“You know a lot about eggs, don’t you?” said Luvia, speaking into her mother’s phone. “Tell me what I should do!”

  Woken up in the middle of the night by a soft knocking, the girl had shot out of bed, switched on her bedside lamp, and gingerly opened the wardrobe with a startled Mida by her side.

  The egg had almost fallen out. Somehow, it had gotten out of its nest and started rocking back and forth on the inside, hitting the wooden boards like it was asking to be let out. Luckily, Luvia’s hands had shot out to catch it, saving it from smashing against the floor.

  It had been a long night…

  “What pokémon is inside?” Carol asked across the line.

  “I don’t know, its wild.” Luvia kept hush-hush about the Zangoose – it would just open up another can of worms.

  “Wild?” Carol was baffled. “Since when did you start getting so reckless? How can you take a wild egg? – wasn’t it guarded?”

  Luvia’s eyebrow twitched. “Carol! Just tell me!”

  Carol’s parents, having a small miltank farm, had had their fair share of pokémon eggs. Carol herself had cared for some over the years. The girl was the only one she could go to with this.

  “Hmm, does it feel warmer than normal?”

  Luvia had her hand cupped over the phone. “It’s warm, but not too warm. Its moving though – doesn’t that mean it’s about to hatch?”

  “Yeah, but it depends on what you mean by ‘about.’ Some eggs start moving days before they hatch. Some even a week or more.”

  Luvia glanced sideways at it, on her bed. It hadn’t moved in a while, but it had throughout the night, so much so that she had hardly gotten a wink of sleep. In and out of shallow dreams a dozen different times until morning. She couldn’t just put it back in the nest – it kept rolling out. She couldn’t leave it on Mida’s rug by the table, because the little one kept hopping and pawing after it any time it moved, and then she really couldn’t sleep.

  She ended up putting Mida in her ball and keeping the egg tucked under the blanket with her.

  “Why don’t you just tell your mom?”

  “Nuh-uh,” Luvia said without hesitation. “Maybe later, not now. They’ll tell me to put it outside.”

  “You should, Luvy. Just take it back where you found it. It’s mom is probably looking for it.”

  …

  Luvia couldn’t resist. “It’s mom isn’t the inside of a zangoose’s mouth, Carol.”

  …

  “What? …”

  “Nothing…”

  There was a brief rustling across the line as Carol shifted. “You didn’t just say zangoose, did you?”

  “No,” Luvia quickly replied. “I was kidding, I found it next to a pond near my house, just lying there. I’ve had it a month and it just started moving – isn’t there something I can do to help hatch it faster?”

  …

  “A month and you’re telling me now?”

  A sassy grunt came out of Luvia. “Good choice, wasn’t it? Seeing as you just told me to put it back like my mother would. I’m keeping it, alright? I’ll need another pokémon before I go.”

  … Carol sighed.

  “You know that once you take an egg from its clutch, you mess up its natural cycle, right?”

  Luvia didn’t really.

  “Yeah, if you’ve had it a month, it probably would have hatched already had you not taken it from its nest.”

  I didn’t take it – Zangoose did! “So, like, how much longer?”

  “It really varies. Sometimes they can take months… but since its already moving, I’d guess within a week?”

  “And?” Luvia said impatiently, searchingly. “What can I do to help?”

  …

  “Just keep it warm. My dad says talking to them helps too, but I think that’s a superstition. The fastest way to hatch an egg is to not take it from its clutch, or from where its parent laid it.”

  The part about talking to it, she had heard before – but that hadn’t been why she had done so the previous night.

  The part about not taking it from its clutch… That had nothing to do with her.

  “So, keep it warm and talk to it,” she echoed dryly to herself. So, basically, nothing.

  “There’s special incubators for egg-hatching, but we don’t have them. We just let our pokémon take care of them.”

  …

  Luvia gave a determined sigh. “Alright, what should I do once it comes out?”

  “I don’t know!” Carol whined. “That depends on what pokémon it is!”

  Luvia lugged it around in her schoolbag stuffed full of pillow fluff, all day long. She couldn’t leave it alone at home now; What if it rolled around and someone heard?

  Ziggy might actually try to break it open – it was Zigzagooney DNA. Curiosity toward potential pests, maybe-threats, or possible new meals.

  Yeah, Ziggy would definitely not be as gentle with it as Mida had been. She could easily picture him muzzle-deep in the cracked shell, lapping up the gooey stuff like ice-cream.

  No, Ziggy… Just no.

  For the next two days, it offered nothing but small trembles and shakes… until night came that is. Then it would rock and roll itself around as if it would hatch that very minute.

  It didn’t.

  “Why do you do this at niiight…” Luvia would moan drowsily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

  It seemed to wait for the world to sleep before making a ruckus.

  Mida had learned that it wasn’t alright to nudge it around or paw at it, or try to fit it in her mouth, so Luvia let her back on the bed with them.

  I should get used to this…

  Sleeping out in the wild on a journey might after all be even worse.

  “Ughhhh…” She fell back on her bed like a sleepy fetus with the egg cradled in the space between her tummy and thighs, and with Mida couped up next to them, ready to alert her if it rolled dangerously close to the edge of the bed.

  “Luvy, you look exhausted,” her mother said the next morning. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m fine,” Luvia replied, dragging her feet all the way to the fridge. “Studies.”

  Her mother laughed. She laughed.

  Luvia rummaged through the fridge for Nelly’s recommended chesto-fruit juice (it helped ward off sleepiness.)

  “If I had known that letting you go on a journey would make you take your studying this seriously, I would have let you go years ago.”

  Luvia grunted tiredly, dragging her feet all the way back.

  “But Luvy…” Her mother blocked her path. She cupped her hands around Luvia’s cheeks and peered at her face like she was looking at a newspaper with some very strange news on it.

  “Goodness, look at your eyebags.”

  Luvia grunted again and began to pull her face away, but her mother wasn’t done yet.

  “Don’t go out today,” she said. “You need to rest, Luvy.”

  “Mhm, yeah, I won’t. There’s something I need to watch on TV anyway.”

  Her mother let go of her. “Not those battling games?”

  “Mmh,” Luvia affirmed, continuing on her way. “That woman who helped me get the job might be on today.”

  Mrs. Juneworth changed her tune and hummed with interest. “You’ll call me then. I want to have a look at her.”

  The Ever Grande Conference was nearing its end almost three weeks after it began. The Rumble took a week and the Round of 16 took another. The top 4 challengers were awarded medals and a few days of rest.

  Luvia had learned that while only the Number 1 Challenger was eligible to earn the title of Champion (should they go on to win and usurp Steven Stone,) the three other semi-finalists, plus one wildcard entry, got granted exhibition matches against the Elite 4 and the Champion respectively.

  Besides that, according to the pundits, the Elite 4 could also partake in mock, untelevised battles with a number of different trainers picked at random throughout the event.

  She had wondered how only 212 people in the entire region had earned the 8 badges required to challenge the League, and then eventually heard one of the commentators mention that most of the 212 this year had been “fresh” and not returning trainers.

  “… and only 37 of this year’s participants attended last year. It really goes to show how much you have to up your game if you’re to grace the competition again.”

  Reminding any new viewers that,

  Once you earned 8 badges and took your shot at the Conference, failing to become Champion cost you one badge. Thus, if you wanted to attend a future Conference, you’d have to take on a gym and earn your 8th badge all over again.

  The difficulty of the 8th Gym for previous Conference participants was upped to the max – Merciless. Failing to overcome the Gym put you on a low-priority waiting list, and according to the smart people on TV, if a previous Conference-level trainer wasn’t able to reclaim their 8th badge after two attempts, their chances of making the Ever Grande event that year were, logistically speaking, considered over.

  Luvia went upstairs quickly to check on the egg, which she had now placed in her laundry basket and padded the inside with more spare clothes. She felt a little bad about leaving it there like that, but on the bed was too dangerous, and on the floor too noisy when it rolled around.

  Mida was out by the porch with Ziggy, doing god knows what.

  After checking on the egg, the girl rushed back down to the living room, where the Conference broadcast was roaring on TV.

  The Number 1 Challenger was preparing for the battle of his life. He was a 20-year-old with black hair tied in a tight bun and strange, baggy clothes that were described as the traditional wear of some clan from the Kanto region. The pleated line patterns on it were pretty, but the whole thing looked decidedly annoying to wear. It caught the wind like a bedsheet.

  His name was Taegi, and his team was full of flight-capable pokémon; A Fearow, a Venomoth, a Beedril, a Magneton, a Skarmory, a Noctowl… He had gone through the Rumble and Round of 16 relying on his mastery over the air.

  Though he was this year’s most successful example of a trainer with a theme to their team, he hadn’t been the only one.

  As Glacia had told her back then, type-affinity wasn’t a rare thing – especially at higher levels. A good bunch of trainers during the Round of 16 had teams predominated by one type. Teams you could have a single glance at and know what the type-specialty was, or at least the gimmick or theme.

  Taegi had taken this year’s top challenger spot by using what the pundits described as ‘attrition tactics.’

  His Venomoth and Beedril seemed to be key players in his battles – he’d often start with them. The bug-types would apply all manner of ailment conditions with powder or sting moves, then assume a tag-you’re-it approach to the remainder of the battle, switching out to his swifter flyers and forcing the opponent’s pokémon to fight a battle on two fronts; externally in the sense that they’d have to react and respond against the constant jabbing moves, and internally, staving off the ailments with immune systems put into overdrive, or with recovery moves of their own.

  There was some criticism from one of the pundits, mostly about how a number of his wins had come as a result of running down the clock and grasping the victories on mere account of points (apparently not very “Champion-like.”)

  “I’d like to see how his strategy changes when he faces the Elite 4 and there’s no clock to help him,” that pundit remarked.

  …

  There was a brief interlude as Taegi made some final preparations in his corner’s hub, away from the broadcast cameras. The Ever Grand Arena sat 70,000 spectators, and by the looks of it, not many seats had been spared today.

  Imagine having to battle in front of all those people…

  These trainers didn’t just need to be great battlers, they also needed nerves of steel to perform in front of a crowd like that – and not just the one present, but also the ones watching from their television sets.

  Luvia peeled her eyes away from the screen and darted to the kitchen to check on the vegetables Nana had left steaming. Her mother and grandmother had gone to the nearby shopping village to buy some groceries from its once-a-week noon market, leaving her in charge of the house.

  She checked the lush, green bundle of steaming asparagus, lifting them off the fire with a satisfied hum, all whilst wondering if Glacia would be Taegi’s first obstacle in the E4 challenge.

  With Dormund and Kara, and likely other ice-types she didn’t know about, Glacia could probably clip Taegi’s wings.

  If she does that quick-freeze thing, those birds will fall right out of the air.

  With the way Glacia had handled that raging Gyarados, Luvia found it hard to picture just what Taegi could do to avoid a similar fate.

  …

  Taegi didn’t make it to Glacia. Not as a contender anyway.

  He was stopped at the first hurdle.

  Phoebe.

  The Elite 4 had drawn lots amongst themselves and a small-framed, young-faced, dark-skinned woman had been the one to climb the steps onto the Ever Grande main battle arena. No special terrain conditions would feature during the battle.

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  She’s part of the Elite 4?!

  Phoebe looked Neela’s age!

  Her face did look a little familiar, maybe Luvia had seen her in an advert somewhere. She wore a white skirt that reached just over her knees, and a matching bandeau, both with pink floral designs. Her hair was pixie-cut and dressed with a single white lotus flower pinned on one temple.

  Around her ankles were a pair of silver bangles. She was barefoot…

  “It’s Phoebe. Phoebe will be Challenger Taegi’s first hurdle!” one of the commentators had announced as the woman stepped up.

  Phoebe strolled to the center of the arena with a smooth and graceful step, looking like a dancer from the southern tropics, near the region of Alola. She was so pretty.

  This was one of Glacia’s peers? Could a girl this young really be part of the Elite 4?

  …

  That question would be answered several minutes later, when the crowds in the screen quietened down, and the world seemed to hold its breath when the Challenger and Challenged stood at opposite ends of the arena, pokéballs in hand.

  Taegi started out differently, sending out his Magneton as Phoebe sent out a ghost-type the commentators called Sableye. It was a gnomish kind of pokémon, evil-looking, with diamonds for eyes and a wide mouth full of serrated teeth.

  It was in total contrast to Phoebe’s sunny appearance.

  The commands of the trainers weren’t audible on TV, but the aerial view of the arena showed how animated they were. Phoebe stood behind her line, but every so often, she’d shimmy lightly on her feet to one side, and then the other.

  The commentators made no note of it, but it struck Luvia as somewhat odd. It looked to have a rhythm to it.

  Taegi’s game plan had changed, only in the sense that instead of whittling his foe down with ailments, he was doing so with scream attacks.

  Screech and Metal Sounds ripped through the air one after the other toward Sableye, who despite being moderately quick on its feet, could hardly dodge such wide-range attacks. Magneton whizzed around the air, following it and blaring its screeches from a safe distance.

  - “Phoebe is currently on the defensive!” said a commentator. “Taegi’s Magneton seems to be preparing the groundwork for a knockout blow!”

  - “…You do kind of get the idea that Sableye is on the backfoot here – I wonder how Phoebe’s going to respond.”

  - “The way it’s going, she might need to use her first switch here. I just don’t see how Sableye catches the Magneton off guard, and we all know who’s faster here.”

  Phoebe was seen raising her hands up slowly, mouth moving with speech, as Sableye came to a stop and Magneton, still on the chase, continued to scream metallically at it, up and out of range.

  Sableye’s eyes flashed white. It leapt high into the air before sending a volley of what looked like glitter down at Magneton. Of course Magneton wasn’t there anymore, zipped out of the way the moment Sableye had left the ground.

  A bolt of lightning shot out toward the airborne Sableye as the glitter rushing violently from its eyes struck the ground and blew against it like heavy artillery.

  Magneton’s lightning bolt struck true, snapping into Sableye with a cracking flash that made the ghost-type fall down to the ground in a heap.

  - “It pays off!” roared one commentator. “Incredible timing from the Challenger’s Magneton, waiting for the opportune moment to strike! Sableye’s Power Gem attack completely misses! She will have felt that!”

  - “Oh dear,” said the other. “It’s still too early to make bets, but Taegi lands the first strike. That will no doubt be a much needed boost to his morale considering the gargantuan task ahead of him. His style of battle is nothing revolutionary, but he seems to have gotten it down to a T.”

  …

  Sableye got up with a pained and ugly scowl. The camera flicked over to Phoebe, and the look in her eyes made Luvia feel cold inside.

  They were lifeless. Almost glazed over. As if she felt nothing.

  The ghost-type specialist shimmied slightly to one side, lips moving in speech briefly, and raised her hands again, as if she were presenting an offering to a god.

  The camera flicked back to the battlefield, where the dust from Sableye’s missed Power Gem attack was still settling.

  The purple, diamond-eyed gnome leapt into the air once again and Magneton whipped through the air back into range, sparks already dancing around it.

  Sableye’s eyes flashed as it prepared another Power Gem…

  - “Oh no!” cried a commentator. “It looks like a repeat! Surely Phoebe would-”

  Magneton sent another cracking bolt at the airborne Sableye, and the roar of the crowd came flooding through the TV speakers.

  Sableye stretched its hand-paw forward, trying to brace itself, but it was pointless. The bolt crashed against it, lighting up the ghost-type like a bulb and sending electrical arcs curling violently as it fell back to the ground…

  On its feet.

  A nasty smile played on its lips as the arcs of electricity converged on the tip of its paw, then blinked out in an instant.

  - “Disable,” a commentator quickly guessed.

  Sableye pointed at Magneton as if it was pointing a wand and the air snapped between the pokémon with a black bolt that, save the color, looked identical to Magneton’s thunderbolt. It was too fast – it shot across the distance instantly. Magneton couldn’t even twitch before it struck. Oddly enough, the electric/steel-type didn’t even recoil.

  - “Disable!” the other commentator agreed. “They had us fooled!”

  Luvia leaned in. Disable… that’s a move that blocks your senses, isn’t it?

  She only knew that because of a horror movie called ‘I’ll be your ears, You’ll be my eyes,’ where the villain went around kidnapping townsfolk every night and using Disable to take one of their senses away permanently because he believed that the world would be better off if people were forced to make up for each other’s disabilities.

  …

  - “I don’t think Taegi’s realized!” said one.

  - “No, I think he has,” refuted the other. “Thunderbolt might be Magneton’s most offensive move, but it isn’t it’s only one – and remember, Taegi still has some heavy hitters on his belt. I’d say this is the right play by him.”

  Luvia watched as Magneton zipped around Sableye, continuing its onslaught of scream attacks which had started grating on the ghost-type, judging by the permanent, angry grimace it had on its face as it darted and covered its pointy ears against every new scream.

  It kept jumping up and missing every Power Gem it fired, littering the battle stage with glittering debris.

  The crowd seemed to roar in support of Taegi and Magneton. Every dodge was followed by a rising cheer.

  Phoebe still looked dead inside. She gave no orders and made no movements, she just watched the battle play out.

  Then Taegi switched out.

  He brought out his fastest – Fearow, and that’s when everything went downhill.

  Downhill fast.

  - “Taegi makes his first switch of the battle – he’s still got five left! What comes out… It’s Fearow!”

  - “…”

  Fearow shrieked and beat its wings vigorously as Taegi went on one knee and extended one hand to the sky.

  Why do they do that? Luvia had pondered. Why did these trainers keep making all kinds of strange movements during battle? Was it just for the crowd?

  Glacia had done it too in the play-battle between Mida and Spheal – she remembered that. The moment before she had commanded Spheal to freeze the Aqua Ring, the woman had lifted her arm and gestured at the pokémon, as if she were the one using the move or something…

  Fearow shot up high into the air. The stadium cameras strained to zoom and keep the flying-type in focus.

  Its entire avian form shimmered softly as it climbed into the sky.

  - “Aerial Ace. That’s an Aerial Ace.”

  - “I think you’re right, Karl! Surely Phoebe will follow suit and switch out now – After all the screeching she’s endured, I don’t think Sableye can afford another hit!”

  Sableye, along with the entire stadium, had their heads cocked up at the blot that was Fearow.

  - “Here it comes…”

  Luvia didn’t ever think watching a battle could make her heart pump like this, but it did. Now that she had some personal experience to pool from, she began to understand what the real fuss was about. Why the mainlanders were all so crazy about it.

  What they were watching Taegi and his team do was technically something that anyone could strive for.

  The cameras zoomed in on Fearow as it dipped back down, long, sharp beak pointing straight at the earth like a nail from the heavens. The shimmering around its body intensified to the point that the pokémon looked more like a hazy mirage in the horizon.

  Phoebe’s lips moved as she spoke a short string of words, and when the camera flicked to Sableye, its serrated smile widened.

  Diamond eyes flashed. A Power Gem beam shot out skyward from them.

  The TV display split vertically across the middle, showing the glittering beam of bullets fly up to intercept, and Fearow’s hazy form micro-steer itself effortlessly out of the way with a perfectly measured couple of inches to spare. Not a centimeter more than required.

  - “Aerial Ace does not miss!” cried a commentator as Fearow rapidly tore down through the sky. Faint, near-transparent waves of what looked like vapor were left in its wake.

  A second Power Gem beam. A second miss.

  - “She’s not going to recall!”

  - “…”

  The camera flicked to Phoebe one last time. The young woman was also gazing up at Fearow’s descent, but her face betrayed no emotion. Eyes were still distant and aloof.

  Her lips began moving, and her arms began raising, palms facing down as if she were pulling on the strings of a puppet.

  The camera flicked to the aerial view of the arena just in time to see the ground light up like the starriest night. It was still close to noon, and the sun was high up in the sky. Luvia’s immediate thought was that the sunlight must have been catching on all the glittery debris from Sableye’s failed Power Gem attacks.

  - “Oh… Oh!”

  - “Oh my word…”

  Mirroring Phoebe, Sableye’s fiendish little arms rose, and its diamond eyes shone brighter than ever. A mass of glittery sand, pebbles, and rocks rose from the ground, and Taegi could be seen flailing his arms frantically from behind his line.

  Fearow couldn’t hear him.

  He whipped out his arm and pointed Fearow’s pokéball.

  Fearow was too far.

  The tables turned in an instant. One moment, descending like a righteous angel about to deliver justice, the next, thrashing in the air like a tormented devil.

  Sableye manipulated the entire blanket of glitter, using it like a shield that bit back. Fearow crashed into the ground and Sableye trembled with inaudible laughter over the roars of the crowd.

  Either by mercy or mistake, Sableye’s glittering whirlwind blew the Fearow back enough toward Taegi that he managed to pull off the recall.

  - “That’s two recalls used by the Challenger – he’s got four left! Though I’m not sure that was wise. Fearow looked very close to fainting.”

  - “Incredible…” The softer spoken commentator spoke in the flat tone someone uses when words fall short. “For those of you who don’t know, what you’ve just seen is no where near as easy as Phoebe and Sableye made it look. I’ve seen her attempt this earlier on in the year, but it wasn’t even close to this scale. She has been keeping this for this event.”

  - “My thoughts exactly. She had other ways of dealing with flying-types – I thought we would see her Dusclops bring the game to the ground with Gravity. This was a wonderful surprise!”

  Taegi threw out his Magneton back into the fray, hoping its steel-typing could withstand the rock-type Power Gem fiasco.

  Phoebe switched out Sableye in response and the glitter fell back to the ground like snow.

  Banette came out – another ghoulish pokémon with another creepy smile. They really didn’t match Phoebe’s look. Or maybe that was the point? Maybe her bright appearance was meant to make you drop your guard… Though if you saw the way her eyes looked during battle, you could definitely see some otherworldly coldness in them.

  Had Glacia been like that too? … Definitely calm, and definitely aloof... But no, Glacia’s pale eyes had a fiery, icy glint to them. Luvia could sense the passion in her.

  Phoebe’s were like dead pits.

  The rest of the battle only went from bad to worse for Taegi. A Sucker Punch on Magneton as it crackled for a Discharge made it flinch, and Banette followed up with a point-blank Will-o-wisp that chased the steel-type relentlessly through the air, flaring every few seconds with hot, blue flames. The Magneton found no moment of rest, and it was only made worse by a second Will-o-wisp.

  Unthinkably, Taegi surprised and impressed the commentators when he ingenuously called for Magneton to use Mirror Shot, rendering the steel-type’s body so bright and reflective that the pesky flames darted away and dissipated, as if banished.

  - “I have literally never seen that happen before…”

  - “Was that really Magneton’s doing, or did Banette call them off?” The commentator sounded bewildered. “We’ll have to ask later. Whoever is watching, write it down. Taegi might have just taught us something here today.”

  Magneton and Skarmory lasted the longest but the rest of Taegi’s team dropped like flies… All because the stage had been set. Sableye’s Power Gem debris still littered the battlefield – it wasn’t physical as normal rock, but it could linger for a while before breaking down completely.

  That’s what they do… They set you up. Luvia could see it clearly. Both times she had seen the elite trainers battle, and they both did the whole set-up thing. Glacia by drenching the air and freezing it over. Phoebe by littering the stage with ammunition for Sableye’s Power Gem attack.

  They turned the battlefield into their advantage.

  The difference in rank between Taegi and Phoebe became palpable.

  Magneton managed to paralyze Banette with a wild and frantic Discharge, and Phoebe decided then to switch out to her Dusclops, using Gravity – as the commentators expected – and a ruthless combination of Will-o-wisp, which Magneton dispelled with another Mirror Shot, which Dusclops immediately Disabled and followed up with another wisp.

  Down on the ground, unable to break free of the gravity, and licked by a fiery sprite it could not dispel, Magneton was put out of its misery.

  When Skarmory came out, Phoebe used her 3rd switch to hand the battle over to her paralyzed Banette. And though it had been a questionable move by the Elite 4 ghost-specialist, the reason for it became obvious in a moment.

  Two purple phantom needles hovered in the air, one next to each pokémon. The crowd groaned. The needles stabbed.

  Banette fainted to a shrill shriek from Skarmory as the phantom needle buried itself in its breast just under the wing, totally ignoring the steel of its armored body.

  There was no point wasting a switch – curses and ailments were not things a normal pokéball could heal.

  Skarmory succumbed to the Curse, facing a taunting Dusclops.

  Then it was the bug-types, Venomoth and Beedril, which had caused so much trouble during the Rumble and Round of 16, a Noctowl, and the near-fainted Fearow.

  Phoebe used her 4th switch for return the stage to her Sableye.

  The stage had been set.

  The bugs and birds were swept by a malevolent and hungry Power Gem swarm…

  Nana and her mother returned just after Taegi’s challenger award ceremony and interview. He had been stoically fighting back tears and apologizing to everyone back in his hometown of Fuchsia City, Kanto.

  Phoebe joined him and graciously offered him praise for taking the year’s top spot and encouraged him to try again next year.

  Luvia noted how the young woman’s eyes no longer looked so empty now that the battle was over. That was still freaky though. To switch up like that…

  Taegi bowed to Phoebe and waved at the crowd with red-rimmed eyes.

  “Aww…”

  It was sad.

  Luvia found herself feeling slightly irked by how ruthless Phoebe had treated the battle. She could have put him down softer, couldn’t she? He had fought and dominated for almost 2 weeks straight only to be humbled like that.

  The Elite 4 were monsters, and Luvia had a small hunch that maybe the Glacia she had met might not have been the Glacia others knew.

  “When is she on then?” her mother asked around the lunch table.

  “If not this evening, then tomorrow.”

  Since the Challenger had already been defeated, the event would wrap up sooner. One exhibition match against another member of the Elite 4 that evening, and the remaining three exhibitions the next day to conclude (two Elite 4s, and the Wild Card vs. Steven Stone.)

  “When did you start liking these battles, Luv?” said Nana. “I remember you used to take Ziggy out, but that was years and years ago. I thought you outgrew this nonsense.”

  “Mother,” Mrs. Juneworth smiled reproachfully.

  Luvia smiled too. “It’s important, Nana. They’ll test the way I battle in the exam.”

  Nana steered a spoonful of shell broth into her mouth and shook her head lightly. *slurrrp*

  She smacked her lips together. “What nonsense, Luv. Nothing is more important than family.”

  “Ugh…” Luvia leaned back in her chair.

  A silence ensued, and the three of them stole looks at each other around the table as the cutlery clinked inside their bowls. An infectious smile crept across her mother’s lips and Luvia soon found herself grinning.

  Nana raised her eyebrows, all self-satisfied, and shrugged as she took another spoonful.

  She was mentally exhausted. After lunch, she went up to her room, leaving Mida downstairs, hoping the little one didn’t do anything that’d make her mother or grandmother have to come calling. She kicked off her house slippers and felt the drowsiest wave of sleep come over her.

  Haphazardly, she went to check on the egg and pulled it out of the laundry basket before ambling to bed with eyes half-closed.

  “?Whenever you nee-heed meee? … ?I’ll be there?,” she mumbled for it out of key. She dropped herself on the bed and lay there with the egg snugged up against her stomach.

  The afternoon breeze was wafting past the curtains of the window and blowing on her pleasantly.

  This nap was going to be so good.

  “Yur warm enuff, yeh?” she slurred at the egg. It didn’t answer, but she took it as a yes.

  …

  The sleep was deep and dreamless.

  Z Z Z…

  Push! Stretch! Nudge!

  There was almost no room left!

  Something told him that he wasn’t supposed to have stayed inside for so long. But it was fine now. The world was warm, and the sounds outside were safe enough.

  It was time to go!

  He pushed his wings. Stretched them against the walls of his world.

  Push!

  The walls were hard.

  Time. To. Go!

  He pecked.

  The wall cracked.

  ***

  Luvia awoke slowly out of the depths of unconsciousness. It was that kind of sleep you wake up from not knowing what day it is. Oh, but she felt good.

  Her eyes opened to the gloomy light dusk, just past sunset.

  Mida. That was her first thought.

  Better go get her… And the conference battle!!! “Shit.”

  She hoped it wasn’t past 7 o’clock yet, though judging by the light outside, it most definitely was.

  It took a moment, but eventually, the fact that the egg wasn’t were she remembered it being hit her, and like a maniac, she sat up in bed and clawed frantically at her bedding.

  Eggshells. Cracked.

  …

  Ziggy… you better not… A chilling pang of trepidation began coiling around her chest. The door to her room was closed, but the window was open, and zigzagoon could be very crafty.

  Cracked eggshell – too much of it. No goo. That was a good sign, right?

  Something chirped loudly behind her, up near the ceiling.

  “Yiahh!” she yelped, whipping around and throwing herself backward onto the bed.

  *chirp!*

  …

  Her mouth parted and a hot flush went past her temples as her brain pieced everything together lightning-fast.

  It’s hatched.

  She squinted at it. Her face scrunched up.

  “A taillow?”

  Taillow hopped down from the top of her wardrobe, flopped its tiny wings gracelessly, and hit the blanket with a soft thud. Luvia edged away cautiously.

  It was quite big for a hatchling. Newly hatched taillow were known to fit on one palm – this one would need two.

  It ruffled its baby feathers, not yet as pigmented as they would be, and chirped loudly again.

  Luvia’s finger shot up to her lips. “Shhh! Don’t make noise!” she whispered.

  It teetered shakily toward her, using its narrow wings to support itself.

  Luvia spread her palms open for it as all Clearcloud kids knew to do when they came close to a new pokémon. A sign of peace.

  It looked at both her palms deliberately, one after the other, then chirped loudly right at Luvia’s face.

  She could guess what it meant.

  “You’re hungry!”

  A/N#2:

  Alright. The egg has hatched. It's a taillow.

  When I made that poll on Chapter 18 or so asking if Luvia should get another 'mon before going mainland, I already had my mind set on NO. My original plan was as the minority of voters voted. I planned to keep it just Mida and Luvia for a while, so I'm glad I made the poll, because literally on the day I saw the way the results were going, I already knew I didn't want the mon conveniently be a water type. Taillow had been my first choice since then.

  Don't think for a moment that I read through your comments, crossing off my picks if someone guessed it right (LOL.)

  What made me absolutely 1000% certain Taillow was destined for this is that mere fact that EVERY SINGLE GUESS was incorrect. Seriously, I laughed quite a bit.

  Taillow has been shown to be part of the island's fauna - check chapter 2 (Nana and Neela signing for Mr. Juneworth the taillow folk song) and the mention around the time where Neela and Luvia are going shopping (chapter 4-5??) and it's mentioned that the shopkeepers in the island don't mind taillow building their nests in their establishments. They cohabit.

  Alright guys, so egg is out. Lets see what this means for Luvia's budding water-type affinity.

  If my estimates are correct, it will be one more chapter in Clearcloud Island, then its off the the mainland, where the trainer's journey begins.

  Thanks for reading and to all those who have left me your awesome ratings and reviews. I can't tell ya how cool it is that YVO is on the front page of pokemon fics, up there with the old gods of the fandom.

  If you want to help out, leave a rating or review if you can spare the time!

  TY ??

  Join Discord for updates on how chapter progress is looking.

  Explorer of Edregon

  by Wizardly Dude

  The universe is dying. Thank God there’s a backup plan.

  Randomly selected by some mysterious higher power, Vin went from dirt-poor vagabond to humanity's hope for survival in the blink of an eye. Now a member of the first wave of humans sent to colonize a planet that defies all logic, Vin is expected to leave his wanderlust behind him and focus on the greater good.

  But when that same unknown power gives him the option to choose a class, Vin just can’t help himself from becoming an Explorer.

  In a patchwork world filled with impossible magic, deadly monsters, and powerful artifacts, it’s now Vin’s job to go out and discover the rules of this new world they need to survive on.

  If only the System wasn’t already threatening to kill him.