Cheng Meng stretched lazily, savoring the rare clarity in her stiff muscles. The mysterious Pokémon's massage skills rivaled professional therapists. Glancing at the Indeedee still tidying her cosmetics bag, she bit her lip. Three unused Poké Balls weighed in her pocket.
Meanwhile, Xiao Die and Xiao Da trekked deeper into the woods.
"Are you sure leaving your sister alone was a good idea?" Xiao Da frowned, scanning the rustling bushes. Growing up on the plains, she'd heard too many stories of travelers ambushed by wolves—or worse.
Xiao Die adjusted the bulky tool pouch sagging from her frilly qipao. "Relax! She's napping right by camp. Blaziken could zoom there in 30 seconds flat. Plus, Machop's on guard duty."
Xiao Da eyed the pouch distorting Xiao Die's silhouette. "Why… carry all that?"
"Psh. I'm an artisan!" Xiao Die unclipped the pouch, dumping out hammers, chisels, and oddly shaped metal files. "A mechanic's tools are never out of place!"
Clang! Clang!
Both froze. Rhythmical, resonant—the unmistakable sound of a blacksmith's hammer.
Xiao Die's ears twitched. "That's… forging."
"Out here?!"
Creeping toward the noise, they spotted a pink Pokémon barely taller than a toaster. It hoisted a comically oversized hammer—a haphazard slab of welded scrap metal—and slammed it onto an anvil with terrifying gusto.
CLANG!!
Sparks flew as the hammer struck a shimmering ingot. Xiao Die's eye twitched.
[Unknown Pokémon]
[Species: Tinkatink]
[Status: Unregistered in Pokédex]
"What… is that?" Xiao Da whispered.
Xiao Die trembled, fists clenched. "That's… that's CRIMINAL!"
Before Xiao Da could stop her, Xiao Die stormed into the clearing.
Tinkatink paused mid-swing, blinking at the intruder. Recognizing no threat, it resumed hammering the now-mangled metal blob.
"STOP! You're RUINING it!" Xiao Die wailed, hovering helplessly as Tinkatink's hammer whooshed past her nose.
With a disappointed grunt, Tinkatink tossed the deformed lump onto a scrap pile and grabbed a new ingot.
Xiao Die dove for the discarded metal. "This… this is pristine alloy!" She traced the seamless curves of the malformed hammerhead. "No weld marks… It's like it grew this shape…"
Tinkatink ignored her, raising its hammer again.
"Wait!" Xiao Die unrolled her tools on the grass. "Let me fix this!"
Ignoring dirt staining her qipao, she grabbed a file and began sculpting the scrap metal with surgical precision. Tinkatink's ears perked up.