A drabble. Enjoy.
Altered Bonds Extras
Omake 4 — Waterfall Moment
(Best read after Chapter 8)
(Canon? — Maybe)
Gabite blinked at the backside of the waterfall he just leapt through. His head pounded from the weight of the rushing falls, and his sensitive ears twisted at its cacophonic noise as it pounded the lake below.
Water ran through his scales in rivulets, a small pond forming around where he stood. In front of him, a similarly soaked Lucario and Vulpix waited upon him, their wet fur smell wafting into Gabite's nostrils. They stood in a small cavern with a suspiciously convenient lantern, holding an Electric Gem that emitted a dim light.
At Lucario's feet was an opened chest. With a Tiny Reviver Seed, whose plain appearance was belied by the tiny green bud sprouting from a cracked spot.
Gabite stared at it. And then at Lucario.
"There's a secret cave at Grassroot Falls."
"Yep."
"With a chest that holds a notably rare item."
"Apparently."
"And you just figured it had to be behind one of the waterfalls."
Lucario clutched his bruised head — a result of his efforts to inspect every last waterfall he could find, at the risk of having a deluge of water crash against his body each time. "It's a dungeon," he reasoned, "and it has waterfalls."
Gabite clutched his head. Which wasn't as bruised, but was beginning to grow a migraine to compensate. "Where did you live that it's normal to chuck yourself headfirst at waterfalls and find secrets?" he cried out.
Lucario and Vulpix threw each other twin stares. Eventually the latter gave in and clutched her head too, tails tussling at her curly snow-like hair as if to get rid of the dampness within.
"You're weird," she said.
A huff came from Lucario. "Tell me you weren't thinking the same thing."
From the annoyed look she shot him, Gabite knew she had. Which made him groan. "We have no records of this at the Explorer Board!" he stated. "How could nobody else think of this?"
Lucario shrugged. "Maybe you guys are washed up at your job?"
The pun made Gabite elbow him in the shoulder.
The supposedly free-thinking sapient is driven by predictable urges. Upon sight of naturally formed streams of water that flow over a drop onto a lower elevation, otherwise known as a waterfall, the part of the brain known as the dentate gyrus is simulated. The result is curiosity.
The sapient attempts to leap through the water, leading to two notable possibilities. One is pleasant surprise upon finding a cavern of sorts behind it, with possibly a hidden stash of treasure or some other exhilarating secret. The other is the experience of crashing straight into the rocky formation behind the waterfall, leading to mild disappointment and possible excruciating pain. In the event that multiple waterfalls are present, the sapient's dentate gyrus will reach a state of hyperactive overload, forcing the supposedly free-thinking sapient to throw themselves at each waterfall without regard for their safety in hopes that at least one of the waterfalls may hold a reward that outweighs the risk.
Scholars commonly refer to this phenomenon as a Waterfall Moment.