Digestive Mishaps with Pokemon - Massive Mistake

Hiking in the hills north of Wyndon is a wondrous experience, something Cam would tell anyone willing to listen. They loved the outdoors, the isolation, and just the feeling of covering so much distance in a day. Of course, they were never completely alone. Their faithful companion was a lickitung they affectionately and simply called “Licky”. He always seemed to enjoy their long hikes, not to mention Licky got his favorite delicacy out here: Bug pokemon, whole.

On one fateful hike, they reached the summit of a hill in the northwest. It was near noon and they had already been hiking for most of the morning. Lunchtime was approaching, but before that a glimmer caught Cam’s eye. They turned towards it, facing an unusually wide valley between some other hills. They couldn’t tell if it was a trick of the light, something oddly reflective, or something else entirely, but down in the center of that valley there was red gleaming.

“C’mon Licky! Let’s find out what that light is!” Licky squealed in approval as he followed his trainer downhill, tongue flopping in the wind. After a quick descent, they reached flat ground and started walking towards it. As they approached, Cam tried to guess what it could be. Rubies? A pokemon? It would be an interesting discovery whatever the case. Unfortunately for them, the answer was something they didn’t guess, but should have. It was something known to every soul in Galar.

As they approached the red light, it became evident that it was actually emerging from cracks in the ground in rays. Licky ran a little ahead to stand directly above the cracks, seemingly amused by them. Cam told him, “Be careful,” but otherwise kneeled down to examine the cracks themselves. It was solid red down there. Some kind of energy, maybe?

While his trainer examined the source, Licky was satisfied to prance around the beams. It attracted him somehow, though he wasn’t sure why. He felt like they were making him... stronger? He looked down at his own palms and saw them bathed in a red light. In fact, his whole body was. The light stuck to his body as if he was absorbing it. He made a low, curious noise as something started happening. His body was trembling like it was about to burst.

Cam looked up when they heard their pokemon make an unusual noise. It was then they noticed the red light outlining Licky. It was then they realized what the red light was. “Lickie... Get away from there.” They started backing up nervously, but their pokemon only tilted his head. It was already too late so they needed to clear as much distance as they could. “Actually, stay right there!” They turned and started running and heard what sounded like an explosion behind them.

The force knocked them off their feet, propelling them a few more feet ahead before landing on the grass. They heard a few more booms behind them, then the ground itself trembled as something hit it. After shielding their eyes from dust, they turned over to see an absolutely massive figure blotting the sun. It was nearly impossible to tell just from looking up, but the round, pink legs in front of them and the thick tongue dripping over them told them it was Lickie, now gargantuan.

After his trainer bolted away, Lickie suddenly found himself in a much smaller environment. Or maybe he was much bigger. Either way, the hills he had hiked over before were now beneath him and he wasn’t exactly sure where his trainer was. If he could hear his trainer, he might learn that this phenomenon is known as dynamax, a transformation brought upon by energy wells throughout Galar. Of course, if he could hear his trainer, he would know not to take a step forward.

Cam managed to stand up and walk out from under their lickitung’s tongue, but they could still barely believe what had happened. The small, nearly 4 foot pokemon now towered above them, taller than the landscape. They tried shouting for Lickie’s attention, jumping and waving their arms. Unfortunately, while trainers are normally able to command their pokemon when dynamaxed, that requires training. But they weren’t that kind of trainer and they certainly weren’t prepared for this.

When Lickie took a step forward they moved to dive out of the way of one of his feet to avoid being trampled. However, they quickly found out the problem wasn’t Lickie’s feet, but rather his now massive tongue. As he stepped the tongue swung low enough to catch Cam, briefly knocking the wind out of their lungs but also leaving them solidly glued to their pokemon’s tongue. A lickitung’s tongue was typically sticky at normal size, but like this they had no chance of removing themselves.

It was only moments later when idly and obliviously, Lickie pulled his tongue into his mouth to lubricate it. There was a brief second when Cam could’ve possibly yelled close enough for Lickie to hear, but the quick retraction of his tongue left them clutching on for dear life (as if it would ever let go of them). Soon they were in the biggest, wettest cave they had ever explored. And soon they started to feel themselves sliding off the humongous tongue, which would be a relief if they didn’t think they were sliding in the wrong direction.

As they slid with globs of saliva towards the unknown, Cam hoped that all the taste buds they kept hitting would eventually trigger something in Lickie. However that recognition never came and easily, thoughtlessly, he swallowed the spit that happened to contain his trainer. Cam plunged down Lickie’s gullet, falling slowly without direction until they tumbled out into a chamber that was even larger than the last.

Loud, hungry gurgling and growling came from every direction and the ground shifted endlessly beneath them. They tried to wander towards a stomach wall, as if pounding at their size would even get the massive pokemon’s attention. Ultimately, any movement was mostly the result of his gut muscles tossing them about. During that they came across chyme and half-digested bug pokemon, at which point Cam realized that even if Lickie’s dynamax did wear off before they succumbed to the same fate... Lickie’s stomach would still be able to handle them all the same.

Lickie’s time as a giant turned out to last about an hour, which gave him plenty of time to slurp up the landscape as lunch while looking for his trainer. When he finally shrank back down his belly ended up being nearly three times his size. All sorts of stuff, bugs, trees, and Cam quickly compressed into a half-digested ball of mush while Lickie belched out the extras. His stomach was unrecognizable as anything he had eaten. He still wasn’t sure where his trainer was, but there wasn’t much for him to do since he was lying so far off the ground atop his own belly. Instead, he decided to take a nice digestive nap in the new ditch he’d created with his tongue. Later at night, when his belly was small enough to waddle with, he would wander back towards civilization. If it weren’t for the dark, Lickie might’ve noticed his own spittle-covered pokeball lying on the side as he left.