Making my way through the Forest underbrush, I start thinking it's finally time to see how long I've been here for, no sense in collecting all of these if I'm not gonna use them even once. It's surprising how laid back I've been with this situation since day one really.

Finding the super-secret den, that I'm pretty sure my somehow all-knowing caretaker knows about, I drop the shiny pebble I've been holding in my mouth inside. Looking at my small pile of 'fortune' in its entirety I carefully start spreading it out evenly on the ground. I've been collecting these for quite a while now, one shiny piece a day. By counting their number I can find how long I've been here for. There are random bits of shells, rounded down glass, funny looking rocks and what I believe to be a moderately large chunk of Malachite?

If my memory serves me right, malachite is a crystal that contains copper inside, giving it a beautiful green sheen. In general, as long as it's beautiful and the right size, into my hoard it goes. Said hoard serves two purposes. The first one is making my caretaker think I'm cute and innocent. Second one being counting how long I've been here for. Now that I've spread them out it's time to start counting...

Hmm, sixty days? Damn... It's really hard to believe two months have already passed, it feels more like two weeks, time really does fly when you're having fun.

Sighing, I leave the den, carefully covering it up with shrubbery to make sure that none of my new brothers and sisters can find it. I miss having hands man, the sheer amount of finesse and dedication you require for such a simple task nearly made me cry in frustration the first time around. I've gotten more proficient at it with time though.

Giving the place a once over I turn around and make my way back to the pond

I randomly start reminiscing about my first day here as I continue steadily prancing back.

- o - o -

Two months ago

'Hhhuuuuuuuuuuuuugh?!'

My first thought when I woke up was to, surprisingly enough, think of nothing at all! Have you ever been in a situation so shocking you simply had no choice but to stand stone still in place and wait for your mind to reboot? Well, I got to experience how that feels in all its glory.

After what felt like minutes I had finally collected myself enough to start looking around myself. Examining where I was standing on I could feel an incredibly soft blanket, okay, that was normal alright. Looking around me you could see the crux of my problem and the reason for the reaction I had. What I was absolutely certain without a shadow of a doubt are mudkip! There's no way I was mistaking their blue and orange bodies. Examining them more closely, I could see the movement caused by their breathing, not toys or dolls then, not that I had any doubt considering my situation.

Looking down I could see the small blue appendages that were my frontal legs. Moving them around brought the same sensation as if I were using my arms, or well...at least similar enough. Off that train of thought I tried moving my back legs. Standing up didn't seem to work, I could get all four of my limbs in position and try to but there simply wasn't enough strength in them to actually lift me.

Giving up trying to stand, I sighed. Guess I was a mudkip now. Somehow?

Recounting what had happened before I landed myself in this situation didn't seem to bring any answers. I had a regular day with regular stuff happening. Eating, playing video games, waiting for my last summer vacation to run its days. The only odd thing I could remember is how long my dream felt after I went to sleep. Literal years of just...waiting would be the right word. The best way I can describe it is with the movie Avatar, the one with the blue cat people.

In that movie, because of the vast distances between planet Earth and Alpha Centauri they have no choice but to put people in stasis while travelling on their spaceship. You can't dream while you're in stasis, you just close your eyes and Boom! You're there. What I experienced was similar but without ever losing awareness. I was in a state of being 'aware' that I exist but at the same time not having enough brainpower to process what existence is or wonder where I am. It's a bit hard to describe. I barely even noticed the passage of time.

That may have been be because I've spent literal months inside of a pokemon egg, and not because I've been actually drifting in the void between realms. Maybe a bit of both column A and column B? Who knows. Not that it matters even if I did know how I ended up here. No use worrying about it.

"Wha!? Hey! Let me down!"

During my silent contemplation I hadn't noticed the giant of a man that just...snuck behind me and grabbed me in the palm of his hand. Naturally I started thrashing around like my very life depended on it. Limbs flailing left and right, screaming at the top of my lungs. Thinking about it now, that's when I first got a feel for the muscles controlling my fins. Fear and panic did bring out my latent powers. Haha.

I think my shrieking woke up all the other mudkip too. Oops, well it's not my fault, you try being picked up by a giant a hundred times your size and try not panicking. I swear I really thought I was gonna die at that very moment in time.

After around fifteen or twenty seconds of flailing I suddenly felt an absolutely cataclysmic wave of exhaustion hit me. So much so that it got me to instantly ignore my fear of doom and death. The last thing I remember from that day before I closed my eyes to sleep is the man putting a stethoscope to my chest.

- o - o -

Present Day

"Yeaaaah, that is definitely not the first time he's done that in his life" I mumble to myself.

It takes at least some experience to know of the tiny amount of stamina we have after we've just hatched. Old man Rohan just held me in place waiting for my stamina to run out so he could do his job, listening to my heartbeat or whatever with that stethoscope of his without me interrupting. Could have at least been nice enough to leave the room so I didn't wake up my siblings.

I wonder if the small amount of stamina is something universal about all newly hatched pokemon or just a thing with mudkip. Probably not, Larvitar are a pokemon supposed to be on their own since the moment they hatch. They won't survive if they get dead tired after just ten seconds of walking. That is, considering my knowledge of the anime and games applies to this world.

I should find some food to eat before I go back shouldn't I? You need food to grow bigger and stronger even though for some reason you don't need to eat to survive, or at least you don't need a lot. For the N-th time I try to figure out how that works. It goes against everything I've learned from my old world, you know "energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form of energy to another" and all that?

My investigation has led me to believe we can quite literally suck up energy from the air, how crazy is that. Now, you may be thinking that this is quite the tall tale but hear me out, I've put two months of research into this. The very reason I started investigating this possibility is the fact that I Never. Got. Hungry. Here's how I got to that conclusion.

The first weeks of my newfound existence was basically me and all the other mudkip getting cared for by old man Rohan.

We got woken up, fed some form of paste through a food syringe. I later learned the paste is Oran berry mush with some other stuff added in. After eating we got cleaned up and put back to sleep in a new blanket. Rinse and repeat that process until we've built up enough strength and stamina for us to start walking around and exploring the room. The time we spent awake and active over those weeks steadily went from 10% to 20% to 30% and so on until we could stay awake for most of the time of day. Until that point I had not questioned why I hadn't been hungry even once, just assumed that our caretaker knew his stuff and fed us at appropriate times.

We steadily transitioned from Oran mush to more solid foods. That's how I found that mudkip are actually an omnivorous pokemon, owing to the chunks of meat we were given.

Overall the time we spent in the house was absolutely blessed. Including myself there are a total of twelve mudkip in our group, every single one of them is an utter joy to be around. Most of the time we were awake we spent playing.

It wasn't until one of our more boisterous fights where one of us quite literally 'smashed' through a wall that we were kicked out of the house and into our new habitation - The pond.

My eyes nearly popped out of my eye-sockets during that incident by the way. Luckily the room we were in was on the first floor so nobody got injured from the fall. Considering we could smash through a wall of bricks I doubt the fall would be a problem though.

I'm starting to go on a tangent aren't I?

About the food problem, it wasn't until old man Rohan started with his more hands off approach in raising us that I began noticing the inconsistencies about food and hunger. There are a lot of different berry bushes around his property we can eat from at will, the things seem able to magically regrow their berries every one to four days too. That's more than twenty times the average growth speed of normal berries from back home! It's absolutely absurd!

Tangents, right. I already know that a lot of this world doesn't work like It did back in my old one, no use getting worked up about it. At least Rohan needs to re-supply the berry bushes with fertilizer every other day so it's not like it makes completely no sense.

During our first day in the pond I lived up to the description of my pokemon species and, allowing my instincts to kick in, buried myself in the mud off the pond's edge, leaving only my head fin above ground along with a small hole for my nose so I could breathe. Mud baths feel absolutely divine. The pure bliss of the mud bath hit me so hard I slept through the entire day, that is, I went to sleep at around sunrise and woke up at sunset, when Rohan pulled me out of the mud to give me a bowl of food. Since then he's started giving us food once a day, at night, rather than three or four times a day.

That is when I first uncovered the food question. Despite being asleep for more than twelve hours I hadn't felt the least bit hungry. Not even a little bit. Even considering that I'm a species of supernatural power it just didn't add up. The only reason I eat the food now is because it has an amazing taste and because everyone else does, it's a great group activity to do with the others. I seriously doubt any of the mudkip here do it because of hunger.

The first time I 'truly' felt hungry was by complete accident. I had spent a few hours away from the pond, searching for what was to become my super-secret den. It was by far the longest I had spent away from the pond. A good five hours or so of exploring was all it took for me to feel that familiar feeling that is hunger. Something I hadn't felt ever since I'd become a mudkip. It didn't take me long to put two and two together and figure out that being around the pond somehow makes me incapable of getting hungry.

A couple weeks of random experiments later until today and I at least have an 'understanding' of where that energy comes from. I know that we as mudkip, and I assume all other water pokemon, have an intrinsic ability to absorb what I have termed 'aquatic aura'. I don't know if it actually is aura or something completely different but considering this is the pokemon universe it seemed more than appropriate. Assuming there are other types of aura like Rock and Steel would explain some things odd things. Have you wondered where a Leiron or an Onix gets its nutrition from considering that some have never seen the light of day? Well, just suck it up from the air buddy.

Anyways, I taught myself how to control said aquatic aura. It was a bit difficult to figure out at first but I was able to discover the alien sensation, considering I didn't have it as a human, and exercise my metaphorical muscles over it. The best way to describe how it felt would be that it's something along the lines of breathing. A thing you do subconsciously, not realizing you're doing it until you focus your mind on it. Once you do, it's hard not to get control over it.

My happiness over discovering this was quickly dashed when I tried manipulating this 'aquatic aura'. Quickly finding out that having control over it is a must if you want to be capable of using water type moves.

I had even cleared up my day...Ahem - Escaped my siblings. Gotten into a neat meditation posture, just for my instinct to kick in and redirect all of the aquatic aura into my mouth, forcing a trickle of water out...I'm not salty about it…

At least I started being called "Coolest bro" by everyone when I taught them how to use it. With some practice all of us can now use a nerfed down, harmless version of water gun. It won't really do much more than push you back if you get hit by it. We seem to have hit a plateau as far as its power goes, my guess is that we have more growing up to do before we are able to send out an actual damaging water gun.

Finding a pecha berry bush I quickly skip over to it and start picking off the berries. The one thing becoming a mudkip has given me is a mighty strong sweet tooth. Pecha berries do real good to fill that craving for sweetness. It would have really helped if they weren't as hollow as the bones of a bird though. Seriously, pecha are like 90% air and 10% berry, completely hollow. If you were to compress them they'd probably be as small as grapes rather than as big as figs. I'm reasonably sure both the bird and fruit analogies hold no ground in this world though.

"Cool Bro!"

"Wha!?"

Out of nowhere I'm tackled down by one of my sisters. All the air in my lungs leaves my body under the force of the blow.

"Oww… Can't you be more gentle. That really hurt me."

"Nawh, ai whont" (No, I won't)

Turning over so my stomach points down to the ground I can feel "rocky sister" nibbling on the gill on my right cheek. Stretching my neck I pick up the half eaten pecha berry and slowly finish it. All the while Rocky sis is gently gnawing, looking at me. I can practically feel her gaze boring into my soul. Slowly, so she won't notice, I get my legs in position.

"Don't you have more walls to destroy?" Just as I say that she lets go of my gill, her eyes turning fiery red in rage.

Too bad for her. I bolt away as fast as I can the moment she lets go of me while she has to spend about a second reorienting her sprawled limbs, that gives me ample time to gain some distance on her before she starts rushing me.

I can hear her shouting from behind me "The wall was already cracked annoying bro!"

"Nobody believes you rock head!" I shout back at her, calling her by the one nickname she absolutely despises above all else.

"AAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHHHH" The resulting shriek practically ruptures my poor eardrums.

It takes all of my willpower not to laugh my ass out at that reaction, I've already made that mistake once and I have no interest in repeating it. I know better than anyone that her rage burns like a thousand flaming suns.

"Get back over here!" She says as she launches a water gun at me which I easily dodge. It only makes her lose more distance.

This actually reminds me of how I introduced Hide and Seek to our group. Hahahahaha.

- o - o -

Eventually, that is an hour later, her rage burns out.

"Pftht…"*cough* *cough*

Maybe not, if the mud-slap to the face is anything to go by. More like her body is burned out rather than her rage. Thankfully even though she has more stamina than I do she depletes it four times as quickly while in her berserk state.

Luckily for me I have a master plan to make up with her.

Shifting my tail fin, I move around the super-rare Mago berry that is probably the cause of half our little group's fights. Thinking about it more deeply, that is probably on purpose. Having only two of the objectively best tasting berries a day? When there are twelve of us? I guess that's one way of passively getting us ready for the pokemon professors, if they are a thing.

If things ever get too heated between us I guess all-knowing lord Rohan can always step in and break us out of our tussle, he does seem to be in the right place at the right time without fault.

*inhale* "You better watch your back annoying bro" *exhale* *inhale* "I'm after you!" *exhale*

Rocky sis is basically out of it by now, I don't think she's gonna be able to walk for next few hours.

"Hooooh? Will you say the same if I share this with you" I say as I turn my side to her, doing my best superhero impersonation and striking a pose, showing her the berry I'm holding with my tail.

"Whoah!" I'm instantly tackled to the ground after which she pounces on me like a cat, pinning me down.

"You have no idea how lucky you are right now cool bro, I was literally five seconds away from beating you into the mud" She says with a smug expression on her face.

"YOU JUST DID!" I shout back at her.

"WAIT, you tricked me! You weren't tired at all, you liar." I blast her with a full powered water gun to the face. She gets lifted a bit into the air from the force of the blow. Doing an unintentional backflip she flops into the mud, her limbs stretched out like a starfish.

She gets back up, totally undisturbed.

"Humph! You're the fastest out of all of us, I need some way of closing down the gap. You're way too arrogant anyways, cool bro, didn't even consider that I could be faking my exhaustion." She says as she slowly walks to the berry and bites off half of it.

"Fair enough, fair enough." I follow behind her, chomping on the other half of the berry... Hey, she actually left me the tastier half of it. That's so nice...

"I'm tired" I suddenly blurt out.

"Yeah, we'll have to sit out today's berry tournament." She grumbles to me. The berry competition was something I had introduced to the group the moment we started having disputes about who gets to eat the super-rare Mago berries. It consists of a combination of random games we've thought up together put into a tournament format.

"Oh no!" I gasp.

"What a tragedy." I juke the half-hearted tackle she sends my way.

"Guess that just means we get judge duty for today, silent bro will be very happy. Come on" I start walking to where the others should be. Rocky sis quickly catches up to me and follows me to my right side.

- o - o -

Rohan looked at the watch on his wrist, checking the time. Seeing that It's almost 7 P.M. He fills up the kettle with water and places it on the stove. Grabbing one of the chairs he moves It in front of the window and begins watching the mudkip playing outside.

"You seem to be a little worried." He hears in his mind what feels more like a pleasant hum than actual talking.

Looking past his shoulder he sees Ezelle, his Gardevoir, walk up behind him.

"Yes, these are without a doubt the weirdest bunch of mudkip I've ever raised, and that's with thirty years of experience behind my back too." He shifts his head back to look through the window.

"Truly, I had never seen a mudkip so young getting the strength to break through a wall of bricks. Let alone every single one of them learning how to use water gun." Wasn't that an odd situation. Normally the earliest he'd ever seen a mudkip learn water gun was at seven months old, and that was a big outlier. As one of the Hoenn regional starters, mudkip are given out to promising young trainers on the day they become a year old, learning water gun maybe a week to a month after the start of their journey. That means this group is at least eight months too early.

"Maybe it's the Mago tree? They've been competing for its berries every single day. "

"Perhaps~... You should make sure there is more than a single tree for next year's clutch, it was quite predictable that something like this would have occurred Mr. 'Thirty years of experience'. "

"Urgh. Yes, I should send a call to the berry gardener after my conversation with Roxanne." The old man scratches his cheek, slightly embarrassed. "At least it turned out for the better, I'm glad I won't have to separate them from each other. "

"Indeed, the little ones have limited control over their own emotions...Hmmm, does the new Gym Leaders' arrival have something to do with the mudkip being raised here, I cannot Imagine that her presence would be required for anything else?" Rohan can feel the curiosity of his pokemon spike through their psychic connection.

"Aye, tell me honestly, Eze, at the rate they're going, how long will it take before they start undergoing their first evolution into Marshtomp?"

At his words she floats over to the window and starts observing as well. About a minute passes before she speaks up again.

"...You're worried that they'll evolve on their own, without a trainer, before the end of the year?"

"I'm absolutely certain that they will if they continue at this pace, I mean look at those movements. What are they even doing?" The Gardevoir takes a closer look at the mudkip playing.

"That would be a game they have simply named 'Dodge'. If you look a little closer you would be able to see the messy circle they have drawn in the mud, separated in half by a line. The two mudkip competing take position on opposite sides of the circle, afterwards taking turns shooting water guns at each other. You lose either by being hit or by leaving the circle."

"You're joking…" The man's jaw metaphorically hits the ground at her words.

His reaction causes Ezelle to send an infectious amount of amusement through the psychic connection between them.

"At the very least, you need not worry about something like this happening again. With the exception of the wall incident all of this group's peculiarities can be linked to the one you've named..." She pauses for a moment to build dramatic suspense "The escapee~"

"That annoying little rascal!?" Rohan's face scrunches up a tiny bit, being reminded of an unpleasant memory. "At least he has stopped trying to leave the damn property, I swear to Arceus he was doing that on purpose just to mess with me." Again the Gardevoir sends some of her amusement his way.

"I believe he did that more because he was fascinated with how you could always find him despite all of his attempts at sneaking around, rather than because he wanted to annoy you, if his emotions at the time were anything to go by. For someone who has no concept of what teleportation is, it should have been fairly interesting."

The elderly man 'Humphs' in mock outrage. "So what's this about the group's peculiarities being his doing."

"Well, naturally I decided to keep a closer eye on him after his escapades. What I've found is that he has quite the inquisitive and caring nature~ He was actually the one who discovered how to use water gun first and later taught it to everyone else. There, those two lying under the shade of the tree. He's the one on the right." Stating that, she points to said location with her hand.

"Funnily enough the mudkip on the left is the same one who punched through the wall." Putting her hand back down she continues "Most of the games they play were invented by him as well, he's the one who taught them how to play 'Dodge'. The 'Daily berry tournament', as they call it, was his idea as well. He introduced it to them in order to stop his berry-mad siblings from starting a berry-fueled rampage~" For the third time in short succession, Ezella sends her amusement across.

"That's quite the long list of things ain't it?"

"It is for this reason that I say you need not be worried about an event like this happening again. The chance for the stars to align is bigger than another mudkip like this appearing. The amount of emotional maturity and intelligence he has displayed over these short two months is something I wouldn't expect from most adults. It almost makes me regret deciding to stay on the sidelines playing the role of the silent guardian when it comes to raising them. He would have been a delight to play around with." She moves to the kitchen stove, turning it off and picking up the kettle full of boiling water.

"That being said, I truly hope with all my heart that you and lady Roxanne can find a home that will warmly welcome the little ones." Placing the kettle on one of the wooden chopping boards, she cuts the psychic connection and ascends the stairs to the second floor.

As if on cue with her leaving, the houses' doorbell rings. Going to the front door Rohan gently opens it.

"Ah, Miss Roxanne. Please, come in, I was just about to make some tea."