nina refocused on her book, but mudkip was in the mood to play. when nina shied away, the little axolotl skipped off behind her to investigate a slurpuff that had been following a few meters off.

a WATER GUN shot from its mouth to hit the fae between its pink jellybean eyes. 'kip!'

nina kept walking, blissfully unaware and looking out towards the horizon.

passing

the slurpuff sputtered, lolling tongue flinging spittle as it turned to retreat towards another stretch of dryer sand. mudkip puffed its chest triumphantly before spotting another victim—this one further ahead nina, who had also seen it.

as an earbud came out, and she paused the audiobook on her phone, her small watery friend was already on its way in bounds.

”no!”

nina knew well how important it was to tip-toe around a togepi one intended to catch. if it didn’t like you, that was bad luck for like… forever.

she lunged, tackling her mudkip in the sand to keep it from attacking. it writhed defiantly, and she growled at it, ”leave it…”

’kip!’

once she was able to reach for its pokéball, the little amphibian was returned. nina took a deep breath, and then crawled over towards the new friend, smiling brightly.

”hi there, togepi!”

attempting to catch togepi