Ash's Story (Part 6: Unova)

Chapter 54: Time Beneath Stone

Morning on Route 7 smelled like wet leaves and cold metal.

After Celestial Tower, I wanted a normal road more than I wanted to admit. The haunted mansion, the dream thief, and the Beheeyem lights still clung to my thoughts. Even the tower bell seemed to echo under the rain after we left.

Golly walked with Haunter, Yamask, and Lampent close to her. She kept checking each of them without making it obvious, the way she checked ropes, doors, and dangerous ledges.

Pikachu watched her from my shoulder.

Pikachu's meaning came quiet. "Golly counts shadows because she almost lost one before."

"I know," I whispered under the rain.

Alice heard anyway and brushed her fingers against mine. She did not ask me to explain. She never did when the answer would hurt before it helped.

The first problem did not come from ghosts. It came from leaves.

A cluster of Durant rushed across the path ahead, each carrying pieces of torn foliage. Several wild Sewaddle cried from the bushes, stripped of the leaves they had been using as shelter.

Swadloon burst from her Poké Ball before I called her, face already tight with worry.

Swadloon's meaning came guarded and upset. "Small ones cold. Leaves taken. Safe covering gone."

Iris's Emolga zipped after the Durant, but the rain made her glide unevenly. "Emolga, careful!" Iris shouted.

Emolga spun, recovered, and scattered the Durant with a burst of electricity that only made them drop half the leaves. The rest kept fleeing toward a rocky hollow.

"Do not chase them blindly," Golly warned. "Durant usually move for food, shelter, or colony defense."

Cilan knelt near the stripped bushes. "This is not simple theft. These leaves have been chosen for texture and warmth. A nesting flavor."

Swadloon looked from the shivering Sewaddle to the fleeing Durant. She did not chase. Instead, she gathered the fallen leaves with careful movements, pulling them around the smaller Pokémon.

Her body glowed when she tucked the last leaf around a trembling Sewaddle.

Light opened like a green seam in the rain. Swadloon's body changed, and Leavanny stepped forward with long leaf arms that moved like hands made for care.

Pokédex Entry Updated — Ash and Alice's Shared Unova Record

Leavanny, the Nurturing Pokémon. Bug and Grass type. Evolved from Swadloon through friendship. Leavanny uses leaves to make warm wrappings for Sewaddle and other small Pokémon.

Leavanny immediately began shaping proper leaf cloaks for the wild Sewaddle, stitching them with silk faster than the rain could soak them.

Leavanny's meaning came warm and certain. "Guarding was small. Caring is wider."

I smiled. "That sounds like growing up."

The Durant returned a few minutes later, but they were not attacking. They pushed stolen leaves toward a smaller tunnel where their own colony's entrance had flooded. Leavanny watched them, then looked at the Sewaddle.

"Both groups needed shelter," Alice said.

Leavanny made another bundle of leaves and placed it between the Sewaddle and Durant. The wild Pokémon stared at each other, suspicious but no longer desperate.

Cilan exhaled with relief. "A divided table becomes a shared meal."

Iris smiled. "That one actually made sense."