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"Hm, I would suggest a dog-type to start with, assuming nothing attaches itself to you during our journey. Dog types, like Growlithe, are fairly easy to train and are usually very loyal. You might even be able to get a seeing-eye dog, a specially trained pokemon that helps you get around in unfamiliar areas. Speaking of getting around, did you lose your cane?" Shina asked, wondering why the girl had been stumbling around without a cane to help her find her way.

Tenka yawned in response to Maya's yawn. He blinked a bit, the suggested ""

If Shina had been walking, she would have stopped to stare. How could Shikari not know about canes? Well, clearly she didn't, so Shina would have to help her. "No, I mean like a walking cane, staff, or other type of stick you use to feel the ground in front of you, so you know about changes in the ground, or objects you might trip over or run into. Many blind people carry a special lightweight, collapsible cane with a distinctive red and white pattern that lets seeing people know that the carrier is blind. That way people can move to let you have a clear path when you walk, and they know not to assume that you will see them and get out of their way," Shina explained.

"If you don't have a cane yet, we can cut you one as soon as we find a stand of trees, or perhaps we can borrow a pole from one of the tents for use during the day until we get to Motterossa," Shina offered. She did have a few extra tents packed for people who had forgotten to bring one for whatever reason. One or another of them would likely have a lightweight pole of the correct length, and it would do no harm to use the pole as a blind cane during the day.

"Of course you can stay on Rasha. Doesn't she have a wonderfully smooth gait? She's a Kanto Stepper, bred to have a very smooth and easy to ride gait. Normal horses have four gaits, Rasha has a few extra. This," Rasha obeyed Shina's leg and hand signals and switched into a normal walk. "Is a normal walk. All horses can do this. Hang on, now, because the trot, the normal gait that is faster than a walk, is pretty bouncy." Shina signaled, and Rasha shifted into a trot. After just a few bouncy paces, Shina signaled again, and Rasha went back to the smooth, fast running walk.

"I won't be showing you the canter or gallop, the faster normal gaits, at least not right now," Shina told her passenger. Then she blushed a little, not that her Shikari could see it. "I'm really very proud of Rasha, sometimes it's hard to stop talking about how wonderful she is," Shina said a little shyly. "She's my first real pokemon."

Shina giggled briefly at Shikari's attempt to talk during Rasha's stint trotting. It sounded like she had hiccups! Settling in to the now smooth running walk, Shina decided that she liked having a passenger. "I got her from the Katarina Ponyta rental stables. Not without a good bit of effort though. The owner doesn't like to sell his stock, so I had to trade two other Ponyta for her, and I'm still not exactly welcome around the rental place. But it was worth it," Shina said.

She considered the amount of detail to go into, and settled for a brief overview. "I borrowed Rasha for the Eevee swarm outside Motterossa a while back. Reports had come in that several Eevee had been spotted wild outside the town, and a caravan formed in Katarina. I joined it, and rode with the group to Motterossa. Once there, we broke up into groups and started searching for wild Eevee. Unfortunately, it was a trick. Team Rocket had been doing experiments, and many of the trainers who came in search of Eevees were captured. I was one of the ones caught, by a Rocket in disguise in my group. Eventually we escaped, and regrouped in a clearing. The Rockets came after us, and a shrine was accidentally destroyed. The guardian of the shrine was...highly displeased. There was a massive three way battle between the Rockets, the trainers, and the very powerful shrine guardian. Eventually a trainer calmed and captured the guardian, and we defeated the Rockets. After all that, I couldn't just return Rasha to the rental agency, so I arranged to purchase her. Then we traveled around for a while, and eventually I decided I wanted to try traveling with a caravan again, so I set up this trip." Shina took a quick swig from her canteen. Even glossing over events to such a huge degree, that had still been a fairly long explanation.

Claramay could not deny she was eavesdropping. Considering the caravan seemed a bit quiet, she could do nothing but listen. Any signs or sounds of that Mewtwo was her main concern, though the long tale from Shina just happened to also be mixed into that melting pot. The constant utterance of Rockets, Rockets, Rockets finally registered in her head: Rockets. That girl -- she had some before experience with those popular vigilantes? They've been overrunning Zatao, out-populating even Galactics in Sinnoh. It was too terrifying and no one likes competition.

Lightly squeezing her Pidgeot's left wing, he tilted and glided sideways towards the Ponyta and its two riders. She fell into an equal trek along the hoofed Pokemon and smiled down towards the two. "Sharing stories?" she humbly inquired. "That sure is a great way to pass the time~"

"You use a Pokeball to capture a pokemon. Pokeballs help tame wild pokemon, so they become partners. Though sometimes a wild pokemon will just start following a person for some reason, even without being captured first. I think I have a spare Pokeball or two one me, I can give you one when we stop for the night," Shina told Shikari.

Mrs. Pearls swooped down, and then Flint piped up as well. Shina nodded to the other trainers. "Yes, being captured was very unpleasant. But I did get Rasha at the end of it all." Shina giggled. "They really didn't expect me to be as annoying as I was when I woke up in a cell. It was my first time away from home, and I had gotten kidnapped by Rockets! I cried and made such a huge fuss that one of the guards actually left the holding area! How unprofessional!"

Shina didn't mention how she had picked the lock on her handcuffs, or pretended to be injured. The guard had actually left to fetch an ice pack to hopefully quell her sobbing about how much her "injured" wrist hurt, not just to escape the admittedly obnoxious sobbing and wailing she had indulged in. Bragging about her hostage training and how she had deceived them and all the skills she had used would be a good way to make sure that those skills wouldn't work next time something happened. She didn't want to believe that someone in the group might be a criminal, but she hadn't believed her betrayer had been a Rocket either, not until she she had been knocked out and locked up. Better to downplay her part in the escape.

"A Tauros is kind of like a Ponyta, but bigger, with a shorter neck, wider back, and horns on his head. He also doesn't have fire, and he has three tails. If you ask his trainer, you might be able run your hands over him later to get a good look. And you are right, there is a big bird, big enough for a trainer to ride, next to us. Mrs. Pearls is riding the bird, a Pidgeot. From what I've seen, her Pidgeot isn't as friendly to strangers as Rasha is, so I don't know if he will let you touch him," Shina told Shikari.

"And I don't mind sharing supplies. I knew there would be people on the trip who wouldn't have this or that, and I purchased my own supplies accordingly, with a good deal of surplus when possible," Shina assured the other girl.