MunchMunch decided it would be best if he didn’t tell his Teddy and Gastly about his little adventure. Not to hide it of course!

  Just because uhh… because nothing really happened! MunchMunch nodded to himself. That definitely made perfect sense!

  He would make sure he stayed near them in the future though. The eyes on that Gloom had scared him.

  “MunchMunch!” He shouted and waved as he walked back to the now packed-up campsite.

  Gastly turned to smile at him, and his Teddy looked up and waved.

  Then, something happened.

  MunchMunch felt a tingle on his paw, which spread to his whole body. Then he felt cold, then hot… and then MunchMunch couldn’t move anymore!

  With a smile on his face, paw raised in a wave and step in mid-stride, MunchMunch fell flat on his face.

  “Munchlax!” His Teddy cried, rushing over to him with Gastly.

  But MunchMunch couldn’t move. His body was completely stuck! Even his face was stuck with a smile on it, while it was smooshed into the dirt!

  “Uuuuuuuunch,” he groaned. But thankfully, his Trainer knew what to do — just like he always knew what to do.

  He gave MunchMunch food! He stuffed a super yummy berry in his mouth and smooshed it so the juices came out!

  Almost immediately, MunchMunch could move again!

  He sat up and watched as a bunch of the yellow dust from before floated off his fur and drifted away. He hadn’t even noticed it there!

  “Mama Gastly!” He gasped, “Did you see that! Food loves me as much as I love it! All I have to do is eat, and all the bad things go away!”

  Gastly stared at him, opening and closing her mouth a few times without any sound coming out of it. Eventually she huffed quietly.

  “That was a Cheri Berry. It cures paralysis, MunchMunch. How did you manage to cover yourself in Stun Spore?”

  MunchMunch could tell by the look on her face that she already knew the answer, and wanted him to say it.

  “What’s Stun Spore, Mama?” MunchMunch asked instead. He didn’t like how upset Gastly sounded, but he also really didn’t want to tell her. He didn’t want to get in trouble!

  “The yellow powder,” she said, floating closer. “It is a move grass-type Pokemon use, MunchMunch.”

  She floated closer still.

  “Oh! That! Uhhhhhh.” MunchMunch felt himself start to sweat a little bit. He looked up into Gastly’s huge eyes.

  “I didn’t mean to!” He cried.

  But Mama Gastly didn’t answer. She remained perfectly still. Even her drifting gas wasn’t moving — and that was always moving.

  “Gastly… ?” He began, looking around.

  Then he realized something was wrong. The air felt heavy. His Trainer stood like a statue, frozen in mid-stride. Even the leaves had forgotten to fall, floating suspended in the air around them.

  MunchMunch gasped and his eyes grew wide.

  There, between his Trainer and Gastly, floating in the frozen forest, was the one from the window.

  His tiny wings hummed in the shafts of sunlight, and his entire body glimmered like morning dew. The air itself smelled like fresh rain and crushed leaves.

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  Floating quietly in the early morning light — smiling as though it had always been there, was Lord Celebi.

  He regarded Munchlax quietly with eyes that carried the past and promised the future—kind, but heavy with power.

  MunchMunch held his breath, for the sound was far too loud.

  Because somehow he knew, in front of Celebi, he should be quiet.

  A single word echoed in his mind, flowing through his entire body, from his ears to his paws.

  A voice so beautiful MunchMunch gasped as a tear fell from his eye.

  “Munchlax.”

  ____

  Celebi continued to gaze at MunchMunch. He did his best to stand quietly, unsure what to do. Celebi didn’t feel like other Pokémon. Even though he was small, he felt very, very big.

  “You asked of me a boon, and I heard your voice,” Celebi eventually whispered.

  MunchMunch gasped. His voice sounded like the wind chimes from Azalea — only prettier. And it reminded him of wind blowing through the trees.

  “Your voice is really pretty,” he breathed, before bringing his paws over his mouth in shock. He hadn’t meant to say anything!

  Celebi just looked at him for a moment, before nodding and smiling gently.

  MunchMunch had seen a lot of smiles. He really liked his Teddy’s smile — and Mama Gastly’s smile.

  But Celebi had an extra special smile. MunchMunch loved it a lot.

  “Many have asked boons of me, yet I hear not their voices. Why did your voice echo across the winds of time?” Celebi continued, floating closer to look at him.

  MunchMunch breathed. He smelled like fresh pine sap and warm sunlight!

  Celebi stared at him, as if perplexed. Eventually, he spoke again.

  “Have you a gift you wish to leave with the forest, little one?” He asked quietly.

  MunchMunch felt his tummy go cold. What did he have that would be special enough for a Pokémon such as Celebi? He had thought food would be enough. But now that he had met him… it didn’t feel like enough. Not enough at all!

  But he had only two things! The apricorn-ball in one cheek, where he had kept is safe, and his forever-snack.

  One would break his heart to give away. But the other was for Happy, so he just couldn’t give it away.

  MunchMunch slowly took his Leftovers from his cheek and stared at it sadly, doing his best to blink the tear from his eye.

  “This is my most special thing, and I love it the most,” he whispered with a slight sniffle, his heart trembling at the thought of losing it.

  “But… I really want Happy to see your shrine.”

  He held it up with both paws towards Celebi.

  Celebi coughed.

  Then he trilled a laugh that sounded like all the happiness of the forest and the fields, “—Biiiiiiii.”

  “The gift of your heart is enough, keep your ‘forever-snack’, little one,” he chortled softly.

  MunchMunch froze, then felt more tears in his eyes, this time of happiness. Mama Gastly was right — Lord Celebi really was kind!

  “Thank you!” MunchMunch cried, hugging his forever-snack before sticking it back in its special spot inside his cheek.

  Celebi laughed quietly again. “Now, who is this ‘Happy’?”

  “Oh! She is going to be my bestest friend!” MunchMunch exclaimed, waddling over to his Teddy to point at the Egg on his back.

  “See? Her Egg is really, really pretty — and I think she is going to love food, too! And I can’t wait to meet her!”

  Celebi smiled, floating over to join him. They both stared at the Egg together.

  “Ahhhhhhh,” Celebi sighed thoughtfully, and MunchMunch felt all the fur on his body shiver. Celebi’s sigh sounded like wind blowing through grass. But in a big meadow. On a sunny day. With lots and lots of flowers.

  But MunchMunch had never seen any of those things! And yet, he just knew that is what his sigh was like!

  For the first time, MunchMunch thought he might have found something he loved even more than food. Just the thought shocked MunchMunch to his core!

  “You I have seen before,” Celebi whispered, gazing at the Egg.

  Then he turned to look at MunchMunch, moving very slowly — but also faster than anything MunchMunch had seen before. It made him feel a little dizzy.

  “Yes, I think I shall permit you to see my Shrine,” he said, smiling gently, and MunchMunch’s heart felt like it grew so big it wouldn’t fit in his chest anymore!

  “Perhaps one day, we shall meet again.”

  MunchMunch nodded. He would like that very much.

  Then Celebi flew around MunchMunch two times, so fast he couldn’t see.

  MunchMunch’s nose was filled with the smell of flowers and moist earth. He sighed as tt felt like the sun-beams grew warmer and wrapped around him.

  The leaves remembered to fall.

  MunchMunch smiled and fell asleep.