Black Garden | Closed, please go to 2.0 |

Spoiler: Alaunus

Alaunus watches on as the spirit does its thing. He knew that it was trying to comfort him, but it wasnt really doing much. At least the thought of it attempting to make him feel better even if just a bit.

"I appreciate that you're trying to help, but I'm gonna have to ask you to stop. It's not bothering me or anything, but I just want to be left alone with my own thoughts for now." Alaunus mentally spoke to the spirit.

And before he knew it, he'd finally make it to his destination. He agreed with the grovyles comment about the place being in shambles. The walls had big holes in them, and everything was either destroyed, or all over the place. Seeing as how the snivy was occupied with something else at the moment, Alaunus decided to patch the holes in the walls and reorganize the insides of the building.

 

(I swear I already wrote something for this)

Spoiler: Happy

Happy, seemingly understanding Alaunus' request, merrily zipped towards Grenfell, who was sitting on the armrest of a nearby chair cleaning his blades. Looking around, the spirit noticed the Ralts trying to patch things up, and gently shoved his companion, who showed no signs of recognition. Trying again and again, the efforts of the blue spirit were rewarded as the Grovyle grunted and turned to him. The spirit motioned to Alaunus, making the grass-type sigh and move to help the psychic.

 

Spoiler: Alaunus

'Aaaand done.' Alaunus thought to himself, finishing pitching up the larger holes around the building. There were still a few smaller ones lingering about, but he decided to leave those be. At least they were no longer at risk of getting soaked if it began raining. Alaunus wanted to rest, he was once again both physically and mentally exhausted. He was about to go towards the snivy to ask them about guest rooms, until he noticed Grenfell walking up to him. He was immediately reminded about those words he heard in his head, the one about knowing what it was like to lose a loved one. That thought brought a sharp pang to his mind, but Alaunus didn't show it, preferring to stay quiet about it for now.

"Oh, were you about to offer your assistance? Thanks, but I already fixed most of the holes." Alaunus spoke, not looking up at his eyes. "I'm thinking about heading off to bed, today was very exhausting. I'm gonna go see if Maokaw has any guest rooms in this hut."

Quickly excusing himself, he immediately left the grovyle to make his way towards the snivy.

 

Spoiler: Grenfell

"See Happy? The Ralts is fine, he doesn't need my help~" Grenfell declared, smirking as he watched the psychic approach the owner of the residence they had found themselves in. Not that anyone needs my help anyway, heh... he thought mirthfully, before noticing the Snivy's mended cloak and gauntlets. "Heh, he has a good taste~ Wait, aren't Snivy hands very small? Geez, this kid's stronger than he looks," the Grovyle thought aloud. Turning to the entrance of the hut, the grass-type decided to head out for a while.

 

Hey, sorry for taking a while. My job has got me working night shifts for 4 consecutive nights.

Spoiler: Alaunus

"Hey, Maokaw, I just finished patching up the holes around the house, so you don't need to worry about to weather for now." Alaunus spoke, walking up to the snivy with an exhausted look in his eyes. "Say, do you have any guest rooms in this place, or am I gonna have to sleep on the couch? Personally I don't have an issue with that, but I'd like to know before I start sleeping on random furniture."

 

Spoiler: Grenfell

"Heh, this place looks good enough," Grenfell replied, standing in the centre of a vast clearing, no stray Pokémon nor creatures of unknowingness to interrupt. There were, however, several dead plants, thick vines and tree stumps, with a few living vegetation here and there. With all of those beasts poppin' up everywhere, I have to hone my skills and instincts again; haven't done so in a long time, the Grovyle thought, remembering how easily he was overwhelmed by many of the beings, fights which should've been ephemeral if he had been more prepared. Closing his eyes, the grass-type ran forward, jumping over a treestump before crashing into a particularly large tree. Shaking it off, Grenfell continued to run across the clearing blinded, relying on instinct and millisecond reactions to manoeuvre his way through the makeshift obstacle course.

 

Spoiler: Alaunus

Not giving a proper response, Alaunus just sighs as he leaves the room to search for the grovile to deliver the message. Looking around the living room, he immediately noticed that Grenfell was nowhere around. Noticing how the door was slightly open, Alaunus assumed that the grovyle went out. Making his way outside, he looks around to see if he was nearby, or just somewhere out of sight. Once outside, he continued to look around, until he found the grovyle , far in the distance doing... something. Alaunus wasn't really sure what Grenfell was doing, but he began making his way towards the grovyle nonetheless. He watched as the grovyle seemingly ran tripped over an obviously placed stump, before getting back up, and continued running, and dodging trees, branches and other shrubs. Once Alaunus was close enough, he'd finally notice that Grenfells eyes were closed, which explained how he tripped to begin with.

It didn't take Alaunus long to put two and two together, and realized that the grovyle was doing his own little training session. He didn't want to interrupt him, but he did have to relay the snakes message, so he decided to tell his once Grenfell ran into an obstacle. Little did he know, that it would take him a while, as the grovile continued to nimbly dodge and maneuver around most obstacles in his way, Alaunus was starting to get bored of waiting. That's when he came up with an idea, even if it was a little mischievous. Using his psyonics, he decided to mess around with the environment a bit. He started with watching the path that the grovyle was taking, and quietly maneuver some branches for him to collide with them. To his surprise, the grovile had avoided the branch in the last second, before continuing to run. Wanting to test Grenfell further, he decided to up the ante, and place a big rock in his path, between two trees. This seemed to have done the trick, and he watched as the grovile avoided the trees, but tripped over the rock, falling into the ground with a small thud. Upon hearing the thud, a smile finally crept up to his face as alaunus began laughing; not as his companions fall, but rather the enjoyment of messing around with someone he'd consider a friend.

 

Spoiler: Grenfell

Grunting as he dusted himself off, Grenfell opened his eyes to see a laughing Alaunus in front of him. Pieceing two and two together, a tick mark appeared on his head as an evil smirk appeared on his face. Swiftly, the Grovyle moved behind the psychic who was quite distracted in his hysterics and bonked the Ralts hard but not enough to cause injury. Grinning at Alaunus' cry of pain the grass-type snickered at the little act of payback. "Not too bad, just make sure to run away quickly so you won't get caught," Grenfell remarked, remembering all the trouble he caused when he was a Treecko and how he was easily captured if he didn't immediately hide or skedaddle. That was a long time ago, he thought with a grimace, expression darkening before quickly fading away, remembering the psychic in front of him. "So what brings you 'ere in the middle of nowhere?"

 

Spoiler: Alaunus

With a smile still on his face, Alaunus began rubbing the spot in which Grenfell had bonked. "Well, I wanted to sleep, but it seems like Maokaw wants me to stay up till he makes dinner. He also wanted me to tell you that he wants to spar with you first thing in the morning." Alaunus spoke, as his smile began to fade away once more. "He also said something about 'Ambushing their troops', so we're most likely going into another fight tomorrow morning."

"With all that aside, you gonna continue training? If you want, I can spice up your training a bit more, by moving things around. Why dodge static objects when the whole field can continue changing. It'll definitely keep you on your toes."

 

Spoiler: Grenfell

"Yeah, that would be fun~" Grenfell agreed, smirking at the idea. "It can be trainin' for you too; liftin' and manipulatin' many different things," the Grovyle remarked as he once again closed his eyes. "So, 'ya ready~?" he asked, grinning at the Ralts.

 

Spoiler: Alaunus

"About as ready as I'm gonna be." Alaunus spoke. Not wasting another second, Grenfell began running once more, and with a smile on their faces, their game of cat and mouse has begun...

Alaunus had no idea how long they've been at it, but it has definitely been less than an hour. And during that time, both of them have improved. Grendfell's movements became more nimble, and was avoiding more and more of Alaunus advances. That would in turn, encourage Alaunus to try different methods of manipulating the environment in order to catch the grovile off guard. And once Grenfell had adapted to that, Alaunus attempted to manipulate multiple objects at once. It was uncomfortable at first, and caused a lot of headaches, but after a while, he was able to control two objects at once with only a slight discomfort. Soon enough, Alaunus decided to finally end their little training session.

"Hey Grenfell, I think I'm done for the night." Alaunus shouted, wiping some sweat from his forehead. "Imma head inside and see if Maokaw finished making dinner, you should come along. Sure, training is good and all, but a healthy amount of sleep is much more important. Up to you though."

 

Spoiler: Grenfell

"I agree," Grenfell nodded, gazing at the starry sky. "Let's just wait for Happy to come back, oh wait, there he is," he remarked, watching the spirit flitter towards the two Pokémon, somehow carrying a basket full of berries. Zipping happily, the spirit approached the two, and gesturing towards the basket.
"I'm not sure if I should ask how you carried this without hands, let alone a physical body," the Grovyle muttered as he picked a Leppa Berry, munching on it.

 

Spoiler: Alaunus

Alaunus was not even question the logic of how the ghost, who he just figured out his name was happy, was carrying a basket of berries. Not wanting the little spirits efforts go to waste, he walked up to the basket, grabbed an Oran Berry, and began eating it. Once he consumed the berry, both the ralts and the grovyle began making their way back into the hut. Once inside, Alaunus looked around the hut to see if he could find the snake, but instead found a note next to bowls of spaghetti. Assuming it's from Maokaw, he began reading it.

"Tsk... As if I can even start a fire to begin with." Alaunus said to himself, finishing to read the note. "Hey, Grenfell, seems like Maokaw made spaghetti for us. He also said something about about a bunk bed, take a look." He then spoke to the grovyle, handing him the note.

 

lol Maokaw wrote a youtube url

Spoiler: Grenfell

"Aye, seems like you're a great cook," Grenfell jibed, reading through the Snivy's note. "I'll let you decide where you want to sleep; I'm used to either way," he remarked as he glanced at the bowls of pasta and the basket of berries. "Well then, we can't let both food go to waste," the Grovyle declared as he grabbed a handful of berries and mixed them into both bowls, before tasting his bowl. "Hm, sweet, spicy, and tart, I like it," he said, slurping the noodles down.