MunchMunch woke in a good mood. He did; in fact, dream of Chocolate Cake.

  Which meant today was going to be a great day.

  Wait, if they were going to a new city —

  That meant a new Chocolate Cake!

  “Munch!” MunchMunch cried, rolling until he was standing and waddling off the bed.

  “I’m gonna find Cake —“

  “MunchMunch, shhhh! You will wake — “

  “Pii… Pii~~” Togepi cried softly, startled from her sleep.

  Oh no!

  Then she started crying.

  “Mama, why is shy crying,” he whispered distraught — his Teddy blinking himself awake and rolling out of bed.

  “You scared her, MunchMunch,” Shadow whispered.

  He scared his favorite-est Happy?

  “Munch!” he gasped, waddling over to the cold-box and tugging it open. He quickly grabbed the left-over Aspear berry from yesterday… then decided it didn’t look very good. It was all wrinkly and shriveled.

  He ate it real quick, just to make sure he didn’t accidentally give a bad berry to Happy.

  He turned in distress to see his Teddy cradling Togepi, smiling at MunchMunch and holding out a berry behind his back.

  A fresh Aspear berry.

  His Teddy really was the best. He waddled up and took the berry.

  “Munch,” he said in gratitude, hugging his Teddy’s leg with his other paw.

  Then he reached up to hand the Aspear to Happy, Teddy bending down so MunchMunch could reach. Her face immediately lit up when she saw the berry, all tears forgotten.

  “Sorry, Happy,” he said. She cooed, entirely absorbed in her breakfast.

  MunchMunch giggled. He knew what that was like.

  His Teddy pet him on the head and started talking, so MunchMunch turned to Mama Gastly.

  “He is asking if we would like to go through a walk,” she smiled.

  “Munch!”

  ____

  MunchMunch happily devoured his breakfast as the Team strolled along one of the many paths of the Park.

  His Teddy was holding Togepi, and while MunchMunch wanted to hold her, she looked so happy he just focused on his breakfast instead.

  “Mama Gastly,” he said thoughtfully to where she was resting in his shadow.

  “Just Shadow,” she snorted.

  MunchMunch nodded happily. “What are we doing today?”

  “There is a hotel on the other side of the Park. Teddy wants to get to it before tonight. He said it will take a little over a week to make it to Ecruteak from there.”

  MunchMunch smiled at the way she said Ecruteak. It wasn’t very often she sounded so excited.

  Which of course meant she was trying not to sound excited — but MunchMunch knew better.

  “Does that mean it will take a whole day to walk there?” MunchMunch asked. His legs were already tired. He was definitely going to need more food, and maybe a Chocolate Cake, too.

  MunchMunch sighed thoughtfully. He liked some whole things — like cake. But he didn’t like whole days of walking.

  “It shouldn’t, but there is a Bug Catching Contest our Teddy thought we might like to watch on the way,” she cackled, floating beside him.

  So it wasn’t a whole day of walking!

  He excitedly took a big bite of his breakfast.

  That made his tummy feel nice and warm, so he ate a few bites of his Leftovers, too. When he was finished, he patted his tummy happily so the food would know he still loved it.

  “What’s a Contest, Shadow?” he asked.

  Gastly paused. “Thank you,” she said.

  MunchMunch looked at her in confusion.

  “For calling me ‘Shadow’,” she clarified.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “But… I always call you Mama Shadow? I forget sometimes and still say Mama Gastly though…”

  Gastly sighed. “That’s not…”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “A contest is a game,” she huffed, “You — “

  “Oh! I love games, Mama!” MunchMunch exclaimed, taking a bite of his breakfast —

  He looked at his empty paws.

  He looked at Gastly.

  He looked at Teddy.

  He looked at his paws.

  Where there was no breakfast left.

  Gastly burst out cackling. “I’m so glad you are on my Team, MunchMunch,” she chuckled.

  MunchMunch beamed, swallowing some Leftovers to console himself. “And now we have Happy, too!”

  “Yes. The Fairy,” Shadow responded dryly.

  Out of nowhere a man started yelling at the top of his lungs. MunchMunch looked around as a bunch of people started walking in his direction.

  “&$% #&%^@ POKéMON %@@$#!”

  “Shadow!” MunchMunch gasped, “I understood one of the words!”

  Gastly hummed, listening to Teddy.

  “Teddy says the Contest is starting over there,” she translated.

  “Munch!” he enthused, skipping over as fast as he could. His Teddy barely had to walk faster to keep up.

  “…Will I be fast one day?” he asked.

  If not, he might need to get a bicycle that fit him. He really liked the feeling of going fast. Like when he was swooping down after using Fly.

  Gastly laughed, spinning a circle around him before plummeting into his shadow.

  “Nope! But, you will be very strong,” she smiled.

  He liked that.

  ____

  MunchMunch didn’t understand what was happening.

  There were a bunch of Bug-Type Pokémon. And a bunch of Trainers.

  The trainers would throw food at them.

  MunchMunch understood that part. He liked it a lot. Some of the food looked really tasty!

  But then they would throw rocks.

  MunchMunch… didn’t understand that part. He thought that would make his tummy really warm in the bad way. It looked like a lot of the Pokémon agreed, too.

  Then, the trainers would throw more food. Which MunchMunch liked, but also didn’t.

  “This doesn’t look like a game at all!” He exclaimed as a Kakuna, who looked so confused between the food and the rocks, didn’t even notice when the Poké Ball was thrown at him.

  Gastly cackled. MunchMunch stared at her. If she was laughing, maybe it was ok?

  “All of the Pokémon here came because they knew there was a chance to become a trainer’s Pokémon today,” she explained. “Pokémon who don’t want to be caught stay far away from areas where humans are.”

  MunchMunch nodded. That made sense. He had only ever known his Team, so he didn’t really understand — but it did make sense.

  “I don’t like the rocks.” What if his Teddy threw rocks at him?

  MunchMunch just couldn’t imagine liking that at all.

  “Bugs are weird,” she conceded. “They don’t live very long, so they only care about getting as strong as possible, as quickly as possible. To catch one, you have to prove you are strong enough to do so.”

  MunchMunch listened. He hadn’t thought about how long he might live before.

  He watched a rock smacked a Scyther on the head. The Scyther screamed back.

  He froze as he looked at Happy, who clapped and shrieked every time a rock hit a Pokémon.

  “Mama… Happy isn’t a Bug, is she?”

  They both watched her burst into joyous applause as a Weedle got smooshed.

  Shadow sighed and shook her head. “No… no, she isn’t.”

  With a shrug of her gases she turned back to watch the Contest.

  “Anyway, the trainers throw food to show they can feed them, then hit them with the rock to show them they are strong enough to throw it. The bigger the rock, the better.”

  MunchMunch’s jaw dropped.

  A trainer threw a rock so big it squished the Paras it was thrown at. He watched it dig itself out, then scuttle up to the trainer and gesture for it to use the Poké Ball.

  “Mama. Bugs are weird.”

  Gastly drifted in and out of his shadow. “This way of catching doesn’t work for a lot of Pokémon,” she agreed. “Bugs are very different.”

  MunchMunch nodded. If someone were to try to catch him, he would want only food.

  A lot of food.

  In fact, what if he and his Teddy made a game. His Teddy would feed him, and he would tell him how much he loved him?

  MunchMunch scratched his tummy.

  …Didn’t they do that already?

  “Munch!” he gasped. “Our Teddy plays with me every day!” he cried, stuffing both paws into his mouth.

  Togepi shrieked in joy as two bug Pokémon started fighting over a trainer to catch them.

  The trainer had thrown the biggest rock so far.

  “Yes,” Shadow nodded, suddenly serious. “We got a really special trainer. I would know, I have seen a lot of them.”

  MunchMunch smiled as he watched Happy wail on their Teddy’s arm like she saw the Scyther doing to a Pinsir.

  “Uhm, Shadow… is Happy ok?” he asked while Teddy laughed and held her paw down. She giggled and kissed him.

  “Well, it’s a Fairy,” Shadow stated, as if that explained everything.

  MunchMunch watched as Togepi tried to use Metronome, probably because she wanted to use Hyper Beam on an unsuspecting bug.

  Their Teddy quickly grabbed her paw.

  He watched as lots of trainers squished bug Pokémon, while the crowd; and even the Bugs themselves, cheered.

  MunchMunch really didn’t understand any of it.

  He took a bite of his Leftovers and enjoyed the happy feeling in his tummy instead.

  ____

  Teddy smiled, then sighed, as he watched his team sleep. Even his Gastly had drifted off into meditation.

  He yawned and stretched, trying to work out the kinks from sitting in a wooden chair while hunched over a notebook for the last 4 hours.

  He was pretty sure he had figured out his Munchlax’s nature.

  He also knew his mum told him not to rely on that too much. You could say a person was lonely. That didn’t mean they were always lonely.

  ”Pokémon are like people,” she would say.

  He hadn’t realized how much so until he met his team.

  He had also figured out the math for MunchMunch’s eating habits. He roughly doubled his food intake every week and a half.

  Which meant two things.

  One, he didn’t have enough money to buy the food to cover the week long trip to Ecruteak. Two? He couldn’t carry it all anyway.

  He had bought a bike with a small motor and a solar panel. Hopefully there would be stretches he could use it to speed up the trip. But, they were going to have to forage.

  Which sounded fun. But also stressful — what if they didn’t find anything?

  Teddy snorted. There was no way his Munchlax couldn’t sniff out some berry trees. They would be fine.

  MunchMunch yawned and rolled over. Togepi unknowingly copied him in her sleep, rolling over to nestle her Cheri Berry.

  Those two were going to be the best of friends. He was a little concerned about Shadow, though.

  She didn’t seem particularly keen to get to know the newest member. It made sense — Ghosts and Fairies did not mix.

  There were warnings about certain areas where they had clashed. Areas where reality behaved… differently.

  He sighed. At least Shadow wasn’t openly hostile. He had caught her cackling softly while Togepi copied her.

  At least he had time before he needed to worry about training the infant. She did not have MunchMunch’s precociousness from when he was born.

  If he hadn’t literally watched him hatch, Teddy would never had believed he was a newborn.

  Togepi on the other hand slept most of the day and obviously had no idea what was going on around her.

  Outside of her love for MunchMunch… and her love for rocks hitting bugs, apparently.

  Shadow on the other hand?

  Teddy got up to turn out the lights, falling tiredly into bed.

  He was really looking forward to speaking with Morty.