Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a beautiful day to be out on the Pilkiras Plains. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, the air was warm, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the air from being too stifling. It sure was a good day to just laze about under a tree and enjoy the scenery.

But since Shaun Rowland had a walking tree-dino for a pokemon, he could laze about on a tree and still manage to travel somewhere, all with no effort whatsoever on his part. He lay on his pokemon's back, hands folded beneath his head and face shaded by his pokemon's leaves as he looked up at the nearly cloudless sky. He should be keeping an eye out for pokemon to photograph, which was theoretically his profession, but he trusted his Tropius, Salvo, so alert him of anything interesting.

With no direction whatsoever from hie trainer, Salvo plodded through the landscape in whatever direction struck his fancy. He was keeping a lookout for pokemon, sure. But he was also always looking for any fruit he might come across.

Salvo's slow, deliberate pace pasued slightly as he caught the scent of fruit, then increased abruptly as he turned to head for such fruit. Was that apples he smelled? That tree over there looked like it might have some.

Shaun paid little mind when his pokemon suddenly sped up. That almost always meant the big herbivore had found some fruit, his favorite food. Nothing else could make the pokemon pick up the pace so quickly. Unless they were being chased, he supposed. He shifted his gaze to glance at the furrow Slavo had plowed in the grass to show where they'd just been. Nope, not even a Ratatta chasing after them. So it was food. He yawned and settled back down to stare at the sky some more.

Salvo was so focused on the fruit tree that he didn't notice the Buneary nearby until he had almost reached it. He stopped then, hoping his sudden appearance didn't scare her off. His trainer would be disappointed at that. <"Hello there. Nice day, isn't it?"> He said to the Buneary. Then he curled his head around to nudge the trainer on his back. <"Hey, there's a pokemon.>" He didn't bother to elaborate, knowing perfectly well his trainer only heard "Tro, Tropius."

Shaun lifted his head to look around, and spotted the Buneary a short distance away. Ah, perfect. Just the thing to make a good day better. Being careful to keep as much of himself as possible behind Salvo's leaves, he slowly sat up and opened his backpack, which he'd laid on his chest as he drowsed. Sudden moves might scare a wild pokemon off, and he didn't want that. Moving just as slowly and steadily, he pulled out his camera, shrugged the strap of the backpack over one shoulder, and lifted the camera up to his eye.

Meanwhile, Salvo had turned back to the Buneary. <"Don't mind him, he's not going to hurt you. He just likes taking pictures of pokemon.">

Salvo tilted his head a little, surprised at the Buneary's fancy speech. But he decided to roll with it if it would keep her happy, since her happy would make his trainer happy. Besides, she was offering his fruit.

<"Thank you, I would love to. Fruit happens to be my favorite food. I'm Salvo, and the human's Shaun. He'll probably decline on the meal, because he'll be too busy with his camera."> He stepped forward and reached down his head to carefully lift one fruit off the pile. Being neat would probably sit well with the little lady. He tilted his head back to roll the fruit into his mouth, where he chewed the whole fruit.

Shaun snapped a picture with his camera, which made a faint click every time he did so. Then he leaned around Salvo's leaves to photograph the bunny from a different angle. She seemed quite calm, which was good. He might be able to get some good shots of her.

Salvo swallowed his apple before answering. Sometimes people found it rude to talk with your mouth full, after all. <"You're right, we're not from around here. We're not from Zatao at all, actually. We're from a different region entirely, called Hoenn. I was captured by a nice man who studied pokemon and wanted to learn about my coloration, which as you can see is a bit different from the usual. Later he gave me to Shaun, who had been helping him out. Shaun wanted to come here to learn about the pokemon here and photograph them, so we did."> With his answer done, he picked up another apple to eat. He didn't want to interrupt himself, but he also didn't want to pass up a chance for fruit.

Shaun saw that the Buneary had some rather attractive swirl markings on her side, which was hard to get a good shot of when she was facing the pokemon he was sitting on. She seemed calm enough that he decided to chance moving around for a better angle. He slipped off his pokemon's back, staying on the side opposite from the Buneary. He watched her carefully to make sure this didn't startle her.

Salvo chuckled. <"The last time I saw a female of my kind, I think I was too young to appreciate them as female."> He paused, realizing how lonely that sounded, and added. <"Not that that was such a long time ago, really, and I've seen many other pokemon since then.">

<"And as for Shaun, he's a human. There's lots of humans, especially in certain places. If you travel long enough in that direction,"> and he gestured with his head in the general direction of Katarina City, <"you'll find a place where a lot of them are living, in large structures they've built, called buildings. They often live in communities like that.">

Shaun noted that the Buneary hadn't seemed to notice him moving. That was just as well. He stepped carefully, trying not to make any loud noises, as he slowly circled around the back of Salvo. He checked that the Buneary was't paying attention to him, then he crouched down low and continued circling around, giving the wild pokemon a wide berth while still moving him into a position to get a better shot at her markings. His camera could zoom in to make up for the distance. He began snapping shots as soon as he could get good ones.

Salvo almost laughed at the thought that Shaun would attack anyone, but it didn't seem like a response that would reassure Virgilia. Instead he said, <"Please don't worry about Shaun. He would never attack any pokemon, or ask me to. If someone attacked us, he might ask me to defend, but he'd never start a fight. He'd much rather watch pokemon doing whatever they usually do, and take pictures of that."> He cocked his head a moment, thinking about what she'd said about a small human who'd had a pokemon fight her.

<"As for the small human you encountered before, it was probably a young one, a child. Some humans like to direct pokemon in contests of strength, mainly pokemon battles. The human you met before probably wanted to have its pokemon practice battling. They do that sometimes, against wild pokemon or pokemon owned by other humans. The pokemon generally enjoy it, and there are other humans in charge of making sure the pokemon are treated well."> Talking about laws and rules and the Pokemon League might not mean much to a wild pokemon. It hadn't made much sense to him when he first heard.

Shaun had found a good position, far enough that the Buneary ought not to feel unduly threatened while being close enough for him to be able to focus clearly on the pokemon. He crouched down on his heels with his camera raised and ready, content to wait for any interesting shots. He'd already gotten a clear picture of the markings, and didn't care to try and circle around to see if they were symmetrical. Instead he waited patiently for any changes in pose or activity, staying as still as possible so as not to attract attention to himself.

<"Sure, I'd love to have them. Thanks,"> Slavo answered, reaching for another one. After he ate it, he added, <"That's another good thing about having a human companion. If you find more food than you can eat, they can hold on to some, in case you can't find enough later.">

As he reached for another apple, he thought aloud, <"I wonder if I should save some for Shaun. He likes apples, too."> While he chewed, he looked around to see where his trainer had gone. The photographer was crouched in a grass a few yards, pretty much motionless except for the hand that operated the camera.