Profanity would have left her mouth if not for her dire situation.

‘Ill ring that thing's neck.’ fear and rage filled her.

One wrong move and untold consequences would unfold.

Despite her situation, She tried putting on her best smile. She motioned towards the wild Impidimp. She put one finger to her mouth.

“Shh. We need to be quiet.” She motioned towards the ground.

‘How do I get rid of it?’ she thought simultaneously.

The imp followed her finger to her mouth and then the ground. The imp stopped like he was considering her words. Impidimp then stuck out his tongue and nodded. He understood her fear.

He jumped down off the tree. Lilith wanted to strangle the little devil, but then he did something unexpected.

The Impidimp landed silently. Much to her surprise, he ran over to the fallen carabiner and picked it up. He then did a 180 and blurred back up the tree. He rested on a branch not far from her.

‘It’s quite intelligent.’ she thought.

He stuck out his hand and Lilith's mouth dropped. The Impidimp was giving her carabiner back.

“Thank you” she whispered.

Impidimp stuck out his tongue and gave her a nod.

“Wait, can you understand me?” She stopped.

Impidimp tilted his head before giving her a weird look. Then he nodded.

Lilith paused for a second. A new, devious plan formed in her mind.

“If you can understand me, then help me and I’ll give you some berries.” she motioned towards her bag.

Impidimp stuck out its empty hand. He expected something in return first.

“Not now, later.” She reached around behind her.

Lilith disconnected one of the makeshift pouches from her belt. She then motioned for the imp to come closer. She then handed one of her bags to the imp.

Impidimp then proceeded to shake the bag vigorously. Her smile faltered.

“Put the berries inside, see.” She then followed the branch she was standing on and reached out to pick a low-hanging Leppa Berry.

She turned back to the Impidimp and made eye contact. She slowly and dramatically emphasized the berry as it was lowered into the bag along with her empty hand afterward.

A look of recognition dawned upon the little gremlin. He jumped to the nearest berry and plotted it in the sack. Before he could reach the second one, Lilith whispered again.

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“Wait.” He turned to her.

She then pointed to herself and the lower rungs of the tree, and right afterward she pointed to him and the top of the tree. Recognition dawned on Impidimp as he launched himself to the top of the tree silently.

Lilith was amazed.

‘It acted similar to how childish Pansage acted, but this one is clearly much smarter and understands what I say, even if it's more than a little naive. I wonder how much I could exploit this. This is much more in line with what I remember in the anime.’ she thought.

With that, she got to work. Too much time had been wasted already. Hopefully her bad situation that turned into an investment paid off in the end. Either way, Impidimp was no longer around to mess up her plans.

Collecting berries was much more taxing than she originally thought. Before she was even a quarter of the way through filling her bag, Impidimp reappeared. His face had red juice stains all over, and in his hand was a full sack of deliciousness. Lilith's jaw dropped as her plans changed once more. She took the full bag and handed him her last bag. She then motioned towards the closest tree next to them.

He obviously understood as Impidimp disappeared from view. She decided to climb down the tree. She had miscalculated. Picking berries was hard, and the berries were even heavier than she thought.

She attached the bag to the carabiner and slowly lowered it down with rope. Once she was on the ground, she made like a bandit. More stealth ensued as she lugged the full pouch over her shoulder. Lilith slowly made for the end of the clearing.

Before disappearing into the trees, Impidmp made his return.

‘It's way too loud.’ She couldn't shake the tiny creature. It followed her around like a duckling would its mother.

‘I’ll have it carry stuff and then try and ditch it. It's way too useful.’ she thought.

***

On the long walk back, Lilith would occasionally throw berries in Impidimp’s direction. He was much more quiet with something in his mouth.

They both arrived at their destination after much hardship. Lilith counted her haul. She guessed there were around 100 Leppa berries in all. She had eaten 5 off the tree that night before she finally felt full. She quickly calculated that if unspoiled, these berries would last her about 10 days if she rationed 3-4 berries per breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Lilith made a decision.

‘I’m too close.’ she thought.

She felt unsafe. She decided to pack up camp and move further away from the Weepinbell, lest she draw their ire.

Before moving, She decided to double down on her efforts. She packed up camp and tore up more of her parachute. She then dropped the bags full of berries and took the new, empty ones.

Lilith then set out and duplicated her efforts. Just as planned, Impidimp followed her. It was relatively easy, the little imp was a glutton, and whenever she tossed out a berry, it would follow her. She estimated it had eaten over 20 berries in one night.

By the time she reached the Pecha Berry Tree grove, She had 3 empty bags to fill.

The same strategy was used. This time however, Lilith didn’t even have to get close to the trees. Once the Weepinbell was located and pacified, Impidimp went in and collected the berries for her.

‘Is this what it’s like to be a trainer?’ she wondered.

On the walk back to her camp She started to feel drowsy. She had been up since sunrise that morning. It was close to one full day of being awake. Her entire night was filled with collecting food and running back and forth between locations.

Once the duo returned, Lilith had 3 bags of Pecha berries, 2 of Leppa, and 1 full of other equipment.

Lilith acquired Impidimp’s help. The small imp grabbed 2 bags in each hand and followed after her. They headed towards the mountain to the north.

Her insomnia grew worse along with her aching body. Hours later, She picked a large tree to climb. Using the rope and carabiner, she hoisted all her belongings into the tree with her.

The sun started to rise as Lilith and Impidimp waved goodbye to each other.

She settled into the tree as exhaustion overtook her.