Mijou sat alone in the forest, sobbing. He had been looking forward to showing his new scalchop to his mother. She would have been so proud of his find! Now he had nothing. Should he tell his mom about what Futachi had done? If she forced his brother into giving him back the shell, would he be ok with that? Or would that make him exactly what his brother depicted him as? Should he go find another, ordinary shell? But he really wanted that awesome shell that he found! Oh, what should he do?

Mijou wiped his face as he heard a shuffling in the bushes. Was his brother back? He jumped as he heard a strange noise from his left.

“Upaa!”

What was that? Mijou looked left, but there was nothing.

“Upaa?”

This time the noise came from the right. Mijou turned quicker, but again there was nothing.

“Upaa upaa?”

Mijou jumped up from his seat and turned back. There was a tiny Wooper there, poking his head behind him.

“Oh you scared me!” Mijou said, relieved but embarrassed that a stranger caught him crying. “Don’t play games with people like that.”

The Wooper came closer and cocked his head to the side, looking concerned. “Upaa?”

The Oshawott shook away his remaining tears. “Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it!”

“Upaa upaa paa?”

“Thanks for your concern , but I’m fine!” Mijou tried walking away but the Wooper jumped in front of him. “Um, could you move out of the way please? I have things to do.”

“ Upaa!” The little guy clearly wasn’t buying his story.

Mijou sighed. “It’s just that I had this really lovely shell that was really important to me, but then I lost it.”

The Wooper blinked at him and suddenly he ran away into the forest without a warning. So much for that, Mijou thought. This guy looked concerned but he did not care after all.