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Anime had been wandering for a while, and some of her supplies were starting to run low. There was a great many foods and medicines that could be gathered and forages in the wild, but other supplies had to be purchased. So she had head for the nearest city, which happened to be Katarina. But of course she was always on the lookout for useful plants, and not far outside the city she'd come across a grove that had a few things she needed. She was hardly in a hurry, so she stopped to gather some.

Her pokemon were all out of their pokeballs, as usual, and were all doing their own thing. Kwatoko was digging for roots with Shikoba, and evidently teaching the younger Combusken about them, because he kept stopping to point and talk about them, while his daughter listened attentively. Gypsy had stopped to graze on the grasses scattered among the underbrush, which Felix and Leonardo napped in a sunny patch. Haclyon had flown off somewhere, as she tended to do, while Oki prowled the area around his companions, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings.

Naturally it was Oki who spotted the other visitors to the woods. He heard a pokemon running around and trotted over to look, soon coming across a clearing. He peeked out of the bushes, and soon decided the young Deerling bounding around wasn't a threat. But the human with her sat in a contraption he'd never seen before. He recognized there were wheels on it, but what it did was beyond him. Perhaps his trainer would want to know. So he turned and headed back to her. Once he was in sight of Anise, he barked, "Ark, ark," to get her attention.

Anise had been carefully cutting strips of bark off a willow tree when she heard Oki. She paused her work to look over at him. "What's up, Oki? Found something?" she asked.

"Ark," he repeated, then turned, trotted a few steps, and looked over his shoulder at her.

Well, that was a clear enough indication to follow. Anise wiped off the knife and tucked it into a sheath at her belt before following, still holding a few strips of bark in one hand. It appeared whatever Oki had said wasn't urgent, because her other pokemon stayed where they were.

She followed Oki a short distance before he pushed through some bushes and looked back at her. She ducked under a tree limb and stepped up beside him into a clearing, so find a Deerling and a young man in a wheelchair were there. Oki was looking at the young man - or perhaps his chair - with his head cocked quizzically, so perhaps he'd just been curious about the device.

Well, she could explain to him later. Instead she smiled at the young man. "Hello there," she said, and waved with the hand that wasn't holding bark.

"Oh no, not at all," Anise assured him, circling around the clearing so that he wouldn't have to look over his shoulder at her. Oki trotted along at her side.

"Sorry to have startled you. My pokemon was just curious, I think. He hasn't seen a wheelchair before." She reached out to scratch Oki's head, and in response he sat down. He was still watching the unfamiliar person, just in case, but for now it seemed advisable to adopt a somewhat more relaxed, less threatening pose.

Now that she had a clearer view of him, she saw the journal and the drawing on its pages. It looks like he'd been in the process of sketching one of the plants nearby. "That's a nice drawing," she told him. "Are you an artist?"

Anise smiled at the news. "What a coincidence, I happen to be a healer who uses medicinal plants. My pokemon and I just stopped nearby to gather a few." She held up the handful of bark as an example.

By now Oki had noticed that the Deerling was just a baby, likely barely hatched. He had no reason to startle her, so although he pricked his ears up alertly, he sat quite still and allowed her to approach. He only sniffed back once she did the same, his flared nostrils the only movement.

Anise nodded. "There is a lot to learn, it took me a while to learn the local plants when I moved here. Fortunately I've had help. My Zebstrika seems to be a healer in her own right, and she showed me the use of plants that she knew, even if I had to look up the names later." She smiled and shook her head at the memory. Even after drying samples to make later reference easier, it had taken a while to track them down. "Luckily Katarina has a good library," she commented. "If you'd like I can tell you about some of them. Either an explanation of names and uses, or if you want to be quicker I can just give you names so you can look them up later. Looking up plants by names is a lot easier than figuring them out by appearance," she added with a grin.

Oki didn't mind Cerice's antics, but he was not in the mood to play. He was too busy keeping watch. So he just blinked at her and gave her a low woof that meant roughly "not now."

Anise glanced down at her pokemon. "He's too busy being a self-appointed watchdog, but I have other pokemon. My Delcatty would probably be willing to play, I could call him over if you like."