While running for his life, dodging bug buzzes and poison stings, Matty wondered why he had decided to live like this.

He had set out earlier that day to go survey some land, leaving his egg and borrowing some supplies to camp with from Sarah, as well as loaning a bigger axe to gather some lumber. Because the town sat between a mountain range and a forest, with a small river flowing away from the mountains towards the forest, he had decided to go get some lumber.

He had been told by Sarah to avoid both the mountaintops and the deep forest, because of the dangerous Pokemon that lived in both, but decided he wanted some old-growth timber for his future house, wherever that might be.

He wished he had listened because after a few swings on a tree, which irritated a weedle, and after failing to capture it, a horde of beedrill had followed its cries. the beedrill noticed him backing slowly away. Down an apricorn ball, and down on his luck, he had to flee for his life, as an army of beedrills began attacking and chasing him.

After running for what felt like forever, he ran past a farmhouse,e and saw that only a few were chasing him now, but he still wouldn’t stop for all the world.

After all but one had given up and he was almost to town, right by the river, he heard a strange low whistling. Looking back, he saw the last beedrill fleeing as a shadow shot across the ground. As the whistling grew louder, he saw a massive red bird trailing red hot sparks and flame, flying in almost faster than the eye could track. It crashed into the beedrill, killing it instantly. Crouching in the grass, he watched the monstrous bird tear into the large bug, start a small fire, and carry it away leaving nothing but a stinger, some ash, and a puddle of viscera.

Trying to remember the later gens, he watched as it flew towards a small hill a few miles away from town. Matty noticed that there were only a few farmhouses out that way, probably because it was rather close to the mountains, and the highly dangerous firebird would most likely deter any residents.

Returning to town, after returning the axe and retrieving his egg, Matty walked back to the Pokemon Office and described what had happened to him to the secretary, whose name turned out to be Martha, after reading her name off the counter.

“Oh yeah, that bird sure is one of the strongest Pokemon for miles, it moved in five years ago ish, and even our top trainers couldn’t manage to do nothin bout it”

Matty thought about how the beedrill had been killed before it had the chance to let off a single attack and was glad that Pokemon tended not to attack humans unless provoked, whether that be bothering them, trying to catch them, or encroaching on their territory.

“What type of Pokemon is it?” asked Matty, hoping to get some clue as to how to deal with or even tame it.

Martha squinted at him “That's the funny part, it ain’t native, and it seems to love that little hill and guard whatever's up there with its life”

Matty guessed that it was guarding some eggs, but knowing it could quite easily kill him, he decided to let that go.

Looking at the surveyor's map of the area on the wall and noticing that the entire valley was mostly settled near the town, he decided that the entire area must be sparsely settled. He also found that the area surrounding the hillock, forest, and mountain was quite barren, even though some of it was rather close to the river. The area by the hill was about equidistant between the forest and the foothills of the mountains, was close to the river, upstream to the town, and even had a small stand of trees nearby.

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“What sections of land are available?” Matty asked.

Martha looked at the map and laughed. “There ain’t much that's taken, 'cause there ain’t many people that's moved out here yet.”

Pointing at the plot by the hill, Matty asked: “What about this plot that's over here?”

Looking back at him and seeing where he was pointing, Martha laughed “There’s no way you’re goin’ to be able to live there, honey. That bird kills anything that gets within half a mile.”

“I’ll take it”

Looking back at it, while lying on the cold hard ground on the edge of his new property, Matty wished he had listened to Martha. The bird had attacked him the second he got close to the hill, and had chased him almost as far as the bugs had. Because Matty was too busy exploring his land, he hadn’t set up a good shelter before dark, and he had barely had time to set up a tent before it started raining.

Sitting in his small loaner tent from Sarah, on the cold grass, which was essentially just an old tarp, watching how it leaked, he sat there shivering, and crying a little, all while thinking about how much he missed his mom.

Thinking about her made him sad, remembering her smile as he would come home from school, the way she tussled his hair, and how she always made him breakfast, no matter how tired she was from her night shifts. Remembering her laughter, and her cooking, how though they didn’t have much, but they still had each other, Matty began to wish that he had at least been given the chance to say goodbye.

Waking up in the morning after crying himself to sleep, putting his terrible night behind him, Matty remembered that he needed to check on his egg. Rolling over and looking for it, he began frantically searching. He looked through the whole tent, picking up His blankets and bag, until he saw it. The shattered pieces looked so broken and sad, and the goop that was left had stained his backpack. Matty was destroyed. He had worked so hard caring for it, carrying it, keeping it warm, and protecting it, he fell flat on his back holding in tears. His vision blurring, tears coming he started to cry once more, until he noticed a green line on the tent ceiling that had not been there before.

The caterpie looked down on its mother, wondering why it looked so sad. It had watched as it frantically dug through the strange things on the ground, but had kept quiet. Now, looking down on its mother, it seemed that she had noticed them and was slowly reaching up. Feeling hungry, the caterpie decided to taste the strange tree it was sitting on…

Looking up at his new caterpie, Matty’s vision slowly cleared, and he reached up to greet his new friend, right before it took a massive bite of the tent. The tent he was borrowing. The tent he had promised to keep safe. That tent.

Panicking, he grabbed at the little bug before it could eat more of the material, but it still left a huge hole in the tent's wall. Horrified now, he watched as it slid down his arm to bite his sleeve. Realizing that it must be that caterpie hunger Sarah had said something about, he searched his bag until he found his guidebook. It looked different now, having changed since falling into the Pokemon world, leather instead of paperback, and it was handwritten and drawn instead of printed, but he was able to find Caterpie’s entry easily enough.

“Caterpie has a voracious appetite. It can devour leaves bigger than its body right before your eyes. When frightened, this Pokémon releases a horrifically strong odor from its antenna.”

Grabbing at it, he ran outside to find something for it to eat. They were on the banks of the river, and there were some small bushes near it, so Matty ran towards them.

Pulling the caterpie off of his shirt before it could eat it, he set it on the bush and watched it carefully. Hearing its squeals in displeasure, he watched as it noticed the leaves on the bush, and started chomping down. Looking at the guide again, he saw some information written down he had overlooked. It was a full list of the life cycle and growth of a caterpie from hatching until stopping at its final evolution, and a list of moves and the stages of its life. Looking at the moves listed on day two, Matty knew he was in for a fun time