After getting permission and getting set down from being carried about, which was also going to be something of a process to not find weird, Bibarel and I made our way out the back door that let us into the pastured area. My companion had a goofy grin on his buck-toothed face, and he bumped up against me in a firm nudge. "See? I told you, Mable's a very nice lady. She's seen more Pokémon come through here than I'd want to count. She's not going to make a fuss over you. Well, at least not in a bad way."

I released a sigh, nodding my head in agreement. "Okay, maybe I was a little too nervous about meeting a human, but can you blame me? I just hatched!"

"That's what makes it even more strange, though. I mean, I can understand you being a clever one who's just very talkative, but why are you so worried about humans? You've never met one before, and you were very firm in saying that you didn't want a Trainer... Oh! Oh no, I'm sorry. Were you an abandoned egg? Sometimes it happens that a Trainer winds up with an egg by accident and they don't go through the trouble of seeing it to a proper home. I should have realized that." Bibarel sat down on the ground and slumped against me in a short-armed hug that all but squished me flat.

"It's okay, no one's going to abandon you if you stick around here! And the kids really are very nice! You'll make friends with them in no time at all! I bet they'll love to see a new Pokémon they've not met before, and you'll impress them with how you can transform!" The voice was rambling, with a tone that made it clear he was trying to be soothing, barely pausing to try and let me get a word in edgewise. It was probably for the best, as I hadn't considered that my reactions might have been a little out of place. I'd have to decide that even if I found a way to communicate with humans someday exactly what I wanted to say. I couldn't very well say that I had been human in the past, or I might wind up in some laboratory or something.

For now, though, I needed to stop being squashed into a purple pancake. "Bibarel... squishing me...! Let go!" It wasn't that I felt anything more than mild discomfort at being squashed in the hug, it was more that I was embarrassed by the whole display. Bibarel released me, and gave me a pat on the head as I reformed into a more upright blob. "Alright, well, lets go and make introductions, we'll have you feeling right at home in no time."

He trundled along toward the small mound of Bidoof that were laying in the sun. It looked like at least ten of them had all decided to pile up on top and around one another, some of them sleeping, while others clutched rocks with their front legs and gnawed on them like how I remembered dogs chewing on bones. "You all, I brought a new friend over. I want you to make sure you're nice to them, help them feel welcome, okay?"

It was like he had said the magic word, as the awake Bidoof started to rise up and wriggle free of the pile, their motions stirring the others that had been asleep from their naps. A chorus of "New friend?" from those rubbing sleep from their eyes with their paws was met with an affirmative, louder "New friend!" from those awake. Suddenly I had a small Bidoof horde crowding around me. They seemed to be examining me, which I could hardly blame them for. I batted at the closest who were trying to paw at my blobby body, engaging in the beginnings of a slap-fight they seemed to take as a game.

One of them would reach out to try and make me squish under their push, and I would bat them away. Then a Bidoof on my opposite side would do the same when I turned my attention away. "You feel weird." "Hello, new friend!" "I like your color." "Are you gonna stay?" "Nice to meet you!" "You're like a pillow!" "I wanna try, give me room!" The group was chattering over each other, and as much as I normally wouldn't like this much noise and chaos centered around me, I couldn't help but grin.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to stare back at each of the Bidoof in turn, and reply in a rapid-fire burst of words, "No, you feel weird!" I aimed at one, rapidly shifting my gaze from one to the next. "Hi there!" "I like purple, too!" "I'm planning on it!" "Likewise!" "Don't squish me so much!" "Don't start a fight now, or I'll transform into something else so you don't fight over touching me!"

All of the little plump, buck-toothed faces froze and their eyes widened at that remark. Bibarel gave me a pitying look, but the smile on his face somewhat spoiled the effect. Oh, I probably... shouldn't have said that last bit. "Transform?" "Do it!" "I wanna see!" "Please do it!" I honestly didn't want to try and transform again, considering I felt so tired, but they were all staring at me so expectantly. "I'm a little worn out, can I show you tomorrow? Or after a nap?"

"Please show us now!" "Yeah, I wanna see!" "Promise to let you nap afterward, really!" "Yeah, we'll go back and take a nap too, but you gotta show us!" I waved them to back up and they reluctantly took a few steps back to give me space, while I leveled my stare at the horde. "Okay, but I'm only going to do it once. Here we go..." I turned back to Bibarel, intending to show them I could grow bigger. The white energy settled in and started to run through my body, significantly slower this time. That wasn't so bad, considering I was showing off for what very much seemed to be young kids, and it going slower would make it seem more showy for them.

I returned to the Bibarel form, and it felt like I had just run a marathon, leaving me panting and wobbling in place. This was only my third transformation, it shouldn't be this bad! I guess I have spent more time transformed today than in my normal form, and I was effectively a baby. Maybe I was expecting too much of myself. I let my attention wander back to the Bidoof, who were doing double-takes flicking their stares between me and Bibarel. "So cool!" "It's just like him!" "Can you turn into us?" "Can you turn into anything?" "Poke him, maybe it's not real!" "No, I touched him, he's really fluffy now!"

At that last announcement, all the Bidoof met eyes and nodded as one, like they had formed a plan. Then almost in unison, a group tackle forward had me buried in the fluffy bodies of the Bidoofs, while they settled atop my back, against my sides, and otherwise just flopped against me. Rather than fight them off, I dropped down onto my stomach and let them climb around me, remaking the napping and relaxing mound they had formed before my arrival, only pushed into a slightly higher hill this time due to my bigger size providing the base.

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Bibarel chuckled off to the side, "I'll come and get you when it's dinner time. You've had a long walk today, so just lay around for a while and relax. I bet you're going to have to deal with a bunch of the other little ones wanting you to show off later, too, so you'll get plenty of practice with your transforming." He gave me a pat on the head, seemingly unperturbed that he was effectively patting himself, and waddled off out of my line of sight around the pasture.

I wriggled gently in place, having effectively found myself a blanket of Bidoof, and just sprawled out on the grass, letting my eyes drift closed. Might as well just enjoy relaxing in the pile until it was time to eat. A nap was just the thing I needed.

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I didn't quite make it to mealtime before I was awoken, by suddenly being squashed underneath the Bidoof pile. I learned a few important lessons. The first being that my transformation didn't wear off just because I went to sleep. That checks out, because Pokémon have moves that inflict sleep in their battles, and Ditto didn't stop transformations just because that happened. Second, I learned that the timer I could stay transformed seemed to shorten the more tired I was when I started it. After all, Mable had said it was dinner 'soon' and I didn't stay transformed long enough for that. And third? Don't go to sleep at the bottom of a Pokémon pile-up.

If I thought I had been a pancake after Bibarel's hug, the effect was dramatically more pronounced when the Bidoof eventually climbed off me. "Aw, it's over?" "I knew you were like a pillow!" "Yeah but he gets so squished." "He looks like a stepped-on Berry." "Stop it, that's mean!" "He does!" I slowly forced myself upright, wobbling from side to side as I steadied myself, "Looks like no more pile-up, everyone. I'm too tired to stay transformed." That was met with a unified group-wide "Awww...!" but they seemed to understand. Leaving me out of the process, they began to rebuild their napping pile.

They were so energetic and enthusiastic when they wanted to be up and moving, and yet seemed to be just as eager to get back to piling up and napping. I wondered just how young most of this group was, but it made sense for the Pokémon here to be young and not experienced in battling if the pasture allowed human kids to come in and interact. It was time to take a walk around the pasture and really take in the sights, I decided. I hadn't made it more than ten feet into the pasture yard earlier before, so I wanted to see the rest.

I passed by a small raised area of dirt that the Dunsparce were milling about, the flat little worm... snake... bug... things? Whatever they were, they were burrowing around, some rising to the surface through narrow tunnels that looked to be all but partially collapsed, just big enough for them to wiggle through, while others were shoving themselves forward into the dirt to dig new pathways. I wasn't sure if they were expanding their places to sleep or something, or if they just enjoyed playing in the dirt and making a mess. It was interesting to see them jamming the dirt with their yellow drill-tip-like tails, but I kept walking past.

The next little landmark I passed was a small pond. It had beautifully clear water, enough so that I wondered if there was some sort of cleaning or filtering machine responsible for it, and yet it still had a few lily pads floating on the surface. Oh, actually, those lily pads had little blue blobs dangling underneath them, and were actively swimming around, rather than just drifting in the water. I recognized Lotad, and offered a wave that was ignored by the placid water-floaters.

What did respond, however, was a single Azurill who had been hugging their tail and floating around the shallow edges of the water with it like a child hugging a beach ball. They excitedly nodded back at me, but similarly seemed content to float about on the pond without a care. I'd have to try that some time, the little pond looked relaxing. Tucked into one side of the pond was a large, wooden hut-like construction that I could only assume was the dam for the Bidoof and Bibarel.

Much of the middle area of the pasture seemed to be accurate to the name, merely open fields of grass where Bunnelby sprinted about excitedly, and with one startling example digging a hole using its ears like a spade. I had to stop and stare at that for a few moments as well, watching as a flexible rabbit ear scooped up clods of dirt and pushed them aside. So weird.

A scattering of Pidgey and Fletchling intermingled, not really in one flock, but more like they just happened to want to peck around the ground in the same area. They were watching each other enough that they didn't seem bothered by my passing by a short distance away.

The furthest reaches of the pasture had two remaining landmarks to examine, one of which was a copse of tall, coniferous trees and the other was a rocky little hill. I headed for the trees first. As to be expected, I saw a large number of bug Pokémon in this area. Caterpie, with their green, yellow-ringed bodies, seemed to be the most prevalent. They slowly wiggled up trees, meandering through branches that hosted the occasional Metapod, and rolled across the grassy floor. I was glad to see a lack of Weedle, the poisonous little pokers well on my bad side after too many annoying instances of poison going through Viridian Forest back in the games. It probably wouldn't be safe for kids to be around, either.

A single green-hued monkey that looked like it had a broccoli sprout on its head approached me rather suddenly, dropping down from the trees overhead. 'Pan-Pansage?' "Who are you?" I squeaked an embarrassing "Eep!?" at the sudden interrogation, leaning away from them. "I'm new, I'm just looking around!" I stammered hurriedly, and they stared at me for a long moment. "Alright, just don't go bothering the Metapod. Mable said some of them are looking ready to evolve, and she doesn't want them startled and accidentally rushing the process. The kids are coming to try and see it in person!" I nodded hurriedly, which seemed to satisfy the plant-monkey, and he climbed back up one of the trees.

I was about to go and examine the rocky area, when I heard a distant bell ringing, followed by the Pansage jumping right back out of the tree. When the small army of Caterpie lifted their heads in a repeating, overlapping chime of "Food? Food! Food!" the Pansage waved at them, stopping them from wiggling in the direction of the bell. "I'll bring back the food, you all wait here." That seemed to settle them, and I took the hint. As much as exploring the last corner of the pasture sounded fun, all I had to eat today was an eggshell, and I felt like I could eat a whole Rapidash, so I hurried back toward the house alongside the Pansage.