Alula bumped into Pascal's blue level-like tail and wondered why he had stopped moving. She saw Pascal swivel his head over in the direction that the creepy Hypno was looking, and she followed suit. A bush at the edge of the forest rustled audibly, and Alula stared wide-eyed at the biggest cupcake she had ever seen. Zelene had fed her sweets before, so she knew what dessert was. She had never seen a dessert quite like this one, and it was topped with red berries. Her feathered tummy rumbled at the sight of it, and that was all it took to decide her. If she didn't get to the food first, the creepy Hypno might eat it on her. She was so food focused that she didn't even stop to think about why the food was moving on its own. She charged through the grass towards the dessert, and the dessert stopped moving. She opened her beak and brought it down on top of the dessert, and it was worth it. The taste was better than any treat Zelene had ever given her. She hadn't attacked but tried to eat, but the dessert didn't appreciate the attempt and started to sparkle with a dazzling pink light. Alula didn't know the meaning of it but she didn't feel threatened. Pascal flashed lights all the time and they never hurt her.
Evzen knew what it meant, even though the Ducklett didn't seem to realize the danger she was in. He jogged towards the Ducklett and plucked her away from the wild pokemon before the Ducklett had a chance to protest. He was decently fast but not quite quick enough to get clear of the impact from the Alcremie's
Dazzling Gleam attack. The impact was forceful enough to knock the Hypno clean off his feet and sent him sprawling, and he watched as Alula tumbled free of his grasp into the grass in front of him. He had managed to save Alula from the attack but he had taken the damage. He grabbed a fistful of grass as he used his hands to push himself back onto his feet. It was going to take more than one attack to put him out of commission, and he had no intention of allowing the attack to go unanswered. It was Alula's fault but the Ducklett was young and clearly hadn't known any better. He took up a defensive stance in front of the frazzled Ducklett, who had just gotten up shortly after he had. He shot a stern look over his shoulder, which was his way of warning her not to approach the Alcremie again.
Zelene had been confused when what had appeared to be a swirled cake or a cupcake had walked out of the bushes. It took a few seconds but she recognized it for what it was, an Alcremie. She had seen them in online articles but never in person. Of course, Alula had to have been one of the first ones to spot this one. The growing Ducklett had a healthy appetite that nothing ever seemed to fill. Just their luck that the Ducklett had provoked the Alcremie. She regretted not having fed Alula a bit more before they had left Rustboro, but it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway. When the Alcremie started to glow, Zelene had opened her mouth to call for Pascal to get the Ducklett away from the wild pokemon, but Evzen had been quicker to act. She couldn't see anything for a moment due to the bright pink flash that left her blinking rapidly for a moment. She was extremely worried and ran over to check on her pokemon, and gave a sigh of relief when she saw that both Evzen and Alula were okay, though Evzen looked scuffed up and had grass stains across his knees and elbows. Pascal hadn't been close enough to be affected, so she wasn't worried about him as much.
"Thank you Evzen for protecting Alula. That was quick thinking," she praised him before she turned her gaze upon the angry Alcremie. There really seemed to only be two options. Fight or try to deescalate the situation. Zelene decided to go with the latter, though the former was still an option if she couldn't do it. She put her hands back in an open-palmed placating gesture,
"I'm very sorry about what happened. Alula is young and didn't understand you weren't food. It's all just a big misunderstanding. I don't blame you for being upset, but I'll do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again," Zelene told the Alcremie in an apologetic tone. She took a risk and walked over to pick up Alula, who had been darting alarmed looks back and forth between the Alcremie and Evzen. She thought the Ducklett would protest, but the usually energetic Ducklett didn't put up a fuss. Zelene looked over sharply at Evzen and then Pascal,
"Back up a bit please. We should be okay but don't go too far." She had asked them to back off in the hopes it would de-escalate the situation.
The wild Alcremie gave a little sigh of relief when the trainer called off the Hypno. She was certain she could take on one or two of the trainer's pokemon but not all three. She was no stranger to being mistaken for food. It didn't matter whether it was wild pokemon, tamed pokemon, or humans; the mistake happened so often that she was getting sick of it. She was highly annoyed but no real harm had been done, other than missing a little cream and it was no big loss. Her body would produce more to replace it. The human did seem sincere, or she wouldn't have risked walking within range of her attacks. She had also called off the two more threatening pokemon, but the Alcremie didn't fail to notice that they were still nearby. The Alcremie decided to give the human the benefit of the doubt and didn't attack further, though she fully intended to defend herself if the trainer's pokemon got any funny ideas.
"Crem crem," she replied to the human, which was her way of saying it's okay.
Zelene wasn't sure what the pokemon had said, but given the fact that the Alcremie hadn't attacked them again, she took it as a good sign. Suddenly Alula started to squirm in her arms, and it seemed like she wanted down. She was hesitant to set the Ducklett down, given their close proximity to the Alcremie.
"Okay Alula I'll put you down, but please don't try to eat the Alcremie again. Stay right next to me and Evzen," she instructed the Ducklett before setting the pokemon down on the ground by her feet. She then looked back at the Alcremie with a slight smile,
"Thank you for understanding, at least you seem to. I think I know a way to fix this. Alula here is hungry as you found out the hard way, and you might be too I'm guessing. Why don't I break out some food for you two? I have a small bag of it in my backpack. It's a premium mixed berry blend."Alula was feeling odd after having eaten the cream. She felt kinda groggy, but she didn't like being held or constrained for too long. It was a relief when her trainer set her back down. She did as she was asked and stayed close to Zelene, though she wanted to go back to Pascal. The Porygon2 seemed to be studying the Alcremie intently from a distance. The Ducklett perked up when Zelene mentioned food. She was so very hungry and the time since they had left the hotel at Rustboro seemed ages ago to her. However, she was not too keen on sharing it with the wild pokemon that had attacked her. The Alcremie still looked like food and it was making her even hungrier. Enough so that she tugged on the edge of Zelene's pantleg with one of her wings.
The Alcremie wasn't sure she wanted to accept food from the human, but there wasn't a lot of food around, and she didn't count. A large flock of Spritzee had passed through the area earlier and cleaned out most of the berries, even the unripened ones. She knew she could find some in the forest but there were lots of other pokemon in there too. It was a matter of luck if she could find any before they did, and she wasn't the fastest, and couldn't fly. Maybe trying the human's pokemon food might not be a bad idea. She had tried store-bought pokemon food a couple times before, usually dropped by carelessly by humans or their tamed pokemon.
"Crem mi," she exclaimed in an attempt to indicate her agreement of the trainer's offer of food.
Zelene unslung her backpack and placed it in front of her, not too far from the Ducklett by her feet. She had to be careful not to trip over Alula while she set it down. She unzipped the largest compartment and pulled out one small bag of pokemon food, which was followed in quick succession by two small plastic bowls. She knelt down beside Alula and opened up the bag, before scooping out a couple of handfuls of pokemon food into each bowl. With that done, she rolled up the edge of the bag of food to close it and put it back into the backpack. She was just zipping up the compartment when her lap was showered with a few stray pieces of pokemon food...Alula had dived right into her bowl beak-first. She pushed the other bowl out towards the Alcremie but kept it at arm's length.
"There you go. I'd recommend eating it quickly though. It's really hard to keep Alula away from food for long. She doesn't quite get the concept of sharing yet," Zelene commented with an awkward chuckle. She could put Alula back in her pokeball, but that wouldn't really be fair to the Ducklett since she was still learning.
The Alcremie graciously accepted her bowl, though she was skeptical. It had been a while since she'd last had it, and the did not look very appetizing. Just brown pellets with flecks of orange and yellow. She picked up a piece of pokemon food with her stubby fingers and ate it in two delicate small bites. She was surprised, it was actually better than she had thought it would be. It wasn't as good as a nice pecha berry or or leppa berry, but it had a rather tart flavor that she liked. She helped herself to a second piece and then a third, and she was mid-way through a fourth piece when suddenly the Ducklett's beak loomed over her bowl. Luckily for her, Zelene had expected as much and put her hand between the Ducklett and the bowl. The Alcremie looked over the Ducklett's bowl and was astonished to see it was already empty. She was no longer sure if it was really a Ducklett or a munchlax with how quickly the Ducklett was able to clean out the bowl. She took one more piece of pokemon food from the bowl but found it hard to eat with Alula staring longingly at it. Suddenly a red light enveloped the Ducklett and the bratty child was gone.
"Sorry Alula. I warned you to behave," Zelene muttered to the pokeball she had in her hand. She hadn't wanted to do it, but Alula needed to learn better manners or it would only cause a lot of problems in the future. The trainer then turned her head to look over at the Alcremie.
"Feel free to eat your food in peace. Alula can wait until you're done. I'll let her back out after. She's on a time-out for now. While you're eating, I have a proposition for you. Would you consider joining my team? I imagine you have all kinds of wild pokemon chasing you around out here. You wouldn't have to worry about that with us. Alula being the exception, but I'll do my best to teach her to leave you alone. You don't have to answer now. Please just give it some thought."The Alcremie was surprised that the trainer would go as far as to recall the Ducklett, but the reprieve was a welcome relief. She decided she would honor the trainer's request and think about it. She wasn't a quick eater like the Ducklett. She ate in small bites and it usually took her two per piece of pokemon food, so it was going to be a little while. After about fifteen minutes, the Alcremie finished the contents of her bowl. The human had made a good point about being chased around. She was right that it did happen far too often. However, she wasn't sure it would be much better with the Ducklett around. However, the human proved how serious she had been by recalling the Ducklett when Alula was going to try to steal her food. Finally she stood up and brushed off a few crumbs that had gotten around the corners of her mouth. She then bobbed her head at the human.
"Al mi," she told the human, which was her way of indicating that she cautiously accepted.
Zelene wasn't sure what the Alcremie said but the head bobbing was clear enough. She took out an empty pokeball from her backpack and smiled at the Alcremie.
"Thank you for hearing me out. I'm sure you'll get along great with the others once you get to know them. You made a great choice," Zelene assured her moments before she tossed the pokeball. She could tell the Alcremie was still a little hesitant butF she did disappear into the pokeball in a bright red flash. Whether she would choose to stay in there was another matter as the pokeball rocked back and forth in the grass. The Alcremie wasn't at all injured and could very well change her mind if she wanted to.