Haley stared at the Minccino in her hand, stunned for a moment. She then slowly placed both the crystal fruit and Minccino on the picnic blanket.
"It must be hungry," she said, turning her head and looking around the picnic basket, finding a hazelnut bread and placing it beside Minccino as well.
"Minccino!" Minccino held that piece of crystal fruit, eating while calling out.
"It's hard to find food in winter," she said, reaching out and poking Minccino's forehead.
"Cino~"
Staring at the eating Minccino, Haley rolled over, propping her chin on both hands, motionlessly watching Minccino.
As if afraid Haley would snatch its food, Minccino chewed, then paused, turned around and ate with its back to Haley.
"Its tail is so pretty too," Haley said while carefully touching Minccino's tail.
Besides Haley, the other three didn't dare move at this moment. Uncertain whether Haley was planning to catch this Minccino, the three who feared startling Minccino exchanged glances and retreated a bit from the picnic blanket.
"Not battling?" Emily stood beside Ron, asking in a lowered voice.
"Don't know," Ron similarly replied in a lowered voice: "Perhaps after eating, it will voluntarily let Haley catch it."
Whether it was Emily's Squawkabilly or Leah's Deerling, neither was caught through battle, so the two couldn't tell either. They just quietly squatted nearby, observing the girl and mouse over there.
Probably because the picnic blanket was full of Pokémon at this moment, Minccino wasn't so vigilant. After stuffing that piece of hazelnut bread into its mouth, it turned around again, staring with those round, bulging eyes, motionlessly looking at Haley.
Before it could react, Haley suddenly pulled out a Poké Ball from her pocket, then aimed the button at Minccino's forehead.
The next second, red light flashed, and Minccino disappeared from the spot.
Immediately after, the light sound indicating a successful catch rang out.
"It should have said it wanted food earlier," Emily let out a long breath. She smiled and sat back on the picnic blanket: "If just now instead of having Sunkern battle, we had thrown hazelnut bread at its head, would it have been caught long ago?"
"Maybe," Leah chimed in, stuffing a hazelnut bread into her mouth.
Last winter, Leah also had the habit of bringing some bread, dried fruits and such to the forest to feed wild animals and wild Pokémon.
Because food was scarce in winter, many animals would take a risk, rushing to Leah to eat these things.
"But this is only the second day," Emily said: "Maybe it's a scatterbrain like Haley, forgot to collect food in autumn, so now it has no choice but to be caught by her."
Before Haley could make any reaction, Minccino ran out of the Poké Ball on its own, using its large tail to angrily sweep across Emily's face.
Meanwhile.
Today was Tuesday. Pam got up early, swept the snow from the doorway clean, turned over the soil in the small garden, and waited until the noon break to rush home and plant the few Winter Melon seeds Lewis gave her into the small garden.
After burying the seeds and watering them, Pam rubbed her hands and stood up.
This scene happened to be seen by Gus coming out of the saloon. Gus smiled and greeted Pam.
"Busy with something?"
"Didn't I make a small garden at the entrance?" Pam said while blowing on her hands: "Lewis gave me some seeds, thinking I'd just plant them now, so after some time there will be Winter Melons to eat."
Gus smiled, brought out a cup of hot milk from inside, and handed it to Pam.
"Hold this to warm your hands. Off today?"
Pam held the cup, thanked Gus, then said: "Came back during a break. There's nothing to do waiting at the bus station, so I thought I'd come back and plant this first. Almost no one goes to the Desert these past two days—just sending the farm's Pokémon there in the morning. At most, Sandy comes by occasionally, oh right, and Sam. Sam occasionally goes too."
"Winter is like this," Gus smiled and said: "Everyone doesn't really want to go out."
Only in the evening does the saloon get lively, but it depends on the situation. Sometimes when it's too cold outside, even coming to the saloon for a meal requires a long mental preparation before going out.
Pam took a sip of milk, waited until the chill in her body had dispersed considerably, then drank the milk in one gulp. After thanking Gus, she walked toward the bus station.
Seeing Pam walk away, Gus took out a broom from the saloon and swept the piled snow to the side.
The snow yams in the campfire were finally roasted at this moment. Ron found two branches, pulled the snow yams from the fire, waited for the temperature to drop a bit, then held them in his hands and peeled off the outer skin.
Before Ron could ask, in this short time, he was once again surrounded by Rattatas.
Fortunately, there weren't many Rattatas who came out for the picnic this time, and there were enough snow yams roasted in the campfire. Leah also came over upon seeing this, helping to pull the snow yams from the fire.
"I also brought oil and vinegar dressing," Leah took out a small lunch box and handed it to a nearby Rattata. "Want to try?"
The Rattata held the steaming snow yam, hesitated for a while, carefully broke off a piece, dipped it in the oil and vinegar dressing Leah handed over, then fed it to its mouth.
The originally scalding hot snow yam dropped in temperature considerably after being dipped in oil and vinegar dressing, just right for eating. The Rattata chewed for a moment, squinting its eyes blissfully.
Minccino nearby hurriedly came over, also waiting eagerly on the side.
"Rattata rattata!"
The Rattata generously broke off a piece from its own snow yam and handed it to Minccino's paws.
"Minccino!"
The two huddled together like this, holding that piece of snow yam, eating while happily rubbing their cheeks.
Ron smiled, peeled one out and handed it to Haley who was similarly staring at Minccino nearby.
"Ah, thank you," Haley thanked him, then dipped it in Leah's oil and vinegar dressing and took a bite.
"The taste is really quite excellent!"
Haley said, handing the remaining half to Emily.
Emily paused, glanced at Haley, then accepted that piece of snow yam.
The taste was even better than she expected. Emily chewed while staring at Haley's profile, faintly feeling a bit of reluctance.
But after a while, she still smiled, then looked at Ron and Leah who were still busy peeling snow yams for the Rattatas. She moved to the fireside and joined the team peeling snow yams.
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