"A speeding arrow! A flexible arrow! A thinking arrow!"
"—That's what we are now!"
"Over green mountains, through white clouds, become an arrow and head into the wilderness!!"
Clack, clack, clack. As music played inside, an old red train steeped in history trundled slowly along a single track.
Towering mountains surrounded it, with snowy peaks scattered in the distance. Pine-like Umbrella Pines stood on either side of the tracks.
These trees were exceptionally hardy, their branches layered from bottom to top like huge green umbrellas, hence the name "Umbrella Pine."
Every winter, they produced plenty of brown Berries. Bitter and astringent but packed with nutrients, they often served as lifesaving food.
There was even a proverb, "Bitterness is the taste of life," which referred to Umbrella Pine Berries.
Dirt and grass mingled along both sides of the tracks. One glance made it clear that no one had tended the area in a long time.
Leaves rustled in the bushes, and a Minccino hopped out, clutching a bright red Berry tinged with green. Its two big ears twitched constantly, and its darting black eyes were filled with curiosity. It must have heard the noise and come over, unable to resist investigating.
Just then, a strange object resembling a long dragon entered Minccino's sight. Rather than feeling frightened, it tilted its head and stared blankly as the train approached, then rolled off into the distance with a "clack, clack, clack."
"Chira..." Minccino's tiny mind was full of question marks. It watched the train disappear and blinked adorably, its white-and-gray tail brushing the dusty grass and unconsciously wiping the dirt from its surface. "Chira... mi?"
It remembered a Bouffalant from the distant highlands smashing one last time. The time before that, a Gigalith living in the mountains had blasted one with Hyper Beam.