Footsteps of the Goddess, the Silver Tower Tournament.

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"I...I see." Laurel bit her lip as the rant unfolded, her fingers clenching tighter and tighter around the pokégear, her mind furiously connecting the dots. The sudden absence, the paleness, the change in outfit...it all made sense now. A terrible, infuriating kind of sense. True, she might not have been able to do anything about the limiter levels, but...

"I understand, papa. I'll see to it. Well then, I'd best get back to the group soon. I'm counting on you to keep me updated, alright? Love you. Bye."

Clicking her pokégear shut again, the woman took a few moments to compose herself. A certain chosen was going to have a few questions to answer. Not to mention that she'd need to get back to the group too. But first...

Full aware that it was a childish habit, and that this was really neither the time nor the place to indulge in it, the coordinator strode over to a nearby rock, seating herself on it before promptly easing out her feet from her shoes, and pulling off the socks. Her feet thus liberated she promptly placed both on the ground, standing on the spot in complete stillness for a few moments, savoring the feel of the ground beneath her feet, the subtle sounds of life all around.

It may just have been personification, and self-projection, and a whole slab of other words from papa's thick medical treatises, but it had never failed to comfort her, and right now she felt in need of comfort more than ever.

"Hello..." she mumbled softly, "...I know this is the first time we meet, and that not everyone among us has been very respectful, but..." she gave a small sigh, "...look after us, alright?"

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It had taken a while, snatching up the kettle from the camp and darting back into the forest with a hasty excuse before tracking down the pond, but when Laurel finally emerged once more, she had a kettle full of water to spare.

"Sorry for the wait, everyone." she chirped, beaming at the group as she made her way to the fire, placing the kettle on top of it, "Seems I lost track of time admiring this beautiful forest, but at least...it wasn't a complete waste." she held up a handful of roots and herbs gathered up in her other hand as she took a seat next to Mika, her own Ursaring inching its way just a bit closer as she busied herself with sorting out the various edibles assembled, "Now then, with a fire this hot, this shouldn't take long. Just a bit more patience, okay everyone?"
 
Robert was rather surprised that he was the only one, apparently, who ate Pokemon. Though he saw Mika's almost longing glances toward the string of Remoraid, he knew better than to offer one of the Remoraid to her- something in the eyes of that Ursaring told him that approaching her with a fish would not be the best of plans. So instead, he handed the second plate to Riley and shrugged. The Lucario nodded, grinning, and dug into the freshly-cooked freshwater fish as Robert himself made his way to Mika's side and sat down before tapping her shoulder. "So, feeling okay? I noticed you were a little nervous earlier..."

Laurel's return took rather longer than Robert had expected. The trek to the pond where Riley had caught the fish and back was only a few minutes. Whatever she had been off to do, it wasn't just to gather water- and he didn't buy the roots, either. Rhea had come back with quite enough supplies for soup only a few minutes before. It was fairly obvious that she had left for more reason than simply to gather a few roots. Something was up here... but what?

He glanced at Riley again, only to see the Lucario wolf down two of the four Remoraid. "Riley..." he moaned, "You're really kind of a pig. What if someone else wanted that?"

The Lucario responded by tossing the remains of the fish at Robert, which he ducked easily, and grinning cheekily. Robert grimaced. "Keep that up and one of these days I will go vegan."
 
((sneaking back in here. :x Pretend Taylor did something semi-useful/did not get in the way during the first challenge? I'm really sorry D:))

Taylor was tired, but not any more tired than he'd ever been after a full day out on duty. He kept Azumarill out of her Pokéball - she had been of primary assistance doing the heavy lifting and wading throughout the day and stayed around the edges of camp, quietly darting around his teammates. He wasn't deliberately trying to avoid getting their attention, exactly, it was just sort of something that seemed to happen of its own accord. He'd found a few sprigs of a certain green herb with a sharp, clean smell - something minty, but it wasn't mint. He couldn't recall the name, but he'd found that scientific labels didn't matter quite as much as the Ranger exams would have you think they did.

Now he just needed something to season - a flash of silver-blue scales caught his eye. There was some sort of brief exchange of sharp words between the woman coordinator, Laurel, and the ranger, Robert. It was over as quickly as he'd begun, and as far as Taylor could ascertain it was over the fish. The vegetarian vs. omnivore debate was nothing new - Taylor himself adhered to the "eat-whatever-you-can-procure-at-the-time" side of the debate, which certainly included meat often enough.

Stepping softly, he melted out of the steadily growing dimness to appear before Robert. He found himself suddenly forgetting what he had come to ask or say, and only a nudge from Azumarill behind him prompted him to clear his throat to catch the ranger's attention and speak.

"Do you... um, have enough of that - " Here he gestured to the Remoraid. " - for another person?" He smiled sheepishly. "If not, it's okay, I'll find something else." He started as if suddenly remembering something and reached into his pocket, pulling out the sprig of green-leafed herb and shyly offering it to the man. "I brought something for spicing if you need it."
 
Robert grinned widely. Wonder of wonders, another carnivore. He indicated the last Remoraid, still grinning. "Help yourself, though I'm afraid it's a little late for a garnish. Riley, you don't mind scooting over, do you?" The Lucario nodded in response, scooting a foot or two to the side to give Taylor room to sit. He grinned at the Azumarill before giving it a quick "thumbs-down", to Robert's chagrin. "Riley, stop antagonizing the other Pokemon. They're cooperators, not competition," Robert sighed, though the response seemed almost mechanical.

He offered the final fish to Taylor, still smiling. "So, you feeling alright? I get the feeling something's up with this tournament. Can't place it, but I feel like something's up. Something big.
 
There seemed to be a whole lot of commotion from the campsite behind her and having no intention of getting involved in such drama unless absolutely necessary or until her stomach started sucking up against her spine demanding some provisional supplement, she did manage to recognise some of the voices that belonged to her fellow teammates, the bickering tones of Laurel and Robert as well as the not so familiar ones belonging to Tyler and Mika all resonated above her.

Heaving a hefty sigh as she watched the skies, little else plagued her attention other than the thought of eating and going to sleep as well as readying herself both physically and mentally for the second challenge the next day. If only things were as simple as crossing from one side of a river to the other—although admittedly, that had proven much more difficult than she initially thought—but she wasn't expecting much in terms of an ease in difficulty anytime soon.

Stifling a yawn, the return of Laurel's perky tone caused the wannabe hunter to snap back to attention, dinner seemingly only a few minutes away. Deciding it best to quell her appetite before any internal rumblings escaped unwontedly, she slowly sat up, slid out of her jacket and brushed it off, then stood up and repeated the process with her shorts. Before long she had trudged back up the hill, the heat from the campfire embracing her as she returned to the encircling logs, the blonde plopped herself down on the other side of the dining Robert and Taylor to await the serving of their vegan meal.
 
Though his joking remark that someday he just might become a vegan was crying for a response, Laurel promptly ignored it, focusing her attention on stirring the soup in front of her and making sure that Mika did not leave her spot instead. Mika had definitely encountered something - or rather, someone - after vanishing back there, and she had half a mind to confront her on that matter, but...she couldn't help a quick glance in Robert's direction. No, this was neither the time nor the place. There was audience of the entirely wrong kind, and more pressingly...

She took an appraising sniff at her concoction, nodding in quiet contentment at the aroma. There were children to feed first.

"The soup is ready, everyone." she called, beaming at the group as she reached into her bag once more, procuring a small stack of what appeared to be slightly amateurishly carved, wooden cups and placing them on the ground lifting up the first and filling it with a slewfull of the soup before handing it to Mika, before turning to the next, "Everyone who's hungry, just line up or something please. There should be plenty to go around."
 
Azumarill seemed unperturbed as usual by the Lucario's cheeky gesture - she simply returned its grin with a wide, dreamy smile of her own, and remained standing by Taylor's side as he took a seat on the log.

Taylor accepted the food with a grateful half-smile. He found he was much hungrier now that the tantalizing scent of charred fish was placed under his nose. He set to the meal with relish, sprinkling some of the crushed herb he'd brought atop the remoraid for flavor. It was only after a couple bites had been thoroughly chewed and swallowed that he was able to lift his head and answer Robert's inquiry.

He nodded. "I get the same sort of feeling..." His eyes flicked involuntarily over to where Mika and Laurel were standing. It seemed to him that the both of them seemed to know something, or perhaps were even involved in something the rest of the group wasn't a party to. He shivered slightly, abruptly, trying to pass it off as both a shrug and a shake of the head, as if dismissing the idea that had just occurred to him. "But it'll be all right. I mean, they wouldn't gather so many people here if something dangerous..." He trailed off, doubting his words even as he spoke them.
 
The rest of the evening went as such; Robert managed to somehow get rather buzzed off of the harmless water and as the general awkward laughter spread around the group [with Mika included in this little rabble] as they munched on the leaves and mushrooms and whatever else Laurel had shoved into the pot, it seemed like the awkward tension had died enough to make each other bearable. Laurel, being her normal motherly self, made sure that as the night drew to a close, that the children were safely tucked into bed and the fire snuffed before the Ursaring was recalled and the woman went to bed on her own accord. Somewhere in the evening, it had been decided that Robert would hold the night watch shift and, aside from him, the entire lot was shoved into this small little tent. It was cramped to say the least but the lot was at least trying to get some sleep. And sleep they did, at least until the calendar began to roll over into the next day.

01:38. somewhere outside the campgrounds

"...You're really going to do it?"

"...It was what we were told to do, was it not?"

"...mmm.... Wallace... I'm not sure about this."

"Don't worry yourself Steven dearest, it's not like I haven't played games like this before."

"But with the potential risks, is it even safe? Some of these kids are just kids and thrusting them into this situation unprepared-"

"-is exactly what we want to do. You know as well as I do... stress brings out the worst and the best in people."

02:10 inside the campsite


The smell was the first thing to hit her. She'd never liked incredably intrusive smells such as these and it was one of those things not even the heaviest of sleepers could sleep through forever. Her eyes didn't snap open; the girl was anything but a morning person in the early hours before sunlight. They simply peeled open, her nose wrinkling as the smell became more and more putrid. Putrid. Ghastly. Thick. It took her a good minute and a half for such a scent to filter through her memory but the moment it had finished its filtration cycle, she let out an audible sort of gasp, sitting upright almost immediately, her hand flying to cover her mouth. As her eyes adjusted and the sounds began to follow the scent, Mika got herself into a standing position as quickly as she could before she snuck around the sleeping people, nudging a few here and there in an attempt to get out. Her hand fumbled at the bottom of the tent zipper as she yanked it up and over her head, coughing once or twice as the nasty smell began to get stronger.

Eyes closing, she forced one open, just in time to see the orange and red glow coming from abit of the ways into the campsite. The mist around her was smoke. The glow, a fire. The campsite, the forest they had taken shelter in, was literally going up in smoke. Turning towards the dozing Robert, she pulled her foot back and kicked his shoe as hard as she could before popping her head back into the tent, "Hey, guys? You might want to get up seeing as the forest is on fire. We need to head for safety."


[OoC: >> kk so now that I've gotten my body straightened out, I've decided to move the plot along. Thank you, to those of you who've put up with me. ;; I don't mean to fall apart at the seams, I really don't. Anywho, just, in this post, make some sort of night closing argument and react to the fire. :D Chaos is very much appreciated.]
 
The momen that Mika kicked his shoe, Robert's eyes flew open. "Dammit... overslept..." he muttered as he pulled himself to his feet. The moment he smelled the smoke he was wide awake. He enlarged the single Pokeball he carried with him, where his partner had opted to sleep for the night. "Riley, Up and at 'em!" The white light blossomed from the ball and Riley emerged from it, yawning slightly as he prepared to stretch his muscles. Then he too smelled the smoke, and instantly snapped to attention. "Come on, we have to get the others," Robert told the Pokemon. "You see if you can find any native water Pokemon with enough power to put a fire like this out," Robert ordered. "I'll check out the danger zone. You make sure there aren't any nearby Pokemon who'll be burned out!"

The two dashed off in different directions. Robert's breath was hot and ragged, and he stripped off his outer shirt. No sense wearing long clothing in a fire. His hat was already left behind. He leaped into the pond, first, making sure he was as damp as possible before heading towards the fire, then ran and retrieved his styler. He needed to move quickly.

The first thing he thought of was that he needed backup. He raced back to the tent and, notwithstanding Mika's earlier wake-up call, grabbed the pot and ladle Laurel had used to cook the other night and began banging on it. "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! FIRE, FIRE, FIRE! EVERYONE WITH WATER POKEMON, GET OVER HERE!" he yelled.
 
Dinner had been a peaceful affair, as had the night. Besides the fact that everyone in their group was crammed into the single small tent, regardless of age or gender or trivial things like that, Rhea had allowed herself to think that perhaps this whole tournament wasn't going to be so bad after all.

She was normally a light sleeper, but, for some reason, didn't fully register the importance of Mika's first casual comment until Robert burst into the tent dripping water and screaming something about fire. She was up in seconds, grabbing for her Pokeballs and stumbling groggily out of the tent.

The smoke was getting thick, completely obscuring her vision of the surrounding forest. It was hot, too, a dim glow emnating from a stand of trees somewhere behind them. Her first thought was one of irritation - what kind of idiot with half a brain would even think of leaving a fire unattended in a heavy forest like this one? - but which quickly turned into panic. She'd never seen a fire as big as this one; what if their water Pokemon weren't able to put it out? What about the wild Pokemon? What if everyone didn't make it out in time? What had the Ranger handbook said about forest fires?

Step one: locate the source of the fire. "Somewhere behind them" wasn't going to cut it; they needed to know the exact source and encircle it before it spread. She fumbled for her Pokeballs and threw the first one up, Flicker appearing in a blinding flash of light.

"Try and find out where the fire started, and stay out of the smoke!" she shouted to the Pidgeot, choking on the heavy fumes. The bird Pokemon screeched in acknowledgement and took off in a burst of feathers as Rhea tried to remember what the next step was. Robert had probably woken everyone within a five-mile radius with his pot-banging ... something about water Pokemon. She'd seen a boy with an Azumarill earlier; between him and her Lapras, they'd probably be able to keep the fire away from their campsite. The problem, however, was putting out the whole thing.

She grabbed Floe's Pokeball and was about to follow the other Ranger away from the campsite when there was a massive whoosh and the fire roared into the clearing, incinerating a row of dead trees and roaring even higher. She shrieked, more out of surprise than fear - had the fire really been this close all along? - and threw the Pokeball in her right hand automatically, even as she panicked and madly scrambled backwards.

There was a second flash of white light and a familiar shape appeared through the smoke. Thank Arceus, she'd picked the right Pokeball. The Lapras spared the fire a casual glance before turning serenely to her trainer, awaiting instructions.

A muffled crack echoed through the woods and a tree crashed down near them, dangerously close to the tent. Was everyone out? It would be ironic if, instead of toasting them to death, she ended up drowning them all instead.

Oh, screw that idea. "Floe, SURF!"
 
When Taylor woke he was already moving, somehow, wriggling to escape from where he was wedged in between two dark shapes that must be the bodies of his teammates. He crawled out of the tent in a whirl of sharply rustling canvas, leaving his sleeping bag hanging half out behind him like a molted snakeskin. He could taste burnt dust in his mouth and someone was banging on a pot, the night watchman was banging an alarm.

He became awake like sliding into place on a rollercoaster, seat belt clicked down. This was something fully familiar, a forest fire - one of the things teams of rangers in areas near the desert regularly had to deal with. He'd been on a few fire brigades himself in his time. Without thinking he released Azumarill - she blinked sleepily at him, smiling patiently and uncertainly, and he pointed wordlessly at the roaring flames a few feet away, where the girl from Kanto was already directing her Lapras. The water Pokémon's eyes narrowed into consciousness in the same mechanical way his had, and he began to run with her following. He gestured for her to split off and join Rhea. She obliged, taking a place on the other side of the girl and beginning to gather moisture within herself, preparing to release it in a jet just as a torrent came forth from the Lapras.

Taylor, meanwhile, continued to run past Rhea and the water Pokémon, cutting a wide arc around the other side. He came to what seemed to be the current periphery of the fire on the left, and tossed another of his Pokéballs up in the air. A large white creature burst out and stared at him, blinking slowly as if to acclimate himself to this sudden change in environment. Taylor grabbed Vigoroth by the collar and shoved him toward the row of saplings the fire was currently licking at. "Cut! Cut!" he bellowed. Surprisingly, the usually rebellious Pokémon began obeying without question, claws swinging scythe-like and working to create a swath of tree-less area the fire would have more trouble burning. Perhaps it had sensed the urgency of the situation.

Taylor touched the styler at his wrist even as he supervised Vigoroth's progress. Much of the forest's wildlife seemed to have already fled from the danger, but just in case... he could always use the assistance to cut down the trees around the flames and clear the brush. The most important thing besides actually quenching the flames, he knew, was to stop the fire from spreading further.
 
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