With neither I nor my sparring partner satisfied with the outcome of our fight, we decided to call it a draw. After a fair bit of squabbling and a few last-ditch attempts to get the last word in over the other, that is. The only reason we even managed to agree on that much was because Pidgey decided that she didn't want to count it because I had 'cheated', while I didn't want to go through the argument of convincing her it was my win after I botched the attack and crashed alongside her.

"So, wanna give it another go then?" I asked, still brimming with energy. Despite the fall, she didn't seem tired either, but she lifted her beak and looked away from me. Honestly, it looked a little like one of those snobbish 'young master' type actions I had read about in the past, but it was being portrayed by an inexperienced actor who didn't quite know how to nail the aloof, dismissive demeanor. Rather than the intended effect, it just made me struggle to hold in my giggling, drawing a haughty huff of annoyance from her besides.

"I don't wanna play with you if you're going to cheat!" She declared, turning away and making as if to leave, taking short hops across the grass away from me.

I couldn't resist poking a little fun, since this was the first time I had eked out something that could be called a draw. Usually she flew circles around me, and I doubted the same trick would work on her twice, so I had to enjoy the moment while it was present. "Aw, what's the matter? Something put you in a fowl mood?" I was struggling not to laugh at my own stupid pun, bird-hopping along after my companion. "If you don't help me with my flying practice, I'll just have to wing it!"

That got her attention again, alongside an exaggerated eye-roll. "Really? You're resorting to awful puns to try and convince me? Ugh. That just makes me want to agree just to have an excuse to hit you some more." The level, unamused stare she aimed my way didn't seem impressed by my wordplay.

"Aw, my jokes aren't that bad, are they? Let's see you do better, then!" I puffed myself up as I issued the challenge, as if it was a solemn contest of great importance and not merely tossing lame jokes at one another.

There was a long pause where she just stared at me, and I wasn't sure if she was refusing to play along, or just needed a moment to come up with a suitable retort. Eventually, though, she quirked her beak in a small, smug fashion. "I'm not sure I want to stoop down to your level." She remarked with a deadpan stare at me for several seconds, before a chuckle of her own tittered from her beak, leaving us both smiling despite ourselves.

I bounced in place with an earnest grin, nudging her side with a wing. "See! Look at that! You're a regular comedi-hen!" I cackled openly, ducking down as she swatted at me with a wing.

"Boo! That one was extra bad! And don't you dare call me a hen! I fly circles around you, you still battle like a hatchling!" She swatted at me repeatedly, but I had gotten plenty of practice at dodging over the past few days of playing. I crouched down, hopped aside, and fluttered my wings in short bursts so that she never managed to do more than brush the tips of her feathers against me.

"Better luck nest time!" I kept the onslaught of puns up in rhythm to her attacks, trading blow for blow, only all of mine were verbal. The provocations had the Pidgey seeing red as she swung at me with greater intensity, mingling in the occasional sharp dart forward with her beak to try and peck at me. Even in the midst of our impromptu spar, we were both having a great time. Despite her apparent annoyance, she was still laughing at my dumb jokes, so I kept them going. "Egg-celent try, you nearly got me with that one! Your form is im-peck-able! Such grace, your attacks are simply poultry in motion!"

At that last one, a sharp jab of her beak managed to knock atop my head, leaving me squawking in gentle pain. There was no energy behind the attack, so it didn't do any lasting harm, it was merely startling. "Are you quite done? I've never had to put up with so many bird-related puns in my life!" The Pidgey settled back into a leisurely perch on the ground, seemingly satisfied with chastising me after one good, solid peck to the head.

"Owl-most done, I think. That was all the ones I could come up with on the fly." The dangerous glint in my companion's eyes made it clear she was weighing if it was worth getting up to hit me one more time for those last jokes, but I raised my wings to wave her off. "Alright, alright, I won't say anymore puns right now, I promise! Come on, you liked it. You were laughing!"

After a few seconds of firm stare, she nodded with a short laugh. "It was funny, fine. Just don't make it a habit. Those jokes were awful. It was only funny because you were so dedicated to trying to ham it up more and more with each joke! I was laughing at you, gosh!" She tried to defend herself, as if her mood hadn't measurably improved after all that.

"Sooo... more flight training?"

"Only if you promise not to use any more puns the entire time."

"Fine, fine, if you insist! Spoilsport."

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This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

I spent the next few hours sparring with my companion. I was starting to land the occasional proper hit against the Pidgey, and taking less in return. While I still felt like I was coming out on the losing end of our exchanges, I was no longer the only one panting from exertion by the time we landed. I may have been the one with more ruffled feathers, at least until I dropped my transformation and returned to normal, but repeated gusts of wind and wing attacks had left my sparring partner a bit bedraggled too.

We had spent the entire afternoon and the better part of the evening on the wing, with only short moments to recover in between when one of us took a particularly hard impact. "That was a good training session!" I remarked, slouching down in a purple puddle, letting my eyes drift closed, resembling nothing more than half-melted ice cream dropped on the grass.

Pidgey nodded her head in agreement, "You're doing better and better. Honestly, you're picking up flying really quick for someone who just started doing it a couple days ago. You really haven't flown around before? I'd almost think you were fibbing about wanting me to teach you, and you just wanted an excuse to play with me."

"Nope. Never flew before a few days ago. Honestly, I hatched just before Bibarel found me and brought me over." I explained without opening my eyes, at least until I heard an utterly indignant squawk from my companion, beak open wide and staring at me in disbelief.

"Wait, really? I was calling you a hatchling to taunt you, but you really are just a...?" She trailed off, and slumped down slightly, sounding as if she was sullenly pouting as she continued, "That isn't fair at all! I'm already two years old! And I had my Mom teach me the basics! How are you catching up to me so fast!? That's... that's... that's totally not fair!" She argued at the sky, dropping her head down and looking positively crestfallen.

I swallowed nervously, scooting over and giving a gentle pat atop the Pidgey's head, stroking my nubby hand across her feathers. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad! I'm sorry! You still beat me all the time! And besides, I'm only getting good as fast as I am because you're the one teaching me! Maybe you're just a really good teacher? You spent that time learning your own tricks to fly, and I'm getting to learn fast because you're sharing them with me!" I hurried to try and reassure her, since she looked so dejected that I was catching up to her so quickly.

That argument seemed to refill her energy levels a bit, and she nodded as she lifted her head back up. "Yeah... yeah! That's it! I'm a great teacher! I bet if I taught any of the other Pidgey they'd manage to catch up with you! It's their fault for not wanting to practice with us!"

Now that she mentioned it, none of the other Pidgey or even the Fletchlings ever expressed any interest in joining up to play with us. The Fletchling I could understand, as it was possible that they didn't want to mingle with the Pidgey, and would be more willing to practice with me if I spent some time transformed into a Fletchling. But why didn't any of the Pidgey want to get involved? When I asked, my companion perked up and used a wing to gesture toward the rest of the flock.

"Most of them only hatched last year, and the ones that hatched alongside me..." She paused, and looked a little embarrassed, "Most of my clutch-mates and other Pidgey who are two years old moved back out into the forest. While I do like battling, I do it because I think it's fun. Some of the Pokémon out there are a little... scary, though. Like that Scyther! In here, I can have fun fights and get better, like what we do. But out there it's a lot easier to get hurt. Maybe when I evolve, like Mom, I'll feel better about going back out."

I hadn't expected my energetic, borderline-fanatical sparring partner to have such a reserved side to her. I suppose the reason she was trying so hard in our spars was to try and goad herself into evolving under the pressure. "Well, I'm going to keep getting better and better, and I'm going to make you have to keep trying harder to put up a fight against me! I'll keep practicing with you, and I bet you'll have to evolve in no time just to keep up!" I spoke the words as a challenge, to try and light a fire under her to keep competing, but I meant them as a form of support. "I'll keep sparring with you until you don't have a choice but to evolve into the biggest, baddest bird around!"

She puffed up and grinned at me, lifting herself up onto her talons again, "Yeah right! Just try and keep up with me, hatchling! You've got a long way to go before you're able to keep me in check! Come on, I'm not even tired anymore! Lets go one more round, hurry up and transform again!"

Wearing a wide grin, I made a 'calm down' motion with my hands, raising them and lowering them toward her to try and make her back down a little. "Relax! It's starting to get dark, and even if you want to keep fighting, remember the rules? 'No fighting after dark'. Your mom said we have to make sure we keep following the rules, and to be honest, your mom scares me! I'm not gonna try and go against the rules normally, but the way she glared at me last time? I was worried she was gonna eat me or something! So I have all the more reason to behave!" I tried to sound like I was joking, but I was dead serious. I did not want to have to stare down an angry Pidgeotto all over again. "Besides, Mable said that the kids should be coming tomorrow! I heard her say she wanted the window fixed before the kids showed up, and they said they'd have it fixed first thing in the morning. So we should get a good night's rest so we can deal with all that energy tomorrow!"

Pidgey deflated a bit at my reasoning, but nodded. "Yeah, alright. It's not that dark yet, but we wouldn't have time to really get into sparring properly before it was properly dark out, I guess. Hey, do you wanna practice tomorrow? I bet the kids would want to see us do a battle!" She bobbed in place energetically, obviously enthused by the idea.

"Maybe. We'll have to be careful if we do, we can't throw Gusts out willy-nilly and we sure can't wind up falling down and crashing into anyone. Maybe if Mable is supervising and lets us try it? We'll see how things go in the morning, alright?"

"Okay! I'll see you later, I'm gonna head back to my nest. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight, see you in the morning!" I waved as she took to wing and headed for the upper reaches of the trees in the back of the pasture. I meandered toward the house, having accepted that my spot was settling in to be in one of the comfortable plush beds inside. Honestly, I didn't feel super comfortable trying to do anything like sleeping in the Bidoof dam again, just in case that crazy trainer showed up again. The fact the house was alarmed was reassuring, and I hoped it'd help me get to sleep tonight. I wanted to be able to have plenty of energy when the kids showed up tomorrow, after all.