Chapter 21: Molting and Growth
The next day, Ryū opened his eyes and glanced out the window. The sky was still a hazy dawn color.
He closed his eyes, preparing to sleep a bit longer, but the discomfort on his body made him not only unable to sleep but gradually wake up. He felt like he was dehydrated.
Not thirsty, but his skin was dehydrated. Ryū felt his entire body was tight, as if he were wearing a tight suit that didn't quite fit.
This discomfort made him roll and wriggle on the bed, constantly rubbing his body against the sheets and blankets to relieve the feeling. "Aran~ are you awake?"
Liz, who was sleeping next to him, seemed to be disturbed by Ryū's movements. She sat up groggily, rubbed her eyes, and looked out the window. "It's not light yet, okay? Let's sleep a little longer."
But Ryū, curled up in the blanket, didn't hear what Liz was saying at all. He only felt that as he wriggled, his body gradually became comfortable.
The feeling was like the tight suit on his body was being slowly taken off, allowing his skin to come into contact with fresh air, which felt much better, although it was still a bit dry. "Aran? What's wrong?"
Liz looked at the constantly shaking and rippling blanket and pulled it open to see. What she saw startled Liz.
From her perspective, many white, translucent membranes had appeared on Ryū's body. Some of them had already fallen onto the sheets, while others were still stuck to Ryū's body.
This instantly made Liz fully awake. She quickly picked up Ryū and ran outside barefoot in her pajamas. About 5 minutes later, Ryū lay on the operating table of the Pokémon Research Institute, surrounded by a group of people who looked like doctors, constantly discussing his condition.
"According to my examination, Lord Aran's body is fine, quite healthy." Finally, a relatively young doctor stepped forward to give the result.
Although this doctor was quite young, when it came to the time spent researching Pokémon, he was the one who had done so the longest among these people. As early as before the founding of the Royal Dragon Kingdom, he had begun to study the physical health status and living habits of the Pokémon within the tribe. In the future, this person would be a Pokémon scholar.
"Then what's going on?" Liz pointed to the white flakes on Ryū's body.
"I'm just Shedding Skin. Instead of spending time researching there, you might as well help me peel off this skin from my body. It's so itchy." Ryū glanced at everyone speechlessly.
The operating table was smooth and had no friction. Even if he wriggled, it was difficult to rub off the Shed Skin, which only made him more uncomfortable, so he simply stopped moving. He was also a bit tired.
A Pokémon like Dratini grows continuously through repeated Shedding Skin. They will Shed Skin at a frequency of almost once a day, and their body size will gradually become longer during this process.
The reason for repeated Shedding Skin is that the life energy within their bodies is constantly expanding and cannot be suppressed. The skin Shed by Dratini is also a super rare treasure.
In the future Alliance Era, people will tan the skin Shed by Dratini and make it into ultra-high-class goods such as clothes and boots, which is also one of the economic sources for the Dragon Tamer Clan. However, Ryū had no way to tell these people this.
These people simply didn't understand what he was saying. Even if his intimacy and rapport with Liz reached a high level in the future, the other party should not be able to understand such complex words. Unless Liz awakens a special ability.
"Based on my observation of a type of purple snake Pokémon, this might be a Shedding Skin phenomenon."
"Oh?! You really know something." Ryū's eyes widened, and he looked at the young Pokémon scholar.
Considering that this is the Johto Region and the types of Pokémon on Mt. Silver, he thought this person was likely talking about Ekans or Arbok. Actually, Metapod and Kakuna also have the Shed Skin ability, but the Shedding Skin of these two Bug-type Pokémon is a bit different from the Shedding Skin of snake-like Pokémon.
"Is that so? Then what should we do now?" When Liz heard this, she felt it really made sense.
Those snakes usually have this phenomenon of Shedding Skin, and her Lord Aran, who looks like a snake, should also have it.
"Hmm... For the purple snake Pokémon, we manually help them Shed Skin. But since your Lord Aran is a Pokémon that we are seeing for the first time, to be safe, I think it's better to let him Shed Skin by himself."
"What?! What nonsense are you talking about? Are you trying to exhaust the baby to death?! Liz, this guy is a quack doctor, tell him to scram!" Ryū immediately became agitated when he heard what this guy said.
A normal Dratini might Shed Skin very easily by itself, but he was human at heart and couldn't find the knack for Shedding Skin. He usually had to exert a lot of effort just to wriggle forward by himself, let alone Shed Skin by himself.
This morning, he was so tired that he almost vomited last night's dinner. Regarding Ryū's protest, the surrounding people just glanced at him indifferently. Everyone didn't know what kind of cuteness this little thing was displaying.
After all, from a human perspective, at this moment, Ryū was just a little Dratini baby constantly making 'mew~ mew~' sounds. The surrounding maids' hearts melted when they saw him, and they probably understood why their Queen was so fond of this little guy.
With the same elongated physique, the Dratini baby was so adorable and cute. But an Ekans baby made people feel creepy.
"Okay, it seems like we can only do this for now." Liz nodded, feeling that this was the only thing they could do now.
After all, no one knew if helping Lord Aran Shed Skin would have any impact on Lord Aran's growth. In the animal kingdom, Shedding Skin itself is a kind of experience and test. Animals that can successfully Shed Skin by themselves are often stronger, while those that cannot even Shed Skin are simply not suited to survive in this world.
After the research yielded a result, Ryū was transferred to the lawn in the backyard of the Royal Palace. Using the grass on the lawn, Ryū finally completed the damn Shedding Skin process after 15 minutes.
"Wow~ Lord Aran feels... a bit longer after Shedding Skin? And, so soft." Liz held the exhausted Ryū, who was lying on the ground unable to move, in her arms and examined him carefully.
Then she found that Ryū had changed quite a bit after Shedding Skin. He had become a bit longer, the light blue color on his back was a bit deeper, and his skin had become soft and delicate, with an excellent feel.
"I'm exhausted..." Ryū was held in Liz's arms, too lazy to move even a little.
The thought of having to Shed Skin by himself once every day in the future immediately filled his heart with a sense of despair. He would rather battle other Pokémon than Shed Skin.
Battling other Pokémon can at least accumulate experience and speed up leveling up and evolution. But the help from Shedding Skin is very small; it is more just what is needed for physical growth. In the descriptions of individual Pokédex entries, wild Dratini also use waterfalls flowing straight down to wash away their Shed Skin, rather than struggling to wriggle it off themselves.
This also means that for Dratini, whether the Shedding Skin behavior is completed by itself is not important, as long as the skin is eventually Shed. Moreover, Dratini needs to reach approximately level 30 to evolve into Dragonair.
If he stays in the Royal Palace without battling, growing only by eating and sleeping like some wild Pokémon, it would take at least a year to evolve into Dragonair, which means he would have to Shed Skin for 365 days! And even at the Dragonair stage, he still has the 'Shed Skin' ability, but the frequency of Shedding Skin will become very, very low then.
"No, I must find a way to get Liz to help me Shed Skin."