Ethan stood at the exit to his plot of land and waved away the three Simis and their trainers with a smile on his face. The three monkeys were hopping around excitedly, swinging their arms as their face scrunched up and thin streams of fog arose from their bodies—The move Work-Up in effect.

With these three leaving, all of those who stayed at his ranch had left. It’d been two days since Ethan had a small heart to heart with Pachirisu, and although a small amount of time had passed, a lot had happened.

The first and most apparent, was that he’d been successful in tutoring all of the pokemon who’d tried their luck by coming to him—inexperienced as he was. Those who had stayed with their trainers had left, but Sneasel, Hitmonlee, Gogoat, and Growlithe were still around. They had either already finished their tutoring and were waiting for their trainers, or in the case of Gogoat and Growlithe, on the cusp of finishing.

The second notable thing which had happened was the many, many trainers who’d begun stopping by in hopes of his services. Around fifteen trainers had show-up out of the blue, and Ethan turned every single one of them down. Until he properly set-up his end of the business, he wasn’t going to accept anymore pokemon. He needed contracts, the internet, a computer, a printer, and many more things before he was comfortable having strangers stay at his ranch once again. He’d be able to enforce contracts and have a system in place for registering ahead of time—a website maybe? Cynthia had talked about getting that ready for him, but he wasn’t sure when the items would arrive.

“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫”

Without turning around, Ethan held out his arm like a falconer, letting Chatot land and clasp her talons onto his bare forearm. The nice thing about pokemon, was that they were more than aware of how strong they were, and how weak humans tended to be. Chatot was gentle with him, as she always was, but he had no doubt that if she wanted too, she could break his arm with a powerful squeeze.

Chatot’s tail wagged back and forth, clicking and clacking as it swung like a pendulum. She fluffed her feathers, then began singing the song they’d been practicing.

“Oh, say can you seeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

By Dawn’s early light-tot….”

Ethan stroked her head as he corrected her mistake.

“By the dawns, not by Dawn’s. You’re getting better and better. Once you get this down, then we can find another song… or get you to create a voice of your own.” Ethan always shivered when he heard Chatot practicing from afar. Hearing his own voice was always disconcerting, but hearing himself sing was worse.

“♫ Chaa-tooot! ♫”

Chatot pecked Ethan’s cheek softly, giving him a small kiss, before she flew off back to his home. She’d taken to roosting up there, even going so far as to create a small nest for herself. She had her metronome up there as well, and when he cooked for his family and friends, he could often hear the faint soothing ticks and tocks emanating from the device on his roof.

Since he didn’t have to worry about any obtrusive trainers messing up his way of life for the foreseeable future, Ethan went around his ranch to check up on the many pokemon who called this place home.

As he stopped in front of Shuckle’s hole, he knelt down on the grassy ground and listened into the darkness with a cupped ear.

“Shuuu-Shuck. Shuck-shuck-shuckle!”

With a smirking smile, he continued to listen to his berry buddy as he chatted with his newest friend—the very caring and friendly Dunsparce.

“Dun-dun! Dunspar.”

“Shuuuuu.”

The two tunneling pokemon have been inseparable since they first met. Shuckle, because he didn’t see Dunsparce as a threat, and he was his first true-friend, and Dunsparce because he’d taken over a caring role for the young, afraid, and cautious berry loving pokemon. Ethan’s heart nearly melted when he’d noticed the caring role Dunsparce had taken in Shuckle’s life. He’d encouraged Shuckle to try new things, scared away any reckless pokemon who wanted to take a little nip at him, (The local Starly being curious.) and listened patiently as Shuckle rambled on and on about the things he liked.

Dunsparce was a male pokemon, but he was acting like a mother for the young Shuckle. Ethan dreaded the moment when Dunsparce’s trainer would pick him up. When he had to leave and leave Shuckle behind. He’d leave the two pokemon to be for now, and he hoped that Dunsparce properly prepared his partner for when he had to leave.

As he walked by his house, picking up a basket of berries along the way, he checked up on the Oddish and singular Gloom. They were resting, as they usually did, and their leaves weren’t moving a millimeter in the gently blowing wind. Gloom, now that it’d evolved, stood out like a sore thumb. The much larger pokemon was no longer as stealthy as its brethren, but he made up for that by having the ability to move around more during the day.

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While it was resting now, he’d seen the drooling pokemon waddling about his trees here and there these past two days, drooling on the roots and the vegetables in his personal food farm. Originally, the sight had made his stomach churn, but after seeing, in real time, how his vegetables grew to their maximum size? A little-bit of drool wasn’t going to be the end of the world.

In the past two days, Gloom had also often gone into the meadow to check up on the little sprouts that had begun peeking out of the ground—its children. Gloom never asked for any help when it came to tending to the baby Oddish sprouts, but he didn’t mind Ethan coming around to watch it work—which consisted of more drooling.

All in all, Ethan was glad that one of his plant friends could interact more with its surroundings during the day.

Leisurely, Ethan walked out into the meadow, careful of his steps, and made his way to the small pond with the basket of berries in hand. As he approached, the Krabby, who never appeared to leave his King’s Rock, turned his body and scuttled back and forth while snipping and snapping its claws angrily. Ethan waved at the grumpy, grouchy crab, then chucked an oran at it. Krabby clamped down on it, splattering it into paste, then stuck its claws into its small mouth and glared at Ethan as he laughed.

“Marilllll”

“Mariiii”

The two Marill who called this pond home calmly paddled over with their tails intertwined, the sweet couple inseparable. They walked up onto the land, then to Ethan. Since this had never happened before, he knelt down to the two water mouse pokemon. As he knelt, the berry basket he carried lowered to the ground along with him, and the two Marill came forward and started to rummage through the assortment of berries as they chatted with one another.

Ethan, slightly hurt that they weren’t coming up onto the land for him, but for his food, watched the two pokemon sort and inspect through the assortment of berries. One found a nice, plump Sitrus berry, and turned to feed it to its partner, who chomped down on it gleefully.

The Feebas and Magikarp had now come to the surface, mouths doing their buccal pumping, (The action of opening and closing of a fish's mouth.) as they awaited their food.

The Magikarp were sadly still as intelligent as they seemed, which wasn’t much at all. He had hoped that he could start to see some individualism, but it didn’t look like it was going to happen anytime soon. None of them had preferences for berries, simply flapping their tails to launch themselves toward the nearest surface disruption, and none of them reacted to him calling out their name.

The Feebas on the other hand, did have some individuality among them. Also, he’d begun noticing a noticeable improvement in their color. They were still fairly ugly, but their scales were no longer as dark a brown, and they appeared much cleaner than they were in the small stream he’d found them in. They patiently waited for their turn for berries, and Ethan did his best to boost their self esteem and hopefully get himself a local milotic.

“Okay, you beautiful little fishies. Do you have any preferences?” Ethan gestured toward his basket, and while two of the Feebas shook their heads no, one of them gave him a minute nod.

“Feebas.”

Ethan held up all of the berries he’d brought with him one by one, which were the ones that had fallen from the trees, which he had too much of. Eventually, Feebas nodded at the half and half, blue and green, Apricot berry. It was one of the mushiest berries he had, and they were as sour as a lemon. He tossed the Feebas two of the plump berries, and watched as it flailed through the water to slurp them up.

The Marill wandered off back toward the water with some spare Sitrus berries in hand and giant smiles, then floated/swam across the surface toward a lone, vibrantly green lily-pad.

A lily-pad Ethan never remembered having.

Both Marills let go of the berries, letting them float on top of the water's surface. They used their tails as hammers to bat away the Magikarp, who pestered them as they jettisoned single-mindedly toward the floating fruits.

While one Marill was playing guard duty, the other grabbed a fruit, took a deep breath, then dove underneath the water to swim underneath the lily-pad. The lily-pad spun in a circle, seemingly turning around on its own accord, then gently floated toward the water’s edge—the side opposite from Ethan.

The Pokémon that emerged from the water was one of the most bizarre creatures Ethan had ever encountered. This is including the fact that the first pokemon he’d ever seen was a Tympole.

A cyan blue… duck thing with six nubbly legs and a flat, brilliant yellow beak waddled out of the water with a Sitrus berry in its mouth. It flopped down onto the grass, spread its six legs wide-eagle, then noticed Ethan standing across the pond.

Instantly, Ethan felt pity for the pokemon. Its two abnormally large oval eyes struggled to take in his humanoid form, as it was looking both directions at the same time. He’d heard about lazy eyes, and even knew many people with them… but this pokemon had comatose eyes. It looked like the silliest creature on Arceus’ green… whatever this planet is called—Do they call it Earth?

“Taaaaaaad.” The low droning call was aimed directly at Ethan, and so he gave the smaller pokemon a little wave. The pokemon, a Lotad if he remembered correctly, gave him a giant dopey smile and munched on the Sitrus berry that the Marills had given it.

“Feel free to live here. Lots of food to go around.” Ethan said to the Lotad, earning him a small, slow nod and a continuation of the dopey smile.

As he picked up his basket and made to leave, Ethan thought about the newest pokemon to call his place home. He wasn’t sure if he should hope that all Lotads were like that, but he also didn’t want the one that had found its way here to be… an outlier. A call to Nurse Joy would be needed. Before he properly left, he snapped a few quick photos to send her way.

As he wandered back through the meadow, he spotted Gogoat and Blitzle racing along the sides. The two pokemon loved to run. They didn’t need any motivation, games, or berries to have them train their speed, as they themselves loved the activity. They’d been hanging about one another more and more, and Ethan had caught them sleeping next to one another just this morning… But for now, it was time to check up on the others.

The next on the list were Smeargle and Growlithe.