Hunger Pangs

Sundae stared at the scene in front of him stewing in the dread that swirled in his head. Dune, though well meaning, always seemed to cause some kind of mess or problem when Sundae looked away. Recently though, he thought they managed to work on it enough that incidents were becoming far less common and far less... extreme. All of that went out the window now; this absolutely beat all of Dune’s previous incidents.

“What... have you done?” Sundae asked in disbelief looking at the area around them. Pieces of plants and berries were scattered all around with half-eaten stocks swaying sadly in the light wind. Some plants, which were dug out of the ground littering the grass with patches of dirt, laid helpless and sad next to the holes they were plucked from. The culprit was clear; with pieces of berries stuck to Dune’s mouth and his stubby paws covered in dirt... though he clearly had no thoughts in his head distracted by the berry he still munched on.

Unfortunately these weren’t just naturally growing plants that Dune happened to find and destroy. No, of course not, he just had to find and pick out Vivian’s Garden to destroy. The only solace Sundae could find was that only half the garden had been cleaned out. He managed to find and stop Dune before the rest could follow the same fate.

“I can’t believe you...” Sundae picked Dune up despite complaints and struggling from the little pokemon. He clearly wasn’t finished with the berries.

“You and I are going to go and apologize. Now.”

As much as Sundae wanted to pretend it didn’t happen... well he just had to ignore it. Finding Vivian was a bit harder than he thought it would be, she rarely seemed to stay in one place for too long, but eventually he managed to catch up with her and pull her aside from what she was doing to explain. She listened quietly, something very unlike her, and when Sundae was done explaining she didn’t respond right away clearly measuring how to do so.

“How much was eaten?” Vivian asked quietly.

“Half.”

“Half...”

Silence followed again. She eventually took a deep breath and looked at Dune. “He’s not... experiencing anything weird is he?”

That took Sundae a bit off guard. “Anything weird?”

“Well like, you know. I breed plants and try to make newer and stronger ones but I don’t always know what’s going to happen when they’re... eaten... or eaten together....”

Sundae and Vivian stared at each other for a while before both looking at Dune who, ultimately, seemed to be just fine. If a little upset. They started to get worried when Dune suddenly began to glow.

“Uh...” Sundae tried to think of a way to respond, “Can your berries do that?”

Vivian shrugged, “I just told you I don’t really know! They were experimental!”

The glowing got brighter and brighter until it fully engulfed Dune and, then, it began to grow in size. At that point both Sundae and Vivian relaxed, sighing in relief. Once the light faded their suspicions were confirmed; just a badly timed evolution. Sundae watched as Dune yawned and curled up as if having expended so much energy tired him out. Sundae did think it was odd the way he’d suddenly just gone and destroyed a garden... but maybe the evolution process had something to do with it?

“I... think he’s fine.” Sundae said, turning his attention back to Vivian.

“Well at least one of us is.” Vivian buried her face in her hands to hide her expression and, Sundae guessed, composed herself.

“...Listen...I’ll... help you restore it.” Sundae offered receiving a glance from Vivian.

“No offense, but I don’t really trust you with gardening.”

Sundae knew that was a fair assessment. He didn’t have a single ounce of experience with gardening, and for what Vivian was trying to achieve, he’d be a less than ideal assistant.

“Buuuut...” Vivian interrupted his thoughts, “To make up for it I will be making you come on explorations with me. Two hands are better than one when collecting things~.”

He couldn’t really argue with that. More than anything he just felt glad she hadn’t freaked out, though Sundae imagined she was probably in a state of turmoil internally.

“I don’t really have the right to refuse...” Sundae looked at Dune and returned the newly evolved pokemon to its pokeball, “I’ll go with you wherever it is you want to go. Just try to ask at reasonable times during the day.”

“I make no promises.” Vivian smiled.