Joe held up the measuring roll and Arezu nodded. When he stepped forward, beginning to wrap it around Kouvu's body, Arezu made to distract and pacify the large dragon. He nearly jerked violently as he felt the loose tape coiling around his chest, tightening, constricting, trapping... but Arezu held his head firmly in her hands and looked him in the eyes to keep him calm. When she could let go she rubbed his nose, hands shaky as she watched his massive pupils constrict to slits. He was breathing so heavily Arezu felt sure that Joe must not be able to get any proper measurements, but she didn't dare look away. It felt like an eternity before he finally stepped away, finshed.
Arezu put down her hands and sighed, closing her eyes. When she felt Kouvu's head bump into her chest she jumped and nearly yelped in fright. Her shaking just had Kouvu nuzzling her more, and Arezu could only stand there dazed as she realized he was saying thank you... and trying to comfort her, having no idea that he was the one giving her the shakes.
Come on, if you're going to be riding him you need to get used to him. ********> She forced herself to stand there unmoving, even going so far as to scratch his nose some more. She'd almost completely forgotten about Joe by the time he finished writing everything down and spoke up. "You want to get a standard saddle for a fit? We've got a few we can adjust that will do for him." Arezu nodded.
Niji seemed to be looking down at- wait, was that a phone?! Where did he get a- you know what, nevermind. Not worth it. Arezu turned back to the register, listening once again to the worker's spiel about proper care of the saddle. It apparently could follow a pokemon into its pokeball, but she wasn't so confident in their advertised comfort level that she was going to leave it on Kouvu all the time. She was already planning on setting aside a corner of the treehouse to store it. It seemed like a lot of work, but there was no way in hell she was riding her noivern without the safety of the saddle.
Not to mention it should just be plain comfier than riding bareback, no matter how fluffy Kouvu's collar was.
The saddle chewed up the rest of Arezu's money, leaving her with barely enough to buy lunch.
She'd have to figure out how to get more. People passed around pocket change after battles, but that was growing a bit tedious. She'd made good money selling items she'd found, maybe there was something to be made looking for things? Did people ever hire trainers to do odd jobs or anything? She could try checking the internet. She'd planned to visit the library today anyways. Already had directions from the pokemon center, even.
It wouldn't take much money to go a long way. It wasn't like she was paying rent on her treehouse, after all. A camping stove would let her boil water and make simple things. One pot, one pan, and she'd basically have a whole kitchen, right? It'd be easy to stock up on tea and soups, heck she could even do grilled cheese if she wanted, though she'd have to figure out something for an icebox. Using actual ice would be more trouble than it was worth, maybe Niji would have another idea? Solar powered stuff could be an option, but she wasn't really sure how robust or efficient should could afford. She'd been showering at the Saffron pokemon center, but maybe she could get one of those solar-power showers that could heat the water up so she'd have something in a pinch.
Arezu had to admit it...there was definitely reasons people actually cared about money. She didn't get why people fell over themselves for a whole bunch of it (seriously, how does anyone spend that much money) but yeah, it was useful. And there was only so far she could go one pocket change won from fights and selling weird s**t she'd found lying around.
Her thoughts flashed, briefly, to the redheadded woman she'd met in the Solaceon Ruins. Was there money to be made in going places looking for stuff to sell? Maybe, but Arezu didn't have the first clue where to look. And she was pretty sure anything she could find would have already been searched by countless people already. She'd just keep an eye out the next time she visited ancient ruins.
Putting the thought aside, she began running searches on variations of 'how to make money' that led her to a site specifically for posting jobs for trainers or just anyone with pokemon. There were some basic rules that boiled down to 'don't ask for anything illegal', but other than that it was pretty freeform. There was some kind of account feature that you could use to get reviews and stuff after doing things for people, but there was a lot of anonymous stuff going on too. Thankfully Arezu wasn't too worried about 'stranger danger' for doing any of this, since she'd always have her pokemon with her. And hey, she knew how to punch people and some basic self defense now.
She clicked around, hopping from one ad to the next. Some kid wanted someone to teach their pikachu surf, was that even possible? Another person was raving about wanting to add to his collection of snowy rowlets. What the ******** is a rowlet. She clicked on the link. Oh s**t that was cute. Terrible camoflauge for a normal forest though.
Arezu wasn't sure how she felt about catching pokemon for people. Sure, maybe some of them would treat the pokemon right, but how was she supposed to tell? It already felt a bit weird catching pokemon herself. Maybe she'd just skip those, focus on the ones like... this. Someone wanted help training their - or their kid's- machop. Okay, that sounded right up her alley.
So, quick message to the poster. Arezu mentioned Hikaru and how she'd been training and teaching at the dojo in Saffron. That was pretty good for qualifications, right? The location was some small town east of Veridian that she'd never heard of before. Shouldn't be too hard to find from the air.
It felt weird to be doing... whatever this was. Did people applying for real jobs feel this way? Arezu really hoped she didn't start needing more money than she could easily make, because there was no way she could live a life like most people. Out of curiosity, she did a search for normal jobs that let you travel. There was actually some cool stuff there, especially if she didn't mind being working on 'contract'. There was of course boring stuff like business people flying to different companies around the world... yeah, no thanks.
She spent a bit more time back on the website looking for small things to do, did a quick search to get an idea of how much a solar powered laptop would cost (painfully expensive if it would have in-built wifi too), then logged off.
By this point it was getting pretty late. Arezu didn't really want to sleep in the pokemon center, but it was making an uncomfortable amount fo sense for her to go ahead and test out Kouvu's new saddl instead of taking the slow Tanjoubi trip. She rolled Kouvu's pokeball around in her hands, trying to build up the courage as she waited outside the lapras exhibit for Hakuren and Cecily. "Hey kids," she teased as they walked up, earning an eyeroll from Hakuren, "Have fun?"
Cecily nodded, chittering on about the park they'd gone to, and the "crepes" they got. Hakuren pointedly kept from making eye contact with Arezu, because she certainly had not given him money to spend.
"Glad you guys had fun. Probably would have found the library boring anyways." She made a mental note to start setting aside a little bit of cash for Hakuren. Or maybe she'd point him at some jobs or have him help out to earn the money himself. For now, she explained about Kouvu, and Hakuren made the difficult decision to sit it out i nhis pokeball. Flying on Kouvu's back sounded awesome, but it would seriously mess up his hair and Raphael always said it was important to look well-groomed for the ladies.
Arezu found an open spot in a park, and mentally prepared herself. She didn't think Kouvu would run rampant or hurt anybody, not anymore, but it would just be her and him, without any of her other pokemon out. Deep breath, clench the trembling hands in then relax. It was fine. Kouvu was fine. He was like a big puppy. A big, terrifying, alien puppy.
Arezu let him out.
He still had the saddle on, but by some miracle hadn't twisted into a tantrum trying to get it off. Actually he was just loking around, sniffing the air. "Hey Kouvu." His massive ears twitched, Arezu jumped a bit but stood her ground when he looked at her. When his face came close enough, she gave him the lightest pat she could manage on the snout while her whole body felt simultaneously ready to drop dead and run the ******** away from the sight of his face.
Kouvu seemed to grow bored, and looked away from her. But he stayed close, and his movements were smooth and predictable, instead of jerky. Just from that, Arezu could tell he was relaxed even with her so close, though his sharp eyes and ears scanned the surroundings for threats. "Hey, Kouvu. You remember when we first met? When I dove off the building?" Or had he knocked her off? She didn't remember much before that terrifying fall to the ground, her desperate attempt to save herself.
Kouvu didn't seem to get it, but the girl continued. "I grabbed your neck, for a bit. Like-" she gulped, "Like this. Yeah, not so bad, right?" Was she talking to herself, or him? "That thing you're wearing, the saddle, it's so you can fly with me on your back." She ran her hand down his skin then over the leather while he watched, trying to the concept to him. With a murmur and plee for him to stay still, Arezu placed a foot in the stirrup and hauled herself on.
"Holy s**t Kouvu, Kouvu stop! Stop!" Arezu's panicked voice was drowned out by the noivern's screeches and flapping wings. Then her stomach dropped as he leaped into the air. b]"Nooo nononono." One second they were ten feet off the ground, the next they were a hundred. ********, this was a lot different from when Tanjoubi wrapped her up and safely floated along. She couldn't even strap herself in, all she could do was cling to him with her hands and thighs.
"Verrrrrr!" with a great shriek, Kouvu picked up speed and twisted in the air, trying to dislodge the thing, that was on his back, where he couldn't reach it, able to hurt him again and again and- "Vreeeee!" His ears swiveled, waiting for the first telltale sound of a cattle prod being sparked, or the rough command that would accompany it. But what he heard didn't sound like that. He strained, listening harder over the wind, flight smoothing uncounscously as he listened for the unexpectedly soft sound. "Kouvu. Kouvu. It's okay. Stop. Please. Kouvu."
He stopped. Ar...zoo? He chirped, and he could feel the sound as it wrapped around her, showed her familiar shape on his back, and nothing more. Arzoo! It was Arzoo! What was Arzoo doing up here with him? He chirped again, but the big red balloon was nowhere near. Oh, now he remembered. Arzoo let him out in the park, and then disappeared. But she didn't disappear- she was on his back! Oh, why was she crying?
Arezu heard Kouvu coo and looked up to see his head twisted to look at her. She couldn't see much because hersight was all blurry, and she wasn't going to pry her hands off to clear it. He did stare at her for a few more seconds, but then went back to facing forward, continuing to fly smoothly through the sky. "Okay...okay." Maybe she wasn't going to die today.
And now that she she was only shared shitless instead of cripplingly terrified, she felt the need to laugh. And giggle. And then laugh even harder. Wow that had been a really bad idea. "Oh doh let's just hop on Kouvu's back without any safeties in place I'm sure it'll be fine. And then she laughed harder, and the tears werre pricking her eyes for an entirely different reason, and she didn't sober up until the laughter almost lost her her grip. She finally strapped herself in.
After that, soaring above the air on Kouvu's back wasn't half bad.
SPACE
SPACE
