Larry was awakened by something he hadn’t known he’d been missing. After Phanpy shook both him and the Teddiursas awake, he was pushed out of the bed of leaves and forced to stand up.

He forced out a long yawn as he walked out of Phanpys small bedroom cavern, “Yawn… What’s got you so worked up?”

“Check it out!” Phanpy turned to him dramatically and pointed out the cave exit using its trunk, “Betcha’ haven’t seen this!”

If it weren’t for his reincarnation, Phanpy would’ve been correct. He turned around and what stared back at him was something that had been absolutely mundane in his past life, but was a magical sight in his new life. The morning sun shone into the cave next to Donphans home, giving off a harsh reddish-orange glow. Larry almost couldn’t believe his eyes as he stared out of the exit, his eyes transfixed, he stumbled over and into the low and long tunnel and out to the cold outside.

Phanpy walked next to him up in the tunnel, there was enough space for the two of them considering that his father normally used it. Yet it was still far tighter than the wide-open exit next to the place Ursarings home. Phanpy made himself helpful and gave Larry some trivia he would have needed if it wasn’t for being reincarnated.

“That’s the sun, it turns around the world outside of caves! It lights up the entire world for half a day!” Phanpy explained excitedly.

Larry wondered how he would’ve reacted to this knowledge if he weren’t reincarnated. “Wow…” he feigned, “That’s so cool…”

When he’d first come to this world and looked over the entirety of Mt. Silver with Dwebble, it had been an overcast day with a literal snowstorm raging over the top of Mt. Silver, as it normally did. On his second time recently, next to Ursarings home, he’d gazed over the outside during another overcast day, there was no snowstorm as there had been on the tip of Mt. Silver, but it certainly was still snowing and so it was barely brighter outside than inside the caverns. The air around him grew even colder, the snowfall seemed to have completely stopped as no freezing winds were beating across his body as he advanced down the tunnel, yet the cold still stung all the same.

‘I really haven’t ever seen the sun during this life, have I?’, Larry mused to himself as he finally reached the end of the tunnel. He had to turn himself to the side and shield one of his eyes using his stubby arms to even be able to open them. Being in utter darkness for the last who knows how many days certainly forced his eyes to adjust. Slowly, he lowered his arm while squinting.

“Wow.” This one wasn’t feigned, but a truly awestruck reaction as his eyes finally adjusted and he saw the full view splay out before him.

The sky, a canvas of colors he’d missed for a long time, a reddish-orange slowly melting into a soft pink and over in the light blues of the atmosphere stretched on endlessly above him. Clean and crisp winter air bit at him, the freezing cold was already fearing to freeze off his extremities. The sun, shining a white gold peeked over the distant horizon forcing the trees of Mt. Silver to cast long and harsh shadows against the mountain.

The sight of the spear-like, white pine trees dominated his view as far as his eyes could see. A pristine and untouched blanket of snow covered all the trees and everything else on the mountain. Further away, the green treetops of the Indigo region could be seen. It was a sight of breathtaking beauty, a stark contrast to the dull brown and grey views of his cavern life until now.

Larry took a deep breath and exhaled a frosty and steamy breath that flowed out and upwards into the sky. An entire world of Pokemon awaited him down there, the thought alone invigorated Larry to no end. Just what exactly awaited him further down the mountain? What was the Pokemon world like outside of the games and anime?

A cheeky grin spread across his face, ‘Whatever it is, I’m ready for it.’

Taking another hesitant step forward, his foot finally met snow. Immediately, a sting shot up his foot and into his leg and he jumped back with a hiss, before focusing his view on the outside. It seemed his body wasn’t built for this icy environment, it was like holding your hand in a boiling pot of water.

Now that he saw this view for what it was, he could see this wasn’t just a beautiful picture, it was a living world. On a tree a few hundred feet below him, the snow on one of its branches was shaken off energetically. Below the layer of ice, a Caterpie continued his energetic shaking until it was completely free of snow.

In another corner of his view, a Pidgeotto swooped out of the snowy blanket of a tree and took to the skies, joining another group of Pidgeotto in the sky until they left his view further down the mountain.

“Everyone's waking up!” One of the Teddiursas said excitedly.

“Yeah, it's morning!” Phanpy nodded thoughtfully. He turned to Larry, “Larry, morning is when the sun comes up and lights up the world! The Pokemon out here don’t have good vision in the dark, so they sleep when it's dark and live when it's light out.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Larry nodded, “I see.” He didn’t quite need the explanation, but it felt happy that Phanpy cared enough to try and explain. The view simply made Larry want to explore, but his body wasn’t made for the cold and even his lungs were beginning to feel the sting of the cold.

“This really is beautiful…” Larry said out loud more to himself than any of the others.

“Yeah…” Phanpy answered back anyway.

Another shiver wracked his body as his body finally started to feel the cold, Larry grabbed at himself and rubbed at his skin helplessly. “T-This weather really isn’t that nice though” He ground out with chattering teeth.

“We’ll help!” Before he could complain anymore though, both Teddiursa crashed into him on each side as each one pulled him into a double bear hug, their soft and plush fur instantly fighting against the biting cold. He reciprocated the hug more out of necessity but certainly didn’t mind if he got to grab at the two literal Teddybears.

“T-T-Thank you guys!” Larry stuttered out.

“Let's get back in before we freeze our butts off!” Phanpy spoke as he pointed back into the cave using its trunk, even he was feeling the weather by now, so he took the lead in walking back inside. Larry followed with the Teddiursas still glued onto his sides.

It seemed that if he wanted to leave Mt. Silver, there really was no other option but the first layer. Larry had always taken Type Disadvantages as something more small-scale. When you’re getting impaled by an icicle, it might be useful to be a Fire Type, but the mere fact that he felt he was dying because he was in freezing temperatures made him feel far more vulnerable than he expected.

What was all his fighting prowess for if something like a slight drizzle could put him out of commission? And how did that even work with the water he’d drunk before? Was the Type-Energy actually doing the damage and not the water itself? Then why was this icy landscape doing such a number on him?

“There’s some rude Pokemon out there making snowstorms, so we haven’t been going out much through winter,” One of the Teddiursas said. The other spoke up in turn, “Yeah, Mom said she hasn’t seen it yet, but that she’d beat it up if it tired something!”

“Is that so…” Larry wasn’t shocked to hear that there, at least a few Ice-Types came to mind who could achieve feats like that. It did give him an answer to the question though, it must be Type-Energy.

His mother was most definitely a beast in a hands-on fight, but if he ever came up on a Pokemon using weather strategies to mess with him. There was no convenient flee button here like in a game and if he ever got stuck in something like a snowstorm that he was unable to blast away with a competing sandstorm he might be done for.

…

“The sunrise was breathtaking. Thank you for showing me, Phanpy.” Larry said with a bow as he and his mother stood across from Donphan, Ursaring, and their children. “Thank you to you two as well,” Larry added as he bowed to the two Teddiursa.

“Thank you.” His mother ground out, not daring to make eye contact with the two other parents, she hadn’t quite fit in down here in the second layer, being far more comfortable in the ‘eat or be eaten’ environment of the third layer, but she had made an effort. Larry had noticed that both Donphan and Ursaring had tried to make her feel as welcome as possible as well if it was due to fear of retribution if they didn’t or genuine neighborly friendliness, he didn’t dare ask, but it also wouldn’t matter.

“We hope you have a great time in the first layer and that you find some conclusive to our problem,” Donphan said with a small hint of a smile on his face. Ursaring was petting both of her children on their heads lovingly as she turned to Larry's mom with a smile of her own, “You take good care of Larry. I wish you good luck in your journey.”

She only nodded tensely in response, the responsibility of parenthood still weighing on her somewhat.

“Goodbye!” The two of them turned and got on their way. Larry walked backward for a short time, simply waving back at the friends he’d have to come back to sometime in the future.

The funnel of the second layer was still a long way down, but luckily because the funnel's walkway slowly curves inwards like a spiral, the way downwards is logically supposed to be shorter. Larry also noticed that there were a few weaker families of Pokemon living down below Donpahn and Phanpy. A pair of Sneasel sat inside a cave outcropping next to another far smaller cave exit even Larry would be forced to crawl through.

Larry waved to them as he spoke in a lighthearted tone, “Hello!”

Both Sneasel whirled their heads over to them when they heard his greeting, their eyes bulging out of their heads when they actually realized who was walking by. His mother inclined her head too, and both Sneasel reluctantly began to raise their hands in greeting. They were making good headway, so they didn’t stop to chat, the Sneasel both seemed relieved at the fact.

‘Huh? What’s that noise?’ As Larry and his mother went another few rounds down the funnel, the noise of sleigh bells became audible in the distance. At first, Larry feared this was some sort of human occurrence, but as they came closer Larry saw what the cause of the noise was.

A group of five Chinglings hopped along up the funnel in a single file, each one of their hops giving off the same sound as a sleigh bell. Larry had raised a hand in greeting, but they seemed deathly serious during their walk, not even bothering to look at them as they passed. Their rhythmic jumps echoed out behind them as they kept advancing upwards.

“Weird…” Larry muttered out when they finally couldn’t hear them anymore. They had kept walking, but a snort behind him from his mother made him turn his head.

“Snrk… Th- They looked so serious…” She was biting back laughter.

Larry almost couldn’t believe his eyes, he hadn’t ever seen his mother really truly laugh! Sure, he’d seen her scoff or smile in derision at others, but not in simple joy. He jumped at the opportunity, hopping up and in her arms with a grin on his face.

His mother couldn’t hold in her laughter anymore and broke out into a loud laugh, Larry followed suit and the two of them had a joyful time as they finally made their way out of the second layer and into the first.