"Woah now, Ditto, slow down! You're scribblin' so much I can hardly tell what you're trying to write down." Mable's tone was trying to soothe me, but I was far too riled up to just rein myself in. Seeing that, she reached over and promptly picked up the notepad from in front of me, trying to ensure she had my full attention. "Now, Ditto. Calm down. I mean it. Getting yourself worked up into a tizzy isn't going to help what's going on none, now will it?"
I frowned at being interrupted, but slowly nodded my head and put down the pen I was wielding like a spear, letting it tumble onto the hard wooden surface of the table.
"There 'ya go. Now, I see that you wrote down that we should have all the Pokémon keep an eye out. Do you think that I don't have some Pokémon that know what to do when something unexpected happens? Especially after Pansage brought you straight to me when you crawled your sorry hide back here in the middle of the night? We're not just sittin' out here and sticking our thumbs in our ears, Ditto."
Taking a deep breath, I slumped down into a more puddle-like posture as I tried to release some of the tension in my body. She was right, and I knew she was right, I was just feeling so antsy that I wanted to do something to feel more prepared. I needed to keep my mind from constantly pondering the worst-case scenarios of what might be heading our way. The phone call had been right to an extent, we simply weren't a high-priority target, even for that group of weirdos in the woods rather than a Beedrill swarm.
I was still a little bit scared that the group of trainers was somehow going to find me after I intruded into their little hidden hive of activity. Calming down a bit, I realized that even if they were looking for the odd Pokémon, I hadn't shown myself to be anything other than a suspicious Beedrill at the time. There was no way they could track me down and follow me back. Sure, they looked like some sort of Team or related group, and examples like Team Rocket were exactly the type to try and find a sanctuary for Pokémon like the pasture and raid it for its contents... but if they wanted to do that, honestly they had enough people to probably get away with it without the whole song and dance with the Beedrill.
I had seen dozens of them gathered out in the woods. They must have other plans, right? Right. Just focus on that. Whatever they're doing, they aren't going to bring it out here. And the Pokémon Rangers are definitely going to track down every bit of evidence after something happened to one of their own, right? After all, they said they were restricting the area for casual passerby, but I'm sure the Rangers are going to have a whole army up in arms and raring to get in there. They'll find some sort of clue, they'll take care of it. It's not something I've got to handle. I'm not responsible for every problem. Relax.
My little internal monologue had continued to help me relax, Mable merely watching my increasingly-slumped posture. "Feeling a little more calm now?" She asked, with a small, kindly smile. I nodded my head, and she reached over and pat atop it. "I get it, it's something unexpected and scary. I don't blame you for being concerned. I'm feeling a little anxious about things myself, I won't try and keep it hidden. We'll just be careful and keep our eyes out for a few days, alright?"
Before I could reply, my stomach growled its protest again, reverberating through the kitchen. It coaxed a bubbling laugh out of Mable, and she shook her head slowly. "It seems like we need to get some food in you, too. I don't want you trying to eat my furniture."
... Was that I thing I could do? I actually hadn't tried to eat anything not traditionally edible in my natural form, because who would do such a thing? But I also hadn't ever heard anything about what Ditto should- or could- eat at all. Well, the kitchen chairs weren't looking particularly appetizing, so I wasn't going to do any testing in the near future. Instead, I gratefully accepted the offering of Berries that Mable dug out of refrigerator and placed before me. The colder temperature made them slightly more firm and the juices were even more refreshing. Man, that was good.
Enjoying the eating, I idly raised my want of acquiring an Ice-type form or attack on my mental list just a little bit higher. Honestly, chilling berries to eat them might be a small abuse of such a power, but so what? The chilly berries actually went a good way toward dulling the nervousness in me. It's hard to be in a bad mood when you're enjoying your food, after all. Was I just going to forget about my concerns? Obviously not. But I could hold them in a more rational light.
After the nap I had earlier, I wasn't feeling particularly tired. Now that my stomach was sated, I waved both arms at Mable to get her attention and pointed at the notepad, requesting she return it to the table. When she obliged, I scribbled down that I'll stay awake tonight and keep an eye out. "Suit yourself. Don't wear yourself out, though." Initially, Mable seemed as if she was going to say something else, but she seemed to have changed her mind. "I'm sure I'll sleep better knowing we have such a dedicated guard on patrol." Her lips quirked upward into an amused smile, and she rose from the table and moved to leave the room with Bibarel trotting along after her like a puppy.
Once I finished eating, I moved outside once again, staring up into the deep purple of the last dregs of sunset before they faded from the sky. I hadn't actually spent the night up and active since I came to the pasture, had I? After all, the pasture didn't seem to have any Pokémon that operated on a nocturnal schedule, we all pretty much turned in for the night at around the same time and didn't rise until the sun did.
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I suppose that's just fine. If it's quiet and peaceful with nothing going on, I'll take that as a blessing. It might make it hard to maintain my focus on keeping watch, though. I acknowledged that I was prone to boredom and getting rather easily distracted. Well, I had just so happened to have spent some time with a form that seemed to display an intense focus, Geodude. I just had to make sure that my focus remained on, you know, actually keeping watch for odd goings on and not accidentally falling into another montage-worthy punch training session.
The light of energy seeped over my body, rounding out into the rocky mass of Geodude's form once again. I spent some time watching the Bidoof trundle off toward the pond and make for their dam. The Dunsparce burrowed into their mounded dirt-pile, and the Bunnelby slipped back into their burrows. The birds swooped over toward the trees to take to their nests for the night.
After this last little flurry of activity, the pasture eased into the casual almost-silence of night. The distant sounds of activity from the further-out areas past the boundaries of the fence carried over toward me slightly, but that was about all the noise. It made me feel like my previous method of traversal as a Geodude might raise too much of a commotion. Throwing myself forward and thudding back to earth would disturb the burrowing Pokémon at the very least. Instead, I tucked my arms into a curled posture around my body and began to somersault along in a rolling pace.
This was honestly not very optimal, either, as I couldn't really see what was going on around me when I travelled in such a fashion, so I rotated through a series of starts and stops. Uncurling and letting the slight sensation of dizziness fade as I drew to a halt and looked around me. I checked the fence line and the skies. The sun had faded completely by now, the stars twinkling overhead. The moon was still bright in the sky, if not as much as a few days ago. It still made it relatively easy to see.
Time passed without remarkable incident for the first hour or so after sunset, before I heard a reverberating, warbling screech through the night. It was a faint, barely-audible sound, sounding as if many small sources of noise were overlapping with one another. Over the distant treetops, I saw a cloud of motion burst out of the trees and soar into the sky, spreading in every direction. A number of the overlapping screeching sounds faded in intensity, resulting in less overlap, while a few of them were growing in volume. It was a grating sound, like nails on a chalkboard, but in a very distant room just on the edge of hearing.
As the figures approached closer, I was able to make out the shapes more clearly: Zubat. There must be a cave or something nearby where they nested, and came out in the depths of the night to do their hunting. Their calls were their echolocations to be able to maneuver through the sky, as I knew the odd species lacked eyes completely. Their fanning out as they grew further from their point of origin meant that many of them weren't going to pass near the pasture at all. A few of them, however, winged almost directly overhead. I was near the rear of the pasture, and still trying to decide if I needed to pay any mind to the bat Pokémon when a green vine cracked out from the treetops and snapped at the empty air next to them.
They must have gotten too close to the pasture's wooded area for someone's comfort, and it was most likely Pansage making an effort to deter them. The bats seemed to be enraged by the vine warning them off more than anything, and I could understand why they weren't intimidated by the attack considering they resisted the Grass-type attack twice over. There were around five of the Zubats flitting around the airspace of the trees, and one of them darted forward as if to retaliate to the warning of the Vine Whip.
"Oh no you don't." I hadn't wanted to bother with the Pokémon when they were soaring overhead, but if they were getting involved in the pasture's trees, I wasn't going to stand for it. It wasn't what I had been on watch for, sure, but I was in exactly the right form to lend a rocky hand. I channeled energy into my hands, forming a baseball-sized rock in my right hand, cocking my arm back and taking aim. When I shot my arm forward, the rock launched like a professional pitcher's throw, spinning as it tumbled through the air. It slammed right into the back of the Zubat's body, drawing out a louder shriek, this time of pain rather than for echolocation. "Get out of here!" I called out, my voice deep and rumbling.
The Zubat seemed to take the doubly-effective Rock-type warning much more seriously, and all five of them winged off in search of other hunting grounds, though the one I struck seemed to be zipping around on slightly more unsteady wings. I rolled over to the base of the trees, and Pansage hopped down to land in front of me. "Thanks for the assist." The grassy, broccoli-headed monkey waved in my direction.
"No problem. I was keeping an eye out tonight. I'll make sure that there aren't any others that show up to harass you." I growled the words out, utterly unable to sound less aggressive about it. Every time I spoke it rumbled like a miniature avalanche of words.
A dismissive wave of a hand came from Pansage. "They'll probably stay gone, there's usually just a few new Zubat who don't know not to cause trouble around here now and again. I can usually warn them off, but five troublemakers at once is a little more than usual. It's most often just one or two of them. Since they're dealt with, I'm going to head off and get some sleep. Goodnight!"
I nodded my head, which resulted in basically rolling my entire body forward slightly, "Night, Pansage. Sleep well." I rolled off, resuming my wandering around the fence of the pasture, staring out and over the barrier, often in the direction I had seen the Zubat rise up from. I swear, the Zubat better not be starting to act weird too, on top of everything else. Great. That's one more thing I can worry about, and I was just starting to feel better about the last few...