Ace in the Valley

[wynnyelle]

" Pokeballs?" said Lala.

The older tropius calf, the one who had teased Lala, giggled.

[fya]

"They're an attack you could say humans have," explained Crest. "They are red and white and the size of berries. And they have the power to suck Pokemon up." He chuckled and looked at Ace. "Ahh congrads. I was born with the humans and never had to avoid those, though I saw wilds that did."

[Little John]

"yeah, It must have stank being a trainer pokemon." Ace looked at his adopted herd. They looked sorta calm.

[fya]

"Heh heh, my owners....weren't trainers." Crest looked away and sighed. He looked back at the naetoru. "They raised my type to be slaughtered. We were raised slowly and carefully. Not much exersize...they wanted us to be fatty. And by the time we became venesaurs, our lives were about to be done. I escaped a few moons after I evolved into an ivysaur."

[Little John]

"Thats sorta sad, was he a pokemon hunter?" Ace remembered a hunter once that had tried to catch him with a tyranitar. He shuddered remembering.

[fya]

"No. They raised us. Never caught, just bred and raised." Crest shook his head. "Really pathetic."

[Little John]

"Sounds like it. Hungry?" Ace went over to the tree and picked out a few more berries and brought them back to his new friends.

[wynnyelle]

" That's awful!" said Nakeela. She had no idea that pokemon anywhere in the world endured such a horrible life. " I hear that out in the east, they breed pokemon for the purpose of increasing their numbers, but not just for eating them."

[Little John]

"Yes, I never eat any other living thing, only berries and plants, which are sorta living when you think about it......"

[fya]

"Oh?" said Crest curiously. "Surprising. Probably trying to make up for how horrid parts of their speicies is." He looked back at Ace. "Yes me too. I will not touch anything with blood on it."

[wynnyelle]

" Just about everything that anyone eats is living," said Nakeela, " not counting any dirt or stone or what some rock types might eat. And even they have to eat some other things to live."

[fya]

"The food chain," commented Crest. He sighed. Sometimes the ways of life were pretty nasty.

[wynnyelle]

" Sadly, yes," said Nakeela, " but I've never known grass to complain."

" Yeah, grass doesn't care if you eat it," said Lala. She demonstrated by nibbling on a low-growing plant.

" Just because plants do not complain out loud does not mean they do not mind it," said Lyra, an old tropius and one of the biggest in the herd. None of them were really large tropius, though, since there were no adult males in the group. " Plants have no tongues and no mouths. They cannot speak so of course they cannot make their grievances known. But every day we must give thanks to the forest and its living things which let us grow strong on them."

[Little John]

The old lady looked like a fun killer. Ace looked around. "Why are there no males here?" he questioned.

[wynnyelle]

" There's males!" piped up a young tropius calf a little younger than Lala. He trotted over to the front. " Me!"

" The Herdfather has died...died defending us," said Lyra. " He was our male. And no new males have yet come upon our herd." That was maybe a good thing, too.

[Little John]

'well you got me and Crest now and if we have to we will die defending the herd." with this Ace got up into the strongest pose he could do.

[wynnyelle]

" That's very kind of you," said Lyra. But neither of them were matches for a fullgrown tropius male if he came along. Males were a lot larger and heavier than females, nearly twice the weight of a female, and they would kill the youngest babies.

[Little John]

Ace smiled. talk about a welcome to this place he had already been accepted into a herd.

[wynnyelle]

" Let's play a game!" said Lala, grinning at Ace.

[Little John]

"Alright!" He smiled a Lala. She was his first friend and he felt inclined to help him.

[wynnyelle]

" I wan' play too!" said the male calf. He trotted over into their midst.

" Let's play hide and seek," said Lala.

[Little John]

"ok you can go first Lala!" Ace scampered off and hid in a nice hole in the ground.

[wynnyelle]

" Okay!" Lala went to a tree and hid her face, closed her eyes and started counting.

" Me too!" The little male calf imitated Lala, putting his head against the tree trunk and counting too.

[Little John]

Ace smiled, these guys were crazy, but they were his family now.

[fya]

Crest chuckled as Ace began to play hide and seek with the tropious calves. He looked at Lyra. "Defending you from this pack you speak of?" he asked curiously. He thought Ace was a little dumb to think that a naetoru and an ivysaur could protect a tropius herd the way a herdfather would, but he didn't say anything. If he ever evolved into a venesaur he'd certainly be strong. Not as strong as an adult male tropious, though.

[wynnyelle]

" We are strong by our numbers," said Lyra, " and our ability to fly. That helps us immensely. Right now though we have members who cannot fly yet; Lala is nearly able to, but Tikko won't learn for a few more months yet."

[fya]

Crest nodded. "That makes sense." The ivysaur stood up and stretched and then sat down again. His black eyes flickered and he yawned. "I think I'm gonna take a lil nap now."

[wynnyelle]

" Okay Ready!" said Lala, turning around from hiding her eyes. Everything looked a little bright after all that time with her eyes shut. The first thing she noticed was Kikko standing right there. " You were supposed to hide."

" I finding," said Kikko. " With you."

Lala grinned. " Okay, that works too."

[fya]

Crest chuckled softly as the kids began to play their game. He rested his head and let himself drift off to sleep.

[wynnyelle]

Lala stalked round the nearby bushes. Her two herdsisters, both older, had apparently hidden too, and hidden well. They were always better at this stuff than she was.