advantage; he was afraid of what he would dream if he did. Despite, he awoke shivering,

and curled uncharacteristically into a ball. After a moment of grogginess, he remembered

Bulby. Because he was a bit longing for conversation, he quickly tossed out Bulby's ball.

The sleeping animal was happy to be out, and quickly looked up expectantly to

Erik.

"Sorry buddy, no breakfast. For you or me." He said to his new-found friend.

"Bulba…" it said, looking down.

"Yeah, I know." Erik replied, assuming he had meant something to the effect of,

"Great way to start the day,"

Erik took a drink from the spring, along with Bulby, and then started on his way.

Almost immediately, Bulby bumped his leg.

"What is it buddy?"

Before Bulby could answer, Erik heard a loud, "Odd!", soon followed by a softer,

sadder, "Oddish…"

Much to Erik's surprise, Bulby took off, bounding across the stream formed by the

spring.

"Hey! Bulby, wait up!" Erik called as he chased after Bulby. After a few

minutes of a hard run, Erik finally reached Bulby. He dropped, an arm around Bulby's

bulb.

"What was that for?" he asked, breathing hard.

"Bulb! Bulba bul bulbasaur!" Bulby said urgently.

Suddenly, Erik heard a "Odd!", very close. He looked up and past Bulby.

Erik blinked. It was a very strange creature. He hadn't a clue whether it was a

plant, or another creature like Bulby. Judging from it's cry, it was a creature. It was like

a radish. It had bright green leaves on it's head, and, as before, a radish-like body, only

with feet. It's face was taking up the entire "front" of the blue "head." It didn't have any

arms, but blue feet to match.

It wasn't its appearance that startle Erik, but rather, what it was in. A foot was

caught in what looked like a bear trap, but it was much smaller. Bulby was constantly

chattering, and looking from Erik to the creature and back to Erik again. Erik didn't

know what would happen, but he kneeled beside the creature. Carefully brushing back

the tears gushing from it's eyes, he set to work to opening the trap. After a few moments,

it was obviously a futile effort.

"I can't open it." He said to Bulby.

"Bulba." he said firmly. When he saw Erik's look of confusion, he shoved Erik

out of the way. Erik now came upon the bright idea that Bulby meant "move."

Taking a few steps back, and with a "Bulbasaur!", Bulby dazzled Erik. A

swirling mass of leaves was emanated from Bulby, connecting with the trap at the joint.

Slicing through the metal like a hot knife through butter, the leaves fell, and the

strange creature was free. It apparently wasn't too badly injured, because it ran over to

Erik and gave him what could've been a hug, had it had arms. Laughing, Erik replied to

the happy "Odd!"s and "Oddish!"s.

"Well, you're sure an oddball. How'd you get in there?"

After a string of repeated syllables and phrases, Erik had even less of an idea of

how the creature had gotten there than before.

After seeing the look on Erik's face, Bulby told him, "Bulba! Saurbulb bulba

bulbasaur!" Erik was starting to understand Bulby.

"She…was walking along here…and stepped…in the trap?" Bulby quickly

nodded.

"Well, watch out for more." He advised the creature. He stood up pulled out his

ball. He maximized it and tossed it out onto Bulby, who was brought inside.

Erik started walking, and happened to looked behind him. The creature was

following him.

"Wanna come with me?"

"Oddish!" the creature said.

Erik laughed. "Okay Oddball, come on."

Erik wandered back to the stream and started following it. Looking behind him,

he noticed Oddball was limping slightly.

"Come here, girl." He said as he reached down and scooped up the small creature.

She wasn't too heavy. He lifted her and put Oddball on his shoulder.

"Odd!" the small creature cried out in happiness. Continuing on his way, Oddball

somehow kept her balance, without the aid of arms. After a few hours, the stream

emptied out into a lake. Coming to a halt, Erik looked around.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. How you doing Bulby?" Erik

said to himself as he tossed out Bulby's ball. As the strange creature appeared, he

nodded.

"Bulbasaur!" he said.

Before Erik could say anything, Bulby extended two vines, one from each of what

could pass as his shoulder. Using one, he plucked some reeds in the lake. With the other

he pulled off the roots and tossed the reeds. Dipping the vine with roots in the water,

Bulby let the other hover over it.

"Uh...Bulby? What are you doing?" Erik asked. It seemed a little familiar.

"Bulba! Saur bulbabulb?" Bulby called.

"Oddish!" Oddball said back to Bulby, sounding alarmed.

From what Erik could piece together, he thought Bulby meant he was fishing.

Oddball was probably a vegetarian, because she obviously didn't like what Bulby was

doing, Erik thought. Oddball turned her head away from Bulby, and jumped down from

Erik's shoulder. She walked over to a fertile area and started eating.

About this time, Bulby's vine was pulled, and he turned his attention back to the

lake. Quicker that Erik could follow, Bulby whipped his other vine around and into the

water. In a moment, there were three rainbow trout laying on the bank, and Bulby pulled

his vines back in.

Oddball looked up from her meal, full, and walked back over to Erik.