Leo spent another three or so weeks with the slowpoke herd before he finally felt ready to move on. During that time he'd achieved a few things. The biggest thing was killing a Pidgey with his atlatl, the dart having just enough force behind it to get the job done. Leo had celebrated with a dance and a feast, glad to have something else to eat than fish and nuts. Sure, the bird was a little dry and tough after he'd skinned, gutted, and cooked it, but he'd relished it all the same.

He'd also managed to make something akin to a hat – it was flat and barely even resembled a circle, with many holes in the thick grass weave, but he'd figured out a way to keep it on his head and it at least kept the worst of the sun off, so that was a win in Leo's book. Other than that, he'd had no other big experiences. He'd run into the Bellossom again, who laughed at his amateurish attempts at blowing the leaf it had given him – which still hadn't withered or dried out, which astounded Leo – and had almost managed to grab ahold of a Sentret.

Literally. He'd managed to sneak up on it and almost managed to grab it with both hands but had stepped on a twig and scared the little pokemon off.

A big change had also overtaken the Slowpoke herd closer to the beginning of those three weeks – the females had given birth to little, baby Slowpoke. Apparently spring came late to Slowpoke, because Leo was pretty sure most animals gave birth in late spring, not early-to-mid summer. But then again, pokemon. What did he really know about them? He hadn't even noticed any of the Slowpoke were pregnant, right up until they were giving birth. Though something that had both surprised him and not was that the Slowpoke didn't lay eggs, instead giving birth to live creatures. Some part of him expected pokemon eggs instead of live births, but hey, it didn't make a whole lot of sense for all pokemon to come from eggs either. For game mechanics, sure, but not for real.

Nevertheless, the little pink blobs of adorableness that were baby Slowpoke had been a blast to play with. They weren't quite as energetic as puppies, but they would still romp and play and roughhouse in their own, slow way. He'd even napped on the riverbank surrounded by the little guys, the seven Slowpoke sprawled around and on top of him. It was a pity he had to leave, he would've loved to see the Slowpoke grow up.

That's if they survive the winter, Leo thought somberly as he sat next to his supplies, laid out so he could do a final count, and watched the Slowpoke herd in the early morning light. Queen was up early, as was usual these days, corralling the seven little Slowpoke as their mothers fished. The little guys had been small enough for Leo to hold in the crook of his arm before, but after a mere three weeks that had changed. Still though, if winter was coming early, then the Slowpoke may not have enough time to grow big enough to survive before the snowstorms hit.

"Right, let's double check everything," Leo muttered, turning away from that train of thought and glancing at the sky to judge the time. The sun was just starting to rise over the mountaintops, the long, early-morning shadows slowly fading and warming the cool mountain air. A fine layer of dew dusted the ground, and Leo shivered, glancing at his long-dead firepit. At least he'd slept well last night, even if it meant he'd let his fire die.

"Ok, Skarmory feathers, check," Leo muttered, glancing at his trio of Skarmory feathers laid to his right, next to all of his other supplies. They still hadn't seen much use, but he'd keep ahold of them just on the off chance he'd need them. Plus the longest one made for a good makeshift axe. "Water bottle, check. Fire starting supplies, check. Whetstone check, atlatl check, Bellossom leaf check," Leo started listing off his supplies, shoving what could be carried in his pack, in his pack. Last came food. Potatoes, a pile of nuts, and a small portion of smoked fish – along with his first attempt at dried Pidgey which turned out edible, but awful tasting – were wrapped in the remains of Leo's tattered shirt. It did him little good as clothing anymore.

"That's everything though," Leo said, scratching the back of his head once he was finished. The only things that wouldn't fit in his pack was the biggest of the Skarmory feathers, and a walking stick he'd made out of the old spear haft. He was travelling light on purpose, not that he had much to begin with. "Nothing else I can really think of that I'd need. The food will only last so long, but…"

Leo trailed off and looked to his right, at the Slowpoke herd. They were lazily dipping their tails in the river, taking advantage of how active Magikarp were in the early mornings to eat a hearty breakfast. Even the Slowbro seemed more active than usual, happily splashing and swimming about in the river, snatching up the occasional Magikarp.

"I'll certainly miss you all." Leo said somberly, shaking his head and hefting his pack, fiddling with the straps so it sat on his back better. "And not just because of the food, you all were actually fun to be around,"

"Slooow," one of the Slowpoke called.

"Wish I could take one of you with me too, but I don't think any of you want to go. I mean, maybe Queen would, but…one does not just take a Queen from her people," Leo said with a shrug.

"Bro," a Slowbro answered.

"Yeah, I'll be back eventually. Hopefully. Bye," Leo replied, waving weakly and heading off, following the river. He made it maybe a mile before Slowking arrived, walking straight out of the forest and smiling at Leo.

"Surely, you did not believe you could leave without saying your farewells?" He asked teasingly.

"Of course not, but I wasn't going to wait around for you either," Leo replied without missing a beat. Over the past near-month he had grown fond of the rather testy pokémon, it being his only real conversation partner. He'd learned a lot about the world in that time, too. Mostly about how human civilization was far less spread out than in his old world, probably due to the presence of superpowered animals.

"It is probably smart of you to get a move on so soon. It will take a month for you to reach the nearest city, and another month further for winter to arrive. That is but my best guess, however, and you do not want to cut it too close," Slowking said, nodding. Leo smiled at him and shrugged.

"That's the idea," he said.

"Good. I would hate to see such a promising young man die due to stupidity," Slowking agreed, and Leo laughed.

"I'll miss you too," he said. "Goodbye, Slowking,"

"Farewell, Leo. May you travel safely," Slowking replied. Leo grinned as he started walking once again, shrugging his shoulders.

"Safely? Where's the fun in that?"

The first few days of travel passed by mostly uneventfully, and he took to playing the Bellossom leaf as he travelled, despite still being terrible at it. His progress was hampered by a small rainstorm on the second day, and by the third day he had run out of his dried meat which meant he might need to go hunting again, but overall things were looking pretty good. The land around the river was relatively flat and easy to traverse, though sometimes the dense growth around more fertile parts of the river kept Leo from walking the riverbank. The fifth day, however, held a bit of excitement.

It was early morning, and Leo had been splashing his face in the river when he'd heard something like a birdcall off to his left. At first he thought nothing of it, until it called again, and he realized he had heard that call before – in his own world. It was a light chirp, sharp and short, and was quickly followed by a longer yowl from his right. Leo's blood ran cold, his heartrate skyrocketing as he slowly shuffled away from the water's edge, pushing his way into the dense willow brush he'd used for a bed last night and scanning the green foliage at the water's edge.

That was the call of a mountain lion, and though no mountain lions existed in this world, he had an idea as to what this might be. Persian. The only other big cat-like pokemon he could remember from Kanto. And, unlike in the games where Persian was mediocre at best, Leo knew better. Big cats were probably the most lethal predators on Earth, stealthy, powerful, and faster than sin. Thankfully if the two Persian were talking they most likely weren't hunting, but it still unnerved Leo.

He didn't move that day until well into mid-afternoon, remaining perfectly still even as both bugs and bug pokémon crawled over him. Seeing the Venonat as it stepped between his legs would have been interesting, had it not been for his fear of the Persian. He could fight a fighting-type pokémon like Hitmontop, who was looking for a fight rather than a meal. He'd be lucky to survive an encounter with a predator like a Persian, or an Ursaring. Leo may be stupid enough to fight a Hitmontop, but he wasn't suicidal enough to push his luck with Persian.

Thankfully though, despite that setback, the rest of the day was uneventful. The next day Leo tried to capture a Caterpie that was just…sitting on a tree, and hadn't really reacted when he approached. Until, that is, it shot him in the face with string shot after he'd grabbed it. Needless to say the bug got away and Leo spent the rest of the morning trying to get the sticky string off of his face and out of his hair. That also cemented the idea he'd originally had in his mind about a partner pokemon – no bugs. They were disgusting creatures anyway, despite how he ate them.

On the seventh day Leo found the first sign of human civilization he'd seen since arriving here, besides Archibald Oak of course. It was a small building constructed on the edge of another lake – much smaller than the previous one, but still fair in size – and crumbling. It had probably been a cabin at some point, but the rotting wood and collapsed ceiling made it utterly useless. Even when Leo had searched the interior for anything of value he had found nothing. Bits of pottery or plates, a fork rusted beyond belief, and nothing else but rotten wood. Still, it was reassuring in a way, and Leo decided to spend the night at the lake.

So he hunted the rest of the day, managing to kill a Sentret that he skinned and cleaned, making sure to keep the gut pile far away from where he'd be sleeping, and roasted it over a fire while staring up at the full moon. The band of stars that stretched across the sky was nothing short of phenomenal – the full beauty of the night sky unhindered by pollution of his old world. Were there even any satellites up there? Would Rayquaza knock them down before they got into orbit? For that matter, what other space pokemon were there?

Leo paused at that thought, then flipped the bird at the sky. He hoped Lunala saw that. Stupid space-bat, dropping him in the middle of nowhere.

"Though I can't really complain, it's actually been pretty fun," Leo groused, biting into the Sentret and savoring the grease that burst into his mouth, dripping down his chin and falling onto the ground with heavy, wet plops. A part of him knew that anything would taste good at this point, but he couldn't help but marvel at how rich the meat was. How…satisfying, even over the Pidgey, when compared to his diet of Magikarp, nuts, and potato-things. "Gods above this is good. Good Sentret, I thank you for your sacrifice so I may fill my belly with your delicious meat," Leo praised, taking another hearty bite and chuckling to himself.

"If only I had a stiff drink to go with this," he mused.

"Slooooow," a familiar voice called.

"Right? Some gin or whiskey would be – waitaminute." Leo sat bolt upright and glared at the lake, knowing what he heard. There couldn't be another Slowpoke herd around here, could there? He scanned the dark lake waters, searching for the source of the call, and only spotted it when the lumbering creature hauled itself out of the water and slowly ambled up toward Leo. The Slowpoke stared at him blankly as it came into the firelight, and Leo narrowed his eyes. This looked suspiciously like Queen, the Slowpoke having the same head-shape and the same habit of swishing its tail in circles when it walked.

"Slooow," it called, ambling forward and nudging Leo.

"What on god's green earth are you doing here?" Leo all but demanded, narrowing his eyes at the creature. "Queen, what are you doing here?" he asked again, sighing heavily and rubbing his face. A small part of him was hopeful, maybe Queen had come to travel with him? But he was also utterly confused as to why she would come here. Didn't she have a herd to keep track of?

"Slooooow," Queen called again, nudging Leo again before wandering back to the water's edge, plopping herself down in the mud. Leo watched her for a while, taking another bite out of the Sentret before sighing and lying back, staring at the sky.

"You and I need to have a talk, Queen," Leo said, squashing his thoughts on training a pokemon and focusing instead on his food. He still had quite a bit left over. Did he risk saving it and attracting predators? Leo thought for a moment, then nodded. Yes, yes he did risk it. He was tired of eating bugs for protein, and he had no desire to try and eat a Caterpie or Weedle. Just the thought…ugh. "Slimy yet satisfying" only applies to kids movies and oysters.

Eventually though, Leo's exhaustion caught up with him and he pulled himself into bed – sliding into the pile of pine needles, leaves, and other dead foliage he had gathered for just this occasion. Sleep soon overtook him, tired from the day of travel as he was.

"What is your problem, Queen?" Leo asked exasperated, glaring at the slowpoke that stood in front of him, preventing him from going further downriver. The Slowpoke made a rumbling noise in the back of her throat, and Leo furrowed his brows. "Are you growling at me?" he asked.

A weak jet of water to the face was his reply, and Queen butted her head against his legs hard enough to knock him over as he spluttered.

"Hey!" he protested. "What's your deal?! I told you, I can't stay with you all anymore!"

"Slow," Queen said resolutely, her normally dopey eyes uncharacteristically focused. Her wide mouth opened and she bit down on Leo's pant leg gently as she began to drag him, pulling him upriver

"Knock it off!" Leo snapped, yanking his leg out of her mouth. "Are you trying to get me to come back to the herd?" he asked, grumbling as he stood up. Queen let out another low call and butted her head against Leo's leg once more, softer this time.

Leo sighed. He thought he understood what Queen was trying to do, and it was heartbreaking to think about. It must've taken her a while to figure out Leo had left for real this time – after all, he'd gone on day trips before with Slowking – and she came searching for him to bring him back to the herd. That, or there was something really dangerous downriver that she didn't want him heading to. Leo was betting and hoping it was the former.

"Look girl, I can't stay. You all can survive the winter out here, I can't. I'm just a silly two-legged human, who wouldn't have been able to survive had I not stolen from you all for a long time. It's time I head to meet more of my kind," Leo said softly, kneeling down and scratching her behind her ears. "If you…if you want to come with me you can, but you've also got a herd to look after. Right? That's why I call you Queen, isn't it? Because it's your herd?"

Leo met Queen's gaze as she stared back at him, unblinking. Her eyes began to glow a soft blue color, the light flickering and unstable, and Leo hesitated as a wave of feelings came crashing over him – a mishmash of muddled emotions to the point where Leo didn't even know how he felt anymore. The feeling of returning somewhere was prominent, and Leo quickly deduced exactly what was happening.

"Is this how psychic power works?" Leo mused, easily pushing those emotions out of his mind to sort through later. Queen's eyes continued to glow and, in a moment of inspiration, Leo pushed his own thoughts and emotions to the forefront of his mind. He didn't think, not with words. He doubted Queen would actually understand them anyway, so he just…brought up things she could understand. Scenes and emotions.

The biting cold winds of winter, Leo struggling through a blizzard when he was younger (mentally speaking) as he hiked through a mountain in search of his horse, the warmth of a fireplace, the love of his human family, watching the snow from inside a house, the desire for home, and the desire to explore. He thought of leaving the mountains for his own safety, how thankful he was to the Slowpoke herd, and he thought of Queen and her herd – how she had a home. And that he could now take care of himself.

He didn't know how much he got across to her, he got the feeling the connection was tenuous at best, but if the way the Slowpoke's body relaxed was any indication Leo figured she got the gist of it.

"I can't go back. I have to go forward," Leo said softly, not even he himself knowing whether he was talking about the Slowpoke herd or going back to his world. Queen stared at him for a moment longer, and a new emotion washed over him, one Leo couldn't decipher before the connection was cut and the glow faded from her eyes.

"Slooow," she called as she turned and lumbered off into the lake. Leo sighed, both glad and disappointed. He had wanted Queen to stay with him, truthfully, but she had a herd to get back to. The Slowpoke's body quickly vanished into the waters of the lake, though after a moment he spotted a ripple in the river moving with surprising speed upstream.

Leo smiled slightly to himself, nodded, and continued on down the river. He still had a lot of ground to cover, though the ruined cabin had given him hope. Maybe civilization was closer than Slowking had said.

Unfortunately for Leo, the terrain was gradually getting more difficult. The mountainsides were getting steeper, and the valley narrower, forcing Leo to either climb the mountain or push through the dense greenery around the river. It only took Leo a half day to figure out the latter was a bad idea for his current bare-chested self. His stubbornness and unwillingness to climb the mountains, which were covered in this knee-high brush that was almost too thick to walk through, force him to push through the foliage next to the river – which left him bleeding and scratched all over from the whipping and scratching branches.

On the second morning of this, with Leo having crawled once more into the willowy growth that crowded the narrow river valley to sleep, he woke up to Queen staring right at him from the river, only her muzzle and the top of her head visible as she rested in the water.

He didn't say anything as she stared at him, nor did she to him for a moment. Her eyes glowed blue, and Leo was suddenly struck with his own memories thrust back at him – of the biting cold winter, of death, and of the warmth of a fire. Following that was a few more confusing images, of taking fish and then of Leo leaving. Then she crooned, soft and low, moving up and butting her head against Leo's prone form.

"What's up?" Leo asked softly, scratching Queen behind the ear. She crooned once more and turned around, waddling off into the river and swimming back upstream without saying anything else. Leo watched her go, utterly confused until he noticed what she had left behind.

A baby Slowpoke lay on the muddy riverbank, apparently sleeping as it lay curled up. Leo stared at it, and stared at it, then looked back upriver, then stared at the baby Slowpoke some more. He frowned, a million thoughts running through his head all at once, then slammed his forehead into the ground. He'd known Queen was smart, and far more aware of herself and her surroundings than the rest of the Slowpoke herd – who were lazy enough to let a Magikarp gnaw on their tails for hours rather than fish it up – but he hadn't expected this.

His best guess as to what happened? Queen had understood their little psychic conversation perfectly – so well, in fact, that she came to the same conclusion Leo had about the baby Slowpokes; that at least a few wouldn't survive the winter. But surprise! Leo was leaving to escape the cold, so why not send at least one of the babies with him?

"You have got to be kidding," Leo grumbled, pulling himself out of the willows and dusting himself off, hands sticking to the sap on his chest. He focused on the still sleeping Slowpoke as he stood over it. It was probably just about as long as his arm, from snout to the tip of its tail, and still just a chubby baby. Well, not that normal Slowpoke weren't chubby either, but still. "When I said I wanted a partner pokemon I meant something that could help me survive, not that I would have to help survive,"

Leo crouched down in the mud and examined the baby Slowpoke, looking back upstream and waiting for a while to see if Queen would come back. He waited for a good hour, watching the willows wave in the light wind that blew through the valley and the pod of Wooper that shuffled in the mud on the opposite riverbank, when the baby Slowpoke woke up and Leo gave up on the idea of Queen coming back to get it.

Call it a gut feeling, but he would bet money on Queen not coming back.

"Wish I had a boat," Leo muttered to himself, watching the baby Slowpoke as it looked up at him blearily. "Then I could travel as fast as she did. It's pretty impressive she got all the way to the herd and back in just two days," the Slowpoke waddled over to him, tail waving from side to side lazily, and butted its head against his leg, letting out a soft whine.

Leo scratched its head, but when it didn't stop whining turned back to the short willows and pulled his backpack out of the brush, retrieving one of the three potato things he had found. They were getting scarcer; he would have to spend some time just stocking up or search for a replacement plant. All the while the Slowpoke continued to whine, even going so far as to trying to fit the heel of Leo's shoe into its wide mouth.

"You hungry? Is that what this is about?" Leo asked rhetorically, presenting the potato to the Slowpoke, who gobbled it up happily. "Hope you can fish with your tail, or at least learn how to. Don't know how I'll get you fish otherwise. It's a good thing you don't need milk anymore," Leo admitted, scratching the back of his head as he watched it eat. The Slowpoke didn't respond, instead spitting out a remaining chunk of potato and flopping onto the ground. For the umpteenth time in the past hour, Leo sighed.

Things just got harder.

After three more days of travel the lush green valley transformed into steep cliffs, and Leo had to spend a good half-day backtracking just to climb the mountain so he could avoid swimming down the river. That the river was getting more turbulent too wasn't promising either, and Leo wasted another solid day just foraging and hunting – managing to kill a Rattatta with his atlatl, and find a good fifteen potatoes, thankfully – in preparation for hiking across the mountain and away from the river.

The as-of-yet unnamed baby slowpoke did not make things easy either. It was, first and foremost, slow, and still a baby. It did not have much energy to go travelling long distances, and so Leo was forced to figure out a way to carry it. His young arms were too weak to carry the good twenty-pound creature far, so he alternated between carrying it while he strapped his Skarmory feather unsafely to his back, and stuffing the little creature into his backpack, which killed his back. That wasn't even to mention that it was dangerous to leave the Slowpoke in his backpack, both because it would squirm its way out if it suddenly felt adventurous, and because it would eat or soil his food. Cleaning poop out of his pack wasn't fun, and he had to isolate his journals and Archibald's journal after that incident.

Still though, Leo grit his teeth and forged ahead, carefully walking along the steep cliffside and occasionally stealing glances down the sixty-foot drop to the raging river below.

"Slow," his little 'buddy' called from behind him, having been walking behind Leo for the past hour. Leo stopped and turned around, raising one eyebrow at the creature as it stood at the cliff's edge, looking down at the raging water.

"I'm not coming to get you if you jump off," Leo warned, crossing his arms. The Slowpoke ignored him, staring down at the water unblinking for a solid few minutes before turning its head to look at Leo and repeating its call. Then it turned back to the river and experimentally put one foot on the edge of the cliff, forcing Leo to jump forward and grab the little pokemon, hauling it away from the edge. "I said no, you little idiot! Do you not understand that you'll die if you try to go down that way?!" he hissed in its ear, sitting down and pulling the creating into his lap, laying it on its back so it couldn't wander off.

"Slooow," the Slowpoke crooned, flopping its head back into Leo's chest and exposing its creamy white underbelly to the world.

"What am I going to do with you?" Leo asked, slumping his shoulders in defeat and giving the baby a few belly scratches. It was only midday and Leo was already considering making camp for the night – he was dead tired from having to carry the Slowpoke up and down the stupid mountain all day. His arms were tired, his legs hurt, and his back felt like it was going to give out from carrying around the Slowpoke. "Tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to sit here and rest for a few minutes. You are not allowed to kill yourself during that time, understand me?" Leo muttered as he lay on his back, staring at the sky.

The Slowpoke grunted and squirmed, rolling off of Leo and flopping down onto the ground, where it lay unmoving. Leo grumbled to himself and slipped the straps of his backpack off, rolling away from the Slowpoke and lying belly-down on the ground, propping his chin up on his hands. The mountain sloped gently upward from the cliff, pine trees covering the hillside and preventing much in the way of small plants from growing as they blocked the sunlight. Off to his right was an aspen grove, the white-trunked trees grouped together densely. Amusingly, no branches grew on the lower part of the aspens' trunks, instead only growing near the top and giving the grove a whole "dark, evil forest" vibe as it cast the ground in shadow.

What caught his eye, however, was the few bushes that filled some of the space between the aspen and the pine, with pink…dots, covering the bush.

"What in the world?" Leo muttered, forcing himself up and taking a step forward. He paused, and looked at the slowpoke. "Stay here, I'll be right back,"

Excitement surged through his veins as he got closer, a wild grin stretching across his face as he identified the dots as fruit. Pink berries, to be precise, which made him think these were the titular Berries of the pokemon universe. What kind he wasn't sure, but who cared? Berries! Fruit! Sugar!

Leo hastily plucked the fruit from their bushes, popping a few of the sweet, pink fruits into his mouth and relishing the sweet juices that exploded into his mouth with every bite. He groaned in appreciation, watching between chews as a Ledyba buzzed up, snagged a berry for itself, then flew away munching happily. That made Leo pause in his eating, glancing down at his arms, where he had started placing as many of the berries as he could grab.

"I should be more careful," Leo muttered, sniffing the air. The sugary sweetness of the fruit wasn't only confined to the berries themselves, the scent wafting through the air and filling the entire area with the smell of berries. Heck, even one berry itself, when Leo raised it up and smelled it, smelled so sweet and delicious he had to eat it right away. But that meant that if he could smell it, pokemon could as well, and they had better senses of smell than he. The last thing he wanted to do was attract a hungry Ursaring because he had a backpack full of berries.

That, however, didn't stop him from stuffing his face and taking a fair amount down to the Slowpoke to eat. He'd ended up taking almost all the ripe fruit off of the bush because of it though, leaving the green and therefore unripe fruit be.

"Yeah, you like those don't you? Me too," Leo asked, feeding the Slowpoke berries one-by-one. It smacked its jaws loudly as it happily munched away, licking Leo's fingers in between chews to get berry juices off. He smiled at the little creature and patted his own, full belly and smacked his lips, readjusting his sitting position and glancing up at the sun. He'd sit here and rest a few more hours before moving on, after eating so much he was sure he'd want to get a nap.

A sudden warm, wet feeling around his hand had Leo jerking back, yanking his hand out of the Slowpoke's mouth as it sucked the rest of his berries out of his hand, juices running out of its mouth as it chowed down. Leo made a face and flicked his hand, Slowpoke slobber flying everywhere.

"Ew," he said. "Don't do that again, you little monster,"

"Sloow," the Slowpoke replied, bits of berry falling out of its mouth as it did so. Leo smiled fondly and scratched its head, looking back upstream as he hummed a little ditty to himself. It's amazing how far a little food can go in improving my mood, Leo thought to himself, leaning back and lying his head against the soft grass, tilting his grass hat so it shielded his face from the sun. The sun was a little intense for him to sleep right here, so he'd retreat back into the trees eventually to take a nap, but for now he just wanted to enjoy the sunlight.

"It's gotten colder," Leo noted, pulling himself out of his debris pile – the pile of pine needles and other debris he made to sleep in almost every night – and rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm up. His breath came out in white puffs. "I mean, I know mornings are always cold, but not this cold. Makes me wish I hadn't let the fire die. Though I hope this is just a cold front, and not the promise of something worse. Pretty sure it's still summer after all," he mumbled, hopping up and down to get his blood pumping.

Behind him leaves rustled as his Slowpoke companion crawled its way out of Leo's bedding, the pokémon having served as a personal heater during the cold night. After two more weeks of travel the Slowpoke had gotten a little bigger and harder to carry, but conversely could walk further on its own and generated more heat at night. Since the cold front had blown in, Leo appreciated the extra warmth. He smiled when the Slowpoke butted up against his leg, yawning heavily and blinking up at Leo with big, dopey eyes.

"I want to get an early start today, so it's breakfast on the road. The weather is worrying me," Leo said, bending down and scratching the slowpoke behind the ears. It let out another soft call and wandered towards the gently flowing river, about a hundred feet to Leo's right. With how far down they'd descended in elevation while following the river he shouldn't have to worry about snow too much, and there still should be a month left until Slowking's estimation of when winter would arrive, so he was feeling pretty good about the journey, all things considered. Even if his pace had slowed significantly due to the baby Slowpoke he ought to have plenty of time to make it to the city.

Not that he minded the pace. Leo appreciated the slower pace, it was easier on his body and allowed him to gather more food, not to mention that caring for the little one was far easier than he had initially expected. Maybe it was because it was a wild pokémon that it had to grow up relatively quick, but Slowpoke was almost self-sufficient at times, even finding its own food every once in a while. It still couldn't fish, despite Leo trying to show it how, but he had faith the little guy would figure it out somehow.

"Still need to find a name for you though. After I figure out whether you're a boy or a girl," Leo muttered, watching the sun rise over the snowcapped mountains, igniting the white tips with the colors of orange and yellow…

"Oh crap," Leo said suddenly eyes flying wide open as he stared at the snowy mountaintops. They were incredibly tall at this point, rising thousands of feet higher than Leo, to the point where the timber line could still be seen – trees ceasing to grow above it. Back in his old world snow wasn't uncommon on those kinds of peaks, even this time of year. The problem was they hadn't been white yesterday.

"Buddy, we need to go!" Leo called, grabbing his backpack and Skarmory feather, rushing to where slowpoke had wandered off to. Almost immediately he froze, gaping at the white creature that loomed over the little slowpoke as it sat at its feet, looking down at it with crimson red eyes.

A single, curved, scythe-like horn curled from the side of the canine's head, and when it looked at Leo he felt his blood run cold. An Absol was not but inches away from his slowpoke. He knew the lore of Absol, he knew what its appearance could mean, and while a part of him was ecstatic at seeing one of his favorite pokémon of all time, he was now terrified.

"Um, can I help you?" Leo asked softly, taking a slow step forward. The Absol didn't make a sound, simply turning and slowly walking further downriver. After walking about twenty feet, however, it stopped and looked over its shoulder at him. "Uh…" Leo said dumbly. Did it…did it want him to follow?

It jerked its head downstream, and Leo swallowed thickly, setting his shoulders and trying his hardest to remain outwardly calm as he moved over to the Slowpoke, opened his backpack, and convinced it to slip inside, where it shuffled around a bit and closed its eyes after eating one of the two potato things Leo had left. With a grunt of effort Leo slipped his bag back on, standing and gripping the hilt of his Skarmory feather as he nodded to the Absol. It held his gaze for a moment, then promptly loped off downstream.

Leo followed as best he could, legs burning as he struggled to keep up. He could almost feel the Absol's urgency with the way it constantly circled around Leo, leading him downstream and pushing him to go faster when he started to slow. Even when his legs threatened to collapse under him and his body coated itself with sweat Leo forged ahead, crawling hand-over-fist when the river valley got too narrow to travel next to the water, and forcing his way through dense brush. A couple times he did let the slowpoke out to travel alongside him as the day wore on, but it was slow and had a tendency to wander when Leo wasn't paying attention. This, in turn forced the Absol to circle back and push Leo harder.

Close to evening, Leo finally caught a glimpse of what he thought had the Absol so worried. Dark grey storm clouds were rolling in from the northwest, the barometric pressure dropping as quickly as the temperature. His breath was coming in ragged huffs as he leaned against a tree, a fourth wind – as he had already blown through his second and third winds earlier in the day after stumbling across another berry bush – spiking its way through his system riding a wave of adrenaline as he watched the storm.

"Look, either you get me to where I need to go soon, or I need to start hunkering down to try and ride this storm out," Leo panted, leaning against a boulder and relieving his shoulders of the weight of his backpack by resting it on said boulder. The Absol let out a long, slow whine, poking Leo's hip with the tip of its horn and making him yelp. "Alright, I get it! Let's keep going," he huffed, standing upright and almost falling over as he unbalanced himself. He cursed his own tiredness but followed the Absol anyway.

Night fell and the stars disappeared behind clouds as Leo stumbled through the tree-covered valley, chasing the white shadow that was Absol. Even his own exertion wasn't enough to keep him warm, a chill settling deep into his bones as he worked his way through the darkness. A howling wind carried daggers of frozen air with it, tormenting Leo's bare-chested form. Somewhere along the way he dropped the Skarmory feather, leaving it abandoned in the forest as his fingers numbed up.

He would've missed his salvation in his exhausted haze had the Absol not howled at him from the door of the long, low wooden cabin built nestled in a grove of tall pines. A fully intact cabin, with a stone chimney and windows – though no light came from inside. Leo almost sobbed in relief as he stumbled through the unlocked front door, the Absol vanishing immediately after he passed the threshold and collapsed onto the floor. For a solid ten minutes he just lay there as he gathered his wits, closing the door behind him with his foot. It was a small, one-room cabin with a double bed close to the wall next to the cold fireplace, blankets draped over the bed itself and piled in a basket at the foot of the bed.

The Slowpoke crooned from inside his backpack and Leo rolled it off his back, forcing himself to sit upright. Here, he might be able to survive the storm. He'd just need to get a fire going, which was easy enough with the split logs and kindling stacked neatly next to the fireplace. Leo didn't sleep in the bed though, instead stripping all the bedding off and throwing it into a pile before the fireplace, curling up into a ball in the huddle of blankets with Slowpoke wrapped up inside with him.

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier as the wind howled outside, warmth returning to him as shadows danced on the walls and he drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

That night, it snowed.