“Can you tell me more about this Big Sis of yours?” Starly asked as they ventured into the jungle.
“She’s very strong!” exclaimed Bounsweet, the first time Starly had heard her sound... happy. “She doesn’t have the same parents as me. I never met mine.”
“Oh,” replied Starly, worrying she’d touched a sore spot. “That’s sad...”
“It’s normal,” replied Bounsweet, sounding confused.
The jungle itself was fairly pleasant. Sunlight streamed through the long, droopy leaves of the bendy trees, which were shorter than ones she’d seen in temperate forests. Their branches were linked together by thick, dark green vines that Caterpie, Wurmple, and Sewaddle used as tightropes. The ground was covered in bushes and the occasional fern, and she saw a Pancham happily feasting on bamboo shoots, the lucky thing.
The Pokémon, meanwhile, were not pleasant at all. A Cubone and a Mudkip argued over which direction to go, disturbing a Bulbasaur who was curiously poking at some flowers with its vines. Starly and Bounsweet hid behind a bush and watched as a Butterfree and a Cutiefly fought over territory.
“I was here first!” yelled the Cutiefly in an annoying, high-pitched voice. Despite being way smaller, it furiously flew towards the Butterfree and tore a hole in its wing with its pointy mouth. In retaliation, the Butterfree flapped its wings and created a gust of wind that sent the Cutiefly slamming into a tree trunk, but that just made it even angrier. The Cutiefly furiously beat its tiny wings, creating a horrible buzzing sound that was loud enough to shake a few leaves off the trees and scare what looked like a few tiny Skwovet. Bounsweet covered her face with her leaves again in response.
“What’s that?” exclaimed the Cutiefly. A low-pitched buzzing sound caught every Pokémon’s attention.
“I’d better get going,” replied the Butterfree. Panicked, the two mortal enemies flew away in opposite directions.
Starly looked across to see a Beedrill clumsily flying low to the ground; upon closer inspection, it was covered in burn marks. She hopped out of the bush, keeping her distance, and the Beedrill collapsed on the ground in front of her.
“Where did YOU come from?” demanded Starly.
“Rudely awoken by intruder Starly...” Beedrill panted. “Chased him to the edge of the cliff... burned by charcoal Ponyta...” His antennae twitched. “You smell like intruder Starly.” He pointed his spears towards her.
“Whoa! One thing at a time, okay?” exclaimed Starly, trying not to panic. While she was an excellent flyer, she had barely any battle experience. “First of all, I haven’t met any other Starly around here. Second of all, in what way was this Starly an intruder?”
Beedrill lowered his spears. “Starly woke me up. Couldn’t find hive.”
So he must’ve been defending his territory. “Okay... and what’s your hive like?”
“Live under Vespiquen’s protection. Thousands of us.”
“Thousands?” Starly was surprised. “I haven’t seen any Beedrill around here.”
“Not only that. Don’t recognise forest.”
“I don’t recognise this jungle, either,” said Starly. “I just woke up here a few hours ago. Which means... oh.” She turned towards the bush. “Bounsweet,” she shout-whispered, “you said that you lived in a jungle, right? Is this your jungle?”
“No...” Bounsweet shook her... head. Which was her entire body. “My jungle was greener, and darker, and full of flowers.”
“Then Steenee could be anywhere,” replied Starly. Unfortunately, all that accomplished was making Bounsweet cry, and she had no idea how to cheer her up. She could tell Bounsweet that everything would be fine, but how could she lie to a child?
“Beedrill?” asked Starly. “Have you seen a yellow Steenee anywhere?”
“What is Steenee?” Beedrill tilted his head in curiosity.
“It looks like... my friend,” Starly replied. “It’s okay, you can come out now,” she shout-whispered, a cue for Bounsweet - who was still crying - to hop out of the bush. “But taller.”
“Haven’t seen... sorry.”
“You could still help us find her,” replied Starly.
“Too burned to fly.” Beedrill’s wings weakly twitched with pain.
“Oh,” replied Starly. “Don’t worry, I’ll find something. Stay here, Bounsweet.”
Starly flew high amongst the treetops, scanning up and down and all around for Rawst Berries, but she couldn’t find any. She didn’t cover the whole jungle, of course - that would’ve taken far too long, and she didn’t have all day - but it was barren of fruit in general. Instead, she searched for the next best thing - water - but the stream from the clearing didn’t continue into the jungle, and she didn’t have anything to carry it in. Hunger was catching up to her, and she was about to give up... until she noticed a palm tree! She had no idea what one was doing so far from the ocean, but she’d take it! She pecked at the stem of a ripe, green coconut until it fell to the ground and split in half. When she landed on the ground and dipped her beak into the half of the coconut that was facing upwards so she could eat its flesh, she realised it was full of water.
That’s it!
Unfortunately... it was too heavy for her to carry. She’d have to push it all the way back to where Beedrill was. This would take a while.
By the time Starly reunited with Beedrill and Bounsweet, she had eaten most of the flesh of the coconut. It was now light enough for her to carry, so she carefully picked it up and splashed its water over the large burn mark on Beedrill’s abdomen. It wasn’t ideal, but it would have to do.
“So... what was that ‘charcoal Ponyta’ you mentioned earlier?” asked Starly.
“Like Ponyta, but whole body was on fire,” replied Beedrill. “Defended intruder Starly.”
“How rude of them!” exclaimed Starly. Any Pokémon with common sense knew better than to disturb a Beedrill, even by accident; this Starly, whoever it was, had it coming.
“Are you hungry?” asked Starly, gesturing at the half-eaten coconut.
“No thanks. Don’t eat fruits.”
“Bounsweet?”
“I can photosympathise,” replied Bounsweet, who had now stopped crying.
“Photosynthesise,” Starly corrected. “Anyway, I think we should spend the night here, and go looking for Steenee tomorrow, when Beedrill’s strong enough to fly again. What do you think?”
“Good plan,” replied Beedrill.
“Okay...” sighed Bounsweet. “This place is scary, though.”
And so Starly and Bounsweet spent the rest of the afternoon searching for a safe place to sleep, with Beedrill agreeing to find them the next morning. The two eventually found the ideal place to stay: a small clearing where a ring of bamboo shoots surrounded a few rocks.
As he stood outside of what’s-her-name’s shack, Kellyn realised that he was hungry. Hadn’t he just eaten about an hour ago? Or was it longer? The sky told him that it was the afternoon, but morning didn’t feel that long ago.
He looked up at the tree that the red berries grew on. They didn’t taste of anything, but he was still alive, so he assumed they were safe to eat. Unfortunately, he couldn't reach them. He hopped back to the shack, hoping that what's-her-name could figure out what he wanted... but then he noticed a collection of vegetables just outside of it. There was a basket of cabbages, a jar of bananas, a dull, spotted apple, and a green, striped pumpkin. Jackpot! He pecked at the soft, white flesh of the apple and savoured its juice... but it still didn’t taste of anything. Still, he was glad to have food. What’s-her-name wouldn’t mind, right?
“NO!” what’s-her-name screamed theatrically. Kellyn slowly pulled his beak out of the apple, and noticed that a face had been crudely drawn on it... and that what’s-her-name looked like she was about to literally burst into flames. “NOT MR. APPLE!”
Kellyn quickly hopped away from the shack, towards the other side of the cliff, where he had fallen into a bush earlier. He heard light footsteps, and his wings reflexively spread out. He wasn’t normally this nervous; was it an instinct?
A pale yellow Steenee skipped towards him, her movements as graceful as a ballerina. Realising he wasn’t in danger, he awkwardly folded his wings to his sides. His attention was immediately drawn to her lilac, hair-like sepals... or rather, her lack thereof. The two longest ones had been torn off. He’d seen shiny Pokémon that were mutilated, even killed, by poachers so their parts could be sold on the black market many times before, and it always shook him to the core. He knew it was rude to stare, but he couldn’t help it.
“Hi,” said Steenee, snapping Kellyn back to the present. “I saw you fall into that bush earlier, and I was wondering-”
“Are you going to attack me?” asked Kellyn.
“No, of course not,” replied the Steenee lightheartedly. “I was just going to ask... have you seen a Bounsweet anywhere? She’s very shy.”
“I haven’t, sorry.” Kellyn shook his head. “I think the best place to look would be that jungle, but I am NOT going there again today.”
“How come?”
“I was chased by an angry Beedrill.”
“I was chased by an angry Cutiefly. Do you know how hard it is to land a hit on one?”
“I don’t, unfortunately,” Kellyn sighed. “Because... I don’t know how to fight.”
“Don’t worry. I might be able to teach you,” Steenee said. “I’ve fought plenty of Pikipek in my life.”
“I’m actually a Starly now...”
“Now?”
“Long story.”
Just then, what’s-her-name trotted up to them, carrying a few of those flavourless red berries with her telekinesis. She dropped them in front of Kellyn.
“Sorry for getting angry earlier. To make up for it, I brought you some lunch!” She looked surprised when she noticed Steenee. “I see you’ve made a new friend! Well, the more the merrier!”
“What’s she?” asked Steenee.
“I don’t know,” replied Kellyn bluntly. “Also, she can’t understand us.” He spread out his wings, hoping that would signal that he wanted to be left alone. Fortunately, what’s-her-name seemed to get the message.
“Well... let’s get training!” exclaimed Steenee. She picked up a berry. “After lunch, of course.”
“I know you’re not a Pikipek,” said Steenee, standing in front of a rock covered in tally marks, “but they tend to attack by shooting seeds. I think you should try that first.” She had helpfully gathered the berries’ seeds into a pile in front of Kellyn. He picked one up in his beak. “Now, aim at me and spit it out. Except - don’t aim at me, aim around me.”
Kellyn spat out the seed... and it landed straight on the ground without any momentum. He tried again and again, to no avail, until he had used up every seed in the pile. When it was clear this wasn’t going to work, Steenee came up with another idea.
“Why don’t you try pecking the rock?” she asked, stepping away from the rock. Kellyn hopped towards the rock and pecked at it with as much force as possible, but all that accomplished was making his face hurt. He tried pecking the short tree’s trunk as well, but got the same painful result. Clearly, his beak was too blunt to be used as a weapon.
“Well, that was... fruitless,” Steenee said, giggling at her own pun. By this point, the sun was setting. “Shall we call it a day?”
“Yes...” Kellyn yawned. “I’m sure what’s-her-name won’t mind if we stay in her place for the night.” He slowly hopped towards the shack.
“Starly...” Steenee said, following him. “Do you have any friends?”
Kellyn frowned. He had been so occupied with his own problems that he hadn’t stopped to think about that. “Yes. There’s a Starly, and some humans as well.” He left out the part that he was a Pokémon Ranger and Starly was his partner. He didn’t want to confuse Steenee.
“Do you want to look for them, too?”
“Maybe. They could be anywhere...” He looked up at the sky longingly.
“True... but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.”
After spending all day following a stream up the mountain’s slopes, an exhausted Pachirisu looked for a safe place to spend the night. She found a bush and curled up behind it, but a sharp pang of hunger interrupted her before she could fall asleep. The clear sky’s moonlight drew her attention to a stem covered in small, blue flowers, and she curiously nibbled one. It tasted bitter, but not unbearable, so she pulled the stem out of the ground and ate the rest of the flower. Unlike her friends, she didn’t have much experience with surviving in the wilderness, but if she ate one a day, it would keep her going for a while.
Before she drifted off to sleep, a question briefly crossed her mind: I wonder what these flowers are?