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The desert was a difficult location to live in on a good day, made nearly inhabitable with its sweltering temperatures in the day and freezing ones at night. The frequent sandstorms that had a tendency to appear out of nowhere did not help matters, often catching people off guard.
Dwebble, on the other hand, was proud of her safety precautions. She knew well what might happen to a dwebble without a shell, so she always had an excess in case her current one broke. Never had she been made to deal with the terror of building a new shelter.
Her rocky shells were always in pristine condition, so it was no trouble to simply dig beneath the sand to avoid the oncoming sandstorm. If anything, she expected the wait to be boring, only having to occasionally dig deeper to make up for the sand that would be kicked up around her.
She was not expecting someone to trip over her and lift her out of the ground, and was even more surprised at the two identical faces looking down at her.
Both were panting heavily, like they had been running a great distance, and their choice of clothing did nothing to help them with the heat. She scrambled to her feet, tipping over with some difficulty, and chirped up at them.
The one in black- black in a desert?- waved their hands frantically, a worried look in their eyes.
“Apologies for the derailment!” Oh, loud one, “we did not mean to trip over you! We were moving in haste…”
She waved her claws, forging them. She did, after all, look like nothing more than a random stone in the sand. Though they really ought to look where they were going. However… as she looked past the two humans, the billowing sand formation behind them grew larger, gaining in them. perhaps they had been looking where they were going, just not their feet.
“Thank you…” the loud one tipped their cap, though his eyes kept flicking over to the coming storm.
She tapped her chin with a claw, debating. She looked up at the two now mildly panicking humans. They still had chubby cheeks and a softness to them that betrayed their youth, and it was no good to leave children out in a sandstorm.
Decision made, she chirped up at them to gain their attention, and gestured with her claw follow me . To her delight, they instantly understood and fell in step behind her. It had been a while since she had found humans that understood pokemon language. Though, It was more likely they just understood the body language, which was considerably easier for humans to grasp.
They had soon reached a rock face that had a few cracks and dips in it. She didn’t come here often to get away from the heavy winds and sand, as often just burrowing herself underground was enough protection, but humans could not burrow like she could. She looked over the wall quickly, looking for the deepest hole carved out of it. She would need to do this quickly to get them safe before the storm hit.
Finding one that was somewhat decent, she began spitting at the rock, making it bubble and steam as it was eroded away. Her sharp claws helped with the digging as she chipped away at it, little by little. She could hear the two humans gasp in amazement as she dug a side passage in the hole, angled so the wind wouldn’t blow inside. The humans had dug through their backpacks and pulled out two short pointed sticks, helping her chip any at the stone. Soon enough it was big enough for the humans to fit through, though the inside was still too small to spend any amount of time in.
The wind was whipping at them violently when she finally deemed it a decent size for them to hide out in. The humans slumped to the ground, seemingly exhausted from chopping away at stone so quickly. Dwebble’s mouth was also feeling rather sore after spewing so much acid at the rock. She was glad that the winds had not changed to throw sand in their temporary hideout.
All three of them were huddled up one far corner, Dweedle happily resting with her face hidden behind her sore claws. Something softly tapped her shell, making her look up.
The human in black had their palm open, holding an Oran berry. She blinked at it before happily snapping it up with her claws and shoving it in her mouth. Her aches lessened a little from its cool numbing juices.
She heard the human laugh loudly, surprising her, and more berries were offered. She was not one to say no to a gift, and they were quickly devoured. She chirped in thanks to the kind human, who happily smiled back, though their lips did not move.
The one in black offered food to the other one, and they shared the remaining berries. They shuffled closer, shoulder to shoulder as they leaned against one another. Ah yes, she should have noticed sooner, these two were nestmates. They were far more identical looking than any other humans she knew of, perhaps twins?
The two looked over at her simultaneously suddenly, making her jump in surprise. Yes, definitely twins. The one in black offered her a hand, tilting their head come here? Well, why not?
She settled between their legs, leaning back into them as she curled up and tucked herself into a ball. She couldn’t see behind her claws, but she felt a hand gently petting her shell. It was not uncomfortable, so she did nothing to stop it.
The two humans talked above her, one notably louder than the other, and she relaxed. This was nice.
It didn’t take long for the storm to calm, just enough time for the three of them to grow drowsy, but not quite fall asleep. The sudden lack of sand blocking the sun’s rays startled the twins into awareness, jostling Dwebble in the process. She chirped in annoyance as the two humans began to pack up, getting ready to leave.
She watched in quiet sadness watching the two nice humans begin to leave. She couldn’t help but wonder why, especially since she had hardly known them for two hours. Yet still, she turns to go with them, with their gentle kindness.
The one in white crawled out of the small den, yet the one in black hesitated, turning back to her. He looked down at his bag, nodded, and began rummaging through it. She moved closer, wondering what they were looking for.
The human pulled out a pokeball, and taped the button in the center to make it larger. Turning to her, he kneeled down and presented the ball. He did not speak, yet his message was clear.
Do you want to join us?
It took all her will power not to immediately press the button, to join them in their travels. Important decisions like this needed thought, not reckless spontaneous acting! Even so, it was hard to think logically when they looked like that.
They were young, very young, and not yet ready to face the world, yet here they were. They were together, but they needed someone to protect them, put safety first. Clearly, they had yet to have someone like that.
She supposed, if no one else was going to, she would do just as well as any other pokemon.
She jabbed the button with her claw, not resisting at all as the comforting darkness of the pokeball surrounded her. It’s not like there was much for her here in the desert, hiding from storms and forging for whatever she could get her claws on.
She curled up in a ball again, preparing for a nap as she listened to the joyful sounds coming from outside her pokeball.
Yes, she laughed, she doubted she would regret traveling with them.