Inner thoughts of Balto and Smaug's attempts at flying

Balto laid down beside Vali after he finished eating his dinner. He observed his pack-mates with some sense of amusement. The broken one was recovering nicely. Celina and Smaug had reached their final forms. Little Idril wasn't a pup anymore especially with Terra there to help bolster her confidence. Arwen's energy was becoming tempered with each new day. While she may be the baby of the pack, Terra was a source of constant support.

Even Vali had changed since they set out, Balto looked at her. She wasn't as broken as she'd been when they'd first met. Every new day saw the shadows and pain in her eyes fading with each new experience. The burning flame within her core became brighter and more powerful with each moment. He could feel her magic, the energy that helped mask her flame from all save for the fire-types they came across, it was stronger and more potent. It honestly reminded him of a dual-type pokemon like Smaug had become with his evolution. A wildness grasped her energies though it held a carefully tempered edge created through meditation. If he hadn't known her as long as he had, he wouldn't believe she was human.

Balto had changed as well. He was growing stronger with each day. He was steadily growing closer to the limit of what he can accomplish as a Growlithe. It wouldn't be long before he reached that limit and Vali would evolve him into an Arcanine. Becoming a Arcanine was something he couldn't wait to become, he would never again find a limit to his power again. More than that, he would be able to protect Vali and their pack better which was his main goal when it came to his final evolution. Arcanine were the protectors and leaders of the pack after all.

"That had to hurt," Vali winced as Smaug laid in the crater that had formed due to how hard he'd hit the ground.

Smaug let out a low growl as he began pushing himself up. He looked pissed off at himself though that anger quickly transferred over to a nearby group of Spearow laughing at him. He released a flamethrower in their direction and they quickly took off with shrieks and squawks of shock. Wartortle quickly put out the fire caused by Smaug's rash actions before giving the Charizard with a look of irritation. Smaug bared his teeth at Wartortle and she noticed that one of his teeth was cracked. Clearing her throat, she watched as Smaug looked at her before ducking his head at her unimpressed look. She pointed to the spot on the grass next to her and he quickly followed her direction. Steven looked at her curiously from where he was carefully removing some dried out scales causing Lileep quite a bit of discomfort, "What's going on?"

"One of Smaug's teeth is cracked," Vali reached into her bag to pull out her medkit as Smaug settled beside of her, "Smaug, open," Smaug opened his mouth as she put her gloves and grabbed her mini-flashlight, "Must have happened either during his most recent landing or one of the others,"

Vali looked at the cracked tooth which happened to be one of his eye-teeth. The crack ran from the tip of his fang up to his gum. She tsked at the sight of it then looked at the others. By the time she was done, she found three on his upper jaw close to the eye-teeth and four on the left side of his lower jaw. Steven looked her curiously as she bent down to grabbed some of the teeth care supplies in her med-kit, "I take it you found more?"

"Yes," Vali looked at Smaug, "I'm going to be seeing if any of your teeth are loose or if any of the cracked ones go all the way to the nerve. If it hurts, I want you to do your best to avoid closing your mouth on my hand, okay?" Smaug nodded slowly, "I promise that I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want to get these taken care of before they get infected,"

Smaug nodded slowly and stayed as still as possible while Vali did the same thing Professor Oak showed her when some of the pokemon in his care ended up with cracked or broken teeth. She was as gentle as possible to ensure that Smaug wasn't put through more pain than necessary. He managed to keep his mouth from closing each time it hurt him and she removed her hand to let the pain fade before she went onto the next one. By the time she was done, she found three teeth that had been knocked loose by Smaug's impacts into the ground, two that were cracked all the way to the nerve, a pair of broken teeth, and one with a hairline crack that she could just use a bit of potion on which would heal it.

Vali grabbed her pair of pliers prompting Steven to ask, "What are you going to do with those?"

"Smaug has three teeth that are loose enough that they'll fall out very soon, but I want to get them out of his mouth before he flies again," Vali answered as Smaug eyed her warily, "If I don't, the next good hit to the muzzle could end up with the teeth going through soft parts of his mouth which we really don't need on top of the damage already done," She looked at Steven, "Can you have Metagross hold Smaug still and keep his mouth open for this part? I really don't want him to accidentally bite me,"

Steven nodded, "Of course," He gave the order to Metagross and Smaug was soon held completely still with his mouth open, "What are you going to do with them?"

"Send them home," Vali answered as she began removing the loose teeth, "I'm hoping Delia will get one made into a necklace for me. I'm going to give one to Ash and one to Gary since they'll get a kick out of it," Smaug twitched a bit and let out a low sound as she pulled out the first tooth, "Luckily, certain pokemon like Charizard are able to regrow any damaged teeth. They tend to shed any broken, cracked, or otherwise imperfect teeth every couple of months though its more every couple of weeks during the first few years after evolution due to the fact they're at their most volatile during those years. The only problem with wait for them to be shed is when an infection forms inside the cracked or broken teeth," She removed the next one and moved the pliers a bit deeper into Smaug's mouth while holding her breath since his stunk quite a bit, "While at least one of these I can use a potion to heal the crack, I can't do the same with the others,"

Vali pulled out the last loose tooth as Steven asked, "So what will you do with the others?"

"I'm going to use this," Vali put the pliers away and set the teeth down carefully before pulling out a tube, "It created a protective film over the surface of the teeth that prevents infection from forming though it has to be reapplied every twelve hours. I'm going to have to mash Smaug's food to help him eat it since he can't chew without hurting himself. Remind me to get more of it when we get to Fuchsia,"

Vali pulled out a special brush made for sharp teeth and began applying the solution to each of the teeth she'd mentioned. She paused to grab one of her potions and carefully applied it to the hairline crack with an eyedropper. Once it dried a bit, she applied the same solution to it as the others. After doing another check, she removed her hands and began to clean up her supplies prompting Metagross to release Smaug from his grip. Smaug shook his head and rubbed at his muzzle with his hands. She put everything save for the teeth and her gloves away in the med-kit. As she began grabbing things to clean them up, Steven asked her, "Where exactly did you learn this?"

"Professor Oak. He wanted me to be prepared to take care of all my pokemon's health needs," Vali began cleaning the teeth, "Do you have an empty vial I can borrow?"

Steven nodded as he reached into his bag, "Sure."