SNRK

The Ursaring gave off a very uncouth snort and shook awake at the sudden noise, she fought her eyes open and snorted once again before she practically unhinged her jaw to give off a huge yawn. “Mmrg!” She stretched her arms high into the sky and a few loud cracks resounded around her before she suddenly swooped down and snatched up her two sleeping Teddiursa into a large hug with a giddy grin on her face.

Still lounged up against the wall of the walkway of the funnel, she lowered her still sleeping kids back down onto her lap, she had a content look on her face and finally looked up. She looked around, scanning from left to right until her gaze just stopped dead in its tracks, and lingered on Larry and his mother.

Larry covered his mouth dramatically and looked between his mother and the Ursaring, his mother had a sour look on her face, practically sneering at the Ursaring. His excitement at the sight of the outside world for the first time in a long time seemed to have made their situation far more complicated. He tried his best to salvage the situation by greeting Ursaring with another enthusiastic wave, “U-Um, hello!”

“...”

Ursaring held the uncomfortable stare and the atmosphere wasn’t easing in any way, “Uh, we’re not here to fight. Alright? Let’s just-” Larry stopped short at the sight of both of her Teddiursa kids stirring awake, her grip on them tightened immediately.

The Teddiursa on the left rubbed its eyes and spoke up first while beaming up at his mom with a giant smile, “Mmh! Morning mama!”

“Yeah! Morning Mama!” The second Teddiursa parratoed up to its mother as well, while hugging itself to her stomach. She didn’t respond though and held her stare at the two of them, clearly not trusting them.

They quickly noticed her stare and curiously followed her gaze out and over to Larry and his mother. Before Larry could try and de-escalate the situation further, a realization seemed to dawn on one of the two Teddiursa.

“Ah! Little guy!” It pointed enthusiastically, “Mama! That's the little guy, remember?”

Larry was very confused by his new nickname for a short second before he realized the situation and pointed back at the Teddiursa in excitement, “Ah! Yeah, you’re right! You saw me before!”

The little Teddiursa had spotted him briefly during his sneaking adventure down here before, he’d been lucky enough to use Dig in a critical moment and had managed to hide away from the Ursaring before she could spot him. He hadn’t known back then that the second layer's inhabitants were mostly peaceful, forcing him to sneak around most of the second layer.

Teddiursa nodded enthusiastically at Larry before returning to his mom to tell her about him, “Yeah! Little guy ran away when I saw him, so Mama never saw little guy!”

Ursaring didn’t seem to remember, but the situation had cooled off considerably due to the two adorable Teddiursa's sheer childish wonder and cheerfulness, even his mother had gone from an unhappy sneer to a simple grouchy frown.

Finally, their stare-down was broken when the Ursaring mother spoke up for the first time, “You snuck past here?”

“I, uh, didn’t know you guys were friendly.” Larry scratched at his neck with a sheepish smile, “My life up until that point had been mostly spent on the third layer…”

She swapped her sight between Larry and his mother, evaluating the authenticity of his words with a clear distrust. His mother nodded sagely and Ursaring seemed to take her word for now, before a sigh escaped her, “Please leave, I do not know if I can trust you, considering you’re from the third layer.”

Before she could posit her argument any further, the other Teddiursa sibling finally spoke up as it clawed up at her dramatically, “Mooom… Stop being grouchy!”

The other chimed in, “I wanna play with Little Guy!”

“Play with Little Guy!” They yelled in unison.

Their mother seemed flustered at the idea of letting her young play with Larry, looking at the situation in sheer horror, “N-No! We don’t know them! They could be dangerous!”

“But we wanna play with Litte Guy!” They continued, far too in sync.

They continued like that for a little, with Larry and his mother keeping at a distance and watching the Ursaring try to wrangle her two children unsuccessfully. His mother seemed to find a bit of humor in the situation, her grouchy frown had disappeared as she couldn’t hold back a scoff with a grin on her face at the Teddiursas, who were fighting to leave Ursarings grasp.

Larry realized he had a foot in the door to making more friends and gave his mother a look, “I wanna play with the Teddiursa too, Mom!”

His mother understood his intentions luckily and spoke up, smirking, “If Ursaring agrees, sure.”

Ursaring was getting her ears yelled off by her children and looked conflicted at the prospect of giving her children a Larvitar playmate. Larry and his mother watched her have a mental argument with herself as her kids continued becoming progressively louder and louder.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Larry threw her another bone.

“I already know Donpahn and Phanpy!” He yelled over the rising voices of the two Teddiursa while pointing further down the funnel, “If you’re unsure if you can trust me, how about making this a meeting with the two of them?”

Her internal struggle continued for another five seconds before she caved.

“FINE!” Ursaring growled out.

“YAAAY!” The Teddiursa yelled in unison.

…

Introductions were in order. They had finally approached Ursaring and her young and were now exchanging greetings, Larry couldn’t help but find himself eyeing the cavern exit, a world of white stood on the outside and Larry was already feeling the cold by the time they had approached Ursaring.

“I’m Larry and this is my mom!” Larry pointed enthusiastically, “She’s really strong!”

“Hello.” She spoke tersely.

“Nice to meet you.” Ursaring bowed her head, with the two Teddiursa parroting her movement sloppily

“Larry?” One Teddiursa spoke up curiously as it raised itself.

“What’s a Larry?” The other chimed in.

“No, no, Larry is my name, I’m actually a Larvitar and my mom is Tyranitar!” Larry explained.

“Names are rare, who named you?” Ursaring spoke up with a quirk of its brow.

“I named myself,” He spoke confidently, “I think it fits really well!”

…

Their conversation continued amicably, but his mother wasn’t much help, unfortunately. She kept to single-word answers and awkward bouts of silence if Larry didn’t save the conversation. Another surprising thing was, Larry found playing with the Teddiursa siblings to be an absolute blast! They had played multiple rounds of catch around their mothers. His mental age was seemingly influencing his decision-making, but Larry didn’t even care about how much fun he was having.

Yet, his gaze kept lingering on the cave exit and one of the Teddiursa noticed, “Wanna go out there?”

“I want to!” Larry said enthusiastically, “But it's already so cold in here, I’d freeze if I stayed out there for too long!”

The other Teddiursa chimed in, “Let’s go quick! In and out! Or out and in?”

“Let's try!” The three of them asked their mothers really quickly and they agreed easily, considering the cave exit was still nearby and they wouldn’t even be leaving their sight.

Larry passed the threshold of the cave exit and immediately felt a gust of freezing cold wind pass over him. He immediately covered himself with his arms, teeth chattering and shaking like a leaf in the wind he looked over the snowy mountainside before him.

Pine trees peeked out defiantly under huge layers of snow so deep Larry could barely peek over them, the mountainside curved down and he could see the snowy treetops continue for quite a while until they slowly eased to the bottom of the mountain's deep and lush greens came into view.

His breath came out a steamy white and his legs felt like they’d snap off like an icicle simply standing on the icy ground. The Teddiursa siblings stood beside him with happy expressions on their faces and their hands on their hips. They told him excitedly about the amazing things to be found outside, but Larry couldn’t even listen to them he was practically freezing while still standing.

‘Damn Type-Disadvantages! I don’t even have a thick coat of fur!’ He thought to himself as he quickly hopped back inside and snuggled up to his mother while shaking like a leaf. His mother's rock-hard shell was ice-cold as well but before he could begin to complain the two Teddiursa smashed into him with a laugh and Larry felt their thick fur begin to warm him up.

‘Ahh… This is bliss…’ He closed his eyes and ran his arms through the sheer decadence of the two Teddiursa siblings' fur.

“Once you’re ready, we’re going down to Donphan.” Ursaring cut in harshly, clearly jealous of the treatment Larry was getting.

…

With their new acquaintances in tow, Ursaring led the way down the walkway. Larry had stared out at the tunnel leading to freedom, he wanted to walk out there and finally be free of this cavern. But he knew he couldn’t stay out there for any longer amount of time, he was warm-blooded but he’d freeze to death. After his return, they had warmed up and then quickly made their way down to Donphan with Ursaring and her two Teddiursa in tow.

‘Donphans got another cave exit near his home, I’ll take another look outside there, maybe it's warmer down there.’ He thought to himself as he followed their group down. While her children seemed to have absolute faith in Larry, Ursaring still didn’t fully trust them. She had a sour look on her face like she just got suckered into something weird, her children seemed to love the situation though, hopping and running alongside Larry as they talked about absolutely anything.

“Mama says the blue berries are the best! But I love the yellow ones!” One talked enthusiastically.

“Don’t listen to him, the pink ones are great, the red ones are the best though!” The other one cut in.

“Uh, berries sure are tasty…”

‘What color was that awful berry I forced down last time I was down here with Phanpy?’ Larry tried remembering, but it seemed not to have been an important enough memory to him. He picked up a rock from the side of the walkway and chucked it into his mouth, crunching on it harshly. Both Teddiursas stared at him slightly bug-eyed, clearly unsure of his eating habits.

“Woah, does that taste good?” One asked.

“Mmgh! Sure does!” Larry said with a loud swallow.

One of the Teddiursas picked up a rock and eyed it curiously before raising it to its mouth, but before it could bite down Ursaring snatched the rock out its paw and chucked it away into the funnel.

“Don’t.” She said in a slightly exasperated tone.

This far down, the way down the funnel was completely free of any obstructions and their group was able to make their way down easily. The more Larry walked down here, the more it seemed like hell for any trainers trying to make their way into Mt. Silver. It was extremely bright and all of the Pokemon living up here worked together with each other to defend each other. Almost no team of six would be able to continuously defend themselves here. The games sure dumbed down the concept, simply giving all the Pokemon living here higher levels to show off the difficulty of the area.

Larry kept on entertaining the two Teddiursa siblings, playing a simple road trip game he remembered as a human. ‘I Spy’ wasn’t the best game if the answer is always ‘rocks’, but it had to do. His own version of ‘Simon Says’ lovingly called ‘Larry Says’ and finally a quick set of ‘The floor is lava’ when they found a group of large boulders to jump along while following their parents.

When his last game ended and he looked forward, Larry saw a little blue Phanpy walk out of a small cavern outcropping. It looked at his group in shock, before waving enthusiastically.