Fat kid

The next morning me and my buddy were up an at em at the crack of dawn, showered, fed and ready to start the day off with a bang..

Last night I explained how I wanted to train him today and try some stuff how to see if any of it actually worked or if it was just MC plot armour.

I had a feeling before that meowth was down to train and I was right….very right, he practically vibrated in excitement, he's keen a mustard to start training to get stronger, and when I moentioned about having him battle against other peoples Pokémon eventually, he was fucking hyped.

I also spoke with him about evolution and if he wanted to stay a meowth or not….to be honest, as much as I loved this cat, I wasn't like ash who was chill with his pikachu not evolving and essentially halving his own strength.

But to my relief meowth couldn't wait to evolve if going by the way his eyes practically sparkled when I spoke about him becoming a monster of a Persian…

So with that subtle fear gone from out of the back of my mind that meowth wouldn't want to train or evolve gone, I could focus on moving forward and getting a jump start on training..

The muddy grounds have dried out a fair bit but meowth has gotten accustomed to being pulled around in the cart, so I just let him ride in it again today..

Before we left, I grabbed some rope and a couple extra helpings of food and bottles of water because we were going to be out for awhile today, I wanted to work on iron tail, it would be a great move to have, especially around here.

This place is lousy with rattata and possibly Raticate, and as powerful as shadow claw is, it's useless against them, having another heavy hitter in his arsenal would really put my mind at ease..

And not wanting to draw attention to where we lived I wanted to head south east about half hours walk, not far from the river to do some training..

But along the way we ran into a pair of Rattata who didn't see to appreciate our presence, their fur heckled up as they hissed when they spotted us…great aggressive rattata…and before I could turn around to find another way, meowth was already in front of me, looking ready for a fight..

he was taking a protective stance, trying to keep his body in between mine and the wild Rattatas as the shifted to the side slightly….something I very much appreciated..

And as much as I wanted to battle them, it just wasn't in the cards right now..for several reasons

one, I only have one potion left and I doubt meowth would come out of the battle unscathed…

Two, rattata are pack animals, so even if we managed to stomp these two into the ground without any trouble, one screech and we could be drowning in more of the rodents

Three, I'm not trying to start up any territory disputes with these rats yet, we aren't strong enough…but when meowth is strong enough, and possibly when I have a second Pokémon ready…you best believe we are going to start throwing our weight around these parts…

So with those points in mind, I stepped forward and placed my hand on meowths head to calm him down, while speaking to the rattata..

"Listen fellas, we didn't come here for a fight, and we didn't mean to intrude in your territory, we will just turn around and find another way around… you good with that?"

Meowth stopped its aggressive hissing, but never took his eyes off our possible rodent assailants..

The Rattata seemed to get the message as their fur settled down a little before the bigger of the two, tipped his head to indicate we should get stepping….so that's just what we did..

Meowth slowly walked backwards, with eyes on the Rattata until they were out of view before huffing and jumping back into the wagon..

I just patted him and told him appreciated him having my back, to which he pressed his head into my hand and purred as if to say 'you are very welcome'

But the only reason I wanted to head that was because of my worry of too much noise while training could possibly lead something or someone to my base…

But if it's going to be this annoying to travel, I guess we'll just train a little closer..

With that said we headed back toward home taking a different route, and eventually found a pretty cool little spot with open ground, a few trees, plenty of grass that was barely ankle length and even a mid sized stream that ran into the nearby river…

I don't know how I missed this place before, it's maybe 40 minutes walk from home, so it's close enough to be convenient, but far enough away to keep attention from our spot…

With that I dragged the wagon under a tree to let it rest as meowth jumped out ready to rumble..

"Alright buddy, time for some training, as i said last night we are going to be working on iron tail today, I have no idea how long it will take or even if this is going to work, I'm basing this training off a cartoon….so 50/50, but it's gonna be tough are you read for a slog?"

Meowth had recovered amazingly over the last few days of eating basically 5 times what I eat…his ribs no longer show and his cheeks aren't sunken any more, he's still a little stringy, but you can see the muscles under his fur…something we are going to continue to work on…but an amazing recovery speed to be sure…

Meowth practically beaming in excitement at his first training session, doing small hops in place waiting for his first set of instructions..

So I turn back to my wagon and grab a stone about the size of an adults fist and some rope and proceed to tie the rock around his tail as he watches in fascination..

Only take a few minutes and it's all good and secure..

"Alright mate, it's going to be straining and honestly a little boring, but the first thing we gotta do is strengthen your tail, so we'll start with this….so keep lifting and lowering that rock with nothing but your tail….and uhhh…think iron thoughts?"

Still enthusiastic, my new buddy dives right on in and and starts lifting and lowering the rock tied to his tail with a bit of struggle but with a fiery determination….. I hope that lasts…

And as much as I loathed working out in my old world, I knew I couldn't be unfit in this world, it would probably be the death of me…

But being like 10 I couldn't just start lifting heavy shit or running until collapse, it would probably hurt my growth, and I knew I was probably superhuman compared to the people of my old word but it's best not to risk it and take it slow..

So for the next half hour I just started doing suicide drills they used to make us do in school….oh how I used to hated that exercise, especially as a fat kid….even as a skinny kid. That hatred hasn't faded

I had to take a break every few minutes though, my body was still not in best of shape..

But meowth surprisingly soldiered through the iron tail training with relish….I could see the strain it was putting on his tail, but looking at him and his determination that was as strong if not stronger than when we started shine through, gave me hope things were gonna be ok…

We trained until around mid day, both of us taking constant breaks for water, before we stopped for a big break and some lunch..

I untied his tail, which shot straight up when the weight was released, kinda like holding something heavy for ages and letting go and your arms kind of want to just raise by themselves..

We both chowed down on our cheap, kind of nutritious and most importantly, non perishable lunch, sittint under the shade of the tree

My legs, arms, back and even lungs felt like they were on fire….people call it a good pump, I call it fucking torture….who wants to feel like this all the time….gym junkies always confused me….

And suddenly there was a shuffling noise to our right that caused meowth to spring immediately in front of me almost spilling my food and tipping his food bowl…

And there was a hole we both somehow missed maybe 15 feet away from us, making that particular shuffling sound…it was a pretty big hole….possibly big enough for a Raticate…

So my thoughts were tense, meowth had his heckles raised but not making a sound watching the noisy hole, waiting for whatever was making that noise to show itself…

But all of a sudden what was making that noise came trodding out at a slow and sedate pace…

It was a chunky pink ,waist high….rat hippo?, with a very bored expression on its face, who came lumbering out of the hole in the ground…

It didn't even seem to acknowledge our existence as it moseyed right past us heading for the stream, before turning around to face us and dipping his tail in the water before flopping onto his belly in a huff and closing his eyes….

"That's a slowpoke right?"

Meowth just nods at me and looks at slowpoke again….

Hmmm…..