The Giant Serpent Takes to the Sky

After finishing three huge basins of food, Giant Steelix opened and closed its jaws in something like a lip-smacking motion, looking as though it still wanted more.

"It's your first day, so I'll let you eat your fill."

Baimu clapped his hands. Aggron dragged a cartload of ore out of the warehouse and dumped it all on the ground. "Actually, taking in too much metal will make your body overly bulky and make it much harder for you to move."

"Rooar~"

Steelix gave an eager rumble. It hadn't listened to a word Baimu said. It simply scooped up the ore with its chin and deftly pushed it into its mouth.

Crunch, crunch...

It made the same harsh grinding sound Aggron made when chewing steel.

As it ate, it began rotating the top two horizontal steel bones.

Baimu noticed nothing at first, but when he looked closer, he saw fine sand and soil leaking from the joints between those bones and the segment below, as though Steelix were breaking down the ore it had eaten.

But he knew this was soil and fine grit left over from Steelix's last meal, or perhaps the one before that, which its body didn't need.

Put nicely, it was Steelix's "sweat." Put bluntly, it was its "poop."

Of course.

It was still soil.

Once again, Baimu was struck by how unusual different Pokémon could be. In a good mood, he patted Steelix on the head and let it keep eating.

Steelix answered with a low hum.

Raising Steelix himself revealed plenty of things that differed from what he'd read online.

For instance, the claim that Steelix held two-thirds of its body upright and used only the remaining third for support wasn't quite accurate. Steelix was usually most comfortable with half its body on the ground.