Chapter 150: The Majestic Meowscarada
Floragato had evolved. It had just happened this morning.
Even she herself was startled when she woke up, not knowing when it had happened. Based on how she had been feeling, she had thought she wouldn't evolve until the next day. Who would have thought it would happen overnight?
Perhaps it had something to do with the dream she had last night. She had dreamed that her strength surpassed Will's, that she had beaten him, stood over him, and laughed while pulling his tail. In the dream, she had been ecstatic. Maybe it was because of that intense, sudden emotional change that her energy had surged, prompting the evolution.
"Meow."
Floragato stood up and turned to look at Will, who was still fast asleep on the grass. She tiptoed to the nearby river and looked down at the water's surface. A new face appeared before her.
"Meow..."
Looking at her new form, the fur on her cheeks turned a little pink. Beautiful.
Floragato had always been very narcissistic. You could see it even when she was a Sprigatito; the little one always thought she was the cutest in the world. And now, she felt she was the most beautiful. And more importantly... she had the feeling of an adult. When she stood by Will's side from now on, she wouldn't be treated like a child anymore, right?
"Meow?"
She tried to recall the name Will had mentioned. She should now be called... Meowscarada?
The Meowscarada stood up straight and looked down at herself. She felt so tall now; her perspective was completely different.
"Meow?" She looked curiously at the snoring Will on the ground. She didn't know how much of a height difference there still was between them. She had always wanted to grow taller, to close the gap between her and Will.
She slowly approached on stealthy paws and then lay down beside him.
"Meow..." There's still such a long way to go.
She was suddenly dejected. Why was there still such a big difference between them?
"Meow!" The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She reached out and smacked the sleeping Will. Even though she had evolved again, her pride was even greater than it had been as a Floragato.
"Hm?" Will smacked his lips and groggily opened his eyes. He turned his head. Beside him was a very cool, mature-looking cat.
Will shot up, grabbed the cat's face with both hands, and stared.
"...Meow-meow-meow!"
Being stared at so intensely by Will, the Meowscarada suddenly felt embarrassed. She batted at him with her claws, then turned away and covered her face with her paws. Not out of shyness, but because she didn't want him to see the corners of her mouth turning up. She didn't want him to know how proud she was feeling.
"Well, I'll be. A girl changes eighteen times by the time she's an adult, and each time for the better. That's no joke," Will said, standing up.
Although he was a bit face-blind, he could still tell that his cat was a top-tier beauty. Even from a human perspective, she was "delicate and pretty." In the eyes of a Pokémon, she would be a goddess.
"Meow," hearing this, the Meowscarada lowered her head and shyly fiddled with her ear.
Hmm... her personality has become much more honest, Will thought, blinking. This was a good thing. The old Floragato had loved to hide her true feelings. Even if she was happy to be praised, she would pretend not to care at all, probably thinking it was a mature, adult thing to do. But the Meowscarada of now was different. She would frankly accept praise, even if it made her a little shy.
"But I still think you were cutest when you were little. Your ears and tail were so small, you were so straightforward, and such a little crybaby. It was adorable," Will said, crossing his arms with a sigh of regret. Although she was very beautiful now, as a father, he still preferred when his daughter was a baby.
"Meow!" Meowscarada huffed, turning her head away, not wanting to hear about her "dark past."
She stood up and looked up at Will. Lying on the ground, the feeling wasn't as clear. Now she realized the height difference between them was even greater than she had imagined. This made her mood sink again.
"Oh~ you're so tall now. You're a majestic Meowscarada," Will said.
But in his eyes, it was a different story. His own height was due to unusual circumstances. But her height of 1.8 meters was, in this era, already at the ceiling for her species, especially for a female. Any Meowscarada taller than her would have to be an Alpha.
"Meow?"
"It means you're an adult now," Will said, placing a hand on her head and stroking it gently.
"Meow," she didn't resist his touch this time, just nodded. As a Floragato, she had always wanted to be an adult. Because she thought that was the only way to close the gap between them. But now it seemed... no matter how big she grew, in his eyes, she would always just be a child.
If it were the old Floragato, she might have gotten angry at this realization. But now... she felt it was quite nice. To be doted on by Will like a child forever... it seemed to be a special privilege, a symbol that she was "special" in his eyes.
"By the way, this thing on your face..." Will gently poked the "mask" on her face. It was hard, but the texture wasn't plastic; it felt like her own hardened fur from her Floragato stage.
"Meow?" She reached up a paw, grabbed the mask, and pulled it off, revealing her face underneath.
Will stumbled back, so shocked he fell to the ground. It wasn't that her face was scary. It was that, in his cognition, this event was "horrifying."
In Meowscarada's Pokédex description, the "mask" on its face is actually a type of long, dark green fur, not a real mask. In the fan communities back on his Earth, some artists would try to draw a "maskless Meowscarada," which had misled many people into thinking the mask was removable. But according to the Pokédex, for a Meowscarada to remove its mask would be like ripping the fur off its own face.
(Author's Note: This is a secondary setting for this book. See the author's notes for details.)
"Meow?"
Seeing his reaction, Meowscarada's mood immediately plummeted. A few tears even appeared in her eyes. She thought that in his eyes, her face without the mask was terrifyingly ugly. If that was the case, she would never take this mask off again for the rest of her life.
"Don't misunderstand," Will quickly got up and explained. "Your face under the mask is very cute. It's just that I thought the mask was your fur, that you couldn't take it off. I thought you had ripped your own fur off, so I was scared."
He scratched his face, a little embarrassed. He wasn't lying. Without the mask, she was especially cute, much cuter than with it on.
"Meow?" She looked up at him with her big, pink, teary eyes.
"Really, I'm not lying. You can ask anyone else," Will said, rubbing the fur on her head. It was much longer and thicker than before.
"Meow," hearing this, she was finally reassured and nodded. She didn't believe what other people said. But if Will said it, she believed it.
"You've grown up, so why are you still crying like you were little?" Will laughed, wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes. He didn't dislike crybaby Pokémon. On the contrary, from his human perspective, they were even cuter. It was a sign of a simple personality and delicate emotions. Such Pokémon often formed the strongest bonds with their trainers.
"Meow," Meowscarada gently turned her head. She didn't cry that easily. It was just that his expression just now had really hurt her feelings. Her self-esteem was very strong, and Will was the most important existence in her heart. She cared most about how he felt about her.
"Alright, get yourself ready. Go say goodbye to your little friends. It's time for us to go," Will said.
"Meow," Meowscarada nodded.
She had been in the Dragonite homeland for over a month and was a little tired of this area. She did indeed want to go out and travel with Will. Besides... she had long been dissatisfied with that old female Dragonite who was always getting close to him. If she were still a little Sprigatito, she would have absolutely gone over and given both of them a few good scratches.
But now, she was a reserved older sister. She couldn't do such a thing.
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