The uneven ground did not especially hinder Richard, though the caution made him more mindful of where he stepped. The young king had been drilled in balance through his training and swordplay, often moved with an ease and grace that had become habit for him. People expected certain things of royalty, and it was Richard’s duty to meet those expectations even long before he understood them.
“Pecha berries are sweet you say?” Richard mulled as he set the wood he had gathered into an arrangement that would best construct a fire. Despite being a king, he had spent enough days on the road with his friends to know the basics of surviving in the wilds. “Do they keep well? I have never heard of any of those berries and I would very much like to try bringing some back for my friends.” Perhaps if he truly fortunate he could find some seeds to bring for Sophie.
Richard’s head turned curiously at the device that the other had pulled from his pocket. It not the first time he had seen them, in fact they appeared to be quite commonplace here but he had never witnessed them in use nor could he deduce what function they might serve. The button pressed, a bright light flashed enough for Richard to shield his eyes and when he opened them, he found a massive looking creature at the boy’s side.
His mind heard the name, but the surprise left him unable to respond. The term nova bringing to mind images of dark dragons with red eyes but this creature did not seem hostile, nor did the other seem concerned. Still he shook the surprise with difficulty. This… this was a pokemon?
“H-Hello,” Richard offered, still trying to swallow his shock. Had this massive creature come from that small device? What manner of technology did they possess in this place that was capable of such a feat. “I cannot say I’ve ever met a dragon quite like Nova before. Are dragons like these quite common here?”
It was almost difficult to fathom summoning a dragon simply to light a campfire, but perhaps that was just how ignorant he was of this world’s customs.
SLOWLY, gingerly even, Kenneth pat the Hydra who gave a rather
loud, but good-natured, growl at the action. “Pretty sweet, the sweetest around
in this region might ah add,” Although Sinnoh’s berries were a close second, “sure
if ya got a bag on ya, ah can even pack ‘em fer ya.” Not that he doubted
Richard’s skills he seemed too dainty enough to be able to handle fragile
things, but Ken was sure that Richard had never dealt with those types of berries.
Pecha berries did
have a tendency to spray if manhandled after all.
“Mmm, maybe not
like this, but there are a bunch of dragons if ya look fer em, this is a Hydreigon,
they’re from the Unova region.” Kenneth explained as he slowly lead the levitating
Hydra over to the makeshift campfire. “You can pet her if ya like, she don’t
bite any.” Even if Nova had three heads, but she was rather kind and territorial,
good thing Richard was no threat.
Fluidly, he
placed his Monster Ball back in his pocket before picking up a decently lengthy
stick. “So about that campfire,” quickly he snapped the stick into three
smaller versions before sticking near the unlit kinder. “Nova, if ya could.”
With a small
glance at the blond, Nova lowered one of her “heads” at the kindle and shot a small flame at the gathered wood to
which it quickly caught fire.
With little hesitation,
he snatched the berries within the bag before placing them on the slightly
tinged sticks he placed earlier. “Yours is the one on the left.” The one closer
to where Richard stood, so that had worked out well in the end, with the final
stick he placed a couple berries, mainly Rawst and Oran, on the leftover stick
and had Nova quickly cook those.
“Here, try it, it’s
pretty good, scouts honor and all that.”
“Really?” Back where he was from at eleven people were already becoming champions. “Either yer jokin’ here or ya got someone who’s caught yer eye, dude.”
“Thank you so much for taking in Charmander!" Concordia gave the brunet a smile as she herded the little Fire type over. "I hope you both become fast friends!”
A grin, wide as can be, marked his face as he bent down to greet the small fire type once he had given his thanks to the kind female.
“Oh come of it! You know thats not true.” Takeru said with a pout. Its just, im such a good student, all the time you know? And for the first time in who knows how long, I failed a test. Me? Fail a test? Its not possible".
Takeru still wore a pout on his face, not really knowing where the conversation was headed. “Hey, I’m not Daisuke alright. Hes a good man, just a little sloppy every now and again. But no I won’t be sleeping on you. Im determined to make this up, that mark cannot be right, not after I retest!”.
“Ya just did it,” He easily countered as he grabbed Takeru’s textbook so he could flip through it. “Ya don’t gotta think so hard of yerself man, it was only one time ya failed,” unless Takeru has failed more tests that he had not been aware of.
Moreover, there we go that famous upbeat attitude. Kenneth doubted that the blond would have paid any attention had he still been moping about the entire failure. “Well for now it ain’t. You got a paper or somethin’? Gonna see how much ya do understand of this.” With one quick movement, he pulled a pencil out of his pocket.
“Oh come on! Dont sit there and pretend you don’t know how bad i failed. I’m never gonna get this right am I?”.
“Ugh, I never thought id have to grovel to one of my own friends for help, but will you help me study for this next test? I’d really appreciate it”.
“If ya keep thinkin’ like that maybe,” Kenneth stated as he crossed his arms, body leaning forward until he was on the desk. “Jeez, ya act like this one thing’ll stop ya.” He fully knew how stubborn Takeru was; no way would this discourage him.
Kenneth nodded, laughing a little as he replied, “Well that depends. Are ya gonna be sleepin’ on me like yer friend sometimes does?”
“Ya ever wonder why yer not passin’ is because you spend yer time slammin’ yer head against books?” He questioned, watching at the blond continued to slam his head against his math textbook.
Remind him why he’s friend with this guy again…?
“Jeez, yer actin’ like it’s hard. How bad ya fail this time, Takeru?” Oh he knows fully well what the blond got on the test, the teacher mentioned it…then mentioned tutoring after, but sssh.
Sora could only blink back at the other with a slight frown. They really wouldn’t mind? Well, Sora did. The fact that there were Heartless crawling around here was a bad thing in itself after all. The Keyblade wielder could only rub the back of his head a little at that. Well… he couldn’t exactly stick around and do nothing whether this guy was phased by the Heartless or not. Someone else could get hurt, and that wasn’t in his job description after all.
“You sure are glad, huh?” The Keyblade wielder teased before gently folding his hands behind his head. It took a good amount to really scare Sora, after all he’d had to hang out in the spook-central that was Halloween Town after all. Though the mention of these ‘mons did have him glancing around. Low and behold, Ken was right. There were strange creatures crawling around even in an alleyway like this one.
It was a bit surprising. He thought monsters only hung out where there weren’t people, unless they were Heartless or Nobodies. Most monsters he encountered on other Worlds tended to be further out of town.
“Wow! You’re right!” The boy exclaimed, eyes widening a little, “I thought most monsters stayed away from people. Well— besides the Heartless of course.”
He was brazen, carefree, and aloof. Ken really did not consider anything a problem until it was right in his face. Real shame, real big flaw, but he probably would never fix it. Oh well. He was also prideful, monsters? Heartless? Hey, his Pokémon could take care of it he was sure, no skin off his back. He could take anything head on if his Pokémon were in tiptop shape.
Did not seem like this guy thought that way. Oh well. A Pikachu cannot change its stripes or something. However that saying went. Tabbies cannot change their stripes. Eh. Something like that.
“Well ah got all the reason ta,” be smiling. Good life, if he could call it that, nice place to live. Good region to travel, battle, and war scarred maybe, but he enjoyed seeing how places recovered compared to other places. “Yer lookin’ happy to.” Ken replied as he watched the boy’s frown slowly dissipate.
Good heart this one, but anyone who smiled at a Pokémon had to have some good in them somewhere deep down.
“Well these ain’t really monsters, Sora.” Maybe not the type the Keyblade Warrior was familiar with. Pocket Monsters sure, but they were far more intelligent than one would expect, probably a lot more intelligent those some [Heartless]. “If yer feelin’ up ta it ya can say hi ta one.” He explained as he leaned over, hand touching the wall, and slid down so he could pick up the small bug type.
“Come on say hi. They don’t bite any.” He watched as the bug crawled up the length of his arm until it sat on his shoulder, eyes wide as it looked at Sora.
He enjoys gardening as much as the next guy, expect maybe Jack that guy needs to calm down, but he’s pretty sure he has dirt in places dirt should never be.
Once again the term arose and for his time in this land, he had yet to fully deduce what this ‘pokemon’ was. In so far as he could guess it referred to the wildlife in the region but with everyone speaking of it so readily, he felt foolish asking what seemed to be common knowledge. He did however, take note that he needed to be cautious if he was taking any food from the wilds.
“Is that so? I have a friend who loves fruit of any sort, and I must say I’m quite fond of it myself. Most berries I’ve had have been quite delectable. Have you any recommendations?” Perhaps he might be able to find a means to bring some back to the capital.
“I will be careful,” Richard assured the other as stones were set to mark the firepit. He had already been searching the ground for wood when the request came and soon he’d a handful of dried branches to offer for the fire.
“Your pokemon will?” The question escaped before he’d the chance to realize how foolish it probably sounded. He hoped his confusion would not mark him a fool, but he could not deny being quite curious. Perhaps he would finally have a chance to see precisely what these Pokemon were.
It was a good thing he was an expert in fire—that and he was normally the one who tended to fires when his adoptive family built some. Therefore, the whole process came naturally to him, being able to make fires, and tending to them. Good thing it was such a handy trick.
“Don’t trip on anythin’.” He tacked on as he clapped his hands to get rid of the dirt that had stained his hands from the stones.
“Recammendations?” He repeated, his accent causing Ken to mispronounce the word a bit. “Ah’d say go fer some Oran and Sitrus Berries. Maybe some Pecha if ya like sweet ones.” It really depended what Richard wanted. Spicy? Sweet? Dry?
“Yeah, it’s quicker that way.” He replied as he took the offered branches and placed them in the circle. “Not sayin’ ah couldn’t do it in recond time mehself, but ah doubt yer willin’ ta watch me rub sticks together.” He added before scooting backwards to reach into his pocket.
“No that ain’t…” He paused before pulling out a Dusk Ball. “Here it is. Come on out Nova,” with that comment said Ken pressed the Ball’s button, which caused it to flash a bright silvery-blue…, which quickly disappeared to reveal a deadly Hydregion.
Sora could only just stand there with a slight frown. First this guy wasn’t phased by the Heartless at all, and now he was makin’ some sense? This World was officially weird. Or at least, this kid was. Sora was pretty sure he was going to have to deal with someone screaming or something along those lines. Oh well, it wasn’t like he was complaining though. Folding his hands behind his head, he gently kicked the ground with the top of his shoe.
“Uh, yeah, that’s a good point.” Sora glanced down where the other pointed, “But that doesn’t mean they’re gone for good.” As nice as it would be, anyway. The Heartless were always creeping around, and unless he found the Keyhole to this World, they would roam around… or something like that anyway. Sometimes they dispersed, sometimes they didn’t. Usually, though, that meant that the World was safe from getting overrun though. …mons? Like monsters?
“Oh, okay. That explains a lot, actually.” The brunet covered his mouth with his hand, taking in the new information.
“No way! I’m not scared of anythin’!” Sora was quick to argue that point before blinking, “Steel…ix? Ah— right. Hehe.” Of course he didn’t know what a Steelix was, nor did he want to if it was angry. Either way, this kid was really keen on gloating about the monsters he apparently wasn’t afraid of. As far as Sora could tell, it didn’t even look like he had a weapon.
“Okay, Ken, I get it.” Sora tilted his head to the side, “So you’re an ace with the ‘mons, huh? Are they really that common where you live?”
Ken did not drop the smile, he would never do that, but the light in his visible eye did dim just a bit. He could tell that either weird-ed out the brunet or that the brunet did not believe him. He really could not tell after this, but he would probably learn a bit later.
Or-
Well now.
That might have been why he had seen…disbelief? He had something that might have been disbelief marking the brunet’s face. “Ah, ‘M sure that tha people here won’t mind none.” Since when have they cared about anything-eer…well besides trainers and their champion and….err…they probably would not care about Heartless, end of story.
Did it? Hopefully, he is starting to get ever so confused as to where his thoughts are going. “Glad it helped ya out then.” No need to show any confusion in his words right?
“Glad ta hear it!” Ken replied with the same amount of ardor that Sora put in…without the following awkward laugh. It was good that Sora was not scared of anything, Ken’s ride would soon be here and if the other let out a small shriek—
Well that would be a bit embarrassing.
He paused as let a small sparkle twinkle in his eye once more. “Look around. If ya got good eyes, ya can spot ‘em anywhere.” He answered as he let his gaze travel to an Oddish who was moving out of a bush. “Ya can’t go anywhere without runnin’ into somethin’.” As if on cue a Caterpie climbed from its branch until it landed next to the Oddish.
“Just take a glance, ya might spot somethin’ too.”
“Jeez, yer actin’ like it’s hard. How bad ya fail this time, Takeru?” Oh he knows fully well what the blond got on the test, the teacher mentioned it…then mentioned tutoring after, but sssh. 
