This was not the first time the farfetch'd had followed her favorite human down to where the other humans gathered, but it was the first time they had come without any adults, unless one counted Watch of the Age Incalculable. It was also the first time Switch had come so close to the lights of the city. From a hill overlooking the urban sprawl those lights seemed to dance in the growing darkness as the mist floated in from the sea, and because of that sense of magic, perhaps, it had been easier to cast fear aside to skirt the city limits and beyond.
She considered this only for a few moments before a group of men rushed up the hill to take the girl back down to the city. Theo called to one of them, recognizing him, before he picked her up and carried her away. Watch the Houndoom glanced back the way Switch had gone before following. The girl had been through much on their trip here, just to reach this town.
Switch was torn. She wanted to go too, she wanted to see Theo to absolute safety, and that her injury would heal. Switch had often wondered if she would be truly safe in the world of men if she had let that girl throw that broken pokéball at her all those months ago. In a corner of her mind she knew that humans came to the city with a variety of pokémon all the time; surely a farfetch'd would not seem out of place, even now. No one would realize that she was actually wild, right? And she had caught glimpses of what appeared to be humans wearing strange but lifelike pokémon-like costumes. Humans seemed to like pokémon, perhaps even a little too much, didn't they? So, maybe, surely...
In the end she did follow, but she hung back in the shadows, her dark, worried yet jealous eyes following along as Watch escorted Rocío on foot-- as opposed to within a pokéball. She physically kept pace at a safe distance, peering down from rooftops, alerting the houndoom to her presence when she thought it was safe. She felt a sense of heedlessness, almost, of her own safety. But once she saw the man carry her, not to the usual place, but to his home and surrounded by his own happy pokémon, she wandered away. Theo was safe.
Now she could focus on the real reason they had come. Earlier in the month, there had been a winter festival. Supposedly it was put on by pokémon. She and the girl had wanted to see it, but they had not made it in to town sooner due to inclement weather. She was only now seeing the truth in the half-dismantled booths, wrappers, and dirty flyers. Among everything else, there was this disappointment too? And the girl had that to look forward to when she felt a little better?
Switch's strong urge to return home right this moment was fueled by her own disappointment and more, and a peculiar sense of dread that the girl could feel even worse than the farfetch'd, once she knew their trip had been for nothing. Now all the Cotier girl had to look forward to was getting yet another device fixed by Carlos the Mechanic. But Switch wanted to make sure Rocío made it home safely if nothing else, even if she was perfectly safe with the human and Watch with her.
Waiting was Switch's worst enemy, and now she had nothing else to occupy her time in her anger and worry. She found a small meadow--an abandoned city lot-- that had until just a few days before been occupied by festival booths. Within the forgotten foundation of one booth, a mere skeleton of plywood and metal poles, she picked up a stick and swiped the air it, practicing her aim and technique. But in her nervousness it quickly became old, and her eyes began to wander every time the lights shifted or someone walked by. And she knew that Rocío might be another day or more-- such a very long time.
