I'd like to see how long you can keep this up.
Arthur waited patiently, watching the little girl lie on the ground "playing dead."
Honestly, he felt a flicker of amusement. It had been a month of nothing but eating, sleeping, and fighting, driven by the constant pressure to survive and the responsibility of leading a growing swarm. Having something—or someone—new around was a welcome distraction.
"..."
The girl's lips twitched. She could clearly feel Arthur's gaze, but since nothing was happening, the suspense was becoming unbearable.
After two more seconds of hesitation, she carefully cracked one eye open and looked up at him.
Arthur didn't move. He skewered a fresh Nanab Berry with one of his arm-needles and held it out to her.
The girl flinched at the movement, pulling her head back. But when she realized he wasn't attacking, she stared at the fruit in shock.
"Oh! ...Thank you."
Her voice was small and raspy. Arthur's gesture sent a shockwave through her understanding of the world.
In everything she had been taught by her elders, "magical beasts" were monsters of pure aggression. She had never heard of one showing such deliberate kindness to a human.
She took the berry and ate it ravenously. After finishing, she looked around the dark, buzzing territory.
Fear flickered in her eyes again, but she looked back at Arthur and nodded with newfound determination.
"Hello! My name is Liz!" She stood up, bracing herself as she walked right up to him.
"...Bzz." Arthur made a random buzzing sound. Whatever he said, she wasn't going to understand it anyway.
"Are you greeting me? You're so friendly! Haha, we're friends now!"
Liz reached out and grabbed one of Arthur's arm-needles, shaking it up and down. Her heart was pounding—she was well aware that this "hand" was a biological weapon that could skewer her in an instant.
But she was a smart kid. She knew she was lost in a forest filled with man-eaters. Her only chance of survival was the giant, armored bug that had already shared its food.
"I'm from the Dragon Tribe outside the forest! I'm the princess! My full name is Liz Blackthorn!"
Arthur listened intently. As she rambled on, trying to keep the silence from becoming scary, the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.
He wasn't just in the Era of Magical Beasts; he was in the Tribal Era.
And "Liz Blackthorn"? If his memory of the Pokémon lore was correct, he was looking at the ancestor of the Blackthorn Clan—the family of Clair and Lance, the future Champions and Dragon Masters of Johto and Kanto.
The forest they were in was none other than Mt. Silver, the massive mountain range dividing the two regions.
Liz explained (mostly to herself) that her tribe had been exploring the caves when they clashed with the "Silph Tribe" from the other side of the mountain. The two groups were now locked in a resource war over the mountain's minerals.
The Silph Tribe... the ancestors of the Silph Co. giants?
Arthur shook his head. It was fascinating. Two of the most powerful entities of the modern era were currently trying to bash each other's brains out in a prehistoric cave.
As the night deepened, Liz began to shiver. The forest floor was damp and cold, and her simple cloth tunic offered little protection. Arthur noticed her trembling and skewered a Lum Berry from the pile, handing it to her.
"Thank you, I'm not—" She took a bite out of habit, then stopped. A wave of warmth spread through her chest. Her eyes lit up. "This is amazing! If we had these, the warriors wouldn't freeze in the mountain passes!"
Arthur watched her for a moment, then settled down onto the leaves to sleep.
"Wait, don't sleep yet! I'm thirsty... can you understand me?" Liz poked his chitinous side with a finger.
Arthur raised his head, slightly annoyed. He pointed a stinger toward the pile of fruit, signaling for her to drink the juice from the berries.
He had no intention of leaving the tree at night; the forest was full of nocturnal hunters, and while he was Level 27, he wasn't stupid.
"I'm not hungry, I'm... oh, never mind."
Liz pouted, grabbed two berries, and sucked out the juice. She looked into the pitch-black forest, hearing the eerie, melodic cries of distant Pokémon. Shivering again, she scurried over to Arthur and curled up against his warm, armored side.
"..."
Arthur glanced at the kid, closed his eyes, and let her stay.
By the next morning, word had spread through the territory. Every Weedle, Kakuna, and Beedrill in the swarm knew: their leader had adopted a "newcomer." A strange, hairless, and remarkably weak little Pokémon.