“Gastly… are we there yet?” MunchMunch groaned, looking at Gastly floating. His legs were wobbly and hurting so much, he wished he could float, too.

  “It’s still the first day, Sweetie,” she hummed from the shadows above them. “It will take almost a week to get through the forest."

  “How long is a week?” MunchMunch asked, dreading the answer. From the way she was talking, it sounded like a really long time.

  “Hold up one claw for me,” she said. So MunchMunch did.

  “That is one,” she said.

  “Right!” MunchMunch jumped in. “And this is 5!” He said, holding up the rest of his claws on that hand. “And if I add my toes it is 8!” He finished, pointing down to the three claws on his foot.

  Gastly blinked. “Oh. Very good! So a week is 7 days,” she said.

  MunchMunch plopped down on the ground right then and there. That was… that was too much!

  “You can rest in your Pokeball, Sweetie — our Trainer can carry Happy for a while.”

  “No!” MunchMunch cried. He really, really didn’t like the feeling of going into the Pokeball and things happening he didn’t know about. He was strong, he could do this.

  “I just… need a snack,” he said.

  Just then his Teddy tapped his shoulder, so MunchMunch looked up.

  There, in his Teddy’s hands, was the most beautiful sight. In the fading light of the forest, MunchMunch gazed with love upon the gift from his Trainer.

  A perfect slice of Chocolate Cake!

  “Munchlaaaaaaxx!” He cried, jumping up, all soreness in his legs forgotten as he MunchMunch-skipped in circles. His Trainer had remembered his favorite snack!

  “Mama Gastly!” He paused and gasped, “Do you think our Teddy will give us cake every day?!”

  Gastly just cackled, but it was a happy cackle, so MunchMunch knew she was happy, too! He made sure to join in the cackling.

  ____

  Teddy watched in bemusement as his baby Munchlax — who had been too tired to keep walking just a few minutes ago, was now waddling around the camp, screaming and cackling at the sight of chocolate cake.

  “Weaponized food,” he snorted, and heard Gastly cackle even harder. She had been wonderful company during their trek through the forest. If he hadn’t been sure before, he was now absolutely positive she could understand exactly what he was saying.

  He’d heard of Pokémon who understood human speech — but they were usually Psychic, and usually the strongest in the League. Just more proof he’d been right to wait for her. Now he just had to figure out how to understand what she was saying to him. He was getting better, though.

  The antics of his Munchlax as he gasped and groaned needed no translation though, nor the avid refusal to enter his Pokeball. Honestly, he had no idea how to deal with a baby Pokémon, but he suspected Munchlax was far different from normal baby Pokémon.

  And he knew that Egg was going to hatch soon, too. He had woken more than once over the past days in a cold sweat. He had no interest in adding more Pokémon to his team any time soon. The idea of raising not one, but two babies, utterly terrified him.

  Thank goodness Gastly seemed to be a natural mother. He was still unsure about having such a young Pokémon battle, but Munchlax seemed fine, and Gastly hadn’t stopped him, so it was probably ok?

  He gave the cake to Munchlax and the baby wolfed it down, proceeding to spend the next 15 minutes cooing and giggling while he and Gastly set up camp for the night.

  By the time they finished, Munchlax was just starting to become aware of his surroundings once more.

  “Hey buddy,” he called.

  MunchMunch perked up, waddling over and giving him the biggest hug — smearing what was left of the chocolate cake on his pants. Teddy didn’t mind though, gladly returning the hug.

  They slept peacefully that night, Gastly agreeing to keep watch since ghosts had no need for sleep.

  Teddy trusted her completely to keep them safe.

  ____

  MunchMunch woke to the smell of food.

  His tummy rumbled in response. He yawned and took a quick chew of his forever-snack to take the edge off his hunger and he rolled out of bed to find out where the smell of food was coming from.

  Apparently, he had slept through his Teddy and Gastly packing up the camp, because the tent was already gone! Then he looked over and saw his Teddy, and he immediately knew it was going to be an amazing day.

  His Teddy was cooking something over a small fire, and it smelled like sausage.

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  “Morning, sleepyhead,” Gastly said from her shadow under a tree.

  “Morning Gastly!” He called back, MunchMunch-skipping over to their Teddy and offering him the biggest eyes he could so he knew just how hungry he was.

  His Teddy laughed and offered him a sausage, which MunchMunch promptly shoved into his mouth with joy.

  Once he was done chewing and enjoying the taste — it was super important to think about the taste of the food after eating it, a small cry further up the trail caught his attention.

  “—Oddiiiish!”

  MunchMunch wandered up the trail as Gastly and his Teddy cleaned up camp. When he finally found the source of the noise, he stared in confusion as a clump of weeds in front of him continued to weep.

  “Diiiish, Ooooodishhh!” The weeds cried, accompanied by a few shakes.

  He was immediately very worried about all the clumps of grass and weeds he had stepped on. He didn’t know they could cry!

  “Muuuuunchh,” he cried, tearing up, too.

  Then the clump of weeds froze, before a tiny voice called out. “Dish?” It asked, as one of the leaves shifted, revealing a tiny round Pokémon hanging from the leaves.

  “Oh! You are a Pokémon, too!” MunchMunch laughed, but the Oddish didn’t seem to be able to understand him as it began screaming in terror — desperately moving its legs.

  But its body was too small, and it was trapped below the heavy leaves sprouting from its head.

  MunchMunch cocked his head. He understood the poor Oddish’s pain. It was like when he wanted to reach a doorknob, but he couldn’t get his arms over his head.

  But others had been nice to him! His Teddy was always happy to open the door. And Nurse Chansey — he really hoped he got to see her again. And even the Caterpie who helped him. And he had never even met the Caterpie before!

  So MunchMunch plopped down right in front of the Oddish. “I want to help,” he said, smiling. The Oddish stared at him. MunchMunch could tell it was like when his Teddy was talking to him. MunchMunch couldn’t understand the words, but he knew what he meant.

  MunchMunch thought this Oddish must be very young if he couldn’t understand him! Well… MunchMunch could understand Mama Gastly and even that super terrible Zubat who wanted his forever-snack, as soon as he was born. Maybe… it was something else?

  MunchMunch was distracted from his thoughts by the sniffles of the Oddish, who had started sobbing again.

  “Oh! Oops!” MunchMunch gasped, but he knew what to do! He took his forever-snack and offered a bite to the Oddish.

  Food was always the best way to feel better!

  The Oddish looked at the forever-snack that MunchMunch had just taken from his mouth like there was something wrong with it — which terrified MunchMunch!

  So he had to look all over it, just in case. He didn’t find anything wrong though… so he offered it again.

  The Oddish started crying.

  MunchMunch quickly put his Leftovers back in its special spot in his cheek and took a bite to help him think.

  “Your leaves are too big for your body,” MunchMunch mumbled through his food, “Just like my arms are too small. But… I can’t pull them off, because they are you.” He finished.

  The Oddish managed to nod an agreement while still hanging in the air.

  “How did this happen?” MunchMunch asked, mostly to himself.

  “Diiiish! Dish, Dish, Oddiiiiiish!” The Pokémon squeaked. MunchMunch was able to feel what it was trying to say!

  “You buried yourself to sleep, and when you woke up — your leaves had grown, but not your body?” he asked.

  The Oddish nodded, tears welling up again.

  “That’s a good thing! It means you are getting stronger!” MunchMunch exclaimed. “My tummy does the same! When I was first born, it was much smaller — but now I am so strong, I can’t even jump off the ground!”

  Oddish squealed in delight, kicking its legs happily.

  “I hope Happy is like you, I want to teach her whole bunches of things, too!” MunchMunch giggled.

  “And! I have an idea! What if I tied your leaves together with some grass? That way they don’t fall down around you?”

  The Oddish stared at him, and MunchMunch could tell it didn’t understand.

  “It’s OK!” He said, “Caterpie showed me a trick like this when he opened the door for me!”

  MunchMunch grabbed the longest piece of grass he could find, and then grabbed all the Oddish’s leaves as gently as he could, tying the grass around them.

  Which was actually really hard.

  Because his arms were short, and his tummy big!

  By the time MunchMunch was done, he was so tired he had to take another bite of his forever-snack, just to keep going!

  “Ok, all done!” MunchMunch cried.

  The Oddish stood before him, the leaves wrapped together and hanging off one side.

  It wasn’t great, but it worked, because the Oddish happily skipped away.

  Well, MunchMunch would have skipped. Oddish was still being tipped over by the weight of the leaves, so only one foot really touched the ground. But it was at least able to move, occasionally stopping to fix its direction. Right before the Oddish disappeared into the trees, he spun himself around and waved the foot that was still in the air goodbye. MunchMunch happily waved back.

  He smiled as the Oddish disappeared into the trees.

  Then he froze, because in the shadow of the trees were two huge, glistening, black eyes staring at him.

  Which was really scary, because he couldn’t see the rest of the Pokémon.

  The eyes stared at him for a few minutes. And the forest around him slowly started filling up with yellow dust.

  For the first time, MunchMunch realized he had left his Teddy and Gastly behind.

  “The forest is dangerous,” Mama Gastly had said.

  MunchMunch’s knees started to shake and he took a fearful bite of his forever-snack.

  “Diish!” He heard his new tiny friend squeak from somewhere in the shadows.

  The eyes blinked and looked down, before turning back to Munchlax

  “Gloooooooom.”

  Then the eyes turned and with the sounds of broken sticks and crush leaves, left — the yellow dust leaving with it.

  MunchMunch gasped, and then cried a little. Not too much, because he was growing big and strong, but just enough to get the scared feeling on the inside to go to the outside, where he could leave it behind.

  “I’m gonna go find Mama Gastly,” he whispered to himself, glad that he made a new friend — but also promising himself to stay near his Trainer for the rest of the forest.