“Larry!”

“Phanpy!”

Larry practically jumped into Phanpys awaiting trunk and Phanpy caught him like a plush toy, Immediately raising him high above his head. ‘Woah I’m like 150 pounds!’ Larry yelled in his mind as he was dramatically paraded around on top of Phanpy.

“I’m sooo glad you’re ok, Larry!” Phanpy yelled as he spun around with Larry in his grasp, “You gotta tell me all about what happened up there!”

“W-Woah!” Larry was getting dizzy he’d been spun around so much, “Let me down Phanpy! I’ll tell you the whole story if you want!”

The others approached as Larry was finally mercifully let down by Phanpy, he’d been that close to letting out a vomit of gravel over the poor Elephant-Pokemons head. “You also brought so many people along!” Phanpy yelled out as he strolled up to the others, he stopped short in front of Larry's mother, “Hello! You’re Larry's mother, aren’t you?

“I am.” His mother answered with a nod, looking down at Phanpy with clear interest, she seemingly enjoyed his cheerful demeanor.

Before he could get another sentence in though, he was assaulted by two Teddiursa, “Phanpy!” They cried out in unison hugging themselves to the small Pokemon, only to be carried around effortlessly.

“Hehehe!” The two giggled as they were jostled around on top of Phanpy, it spun around trying to throw the two of them off of itself in a play-fight. Phanpy slowly made his way back over to Larry with the two Teddiursa riding him like a horse, considering that he could carry Larry's supposed 150 pounds or so this didn’t even seem to make him break a sweat.

“DAD! Larry's back!” Phanpy yelled in the direction of his cavern home.

Just behind Larry stood a far deeper cave exit, instead of the short cutout that had opened near Ursarings home, a long narrow hole, just tall enough for a Donphan to walk through cut through the wall and out into the snowy exterior of Mt. Silver. Just before the holes on the right side were another two holes, one looked natural and seemed to be some sort of cave-in that had been shoveled free of any loose gravel still inside it and flattened out for anyone wanting to live there. Next to it was a hole which looked to be eaten in the side of the cavern wall, because it was. Larry had eaten Phanpy in his very own room back when he had made his way down here. Out of the larger cavern, Donpahn meandered out slowly, its hard look softened when it saw the Teddiursa siblings and Larry approach.

“And he’s brought friends.” He said with a slight smirk on his face.

“It's good to see you again, Donphan” Ursaring nodded its head at him in greeting.

“You too, come inside.” Donphan nodded back, urging her and the children inside his cavern. Larry was unsure if it was quite big enough for all of them, he looked back at his mother.

“Greetings.” Larry's mother said with a nod, she seemed tense to be meeting another parent so quickly after meeting Ursaring.

Donpahn didn’t return a nod to his mother and looked at her with an evaluating gaze, “So you’re the ruler.”

“I have been called that name before.” His mother nodded and Larry was immediately confused.

“You do know your behavior has put the entirety of the mountain at stake, don’t you?” Donphan asked pointedly in a relaxed tone, he now stood defensively between the others and his mother, clearly untrusting of her.

She nodded, “I do.” His mother hadn’t meant to destroy the mountain, Larry knew that, it was simply her nature to rampage and destroy. Tyranitar, in any media of the Pokemon franchise, was always known as violent and evil beings of destruction and Larry was under no impression that his mother had a longer fuse than the average Tyranitar.

“Donphan,” Larry began cautiously, “my mother didn’t have control of her emotions, she never meant to put the mountain in danger…”

“And yet she did,” Donpahn followed up by turning his eye onto Larry, before turning back to his mother, “What do you have to say for yourself?”

All eyes were on her now, even the two Teddiursa siblings had taken the hint and quieted down, she looked over them with a slightly anxious frown, before regaining her confidence.

“I am sorry for losing my composure,” She bowed her head low, “It is unbecoming to put my subjects in so much danger.”

‘That is the worst apology I ever heard!’ Larry yelled in his mind, he knew his mother's social skills were lacking… ‘But calling people you JUST MET your subjects like some queen going down into town for sightseeing?!’

Dust billowed away from Donphan as he snorted in amusement, “Your subjects…”

His mother seemed to be watching for his reaction and Larry hopped forward to intercept, he hopped between the two with outstretched arms, “Donphan! My mother might not be the best at interacting with others, but she is lovely if you get to know her!”

“She is a Tyranitar, child.” Donphan chortled, “She would’ve already taken out the entire second layer if my slight had angered her in any way.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Wha..?” Larry drawled out.

“You are forgiven, for now. Come inside, we’ll make room if we have to.”

…

The atmosphere inside the cavern was confusing, to say the least.

On one side sat the queen of Mt. Silver, Larry hadn’t even known but according to Donpahn and Ursaring, his mother was the ruler of the mountain. She wasn’t quite a queen, as she didn’t exactly rule, but it seemed anyone who had lived on the mountain for some time knew about the big scary Tyranitar at the top which owned the place.

“And you kept this a secret from me?!” Larry yelled out in surprise at the gathering.

“I thought you deserve to find out from your own mother if you hadn’t known,” Donphan spoke wisely.

“It never came up.” His mom followed up nonchalantly.

“I didn’t know!” Phanpy said in a surprised tone himself as looked between Larry, his mother, and his father.

Larry turned to the rest of the group, the Teddiursas looked just as surprised at the notion of sitting in front of the ruler of the mountain, looking at her in awe and at Larry with newfound reverence. Ursaring and Donphan seemed to be the only ones who kept the fact to themselves, although to them his mother wasn’t so much a ruler as she was a rowdy upstairs neighbor who kept threatening to blow up the entire apartment complex.

Ursaring’s behavior from before made much more sense now to Larry, if your crazy neighbor suddenly stood in front of you in your home he’d pull his kids in close as well. Ursaring certainly wasn’t as overtaken by the idea of his mother being a powerful ruler as Donphan was and seemed to simply see her as the strongest of the wild beasts from the third layer.

“It certainly isn’t a thing known throughout the entire mountain,” Donphan nodded wistfully, “Knowledge like this spreads through communities. And places like the first or third layer are the antithesis of community.”

His mom nodded thoughtfully with closed eyes and crossed arms, “It has been a while since I’ve been called that name.”

So, his mother was a feared creature throughout the entire mountain, so much so that smaller communities of Pokemon inside the mountain have taken to calling her the Queen or Ruler of the mountain. His mother herself had only heard of it through word of mouth or challengers coming to take her seat from her, yet she’s never deigned to inform her son of the fact.

“You gotta tell me these things, Mom!” Larry chided, uselessly smacking his arms into her side in anger.

“S-Sorry…” His mother ground out abashedly.

“It's great to know your mom is such a cool person though, you’re a prince Larry!” Phanpy tried to cheer Larry up.

“A prince!” Larry thought with stars in his eyes.

“She has more blood on her hands than almost anybody else on this mountain.” Donphan said matter of factly and the room's temperature dropped immediately, yet he simply continued, “You do not become feared through an entire mountain of Pokemon through ‘coolness’.”

Phanpy immediately crouched down, “W-Why bring her into our home then?!”

The room quieted down, as everyone awaited Donphans answer.

Donphan puffed out another breath before addressing her, “Tyranitar,” then bowed low, “Please, save this mountain from calamity.”

…

“Wha…” Larry uttered again, he felt like the plot had been entirely lost at this point from finding out he was royalty, to saving the world?!

Everyone looked at Donphan to explain, except for Ursaring who simply shared his hard look, Larry recovered the quickest though and asked the question on everyone's mind, “The mountain is in danger?”

Donphan nodded before explaining, “Have you noticed how warm it has been inside these caverns as of recently?”

Larry had indeed noticed at points how strangely warm it was inside the caves. When his mother's old home had been snowed in by an avalanche and frozen over, he had immediately noticed how further away from her home the caverns heated back up to a comfortable temperature and the caverns never seemed to turn icy cold even though the entire outside of Mt. Silver was covered in a perpetual snowfall.

Watering holes he’d found were always liquid and never frozen and even though Larry wasn’t smart enough to know how cave systems stayed warm in his normal life, they must never have been this warm. Phanpy spoke up before him, “It has been warmer in the caverns, but that isn’t bad is it?”

“Right now it is a nice and comfortable warmth for the cavern inhabitants,” Ursaring spoke up nodding. Donpahn continued her sentence, “But what if this continues? We don’t even know what is causing it.” The Teddiursas looked up at their mother with a slight bit of fear in their eyes, and she curled them deeper into her arms, snuggling them against her chest.

“It only started happening this fall,” Donphan explained, “With us now reaching spring, the heat which has been increasing through winter will be unbearable by the time summer comes around.”

“And you want me to…?” Larry's mother asked Donphan.

“Find out what is causing this heat and how to stop it,” Donphan continued, patting Phanpys head with his trunk absentmindedly.

“Why would I do that?” His mother asked, slightly distrustful of the two.

“Else we might not be able to call this mountain our home soon,” Donphan argued dryly.

A stare-down between the two ensued, Tyranitar trying to gauge the authenticity of the claims without any evidence. All the children in the hideout stayed quiet, seeing how tense the atmosphere between their parents was. Larry for his part was surprised at the notion that Mt. Silver was in any sort of danger, as he couldn’t remember that being the case in any part of Pokemon media.

Mt. Silver was dangerous, sure, but this wasn’t like Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh where actual real gods of space and time could be summoned. ‘What could the reason be for Mt. Silver to be getting hot?’ He thought to himself. Global warming? No, the outside of Mt. Silver wouldn’t still be snowed over. Team Rocket? They never went near Mt. Silver, at least according to Larry's spotty memory.

He also couldn’t fathom something insane like Mt. Silver actually being a volcano. ‘A Pokemon then, but what Pokemon was both native to Indigo and powerful enough to heat up an entire mountain?’ There weren’t my fire types in the early generations…

Before Larry came to any conclusion his mother spoke up with a huff, “I see no reason to help you.”

“I see…” Donpahn ground out dejectedly, “We will be forced to leave then…” The atmosphere in the hideout cratered even worse than before and Larry felt a pull to heighten the mood.

“C’mon, mom!” Larry spoke up grabbing at her, “We’re already going down, why don’t we simply keep an eye out for anything weird?”

His mother hemmed and hawed as Larry looked up at her with puppy-dog-eyes, “You said you wouldn’t leave Mt. Silver once you escorted me down, you could walk up and report back after you brought me down and we looked around!” Everyone else in the room looked at the mother-son duo with bated breath as Tyranitar evaluated her choices.

“Fine, but don’t expect much…” She nodded resolutely and the room lit up with smiles.