When Lucien returned to the cabin with Dratini to prepare for lunch, he was surprised to find that Snivy had vanished.
Startled, he looked toward the nearby Pokémon.
"Where's Snivy?" he asked.
The Minccino pointed outside with their tails, chirping in unison. "Chino!"
"Did she run off?"
"Chino, chino!" The Minccino nodded repeatedly.
Lucien glanced at the snow outside, feeling a flicker of surprise.
This Snivy truly had a unique personality. For a Grass-type, she didn't seem bothered by the cold at all. She would've been far more comfortable inside the warm cabin, yet she still chose to brave the snow.
That alone told Lucien something important: Snivy had her own resilience and spirit. If he could earn her trust and one day capture her, her training potential would be extraordinary.
By the time lunch was served, the maids had laid out a spread of soft white bread, a pomelo fruit salad, smoked ham, fish balls, and a bowl of mixed nuts. The fish balls were for Dratini, while the nuts were a favorite of the Minccino. Following Lucien's request, there was also a milky-white fish soup and a grilled river fish.
'I wonder if Snivy likes fish too…' Lucien thought.
Just then, the door creaked open, and Snivy returned, her small arms full of berries.
Lucien blinked in surprise. "Did you go out just to gather these?"
"Snivy…" The Grass-type placed the berries on the carpet with a quiet huff. It wasn't for his sake, not exactly… it just felt right to show some gratitude for the human who had healed its wounds.
The round berries rolled across the floor, scattering across the carpet.
"That's amazing!" Lucien praised warmly.
He stood and helped gather the fruit, setting them aside. "Lunch is ready. This is the fish I told you about. We caught it fresh from the river. Try some, you might like it."
"Snivy…"
Hesitant at first, Snivy finally stepped forward and settled near the table with the others.
Lucien offered a piece of tender white fish. Under his expectant gaze, Snivy cautiously took a bite, then her eyes lit up in delight.
"Snivy!"
Lucien smiled. "If you like it, have more."
Lunch ended happily, with the Pokémon eating their fill. The maids cleared the dishes as heavy snow began to fall again outside. Seeing this, Lucien decided against venturing out. He remained in the cabin with his Pokémon.
Snivy, still weary from her ordeal with the Sneasel, soon felt her strength ebbing away. After the tension of her near-death escape, her body finally gave in to exhaustion. Curling near the warm fireplace, her eyes blurred, and she drifted into sleep.
Several Minccino crouched at the window, watching the snow fall in silence. Dratini, meanwhile, sat at Lucien's desk. She looked at the sleeping Snivy, remembering how Lucien had cared for her that morning. A strange unease stirred in her heart.
Lucien had always treated her with the same gentleness, as though she were special… but now Dratini felt, for the first time, as if she were just one among many.
Lucien, unaware of Dratini's shifting feelings, quietly flipped through a book Christina had brought back, a record of the local Pokémon ecosystem.
As he read, his thoughts drifted.
'Let's spend more time with Snivy. Once we've built enough trust, maybe she'll agree to become my Pokémon.'
Recalling Snivy's survival against five Sneasel, Lucien was reminded again of her hidden strength.
'If Snivy truly joins us, we can push our exploration farther into the surrounding wilderness.'
He thought of the Pokémon nearby: Combee, Hoothoot, Aron…
And on the snowy mountain, there was even an Articuno.
'If only Articuno would guard this territory,' Lucien mused. Our lives here would be much safer, and our movements freer.'
However… their current strength, and their relationship with Articuno, were far from sufficient.
'Would pretending to collapse on the snowy mountain really lure Articuno out?' Lucien wondered.
After all, while people often said that Articuno appeared to lost and dying humans in snowstorms to guide them to safety, that was little more than rumor, human imagination and speculation.
Lucien suspected the truth was simpler: Articuno merely didn't want dead bodies staining its sacred territory.
Still, when it came to Legendary Pokémon, Lucien could think of a few who might be invaluable in building a prosperous land.
For example, Calyrex, the so-called King of Harvests.
It was said to hold the power to make flowers bloom in an instant and ripen crops in the blink of an eye, earning the name "King of Harvest."
But then again… what was happening in the Galar region during this era?
Had Eternatus awakened? Was the Calyrex lying dormant, or did Calyrex still reign as its guardian deity?
Lucien had no way of knowing. Galar was far too distant from Unova for any news to travel reliably.
Coincidentally, though, his own homeland of Unova also held a Legendary Pokémon tied to fertility and the bounty of the land.
That was Landorus, one of the Forces of Nature, revered as the "Guardian of the Fields."
Legend has it that Landorus possesses the power to transform wind and thunder into energy, nourishing the soil and making it more fertile.
The energy flowing from its tail replenishes the land with nutrients, allowing crops to thrive. Wherever Landorus passed, harvests were guaranteed.
Because of this, it was revered across Unova as the God of Farmland.
If I remember correctly, Landorus could be encountered near the Abundant Shrine, Lucien recalled. The problem was that the shrine belonged to the future, and it was uncertain if it even existed yet in this era.
Even if they wished to seek out Landorus now, it was impossible.
"Alas… the road ahead is long," Lucien sighed.
For now, he could only rely on his own strength.
His thoughts drifted. The Tree of Beginning and Arceus in Kanto… Calyrex in Galar…
Lucien's mind wandered to those legendary events recorded only in the myths of the ancient Pokémon world.
Had Groudon and Kyogre already awakened in Hoenn?
Had AZ, the king of Kalos, already forged the Ultimate Weapon in a desperate attempt to revive his beloved Floette?
Rumors even whispered of a terrible war between the regions of Galar and Kalos, one that lasted nearly a century. If true, the ancient Pokémon world had been wracked by endless conflict.
And even here, in Unova, calamity loomed.
Lucien thought of the legend: two adopted brothers of the king, each chosen by a dragon. Their conflict erupted into war so fierce that both sides bled heavily, shattering the balance of the land. The energy of the dragon veins went berserk, and Unova was brought to the brink of ruin.
In the end, the old king gave his life. Using Victini's power, he quelled the rampaging dragon energy, but at the cost of his own death. Victini, meanwhile, became bound in the royal city, immortal yet trapped for eternity.