Welcome to Gaia! ::

The world was quiet here, far from the harsh lights and choked air of the city. Here, there was only the marriage of the land and the sea, and it was peaceful, serene. Here the ocean winds, which held traces of countless foreign lands and distant memories, gently caressed the land-locked trees and grasses, tinging them with thoughts and emotions from endless years. It was unfamiliar, but it seemed so much like... home. It was a heart-filled place.

Guy finally had found some time for himself to sit back and relax, even if it was for a mere few hours. There was so much going on nowadays; so much to talk about, so much to plan, so much to consider. While there was no doubt that these talks were of vital importance to the small band of trainers to which Guy belonged, the constant burden that they now carried on their shoulders was exhausting, and so Guy took it upon himself to let those worries escape him for a short while. Rest was a necessity for anyone, especially a swordsman.

The young man was lying in the grasses, his eyes closed. Nearby, Anonymes the Lampent floated about happily without a care in the world and Guy's newly acquired Zoroark, whom he decided to call 'Oki,' stood beside the human, carefully watching over his new teammate. Oki exhaled lightly through his nose as he observed the happy Ghost flying about. Such a child he was. No maturity at all. He was bound to get himself hurt in one way or another. Then again, the Zoroark observed, that must have been why his human had asked of Oki to keep watch over Anonymes. The little nuisance was bound to get himself into some kind of trouble, and it would be Oki's responsibility to get him out. How troublesome. This was hardly what Oki would have called 'training.'

Meanwhile, Anonymes continued to joyfully fly about, his heart filled with nothing less than could be called pure joie de vivre. It was so pretty here! He was happy that Master had taken him here! Oh, yes... And Oki, too. Oki was still a little scary to Anon. Oki tried to hurt Master. That was unforgivable. But still. He didn't too terribly bad. He wasn't mean or anything like that. He was strong, though. That was both scary and helpful. Scary because he tried to hurt Master before. Helpful because now Anon had a partner! They would be good friends! Anon could tell. It would take time, but... He at least hoped.

But something had suddenly distracted Anonymes and interrupted his usually steady train of thought. In the corner of his eye he saw something... pink. It was a large pink object dashing through the grasses a ways away. It looked big. And somewhat scary. Anonymes was hesitant. His curiosity got the better of him, once again, though, as he quickly hovered towards the direction of the pink creature. What was that? Was it a Pokemon? Why would a Pokemon be pink? Anon just had to know! As he neared, he vaguely recognized the Pokemon as an Arcanine. Anon hoped that the new Pokemon was friendly!

Oki watched this sequence of events unfold idly. Well... There he went. And if he went missing or was hurt, he would be blamed. ...Damn it. The Zoroark sighed heavily and slowly began walking towards where Anonymes was, following him towards wherever he was going. Stupid little child...

At the Arcanine's harsh, defensive words, Anonymes slowed to a halt before her. He blinked in surprise. Was she... mad at him? What was wrong? Did Anon do something wrong? Surely he couldn't have done anything too bad. He was just curious. He liked to know things. Was that bad? ...No, that wasn't bad. This Arcanine was just unhappy. Maybe she was sad about something? Was she upset? That might be the case. What other reason could she have to be so short of temper with Anon? Anonymes's countenance quickly changed from one of childish curiosity to one of equally childish concern. ["What's wrong? Are you all right? You aren't upset, are you?"]

["Anonymes. Stop this foolishness immediately."] Oki's voice called out to the small Ghost type as he neared the two Pokemon. His expression was stoic, but there was a quiet distrust in his eyes as he regarded the pink Arcanine. She possessed great strength, he could see. The presence of what he assumed to be the Pokemon's trainer did not go over the Zoroark's head, but this did not immediately concern him. In fact, that was more than likely a blessing. It meant that this Arcanine, who seemed much less than friendly, would, theoretically, attack them without her human's command. This was a small comfort.

Anonymes pouted at the Zoroark as he joined them. ["Aww, but Okiii. We were just talking! That's not a bad thing, is it? Besides, I think she's rather pretty! Don't you?"] Anon seemed to smile as he looked to Oki and looked back to the Arcanine. The pink color on her seemed to suit her somehow! It looked good on her! Oki just sighed tiredly.

As this exchange occurred, Guy continued to rest peacefully in the grasses nearby, completely unaware of what was happening between his two Pokemon and the stranger's Arcanine. He was almost falling asleep at this point. It was so nice and quiet here...

Anonymes's golden eyes widened at the Arcanine's growled words. She sounded kind of mad. What did he do wrong? Maybe she just wasn't a happy Pokemon? But that was so sad! Every Pokemon deserved to be happy! Was she not happy with her human? That was definitely sad. After all, Anon was more than happy with his Master. There was nothing Master could not do. Master took care of Anon and Oki. He was the best human ever! Anon would give up Master for no one! ["Intentions? Well... I was just... Wondering."]

Oki stepped forward as the Arcanine growled at his teammate. His eyes were narrowed defensively. ["Neither I nor my teammate here"] - he cocked his head towards the confused Lampent as he mentioned him - [" bear any ill will towards you or your human. We are simply two passers-by, along with our own human."] He gestured his arm back towards the sleeping Guy in the distance. ["So, I will thank you not to bare your teeth at the Ghost. I can assure you that he is quite harmless."]

At the same time as these words were exchanged between the Pokemon, Guy slowly roused himself from his light slumber. He groaned as he stretched his arms over his head and looked up into the deep blue sky. What a pleasant day it was. He was glad that he decided to spend the day out here within the comforting, cradling arms of Mother Nature. He looked about his person, expecting to find either Oki or Anonymes by him, but neither were to be found. Well... That was strange. Looking about the field, he caught sight of his two Pokemon in the far distance. They seemed to be conversing with... a giant pink thing. "Geez... What the heck?"

Anonymes's eyes reflected his sadness as he finally saw that the Arcanine was not about to become friendly with him anytime soon. That was very sad. One should make friends wherever they went. Anon liked to think that way, at least. He supposed that not all Pokemon had to think the same way that he did, but... It did not make it any less upsetting.

Oki, obviously, was not so concerned with such trivial things as what Anonymes fretted over. He held his icy gaze with the Arcanine until a loud whistle from the Pokemon's human distracted her. The Zoroark relaxed his defensive stance and turned his head, looking back towards him own human. Good... It appeared that the man was finally stirring. Took long enough, Oki mused somewhat bitterly. To think that Guy had forced him to watch over the silly Lampent... Disgraceful. Oki was no babysitter.

Guy had stood and began walking towards his two Pokemon when a sudden and loud whistle caught his attention. He blinked in surprise, then continued walking, his stride bold and his air unafraid. Whoever this person was that the pink Pokemon belonged to must be a hard-set trainer to command such a tough-looking Arcanine. ...The fact that the Pokemon was pink was irrelevant. It was only when Guy had walked about halfway the distance to his own Pokemon that he realized that the trainer of said Arcanine was, unfortunately for him, female. His steps betrayed no weakness as he neared the group, but inwardly, Guy groaned. Great. He just hoped that she wasn't too friendly. When he got closer, though, he assumed that that wasn't the case. This particular girl seemed stern and stoic and... oddly familiar. Guy couldn't exactly place the face, but she definitely held an impression in his mind. But where could he have seen her before...?

When Guy finally joined the group, Anonymes's attitude immediately changed from sad and somber to pure delight. The Ghost happily hovered over to his master and wrapped his arms around the young man's neck in a large, loving hug. Master! Anon was so happy to see Master! It was good that Master was doing well! He seemed well-rested. Anon knew that Master needed his rest, and so he did his best not to disturb him. But now that Master was awake, Anon could play with him more! Anon loved playing with Master! He loved being around Master! He loved his master!

Oki greeted his human in a much less blatantly affectionate manner. Instead of hugging Guy, the Zoroark merely walked over to his human and stood at attention at his side, waiting for any command Guy would give him. Anon was right on one point: Guy was their master. As such, they must obey, and Oki would follow those orders dutifully. He was sworn to it.

Guy couldn't keep his serious demeanor when his Lampent was lovingly wrapped around his neck. His defenses down, he chuckled and smiled as he removed himself from Anonymes's grip. "And hello to you too, Anon." He glanced over to the Zoroark at his side and nodded at him, acknowledging his presence. With that done, Guy looked to face the other trainer. The first detail he noticed was that she was short. Very short. He did not judge her on that alone, though. Guy was well aware that physical stature spoke nothing of power or respect, and this young woman seemed to command respect. She looked so formal. Almost regal. It was... intriguing.

"Think nothing of it, miss," he replied to the young woman. "There is no need to apologize. In fact, I think it should be I that should be apologizing to you if my friends disturbed your Pokemon. Please forgive them." When he spoke these words, Guy bent slightly at the waist, placed his left hand behind his back, and brought his right arm in front of his chest in a small, polite bow. Anonymes, always wishing to be like his master, copied his arm movements. Oki did so as well, but his bow was not nearly as deep as his human's or his teammates.

"Charmant, mm...? Quite a lovely name. French, is it not?" Guy straightened as he spoke once more, regarding the pink Arcanine with a curious gaze. 'Charmant'... Yes, it was very French. It was of the same origin as Anonymes's name. How strange. Could it be that this young woman was of French descent...? It was possible, but very difficult to tell. There was, of course, the off chance that this woman was from the Grande Isle, much like Guy himself, but that circumstance was even less possible. But now that Guy thought about it, this woman did bear a large resemblance to one of the noble families... Surely that was impossible, though.

When the woman referred to him as 'sir,' Guy simply smiled and waved a hand dismissively. "Please, miss. No need for such formalities. You can just call me Guy." He placed his hands on his hips, shifting his weight to one foot. Anon, apparently feeling like he had been away from his master's side for far too long, floated to Guy's shoulder and clung to the large collar of his master's orange vest. Oki continued to stand at attention, though he had folded his arms. "And what is your name, miss?"

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Miss Aila." The formal greeting was accompanied by a polite smile on Guy's part. Aila, was it? What a lovely name it was. He could have sworn that he had heard a name like that somewhere before. It wasn't recently, though. If Guy recalled correctly, the last time he heard a name such as that was when he was back on the Grande Isle, when he had first heard about... The murder.

Well, now, that was interesting. This girl, this Aila... She had a name very similar to the name of the young child of the Grande Isle duke who was at the ball not too long ago. The young child who was killed. Yes, that incident caused quite an uproar in the houses of the nobles, if Guy remembered correctly. What was the name of that child, again? Was it not 'Aila,' as well? Surely not. That would be too much a coincidence. Still... It slightly disturbed Guy.

He tried with much difficulty not to show his confusion, though, as he spoke to this Aila. "Your name... It sounds somewhat foreign, if you find don't me rude for saying so," he mentioned idly. "It almost sounds like it could be from a place called the Grande Isle. Have you heard of it?" Casually slipping the topic into conversation might not be considered terribly covert, but Guy was curious. It was too interesting of a scenario to pass up.