The cave opened up after the first hundred meters into a proper cavern with branching tunnels running off in three directions. Finn chose randomly and followed one.
A Pokemon came out of a side tunnel without warning. A Geodude, rolling fast. Finn stepped aside and it hit the wall behind him and sat there. He gave it room and kept moving. The second was a Zubat that dropped from the ceiling and he batted it away with his forearm and walked faster until the sound of it faded.
The cave went deeper than he'd expected. The temperature rose and the rock underfoot became smoother in patches. He passed a narrow channel where water ran somewhere below. He passed a section of wall scratched repeatedly at waist height, parallel lines in clusters. He kept moving.
Then the light of his lightsaber picked up something ahead.
A shape pressed into a gap where two walls met at an angle. Small. Dark blue, roughly triangular, with a head too large for its body and a jaw grinding at a piece of rock. The grinding was loud in the silence, a rough rhythmic and annoying crunch that echoed off the walls.
Finn stopped. He clicked the lightsaber off.
In the dark he crouched and let his eyes adjust to the faint glow in the rock. The Gible hadn't moved. Still working at the rock, crunching steadily.
He reached into his bag.
He had read the entry twice on the road from Eterna. Gible hatched in clutches of four to six. In the first month, survival rate in the wild sat around twenty percent. They burned through energy faster than almost any other hatchling in the guide, and a lone Gible with no clutch-mates and no parent nearby would start eating cave rocks out of necessity before long.
This one was missing a chunk from the rear fin on its left side. A week old at least, the edges closed but the tissue was still dark. It had survived that. It had survived losing its clutch. It had survived however long it had been alone in here with a damaged fin and nothing to eat but rock.
Finn found the Razz Berry in his bag and held it out in his palm.
He waited.
The grinding quickly stopped.
The silence was immediate. The Gible turned and let out a short "Ghk."
He kept still, hand extended, and didn't move.
"Ghk. Ghk."
The Gible came out of the gap. Not toward him, but sideways, putting its back to the far wall. It was smaller than the guide had suggested, probably the runt of its clutch, which explained both the fin damage and the fact that it was still alive. Runts either died first or last.
It looked at the berry. Then at him. "Gii..."
Then it lunged.
Not at the berry. At his hand. The jaw clamped down on his fingers and he hissed and pulled back and the Gible came with it, hanging off the glove. He shook his hand, it dropped, landed on its feet, and squared up again. "Ghk ghk ghk ghk."
Finn looked at his hand. Four indentations in the glove, not through it, but close.
"Right," he said. "Okay."
He tossed the berry in a gentle arc. It landed two feet in front of the Gible. The sound stopped for a second. It looked at the berry. At him. Ate it in one motion and went back to squaring up. "Ghk."
Finn put a second berry halfway between them and stepped back.
The Gible approached at an angle. "Gii... gii..." Ate it fast. Retreated. "Ghk."
Finn then sat down on the cave floor.
"...Gii?"
He set a third berry closer to himself and put his hands flat on the floor. The Gible circled it. "Gii. Gii." Closed in, ate it, retreated. But it hadn't lunged.
He set a fourth berry directly in front of his knee.
The Gible sat across from him. Quiet now. Just its breathing, too fast and too shallow.
Its sides were moving too fast and too shallow. The guide had flagged breathing rate as an indicator of energy depletion in young Gible. It needed more than berries.
Finn reached slowly into his bag and found the dried meat he'd bought in Eterna.
He opened the packet.
"GHK." Two steps forward before it caught itself and stopped.
He held a piece out between two fingers.
The Gible crossed the floor in three strides, snapped it up, bit his glove on the way back. "Gii gii gii," eating standing up, swallowing fast between sounds.
He fed it piece by piece. By the end it was taking from his open palm. "Gii... gii..." Quieter with each piece.
Then, he reached slowly for the Pokeball.
It watched the ball. "Ghk."
Finn set it on the floor and pushed it forward gently.
The Gible approached. Sniffed it. "Ghk." Bit it. The ball popped open and closed and the Gible barked "GHK GHK" and recoiled to its wall.
Finn waited.
Gradually: "Ghk... ghk... gii..."
It crossed the floor. Stood over the ball. One last "gii," low and quiet.
Then it pressed its nose to the button.
The ball opened and closed. The light blinked once, twice, three times.
Silence.
Finn sat in the dark for a moment. His fingers hurt in two places. He was going to need a Pokemon Centre before heading back.
He put the ball into his bag and stood.
"Dramatic," he said, and clicked the lightsaber back on.