A sunny meadow in Verdant Valley
Charizard was the biggest, strongest Pokémon in Verdant Valley. He could fly super fast. He could breathe fire that was SO hot. He was amazing.
But right now? He was taking a nap.
Not just any nap. The BIGGEST nap. He was curled up in the grass like a giant orange cat, snoring so loud that the leaves were falling off the trees. His tail flame went flicker... flicker... flicker...
Venusaur was watching from behind a hill. Venusaur was big and green and covered in flowers, and right now he was very, VERY grumpy.
Venusaur"Are you KIDDING me? He burned down half the meadow last week! And now he's sleeping here like nothing happened!"
Everyone in the valley thought Charizard was selfish. He never helped with anything. He never came to the valley meetings. He just flew around and napped and sometimes accidentally set things on fire.
But here's the secret. The BIG secret.
Charizard wasn't being lazy. He was EXHAUSTED.
Every single night, when everyone was asleep, Charizard flew to the caves on the north side of the valley. A big storm had knocked down the trees near the caves, and all the baby Pokémon who lived there were cold. Really, really cold.
So Charizard used his fire breath — very carefully, very gently — to keep the caves warm all night long. He kept the little Charmanders warm. He kept the shivering Eevees warm. He even kept a very grumpy Snorlax warm, even though Snorlax said he was "fine" (he was NOT fine).
But Charizard never told anyone. He was too proud. He didn't want anyone to think he was... nice.
— a leaf floats gently across the meadow —
Back on the hill, Venusaur squinted his eyes. He noticed something weird. The burn marks on Charizard's claws didn't look like accident burns. They looked like WORK burns. Like he'd been doing something careful and hard, over and over again.
Venusaur"Hmm. Something's going on with that big lizard... and I'm going to find out WHAT."
To be continued...