Welcome to Gaia! ::

((I'm thinking spring-ish, that way we will be in the frozen area in summer, so it won't be as killingly cold as it could be.))
"I'll help harvest the cattails," Shina offered, producing a few baskets to carry their spoils in.

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Joey pedaled into the camp area for tonight. He didn't have quite as much stamina as some of the older trainers, and sometimes fell a little behind. From the basket on the handlebars, Lily barked happily. She knew that people stopping to make camp meant that she got to get down and run around. Coming to a stop, Joey put Lily down and started setting up his own area. Coming into camp late meant he usually didn't get assigned set-up tasks, and if there was something they wanted him to do, they would let him know. He'd probably end up on dish duty again.

((I'm not sure that they have the fluffy tops in spring, but I'm waving the "A Wizard Did It" wand and saying these particular ones have some fluffy stuffs, just for you Eienna! Hey, in pokemon land, who is to say that cattails don't do weird stuff? Berries apparently grow year-round after all!))

Shina had been harvesting the shoots and roots, but she paused and quickly filled a basket with the brown tops of some mature cattails. There must have been a warm snap early in the season to have such a variety of growth stages. "Here Shikari, are these what you want?" Shina asked, handing over the basket of cattail tops.

The Zebstrika nodded at Chiyo. "That is very good to hear." She looked towards Anise, who had headed back around the lake shore a short distance. "The human I have been following seems very kind as well. I may stay with her."

Anise had been helping harvest the cattails, and looked up at Shikari's question. "I have a spare blanket you could use. It's my lighter summer blanket, since it's still cold enough at night that I'm using my heavier winter one." She flipped open her bag, which proved to be stuffed with various leaves, roots, flowers, berries, bark, other plant bits, and, tucked in a corner, a small collection of item balls. She selected one marked "s.b." and released the item, then said "Here you go," and guided it towards the blind girl's hand when she reached for it. "If you need more bulk in the bedding, I imagine you could use the cattail stalks, too. They look much like straw or hay, and those are commonly used as equine bedding."

Heal finish making the pokemon food and served up a generous portion into a bowl, letting it cool down to a warm state before putting down quietly in front of Chiyo. He turned his eyes towards the Zebristka. "Would you like some?" Very much expecting a coherent answer..

Gallifrey sniffed around and sat down by Heal's fishing pole, staring up at it with quiet curiosity. What an odd thing. It look like one of the things his father had identified as a tree...well..it had a similar structure on the fundamental that it was straight up and it was rooted to the ground. ......beyond that it wasn't much of a tree and it smelled weird. The young eevee yipped at it, expecting for it to answer why it was no like a tree and why it had an odd shiny thing at the top!

Seeing that most of the camp was running itself just fine, Shina settled in with some of the harvested cattail roots and started peeling them, preparing them to be ground up to separate the stringy fibrous bits and then washed much like rice until the usable starch was left. This would make for a delightfully thick stew, or possibly some sort of casserole, depending on what else they found.
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Joey finished laying out his own sleeping area and walked over to the food prep area. The caravan leader, Shina, was peeling cattail roots and dropping them into a bucket of water. "Want me to pulp those?" he offered. At the leader's nod, he settled in, pulling out a mortar and pestle and getting to work breaking up the tough, but nutritious, plant.

Heal served a second bowl with the rest of the food and sets it in front of the electric zebra pokemon. "There you go." He grinned as he watched the two pokemons happily eating, quiet happy that the recipe had come out correctly. He turned to see the yipping gallifrey and looked up to see the bell of his fishing pole calling out. Walking over, he picked up the pole and started to reel in. "Please don't be a boot...please don't be a boot..."

Food, and ride...food, and ride...if Chiyo hadn't been there to look after, Shikari suspected she might've been bored stiff by now. Still, Shina was proving to be a good cook, so it wasn't really a bad routine. She snuggled her pokemon for a second. "Wanna go play, Chiyo?"
The Blitzle nickered a happy reply.

Heal pulled on the fishing rod as he continue to reel in whatever he had just hooked, he wonder how the line had gone out so far without him noticing. As the line came closer, a fish leaped out in consequence of the teenager's hard pull on the taunt line, showing a rather large fish. The healer groaned and sank his heels into the soft mud that edged the lake, cursing his luck for not buying a better fishing rod in the city. His uncle had always told him that this fishing rod was trustworthy and lucky, to hell with that, this thing was groaning and whining like it had caught a gyarados rather then a normal dumb fish!

Heal gave another rather sizable pull, making the fish leap out again, hoping to bringing closer a few more yards to the damn shore.

Now, if Heal had been paying attention to his surroundings, he would had notice that Arthmael was standing protectively over Gallifrey while growling and barking at the sky. Had he been paying attention, he would had noted the rather large shadow that was sweeping down towards the lake. Had he been paying attetion, he would perhaps heard the gasps of some of the trainers or even the odd scream.

...But Heal was from a town that got its meat from either the farms or the nearby lake and his house had stood right by the damn lake. He had fish for more meals then he cared to count and had learn to block out anything but a hooked fish.

Of course, this concentration was completely broken when a large aerodactyl swiped the jumping fish into its jaws. And of course, the fish was till very much hooked to the fishing rod...which meant that as the fossil pokemon pulled up from its dive, Heal was pulled right into the water and few yards into the lake before he manage to let go of the fishing rod. He cough out water as he kept himself a float. "You...you!" He choked out as the aerodactyl lazily circled over him. "At least return my fishing rod!"

It promptly hit him on the head.