Okay. Staring down a very large, very upset bird. Options? Well, I could try and fight it, but given my track record so far, that seemed like a one-way ticket back to waking up in Mable's house getting a potion applied to me all over again. Run away? Not a chance. Even if I was still transformed into a bird, the Pidgeotto could likely lap me around the yard twice over before I could get halfway across the pasture. So, what did that leave me with?
I dropped my transformation to show my unwillingness to fight, and because I thought that being a smaller target might be slightly in my favor, and hurriedly ducked my head down in apology so hard I was practically sticking my face against the floor. "I am so, so, so, so sorry! I got carried away, please don't drop me out of the sky or anything!" I swallowed anxiously, though the crying of the Pidgey had trailed off to huffy, deep breaths of the beginnings of calming down, and I carefully lifted my gaze up again to peek at the situation.
The Pidgeotto had ignored me for the time being, and walked over to where the bedraggled, water-soaked Pidgey had righted themselves again, and was nosing at them with their beak. When they turned back to stare at me, their expression had shifted from 'borderline murderous' to merely 'displeased'. "Hmph! I didn't think Bibarel would be bullying one of my little birds, but I've been surprised before. Instead, it's just a new little one getting a little too wound up for their own good. Let me guess, she kept teasing you?" Wordlessly, I nodded my head, grateful for the stay of execution.
A larger wing curled around the smaller Pidgey as the Pidgeotto sat down on the ground, pulling them protectively beneath and up against their side. Probably for warmth more than anything. It may be a lovely spring day, but it was getting into the evening now. The sun hadn't quite set, but getting soaked like that had to be unpleasant. Stroking across the still-sniffling Pidgey, who had hid her head into the Pidgeotto's side like a baby chick, Pidgeotto directed her attention downward at her. "I've told you that just because you're a little bit bigger than the other Pidgey doesn't mean you're closer to evolving. Come on now, if you're going to try and pick fights, you need to be ready to get hit by an attack or two. Are you going to be a squawking nestling, or are you going to be a big bird?"
I peeked off to one side, wondering if I should take the chance to leave, but the narrowed glare that sharply aimed my way as soon as I began to move to leave banished that thought from my mind. Right! She's still mad, and I'm not going anywhere. I lowered my blobby posture down and waited patiently for the Pidgey to compose themselves, and peek back out from under the wing. I took the chance to apologize. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to- well, no, I meant to, but I didn't think it would be that much." Great apology, that'll convince them. "I'm sorry I made you cry." I eventually settled on, the grumpy little Pidgey staring back at me, silently.
A gentle 'thwak' of a wing nudging at the back of the Pidgey's head caught both her and me by surprise, and the Pidgeotto was looking down at her now, expectantly. A haughty coo prefaced the most unconvincing "I'm sorry I kept teasing you." I had ever heard. At least it was something. "But I just wanted to-" Thwak. "Ow! Mom! What was that for?" The Pidgey fluttered its wings like a startled chicken, bobbing around on the grass. "No 'buts' when apologizing! Just say you're sorry and stop." The Pidgeotto gave me a pointed stare, that seemed to say that if I hadn't adjusted my apology I'd have gotten a similar, if not rougher treatment.
Wow. Here I was getting the youngster's first lecture on kids getting into a fight and apologizing. I felt color rush to my cheeks in embarrassment. Why had it bothered me so much? Surely such juvenile taunting couldn't have really got my blood boiling like that so easily? Maybe it was just a Pokémon instincts to battle, or maybe I actually was being influenced by my young, newly-hatched body or something. The Pidgeotto interrupted my self-reflective contemplation, waving a wingtip back and forth between the two of us, pointing to either in turn. "Now, you two hug and make up." "Moooom-!" "Hug. And. Make. Up."
Oh gosh, the death-stare was back. Man, why hadn't the Pokédex entries I had read in the past said anything about how well Pidgeotto nailed that bird-of-prey stare? Or was it just because I was small enough that it actually felt like she could eat me if she felt like it, now? I jumped up from my slouching posture and scooted over toward the Pidgey, who was reluctantly easing out from underneath her mother's wing again. My nubby little arms crossed around the bird's body, and the wings brushed against my side in what was quite possibly the weirdest hug I had ever experienced. At least we were currently about the same size, so it wasn't difficult.
The Pidgeotto nodded in a satisfied fashion, and made an approving cooing sound. "There. You-" She pointed her wing at me, "If you want to battle with the little birds, and both sides agree to it, that's fine. You stopped when you should have, when it was clear that one side was at a disadvantage, and nobody was going to get seriously injured. But make sure you stop when one side doesn't want to fight anymore. Got it?" I desperately nodded my head with a hurried "Yes, Ma'am!" that seemed to satisfy her.
Next, her wing aimed at the Pidgey, who was scratching at the ground with her talons, staring at the dirt with particular interest. It was the very picture of a child who knew they were going to be scolded. "You need to make sure that when you're getting into fights, you follow the pasture rules. Do you want to go back out to the forest nests, or do you like getting to stay here and see the trainer kids?"
A chastised, soft coo of "I wanna stay here..." came from the Pidgey, peeking up at their mother. "Then don't make me have to fly over like this. You had me worried half to death, crying like that. Try to save that for when you're in real trouble, not when your opponent has stopped fighting." "B-but Mom-" Even I flinched slightly this time, knowing what was coming next, as the wing gently-yet-firmly impacted the back of the Pidgey's head with yet another thwak. "No buts! Now. if you say you know the rules, tell me what they are, and I'll stop scolding you."
I actually perked up at this. Mable hadn't actually sat me down and gave me a lecture on the rules that I would need to follow. Had she expected some of the other Pokémon to do it? Or had I just been generally on my best behavior and hadn't needed a lecture on the rules?
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With a sigh, the Pidgey began the put-upon voice of recitation universal to children everywhere, "Both sides have to willingly participate in any fights. Fights stop when there's a clear winner. No fighting during meal times. No fighting after dark. If anyone gets hurt, go to the pasture house right away." The Pidgeotto seemed satisfied, and when I had heard the rules, I realized why I never really got this lecture. I hadn't really been trying to do any battling. That also explained why almost all the other Pidgey that had swooped around me and tried to scare me off hadn't committed to making it a fight, and had been satisfied with expressing their displeasure briefly.
"You two behave, and don't make me come back and have another discussion. Play nice." With that, the Pidgeotto took to wing again, rocketing up with a rapid series of wing-flapping and soaring off over the surrounding woods. Awkwardly, I peered over at the Pidgey, and they locked eyes with me. Uh. Was I just supposed to walk away? They didn't seem to be leaving, either. "You know, you're really agile when you're flying around, I had a lot of trouble keeping up with you." I offered as an olive branch to get her attention with the compliment, "Do you think you could let me practice flying with you, and maybe help me learn to twist and turn like you do?"
She puffed up her chest, the Pidgey gaining a look of confidence after the remark. "You won't ever be able to twist and turn like I do, but I can help you try to get close to what I can do in the air." Her tone was so smug I almost wanted to refuse, but a flying tutor was a flying tutor. Body-copied instincts were one thing if all I needed to do was move around in the air, but to really fight, I was going to need more than that. Who better to learn from than an actual bird? ... As for why hadn't I asked the Pidgeotto to teach me to fly, instead? I wasn't completely crazy! Learn to walk before you run, and learn to glide before you ask for advice from a small combat aircraft!
"That'd be nice, thanks. So, no hard feelings? And if you want, we can have a rematch sometime, and I won't transform into Bibarel again. That hardly seemed like a fair battle..." Her eyes lit up at the mention of a rematch, kindling a spark of excitement. "Yeah! Absolutely! You gotta practice until you're able to put up a decent fight and then we can battle each other again! Up in the sky, properly, instead of you hopping around in the dirt, only using your wings to jump at me." She sniffed dismissively at what had been my main fighting style for the earlier portion of our fight, just too unused to trying to attack in flight.
I was a little worn out, having done two transformations already, and in a row at that, but I felt like I had a little more gas in the tank to get some more practice in while we still had the light of the setting sun. "Okay. So how do we start?" "Well, first you turn back into being a fat duck like before, and you start showing me how you fly around!" I focused on the Farfetch'd form again, transforming with a slightly slower pace than usual, and sighed heavily once I managed it. This was probably going to be my last one of the day, unless I was really pushing myself.
Flapping my wings, I hauled myself up into the air, starting to loop in lazy circles. "Higher!" She demanded, after following me and rising well above my head. "Come on, higher!" I complied, grumbling about her bossy demeanor having taken over again so quickly. We were a good twenty feet up in the air now, by no means soaring, but high enough I was moderately concerned I'd hurt myself if I crashed. "Okay, what do I do now?" "Dodge!" "Wha- OW!" With a fly-by maneuver, she placed a well-aimed wing atop my head in a firm thwap very similar to her mother's reprimands, enough to smack my head aside and disorient me briefly without actually hurting me. I had just called out on reflex.
"I thought you were teaching me how to fly around like you could?" I complained, looping in lazy circles. "I am!" She called back with giddy, enthusiastic laughter. "I'm gonna keep bonking you on the head until you learn to get out of the way of my wings!" Ugh. No wonder she had been so excited to help 'teach' me. If nothing else, it was going to be a very practical lesson.
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The sun had finally fallen behind the trees and it was getting properly dark out now. I had been forced to land, too exhausted to continue. Fortunately, the only thing damaged was my pride, and I was well on my way to developing a resistance to emotional damage over the course of being thoroughly humiliated in just about every 'battle' I had been in since I got here. Azurill, the Arons, and now Pidgey. My one win had been using an evolved form Pokémon to surprise-bully a little girl. Not exactly the greatest start to a battler's career.
"That was a lot of fun! You're way easier to hit than the other Pidgey!" My new 'friend' cooed with delight as I panted on the ground. She seemed a little exerted, but nowhere near as completely wiped out as I was, barely able to keep my now back-to-blobby body upright and not devolving into a puddle. "Wanna play more tomorrow?" The chipper demeanor was actually a little endearing, and when she wasn't taunting me, she was actually rather pleasant. "Yeah, sure. We'll play around in the sky tomorrow some, too. Maybe I'll manage to dodge more than one wing-swat out of five." "You wish! Hah! See'ya tomorrow!" She took to the air and headed back toward the trees in the back of the pasture. Wasn't that where the bugs were? How did the birds and the bugs get along, anyway? Eh. That's something to think about later, when I wasn't exhausted.
I hadn't actually been awake to see the pasture in the dark. There weren't any light posts or anything out in the pasture, and I didn't really see any of the Pokémon out in the open now that weren't trudging off to their respective sleeping spots. Bunnelby were sliding into burrows dug in the ground, the Bidoof gang were in a single-file line heading toward the dam alongside the pond, the Dunsparce were mostly buried in their dirt-piles, though a few conical tails stuck out here and there. Life on the pasture seemed to stick to the 'early to rise, early to bed' motto. The only real light came from spilling out of Mable's house windows and a single exterior light on the rear porch.
It was crazy to think that this was just my second day here, since they had been packed full of non-stop activity. It was... nice. It sure beat the hell out of how I used to spend my days, standing behind a register, then getting home and crashing on the couch in front of my TV. It was a habit I had just fallen into, back in my previous life, and never stopped to question. But the activity-packed days, the plethora of friends around me, some of them more unexpected than others... I took a moment to thank Arceus for giving me this second chance. It was already more than I ever hoped for.
Though, hang on. Where was I supposed to sleep? Having overlooked that, and not wanting to transform to try and knock on the door to get let back into the house, I turned right back around and joined up heading in the same direction as the Bidoof gang. After all, I didn't want to sleep out in the open, and I knew they made comfy, warm sleep-piles. Fortunately, they didn't mind letting me claim a spot alongside them, and I dozed off just as rapidly as the rest.