The crackle of lightning, a boom of thunder, and the harsh sps of sheets of rain was that Ethan awoke to.

  It’d been two days, and Ethan still hadn’t talked to Jocelyn. He’d seen her from afar, going about… whatever she did, but they had chosen to keep away from each other for now. It was a shame that their retionship had soured, but not everything in life goes exactly as you want. Some things just, sadly, don't work out the way it’s supposed to.

  Over the st two days, many pns, actions, and improvements have been made around the ranch. Pryoar had been improving by leaps and bounds in her attempt to learn Heat Wave. If Ethan was right with his estimations, then she would be able to use the move by the end of tomorrow, if the current weather permitted. Pyroar soaked up his adjustments and advice like a dry sponge, desperate for water. It was evident that she was a pokemon who was at the top, going by her precise movements, adjustments, and diligence. It really raised the bar for his expectations for future customers.

  During his free time, with a small walkthrough the berry fields and bags in hand, Ethan had shown the Rocket Trio how to collect his berries and where to pce them for storage. That, of course, was right in front of Shuckle’s den. No more would his slow bug need to crawl across the fields! No more would his bud need to sort and collect! Now, his little rocky friend could scoop up the bags, drag them into his den, and then get to storing! Even though it had only been a single day of work, Shuckle has been exploring more of the ranch and pying with the other pokemon—making friends now that he’s grown out of his shell. Figuratively and literally, as he had gotten a smidge bigger since his yellow rings faded to beige.

  These were the many good things that had happened, but he’d also made a mistake. In hindsight, he should have known better, but that was the way mistakes pyed out.

  After flopping out of bed, using the bathroom, brushing his teeth, and getting dressed, Ethan sluggishly opened the door to his room—

  “Ka!!!”

  —and flinched as Tinkatink shouted as a crack of thunder boomed outside. The brief fsh of lightning pouring through the bedroom window highlighting her pink silhouette like a vintage ssher vilin. Immediately, she turned to flee post haste, diving under the couch. Her stubby pink feet kicked the air as she wiggled her butt to squeeze underneath, to hide from his inevitable counter attack.

  With a hand covering his thudding heart, a deep breath, and a moment to collect himself… Ethan felt pure comical regret.

  Telling Tinkatink her moves and getting her started on using them was something he had done the day before. She had watched him tutoring Tobias’ Pyroar, as the lioness had improved to the point where she had control over the direction she was attacking in. Tinkatink had very excitedly shown her desire to use moves herself.

  Seeing as he had no metal (yet) to keep her distracted, he figured starting her move use would be a great idea. They could bond and become true friends, family even...

  It was a shame the very first move she decided on was Astonish.

  Ethan walked into the kitchen to prepare breakfast with the harsh accompaniment of the harsh weather outside. It was a simple berry blend and some toast. He’d figured out how to use his weird grindstone to make some… very poor bread. It needs some work, but for a first time baker, he was proud that it was at least edible.

  The quick pattering of feet from the living room was the only warning he had as his pink menace skidded to a stop, turning the corner.

  “Ka!!!” She boomed.

  This time, Ethan zily turned his sleepy head towards her, watching her mischievous smile wilt in disappointment as the move didn’t cause him to flinch. She pouted, then walked off back into the living room.

  As he ate, he stared out the small window pced within the kitchen and scanned the meadow and Oddish. The Oddish were hunkered down, their long green leaves billowing in the whipping winds. He’d invite them inside for shelter, but he had learned that they disliked not having any earth beneath their feet. Gloom was off near the forest, back up against the closest tree with arms crossed as he snoozed. His leaves protected his face from the rain, yet was still drenched from head to toe.

  The meadow was empty, which wasn’t too much a surprise, but the surrounding trees were bare of any wild pokemon—such as the common Caterpie, Starly, or Wurmple.

  Before he stopped his gazing, he made out the jogging form of Ursaring coming towards his home, her two Teddiursa thrown over her shoulders like sacks of potatoes. Ethan opened the door for her as she approached, letting her inside without a word.

  “Towels are in the bathroom.” He helpfully supplied, earning a grunt of acknowledgement.

  Ursaring dropped her kids like dead weight, causing them to fall graciously to the floor with a thump filled with giggles of ughter.

  As he was about to close the door, Chatot swooped in soaking wet and looking unhappy, followed by the scream of “Pachiii!” off in the distance. Pachirisu dove into the house, skidding to a stop by smming into one of the Teddiura's legs.

  His poor electric squirrel looked distraught as his normally ultra fluffy tail was a soaking mop.

  “Towels are in the bathroom.” Ethan said with his mouth full of toast.

  Ethan put his dish into the sink and opened the celr door to fetch some berries for his pokemon’s breakfast. He hopped down, collecting a little of each from their overfull supply as Shuckle trudged out of the connecting hole from his Den. Seeing Ethan, he wiggled his noodles and smiled. “Shuu!”

  “Good morning, Shuckle. No berry business today it seems.” Ethan remarked as he climbed the small dder up with his haul of berries before returning to bring up his berry bud.

  Ethan made a simple breakfast of various fruits, veggies, and berries and ported out the meals to all of his pokemon around the table. As he finished, Smeargle, Emolga, and Skiddo exited the guest room. Smeargle yawned and then tickled the still sleeping Munchx’s stomach as he slept on the couch to wake him up.

  Ethan took Munchx’s spot as he rolled off the couch and took a moment to watch all of his pokemon. This might have been a first, seeing them all there together chatting over breakfast with nothing going wrong.

  “Ka!!!” Tinkatink screamed as she pyfully grabbed his ankle from under the couch, causing him to flinch once again.

  She obviously felt him flinch, as he could hear her babbling giggles from underneath as she flung his room back and forth in a wiggle.

  The rest of his pokemon ughed at his expense as he mock-angerly chastised Tinkatink. “You’re going to give me a heart attack. I’m convinced that move just increased blood pressure. It does damage, you know?”

  About fifteen minutes ter, Ethan finished up cleaning all of the dishes and rejoined the vicious cacophony of poke-talk booming out of his living room. Today was one of those days where they’d all be inside, the weather too harsh to work in. He texted Tobias, asking if he wanted to come over instead of staying in his tent and expining that there wouldn’t be tutoring today, and he replied that he’d taken shelter in the Pokemon Center and understood.

  He slumped down onto the couch in between Munchx and the now dry Ursaring. It was a tight fit, but he didn’t mind. “So, Chatot. Let’s see if we can practise some of this transting. You guys do know that I can’t understand a word you guys are saying, right?”

  Chatot, dry and much happier than when she arrived, fluttered onto the coffee table as Ethan flicked on the T.V to throw on the news. It would mostly be a backdrop of noise, and he was curious if they even showed the forecast for where he lived.

  “Okay!” She spoke in her own voice, causing a surge of warm pride to form in his chest.

  He looked around at all his pokemon, then shrugged. “While I would love to talk to each of you and find out more, you guys probably have some questions for me first, right?”

  The sound after his question was louder than any thunder could make, as every single pokemon spoke at once, fighting over who gets to ask their question first. Ethan let them scream for a few seconds, before sighing and dramatically pointing to Chatot. “Chatot! You first, you’re the one doing all the work for this, so it’s only fair!”

  Everyone quieted down, some dejectedly as Chatot thought about what to ask. Eventually, she nodded to herself and spoke. “Teach move… Why no battle?”

  It took Ethan only a second to parse the broken English, and he had to admit that it was a good question. Chatot was smarter than he gave her credit for, and he already gave her a good amount of credit. “Well, I love pokemon and I think helping others is a good thing to do. I like to make pokemon the best they can be… Now that I’m saying it out loud, I guess not battling sounds a little stupid…” Ethan hummed quietly, “I don’t like to think about you getting hurt when you don’t have too. I don’t like battling because you’re bound to get hurt, and it could be because I made a call that was a mistake. It would be my fault that you get hurt. I’ll admit I’m probably too protective now that I’ve learned more, but I just want to take it slow.”

  He gave them a few seconds to come to terms with that, then harshly kicked his leg, pulling Tinkatink out from under the couch. “You’re next.”

  Tinkatink babbled, and Chatot simply said. “When metal.”

  With a groan, Ethan ran a hand down his face. “Whenever I get the chance to go back to Eterna City. It’s kinda hard to leave Jessie and James around by themselves.”

  That obviously wasn’t what Tinkatink wanted to hear. She teared up, pouting. Before she could cry, Ethan hastily continued. “Maybe we can go search around here for some metal? When it’s not raining?”

  That seemed to mollify her a bit, causing her to wipe her watery eyes with the back of her arm.

  For the next hour or so, Ethan answered a bunch of questions. Some of them simple, like ‘What’s your favorite food?’ to the more complex ‘Why do you feel different from other humans?’

  Eventually, Smeargle asked a question that was long overdue. It sounded simple, but it was anything but. “Where are you from?”

  Smeargle as a species were not found in Sinnoh, and he was one of the more well traveled pokemon he had. So, it was a good question… just, complicated.

  Ethan blew out a deep breath, scanned the assembled blob of pokemon in his living room, and then tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. “I am from… a different world? Dimension? I don’t exactly know. All I know is that I woke up here on this ranch one day...”

  He didn’t bother to turn away from the ceiling. The silence was enough of a response for him. “It’s one of the many reasons I sometimes feel sad. I can never go back…” He sniffed, his throat tightening slightly.

  He dropped his head back down, finding a bunch of tilted confused heads looking at him. Eventually, one of the Teddiursa mumbled, catching Chatot’s attention. She parroted back. “What Ethan favorite color?” Like, he hadn’t just dropped a nuclear mind-altering revetion on them.

  Without control, he ughed. Looking around and the mostly unconcerned faces of his pokemon, he quickly discovered that they didn’t particurly care that he came from somewhere not of this world. Maybe it wasn’t too much of a surprise, as there were pokemon from space and that Arceus existed, but he’d expected just a little bit more questioning.

  “It’s orange.”

  Smeargle smiled.