Beau was the first to wake up. Before he even opened his eyes, he could hear Rocko’s snoring beside him, like the muffled sound of someone revving a chainsaw. It was oddly calming, and he almost didn’t want to get out of bed. He wanted to lay there a little longer, maybe fall back asleep to the white noise of not just the snoring, but the birds chirping and the leaves rustling in the light wind. Just a little longer.

His stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten at all yesterday, and somehow he hadn’t noticed until now. Yesterday’s events were, to put it lightly, chaotic, so it came to no surprise that his mind would have been focusing on everything else but his stomach. With a disgruntled sigh, but quiet enough to not wake Rocko, he got out of bed and looked around for something to eat. His first instinct was to check the mini fridge by the door, but after opening the door, he was only met with hammers, nails, and a thick paint brush that seemed unused (perhaps Rocko was planning on painting his small home, but realized he had no paint). Disappointed, yet unsurprised, Beau closed the door. 

He scanned the room, seeing if there was some kind of container that would hold food or just food laying about, but there was nothing of that kind. Then, as he sat on the floor to think of what to do next, he realized why there was a lack of food: Rocko said that he went into town yesterday to get food. He doesn’t bring anything back, he eats there. For a second, he thought about going back into town to grab something to eat, maybe bring something back for Rocko. But that idea was shot down as he remembered how he swore to never return to that town, and even if he wanted to, going back would only make the pain he felt worse. 

So what else could he do? There was no food in the house, and going back into town to get more wasn’t an option. He got up from the floor and pushed the “door” to the side and stepped outside, thinking maybe some fresh air would help him think. He looked around, and as he did, an idea started slowly forming in his mind, but it wasn’t quite there yet to have a eureka moment. His eyes suddenly locked onto a pidgey nest on the low branch of a tree. He noticed how there were a few eggs laying in the nest, but their mother was nowhere in sight. Then it dawned on him: I’m in the wild now, it’s survival of the fittest. So with that new mindset planted in his brain, he had a new goal in mind. 

He ran over to the tree, which was about half a yard in front of him. It was shaped differently from the other trees, making it easier to focus on. As he ran, he thought about how he was going to climb this tree, given that he had no experience climbing a tree before, let alone a taller one like this one. Once he was face to face with the tree, he started circling it, looking for a good spot to start climbing. Around the back, there was a stub that was just high enough to plant his foot and begin climbing while being able to reach the first branch after making it up there. 

He did just that, gently placing his left foot on the stub while he pressed his hand on to the tree for balance. Then he hoisted himself up so that he was completely standing on the stub, his arms stretched up along the tree, preparing for his next move. The stub was sturdier than he thought it would be, which put him at a little ease. He bent his legs down, eyeing the first branch, and then jumped as high as he could to grab it. Success! But barely. His hand slipped, but in his moment of brief panic, he was able to get his bearings. He pulled himself up, and after getting himself at a comfortable position (or as comfortable as it was going to get), he locked on to the next branch that held their breakfast. He lunged forward, arms out ready to catch the branch, not even thinking about the possibility of missing. His stomach seemed to be controlling his body. 

But he grabbed it, this one somehow being more successful than the last one. As he latched onto the branch, causing it to shake, the nest shook with it and inched closer to the edge. Noticing this, Beau knew he had to make his next movement carefully, otherwise he would have done all of this for nothing and gone back to square one. He took a deep breath before slowly pulling himself up. The branch tilted down, scooching the nest down towards the tip of the branch. Beau maneuvered himself as carefully as possible so that his legs were on either side of the branch, then once he was in position, he crawled his way toward the nest. The rough bark scratched his belly as he made his way along, but with the adrenaline pumping through Beau’s body, he didn’t notice a thing. He inched closer and closer, the anticipation killing him on the inside. Finally, he made it close enough to grab the nest safely. 

He grabbed on to the sides and pulled it toward him, further securing the nest. 

“Gotcha,” He said to himself, proud of his accomplishment.

He looked down, and his triumphant smile dissipated. Wait, how the hell do I get this down? He couldn’t just drop the nest down, for the eggs inside would surely break on impact. And he couldn’t go back the way he came, since it would take both arms to climb back down. He looked around, desperately searching for a way to get him and the eggs down safely. Fuck. 

He tried sliding back. Surely he could find some way of getting back down with the eggs unharmed, right? As he did this, he felt his balance becoming uneven. The more his body tilted, the more his heart sank. In an attempt to prevent himself from falling, he used one hand to grab the branch, the other gripping the nest as hard as possible. But it wasn’t enough, in fact, Beau would consider later that to be the reason why he completely lost his balance. The next thing he knew, he was falling from the branch, and though it took only two seconds to reach the ground, it felt like two hours for him. Quickly, he let his free hand hold the top of the eggs as he fell, letting his back take the fall. 

Thump! Beau didn’t even notice the pain in his back at first, he was only concerned for the thing that led him to this moment. He quickly checked the nest, his heart beating as fast as it possibly could. Out of the three eggs in there, only one had cracked, letting the contents inside ooze out. He let his head rest back on the ground with a relieved sigh, and with that, he finally noticed the pain in his back. He was almost convinced that he broke it, but after laying there for a minute or two, he mustered the energy to get up and transfer the remaining eggs back to the house.

Just outside the house, Beau had set up a small campfire from twigs and leaves, and tried to build a makeshift skillet out of a square piece of metal lying toward the back of the house and a stick. It was on the verge of falling apart, but it should be useful enough to cook two eggs. Beau had seen in a movie once that people would rub two sticks together to start a fire, and thought that he could replicate that. He grabbed two sticks that he deemed good enough to help start a fire and got to work on them. What the movies didn’t make clear, and Beau would quickly realize, was that it’s a lot harder to do, especially for a beginner. He spun the one stick for several minutes, determined to get the fire started. 

He was almost ready to give up when, by some miracle, a spark flew from the sticks, flying into the twigs and leaves, causing a small line of smoke to rise from it. Quickly, Beau began blowing onto the smoke (that was another thing he saw in movies) until a clear fire rose from the smoke, and soon enough, a full fire had been made. He was both surprised and proud that he managed to actually make a fire without any help. But he didn’t want to celebrate just yet, for he still had to use the fire. Beau cracked the eggs onto the “skillet” and held it over the fire, and soon enough, he heard the sizzling of the eggs cooking. 

Beau could never have imagined doing any of this, and it made him wonder what other survival skills he could learn on his own. He was out in the wild, so it’s not like he had much of a choice. Still, for someone who never spent a day in the woods, he felt he was holding out pretty well. 

“Beau?” he heard a voice say behind him.

It was Rocko, groggily rubbing his eyes. 

“Hey, just making breakfast,” Beau said with a smile.

“What? How did you-” He asked, clearly still waking up. 

“It doesn’t matter, really. Do you have anything I can set these on?” Beau took the makeshift skillet off the fire and placed it on the ground beside it. The smell made Beau salivate; he was ready to eat his egg right off the skillet. 

Rocko turned his head to look back into the house, “Uh...yeah, I could find a plate or two. Maybe”

He went inside for only a brief moment before coming back out with a singular plastic plate. A part of the edge was torn off, and it looked like he took barely any time to clean it. The state of the plate didn’t matter to Beau though, he was hungry. Rocko set the plate down beside the skillet, letting Beau transfer the eggs onto the plate. 

Rocko looked at the fire, then back at Beau, “Y’know, if you needed a fire you could have just asked me. That’s uh, kinda something I can do.”

Beau laughed nervously, “Yeah, but I wanted this to be a surprise..and a thank you for taking me in.” Though he wasn’t entirely lying about that, he also completely forgot that Rocko was a fire type, being a growlithe and all. 

“Aw, you didn’t have to do that,” Rocko playfully punched Beau’s arm, “but thank you, I- I appreciate it.”

They sat across from one another and began eating their eggs. They certainly weren’t the best, especially for what Beau is used to, but with his starving belly he couldn’t care less. Rocko noticed him savagely tearing through his eggs, “Hey, when was the last time you ate?”

Beau looked at him, pieces of egg sprinkled around his mouth, “Uhh…the day before yesterday, I think?”

“Shit, man. So you had nothing yesterday? Nothing at all?”

Beau nodded and went back to devouring his eggs, or what was left of them. Without giving it a second thought, Rocko cut his egg in half and slid it to Beau’s side of the plate.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that. I’ll be fine.” Beau said.

“You need it more than I do, and I’d much rather you have it than I.”

Beau looked at him, paralyzed for a moment from his kindness. Is he really giving up half his food? For me? He shook himself from his thoughts, and his staring, “Th- thank you.”

His tail started wagging, “No problem at all, I love helping whenever I can.”

He couldn’t believe the kindness radiating from this growlithe, and towards a stranger no less. Beau worried as he left town that the pokemon he was going to meet from here on out were going to be mean and terrifying. Rocko defied all that, and he was grateful that he was the first pokemon he met. 

“So…what are we doing after this?” Beau asked.

Rocko grinned at him, “Oh, I’ve got a few plans.”