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Melli sat near the hearth with his father while his mother was out gathering food with other women of the Clan. He frowned at his father, who held a small wooden spoon in front of the baby's face.
“Mama!” Melli stammered. “Mamaaa!!”
“She isn't here right now. Please. You need to eat.” The baby's face became a reddish tint as he burst into tears. He pushed the spoon away from his face and knocked it out of Aeon's hand.
“Mamaaa—!”
Aeon reached for the spoon and furrowed his brows, slightly annoyed at the fact that he'd have to clean it. “Shhh! Mama is coming back.” He rose to rinse off the spoon and try again.
“Mama...” Melli sniffled.
“Melli. Will you cooperate?” Aeon leaned in with a spoonful of what looked a lot like a soft pudding created from berries.
“Uwaaaa!”
“I give up.” Aeon buried his head in his hands and slumped next to the little one who put up quite the resistance to eating anything his father tried to feed him. Aeon let out a deep sigh. “Don’t look at me if mama wonders why you’re hungry,” he added. He set the bowl on a low table and got up to check on the silcoon and cascoon instead.
Melli flopped over onto his belly and crawled around. “Be careful, now. You’re not going to find mama here,” Aeon said as he fed the bugs.
“Mama? Mama!?” The stinky baby crawled around frantically searching for his missing mum.
“Hey, no!” Aeon rushed over to scoop up his son. “No touching.” He pulled him away from the hearth. “That’s hot. Very hot.”
“Uwaaaa!!” Melli wailed as he was held back from the burning structure.
“You want to touch it? I don’t think you do.” Melli kicked his little feet. “I’m going to put you to sleep. You’re not behaving.” The baby let out a sharp cry as his father took him to bed. He resisted and grabbed his father’s uniform with a death grip, holding on for dear life.
“Mama!!!”
“She’s busy.” Aeon placed his son on a pillow. “Mama is busy. It’s time for a nap, alright?” He peeled his son’s tiny fingers off of him as he managed to tuck him under the covers. Aeon sat at the foot of the bed to watch his son tire himself out from crying so much. Aeon grabbed a pillow and plugged his ears to make the noises bearable.
Amarantha returned home an hour or so later carrying a cylindrical wicker basket filled to the brim with freshly-harvested crops. She removed her shoes at the door and lugged the basket inside. “I’m home!” She sang as she carefully set the basket down by the entrance. She spotted Aeon sitting at the foot of the bed, keeping a whimpering Melli company.
Oh, dear... What’s wrong?”
“I tried to feed him and he wasn’t cooperating” Aeon shrugged.
“So, he went to bed hungry?” Amarantha worried. She rushed over to the baby to check on him. “Why didn’t he eat?” She pulled back the baby’s hood and gently pressed a soft palm against his forehead a couple times to detect any abnormal fluctuations in temperature. “He doesn’t seem ill...”
“He kept knocking the spoon onto the floor. I wasn’t going to keep cleaning it.”
Amarantha kneeled down next to the bed. “Melli! Mama’s here!” She cooed. “Mama is home.” Melli’s tiny blue eyes met his mothers once he locked onto the familiar sound of her whimsical voice and faint floral smell. The red colouring in his face slowly disappeared as he registered her soothing presence. Amarantha carefully brushed the thin bluish-purple strands of hair that began to frame his round face. Melli squirmed and tried to grab his mum’s hairs as they dangled in front of him. “Have you been nice to daddy? You need to be nice to daddy.” Aeon ate some of the pudding.
“It tastes good.”
“Aeon!” Amarantha lifted the baby into her arms.
“It might as well be eaten. If he won’t eat any of it, I will.” He concluded, taking another spoonful.
“Oh, dear.” Amarantha smelled her son. “I think it would be better if he ate some...”
“Do you want to try?” Aeon handed his wife the spoon. A determined Amarantha accepted the challenge.
“Look, Melli! Look at this!” She waved a spoonful in front of his tiny, chubby face. “Are you hungry?” Melli reached for his mum’s uniform. “Maybe he can’t eat this kind of food yet… I don’t want him to go hungry,” Amarantha fluffed a pillow and reclined in bed.
“He needs to start eating other things, you know,” Aeon frowned in disapproval.
“He doesn’t seem interested right now. Maybe some other time,” Amarantha said quietly. Melli squealed as his mum lifted her uniform; he suckled her nipple as if he were discovering food for the first time in his life. “Be careful now, sweetie.”
“You’re spoiling him.” Aeon ate the rest of the pudding. “He’s growing up and he needs to try new things.”
“We can try again some other time, okay darling?” Amarantha reasoned hesitantly. “It’s almost time for his afternoon nap and he hasn’t even eaten anything yet.” Aeon swivelled around on the floor to face the shrine. There was nothing he could add to the conversation, and he wasn’t going to waste any time pressing the matter when he could be doing more productive things. He proceeded to pray despite the loud suckling noises of the baby in the background.
* * *
Amarantha gave Melli a plush toy she made for him to play with out of spare recycled fabric. The plush was shaped like a flower stuffed with fluffy psyduck down. Melli joyfully accepted the plush which was dowsed in his mother’s unique personal scent and started to slobber on one of the petals he popped into his mouth. “Oh, you must like it, then,” Amarantha smiled down at him. “A flower for my flower,” she kissed the top of his head as he made content babbling noises.
“Augh! He's slobbering all over it,” Aeon joined his wife and son sitting outside the home.
“I think he likes it!” Amarantha clapped her sleeves together. “I’m just happy that he likes it. I wanted to see if I could create something out of the spare fabric I had lying around and then it hit me—maybe something that Melli would like. I knew he might want to taste it, so I made it with that in mind. It’s easy to wash!” Aeon was grossed out by his son, but he had to admire the sentiment behind what his wife meant to do. She just wanted to make something Melli could enjoy.
“How thoughtful of you,” Aeon brushed his wife’s cheek; the tickling sensation caused her to blush and hide her face in her sleeves. “You’re cute when you do that, you know?”
“Oh, I—” Amarantha's shyness took over.
“Uwaah...” Melli's smiles faded.
“He dropped his toy!” Aeon bent down to pick up the plush. The baby reached out for it and hugged it in his arms.
“The plush is like a piece of me he can have if I can’t be there for him.” Amarantha added.
“That’s actually a good idea. He tries to go with you if you leave the house.” Aeon sat there and thought about how the baby almost touched the hearth earlier while he tried to look for Amarantha.
“He does the same for you, darling. He gets upset if he sees you go out.”
“He must want us to stay together.”
“Oh, we will, darling.” Amarantha looked at Melli, “mummy and daddy will stay together, okay? We’ll always be here for you no matter what.”
Aeon wrapped his wife and son into a warm embrace. “That’s right! You're stuck with us.” Melli couldn’t make out what his parents were saying, but like a togepi, he could sense good energy radiating from them as they reassured and hugged him; he flapped his sleeves as he nestled into them.
* * *
Melli sat on soft quilted blanket behind the home while his mum pinned wet laundry onto a clothesline. He couldn’t go far on his hands and feet, so she didn’t feel the need to carry him as she worked around the home. He had an array of miniature blue and red square-shaped pillows and a couple of his toys to keep him busy. Aeon was out with other men catching something for dinner. Amarantha hummed a popular tune among the Clan as she evenly distributed the clean clothing across the line, “Give not into sorrow. Give not into anger. Offer only friendship to those around you. Give not into sorrow. Give not into anger. Bring not almighty Sinnoh to sorrow. For that is when time's flow will cease.”
A Pokémon ventured out from the lush umbrage surrounding the area. No fencing secured the backyards of any of the homes, so it was common for Pokémon to pass between the intersection of the Settlement and the forestry that secluded it. Melli put his rattle down and crawled towards the edge of the blanket in the direction of the quiet visitor out of sheer curiosity. The Pokémon had purple fur with a cream-coloured streak running from the top of its head towards the tip of its tail. Its tail fanned out and looked super fluffy! Melli caught the Pokémon’s attention; it drew closer with equal hesitation.
The creature seemed docile and timid, just like him; it didn’t make a sound, but watched the baby’s movements carefully. Melli reached out towards it with a free hand to try to feel it. The Pokémon flinched at first but didn’t run away. Melli tried reaching out towards it again. This time, the Pokémon allowed him to touch it without backing away. Melli ran his tiny fingers down the crown of the strange visitor’s head, admiring the soft furry feeling it had. The Pokémon’s gaze softened; its eyes closed as it nudged forward as If it were hoping for more head pats.
“Well, that’s all of them.” Amarantha said as she pinned a final linen sheet to the line in front of her. “Alright, darling. Are you ready to go back insi—eeeEE!” A shocked Amarantha leaped towards her son as she turned to see her son petting the wild Pokémon. The sudden shrieking spooked the Pokémon, causing its fight or flight response to trigger; it dashed away, disappearing into the umbrage from whence it came without uttering a single sound. Melli began to cry as his mum scooped him up. The Pokémon was gone for good. It probably wouldn’t come back now especially while Melli was bawling his little eyes out. Amarantha carried the sobbing baby inside first before retrieving his belongings and blanket with the empty laundry basket.
Melli sat on the bed; Amarantha returned with his toys. “Melli~ Look what I got!” She set out his toys in front of him. “I’m sorry, darling. I didn’t mean to scare you like that.” Amarantha handed the rattle to the baby. “Here. Let’s clean you up. Your face is all wet from crying so much!”
Moments later, Aeon returned home with fresh catches just in time for dinner. “Why is he crying this time?” He asked, removing his shoes by the door.
“Oh, I think I scared him...” Amarantha frowned with slight guilt. “I was putting out the laundry and when I turned around, I saw a Pokémon near him… it startled me, and I might have screamed a bit.” She spoke softly, hoping Melli would calm down if she kept her volume down. “I didn’t mean to. I was just surprised.”
“Do you know what it was?”
“It scurried off quickly, but it looked like a small stunky. It had a long streak running down it’s back,” Amarantha moved her hand, tracing the air in a straight line.
“Hmm. I’m glad nobody was hurt.”
“I guess the stunky was a shy one—it didn’t even make any noise.”
“You said it was small, right? It might have been a baby one,” Aeon thought. “I think I’ll make a fenced area for Melli. If he’s going to play outside, I’d rather he be safe. It was a shy one this time, but it could have been some other Pokémon. A Pokémon that might harm the baby—even by accident. Stunky still have sharp nails, even if they’re small,” he warned.
“That’s a fine idea. Yes. He’s getting older now and it would be nice if he could play outside safely.”
“I’ll see what I can do tomorrow. Right now, it’s dinner time!”
Amarantha helped Aeon prepare dinner; Aeon brought the meats while Amarantha bought fresh berries with excellent nutritional value to accentuate the catch of the day. Melli rolled around on the bed with his toys until it was time to eat; he squeezed the flower-shaped plush his mum fashioned for him. Aeon stood behind Amarantha, wrapping his arms around her fluffy mid-sized frame as she cooked; she hummed to herself the same popular tune as she did. A delicious aroma evaporated through the chimney once dinner was served. The young couple sat down together to pray before the meal while a tired Melli rested in his mother’s lap until it was his turn to eat, too.
