Eventually I managed to get disentangled from my makeshift cocoon prison, when Pansage had stopped laughing himself silly. I wanted to follow through on my idea, as I still felt like the bugs around here might enjoy a little added distraction. While I doubted an improvised swing could hold the weight of big Pokémon, it shouldn't be an issue for the Caterpie. I salvaged some strands from the cocoon wreckage and bound a bunch of sticks together in a bundle. Honestly, it looked less like a proper swing and more like a perch designed for birds, but hey, if they wanted to use the swing too there was no harm in it.

Waving Pansage over, I pointed up at the branch and explained what I wanted to do. With a little coordination and his climbing abilities, we had a rudimentary swing set up in no time. Curious Caterpie all gathered around to examine the new feature, until one of them crawled down the strands holding the swing up and rest against the base. It wasn't big enough for it to sit on completely, but it looked like it was comfortable enough to perch there. With its tail dangling off the swing, the excited back-and-forth swaying was making the weight shift and starting a vague swinging motion. It just needed to get the rhythm going properly and it could be swinging high in no time.

"Alright, pull your tail back more, then push it forward. Do it when you're moving either way!" I tried to coach the Caterpie on, and it seemed to be working as it was steadily swaying back and forth in small motions. Seeing this, its eyes lit up with excitement and a shouted "Fun!" attracted the attention of the few bugs that hadn't been gathered around and watching already. When I saw a few more up in the branches staring downward and contemplating if they could jump down onto the swing to join the fun, I waved my hands in a firm 'no' motion from side to side. "Don't you jump down on that, you'll break it! I'll make more swings!"

It seems I had decided what I was going to be doing for the next few hours. It wasn't exactly difficult to make the simple swings, but I wanted to gather up fallen sticks and such rather than break branches off the trees. Pansage seemed to agree with me, helping me with the gathering. Once we amassed a small mountain of cast-off wood, I settled down and bound them into similar swings, while Pansage scurried around from tree to tree, hanging them up. In the end, we didn't go so far as to make one for every Caterpie around, but there was one hanging off of every tree in the area.

"Swing! Swing!" The Caterpie took to the new name and game with enthusiasm, each of them trying to push themselves higher than the rest. Though, after a while I saw a green caterpillar soar through the air and land on the grass with a plop. I wasn't sure if it slipped, or if the bug was adventurous enough to do what kids do when they were done with a swing: leap off and see how far they can go. "Fun!" Oh, I really hope Mable doesn't get mad at me for this. Now the rest of the group was following suit, and at least it ensured there was a fair rotation of taking turns going on between the Pokémon. After one jumped off, another would crawl down to the swing from the branches above, while the jumper would climb back up the tree and join the line in the canopy.

It didn't seem like the leaping was doing them any harm, considering how eager they were to keep doing it. "Maybe they just want to get a preview of what it's like to fly around after seeing the three new Butterfree." I looked around, and realized that I didn't see the Pokémon that had evolved for the children a few days ago. "Where are the Butterfree?"

Pansage pointed in the direction of the house. No, slightly off to one side of the house, like he was pointing beyond the house. "Mable's already taken them into town. They're fully evolved and aren't suitable to stay on the pasture anymore. We only keep young Pokémon on the pasture, except for Bibarel anyway. But he's more like a helper or an employee of the pasture than a resident. I know that the Butterfree wouldn't harm the kids, but it's just part of the rules we have to follow. No fully evolved Pokémon are allowed to stay. If I stumbled over a leaf stone and evolved myself, I'd have to leave too."

I hadn't thought about the fact that the large number of Pokémon around all seemed to be young and in their starter stages. It made sense, that's the sort of Pokémon you would want to introduce to kids or who might need a safe place to grow up. "What about Pokémon that don't evolve?" I asked, giving a sheepish smile.

The grassy monkey rolled his shoulders in a shrug. "I don't know? We've never really had a Pokémon that doesn't evolve around before. But if Mable hasn't said anything to you, I doubt it'll be a problem. If you get too rowdy and put anyone in danger, well, you'll be right out. But you don't seem like the type who wants to cause problems after you just helped me brighten up the little bugs' day and made them some new toys." He flashed a grin, his voice trying to be reassuring. "Just don't go too overboard with your battle training, I've seen you soaring around with that Pidgey gal. If you stand out as a particularly strong fighter, that might also make someone nervous about having you around the kids. Especially with some of the more... dangerous things you've seen recently."

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I nodded my head, though I was frowning a little. Having to hold myself back wasn't my goal, but at the same time this was supposed to be a place for kids to interact with young and inexperienced Pokémon. "I can see that. No transforming into Scyther around the kids then, huh? I thought they'd find it cool."

"They probably would, and after Mister Patel got to meet you last time, he would know you aren't going to do anything stupid, but all it takes is one kid getting too eager and accidentally bumping into one of those big blade-arms and we'll be buried in trouble faster than a cave-in at the Bunnelby den. So it's better if you just don't even risk it, alright?"

Fine, fine. I won't try and play 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Scyther' in front of the kids. "You're probably right. It's for the best. When are the kids coming back around again? I hope they weren't supposed to show up today. There's no way it's a good idea to show them the state of the house after last night." I didn't want to imagine how they might react. Kids didn't need to worry about the realities of break-ins and thieves. Adults should keep them away from that.

"They usually only come around once every few days. Unless there's something special going on that can't really wait for them, like the Metapod evolving, they rarely come two days in a row. They'll probably be back tomorrow or the day after."

I was looking forward to the kids coming around again. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and I was leaning more toward trying to get paired up with one of the kids who were going on a journey after the incident with Tristan. It would make a journey harder with an inexperienced trainer, particularly one just starting out, but they were more likely to have that wild sense of adventure I felt in myself. To explore all the hidden places. And to be honest, it was easier to trust the open enthusiasm of youth over an adult. After all, I had thought that bird-trainer was a decent-if-stupid fellow as a first impression.

"Alright, thanks Pansage. I'll leave you to watch over the bugs, I'm going to head over and look for Mable." I waved at him and started slowly working my way over the pasture. It was a series of short hopping motions, but it felt as natural as a normal stride to me as I moved along. Despite spending so much time in transformations, I was adapting to my base form better and better as well. It no longer felt like I needed to turn into something else to walk around, and the bouncing along no longer felt so alien to me.

As I approached the house, there was a couple of hard hat wearing worker-looking men milling about the broken window. One of them was carefully removing the broken pieces of glass that had remained in the window frame, while the other was using a tape measurer to get the dimensions of the window. I caught the tail-end of a remark as I got close enough. "...have the window right as rain by tomorrow. We'll cover the gap with a tarp for the night, and first thing tomorrow morning you'll get all fixed up."

"I appreciate the rush order, I just want to try and have the place back to normal before the kids come over. At least you were able to get the door fixed today." As Mable began to turn away, she spotted me bouncing over. "Oh, hi Ditto. How are you feeling?" She asked with a gentle smile, reaching down to scoop me up. It felt like this was becoming a habit, but I suppose that being carried around wasn't so bad. It actually felt pretty nice, and it was happening often enough that I was getting over the weirdness factor of it.

I raised a nubby hand at her and an additional little protrusion formed just below my 'hand' in a blobby approximation of a thumbs-up. That was something else I had decided I should start working on. Seeing how much I could shift my body and how much I might be able to do with my naturally amorphous nature without actually using my energy to transform. I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to develop it into a battle technique, but after feeling so helpless when I had been affected by Taunt, I had been trying to think of solutions to the problem.

That made Mable smile, and she momentarily sent her attention back toward the worker. "Well, if you don't need me for anything else, I'm going to start working on food for the Pokémon." The man nodded at her and turned back to his work alongside his companion. Mable ran her hand across the top of my head, and I wriggled gently in enjoyment as she walked over toward the outdoor counter. "You know, things have gotten a lot more hectic since you showed up, mister. Goodness, we've had more things pop up in the last two days than I think I've ever had around here. You're not secretly a little trouble-magnet are you?" Her light tone made it clear she was teasing. I sure hope I wasn't! I wanted some action in my life, but there were limits! I shook my head and made an aggressive 'x' over my front with both arms. "Oh, of course not. Well, help me sort berries again?"

"Only if I get to eat some!" 'Ditto to Dit!' Mable rolled her eyes and nodded, "Yes, yes, you can still eat some." For a brief moment, I wondered if she could understand me, but then I realized I was just getting to be that predictable when it came to mealtimes. I can't help it, the berries are seriously good! It's like someone had taken fruit and then turned all the dials up to the maximum settings. Or maybe that's just a matter of my tastes now, as a Pokémon? Bah, it didn't matter. I have berries to sort, and eat! I settled down onto the counter, and started dutifully pushing the different colored berries into unique piles. One for the pile. One for me. Two for the pile. Two for me. Three for the pile. Three for- Ow!

A swat from Mable stopped me from eating a third Oran berry. "When I said you can eat some, I didn't mean you can eat all the Oran berries and sort the rest, you little glutton. Sort some of the Oran berries into a pile, too!" With a sigh, I put the Oran berry I had been about to eat off to one side by itself, starting a pile. I hadn't been going to eat all the Oran berries! Just all of them until I felt full.