Training lasted all the way until noon.
When Raven returned to the cabin with Dratini, ready for lunch, he was surprised to find that Snivy was nowhere to be seen.
Raven blinked, then turned his gaze toward the other Pokémon beside him."Where's Snivy?" he asked.
The Minccino pointed toward the outside, chattering noisily: "Minccino!"
"It ran out?"
"Minccino!" They nodded in unison.
Raven glanced at the snowy landscape outside and couldn't help feeling astonished.
This Snivy really had an unusual personality.A Grass-type Pokémon, yet it didn't fear the cold at all. Even though staying inside the cabin would be much warmer and more comfortable, it had still chosen to run out into the snow…
That alone told Raven how extraordinary this Snivy was.
If he could manage to bond with it, training would certainly go smoothly!
When lunchtime arrived, the maids carried in the meal one tray after another.
Today's lunch consisted of soft, fluffy white bread, a fruit salad made from Sitrus berries, smoked ham, fish balls, and a mix of dried nuts.
The fish balls were meant for Dratini, while the dried nuts were Minccino's favorite.
Because Raven had specifically instructed them, there was also a pot of simmered milky-white fish soup and a few grilled fish.
"Snivy should like fish too, right?" Raven thought to himself.
Just then, Snivy returned from outside—its arms full of berries.
Raven was taken aback."You went out to find these?"
"Snivy."
Snivy dropped the berries onto the carpet, pretending it wasn't anything special. It wasn't for him, of course—it just… just felt it should offer some thanks to this human, Raven, for healing its wounds.
The round berries rolled across the rug with soft thuds.
"Incredible!" Raven praised sincerely.
He stood up, collecting the berries carefully."Lunch is ready. This is the fish I mentioned earlier, caught fresh from the river. I don't know if it suits your taste. Come and try it!"
"Snivy…"
Snivy hesitated briefly, then walked over to the table and sat with the others.
Raven placed a tender piece of fish in front of it.
Snivy took a cautious bite, and under Raven's expectant gaze, its eyes began to brighten.
"Snivy!"
Seeing that, Raven smiled. "If you like it, then eat as much as you want."
Lunch ended in a warm, cheerful atmosphere.
As the maids cleared the dishes away, snow began to fall heavily outside once more. Raven gave up on going out and instead stayed inside with his Pokémon.
Snivy was truly exhausted. The night before, it had spent nearly all its energy fleeing from those Sneasel.
Now that its tense nerves had finally relaxed, Snivy was overcome by drowsiness.
Curled up in front of the fireplace, its vision of Raven blurred until it drifted into sleep.
By the window, the Minccino lay watching the snow fall outside. Dratini, meanwhile, perched on Raven's desk. It glanced at Snivy, then remembered how Raven had treated it today.
An unfamiliar feeling stirred in its chest.
Raven had never treated another Pokémon the same way he treated Dratini…
But Raven himself was oblivious to the shift in Dratini's emotions.
Sitting at his desk, he flipped carefully through the book Christina had brought back—one that detailed the local Pokémon ecology—while quietly making plans in his heart.
"For now, I'll just spend more time with Snivy. Once we've built some trust, I can ask it to become my Pokémon."
He recalled how it had escaped from those five Sneasel. Clearly, this Snivy's strength was far from ordinary.
"With Snivy on our side, we can push further into the wild for deeper exploration."
Combee, Shuckle, Aron…
And that Articuno on the snow-capped mountain—if only it could help guard the territory, everything would become so much easier.
But, unfortunately, neither their current strength nor their bond with Articuno was anywhere near enough.
"Still… would playing dead on the mountain actually summon it?" Raven wondered wryly.
They said Articuno would appear before travelers lost in snowstorms, guiding them to safety. But that was probably just human wishful thinking.
Raven rather suspected that Articuno simply didn't want corpses dirtying its mountain.
Still, speaking of Legendary Pokémon, a few others came to mind—Pokémon whose powers could greatly aid in building his domain.
Like Calyrex, the so-called King of Bountiful Harvests.
Its power could make plants bloom instantly, crops ripen in a heartbeat. That was why humans worshiped it as the god of fertility.
"But then again," Raven mused, "has the great event of Galar even happened yet, in this era? Has Eternatus awakened? Has Calyrex already fallen asleep—or is it still ruling Galar even now?"
He couldn't know. Galar was far too distant from Unova.
Coincidentally, though, Unova itself had its own Pokémon of abundance.
One of the Forces of Nature—Landorus.
It was said Landorus could turn wind and thunder into nourishment for the earth, blessing the soil with energy. Crops would flourish wherever it passed.
The energy flowing from its tail enriched the land, ensuring bountiful harvests.
Thus, Landorus was revered as the God of the Fields.
"If I remember right," Raven thought, "Landorus could be encountered near the Abundant Shrine."
But that was in the future. Whether the shrine even existed yet in this era was uncertain.
Even if they wanted to seek Landorus now, it would be impossible.
"Haah… still a long road ahead," Raven sighed.
For now, they could only rely on their own strength to grow slowly.
The Tree of Beginning in Kanto, Calyrex in Galar…
Raven's thoughts drifted again toward those ancient events of the Pokémon world.
Had Groudon and Kyogre already awakened in Hoenn?
Had AZ of Kalos already built the Ultimate Weapon, reviving Floette?
He'd even heard whispers of another legend: in the distant past, Galar and Kalos fought a war that lasted nearly a century…
If even half of these were true, then the ancient world of Pokémon had been unimaginably chaotic.
And even if he ignored the other regions, his own Unova would one day face a devastating war.
A war sparked by his two older brothers.
According to later records, the princes would clash, their bitter battle dragging on until both were ruined.
The war would disrupt the energy of the Dragon Veins, ravaging the land, nearly destroying Unova itself.
In the end, the old king quelled the chaos using Victini's power.
But in doing so, he gave his life—and Victini was sealed forever within the royal castle.