Simple First Steps(Open)

[Auric Galvan]

Auric gave one more look to the town where his adventures had gotten their start. He shook his head and smirked. By the end of the day he would be just outside of his next destination. Things were going pretty fast for him so far. He sort of wondered if his whole journey would happen so quickly. The bigger part of him wished that it wouldn't. He wanted to travel for as long as he could.

The grass here was barely knee deep at its tallest points, and most other places it was just up to his ankles. Still, he had a strange feeling of adventure and an expeditious spirit filled him as he walked through those grasses. He took the lone Pokeball from his belt and gazed at it while slowly trudging through the grass towards Gustella. He'd gotten quite lucky with the Pokemon he'd picked.

His Pokemon was a strange one, to be certain, but Auric was rather fond of him already. It wasn't the sort of Pokemon you expected a new trainer to have up their sleeve. Plus there was the whole bit where Elgyem was a Psychic type. Auric still knew little about Pokemon, but he knew any pokemon that used its mind as a primary means of attack had to be pretty special. He stuck the ball back onto his belt and pulled out the Bright Green Pokedex from his bag, looking at the entry for his Elgyem. He'd scanned it back in the lab to see what moves it knew, but he hadn't bothered to really get good information on what the moves did. So he did a bit of studying on his pokemon while he walked along.

[Ian]

Ian walked along Route 801, hoping that his journey would be better then the way it started. The sound of a loud crash behind him made him realize how wrong he was. Looking back, he saw a small tree had been knocked over, apparently by a stray swing of his Druddigon's tail. For her own part, his Totodile was crying over the fallen tree trying to put it back up and failing. "Uh...Just, leave it there I guess. Nothing we can do now," Ian said with a small sigh. Before leaving the tree alone, Totodile pulled off a branch and began chewing on it nervously. If these two were going to be his only company across the region, this was going to be a looooong trip.

[Auric Galvan]

Auric's attention was suddenly drawn to a tree not too far ahead of him on the path. It had snapped and fallen over, though he couldn't figure out what had caused it at the moment. He rushed forward to see if a wild pokemon had caused it. Maybe he'd have a chance to catch his first wild one.

When he got close enough to peer around and see what caused the tree to fall, however, he saw the other trainer and his two pokemon walking further down the path. He planted one hand on the tree and hopped over it, slinging his legs to one side before landing firmly on both feet on the other side. He took off at a jog to catch up. "Hey! Hold on up there!" He called out to the other trainer.

[Tolouse]

Was this what deja-vu felt like? Tolouse shook her head and crossed her arms, a forlorn expression taking over her face as she watched Auric attempt to catch up with Ian. This wasn't all too different from how she, Pegasus, and Heaven had met, but then again, she supposed traveling partners had to meet in some kind of fashion. Suddenly, the woman stuck her tongue out. Pegasus and Heaven. The names sort of left a sour taste on her tongue. Her fellow racer she'd grown to see as friendly competition, and she had to admit, he was a fun rival. Heaven herself wasn't too bad and would probably have made a good trainer, but when the two got together... oh dear Arceus. It was too much of a mushy love-is-in-the-air atmosphere for her, and when the two were finally ready to move on to Torrentia... yeah, it was a no-brainer. She left them and decided to come back to train.

Davis, her Keldeo, snorted beneath her. Oh, whoops. She'd almost forgotten she was still on his back. Patting his mane, she shook her head again. "We're gonna wait here for a while still. Make sure there ain't no other females joining their group. I don't want what happened last time to happen again, ya hear?" Davis simply rolled his eyes and shifted his weight. Girls. He'd never understand them. All he knew was that he was getting antsy standing here and spying on trainers all day. Tolouse needed to make up her mind and figure out if she wanted to join this lot or not! Unless...

Pawing the ground with his hoof, the legendary suddenly reared back and headbutted a tree beside them, causing leaves to fall not too far ahead of Ian. Tolouse cursed under her breath and dismounted in favor of trying to keep Davis in one spot. "You moron!"

[Ian]

Turning around at the sound of somebody calling out to him, Ian saw someone else approaching. Letting out a sigh of relief at seeing that he might not have to travel alone, his next sight was Druddigon glaring at the newcomer and scraping his claws together. "Easy. Don't start hurting anybody, okay?" Ian told the Dragon-type, who simply huffed and began drawing a circle in the ground, marking his territory for anyone near to see. And of course, when leaves started falling, several of them ended up inside his dirt circle territory, and he kicked them out angrily. "Um...Is anybody else there?" Ian asked, trying to shake the leaves off of his head.

[Auric Galvan]

Auric came to a halt a few feet from Ian. He glanced over at the dragon pokemon and raised an eyebrow, a bit confused at why it was suddenly so upset. He looked up at the tree in time to have leaves land on his face. He blew them off and shook his head a time or two before looking around, "Someone else here?" He asked in response to hearing Tolouse shout at her Keldeo. He didn't see either of them, but of the people and pokemon he could see...none of them sounded like a girl.

He glanced back to Ian and extended a hand, "I'm Auric Galvan. I'm a new Pokemon Trainer." Best to get greetings out of the way now. They might have a shot at a battle soon enough. He was rather excited about his first battle. He sort of wondered if battling a potential traveling companion was a good idea, but he brushed that thought aside. Once he was done greeting Ian the young man would gaze around the area again to see if someone else really was lurking about. There was certainly a loud thud that caused leaves to fall, and then a shout of some sort.

[Tolouse]

...Dangit. Tolouse smacked her forehead, glaring at Davis shortly after, the look only intensifying as he snickered. As they shared a moment of silent 'communication', the Keldeo arched a brow and tossed his head to the other trainers. Obviously they'd heard them and had even asked aloud if anyone else was here, and his trainer had been watching for only one reason: to see if any other girls would be arriving. Didn't look like there were. Tolouse still didn't budge from her spot, sticking her tongue out at her pokemon. He wouldn't be getting her to budge until she felt like doing so, thank you very much! Snorting, Davis pawed the ground with a hoof and shook out his afro of a mane. Well, if she was so intent on waiting, she could do it by herself.

Rather suddenly, the legendary burst from the foliage, leaping out onto the trail. He stood parallel to Auric and Ian as they introduced each other, shaking himself off and scattering more leaves in the process. Hm... neither of these humans looked like they were racers... did they even have the proper pokemon to do so? His eyes were cast over to the Druddigon and Totodile. Well, through training he supposed those could race in the right setting, but he still doubted they were focusing on that track. Ha! No competition for him!

Davis tossed his head back and began trotting in his own little circle, now oblivious to the others. Tolouse crossed her arms and pouted, still hiding. She still wasn't ready to come out yet. Weird? Maybe. But she didn't care. She did what she wanted when she wanted, if that wasn't obvious enough already.

[Ian]

"I'm Ian. A breeder, I guess," Ian said, not too enthusiastic about his new position. There wasn't really any position that he was comfortable with around Pokemon, but this seemed like a better alternative then other options. His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden arrival of a Pokemon he'd never seen before. Jumping back a bit, he saw the blue horse-like Pokemon look him and his Pokemon over before apparently deciding to go about his own business by prancing around in a circle. "Um...This wouldn't happen to be yours, would it?" Ian asked Auric hopefully.

[Auric Galvan]

Auric nodded at Ian and gave his best smile, "Nice to meet you, Ian. So...is there a specific pokemon type you're trying to breed?" He looks at the dragon and the water pokemon with some uncertainty. He doesn't know enough about them to make a call himself. "They both look really awesome," he commented. He was about to open his mouth and ask another question when the legendary equine pokemon burst forth from the bushes and shook his mane rather majestically. Auric's eyes widened and he gazed at the Keldeo with amazement.

"W-wow..." Again his words would be interrupted, this time by Ian. He turned his attention to Ian as the other young man finished his question. "No, it's not mine. I wish...It holds a look of regality that I've never seen in a Pokemon before." He takes out his Pokedex at last and gets a bit of info on the Pokemon in question. "I can't believe I didn't think of this before." He thought aloud as the encyclopedic device gave him the information it had instilled in its database.

[Tolouse]

This was simply wonderful! Davis nickered and flicked his tail as he continued trotting around in little circles, eating the attention the two guys were giving him right up. However, when Auric pulled out his pokedex and registered his data, the Keldeo was intrigued. He stepped closer to the trainer, eyes wide as he sniffed the device. Huh. His human didn't have one of these, why not? It was saying something about him, he assumed. Kept pronouncing 'Keldeo' over and over. Well then, certainly that meant it was for Tolouse! Neither of these boys had a pokemon like him. So clearly it was meant to belong to his trainer.

Grinning, the pokemon dashed off into the near-distance and turned, starting to run back at the two at full speed. Halfway there he pulled back on his hooves and started to skid to a halt, dust flying as he did so, making a cloud settle over the scene. In the meantime he started crawling under the dust veil he'd made, and when he spotted Auric's pokedex still in his hand, his head poked upward, mouth gently wrapping around the device as he tried to steal it.

Tolouse, still watching, was amused that Davis was going to such lengths to try and obtain something, for whatever reason he wanted it. She let out a cackle before finally stepping out of hiding, waving her arm about as she tried to clear the dirt from the air.

"Davis, you ingrate. Stop that!" she chided, narrowing her eyes at the dual-type. Caught in the act, Davis immediately straightened up and pointed his nose in the air, eyes closed as if he hadn't done a thing in the world. Why, that trainer was putting his pokedex in his mouth to get some kind of... um... DNA information! Yeah, something like that. The Keldeo pushed out a hoof and slooowly moved Auric away from him, and Tolouse sighed.

"Uh... hello, I reckon" she began, shrugging. "I'm Tolouse, and this here is my Keldeo, Davis. Gotta watch out for him, he's pretty mischievous."

[Ian]

"Um...yeah, hi," Ian said, backing away from the Keldeo as Tolouse came by. "Do you mind keeping him under control a bit? I kind of don't want my Pokemon to get upset," he added, looking over at Druddigon, who seemed to be too busy making sure his circle hadn't been messed up by Davis kicking up dust. Once he was sure of that, he crouched down to ground, growling at anything that came nearby. Well, that solved one problem, but that just left another one. Ian was starting to realize that traveling with other people would mean traveling with their Pokemon too, and right now, he didn't want too many Pokemon around him.

[Auric Galvan]

Auric lowered his Pokedex after the device finished its explanation of all available data on the equine creature it had just scanned. The new trainer glanced up at the Keldeo after that and suddenly realized it was charging right at him. His eyes widened and he dropped to one knee, crossing his arms in front of his face and ducking down. It's not like he could have stopped the Pokemon by doing this. It was more of a gut reaction. Too stubborn to just move out of the way, but smart enough and docile enough to take a defensive, lower stance to keep from being immediately turned into a grease stain on the dirt. And yet that thorough smashing never came.

He saw a cloud of dust surround the area and he looked up, coughing lightly as he tried to figure out what the heck had just happened. He felt something tugging at his Pokedex, and then he heard that female voice again. The dust and dirt cleared slowly from around them and Auric was able to see once again. He stood up properly and did his best to dust himself off, looking over at the young woman and then back to her Keldeo.

He shrugged, "I'm sure he didn't mean any real harm. He stopped before he trampled me, no one else got hurt, and he managed to get you to come out of hiding. I'd say he was doing us all a favor in his own way." He shot a snide smirk at the Keldeo and winked. "It's nice to meet you, Tolouse," he turned to the Keldeo after greeting the young lady, "and you as well, Davis. But next time you want to inspect something of mine it's best to just ask." He turned back to Ian now, "I'd say that's a steep request, Ian. Your dragon friend over there was getting mad at falling leaves. If I were a leaf I'd find it rather difficult NOT to fall from a tree. That is what they do eventually anyway." He gave a light chuckle.

[Tolouse]

Tolouse snorted as soon as she turned towards Ian, glowering while she looked him up and down. Psh, really? Her put her pokemon away? Her Keldeo was looking over his Totodile and Druddigon suspiciously, pawing at the ground while the racer talked. "Don't want your pokemon to get upset? Sounds like a personal problem." She dismissed it as that, not bothering to look over to him again. However, when Auric started talking, while she wasn't one for needing the defense of others, she couldn't help nodding enthusiastically with his words.

"He speaks tha truth all right. Still got some qualms with y'all though" she began, arching a brow. "Here I go introducin' myself and neither one of you step up to follow suit - can't be traveling with no strangers. Shame, I'm sure your mothers taught you both to treat a lady better than that." Tolouse blinked then, suddenly bursting out in laughter. A lady? Hoh, who was she kidding? She may have been female, but she was in no fact a 'lady'. Davis nickered when Auric addressed him, tossing back his fro-like mane. Ah, sweet attention~

"So anyway, while you two tell me your names... you guys battled yet? I hear that's what most trainers do when they first meet anyway. You know, to gauge each other's abilities 'an all."

[Ian]

"So-Sorry," Ian said, backing away nervously. "I'm Ian and these are my Pokemon. They, um, don't have names," he continued on, gesturing to Totodile, who had already chewed her branch so much that there was barely anything left, and Druddigon, who stared at Davis irritably, tail moving back and forth behind him as he waited for the Keldeo to do something. "And I'm not a trainer, just a breeder. I don't think a battle would be best for me right now," Ian added.

[Auric Galvan]

Tolouse made a fair point. While she'd apparently been lurking about for a bit and observing them she had been the first to give her name upon appearing. "Alright, Miss Tolouse, I'll bite. My name is Auric Galvan." He nodded at her, but turned his attention to Ian when the young man said his Pokemon didn't have names. "Isn't that sort of disappointing for them, Ian? How would you feel if we went around calling you 'human' all the time? Or 'no name' or something? It just seems odd to me."

And then Tolouse said it. The one thing that Auric had been anxious and nervous about: His first battle. Elgyem was still hidden away in its pokeball. Come to think of it, he hadn't given Elgyem a proper name yet either. He sort of felt bad for calling Ian out on that now. "I'd be more than happy to battle. I'm interested to really see what Davis can do."

He lifted the purple ball from his belt and stared at it for a moment just as he had done back in the lab when he first laid his hand upon it.