On the other hand, after the festival ended, Jodi waited until she was sure Indeedee wasn't around the square before heading to the Pokémon Center with the Pokémon egg.
Nurse Joy had just returned from the festival grounds and given the house a quick tidy up when she saw Jodi rush through the door holding the egg.
"Good afternoon, what's going on?" Nurse Joy asked, looking at the egg in her arms.
"I found this," Jodi said. "Our family wants to take this child in! Do you know how to care for an egg?"
"You want to take it in?" Nurse Joy gave Jodi a confused look, but suddenly rembering that Kent had already gone ho, she put two and two together and smiled at Jodi. "No problem, please wait a mont."
Saying this, Nurse Joy brought out an egg incubator from the back room. "You can use this. Just put the egg inside, but you'll also need—"
She began to chatter about how to raise the egg.
Jodi stared at the egg with a face full of anticipation and promised Nurse Joy, "I'll take good care of it, don't worry."
"Mhm." Nurse Joy smiled. "Oh right, rember to prepare a Pokéball. Once the Pokémon hatches, you can keep it inside that Pokéball."
Jodi nodded repeatedly. Carrying the egg, now safely placed in the incubator, she happily left the Pokémon Center.
Back at ho, Vincent, who had lost the championship, was still sitting on the sofa sulking.
Experiencing this kind of thing at his age was simply too much for Vincent.
He sat there, feeling indignant. "I was supposed to win this year!"
"Right, right, you were supposed to win this year," Sam agreed, his mind clearly elsewhere as he thought about the Pokémon egg.
Realizing that Sam was just humoring him, Vincent got even angrier.
"This is unfair!!!" Vincent yelled. "It's not fair at all!!"
"It'll be fair in a bit," Sam muttered, spacing out and saying the first thing that ca to mind.
"What?"
"Mom found you another gift," Sam quickly corrected himself. "Uh—another prize."
"Really?" Vincent was a bit skeptical, but since there was nothing else he could do right now, he reluctantly transford his anger into anticipation for whatever Jodi had brought.
"Really," Sam replied.
"What could it be? Cake?" Vincent pressed. "Pastries?"
Seeing Sam continue to shake his head, Vincent puffed out his cheeks. "It better not be a new straw hat. That would totally suck."
Who would even want that straw hat!
Vincent propped up his chin and puffed out his cheeks again.
If it were a token of his honor, Vincent would have been thrilled to wear that straw hat.
But since he had missed out on the championship, getting a consolation prize instead ant that he wouldn't be caught dead wearing that hat, even if it rotted away at ho.
Thinking this, Vincent was already plotting how to throw the hat away behind Jodi's back. In a family that was relatively tight on money, simply getting a gift was usually enough to make Vincent very happy.
But special circumstances called for special treatnt.
He was absolutely not going to accept this hat.
Just then, Jodi knocked on the front door, carrying the Pokémon egg.
Sam was the first to stand up, jogging over to the door.
"If you want that hat so badly, you can have it," Vincent quickly said, seeing this.
"What hat?" Sam asked as he pulled the door open.
"My gift," Vincent replied.
"Then it's a deal, the gift is mine," Sam stated imdiately.
Vincent was just about to agree when he saw Jodi walk in carrying the egg.
The next instant, Vincent leaped joyfully off the sofa.
"What are you two talking about?" Jodi asked, setting the incubator down on the corner table. "This thing is actually a bit heavy to carry. Oh right, Sam, where's your Pokéball? Put one on top of it."
"What is this?" Vincent asked cautiously.
"A Pokémon egg," Sam replied. "Mom, Vincent just said he didn't want it, so that makes its trainer!"
"Hey!" Vincent yelled.
Seeing Vincent's face flush red with anxiety, Sam rubbed his head. "If it hatches, it'll be part of our family. As for who gets to be its trainer, we'll just see who it wants to follow when the ti cos."
Vincent could barely accept this compromise. He nodded and ran over to the incubator in a few strides, wide-eyed as he examined the patterns on the egg.
"I wonder what will hatch out of it?"
"I hope it's a Cacnea."
Jodi paused and silently said a prayer in her heart, though she didn't voice it out loud.
Please let it be a Indeedee—
Jodi took one last look at the Pokémon egg surrounded by the children and slowly headed back into the house.
anwhile, at the farm.
Indeedee sneaked a glance around the cabin. Seeing that no one was paying attention to it, it carefully slipped out of the farm.
Abandoning that Pokémon egg had pricked its conscience just a little bit, so it decided to go back to the spot to check.
If soone else had picked up the Pokémon egg, then everyone would be happy.
If no one had picked it up, then Indeedee would just bite the bullet and reluctantly bring it back.
It was impossible for it to be that much of a coincidence—that simply because it was the day of the Egg Festival, an Indeed egg would just spontaneously appear in Pelican Town.
With this in mind, Indeedee sneaked out into the dark.
"Indeedee."
So it was right here—
Indeedee reached its hand into the bushes to feel around. Finding nothing there, it couldn't help but call out again.
"Indeedee."
Did soone really pick it up? Or did I rember the wrong spot?
Indeedee pondered this, but before it could figure it out, a strange noise abruptly ca from nearby.
Indeedee whipped its head around in fright, only to see Linus standing by the trash can with Leo.
"I knew there'd be one." Linus pulled a painted egg out of the trash can. "What a waste!"
Leo tilted its head, still not understanding why Linus was doing this.
Linus had probably been so busy helping Leo settle in recently, coupled with the fact that early spring had many foraged items Leo hadn't tried yet, that this was the first ti in days Linus had brought Leo to rummage through the trash cans.
"You haven't had an egg before, have you?" Linus said, holding the egg happily. "I'll take this to the hot springs later, and in a bit, it'll beco a delicious hot spring egg."
Leo nodded innocently.
Rembering the townsfolk's opinions on dumpster diving, Linus paused before adding, "But don't do this in front of people. We're just—"
"We're just...?"
Linus struggled to find the right words. "We're just helping the town clean up the trash, and conveniently recycling the edible things."
"I see."
Leo looked down at Trubbish, who was chewing on a piece of trash.
"Trub~" Trubbish called out softly.
"Indeedee." Indeedee carefully scrutinized the two of them. Thinking about its recent foraging runs, it decided to separate out a portion of the foraged items that couldn't be made into a complete set each day, and leave them for Linus and Leo.
------------------------------------------------------
40 Chapters Ahead: patreon/EpheralShadow
There's sothing for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)
User Comments
0 comments from readers