Chapter 167
When night approached, Ethan found a slight alcove with thinning trees off the route to settle down for the night. Gideon and Racheal followed his lead like two ducks following their mother, but that was to be expected, since he volunteered to join them on their trek through Eterna Forest. After setting up his tent and starting a fire with the wood left in his pack, since he was close to home and didn’t mind using his safety wood, he spared a glance toward the siblings… and sighed.
Rachel and Gideon apparently were planning to share a tent along their journey, having brought a large two-person tent to set up. They also obviously didn’t test or practice setting up a large tent before they left. Gideon was trying to hold down two of the corners by laying across the grassy forest floor, using his outstretched hands and toes to keep the corners down so Rachel could peg them into the ground, but they hadn’t set up the pole that kept the tent aloft beforehand, causing the thick brownish-green tarp to lay limp on the ground, gently billowing in the wind.
Without a word, Ethan took out one of his many cooking pots, filled it with rice and water, and set it on the fire to cook, then wandered over to give them a hand. After some gentle instruction and guidance, they managed to get their tent up and stable just as the rice finished cooking. The siblings were pretty embarrassed about needing help, but Ethan gracefully ignored it and pretended he didn’t notice. “Did you two prepare meals before you left or bring ingredients?”
Racheal nodded and patted her bright yellow Silph Co bag, which seemed to be of better quality than his own. “Yup! I brought all the veggies and fruits while Gideon grabbed the non-perishables.”
Gideon stilled, then slowly craned his head to look at his sister with horror. “I thought you were grabbing the non-perishables? I brought the veggies…”
“What!?” Racheal flipped, turning on her brother. “You idiot! I have the bag with the cooling function! Why would I bring the non-perishables?!”
“I don’t know! I thought the cans and stuff would stay longer in the cold! How was I supposed to know!”
Ethan let the two argue, bicker, and complain for thirty seconds before coughing loudly, catching their attention and reminding them that he existed. “Did you at least bring the food for your pokemon?”
Ethan could forgive a little mishap with their own food, but if they messed this up…
“Of course!” “That was the first thing in my bag!” The two shouted over each other, then glared at one another.
“Okay, well you can use your veggies and fruits with my rice and you can restock a bit when I make it home. I don’t know how good your cooling thing in your bag is, but if it’s not going to last a few days in there it’s better to use it then let it rot.” Ethan waved them over to his fire, then sat down to stir.
In the end, they didn’t have much that went with rice. He used some of their fresh corn and added some of his own black beans to make some rice bowls for dinner. After serving them, Rachel looked between her wooden bowl and the still nearly filled pot. “Didn’t you make way too much?”
“I still have to feed my pokemon. They like to eat what I eat a lot, if they can. I’ll just eat the rest of it tomorrow if there’s any left.” Ethan explained. Not wanting to let the siblings see Meloetta, he let each of his pokemon out one by one to take turns eating by his side. Meloetta would probably eat in his tent or just while invisible after being released inside the tent.
“Oh.” Rachel looked at her bowl of food, then stared a little guilty at her bag. When she pulled out what looked like a two pound bag of dog-food, he wasn’t very surprised. While he wasn’t going to feed his pokemon, that didn’t mean he would bash them for doing so.
Rachel opened the already used bag and took out a small pink plastic bowl, looking like a dog-bowl with Jigglypuff’s name right on the side. After filling it up, she released her one and only pokemon to eat. Jigglypuff, probably having been used to it, promptly sat down and started to grab its pellets one by one to eat, tossing them into its mouth. It happily chomped on its food, seeming to at least enjoy it for what it was.
When he looked away, he caught Rachel staring at him as if waiting for something to be said. Realizing that he might have been judging and staring too long, he simply turned and released Pachirisu and Pichu. Pichu appeared first, asleep, drooling and lightly twitching his ears. Pachirisu was wide awake and immediately pranced over to climb his shoulder to look down at their meal. Ethan, knowing that his electric squirrel wouldn’t only eat what he had, pulled out some of his walnuts—shelled and all. Pachrisu squealed and climbed down to crack them open with his big chompers, eager to pull out the meaty insides.
Seeing as Pachirisu was eating, he reached over and one handedly grasped Pichu’s limp sleeping body and put the small rodent on his lap. After filling a bowl with Pichu’s food, he took out a packet of Ketchup he had leftover from a restaurant and squeezed it all over the small mound of rice, beans, and corn. With the now empty packet, he put it under Pichu’s nose like some smelling salts, and smiled when Pichu’s eyes opened like the Terminator.
He heard Gideon’s snort from across their little campsite, and couldn’t help but snort himself as Pichu, still in a half sleeping daze, rolled over in feeble attempts to chase the packet Ethan was dangling in front of him, leading him towards his food bowl.
“That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen…” Racheal murmured, earning a glare from her Jigglypuff who cried out its name in chastisement. Obviously, Jigglypuff found that offensive.
The light flash of another pokemon being released drew a glance from Ethan, then a raised eyebrow and a sit-up. He hadn’t been sure about what starter pokemon Gideon had, but now that he saw it, he couldn’t help but be a little concerned. The pokemon in question and his own must have felt his concern, as they all swiveled their heads or gazes to stare straight at him.
“It’s alright, Mr. Reed. We’ve been friends for a long long time.” Gideon waved him off, unconcerned as his pokemon slowly but cautiously turned away from Ethan to go to his trainer. Its lone red eye swiveled within its skull-like face as it took in their surroundings.
Ethan unabashedly took out his phone—defnitely not his temu-coded PokeDex—and used the PocketDex for information, hoping that what he vaguely remembered about the pokemon was false. He kept his phone on mute and simply read the information.
Duskull - The Requiem Pokemon: Duskull wanders silently through forests and settlements after sunset, drawn to the warmth of living souls. It has a particular affinity for children, whose life force is especially easy for it to sense and absorb. Duskull may follow a child for hours or quietly watch them sleep, unknowingly draining their strength as it feeds. Despite its frightening behavior, Duskull has no malicious intent and seems incapable of understanding the harm it causes. It simply follows an instinct as natural to it as eating is to other Pokemon.
Trainer Alert:
Children should never approach a wild Duskull alone. Prolonged contact may leave a person unusually tired, weak, or lethargic. If a Duskull begins following a child, calmly lead it away rather than attempting to frighten or attack it.
Ethan put his phone back in his pocket and took a bite of his meal as he watched the Duskull interact with Gideon. As it was dinnertime, Gideon set out some… very distinctly gray and black pokechow for his pokemon, yet Duskull didn’t seem very interested in it. Instead, it kept trying to float up and hug Gideon. Gideon must have seen it coming, as he gently but sternly used his hand to shove Duskull to his food. When Duskull, who didn’t seem too bright in Ethan’s opinion, finally started eating the very… concerning colored food, Gideon shook the hand that had touched Duskull as if it was numb.
“It’s okay. Duskull has been in the family for a long time. You don’t need to worry.” Racheal said softly, pulling Ethan away from his inspection. “We… weren’t sure if we should tell you we had a ghost type with us or not.”
“I’m not too concerned about it, as it looks like he has it well in hand, but it’s one of the first times I've actually seen one up close. I think the only other time I’ve seen a ghost type is in the park. A Sandyghast, I think.” Ethan explained as he continued to eat. He spared a glance at Pichu, who’d already fallen back asleep with his head firmly faceplanted into his bowl of now empty food. He recalled his tired yellow pokemon to rest then and there and released Tinkatuff in his place.
Tinkatuff didn’t waste any time, simply ignoring the two other humans as if they didn’t even exist and walking to the pot of food to make herself a bowl. She was a big girl now and didn’t like it when Ethan did everything for her. Typical teenager behavior.
“Oooooooh!? What pokemon is that?!” Racheal asked, deciding that the talk of ghosts was over. She leaned forward, inspecting Tinkatuff, who finally decided to grace the human with a look over her shoulder.
She scoffed and walked to Ethan, forcibly shoving his legs apart to sit in between them and placed her hammer on-top of his feet so he wouldn’t move them. Next, she used her hammer like a table, placing her bowl of food on it to eat. Ethan, feeling the heavy hammer on his feet, wiggled a bit to adjust it so it was comfortable, earning a warning “Tinka!” in response.
“Bossy baby.” he grumbled, earning a light smack to his calf.
Racheal watched it all happen with astonishment.
“This,” Ethan nodded down to Tinkatuff, “Is simply a pink gremlin.”
“Tinka! Tuff-Tiii!” Tinkatuff smacked his calf again with indignation, a little harder, but nothing remotely close enough to actually hurt. If she wanted to hurt him, Ethan had no doubt in his mind that she could. Afterall, she nearly broke his foot the day she was born.
“Okay! Okay, fine.” Ethan grumbled, “It’s a Tinkatuff. They’re very rare in Sinnoh, as they’re from… Paldea, I think?” He looked down to Tinkatuff and mockingly asked. “Are you from Paldea?”
Tinkatuff ignored him and continued to eat her food, knowing that he knew that she wouldn’t know. Ethan then turned to Pachirisu who had finished eating. “You want to go back to your ball or explore a bit? I’m going to let Smeargle out to eat next.”
“Pa!” Pachirisu skittered and hopped his way off into the trees, answering his question with action.
“Should you let him out like that?” Gideon asked, finally coming around the fire and away from their tent to join the conversation.
Ethan waved him off. “He was born and raised in the forest and he knows my rules. He won’t go too far.”
Next out was Smeargle, who meekly waved at the two other humans before making himself a bowl of food. He then tugged on Ethan’s shirt, pointing to his Silph Co bag. Ethan looked down at it, then took it off and handed it to his painter, who ruffled through it to pull out two large, red, and spicy Chople berries to add into his rice.
The two teens stared at him like he was crazy. “What?” Ethan asked, genuinely confused.
They shared a look, then shrugged and went back to their meals. After a bite, Rachel was the one who spoke. “I’ve just never seen someone so… open with their pokemon, I guess. My mom would have been furious if Wigglytuff went into her bag.”
“Why?” Ethan asked as he swallowed his final bite, setting his empty bowl aside. “It’s not like he did it without asking. Even if he did, it's not an issue. He has his own things in there.” Smeargle handed back the bag just then, and Ethan thanked him for returning it, putting it back onto his waist.
“Now, if we were in a store, then he’d keep his grubby painted hands off my Trainer I.D. He’s terrible with money.” Ethan joked, earning a little yip from Smeargle, who shyly glanced at him over his bowl. Smeargle and him had a talk awhile ago—after the cheese—about money, and he still didn’t quite grasp it fully. He knew what it did! That was for sure, just… It was a work in progress, to say the least.
“Mom said that you shouldn’t let anyone else into your bag; Pokemon or person. I’m not allowed into Gideon’s and he’s not allowed into mine as well. All your tools for surviving are in there, and nobody else should touch them, in case they break something or steal.” Racheal shrugged, seemingly agreeing with the statement.
“That’s probably a good plan to follow on your journey, but I'm not on one. If Smeargle accidentally broke something, then it’s a shame, but it’s an accident all the same. He wouldn’t break something on purpose.” Ethan then looked to Tinkatuff, “But Tinkatuff might.”
Incredulously, Tinkatuff nodded in agreement. She would one-hundred percent take apart some of his pots or pans if given the chance. They both knew it. Tinkatuff then finished off her food, then tossed her bowl back towards the fire and pot, having it tumble away. She then picked up her hammer, freeing Ethan from his eternal prison, then tapped her pokeball on his waist, sucking herself back inside.
The two siblings stared at the closing ball with wide eyes, but Ethan shrugged. “Don’t worry, she still loves me.”