Bulbasaur was watering his garden, one plant at a time. "Are there strawberries yet?" asked Pikachu. "Little by little," said Bulbasaur. Pikachu ran three laps around the garden. When he got back, nothing had grown.
"I'm going for more water," said Bulbasaur. "Guard the garden. Don't let anyone eat a single leaf." Pikachu planted himself at the gate, ears stiff and cheeks ready.
Crunch, crunch. In the biggest lettuce there was a hole, and in the hole, a little green face. "My name is Miga," said the Caterpie, with her mouth full.
Pikachu ran her all the way to the other side of the fence. He came back quick as lightning and sat down to keep watch. After a while: crunch, crunch. Little by little, Miga had come back.
Pikachu lit up his cheeks. Miga did not hide. "I have to eat an awful lot," she said. "I'm going to do something very hard, and I need to be strong." Pikachu put out the sparks.
Pikachu drew a line in the dirt with his tail. "This row of lettuce is yours," he said. "The others are not." Miga ate her row leaf by leaf. Little by little, she grew round.
Bulbasaur came back and saw the row full of holes. He looked at Pikachu. He looked at Miga, who no longer fit on one leaf. He said nothing. He watered that row too.
One morning Miga was gone. Under a leaf hung a green cocoon, very still. Pikachu sat down beneath it and did not run a single lap. "Yet?" Bulbasaur asked every day. "Little by little," Pikachu said.
And one morning the cocoon was empty. Over the garden flew Miga, with two new white wings. Now she was a Butterfree. She went from flower to flower, along every row.
Wherever Miga landed, the flower turned into a strawberry. Little by little, the garden filled with red. They split the first strawberry three ways. And Pikachu ate his piece very, very slowly.
