Donphan had given Larry some time for himself, to get his mind back in order. After realizing he’d been the catalyst for the impending destruction of Mt. Silver at his mom's hands, he had almost panicked a bit too much. ‘I mean isn’t this basically the plot of Star Wars? No, wait. Vader didn’t destroy Alderaan because he was angry, he couldn’t meet Luke, that was more like a show of force, wasn’t it?’

They had served him some berries they had scavenged from the snowy outside. Unfortunately for Larry, they tasted terrible, pulpy, and soft with a terrible, almost sickeningly sweet taste to them, it made him almost throw up. Considering he loved brown hard water that he’d sucked out of a puddle, it was safe to say his tastebuds simply weren’t made for them.

After the disappointing meal, he’d eaten Donphan a new room, literally. He asked Donphan if he wanted to give his son his own personal room and then ate Phanpy a new room into existence.

When his hunger was finally sated, he rested himself and took a nap to calm down. Luckily, no new roars emerged from up in the cave and Larry felt himself slowly fall asleep.

...

It was a new day, and it was time to meet his maker, more literally than Larry hoped to, but he was going to go back to the third floor and calm down his mother. He still didn’t know what to expect from a Pokémon that had ‘Tyrant’ in its name, but even Larry knew no mother would harm her child, especially in the Pokémon world.

He sat in Donphan's home and planned out his route in his head, ‘The worst part about going up there will be actually making my way up, luckily, I now know that a lot of the Pokémon on the second level with enough intelligence to communicate with each other have an agreement to not harm each other.’

Larry saw with his own eyes that down here there are just far too many Pokémon for them to survive otherwise. The third level didn’t have such an agreement, forcing almost all Pokémon into hiding.

According to Phanpy, the first level is not outright peaceful, but the amount and experience of the Pokemon down there is so low that most don’t fight one another.

RROOOAAAR

The entire cave shook with the roar of his mother as Larry flinched back into himself, ‘Eep! Again, leave it to me to just straight up run away from my own mom before ever meeting her.’

A normal Larvitar might’ve dug itself up, cried out like any other baby to alert its mom, and then just consumed obscene amounts of stone, but because Larry didn’t have the mental capacity of a baby, he acted just like any person would if they were reborn.

He freaked out, panicked, and walked around aimlessly until somebody showed him the ropes. A familiar face came back to Larry's mind, ‘I hope Dwebble and his family are alright... They are stuck up there with my mom, aren’t they?’

‘...If I can fix this mess, I should get going, before my mom does any more damage to Mt. Silver.’

Larry finally sat up and walked over to Donphan and Phanpy, “I’ll start my journey back up Mt. Silver, if my presence is the only thing that can fix this I’ll go back up to the third floor.”

Donphan nodded at him wisely, “A good choice, I know the way up will be hard, but it will give you strength and give you valuable experience.” It looked over Phanpy and stroked its head lovingly, “Maybe your mother will also be able to teach you a thing or two when you finally meet with her.”

Larry wanted to answer, but was tackled by Phanpy before he could, “I hope you’ll love your mom as much as I love my dad! Family is important, Larry! If you ever make your way down the cavern again, then come by and we’ll share some berries with you or something!”

He reciprocated Phanpy’s hug with his short arms before quickly hiding away a grimace at the mention of more berries, “Oh, I’ll miss you Phanpy, you’re so nice! I’ll try my hardest to get along with my mom and calm her down.”

And like that, Larry left the Donphan hideout behind, waving back at both Phanpy and Donphan behind him. Looking up, he could see the entrance he’d taken to get to the second level, and he knew how long it’d taken to make his way down here.

First, he’d have to get by the Ursaring, then the Graveler, then the Golduck, and finally past the Machoke. With him not needing to sneak it was bound to be far easier. ‘Still, that was a damn long walk, at least I’m not as hungry right now thanks to Phanpy and Donphan.’

He kept his feet moving as he thought, but before he could even meet any of the inhabitants of the second level and introduce himself, he heard a giant noise emanating from above him.

BOOM

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The Onix he’d seen take on the Machoke before was back, it broke through one of the walls on his level and looked around, scanning the area for anything of note. Its eyes fell on Larry, and he felt himself stiffen before it continued on like he wasn’t even worth considering, ‘Jeez, almost felt my heart jump out of my chest there...’

Larry kept a safe distance, Donphan had mentioned that while most Pokémon were intelligent enough to respect the agreement between the Pokémon of the second level, not everyone was as smart as everyone else and Rock-Types were some of the dumbest of the bunch. Literally, dumb as rocks.

Before long the Onix turned back and jumped back into the wall of the funnel-like it was water, he heard the loud rumblings of stone being displaced by the sheer mass of the Onix before it appeared an entire level higher up and curled up in a nest that had been built there, probably it’s own.

An idea flashed through Larry’s mind, ‘That was Dig wasn’t it? Considering I’ve got Dig now as well maybe I can do the same, walking all the way up would be such a hassle.’

He focused Ground TE into his arms and mouth once more and dug himself into the wall right next to him, he couldn’t see a thing like this but his instincts told him where was up and down so simply began digging up.

His insatiable hunger was quite a boon in a situation like this, considering that his method of using Dig required him to eat part of the rock. A normal Pokémon might’ve found themselves full and sated by the third swipe of their arm as they dug through the earth, but Larry didn’t feel sated or full, ever.

Digging up wasn’t quite as hard as one might expect as Larry could simply step upwards, it was more akin to climbing a ladder that supported your whole body than actually swimming upwards in rock.

There was no way for Larry to know how far he’d gone while underground, which meant there was also no way to know what was in front of him at all times, he had basic senses, but he could dig himself straight into a vein of water and drown to death if he was unlucky.

When Larry finally began to feel the burn of constantly digging upwards he decided to check how far along he’d come by sticking his head back outside of the rock face and checking.

Larry dug his head out of the rock face and found he had made it pretty far, he’d gone far above the Onix which was resting in its nest, sleeping peacefully.

‘This is amazing! I regret not doing this before! You can get through a cave so much quicker if you simply dig your way through it instead of taking the routes made by people!’ It sounded obvious now that he’d said it, but it showed just how much of an advantage you would have in a cave if you didn’t think in a human way.

To Pokémon like the Ursaring, Golduck, and Machoke he’d seen before, Mt. Silvers caves were nothing more than a home and hideout from the harsh cold of the upper levels of Mt. Silvers outside. They didn’t live inside the cave, they lived on Mt. Silver, because they were just as much outside of the caves as they were inside.

Pokémon like Gravaler, Onix, and in a lesser case Larvitar were born around concepts like caves and lived in them not out of practicality but necessity. They ate stone and while they would survive on other diets, it sure wasn’t as easy.

Continuing his dig upwards Larry peeked out occasionally or took a break at one of the closest platforms he could rest at, though he actually felt better resting inside the wall itself. He didn’t think about the implications of that, but it was far more comfortable inside the wall than outside of it, for some odd reason.

‘Larvitar really are rugged, I never really needed to drink water, can eat any old stone to sate myself, and am made partially of rock. Yet at the same time, I’m so fragile I should stay underground and only eat until I evolve into a literal pupa.’ It was a real contradiction to Larry.

This was the most comfortable he’d been in his entire second life, simply enveloped by the rock on all sides deep underground. A quick jab came to him, ‘Heh, guess my new and old self aren’t so different right now, we’re both six feet under!’

Larry shook himself off, once again putting his previous life back into the recesses of his mind. That time is over, it sure helps him when it comes to this world, but he sure didn’t want to think about all the people he’d left over there without any answers.

‘Just keep digging Larry, don’t go disappointing a second mom of yours...’ He thought to himself as he kept up his dig upwards.

As Larry continued his way up, the stone slowly but surely changed, from hard rock he’d have to bite off to gravel which practically fell into his mouth. Surprisingly the taste was different, Larry loved it, but the hard stone was savory, with pebbles being far sweeter.

He dug through multiple different minerals that were stuck in the walls, at one point even biting straight into a salt deposit, instead of immediately recoiling like any human if they’d eat an entire mouthful of salt, he simply tasted a light saltiness which soon disappeared into his peerless stomach.

Checking the outside once more, he realized he was almost at the top of the funnel. He hadn’t even slept like last time, meaning he had made the trip in far less time and with far less heart-pounding sneaking action than last time.

The Machoke could be seen from his position as it lounged on one of the rocks down below, the Golduck was washing itself in its small water basin a bit lower and the Graveler couldn’t be seen deep in their cavern, meanwhile, the Ursaring was out completely and Onix was still sleeping in its nest.

‘This place really is far too peaceful, why did Dwebble say his mom had to fight her way through here?’ It felt like a mystery to him how or why Dwebble was here in Mt. Silver in the first place, now that he thought of it. The only Pokémon he’d seen were Pokémon which he could guess were native to the cavern in the games, so why was a random family of Dwebble also here?

He’d ask him once he finally found him again on the third floor. He still needed to save him from his mom.

‘That was almost too easy, Dig is a cave dweller's best friend!’ Larry complimented his move pool, ‘Once were finally back up there, it's time to find my mom on the third floor, calm her down and hope she’ll let me make the return trip down again.’

‘And if she doesn’t, guess I’ll stay with her for some time. I really do not like these caves, but I also know it's not a good idea to have them destroyed by a Tyranitar if she throws another tantrum.’

His new life had looked so bright, but the prospect of his mom bearing down took a lot of the shine out of it. ‘Let's just hope she's a good mom...’ Larry thought to himself as he began digging his way over to the walkway leading up to the third level.