I took one look at the object that Chansey was carrying out from the house above her head and realized I was in danger.
I quickly settled Gible slightly away from me and started laughing. Long and hard, and without restraint.
Because the missing two pokemon had been found, and it looks like Riolu had really pissed off Mimikyu.
The pup was bound in reams of cloth, constricting her into a burrito filling. Riolu’s fur was covered in markings and scribbles done with a black marker...
The look on her face as she heard me laughing only made me laugh harder because she was not happy.
"Wh-Wha? What?" I managed to strangle out, but it wasn’t Chansey that answered, but Mimikyu landing on my shoulder and then pointing with his shadow claw, sounding pissed, but also defensive... A bit of fear?
Oh Mimikyu was worried about how I would react. I quickly gathered him up ignoring his hissed rumblings and hugged him soothing and tight.
"You aren’t in trouble." I assured him, before looking at Riolu, barely restrained myself from laughing and looked at Chansey.
"Chanse." She settled Riolu on the grass in front of me, and then gently swatted Riolu’s head.
Yep. "You did something bad huh?" I asked her, and she rumbled and growled, but the cloth wrapped around her mouth muffled her pretty well. "Okay Mimikyu? Can you help me untie her? I don’t want to rip any of your cloth. This is the stuff I bought you right?"
"Kukuku! KUku! Kukuu!" Mimikyu started up again, nearly ranting as he kept pointing his shadowy finger at Riolu.
Wow Riolu really made him mad.
"Okay okay. Let’s all calm down." I assured the group, mostly looking at Gible who hadn’t really moved from where I had placed her on the grass as she seemed happy to just stare up into the sky.
Slowly we got Riolu unwrapped, and now she was howling up a storm and pointing at Mimikyu.
"Rio! Riolu! Rio rio Riiiii!" She whined but even I could tell she was lying her ass off.
"Naughty." I called her and she made a scoffing refusal.
"Where is Lucario?" I asked and Riolu instantly went silent, her eyes wide, before she burst into motion forward trying to press her paws to my mouth.
"Rio! Rio rioluuuu!" She begged and I quirked an eyebrow at her, as I reached up and pulled her paws from my face.
"Okay first off. We find out what you did. Mimikyu? Can you show me?" I asked and he nodded, instantly scurrying off in his silly zig zag pattern towards the house. Riolu ended up sitting seiza in front of me, with Chansey sort of looming over her, keeping her still.
Then Mimikyu returned, and I instantly saw what happened.
He carried with him a frame made of the plastic bits we had bought for him, but it was obvious someone had messed it up...
I tilted my head, Why did it look so weird?
"Riolu did this? How?" I asked, more to myself, but Mimikyu decided to show it off.
He zipped over and then smacked it onto Riolu’s head...
"Pfft!" I desperately kept from laughing. Mostly because I didn’t want to hurt Mimikyu’s feelings, but I understood now. The way Riolu’s head was tilting down in embarrassment?
She had put on the plastic support for Mimikyu’s costume onto her head, because with it sort of pushed down over her, it looked like a tiara... Sort of. If you squinted.
"Okay okay!" I called out and waved Mimikyu over and hugged him tight. "I’m sorry it got damaged, that must have taken you a while huh?" I asked, and he nodded his neck floppy. And crackling as he was, back to? Or still using sticks.
"Alright. Riolu, we probably should have laid some better ground rules about things. But let me say something important. You shouldn’t play with something that doesn’t belong to you without asking first. Mimikyu spent a long time making that." I even reached over and took it off her head, and held it out. "Look how complicated it is."
She tilted her head away from it and refused to look at it.
I moved it over back into her field of view and she arched her neck up to not be able to see it, and then around.
God I’d seen Arcanine do the same thing when she chewed on something she wasn’t supposed to.
"Riolu." I said bluntly. "Here is your punishment. First, you won’t get any special treats tonight with dinner." I said and she gasped looking at me in surprise.
I fed my pokemon good after all!
"Second, you are going to apologize to Mimikyu, and truly, deeply mean it. Or else I bring Lucario into this."
"Rio!" She denied and then her head fell and nodded.
"And third-"
"Rio?"
"Yes, there is more. You will help Mimikyu in fixing it."
"Kukukuk!"
"Riolu?"
"Hey, both of you." I said looking at Mimikyu who had refused even harsher than Riolu had. "I know you are angry Mimikyu, and you have reason to. But you two are also on my team, that means you are family of a sort. You’ll be around each other for a long time."
"Kuukkuk!" He still denied tugging at me with his claws, and I swept him up.
"Oh Mimikyu, it’s not a punishment... Although I can understand why you feel that way. Riolu needs to help you. That means you can put her to work. This is a punishment for her. But I understand I am asking you to let her into your space... Maybe a little help? She can hold the cloth for you as you ready it, or anything you need." I explain and with that. I could see Mimikyu’s head tilt, and he turned to Riolu.
Very quickly there was a sinister "KukuKukukUku." Coming out of him as he stared at Riolu, and the pup went from frustrated at the situation to looking a little worried.
Good.
"Alright. Riolu? You understand?" I demanded and while she did look like she wanted to refuse glancing over at the still muttering Mimikyu she hung her head and nodded. "Good. Now this is training time, which you missed. Go practice Vacuum Wave." I demanded and she perked up a bit at that.
Training wasn’t really a punishment to pokemon after all.
She hurried off with Chansey nodding to me and patting me on the head as she ran past, I looked and realized Mimikyu wasn’t going anywhere. Staying on my shoulder that he climbed up onto.
"I’m working with Gible. You want to help?" I asked him and he sort of jerked up and down in a nod, but it wasn’t a very convincing one.
"That’s okay, you don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. I like the company. I’m trying to get her used to eating around others and not snapping." I said and he perked up when I offered him just to stay. Then I looked to Gible who was still just staring off into the sky into the clouds.
I didn’t interrupt at first, just watching her. She really was seemingly very happy to just sit there staring at whatever caught her interest...
There was a time for training, teaching.
Slowly as I whispered and held him he calmed down, big dollops of tears in his eyes as she slowed down out of tiredness.
Now that he wasn’t scratching and biting I shifted, holding him tighter so I could hug harder.
"It’s okay little dragon. You didn’t succeed so far, that just means you grow stronger until you do. You’ll grow. We’ll grow together, and there is no rush. Slow and steady. Until you are the strongest." I told him as comfortingly as I could.
Slowly his muffled angry whines turned into needy whines and he shifted in my grip until he was facing me and curling into my hug. Burying his face into my neck so he could hide his tears.
Dragonite seeing that I had things under control gave me a nod. And then gathered Dratini and Milotic’s attention to keep teaching.
I rocked the little baby until he was all out of tears and his breathing turned to a more normal pace.
"Feeling better?" I asked him and he grumbled but didn’t take his head out from the crook of my neck. "That’s okay. You get a hug for as long as you need." I told him, more than happy to hug the little dragon for as long as he needed.
Honestly the whole situation was very cute, so I didn’t mind at all!
I looked over the grounds as I held him. Checking on Mimikyu, who was doing a good job still trying to get Shadow Ball down. My team was still resting from the morning’s hard training so that mostly just left the Goomy.
I spotted them from time to time. Wandering around watching.
There were a few along the banks of the new lake hiding in bushes watching as Dragonite taught.
I had a feeling more than a couple Goomy might be wanting to learn Dragon Pulse.
Goomy might be weak, and not very brave over all, but they were still dragons. They still had their pride, the desire to someday grow strong.
I would have to try and work with them more soon.
But Chansey and I were still working on something with that.
I felt Jangmo-o shift in my arms, pushing his little claws away from me, and I released the tight hug as he climbed down quickly, hiding his face.
He was trying to put on a brave front to me, but he had just been bawling in frustration.
"Jang." He said and then firmed up facing back at the new lake, and his tail started glowing again.
He might have just had a tantrum, but he was still a proud dragon it seems, not ready to give up yet.
"That’s right! We’ll do it for sure! If not this time then the next!" I told him pumping him up. "If not then? Then after! I believe in you Jangmo-o!" I called out and he roared his tail glowing brighter as he shifted the energy, arcing it up to the tip of his tail where it capped with a big armored scale and then he shifted his roar growing and again it didn’t do anything. Just a puff as it failed.
But he shook it off and tried again, and I nodded proud of him for sure.
He’d get it. Already his energy was starting to move faster. Shift around smoother.
That’s why I wanted to train them without a TM. The act of failing would make them stronger!
—--
Eventually everyone was tuckered out from training and I called an end. Going to prepare everyone’s meal as I considered what to do.
Mama and Papa had gone home, but I had new pokemon here. Did I leave and go home, just fly or ride in every morning? Or just stay here...
I really had wanted to spend a night or two in my bed, but my pokemon needed me, especially Gible, but I wasn’t sure taking her home was a safe idea.
Curious and affectionate Growlithe might cause problems, especially since to Gible they may very be bite sized.
I sighed as I continued stirring the food.
Life got so complicated when you had responsibility beyond making camp and putting your feet up on your Arcanines fluff.
"I was wondering what that smell was." Elizabeth called out from the porch. To my surprise my cousin was wearing a swimsuit and half wrapped in a towel.
"Went to the ocean?"
"Yep. Met some friends and did some training." She explained and I nodded back. Makes sense she was coming for the conference too.
"We might face each other in the conference." I offered as I tasted what I was cooking and nodded. It was almost ready.
She didn’t respond at first, just looking out over the large space full of my pokemon.
The very large powerful pokemon. I could see the way she was processing them. Probably trying to come up with a strategy if she had to face them.
"We might." She agreed as she shifted, instead of standing over me on the porch she took a few steps forward and settled in to sit on the edge next to me. "And if we do, I’ll fight to win."
"Good. That’s how it should be." I said as I looked over at my older cousin. "It must be kind of weird. To have me and Papa showing up more often. To be part of the clan."
"It’s frustrating, yes. But everyone is doing better now. You brought even more Milotic back from Kitakami. Dad was practically jumping for joy. Each Milotic represents a lot of wealth over the years."
"Yeah. I could get more. It’s not that hard really."
"Yeah." She answered back and I got my answer.
Yep, she knew.
"I’m surprised. Why hasn’t anyone else tried to get a Milotic if you know the trick?"
"Only the head family knows." She says bluntly. "And while I am tempted to find one myself... It wouldn’t be ready in time for the conference regardless. I’m surprised you don’t seem bothered by that."
"Why would I?" I asked completely honestly. "If Gram Gram hadn’t made me promise not to tell, I’d have told everyone how to get a Milotic. They’re great." Then I leaned in and whispered the next part. "Feebas deserve to be treated better since they are so amazing."
She scoffed. "The whole clan benefits from the knowledge. We bought new land. Opened new businesses! Everyone is benefiting. But if the secret leaked then all of that would disappear. The Clan would probably break up, and we would go right back to square one."
"That sucks." I said simply because I didn’t really have an opinion on it all.
I didn’t know what it had been like before they Clan started coming back together, and I was still pretty much an outsider.
I guess losing the stable would suck though. This was a lot of space, and there were people that fed my pokemon and took care of them if I was gone.
"Well if you end up getting a Milotic let me know. I can offer some tips." I offered and she looked for half a second like she was going to humor me, before she once more looked out to the fields.
"I’ll take you up on that." She said instead, seriously.
"Food’s done!" I called out and instantly there was chaos as everyone came charging over.