the money come from?" Chadwyck inquired, scratching his head. "I thought you said you needed money to get things started."
Helena put on a gleeful, mischievous smile. "I plan on taking it from the local nobles who own the villages across Kyukonais. By letting bandits run wild across the countryside for years, they never did their duty of protecting villagers. I'm going to take the money they make from their bread taxes on their villagers and put that money to good use by buying food for the villagers so that they can work on my projects!"
"Ooh, and you'll get your revenge for them always ignoring you your whole life!" Terry realized.
"Exactly," Helena agreed with a vindictive glint in her eye.
"What did they do to you?" Lily asked.
"They ignored me because they assumed I would get married off to some other kingdom. They looked at me as worthless, only useful for my title," Helena spat.
"How are you going to get them to pay up?" Chadwyck asked.
"Good question. They sure won't want to fork any money, even if I'm technically their liege now," Helena stated. "Which is why we're going to have to intimidate them. You'll be good at that, right?"
"Oh yes," said Chadwyck, grinding his claws together. "Threatening rich dudes for money sounds fun. Can I have a cut, though?"
Helena laughed and shook her head. "Your pay will increase proportionally to the success of my province. If you're doing a good job helping me make Kyukonais then naturally you'll get more pay."
"Hey, what about me?" Terry whined.
"You'll just buy a bunch more expensive books," Helena chided. "Can't you reread the books you have?"
"Yeah, but one can never read enough stories…"
"You can go through your old books with me!" Lily chimed. "You said you'd teach me how to read, right?"
"Of course!" said Terry. "It's gonna be great!"
"Just don't miss out on important things we have to do," Helena said with a chuckle.
Helena and her team stood outside the gate of one of the counts of Kyukonais, staring down an approaching Hypno. "P-Princess Helena… what a lovely surprise…" the Hypno stammered, wringing his hands together and looking at his visitors' paws.
"Good afternoon, Count Hayes," said Helena. "I have a request for you, as your new liege."
"Yes, w-what can I do for you, my lady?"
"I need five thousand poké. Consider it an additional payment for keeping your village bandit-free."
"F-five thousand poké?" Count Hayes repeated, slowly looking up. He caught sight of the Charizard staring daggers down at him and gulped. "Y-yes. I supposed I can do that…"
"Good. May I have my payment now?" Helena asked, extending a paw.
Count Hayes grimaced for a moment, then started nodding. "I will get it…" He scampered into his estate, returned minutes later with a sack, and handed it to Helena.
Helena and Max examined the sack of coins, using Psychic to group them into rough piles to count up the money. Chadwyck watched on with his eyes twinkling while Terry and Lily stood there feeling bored. "Excellent. Thank you, Count," Helena dismissed, floating all the coins back into the sack. She turned to leave.
"That was easy!" Lily celebrated once they were a reasonable distance away.
"That puny Hypno knew what was coming for him if he refused," Chadywck snickered, punching his fist and thwacking his tail on the ground.
"Onto the next village," said Helena, leading the way.
At the next village, the team confronted Count Caden outside his estate. "What do you want, Princess?" the Camerupt rumbled.
"As your liege, I want a payment of five thousand poké for keeping your village bandit-free."
Count Caden snorted some smoke out of his large nose. "I will not pay any more than what I did under your father."
"I removed the bandits that plagued your village. I am here to claim my compensation," Helena said, steeling her glare.
"I never asked you to remove the bandits."
"For the past year, you have not performed your duty of keeping your village safe," said Helena. "Therefore, you do not deserve to hold onto the money you made from the grain you took from your villagers. I am here to confiscate it."
"Hmph."
"I do not wish to have any conflict," Helena said. "This shall be a one-time payment."
"You will not disturb me again if I pay you the five thousand poké?" Count Caden asked, narrowing his eyes.
Helena nodded. "This will be the only extra payment, I promise."
"Fine. I will get you the money."
Once Count Caden brought his payment, Helena counted it up then the team headed off to the next village. They were able to intimidate or convince three other counts to fork over their payments with a promise of it being the only demand, no conflicts required.
"Five villages down, only one to go, right?" Lily asked.
"You're right that there's one village left, but it's Terry's father's village," said Helena. "I'm not going to demand money from him."
"Eh? Why not?" Chadwyck asked.
"I need him on my side if things ever go wrong," Helena admitted. "It wouldn't be nice to demand money from him, especially since he raised me."
"I have a better idea," Terry spoke up. "I'll 'borrow' five thousand poké from our vault, and return it later after we make bank! My father won't notice a thing."
"Are you sure you can get away with that, my friend?" Max asked, furrowing his brow.
"It'll be easy," Terry brushed off.
"Alright, sounds like a plan," Helena smirked. "Time to put this money to work improving the capital. Tomorrow, we'll head back to Miloa to make the deal with the Velenadu Guild and hire a construction crew for Professor Mason."
Helena headed back to Miloa to speak with the Velenadu Guild. The guild agreed to transport rice shipments to Kyukonais starting next month. Then Helena met up with Professor Mason and his team of physicists and engineers to come to Kyukonais and construct the sawmill. She also hired two experienced pokémon to supervise the sawmill's construction. When Helena returned to Kyukonais, she spent the rest of the month recruiting villagers to work for her with the promise of food.
On the day that the merchants set to arrive with the food shipment, Helena and her friends waited at a site near the Rokon River on the outskirts of the forest between the city walls and Terry's father's village. They set up shop with a half-dozen cauldrons "borrowed" from the palace kitchen, several long tables, and benches. Helena stared down the river for a while, her tails twitching impatiently. She heaved a sigh.
"What's the matter?" Lily asked.
"Just nervous, I guess," Helena said. "I want to start doing things, already. Sitting around and waiting is killing me."
"Patience is a virtue, my friend," Max chuckled.
"I already had to pay ten percent of the total cost of the shipment to the Velenadu Guild as a deposit of sorts. They didn't want to haul their shipment all the way here for nothing, so that was their way of guaranteeing that I would pay for it."
"Makes sense," said Max.
"I just want them to get here already."
Finally, Helena spotted a small boat coming up the river. The Copperajah trudged along the river bank, pulling the boat upstream using several harnesses. The Gumshoos walked on the other side with his ropes while the Bibarel steered their vessel from the water. They brought the ship ashore by Helena's camp, and Helena and her friends helped them unload the many crates.
"A pleasure doing business with you," said the Gumshoos. "Any plans for another shipment soon?"
"I certainly am interested in buying more in the future," said Helena. "I am unsure of the time and amount, but I will send a letter to your guild's office in Miloa when I am ready."
"Excellent. Hope you enjoy Velenadu's finest harvest!" said the Copperajah. The three merchants hopped into their empty boats and rode downstream back to Miloa.
Helena and her friends filled the cauldrons with water from the river, started fires underneath them, opened up one of the crates, and started cooking lots of rice. Villagers from across the province were beginning to arrive at the site. Some villagers had complete faith in Helena and were ready to do whatever she asked. They had helped her drive the bandits away from their farms and were eager to help her again. The sight of the steaming cauldrons and the stacks of crates confirmed that this was the place to be! Helena and her friends chattered with the villagers as they arrived for work and the rice cooked.
"Can I get everyone's attention?" Helena spoke up from atop a table. The excited clamoring simmered down as all the pokémon turned towards the Ninetales. Helena measured roughly thirty pokémon here to listen to her. She cleared her throat. "Thank you all for coming to work for me and putting your faith in me. See those woods over there, where bandits used to lurk and strike our farms from?" she mentioned, directing her tails towards the woods. "Today, we will begin chopping down those woods to create new farmland. But first, I would like to begin with a treat," she smiled, pointing towards the cauldrons. "We cannot work on an empty stomach. For too long, we've struggled to grow enough food, so I've bought food from Miloa. Please eat to your heart's content, then we will begin our work!"
The villagers cheered. Helena's friends started scooping the cauldrons' cooked rice into bowls and giving them to pokémon. "You are just too kind, Your Highness," Laura, a Leavanny, said as Helena handed her a bowl. "What have I done to deserve this?"
Helena smiled. "You can't work your hardest on a half-full stomach," she said.
Once the feast was over, Max started teaching everyone how to use Cut to extend their claws or sharpen their tails, arms, or whatever was convenient. The group also had to make sure the trees fell in the right direction away from any other trees and not put anyone in danger. After knocking down a tree, other pokémon chopped off the branches and hauled the log to the side of the river. Progress was slow at first as everyone needed to learn to use their moves correctly, identify which trees to take down before others, and coordinate into an efficient pattern. The group took a break for dinner then continued whittling down the forest's edge until nightfall before heading back to their villages.
More pokémon showed up to work for Helena the next day after their friends told them about the opportunity, primarily because of the food. By the third day, the workforce had swelled to around seventy pokémon. Helena had to direct her workers to stop inviting others because her food supplies would not last if she hired anyone else. They were making a dent in the food supplies, but also a severe dent in the forest.
A few days in, Professor Mason and his group of physicists and engineers from the University of Miloa arrived in a boat, carrying their sawmill machinery. "Professor Mason, thank you so much for coming," Helena greeted.
"Of course," said the Manectric. He surveyed the camp for a moment, then gasped, his yellow mane briefly sparking bright blue. "Oh no, no, no! You cannot leave all these logs lying around. If they sit here for too long, they'll start drying, but the outside will dry out faster than the inside. The wood will be uneven or snap when we cut it. Then we cannot use that wood to build!"
Helena grimaced. "I thought you said it's okay for the water wheel," she mumbled.
"For the water wheel, yes, but you already have twice as much wood than we need. You must stop cutting down more trees until the sawmill is operational."
"Seriously, Professor? I cannot wait that long."
"Yes, this wood is going to waste. We must cut the wood into planks before letting them dry, so let us build the sawmill first. What is the rush?"
"I need the land cleared so I can start working on the new berry farms with Professor Lydia. My food supplies for my workers are limited. I have to get as much done as possible, even if it means we have to waste some wood."
"Far from ideal," Professor Mason grumbled.
"What can I do to help you get the sawmill running as fast as possible? Just tell me what to do."
"Alright. While we set up the blades, you can get some pokémon to help construct the water wheel. I will show you what is needed."
Professor Mason showed Helena and Max the blueprint for the water wheel that would sit along the river and power the sawmill. They got as many pokémon as they could manually cutting logs to construct it while the rest kept clearing the forest. The day flew by, and soon it was time for dinner. Helena's pokémon went straight back to work after their meals, shocking the group from Miloa.
"You folks are working past supper?" one of the engineers, a young Heliolisk, asked.
"Of course," Derek said, carrying wood with his trunk. "Why aren't you?"
The Heliolisk flinched, his face turning pink as he twiddled his fingers. "Uh, uh, I'm not lazy or anything! J-just, you know, the day's over. It would be time to go out and party in Miloa…"
"We can't afford that luxury, kid," Eric said as he drilled holes into the logs the way the engineers requested earlier. "We wouldn't have enough food to eat if we didn't work all day on our farms."
"But you have food now, don't you? This seems…cruel."
"This is just a day in the life of Kyukonais," Derek chuckled. "At least we work for Princess Helena now instead of our lords. She has a vision for the future. We won't let her down."
"And unlike our lords, she's actually leading us," Eric added. He pointed across the camp where Helena and Max were using Psychic to carefully place the water wheel's spokes. "From what I understand, we need this thing of yours built fast."
"Wow, I better stick around and help then," said the Heliolisk. "Here, it's better if you do it like this."
Two weeks later, the water wheel was spinning, the blades were whirring, the gears turning, and the belts zipping beneath the blades. "It's a masterpiece," Professor Mason breathed. "The research of five years has led to this."
"Thank you again for agreeing to work with me," Helena said with a deep bow. "I will start selling some of this wood in Miloa soon and begin paying back the cost of the sawmill."
"No need to exhibit such haste, my ambitious pupil," Professor Mason chuckled. "The university's funding contract is not due for another year. All I require is for my team and I to study our system in action, make adjustments for the best quality, and prepare the findings for publication. We will be around to teach how to operate the sawmill to anyone who wishes to learn."
"Can we have a week off first, Professor?" the Heliolisk groaned, lying flat on the ground, soaking up as much sunlight as possible with his frills.
"Does that brilliant noggin of yours not itch to unlock our design's full potential, Hector?" Professor Mason chuckled.
"I need to see my girlfriend…"
"Alrighty, young lad. Hurry back, though. We need to conduct studies on the sawmill's output planks to prove that our new sawblade design does not compromise on structural rigidity."
"Ah, let the boy see his miss," a Conkeldurr laughed. He picked up a plank with one hand on each end and started trying to bend it. "Hoo, hah! My muscles tell me this wood is a mighty fine product! Huh?" he said as the plank began to glow purple. "Hey!"
"Let's not rely on Conrad's subjective, unreliable guns," a Reuniclus said, floating the wooden plank towards her.
Helena tilted her head at the Reuniclus. "Guns?" she questioned.
"My psychic powers will tell us the facts!" the Reuniclus exclaimed, lifting her arms and twirling the wooden plank in the air.
"If you want to talk unreliable, the first stop is Remy's mind," Conrad fired back.
"My psychic powers are on a whole 'nother plane of existence better than your measly muscles," Remy scoffed.
"How would you know what makes good lumber if you never feel it, miss 'splinters will pop my membrane?'"
"How would you know what makes good lumber, mister 'I don't need to think to lift?'"
"Stop!" Helena barked. "I hired you two renowned builders to work together, not argue over whose practices are superior."
"You didn't say anything about bringing that meathead!"
"You didn't say anything about bringing that glob of glue!"
"Relax, you two. You both have your strengths and weaknesses, and I wanted a diverse skill set. There will be plenty of wood for both of you to use. You'll have plenty of workers to help both of you, too. We're all on the same team."
Conrad glared at Remy for one more moment before turning his shoulder. "Alright, Princess. What do you want us to build?"
"First we need a building around the sawmill to protect it. Then we need a large barn for storing and drying the wood. After that, we can start building the market in the city."
Remy spun around in the air and spread her gooey arms wide with a wide smile. "Let's get building!"
Over the next month, Helena's forces made steady progress clearing the woods. The sawmill's blades whirred day and night. The workforce transported the planks to the city using wagons made from wood from the sawmill. Conrad and Remy oversaw the construction of a whole new street of empty stores in the city. Pleased with the smooth operations and her workers' cooperation, Helena headed off to Miloa to spread the word about her new market and her terms for business - a small sales tax. Most vendors didn't mind the sales tax since it was lower than Miloa's sales tax, but they were concerned there wouldn't be enough potential customers to warrant the trip up the river. Helena gave out the date of the next Universalis meeting, promising there would be wealthy nobles to sell to.
One Universalis meeting later, and Helena was strolling down her new market street. Both sides of the road looked identical, with newly built wooden stores were still empty with no color, signage, or wares. Merchants from Miloa had set up their wagons into makeshift storefronts with their products on display. The other six dukes, their knights, and King Ludwig bought up heaps of luxuries - fancy draperies, scented candles, jewels, spicy Liechi berries, and sweet Mago berries, to name a few.
When the purchasing activities died down, Helena went to collect her sales taxes. The first stall had a Drapion handling fancy draperies. "How was business for you, sir?" Helena asked.
"Very good," the Drapion said. "I will be returning next month with more draperies to sell for sure."
"Perhaps you would be interested in buying one of these stores for a permanent presence?" Helena asked, waving her tails down the street.
The Drapion shook his head. "That is not in my interest at this time. I spoke with my customers today, and it sounds like I will only be having customers once a month. There is no need for me to set up a permanent shop. I will return with more wares to sell next month."
"The dukes said they would inform all their counts and knights of the wonderful opportunities to purchase here. You don't want to miss out on potential customers," Helena said.
"I have asked the dukes to inform their colleagues to also come at the same time. With an affluent but narrow customer base, this is the most efficient mode of operation for my guild."
Helena and the Drapion counted up the amount of poke they agreed upon, and the Drapion paid her. "A pleasure doing business here, Princess. I will be back next month."
"Thank you, Sir," said Helena. She went on to the next vendor.
At the end of the street, Helena carried several bags full of poke in her tails and a frown. Max and Lily came by and went up to her, helping her with the bags. "How did the market perform, my friend?" Max asked. "Sadly, you seem disappointed."
"Alright, the good news is I have plenty more money for food right here," Helena said. "I'd say we can safely keep all of our workers for at least another month and even hire more pokémon with these new funds. The bad news is none of the merchants seemed interested in buying a permanent store here. They hashed out an agreement with the nobles that they'd be here every month to coincide with the Universalis meeting and the nobles would bring all potential customers with them at that time, so they have no need to be here at any other time."
"That is to be expected," Max shrugged. "Kyukonais lacks the wealth generation to sustain a luxury economy at this time, but fear not. We will build up Kyukonais according to your plans, and those merchants will be competing for storefronts soon enough."
"I hope so," said Helena. "Well, how's it going at the lumber camp today?"
"Um, we had a little problem," Lily said. "Some pokémon haven't been showing up to work for the past few days! I ran over to their village to see what was up, and they went back to plowing their wheat fields! I asked them why they would go back to that boring old stuff instead of helping us, and they said their knights threatened to kick them out of their homes if they stopped working on their fields! You have to do something!"
Helena curled her tails and bared her fangs. "I won't let those nobles slow down my progress," she growled. "To show they shouldn't get in my way, let's gather a fighting force, take them down, seize their riches and use it to buy more food for our workers."
"I do not think it is a wise idea to antagonize your noble subjects any further," Max advised. "You already promised the previous tax was a one-time demand."
"We can take them out easily!" Lily cheered.
"That's the spirit. We'll crush anyone who stands in the way," said Helena.
"We can certainly handle one count and their knights, but what if others come to their aid? Can we take them all?" Max questioned.
"You know my counts are cowards," Helena said. "Besides, they hate each other. Decades of competition and land disputes keep them at each others' throats."
"Sure, they are cowards and enemies of each other at the moment. But if you do something so drastic as assault a group and take all their assets, it may rackle some of their senses. If you become a common threat, I fear it could be enough for them to put aside their differences and unite against us. Let us think carefully before jumping into a battle that could lose us the war," Max insisted, crossing his arms.
"Still we can beat them all," Helena asserted with a stomp of her paw. "We have so many pokémon who would be willing to help us. They helped us drive away the bandits; they'd help us drive off their worthless knights. We can beat all my counts in a battle any day."
"But for how long?" Max groaned. "Are you going to fight your subjects every single time one tries to restrict your workers? Each day you pull pokémon to fight with us means less progress made too, you know."
"I can't let them get away with this," Helena said, clenching her paws. "Unless there's a better idea, we have no choice but to fight them."
"Hmm…" Max thought. As they approached the lumber camp, he spotted the large wooden barns that their workers had constructed for storing planks. "Aha! We can let the workers move into these empty stores."
"Ooh, yeah!" Lily exclaimed with a jump. "Then the knights can't stop your workers and they won't have to walk so far to come to work either!"
"But I built these stores here because this is the best place for a market. Besides, they aren't designed for pokémon to live in."
"Okay, then let us use the upcoming wood from the sawmill to build new housing in the city for your workers."
"But we have to sell that wood in Miloa to buy food."
"You just got some additional funds from the market sales, correct?" Max pointed out.
"I was going to use this to buy extra food so we can bring in more workers. You know how many pokémon want to work for us and how much more progress we can make with more help."
"But we should not abandon the pokémon who are already working for us, who have already been trained and are very valuable."
"That would mean letting the counts get away with slowing us down!" Helena snapped.
"Follow the path of least resistance," Max responded calmly. "I think providing new housing makes a lot more sense. You would shift control firmly to your paws, right?"
Helena sighed, tossing her market earnings between her tails. She could feel her new hires slipping away. "I'll consider it."
Max and Lily headed towards the woods to help chop more trees while Helena made her way to the storage barns to store the bags of poké and seek out her builders. "I have a new job for you two," she told them. "I need to give my workers a place to stay outside their villages so that their counts can't stop them from coming to work. I need you two to build as many apartments as you can with the wood we have. Food supplies are running low so you have to use as little as possible to build apartments for all seventy of my workers so that I can still sell the rest of the wood for food for them. Think you can do it?"
"Sure thing! I can make the cheapest, most high-quality apartments you'll ever find!" Remy bragged.
"You wouldn't have the slightest idea of how to conserve wood without it falling!" Conrad accused.
"You wouldn't have the slightest idea how to conserve wood period!" Remy shot back.
Helena smirked. "I'll make it a competition, then. Each of you will design and supervise the construction of half the apartments, and whoever uses less materials and gets more favorable reviews from my workers gets a bonus."
Months later, Helena and Chadwyck stood at the edge of the cleared woods. Helena smiled, gazing across the new landscape. What used to be thick, imposing woods was now an array of stumps, leaves, heavy underbrush, and discarded branches. "This is amazing," she breathed.
Chadwyck craned his neck to look at Helena's expression. He surveyed the dead landscape and scratched his head. "What makes this amazing?"
"When I was little, I wanted to visit Terry's family all the time, but the woods were off-limits without a knight to accompany me because bandits could jump out at any moment. I think it's fitting that this place will become the first farmlands under my name."
"Er, how are you supposed to grow anything with all this junk in the way?" Chadwyck asked. He shuffled dead leaves and shrubs around with his foot, trying to reach the soil.
Helena smirked. "We're going to burn it all away."
Chadwyck's eyes widened, then his mouth formed a wicked grin. He rubbed his claws together and flapped his wings in place. His tail flame doubled in intensity. "I like the sound of that!"
"Would you be so kind as to fly me around, my fellow agent of destruction?"
"You bet!"
Helena hopped onto Chadwyck's back, and he took off. Once they were in the sky, Helena raised her tails and activated her Drought. As the sunlight covered them with warmth, Chadwyck's wings started glowing their sinister red from his Solar Power activation, embers beginning to shower onto the brush below with every flap.
Helena gripped Chadwyck's shoulders with her small claws. "Let's go!" she hollered.
Chadwyck swooped down with a roar and glided just above the ground, unleashing a trail of mighty flames in his wake. Helena conjured fireballs at the tips of her nine tails and hurled them in every direction. Chadwyck soared around the perimeter of the former woods, continuing inwards in a spiral pattern when they reached their starting point, setting fire to the mess below.
"Woohoo! I've never unleashed so much destruction in my life!" Chadwyck hollered, taking a moment to fly higher and maneuvering around to take in the view of his and Helena's flames all across the land below them. Above them, Helena's Drought empowered all of the fire.
"I knew you'd enjoy this! Now keep going! There's still so much more to burn!" Helena shouted. She didn't want Chadwyck's Solar Power to exhaust himself before they could set the entire mess of forest dump ablaze.
"I need a moment to admire my flames at work!" Chadwyck shouted, grinning from ear to ear as he swiveled around in mid-air to view the ring of flames.
Helena rolled her eyes, reactivated her Drought, and kept shooting fireballs. A minute later, Chadwyck abruptly dived towards the center and unleashed a new wave of flames. "Conserve your energy!" Helena shouted.
"What do you mean, I can do this all day!" Chadwyck laughed.
"Not with Solar Power!"
Chadwyck soared across the land, wildly billowing out flames from his mouth and wings for a minute straight, with Helena carefully shooting all the spots Chadywck missed. Rising again, they could see an archipelago of flames below, the orange and red eating away at the brown and green.
"This is enough for sure," said Helena.
"Hah…" Chadwyck breathed. He flapped in place for several minutes, watching his Drought-powered flames at work.
"Why are you descending?" Helena suddenly asked.
"Eh?" Chadwyck started flapping his wings harder, but it was as if he was flailing in place.
"Alright, time for us to fly out of here."
"No! I wanna keep watching my flames!"
"Your Solar Power is wearing you down, whether you like it or not," Helena stated. "Do you need me to stop my Drought?"
"No! Don't ruin the glory of my flames!"
"Then start flying away from the center!" Helena cried, slapping Chadwyck's back with a tail.
"Alright, alright!" Chadwyck growled, leaning forward to head towards the edge of the bowl of fire. "Ugh, no way I overdid it…" he grumbled. They kept falling further as each flap got weaker.
"Just get outside the flames," Helena groaned.
"Hah, I'll… I'll get there easily!" Chadwyck growled, but the air started to feel more and more like water against his wings with each successive swing. He blinked a few times. Huh, since when did the flames get so close?
"...You need me off your back, don't you?"
"Uh…"
Helena sighed and leaped into the flames below. She landed her four paws on the burning ground and winced but continued forward. Dashing through the flames felt like nestling through an endless labyrinth of curtains, not the worst feeling, but the smoldering underbrush was terribly rough against her paw pads. She gritted her teeth and kept bounding through the sea of orange and red until she could finally see over the flames. When she was finally out of the conflagration of her own making, she hurtled across the ring of mud they had set up around the perimeter to contain the flames and collapsed on the soft grass on the other side with a sigh. She brought a tail towards her paws to flick away some gritty half-burnt material, then cringed at all the ash clumped up in her tails, turning them from cream-colored to a wildly uneven mess of light and dark gray.
"Arceus dammit, Chadwyck… and you're still flying?!" Helena snarled at the Charizard slowly flapping in place way above her.
"I'm fine without someone on my back," Chadwyck said. Then he turned his eyes back towards the dome of flames and rising smoke. "Wow, I could stare at this forever!"
Lily strolled through the palace towards Helena's hallway after a long but fun day of building the apartments. She excelled at chopping planks to the perfect size with her Leaf Blade, and she was getting pretty good at Vine Whip, too, being able to carry around planks and hold them in place for someone to hammer in. Lily heard Helena and Terry conversing in Helena's room and headed over. When she looked in, she flinched. Helena was splayed out across her velvet-colored bedsheets, looking exhausted, her tails dangling off the side of the bed with gray blotches all over them. Terry was sitting on the floor in front of a tub of water grooming Helena's tails. Terry's claws slowly eased through Helena's fur with the most care Lily had ever seen.
"How did you even get this much crap in your tails?" Terry complained. "Your fur is supposed to be fireproof!"
"Like I said already, there was more fire than I've ever seen in my life," Helena repeated exasperatedly.
"And that's why I refused to go with you," Terry said. "Chadwyck would've hurled me into the ashes the moment he could."
"Scaredy cat," Helena mumbled. Her ear twitched when she heard pawsteps, so she opened her tired eyes. "Oh, Lily!" she greeted.
"Um, I'm n-not interrupting anything important, am I?" Lily asked with wide eyes, looking from Terry to Helena and back.
Terry's ears perked up as well. "Nope! Not at all! In fact, I'm going for a walk! Lily, you can take my place!" Without further ado, Terry zipped out of Helena's room before anyone could even comprehend his words, leaving wet pawprints in the extravagant carpet.
"Get back here, Terry!" Helena snarled. She sighed, flopping her cheek against her bed.
"W-what were you two doing?" Lily quietly asked.
"I got a crap ton of soot clumped up in my tails after burning the remains of the forest down today," Helena explained. She swished one of her affected tails around the tub of water, careful not to splash any water out. She lifted the tail and groaned. "It won't come out without some careful grooming and I'm afraid it'll get worse if I leave my tails dirtied up for longer, but I'm too exhausted from all the Drought and fire I used. I was making Terry clean my tails as punishment for rigging this exact tub of water above my door last week as a 'prank.' Can you go chase him down and drag him back here?"
"Um, I can try cleaning," Lily offered.
"Are you sure? You don't have to… I should force Chadwyck to do it and dock his pay if he doesn't. It's his fault, anyway."
"Why's that?"
"He spent too much time admiring his flames instead of flying me out," Helena grumbled.
"Admiring… flames?" Lily asked, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes.
"Well, it was pretty," said Helena. "A wildfire for us fire types is sort of like a lush meadow to you or a pristine ocean to water types. "It's even more special since we don't get to see one often."
"Oh, okay."
Helena swished two tails around in the water, frowning. "Chadwyck wouldn't know the first thing about grooming fur, though," she groaned.
"I'll help you out. I used to clean my siblings' tails all the time. Nothing can be harder to clean than an Eevee's fluffy tail, right?" Lily remarked.
"Hopefully," Helena chuckled. "Thanks, Lily."
"No problem," Lily said as she got to work, using her small claws to dig out the gray bits stuck between cream strands. She could relax her shoulders, knowing that she hadn't walked into something she wasn't supposed to, but now Lily couldn't stop thinking about what she saw. "Say, Helena… you and Terry have been together for a long time, right?" Lily asked. Then she nearly smacked herself a moment later for phrasing it like that!
"I've known Terry since literally forever, for better or for worse," Helena snickered.
Lily exhaled a deep breath, forming ripples in the tub. "Are you two, like, a thing? I-I mean, you guys are so close and-"
"Pfft! Haha, no way!" Helena blurted out, nearly splashing Lily with sooty water in the process. "Sorry. I mean, Terry's like a little brother to me. I'd want him around forever, but he's not exactly what I'm looking for in a partner." Helena peeked down and spotted the rosy tint on Lily's beige cheeks. "Do you like Terry?" the Ninetales asked with a wolfish grin.
"Ummmm…" Lily stammered, looking away.
Helena smiled widely, crossing her forelegs. "Well, I think you two would be perfect together."
"R-really?" Lily asked, snapping her head up at Helena with shining hazel eyes as her tail started to swish.
"Yup," Helena said with an affirmative nod. "You've got the energy to match him, the playfulness, and I bet he loves your sense of adventure."
"Do you think he'd feel the same way?" Lily asked with a little hop. "You know him best, right?"
"I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't bet against it," Helena said with a wink. "Want me to ask him?"
"No!" Lily cried out, her ears flattening and her tail seizing up. "I-I'll think about it…"
"What do you like about Terry?" Helena questioned with a smirk.
"Uh, well…" Lily stammered, staring into the water. "He's super fun to be with," she decided. "Sometimes he just says the most random, hilarious things. I've never enjoyed hanging out with someone as much before. He's so carefree and never stops having fun!"
"Also, his eyes are so cute. I love the way they glow in the dark. And I wanna snuggle against his warm fur and soft whiskers," Lily blurted out, then proceeded to wither in embarrassment.
"Aww," Helena crooned. "I feel energized just thinking about getting you two together," she gushed. She carefully hopped off her bed and continued cleaning her tails where Lily left off while said Leafeon took deep breaths and tried not to pass out from the blood dancing beneath her cheeks.
"Listen closely, class," Professor Lydia said, standing in front of a crowd of forty or so villagers. Behind the Linoone and her research team was a large expanse of soil, fresh from the wildfire and ready for new vegetation. "Princess Helena has graciously granted me the opportunity to test the fruits of my years-long research on her new land, and I wish to teach you all the means of unlocking your new farmland to its highest potential." Professor Lydia pulled an orange and yellow berry from a bag. "This is a Liechi Berry. It is a very fragrant and spicy berry that expert cooks use to make spicy flavors. Please pass it around," she said, handing it to the nearest pokémon. Then Professor Lydia held up a pink and yellow, crescent-shaped berry. "Next, I have a Mago Berry. It's one of many berries used for sweet flavors. But don't just take my word for it; Amber over there has a treat for you all."
"I have some rice cooked in Liechi sauce and Mago sauce for everyone to try!" said an Ambipom, standing next to a table with two warm pots of rice, one orange-colored and one pinkish, and small wooden bowls. "Come on, don't be shy!"
Everyone lined up for a bowl and two scoops of rice. The villagers of Kyukonais marveled at the exquisite tastes, not used to having any sort of flavoring for their food. It was a luxury for sure.
Professor Lydia called for everyone's attention, and the chatter died down. "Right now, these berries are very expensive in Miloa," said the professor. "They are only grown in one place each, both very far away and very different places. However, I believe we can grow both of them right here! You already get plenty of sunlight here, and water can be brought in from the river as needed. The tricky part is the soil. Bella?"
"Hi everyone!" said a Bellossom standing by two large pots. "Here I have two very different soils. Liechi berries need a rough, gritty mix for water to drain easily. Mago berries like a soft, compact soil. Please come up and feel the difference between these two soils."
Everyone promptly took their turn, feeling the different soils. Once they finished, Bella clapped her hands together for attention. "They look similar but feel very different, right? But there's even more that makes these soils so different which we can see. Watch this." The Bellossom's light green body turned lavender then she spat a small glob of poison into each pot. The poisons started sizzling, but more fumes rose from the Mago pot than the Liechi pot.
"That move is called Venoshock," said Bella. "It's a poison that's known to react more strongly when the target is already poisoned. But it reacts to all acids, not just poisons. Some acids are good; in fact, plants need a little bit of acidity in their soil to grow big and strong! Different plants need different amounts, though. As you can see by the different Venoshock strengths, Mago and Liechi berries need very different acidities in their soils. And these berries are very sensitive. That's why they only grow in certain parts of the world, where the soil is just right for them."
"And that's where you come in," Professor Lydia announced. "Our research has found that a lot of moves can have effects on a soil's acidity. We'll do our best to teach everyone something that can help. Of course, the most important move of all is Venoshock, because without it, you'll have no way to test if your soil has the right acidity. Sadly, not everyone can learn Venoshock, including myself, but fear not, we have a solution." The Linoone pulled out a metal jar, unscrewed the lid, and poured some Venoshock poison into a pot. "We can store Venoshocks in metal jars. At our lab, we always keep several jars handy courtesy of Bella in case she, I don't know, parties too much and doesn't make it to work the next Monday!"
"Professor!" Bella whined, covering her cheeks with two of her leaves.
"I'm only kidding, dear," Professor Lydia chuckled. "So, Bella is the acidity expert. She will help eligible pokémon learn Venoshock. Amber over here is the culinary expert," she said. "When the time comes, she will teach everyone when to harvest the berries to meet Miloa's vast and diverse culinary needs."
The Ambipom waved her tails and smiled. "And Professor Lydia is the Dig expert!" Amber added.
"That I am," the Linoone smiled. "I will teach everyone how to break up, pack, and mixed the soil to perfection for each different berry. So," she said, clapping her paws and rubbing them together. "Let's get to work!"
After a tiny bit more lecturing on the details, Professor Lydia said the best way to learn was by getting one's paws dirty and instructed everyone to spread out and start digging with her supervision.
Lily trotted over to where Terry was. "Hey Terry, can I dig next to you?" she asked.
"Of course!" Terry chimed. "I thought you hated farming, though. Wouldn't you rather be building?"
"Uh, well…" her hazel eyes met his yellow ones, always shining with joy. "At least we won't be planting the same thing over and over. This should be more fun than my family's old wheat farm," Lily said.
"You bet! In fact, forget 'farm.' Let's call it a plant-a-tion! Cuz these plants are gonna make our nation!" Terry exclaimed, making Lily burst into a fit of giggles.
Helena smiled from a little ways away. If there were anything to get Lily back on a farm, it'd be Terry, she mused. Feeling invigorated, she dug her glowing amber paws into the soil and got to work.
A/N 3/26/22: Whew! This chapter took a long time to revise. When I first wrote it, it was just long paragraph after long paragraph of saying this happened, that happened, with little details or character development. Hopefully the final product was enjoyable. Anyways, I'm not a plant biologist, so take any farming advice in this chapter with a grain of salt :) I did do a lot of research on how modern farming works, and I'll try to put a spin on it using pokémon powers. I couldn't really come up with anything special and pokémon-specific for the sawmill, but I've got another industry with a pokémon spin lined up next chapter!