C004 - Fiery guests

Even though he couldn't see it, Pete was sure the sun was about to set, and his second night in the cabin would start soon. The storm had still not stopped. To prepare for the night, Pete stepped out and took a leak.

When he came back and made himself comfortable on the bed with Solosis, Pete started to hear noises other than the storm from outside.

But what made him even more apprehensive than the noise was the light coming from outside. It was fire, he was sure of it. And what human would run around with a lit torch in this heavy rain? Nobody would. It was a pokemon then, it had to be. And if they had flames on their body permantly and they survived this rain, they were bound to be strong.

Something scratched the door with a weak cry Pete couldn't fully make out because of the rain. The scratch, however, came from something hard. Claws, horns, or maybe hooves?

Wait, hooves, in the game route 27 had Ponyta spawns, no? Should he open the door for a flaming horse, then? It could control its flames to not burn what it shouldn't apparently, and the Ponyta line was rather tame all things considered. They certainly weren't born assholes like Zangoose or any of the snake pokemon.

Pete moved to the window next to the door to take a look. The pokemon wouldn't stop trying to enter anytime soon, so he made no real effort to hide, only enough to quickly move away from the pokemon's line of sight if needed.

What he saw was a little out of his expectation. He saw a towering Rapidash with shoulders about as high as Pete was tall next to a Ponyta that barely reached his waist. First impression for Pete? A young foal with its parent.

"Hey Rapidash, I'll let you in to hide from the storm, but can you promise me you won't try to hurt me and my pokemon and that your baby can control its flames enough to not burn down this cabin?"

Pete's loud voice instantly made the tired looking Rapidash look to him in the window. It didn't even take a second to deliberate the question and immediately nodded its head with a desperate gaze.

"Alright, I'll trust you for now. Please don't make me regret it," Pete shouted as he moved the chair that blocked the door and opened it.

"Give me a second, I think the tent in my bag should be fireproof and a better sleeping place for you and your young than the dusty floor."

Pete moved to the desk where he had piled up his bags. By now, there were 'only' six in the room. One of them held nothing but the other four empty ones, and the other five held content based on a category Pete made up. Food, precious items, survival, poke gear, and lastly, the biggest of the bags held materials.

Food is self-explanatory. Precious items included the evolutionary items, among other things. Survival held the tent he just mentioned, the generator and other related things. Poke gear was for poke balls and potions he managed to salvage. Materials included everything from firewood, serviceable crates, and soon also seeds and maybe even entire saplings that he can transplant.

"This here on the bed is my girl Solosis. She only hatched a little over a day ago," Pete introduced as he placed the tent tarp with holes in it on the floor. He hoped the motherly instincts in the Rapidash would be the final tipping point if needed that would dissuade the Rapidash from killing him in his sleep.

Solosis did a bit of training earlier, floating around and lifting things with telekinesis, so she was a bit tired. She didn't bother floating over to the two fiery horse pokemon and only did something akin to a nod from inside her skinsack.

'Now that I think about it, I don't suppose she can make noises? Her mouth is behind that skin and submerged in the fluid, so how could her sounds travel and be more than muffled mumbling?'

As answer, Pete heard an almost sad 'Solosis' ring out in his mind as confirmation.

'Oh, hey girl. Can you tell the gender of our guests? Especially the Rapidash, I don't want to call it something wrong,' Pete asked in his mind while looking toward Solosis with a smile.

Some emotions and vague imagery came to his mind, and he interpreted it as 'big girl, small boy', so Pete was likely looking at a mother with her son. Good to know.

"Hey Rapidash. I know you just came out of the heavy rain, and as a fire pokemon, you probably have seen enough water for a while. But even you should probably drink something clean to stay healthy. Look at the bucket over there filling up. You can drink from that," Pete softly advised as the tall Rapidash fussed over the exhausted Ponyta whose mane was barely flickers and embers. The second Pete was done laying down the tent the Ponyta was already lying on its belly with his head between his two front legs.

Rapidash heard Pete and saw the truth behind his words. However, the Ponyta already lost enough power and would probably enjoy a hot drink compared to a cold one. So Rapidash nudged the bucket closer to her weak offspring and heated the water with some embers. With another nudge, this time to her child's behind, the weakened fiery horse started drinking in big gulps.

When he was done shortly after, Rapidash drank the rest and nudged the now empty bucket back to its original place so it could keep collecting rainwater from the leaky roof.

"Thanks, you're quite the smart one, aren't you? I was just about to ask Solosis to move the bucket back," Pete praised with a smile from his seated position on the bed.

With a neigh that somehow incorporated a syllable of its species' name, Rapidash accepted the praise and laid down close to her offspring to keep him warm.

"We're a little low on food ourselves, but these treats here are very filling and apparently good to eat for all types of pokemon. Care for one? I have one for your Ponyta, too, once you're sure they aren't harmful," Pete offered cautiously with a treat on his outstretched hand.

Rapidash, in turn, looked at Pete, then his hand, and moved her head closer to sniff the treat. Her breath was very warm, hot even, yet somehow not scorching Pete mused. The mother carefully picked up the treat and ate it carefully, making sure that she would taste any possible poison if needed.

"Care for another? Then one for your boy?"

Rapidash ate a second treat, this time a little less reserved, and carefully closed her eyes to feel her body. It took a few minutes where she looked toward Solosis, possibly 'talking' via telepathy, until Rapidash decided to give one of the treats to Ponyta. Sleepily, Ponyta ate the treat and immediately put his head down when he was done swallowing, likely falling asleep instantly.

"Okay, I'll let you rest now. I'm still going to read a little before sleeping myself. Uh, please don't rummage through those bags over at the desk, not sure how durable they are. And uh, the firestone next to the three eggs here in the case? Not sure how enticing it is to you as a fire pokemon, but please don't fully use up its energy while I'm not looking?"

Pete wasn't sure about this. He did write that pokemon could use these evolution stones to empower their affinity. But how much and how fast was the drain on such a stone? There was no way for him to know that, nobody knew for sure. Species with singular typing usually drained matching stones faster. But it didn't come with a percentage meter or something like that, and he had no fire affinity himself, so he couldn't feel out how powerful the stone was.

Done with his deliberation, Pete looked toward the two eggs he put next to the fire stone for warmth to make them hatch faster. He decided on the two Minccino and the Sunkern eggs. Both Pokemon are surely the weaker among his choices, but they would therefore also hatch faster. Perchance.

Also, while he wouldn't stay in this dusty cabin much longer, the Minccinos would greatly help with keeping his surroundings clean. Their pokedex entry, even for the evolved form Cinccino, explained that this pokemon used its tail and later its scarf to keep itself and its immediate environment clean. And Pete himself was a rather clean person. A clean person in desperate need of a toothbrush. First things first, if the weather allows it, he would probably look for a sort of toothbrush alternative among the twigs of the surrounding trees.

Pete studied the book on edible plants a little longer before he decided he would go to sleep. He put the book on the nightstand, nodded toward Rapidash, who observed his movements and turned off the flashlight.

Solosis found a more comfortable position this time, more comfortable for her anyway, and laid down right next to Pete's head. Between him and the firestone, effectively monopolizing the stone's and Pete's heat for herself. It didn't matter much, Pete fell asleep very fast anyway.

When Pete woke up, he noticed the room was way warmer than last night. He wasn't flooding his sleeping bag with sweat just yet, especially because it was the luxurious kind that controlled the temperature a little, but the difference was still noticeable.

Of course, Pete quickly remembered his two fiery guests, so he didn't have to wonder for long from where the extra warmth came from. Nothing smelled burned either, so Pete calmed down quickly.

Pete sat up and Rapidash immediately opened her tired eyes to observe the movements. Which was astonishing intuition and survival instincts on her part because his sleeping bag made pretty much no sound at all.

"Hey, good morning, big girl," Pete softly greeted so as to not wake up the two young pokemon who were still asleep in the room.

Still not sensing any form of hostility from the human, Rapidash relaxed and curled her head back toward her son, helping him stay as toasty as possible for a nice recovery.

And what a recovery it was. The foal was still very much asleep, but already, it looked amazingly energized. His mane was pretty much fully recovered to what Pete assumed was its regular volume, luster, and form.

Done marveling the horse pokemon, Pete pulled his attention to the window. The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon, and Pete noted with delight that he saw this world's sun for the very first time. It was still raining lightly, but the storm was definitely over.

'Which means I'll have to get going, too. I don't know if Team Rocket could get here quickly or not. Sure, Teleport could work, but the pokemon would had to have been here first and that's a lot of coincidences,' Pete mused as he began to take stock of everything he wanted to keep with him.

'Definitely one of the buckets, even that ceramic bowl, the flashlight, and the books. But honestly, it feels a little bad to just rob the owner of the cabin like that, especially the TM-CDs. I should leave some luxury balls as compensation. The evolution stones I need. Same is true for the food and the equipment is also necessary for me at this stage. One of the TM is probably a bit much. What if a random passerby comes instead of the owner? Nah, luxury balls it is. They are valuable, sure. But their true worth for a Kanto trainer comes from the fact that they aren't yet sold in Kanto. And it's not like I would ever need the full 100 balls I got from the crates before I had some form of income that would allow me to buy more... right?'

Pete silently got dressed, prepared some carbos infused water for Solosis, who slowly woke up and packed up what he wanted to keep. Rapidash didn't observe him the entire time with her gaze, but her ears were always turned in his direction. And whenever he was in front of her, the flaming unicorn would open her eyes a little to take a look.

Solosis woke up eventually and started to float over to her breakfast drink. The scene of her inflating her skin with the drink and then drinking it to shrink down were still as comical as ever. And a drink was enough for her too this morning.

When Pete offered her half a marble of the poketreat like she ate before, the newborn pokemon shook her head and projected a feeling of fullness into him.

So Pete offered the treat to Rapidash instead, who quickly gulped it down.

"Here, I'll pour some in the bowl for you. Solosis and I will take a look outside. Maybe we'll find some food closeby," Pete whispered so as to not wake the Ponyta. After putting six treats into the ceramic bowl that held a second fire stone on his first night in the cabin, Pete stepped outside with as little sound as he could make and Solosis staying on top of his head.

Pete immediately spotted a few edible plants and spices behind the cabin and Pete was able to use the knowledge he soaked up through his brother in his last life to identify sprigs and offshoots he could cut for his future farm. Even some seeds didn't escape his sight.

Though, he didn't have a knife or scissors, but he did have a luxury nail clipper for the claws of feline pokemon, it worked well enough for anything thinner than big toe and could even cut steel... apparently. And so he used a luxury grooming tool like garden shears.

Just like that, Pete and Solosis spent a pleasant hour outside. They found a few more edible plants and even two different kinds of berries. Just over the hill behind the cabin. Oran berry and Leppa berry. The first aids in recovery, the second restores stamina.

The Oran berry was round and blue in color, and it grew on trees with coral-colored leaves. Fully grown, the trees roughly reached Pete's shoulder, and Pete was lucky enough to find quite a few saplings that apparently shot up during the storm around the bigger Oran berry trees after the heavy rain. Together with Solosis, Pete was able to unearth quite a few of these saplings and quickly put them in his bag. Pete hoped these miracle plants would survive a few weeks like that.

The same was true for the Leppa berries, which reminded him of small-ish apples with yellow bottoms and red tops. They didn't grow on trees but rather bushes with thin thorny brambles and giant, pink leaves. At the end of a branch, five to seven leaves would grow out, and the Leppa berry would grow in the middle of the leaves.

They wouldn't be happy with it, but the book on berries explained that Oran berries were nutritious enough to be the sole source of food for pokemon for a prolonged period of time, so discovering almost fifty ripe Oran berries in addition to the saplings was quite the lucky find.

For himself, Pete found what looked to be this planet's potato but with an orange hue. And quite a few of them too, because a single plant when dug out had over twenty fist sized potatoes on it underground. Four of these plants later, Pete decided this was probably enough. As convenient as the bags were, they didn't come with a stasis enchantment, and he didn't feel like he cleaning out moldy food from a truck sized space.

When he arrived back at his temporary base, Ponyta was still asleep. Rapidash, however, was up now that her son looked to be on a path to full recovery and sniffed the case with the firestone and the eggs on Pete's nightstand.

At first, Pete's mood dropped a little, thinking that the freeloader was absorbing the firestone's energies, but he heard a crack that he had heard before. And it didn't belong to the stone. No, that was the same crack he heard the night Solosis hatched.