Chapter Text
Even though Kiawe was an early bird—always the first of the family to rise and start going about his chores even before his mother awoke for her daily round milking the Miltank—one day in early spring he was shaken out of his dreams unexpectedly. As he blinked the sleep from his tired eyes, his Marowak swam into focus, jumping up and down beside his bed and tugging urgently at his duvet cover.
“Wak! Wak!”
“Unh—… what is it, buddy?” Kiawe asked sleepily. He didn’t feel like forfeiting the warmth of his bed just yet, but his pokémon clearly had other ideas.
“Wak! Marowak!” It called again, and, with one last, mighty tug, it succeeded in pulling the warming duvet cover entirely off him.
As soon as the cool air of the room hit him, Kiawe knew there was no use in trying to get back to sleep. However, he didn’t yet don his usual attire, but instead slipped into his fluffy dressing gown and slippers. He barely had time even for that, as Marowak immediately started to tug at the hem of the garment, threatening to tear it with its urgency until Kiawe at last resigned himself to follow the pokémon outside.
His breath rose in a little semi-translucent cloud from his lips and Kiawe had to wrap his dressing gown more tightly around himself in the early morning chill. The sun hadn’t yet risen, though the first rosy fingers of dawn had begun their slow ascent above the guardian ridge of Wela Volcano. Kiawe always felt reinvigorated at the sight of it, and the crisp, cool air did wonders to dispel his residual sleepiness. It seemed Marowak was making a beeline for the barn in which some of the Tauros herd—those which preferred some shelter over sleeping out in the farm’s open meadows—should still be fast asleep.
“Let’s keep it down, yeah?” Kiawe murmured to his overexcited companion, “We don’t want a stampede on our hands first thing.”
Marowak keep its unwavering pace towards the large, wooden building, but it did obey its trainer’s suggestion, keeping its repeated calls of “Wak! Wak!” to a minimum.
An unusual hush still lay over the barn when Kiawe poked his head inside, with only the occasional scraping of hooves and rustle of hay. He lit a single lantern beside the entrance as quietly as possible, then took it off the wall so he could move around the barn and make sure everything was as it should be. Tauros leant against Tauros, radiating warmth and putting Kiawe’s mind at ease. Everything seemed to be peaceful and undisturbed.
“What is it, hm?” he asked again, looking back over his shoulder at Marowak, “What’s got you so worked up?”
Glaring from behind its skull headpiece as if to say “I thought you’d never ask!” Marowak pointed its bone club upwards with considerable urgency. A ladder leaned against one of the thick central poles which supported the wooden structure, allowing access to the upper level of the barn, where much of the hay was stored throughout the winter months. With one last glance at the sassy-looking pokémon, Kiawe began his ascent with no idea as to what might await him at the top of the ladder. It wasn’t long before he reached the hayloft, where he raised his lantern to cast light into dimly lit nooks and crannies. To his surprise, the sight that greeted him was another of his pokémon team: his faithful Talonflame. Kiawe always let her roam freely whenever they weren’t training as he knew she delighted in spreading her fiery wings and didn’t like to be cooped up inside a pokéball for too long. At that moment, however, the bird pokémon was curled up in a little nest of hay atop one of the barn’s wooden rafters. Treading softly, he approached her.
“Hey, girl. What’re you doing curled up here, hm? Didn’t feel like coming up to the house tonight?”
Talonflame’s caw, which was usually loud and piercing, came soft and low in response, as though picking up on Kiawe’s own quiet tone. He crouched down to check if she was hurt or poorly in any way, petting her feathers for a moment before moving her wing aside carefully.
“Caw! Caw!”
This time Talonflame’s call was louder and at last Kiawe could see why. At last he understood what Marowak—who had clambered up the ladder and now stood behind him, tapping its club impatiently—had been making such a fuss about. Beneath Talonflame’s body, three small, blue-tinted eggs sat snugly in their nest of hay. Their shells were intact, and warm, too, obviously benefitting from their mother’s typically high body temperature.
“Oh…!” Kiawe breathed, suddenly speechless. It was such a marvel, and such an unexpected one at that, that he felt suddenly moved. Once again his hands ghosted through Talonflame’s feathers.
“Wow… you’re gonna have some little ones running around here soon, huh? That’s… that’s amazing.”
So enraptured by the sight was he, that he didn’t hear the sound of small feet entering the barn and, following the warm glow of his lantern, clambering up the ladder in Marowak’s wake.
“Brobro?” came a small, sleepy voice, “What’re you doing out here so early?”
Perched—to Kiawe’s eyes precariously —at the top of the ladder, rubbing her eyes, was his little sister, her hair a wild puff around her head as it hadn’t yet been tamed into the small ponytail she usually wore. In a matter of seconds Kiawe was beside her.
“Mimo! What are you doing?! That’s dangerous!”
He picked her up with ease and lifted her feather-light frame off the ladder and up into the relative safety of the hayloft.
“I can climb up a ladder! ” Mimo huffed immediately, little hands flying to little hips in emulation of one of her mother’s authoritative poses, “I’m not a baby! ”
“You could have hurt yourself! You could have fallen!”
Kiawe’s brotherly concern fell on deaf ears. The little girl’s eyes had been drawn to Talonflame’s nest, illuminated by the lantern Kiawe had left beside it. With surprising speed she side-stepped her brother and bounded up to the bird pokémon.
“Woah!”
Now smiling crookedly, Kiawe joined her, crouching down once again. Mimo’s eyes were huge and round like saucers as she studied the contents of the nest.
“Eggs?”
“Yeah. Talonflame’s gonna be a mom.”
Perpetually curious, she reached out a little hand to touch them; looking at something without touching it had always been a foreign concept to her.
“Be careful.” Kiawe cautioned, knowing full well that she would proceed unperturbed no matter what he said.
Sure enough, Mimo placed her hand softly against one of the eggs blueish shells, but she did so carefully as advised.
“It’s warm ,” she observed, looking up at her brother for confirmation.
He found himself smiling. His much larger hands were likely capable of far more damage, so it was with additional care that he too reached out to brush his fingers against an eggshell. It was true: the eggs gave off a powerful warmth, which must only be amplified by their mother’s fluffy feathers keeping them isolated from the cool air outside. Talonflame watched them from narrowed eyes, but made no attempt to nip at their fingers with her fierce beak. Instead, she cawed softly once more before shifting her red and black wing to cover her unhatched offspring back up, hiding them from view.
“Are they gonna hatch into little Talonflames?” Mimo asked, plopping herself down cross-legged amid the hay.
“Fletchling,” Kiawe corrected, “They’re going to hatch into Fletchling at first. Then as they grow older and stronger, they might evolve.”
Mimo ‘oooh’ -ed at that, looking back at Talonflame, who had settled in more comfortably to brood and had closed her eyes. Kiawe followed her gaze, studying his pokémon with considerable fondness.
“Remember how Talonflame used to be a Fletchinder before she evolved? It happened in battle—ah, you might be too young to remember that.”
“I’m not! I remember!” His sister protested, pulling a face that made it impossible for Kiawe not to laugh.
“Good, well,” he said, once his laughter at her grimace had subsided, “The same might happen to the Fletchling that hatch from these eggs.”
“When’re they gonna hatch?”
He smiled, unsure whether the question was born from her inquisitive nature or her all-consuming impatience. “I’m not sure. I don’t even know how long ago she laid the eggs.”
Kiawe glanced over at Marowak, who was standing only a few steps away like a solemn guardian, and beckoned to him.
“Thanks for coming to get me, buddy.”
“Wak!”
It looked pleased, its eyes closing happily behind the skull headpiece obscuring its features as Kiawe petted it fondly.
“I’d say Talonflame only just laid them, is that right? Is that why you came to get me today?”
Immediately, Marowak nodded and thumped its bone club onto the hayloft’s wooden floor for emphasis.
“Wak! Marowak!”
From atop her nest, Talonflame inched open one eye at the noise, but didn’t move. Kiawe got to his feet and ushered both Marowak and Mimo along with him.
“Let’s give Talonflame some space, yeah? We can come back later to check on her.”
Mimo clapped her hands together excitedly. “Yay! I’m gonna take good care of the baby eggs!”
“I’m sure you are,” Kiawe chuckled fondly, “Just make sure to steer clear of Talonflame’s beak, okay?”
“Yes, Kiawe…” Mimo rolled her eyes, already exasperated with her big brother’s lecturing. He knew that, he did, but he couldn’t help it.
“And her talons, too. She doesn’t have that name for nothing.”
“Yes, Kiawe...”
The little girl was making a beeline for the top of the ladder, but before she could get there, Kiawe scooped her up in his arms and lifted her into the air.
“Not so fast! Hold this.”
Once Mimo was securely holding onto the lantern and clinging tightly to him, he only needed to support her weight with one arm. Their descent down the ladder was significantly more difficult than the effortless way up had been; despite her barely noticeable weight, Mimo was prone to squirming around like a Caterpie and nearly dropped the lantern a few times before they were back on solid ground.
The Tauros herd stirred softly around them, awakening slowly from dreams of bottomless food troughs and infinite meadows to stampede across.
“Why don’t you go back to bed for a bit, Mimo. Breakfast isn’t until later and I’ve got some pretty boring chores to do.”
“What about the eggs?”
“Later—if I have a free moment—I’ll go and pay Professor Kukui a visit. He’s probably the most knowledgeable person when it comes to those kinds of things. Maybe he’ll know how long the brooding period should go on for.”
Mimo nodded avidly, hands clasped in front of her. It was obvious she was about to turn her infamous big Rockruff eyes on him, so he quickly intervened before she got a chance.
“You can come with me, if you like.”
All pretense dissipated, the little girl jumped up and down in excitement a few times. “Yay! My brobro’s the best!”