Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Iris had never been good with cooking; it had just never been her forte. That was more Cerise’s department, and even then, well, Cerise even struggled. Still, she had to try. The woman flipped through what felt like the hundredth cookbook, searching for anything resembling what Azelf was wanting her to make. No, no, no… She pursed her lips as she slowed down. The Pokemon in question alighted upon her shoulder, leaning down to look at the pages with her.

Heat bubbled in her chest, and she growled in frustration as she flipped page after page. She didn’t want to go too fast, because if she went too fast then she’d probably accidentally skip over the recipe in question… but going too slow was driving her crazy. It didn’t help that the Pokemon perched on her shoulder was fretting and pushing for urgency, which had her heart racing in her chest and the hairs on her arms on end. The woman had to do something. 

Iris snapped the book shut and she took a deep breath before letting it out through her nose. She repeated the gesture a handful of times until the band around her ribcage eased enough to let go of the anxiety that clung to her. Azelf made an inquisitive noise and the woman looked over at him, looking at him from her periphery.

“We’ll find the recipe you’re looking for, OK? We will.” Was she saying it more for herself or for the Pokemon? She frankly didn’t know, but it seemed to reassure the legendary perched on her shoulder. Iris flipped open the book again, an idea occurring to her that made her feel very foolish in that moment. She sighed, rubbing at the bridge of her nose in annoyance. How had she not thought of it sooner? Iris flipped to the table of contents and scanned the list presented to her. Azelf seemed to as well, and she shifted to show it the list, her grip adjusting accordingly on the spine so the Pokemon could look at it as well. It took a few seconds, but eventually, it shook its head and leaned back.

Iris closed the book and added it to the ‘already checked’ pile, which now sat at about her hip height by this point. Great. Azelf floated off her shoulder and landed on the pile, looking up at her expectantly. It clearly had high expectations for her and faith she’d get the task done. She hated that look right now. She felt like a failure, not being able to meet those expectations. Iris chewed on the inside of her lip before she turned to the collection of cookbooks. They were starting to run out of books for her to check, which didn’t help that sense of failure building in her chest and stung at the back of her eyes. The woman blinked rapidly to make the sensation go away. She forced herself to put her hands on her hips, and oddly, something about the motion instilled a small amount of self-confidence in her.

She could do this. She could. Iris paused as something niggled at the back of her head about the sudden surge of determination. Warm brown eyes glanced at the pile of books where a certain Pokemon sat, watching her intently. If she didn’t know better, she could have sworn the Pokemon’s eyes glowed faintly, but it very well could have been a trick of the fluorescent lights overhead as well. Still, the confidence and determination chased away the frustration and despair that had threatened to overtake her.

Azelf, the Willpower Pokemon. This Pokemon is purported to instill people and Pokemon with determination and will when they need help.

Right. She remembered the Pokedex entry almost word for word, especially as it rang in her ears now. Chances were, it had given her a little push to help her get through the seeming impossible task. Iris reached up to the shelf and pulled another book down to flip through its contents briefly before she went back to the table of contents at the front of the book, scanning it before she walked to the pile and turned the book so Azelf itself could read over the contents. It again shook its head, floating up and out of the way so she could add the book to the pile. This time, though, Iris didn’t feel that punch of discouragement and she instead went back to the shelf, pulling another down and instead of flipping through it, she went straight to the table of contents. She had a suspicion…

Iris offered the book to the Pokemon, who scanned the page and its eyes lit up and it perked up, pointing excitedly at a point on the page. Iris couldn’t stop herself from grinning. Finally, they had a winner.