Hello again people in my head, it's Lars again.

  It has been a few weeks since my last experimentation with moves and subsequent discoveries of the insomnia berry as a punishment from Momma. During which things have calmed down a bit and returned to the natural pace for our species. Which meant chilling with the family all days.

  We all finished Advanced Sleeping 101 and trained a few more moves (that I'll keep as a surprise for when it's time to reveal them), and while we still aren't strong enough to fend most of the forest inhabitants, Momma finally considered us apt enough to be left unsupervized doing our own things as long as we don't get too far from the clearing serving as our nest.

  Yes. Inhabitants. Turns out we're not alone in the forest as I was scared we were. And my hypothesis about everyone giving us a wide berth was because they did not want beef with an angry Slaking mama. But now that we have been allowed to roam freely somewhat around, we finally got to meet the neighbors.

  Some I recognized.

  Rattatas, Sentret, Zigzagoon, Pidgey, Hoothoot, Starly seemed to be quite common, along with their evolved versions from time to time. I think I saw a Stantler too, but they were far so I'm not too sure.

  Some I did not.

  I noticed some weird squirrels, an american-politician-looking mongoose, what I can only describe as an adorable chinchilla with ribbons, a very dirty rabbit, a very very smelly hog, and a bunch of weird dogs.

  It seems that there was a huge hole in my pokemon knowledge from my previous life. And for my defense, it because it didn't know much about pokemons to begin with. See, I was what some people on internet who associate a children game with an mathematics essay on statistics would call 'a filthy casual'. I played the games up to the 3rd gen, just enjoying the journeys but never going out of my way to try to challenge other people. I mean, how do you even use a Link Cable ? After that, work caught up to me and I didn't followed what happened to the franchise.

  So, I can only assume that all those unknown pokemon are from the games that were released after I stopped playing... Or the world of pokemon I'm in is way more complex than what our media back home depicted.

  Regardless of my lack of knowledge, I was pretty sure of one thing. Most, if not all, inhabitants of the forest seemed to be Normal type. How do I know ? Well, remember when I talked about the energy pokemon wielded and shaped to make moves ? Yes ? Once you're used to it, you actually distinguish the main... flavour ? Yes. flavour of a pokemon energy when you're seeing them. And if I had to give an actual taste to them, then Normal type energy taste like cardboard. It's bland in the mouth, but super versatile to use. Thus, cardboard.

  I'm not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed when I understood the nature of our neighborhood. I have nothing against normal types, you know, being one myself. But they still feel very animal-like, kinda like the common wild life from my previous world, so they lack that magical/alien air around them that would makes us say at a glance : "Woah! That's a pokemon!". Where are the electric mouses that shoot thunderbolts ? The fire lizard ? The walking plants ? The living rocks ?

  Perhaps there is a lot of Normal type around because they are... you know... normal ? If they reprensent normalcy, thus it would make senses that they would be more common, right ?

  But I digress, I'm sure I'll get the chance to see pokemon outside of the Normal spectrum. I think I even caught a glimpse of a Wurmple, so that's a start.

  Anyway, back to the neighbors. It is one thing to know that you live at sloth speed, but it's another to see the world just speed by you because of your inherent slowness. I swear, every other pokemon I met felt like they were hyperactive, on pokecrack, or both. The fact that one of the most common move for them was Quick-Attack didn't help. Which allowed them to swarm us physically and metaphorically (with questions) when we met for the first time.

  One thing I grasped from these exchanges is that Slakoths are apparently quite respected in this forest for the sole reason that the master of the place has a soft spot for us. I don't know how I feel knowing that the premiere reason why people are nice to me is because they don't want to incur the wrath of the one at the top of the chain, so I'll just ask Momma about it later.

  And despite the migraine building in my head every time I tried to talk with more than two pokemon at once, it was nice to meet new people. I had the surprise to see that most of the young pokemon were of my age, looks like there is a season to have and hatch eggs I suppose. And my siblings spent their short hours awake of many days playing with all their new comrades. I joined them too, occasionally. But it was clear that we were lacking in stamina to play for a normal amout of Zigzagoon-time.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I preferred choosing a nice branch and hanging over their head to nap while keeping an eye on the lil' bros and sistas. Something I was apparently not the only one to do since it appeared that most of the eldest members of each species took guard duty upon themselves. And once we understood that, we kinda started grouping together instead of staying spreaded around this whole part of the forest.

  That's how I met Wil. Wil is a bit special.

  You see, If you had to bet for the most unlikely pairing of pokemon to be friend, I don't know who would win. But a Hoothoot with Insomnia and Slakoth known for using Rest certainly is on the podium. Some people are saying that the opposites attract each other, and I can see the truth in that. After just a few days of kid-guard duty, we became fast friends.

  Being near others pokemons make you find details about yourself that you wouldn't even notice if you stayed alone or surrounded by your peers too. Like how anyone staying near me or the other Slakoth had a tendancy to get tired faster. And vice-versa, how anyone in contact with Wil will stay wide awake for longer.

  I think that's why we ended up sticking together. He told me that it can sometime be painful to be constantly awake, and that the soothing feeling of my presence allow him to mentally rest for a bit. The other side of the coin is that, while he is near me, I can somewhat understand what's happening around us with the kids playing without getting a headache, like I was fully awake and not constant in a state of morning sluggishness. Which is super useful for guard duty.

  Moreover, I think we got close because the nature of our species force us to bear the same loneliness. Hoothoots are forced to stay alone, waiting, while everyone sleep. While Slakoths are forced to stay alone, sleeping, while everyone else move without them. And upon evolving into a Vigoroth, our people feels the same issue as the Hoothoots. We can understand each others' potential loneliness. And that's because we understand that we can befriend.

  In addtion to Wil, I am also sharing my branch during guard duty with Na?, the resident Sentrets eldest sister. She often looks exhausted. I would be too if I had to manage her 11 siblings 16 hours per day. I sometimes can't keep up with Ada and Bash for 4 hours, so four times that ? No way! She doesn't talk much and seems just content to chill with us, which is something I can respect.

  During our discussions, I have learned that Sentrets can also learn Rest at some point. Nice to learn that other pokemon follow the respectable path of Advanced Sleep too. She told us that the move was apparently very useful fro her people to enter hibernation should they need to. Luckily for us, the forest seems pretty temperate, so we dreamed of what a months long nap could feel like instead.

  "You would probably starve to death." Wil said, breaking our trance for the longest nap ever.

  "Killjoy." She sighed. "And I pretty sure we wouldn't, my people didn't at least."

  "Yes, but they were hibernating. You are talking about naps. Not the same." he retorted.

  "... I could probably pull it off." I said. "I know that if I don't move and just rest, I don't need much food at all. Even with all the actions and movement every day, a slice of berry is enough for us. So... Let's say I eat one full berry, and then do not move. I'm pretty sure I can nap for a long time."

  "Yes, but your people are cheating. You already move super slowly and are super efficient with food... You don't need to make efforts to have a long sleep." Wil added.

  "I can assure you, I endeavour all of my strenght to sleep. My siblings too. We train without stops to be able to get the best rest." I shot back with smug grin.

  The absurdity of the statement sent us three giggling like idiots.

  "Say, Lars. Wil."

  "Hmm?"

  "What do you want to do when we'll be done here?" Na? asked us. "Not like done with the day guarding our siblings, but later, once we'll have to leave our nests ? Ma and Da keep telling us how we're safe here, and that people outside of the master's domain can be dangerous. That I should stay in the forest for all my life... I'm not sure what to do."

  "Never really thought about it." Wil said. " I guess I would fly somewhere else when I had enough of being in the same place like my kind usually do. I did found a vacant tree hollow not too far north but still in the forest so that I can still visit you guys."

  "Well, I know that I'll have to move out at some point I guess." I answered, scratching my cheek a bit. "I can't have Momma providing me with berries for all eternity. But you know how we Slakoth are, right? So I'll slowly make my way to a nice quiet part of the forest and build the ultimate nap spot. It will have everything ! The best leaves to sleep on, the right amount of shade, enough air flow to have a cool breeze but to protect from strong winds, berries at claws' reach... The dream!"

  By the look the other two gave me, if the sparkles in my eyes could have been enhanced by energy, I would have learned Flash.

  "But that's not for today, nor tomorrow, nor the day after." I continued. "We have time Na?. We're months away of someone having to leave the nest to make their trail in life, and even if people strat leaving the forest, you can still chill next to your parents for a bit more. No need to rush and be the first out. You got time to reach an answer. Alright?"

  She just nodded silently, absorbing what we told her.

  So, we returned to our vigil over the rest of the children. My siblings were somewhat cheating at tag by using Yawn to catch on to people. Well, I say cheating. But everyone else is abusing Quick Attack, so it even the playing field. I can't wait for one of them to figure out Dig in order to win the game. We'll see how things play out.

  And for now, I guess I'll just enjoy the boring normalcy of our lives.

  Known Lars movepool :

  -> Defensive Sleeping : Slack Off, Yawn

  -> Offensive Sleeping : Snore

  -> Defensive Sleeping : Rest