Planting

I chatted with Birch for a bit about casual topics while we waited for Sly to finish evolving. Nothing serious or anything like that , just simple things like my meeting with the elder Entei that dumped Vulcan on me to shirk responsibility for it. Oh yeah I had figured out that that particular Entei simply wanted an excuse to not need to actually take Vulcan under it's wing. I couldn't really blame it either as it sounded an awful lot like unplanned parenthood. If the nearest member of the species was supposed to handle the newborns then it was likely considered a chore that no one wanted by them.-

So in order to get out of it the elder Entei that had come across me and Gaia decided to pass Vulcan off on me since I had the minimum requirements for the job. The requirements for it probably weren't even all that high either as I was pretty sure I had figured out at least three , Potential , age and sanity. Like I said they weren't very high at all and Birch agreed with me when I explained all this as it made perfect sense.-

The only known exception to this theory according to Birches information was none other than Byron that captured three legendries after defeating them when he was forty five. These three legendries were a Registeel , Regirock and Regiice that he tracked down. It probably didn't need to be mentioned but Byron was a champion tier trainer and was also the owner and founder of the battle island elite trainer resort. This interested me and when I asked Birch about it he explained that the only ways to get onto the island resort was to either be a well known elite trainer or to pass a test set by Byron that was notoriously hard.-

So hard in fact that to this very day only champion tier trainers have passed it while they were champion tier , not a single elite tier trainer has passed the test. According to Birch however getting onto the island is VERY much worth it. Byron had constructed a virtual paradise for the powerful trainers that had the best food , games , activities , pokemon battleground and had even populated the island with nearly every species of pseudo legendary as well as many other powerful species that live by the law of the jungle.-

Sure the place would be nightmarish for weak trainers but for the elites it was the single best place in the known world. Hearing all this made my blood boil in excitement as I imagined the place and I knew I would one day set foot there firmly. Finally the rainbow orb around Sly dispersed to reveal his new form. He was covered by cream colored fur with brown stripes on the shoulders , tail and spine and had a long streamlined body with four short but powerful legs that ended in two sharp claws each.-

Sly had become a Linoone and was now built for speed as every part of his body was now streamline and aerodynamic. Much like Gaia though Sly immediately fell unconscious after evolving from exhaustion. "Looks like it's time to head back then." I said while picking up the unconscious mon that weighed close to seventy pounds and slung him over my shoulder. My muscles weren't just for show and worked well for carrying this amount of weight with only a little effort on my part. "Enjoy your retirement old man!" I called out to Trent as we left back for the village.-

Since Sly was out of commission for the moment I had Vulcan and Gaia handle protection duty to great effect. Absolutely nothing was stupid enough to not take their warnings seriously and avoid us. This led to a nice and smooth trip back to the village without any need to stop. It only took us about two hours to make it back setting the time right at noon. In total this trip to the mountain and back took about five hours. "What happened to Sly!?" May exclaimed when she saw me carrying the limp pokemon over my shoulder.-

"He evolved obviously so he passed out from exhaustion , chill." I said reassuringly. "It was unbelievable May! First Sly chased off all these pokemon and then..." the good professor excitedly narrated our trip with only some minor exaggerations. The funny part was that May seemed to think that Birches description of how easily Trent manhandled Sly was an exaggerating but was in fact totally accurate. "It looks like Lee got in a shipment of goods look." I pointed out the large shipping truck parked behind the general store. "Oh that? Yeah it arrived about an hour after you both left." May says not minding that I changed the conversation.-

"Want to go see if he got in the fertilizer and grass seed?" I asked Birch while unceremoniously setting Sly down on the ground. "Will he be alright here?" May asked worriedly. I nodded "I can't exactly bring Gaia and Vulcan over with me so they can stay behind and make sure nothing happens to him." I said casually which made her relax. As it turned out Lee did in fact manage to get in the stuff a couple days early which pretty much determined what I was doing for the rest of the day.-

I had to make a few trips to and from the store thanks to only being able to carry two bags of fertilizer at a time. After that I had Gaia stir the fertilizer into a few different spots that Birch chose for the berries. After that I directly dropped a single berry of each type that he wanted into a hole in the ground and sprinkled the spot with water. Getting the berries started only took about an hour total but the really time consuming part was seeding the grasses. The pasture was a rather large area to cover and while I had enough seed for it , it would take me a while to cover it all.-

Most people would think that they can simply take a handful of seed and throw it haphazardly all over the land and if given some time they would have a nice bed of grass. This was unfortunately almost entirely wrong as like most plants grass needed careful planting and care until it matures. After that though grass was both easy and irritatingly difficult to kill off. Easy because a good drought happens and the grass will dry out and die.-

Difficult because short from that the plants were stupid good at avoiding death thanks to their long roots. The green edible part above the ground is pretty much totally expendable to the plant and only works to absorb sunlight. I ended up spending the rest of the day carefully seeding the pasture with Gaia's help. Sly had already woken up by the time I was done and was in the process of familiarizing himself with his new body. It wasn't as big of an adjustment as with Gaia but there were enough changes that this was necessary for him.