Leaf Stone Stump

"So frustrating..."

Turtwig was pacing around town, still heated in the face. Usually, she'd be on a mission retrieving an item or saving a Pokémon in need, but after a "prank" on the mission building and board, all rescue operations were halted until the culprit was found. She'd be on the search mission in a heartbeat, but some Pokémon beat her to the punch. So now she found herself missionless, though she couldn't help but keep her badge shining on her chest for all to see.

During her travels, she saw a wilted flower sagging on the side of the road. She tried lifting its head, but it slumped back down. "You and me both," she muttered to the flower, uttering a distressed sigh. She continued her exploration of the town, looking around. Tree, house, tree, flower, tree, tree, flower, house.

With the sun only peaking over the far-side mountains, there weren't many Pokémon stirring about. With the sun reaching over the mountains, streets started crowding. With the sun reaching the top of the sky, Turtwig grumbled to herself, resting on a bench as she ate some lunch.

"The day's passing, and I still can't figure out how to spend my 'break'. Maybe the other explorers were onto something when they said I was a workaholic..."

She listened to the noises of the street. Chattering of Pokémon, carts moving back and forth, children yelling at each other for some indiscernible reason, fountains spewing water, an explosion of seeds–Wait a moment.

Turtwig stood on edge, scanning around the area. There, she saw two young Pokémon, an Exeggcute and a Pansage, duking it out in a patch of tall grass. And not in a playful or training way. Fearing the chance of either of them severely hurting each other, she left behind her lunch and ran in front of a frenzy of leaves, standing firm as she took on the attack.

"Stop right there, you two!" she said, keeping a wary eye out for each of them. The Pansage looked shocked, almost as if froze, while the Exeggcute glared at her, stanced up and ready to strike another attack.

"Get out of our way, lady!" the Exeggcute yelled.

"Lady!? I'm not that old!" Turtwig stamped at the ground, causing some blades of grass to fly into the Exeggcute's multiple faces. He sputtered out the blades of grass as Turtwig looked towards the Pansage. "But that aside, what are you two fighting about?"

The Pansage rubbed his hands together, shifting his glance away from Turtwig. "H-He started it. He said I stole his Leaf Stone..."

"That's because you did, you sneaky thief!" the Exeggcute said, firing an Egg Bomb from its mouth.

Turtwig shielded the Pansage by catching the bomb with two large, spiky vines shot from the ground. It squeezed the life out of the bomb, bursting it into puffs of spores and dust. Staring down the Exeggcute, she readied energy from her two leaves on top of her head. "No more attacking. Or else."

The Exeggcute backed down, rolling itself closer together. "Y-Yes, ma'am!"

She released the energy back into the ground, the vines zooming downward. "Now that that's settled, tell me when you noticed your lost Leaf Stone."

The Exeggcute muttered to each other. With a big smile, one of the eggs spoke. "It was this morning! We were enjoying Mom's scrambled eggplant!" A second, angrier egg shifted in front. "It was around then Mom asked 'Are you going to try to evolve again today?' We were, and we were going to grab my Leaf Stone from my usual spot!" A third, more frightened egg approached. "But it was gone! We searched all over the house! Around our bed, under our dresser, in our item hole! It wasn't anywhere to be found!"

The second, angrier egg threw itself in front. "And it was Pansage who stole it! He's been wanting to evolve too, but he doesn't have a Leaf Stone! He stole it!"

Pansage shook his head. "I swear I didn't! You're just accusing me for no reason!"

"And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"Enough, you two!" Turtwig stamped in front of them. "I'll help you find your Leaf Stone. Then we can find out if Pansage stole it or not. But for now, no more arguing!" Turtwig darted her eyes to the Pansage. "You'll be helping too, right?"

Pansage threw his hands in the air. "I was going to do that in the first place! Knowing Exeggcute, he just didn't look hard enough in his item hole!"

"Of course I looked hard enough! It's not there!"

Turtwig stamped at the grass again, shifting the grass in their faces. They sputtered and sneezed a bit. "Let's look there again. There might be a hint as to where your Leaf Stone is located."

Both of the children faced away. "Fine..."

---

"Told you! It's not here!"

Turtwig scratched her head. After checking, sifting, and lifting every place imaginable, there was no trace of a Leaf Stone to be found. She searched around the dome-like treehouse: no footprints. She searched on top of the ceiling: only a random soccer ball and a patch that desperately looked in need of restitching. She even searched the surrounding trees. No Leaf Stone.

The two children were arguing again about thieving claims, but Turtwig ignored them. She thought through the places unchecked. The metal pipe leading to the fireplace. The window sills out of Exeggcute's sight. The creaky and partially opened floorboard. She would check these places and nothing. Fireplace, kitchen cupboard, bathroom drawer, under the bed, garden... None of these areas had any sight of a Leaf Stone whatsoever. She had to conclude that, at the very least, the Leaf Stone wasn't within the boundaries of Exeggcute's home.

And with the tunnel vision of Exeggcute accusing Pansage, other options were limited.

"Okay, you two!" she said, catching both their attention. "We're checking Pansage's place next."

"B-But I didn't steal it!" Pansage waved his arms around, looking near tears. "I swear I didn't!"

"Then there's no problem with us checking around your place, right?"

"N... No..." He looked down.

"Then let's start looking there next. If we don't find Exeggcute's Leaf Stone there, that will prove you didn't steal it, alright?"

"Alright..."

---

Once again, nothing turned up. Exeggcute seemed more angry than usual, spouting more baseless accusations and the like. They searched through Pansage's house and yard, had a pleasant tea time with Pansage's wonderfully kind mother, and, by Turtwig's urging, finally got Exeggcute to lead them to places Exeggcute had last been. They headed into a playground, several children playing on the slides, grabbing bars, and the swing-and-launch set. Sand settled underneath them. A couple of Pokémon bumped into her as they were running around, but she caught her balance, giving a quick glare.

"So, this was a place you played at yesterday?" She asked, looking over the playground.

"Yeah, but it's not going to be here," Exeggcute said.

"We'll see about that!" Pansage dug at the ground, feeling around the sand with his large hands.

Exeggcute scoffed. Before Turtwig could say anything, she spotted a leaf-covered bug approaching her.

"Swadloon!"

He smiled as he scuttled over. "Hey, there's our whiny twiglet! Still complaining?"

"Did you really have to call me that..."

The Exeggcute hopped over, one egg struggling to roll across the sand. "Who's this guy?"

"This is Swadloon, my partner." She gave a small thump on his head, while he slapped away her foot. "He's a slacking doofus who's a pain in my side."

He snorted. "Says the workaholic! I'm guessing you're on an unofficial mission right now?"

"I hate how you know me so well... I'm on a mission trying to locate Exeggcute's missing Leaf Stone. He claims it was stolen."

Swadloon nodded. "Sounds reasonable. If he came here with his Leaf Stone, then it probably got taken by the PoliBros."

"Wait, them?" Exeggcute asked. "Why would they steal my Leaf Stone?"

"Good question!" Swadloon took out a piece of paper and handed it to Turtwig. "They've been a bit of a pain recently. They steal whatever is most valuable and try to sell it back to other children for a high sum."

"And how long has this been happening, exactly?" Turtwig asked, looking over the paper. A small, crude drawing of what appeared to be two Sewaddles crying over two Poliwag taking some sort of green, indescribable squiggle. She shook her head and returned it to Swadloon.

"Only a couple of days ago." Swadloon stuffed the drawing under his leaf. "I was looking for them since they took my cousins' Pretty Necklace a bit ago. I'm pretty sure they're also the culprits you're looking for."

"We don't know for sure, but since we're searching for Exeggcute's lost Leaf Stone, it won't hurt to confront these two hooligans and put them to justice!"

"AH!"

Turtwig jumped. She found the Exeggcute in surprise. "What was that about?" she asked.

"T-Those two! They just ran into you! They took your badge!"

She blinked. Feeling around her chest, she felt her own skin. Two blue blurs passing by. Two round orbs...

"THOSE TWO ARE DEAD!" she shouted, sprinting in the direction where she last recalled them running. She looked toward the ground. Slightly visible footprints imprinted the ground, and following them led her into a grove. She skidded to a stop to find a small lake covered in foliage. Taking no time to think, she dove in. Holding her breath, she spotted and dove towards another cave entrance. Swimming didn't come naturally, but with her rage-induced spirit, she willed herself to push forward just enough to reach a climbable wall covered in vines.

She gasped for air when she managed to reach above water, pulling herself out and shaking her body. There, she saw two, stunned Poliwags, placing an item in a pile onto a sheet. Among the piled items, she saw the Pretty Necklace, Leaf Stone, and, shining on top, her precious Explorer's Badge.

"Stop right there, you two! Return those items immediately!"

The two Poliwags stared at each other. "Run!"

Both of them hastily picked up the sheets and dashed to the side of the cave and into a lake pool. Turtwig pursued them, diving once again into the lake. Spotting the two, she balanced herself on the wall, collected energy, and, after quick aiming, launched herself in a flurry of leaves. She caught hold of the two and pierced through the underwater currents towards the surface. After breaching the water, she felt a sticky substance wrap around her and the two thieves.

Their tangled bodies covered in string splashed back into the water, slowly reeled in by a smirking Swadloon. A crowd gathered together, muttering to themselves while Turtwig and the Poliwags unraveled from the String Shot. "Nice shot, Swadloon!"

Swadloon shot another spray of white silk, entangling the two Poliwags again. "Had to make sure you didn't have all the fun!"

---

"I'm sorry, Pansage. I really thought you were the thief."

Pansage patted Exeggcute on one of his heads. "Hey, we got it back! Now you can try evolving again! Maybe you'll become an Exeggcutor today!"

"Yeah!"

The two children chattered with each other, giving a short thanks to Turtwig as she sat next to the Poliwags, both of them looking down. "Do you see why stealing is bad now, you two? You nearly ruined a friendship because of your antics."

"We're sorry..."

A Poliwhirl came up and picked both of them up, causing them to freeze in place. "You two better be!" The Poliwhirl gave a small bow. "Thank you for catching my two troublemaking younger brothers!"

Turtwig smiled. "It's what an explorer does!"

Poliwhirl spun their swirl gleefully. "Now, with that out of the way, I think you two need to learn a lesson. Don't you two think so?"

The Poliwag frighteningly looked towards Turtwig. "Save us," they muttered before they were taken away, with the Poliwhirl throwing out several ideas such as cleaning the whole lake or scrubbing all the moss off the walls.

Swadloon came up to Turtwig and shuffled his leaves to sit. "Ugh, I really didn't want to do work today. I just wanted to enjoy being with my cousins..."

She gave a couple of gentle pats. "At least you had the whole morning to be with your relatives, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

Small gusts of wind blew overhead, rhythmically bouncing the grass and flowers back and forth. The sun traveled slowly towards the other edge of the mountains, with the darkness of night slowly taking over the sky.

"So..." Swadloon glanced over at her. "Guess even on off-time, this workaholic still somehow finds time to do missions, huh?"

Turtwig grinned sheepishly. "Can't figure out what to do otherwise. Next time, could you teach me how to spend these vacation times?"

He laughed. "What, were you just wandering around until you found two Pokémon having a quarrel?" She sealed her mouth, looking away. "Wait, did you seriously not do anything until you found them?"

"... Yes."