Almost immediately, I regretted cancelling my transformation into Bibarel as I hopped up the rocky hill, as bouncing along in my natural form was hardly a speedy endeavor. Still, I gave up doing a transformation because I felt like I needed to spend some time moving around as, well, myself. This wasn't something that was going to wear off in the future, this was who I am now. Even if I somehow perfected my ability to transform into other Pokémon so that I could do so as many times as I wanted, for as long as I wanted, it would only ever be faking it.

I suppose it just hadn't really sunk in until this exact moment. I had been so excited about seeing Pokémon that I hadn't realized this was my new life. This wasn't a quick adventure, the Pokémon and people around me weren't going to just be characters. There wasn't an expectation that something big and dramatic was going to happen every day. There wasn't a comedic villain around every corner. It was just an ordinary world, that just happened to have Pokémon in it. I felt a fair bit of the tension I had been holding in without realizing leave my body at that revelation. I didn't have any responsibilities. Mable and all the Pokémon around here seemed so friendly that they likely wouldn't object to letting me stay around for as long as I wanted. I just had to decide if that was what I wanted.

Stopping my aimless climbing, I let myself get lost in my thoughts and not wanting to stumble and roll my way back down the rocky hill, I perched atop a nearby boulder. What did I really want? Would I be happy here in this little grassy slice of paradise in the long term? Eventually all the newness would wear off. I'd be spending every day with the same Pokémon around me, helping Mable out with the berries and maybe transforming into different Pokémon to help with things around the pasture. For all that it had room for Pokémon to roam, it was still just a fenced in yard, just scaled up to a huge size and with what were effectively small sections of habitat.

Something about that just didn't sit right with me. Whatever that feeling was, it warred with my natural laziness to see that things were going fine around me, so I didn't need to put forth any effort. I could laze around here, play with the young Pokémon, work along with Bibarel and Mable, but then what? With a heaving sigh, I slapped both nubby hands off my face to try and jolt myself out of the building negative mood that I felt myself slipping into. No matter what decision I made, I was going to have time to think going forward.

I hopped off my perch and continued to look around the rocky hill, when I heard a ruckus of clashing metal off to one side. I followed the sound, and wound up passing by another pair of Aron. They seemed to be fighting over a dull grey chunk of shiny rock, probably over who was getting to eat it. Of course, they were settling the problem by ramming their heads off one another, the noise reverberating through the area.

A short distance away, I spotted a little glint of orange stuck down amongst the earthy browns of the rocks, and meandered toward it. Hunched down with a pair of pincers angled over its head like it wanted to hide from the noise was a little hermit-crab-like Pokémon just barely peeking out of its rocky shell and looking grumpy at the noise. A sullen, grumbling 'Ble-ble-ble...' drifted to me, only able to be heard because I was standing practically right next to them. "Just split it in half and be quiet...!" the little Dwebble complained. Before I could try and get a word out in response, the pincers and eyestalks retreated entirely into the rocky shell. Maybe it was going to try and go back to sleep despite the noise?

I wasn't going to bother them if they weren't feeling talkative, so I let myself sink down into a more spread-out puddle to relax in place and watch the Aron trying to batter each other senseless with Tackles. Considering they were both Steel-type and were only using the pale white sheen of Normal-type energy to batter at each other, this was likely to be a prolonged resolution to their disagreement. It set me back to thinking, though, about Pokémon battling. If I wanted to leave here, it was going to be something I was going to have to participate in, after all.

In a way, I was lucky that the first Pokémon I had encountered had been the goofy, placid, friendly Bibarel. I could have easily encountered a territorial Pokémon who wanted to beat me senseless and make me leave their area, and been wandering around beat-up, cold, hungry. I hadn't realized just what a gift it was to have a place that was open and accepting of me just showing up out of nowhere and becoming part of the pasture like I had. Time to sit and think like this was a luxury, when I expect that most wild Pokémon are more concerned with finding a place to call their own, away from hostile Pokémon, with a supply of food. Safety wasn't something to be taken for granted.

So, did I still really want to be a wild Pokémon, then? I seemed to take to following 'orders' from a human well enough, even if Mable was nice enough to make it seem like strongly-worded suggestions. Still, as pleasant as she had been, she was just one woman. I couldn't make my decision based off her, unless I wanted her as my Trainer, which would be almost no different from hanging around the pasture as I already was. I decided that I needed to let go of my worries and my past prejudices about things that could happen. Sure, I knew of examples of Pokémon trainers who had been right awful to their Pokémon, but they had stood out because of how rare they had been. If this was Pokémon, really and truly Pokémon, then I shouldn't be so cynical about everything.

I felt good when I made that choice. And I realized that the unsettling feeling that had been warring against my laziness earlier was anticipation. I shouldn't let myself forget what I had asked for when I was given this second chance. I didn't ask for a calm, albeit fairly idyllic life to settle into and to enjoy the routine of. Arceus told me I would be able to have a journey, after all. I wanted to see the various fantastical landscapes I knew were hiding in various regions. I wanted to explore the edges of the map, to find strange and exciting Pokémon. To be the very best, like no Ditto ever was!

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

With the fires of ambition coursing through me, I felt like I had more energy than I knew what to do with. I eyed the Aron who were still fighting over the ore chunk. While I knew it might not be the optimal choice, I decided not to turn back into Bibarel. An evolved Pokémon with a type advantage didn't suit what I wanted at the moment, and I had been transforming into him so much I was probably going to be accidentally saying 'Bibarel' in my dreams.

As the white sheen of energy coursed over my body, I didn't actually grow larger this time, merely rounded out, took on a metallic sheen, mimicking one of the Aron before me. The pair actually stopped their fight from surprise, which let me dash forward myself to join the fray, brimming with enthusiasm. Come on then, let's do this!

----------------------------------------

When I woke up a while later, I was being rather thoroughly chastised by Mable. "What were you thinking, you little blob of trouble? Starting a fight with two different Pokémon at once? What did you think was going to happen?" She clicked her tongue at me, and I kept my eyes firmly clenched closed as she held a small, purple-bodied spray bottle in her hand, spritzing potion across my more-puddle-than-usual body. Ow. OW! That stings. Why did no one ever tell me that potions sting!?

Once the initial application of the potion passed, I actually felt a lot better. All the aches and pains I had in places I didn't even know could be sore had mostly faded, and I peeked my eyes open to Mable's exasperated expression. "What got into you? You didn't seem like you wanted to battle at all when you first showed up. I don't mind if you want to try and test yourself against the other Pokémon, since you all need to exercise, but please try and find someone who wants to battle you?"

The Aron had been none too pleased I had interrupted their little spar. I assumed that neither of them were very strong, as they had just been tackling against each other, but in hindsight that might have just been how you play when you have a steel plate for a face. Once I joined in, the attacks became more aggressive, and I was battered back and forth between the pair of them with such force that if they didn't know the move Rock Smash before that fight, they probably knew it now.

I nodded meekly along to Mable's chiding. Okay, maybe I had let the flame of ambition get a little too stoked there, but I just felt so amped up in the moment, like I could do anything! That was dangerous talk, though. Like 'wind up travelling with a protagonist who has an unhealthy frequency of dangerous encounters' sort of mindset.

"I hope this wasn't an excuse to get beat up so you could come back to the house earlier than expected. I'm not going to send you back out there before you rest up a bit, but I'm still mad at you." Mable stared me down, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed, while I tried my best to sink down and vanish into the hard surface of her kitchen counter. "Are you going to get into any more fights, today?" Her voice held a firm edge, all but daring me to make the wrong decision.

My head hurriedly shook back and forth almost on instinct alone. Mable had the 'angry mother' stare down to a tee. Only once I had responded did she relax her posture and give a small smile in my direction. "Good. Then I suppose you're still allowed to come and see the Metapod evolve later. I nearly wanted to put you into a time-out in the house until afterward to teach you a lesson, but you seem like you've learned a lesson about getting in fights over your head already. Best behavior, Ditto, I mean it. There's kids coming over." When I nodded along again, she turned her attention back away from me.

"Actually, now that I think about it, why don't we have a little fun with them, Ditto...?" She let out a small laugh at whatever idea had popped into her head, "The kids have seen Bibi time and time again, so why don't we have you transform into him, and we'll see how long it takes them to notice? If they don't, you can transform back at the end and give them all a little surprise and an important lesson on paying attention to their surroundings a little bit more."

I nodded along, as it sounded like a harmless enough prank, and seeing a bunch of surprised reactions was going to be fun. I imagined it would wind up being a whole lot like how I had showed off for the Bidoof gang, actually. Youngsters were youngsters, after all, even if that would be a little weird coming from me if anyone overheard it. One brief transformation into another form, and I'm already going back to Bibarel, though? I really didn't want to get too used to using this as my 'default' transformation. As nice as he was, man, he just looked so... goofy. Light shined over my body, and I transformed back into Bibarel, though from the quirk in Mable's expression it was clear that I still hadn't gotten something right.

"That's perfect, actually. We have to give the kids a fair chance to notice that something's off about you, Di- Bibi." She cut herself off, playing into the act we were going to be doing. "I better get into the habit of calling you that now, I don't want to slip up in front of the kids and give the game away! Well, the group should be here in just a few minutes, so why don't you go out front and wait for them for me? Just knock on the door when they get here, that's what Bibi always does!" Mable led me to the front door and swung it open for me, giving me a pat on the head before closing it behind me.

I sat out on the front lawn, peering up and down the deserted dirt path that led up to the house. Surprisingly, despite my declaration of wanderlust and hunger for adventure, I felt absolutely no urge to try and wander off. Not even considering the reactions of everyone here at the pasture if I just up and left, I knew now that I wasn't really going to be able to handle everything that came along all by myself. Maybe I'll stick around here and practice more until I have confidence I can go on an adventure by myself. Then again, who knows? Going on an adventure with someone else didn't sound as bad anymore.