Visions, Names, and talks

Vali and Steven dropped off their pokemon before heading up to their room. She put her prizes in the storage device while saying, "I'm going to send them home. I don't want to accidentally use them or something not to mention I don't have any use for my Magmarizer."

"Here," Steven held the Fire Stone out to her.

"You sure?" Vali asked him slowly reaching out to take the stone.

"It's why I chose it rather than one of the others since I know you'll end up using it eventually," Steven said as Vali's hand closed over the warm stone.

Heat flowed through her skin from where the stone was touching her and Vali found her eyes drawn to the flame twisting in the center of it. Visions of fire and the flame covered being flashed through her as she stared into the flame before it all suddenly cut out as the stone fell to the floor. Feeling her lungs burn as she exhaled, she knew that she hadn't breathed when touching the stone. She looked at Steven and saw his wide eyes as he focused on the stone. A jolt went through her as she wondered if he'd seen it too. Opening her mouth, she spoke in a slightly weak voice, "Steven? Did you see...that?"

Steven nodded slowly, "T-that vision...Those dreams..."

Steven trailed off and looked at her in askance. Had he just seen what she had? Vali nodded as she grabbed her scarf and bent down to pick up the stone which felt burning hot even through the fabric of the scarf. She put the stone into her storage device as she murmured, "A small piece of it, yeah."

"No wonder you had trouble sleeping," Steven murmured weakly.

It shouldn't have been funny in any context, but Vali found herself laughing. The laughter was bitter and wild as it left her throat. It was better than the screams that tried to leave her after some of the more violent dreams that had lurked inside her mind. Fire was destructive and consuming for all the good it brought. She forced herself to calm down and grabbed Fawkes' feather which always managed to calm her down. She spoke as she finished laughing, "You don't know the half of it, Steven."

After both of them had calmed down, they went down to find Lance waiting for them alongside Zaria. After giving introductions and getting the list of restaurants, they headed off to go eat. They ended up picking a quaint family run restaurant rather than one of the high class ones. They got a bit of everything and ended up sharing most of their food together as well as stories of their journeys so far. Dinner was nice with all four of them hitting off fairly well with Zaria getting a bit jealous of Vali now having a Larvitar. After dinner, they headed to the pokemon center where they ended up in one of the training grounds sitting together. Vali found herself leaning back against of the logs normally used for target practice with Steven sitting on a rock next to her. Zaria shook her head as Vali finished explaining about the male Nidoran incident, "That sucks, but I guess its a good thing that something like that happened."

"What do you mean?" Vali asked her with a frown.

"For all those resistance shots they give us, it doesn't do more than keep the poison we get hit with from killing us until after our bodies experience a live form of the poison," Zaria explained from her place sitting on the log next to Vali, "I mean you know those stories about people who are immune to Arbok venom can still be affected by Seviper venom,"

Lance spoke up, "Yeah, it's because of they're not the same species and their poisons differ despite causing the same effects."

"It also has to do with the individual pokemon," Steven added earning a few nods.

Now that she thought about it, she shouldn't have been affected by the Nidoran's poison due to the basilisk venom still in her veins, yet she had been. With their explanation, it actually made a lot of sense especially since pokemon venom was diffrent from snake venom even if it came from a magical one. Making a mental note to talk to Professor Oak about it later, Vali said, "Guess that makes a lot of sense. I wish they'd mentioned that in school."

Mutters of agreement were given. For all that school did to prepare them, it left out quite a bit.

Since all her pokemon save for Sandshrew, Arwen, Eevee, and Larvitar were currently being detained by the Vermilion city Nurse Joys until tomorrow, Vali decided to get some real bonding done with them. Of course, she kept in mind that Eevee still didn't like anyone, so didn't really do anything with him other than make sure he knew that he was welcome to join in. Sandshrew was scared of Larvitar and Larvitar was scared of the new pokemon. She learned that having a pokemon with skin as hard as a rock digging it's pointed head into her side hurt even it didn't mean to. Once everyone had calmed down and Larvitar seemed a bit more used to them, she took out her pokedex and scanned her newest pokemon:

Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokemon. Larvitar is born deep under the ground. To come up to the surface, this Pokémon must eat its way through the soil above. Until it does so, Larvitar cannot see its parents. Raised on nutrients it finds in the dirt, it eats roughly a mountain's worth of dirt before it becomes a pupa.

This Larvitar is Female and has the ability Guts*. This Larvitar knows Bite, Leer, Sandstorm, Outrage, and Ancient Power.

*Ability will change upon Evolution.

Larvitar was pretty powerful despite being a young pokemon, but Vali supposed that was how pseudo-legendary pokemon were. She would have a lot of work on her hands to train her newest little one, but that was fine with her. She decided to put off naming giving Larvitar a name just yet since it was about time she asked Sandshrew if the little one wanted a name. Sandshrew looked at her with wide eyes as she asked, "Do you want a name?" Sandshrew was silent for a little while before nodding her head, "How about Idril?"

Sandshrew nodded eagerly making Vali smile warmly. All she knew about Idril was that she had something to do with a green stone. Given that shiny Sandshrew were green, it felt right. Idril pointed at Larvitar who looked a bit baffled by the proceedings before looking up at her with a wide eyed look. Steven spoke with an amused look, "I think Sandshrew wants you to give Larvitar a name."

"Is Steven right?" Vali asked Idril who nodded and she turned to Larvitar, "Would you like a name as well, Larvitar?" Larvitar looked a bit confused so Vali explained what she meant and the small pokemon nodded, "Alright let's see if we can't find you one,"

Eventually, they settled on Terra which was easy for Larvitar to remember and was the only one she seemed to actually like.

Terra the Larvitar was odd, but Balto supposed that was just how their pack was going to be. She was shy which wasn't an unfamiliar thing if only because of the newly named Idril. Balto decided to do his best to get her comfortable just as he did with each new member of the pack. She took it better than Eevee, but he supposed that was because she hadn't been hurt as Eevee had been. She seemed a bit lost which was understandable seeing as she wasn't much older than Idril only unlike the Sandshrew, she hadn't lost her kin. He found that he didn't like Breeders very much if only because they took young pokemon from their parents without asking if they wanted to go. Of course, he was glad that she'd joined their pack, but that was where his good feelings stopped.

When Balto took her scent, he began thinking about how it differed from each member of his pack. Terra smelt of deep earth, soil, darkness, and caves with a hit of mountain air. Arwen smelt of warm summer wind, grasslands that went on for miles, and fresh grass. Sandshrew smelt of dirt burrows, dark mountains where they'd found her, and Vali. Pikachu smelt of the forest in the middle of spring, lightning storms that brought much needed rain, and Vali. Celina smelt of the crisp morning air, wind flowing through the tree tops, and Vali. Smaug smelt of crackling camp fires, a wild fire devouring a dried out forest, and Vali. Underneath the hurt and pain, Eevee smelt of warm nights curled up with his pack near the fire, running through a thick forest, and just barely carrying a hint of Vali. Out of all of them, Balto admitted to loving Vali's scent the most.

Vali's scent was filled with so many layers that it always left his nose tingling whenever he took in her scent. At the edges, she smelt of each member of their pack, Steven, and Steven's pokemon. Beneath those scents, she smelt of the sky filled with lightning not yet ready to strike at the earth and painful hurts that were slowly beginning to heal. Vali's natural scent was of warm nights spent by the fire, days spent walking through the wilds, and home with his kin. Within her natural scent, he smelt the fire that burned within her very core. The burning fire that lived within every fire-type from the smallest Growlithe pup to the largest Charizard. How she came about her piece of the fire that burned within them all, he did not know nor did he know why it smelt a bit diffrent from the ones he's scented before.

"Sneasel, use Scratch!" Zaria called out.

Zaria's Sneasel was as old as Idril and fairly new to battling which made him the perfect pokemon for Idril's first battle. Vali called out, "Dig, Idril."

Idril dug into the ground just managing to miss the Scratch that Sneasel aimed for her. Idril reappeared from her hole as Sneasel paused looking around in shock which turned into pain as Idril used her own Scratch attack on him. Zaria groaned softly, "Sneasel, remember you always need to be aware of your surroundings during a battle. Keep moving even if your attack doesn't hit," Sneasel grimaced as he picked himself up, "I think that's enough for now."

"Yeah," Vali agreed as the two walked over to their pokemon.

"How's Terra settling in?" Zaria asked as they moved off of the battlefield they'd been using.

"Not too bad, I'm making sure to include her when I can just like Eevee," Vali sat down on the bench as Zaria did the same and began looking over Sandshrew scratches from the minor bout, "Feeding her won't be too hard though I'm not looking forward to when she fully evolves. Tyranitar are harsh on the budget even if you're buying those pellets that keep them full without feeding them a mountain,"

"I'd love to know which breeder they got her from," Zaria sighed softly, "I know it would be hellishly expensive, but I want one so bad and they're rare to find in the wild even in Johto,"

"I know the feeling all too well," Vali thought about all the fire-types, "The amount of money I'd have to pay to get a fire-type from a breeder even if it's a Magby or Litleo is high especially when you add in the taxes from importing either of them. I'm just glad Siri's giving me a Houndour egg once the breeding season is over,"

"Lucky," Zaria sighed softly before shaking her head, "Have you figured out who you'll send back?"

"Nope. I'm letting them decide," Vali groaned softly, "I wish they all could just stay with me, but that's impossible right now,"

Zaria patted her on the shoulder with a sympathetic smile. You could tell a lot by a pokemon trainer simply by how hard it was to decide which of their pokemon to send back to the regional Professor and why.