A New Place

Skully eyes glowed with excitment as the wagon pulled into the small province. Living in the Wold all her whole life, this place was like a giant city. She tried to take in all the sites, smells, and sounds at once... But only succeeded in receiving a short lived head ache.
Lusen was also looking around in wonder, though Skully geussed he might have been a bit nervous. Skully quite suddenly felt the need to explore. The nice humans that let us have this ride will stop soon enough, then me and Lusen can go exploring! Though Skully was suddenly back to her positive additude about humans, her inner Flame Wheel was still charging. She had told Lusen if any thign went wrong, Flame Wheel would be ready. Boy, would it be ready. Skully was having trouble just keeping from letting flames sputter from her mouth. She took a gulp, and then a breathe of fresh air. It cooled her down a bit, though she kept the flame burning. Ever sence first interacting with the humans, she had a nervous nagging feeling. As long as she had that feeling, she would keep the fire burning.

Skully turned to Lusen, in a cage next to her. "We'll get off soon okay? Then we can start exploring." Her loyal friend gave a curt nod, he didn't have the same comfort Skully did around these Humans.

As the wagon pulled into town, it stopped near a small tavern. The two men pulling the wagon began picking the cages up to apparently take care of the business they had captured the dogs for. The smaller of the two set down his cage to go back to the wagon, "Go on, end of the road. Last stop, guys just get where you're heading we don't need anything from ye." the man waved his hand at the passengers, gesturing for them to leave before returning to his merchandise and heading into the establishment.

Skully nodded her thanks to the man and signaled for Lusen to follow her. She jumped out of the wagon and dashed down the street, Lusen on her tail. After the wagon had disapeared from her site, she took in her surroundings again. There were lots of humans walking around, and no battles? Skully was suprised the humans weren't battling. There was all ways at least one battle going on in the Wold... The thought of battle made the fire in Skullys belly harder to contain. I should have trusted those humans and doused it long ago... Its to powerful to turn off now, ah well... It might come in handy. Skully twitched her tail in a motion for Lusen to follow her, she then ran down the side of the street to see what she could find next.

(Tog, you can take over Lusen if you want. I want to find out a bit more about his personality.)

At a glance, things in town outside the tavern were fairly quiet. A few farmers were working in their fields and the marketplace of the town was occupied mostly by women and children perusing the wares of merchants both local and traveling. Past the village square was the castle which had a large iron gate at the front of it standing wide open. On either side of the gate stand two guards, one human and one Luxio.

So far nobody has noticed you, however, something caught Lusen's eye in a small passage between two buildings. "I think I saw something over there, do you want to check it out?"

Skully glanced over, she her self couldn't see anything. But hey, a Treecko's eyes where sharp. Skully trusted Lusen as well, and it had been his idea to come here... "Okay, lets go check it out!" She said and dashed to the gap between the buildings, sure that Lusen would follow.

Apparently, what had caught Lusen's attention was the shiny charm on the forehead of a meowth, which had fled into the alleyway. The meowth hadn't anticipated that the pathway led to a dead end and was looking back and forth in a panicked state. It was carrying a satchel of coin on its back, which it set down in a corner and attempted to cover with some dust from the street; it was at that time that Lusen spoke up, "what are you running from?"

The cat pokemon turned around quickly, eyes wide, "Gah! It wasn't me! Um, um, it was here when I got here! Don't turn me in, I'm too young for... I don't even want to know what I'm too young for!"

The meowth is hysterical, whatever is in that bag is apparently something very dangerous to it if it can be traced back to the cat pokemon.

Skully blinked in confusion. She could immediatly tell that the Meowth had taken something, just by looking at the bag. "Hey, calm down." she said smoothly, not really scared of the Meowth. "We don't know where to even turn cats in." she said, not understanding the phrase at all. "What's in that bag? Did you steal something?" she asked. When pokemon stole in the Wold, they usually settled it with a battle. She wanted to know what they did here, and what was in that bag.

The hastily hidden bag fell onto its side, revealing that it was laden with gold coins. "I tell you, I had no idea that someone wanted them! I saw it on the ground, and they were so shiny! I couldn't resist! I thought I was so lucky and then I heard the guards asking people about some lost money... if they find out that I have it they might hurt me!" The meowth quickly propped the bag back up again and put some more dust on it in a futile attempt to hide it.

Skully shook her head. "How unjust, if it was just lying around and there trying to hurt you?" she muttered, not understanding the whole situation. "Hey, maybe we can help you out, where will you be safe from these people? We might be able to protect you from these guards trying to hurt you while you find a place to hide!" Skully wasn't sure the Meowth would want help from a Rattata, but she wanted to be helpful. How unfare it seemed to her, that some one wanted to hurt this poor guy from picking an item up of the ground... Sad sad...

Meowth suddenly had a stroke of inspiration, "AH! I know what to do now! Can you help me with it? They said they were looking for 100 gold pieces, so if I don't -have- 100 then I didn't take what they're looking for! If we scatter the gold then it'll be all better!!" The logic behind this stroke of genius was questionable at best, but the people couldn't possibly find fault in a small animal for dropping money on the ground.

Skully blinked. Even that seemed stupid to her... "Well, I geuss? If thats what you want..." Skully said, her tone confused. "Or, ya know... You could put them ALL back where you found them if your gunna scatter them around any way." she suggested, hoping he would have a bit more sense.

Meowth blinked a few times... this stranger's idea was worlds better than his own now that he stopped to think about it. "Putting it back... somehow I didn't think that sort of thing would work. You've helped me out a lot, do you want some of these coins? I see people give them to the merchants in the square for all kinds of things, maybe you can use some of them? I don't think anyone really counts these things, there's too many of them anyways."

Meowth picked up the bag in his mouth and walked up to you, offering you and your partner a small handfull of gold on his way to put it back where he found it.

Skully took a handful of gold coins, as well did Lusen. She nodded a thanks to the strange scatter brained Meowth as he walked away. Skully kept her mouth close for fear of letting fire out, she had managed to hold it in for a while but it was blazing again. And no one wants to battle here either... What a strange place? Ah well, Ill live with it a bit longer... She waved good-bye to the Meowth, then turned to Lusen. She took a gulp, and a breathe of fresh air as she did earlier. "Wow Lusen, what do you think we should do with these gold things? He said you can trade them for stuff, I saw some female humans buying stuff in that place earlier... Maybe we can go there later, right now I want to explore a bit more." she put the coins in her inventory(?), and ran out of the alley hoping to find somthing else to do.

(Between you and lithen, you have gained 20 gold pieces)
Looking out at the town square again, you can see the meowth drop the bag of coins fairly close to where the guards were posted and running off. The human guard picked up the bag and shook his head, muttering something about silly beasts being curious as he went to return the bag to the merchant who had reported it missing. "Phew, I'm glad things turned out well for that guy, he seemed a little out of it..." Lusen was a bit surprised that the issue was resolved so calmly considering how frantic the meowth was over the whole incident.

Meanwhile, one of the merchant stalls had a blanket spread out in front of it where an odd-looking aipom was gesturing for you and your friend to come closer. By what was on the blanket, one could assume he was a merchant and as he waited for you to come by, he finished striking a deal with a young boy to exchange one coin for a berry.

Skully glanced over, there didn't seem to be any other pokemon merchants around... "Lets go talk to that Aipom... Hes trading stuff for these coins." Skully said, holding her breathe while she talked. She didn't want to just Flame Wheel all over the humans nice city, so she took a few deep breathes and a heafty gulp before running over to the Aipom. She flicked her tail for Lusen to follow.
"Hello, your trading things for these coins right?" Skully asked, still not completely understanding the whole merchenting buissness. "What do you have that could be useful to us?" she asked.

The Aipom nodded as if he were about to give sage advice, "well, it seems you're fairly new to the world of adventure and business, or else you would recognize me from miles away. I am the legendary traveling merchant... Saziromov Agrosticus Oltesian Pom, but you may call me Sazi for short. I exchange human currency or valuable treasures for nuts, berries, human currency and valuable treasures! I see you kids as being the adventurous type, so you may be in the market for my -premium- merchandise... at a discount no less!"

The aipom gestures with his tail-hand at the blanket which was spread in the village square. It is piled with odd-looking trinkets as well as several berries. There are varied accessories as well as a jar which seems to have a whirling blue cloud in it. Lusen was standing next to you with his handful of coins, "Do you think we should buy some berries? I don't really know what any of these other things do, can we even use them?"

Skully took a deep breathe, she wasn't sure herself how to awnser Lusens questions. She couldn't identify many of the berrys, or any of the items laying on Sazi's blanket. "I'm not sure..." she told Lusen quickly. She looked back at Sazi. "What could be useful for some one whos traveling alot? Or to some one who was in a battle?" Skully asked. After all, she planned on traveling for a while... Which ment lots of battle too. So her question was very reasonable.

Sazi stroked his mustache (part of what made him look odd for an aipom) as he pondered your request, "well, everyone knows how to use a berry, but let me take a look at what I have." The aipom rooted through the pile of goods he had on display, "I have this 'trans-species synonymizer' from redsill... it's supposed to make it easier to understand other languages, it's not perfect though... there's the soul in a jar, a fine quality container for liquids, but it has a spirit in it right now, makes conversation at least. Hmm, here's a fighting tool, seems like you put it on your feet and it has retractable claws, like a cat. So, which would you want? I'll throw in a couple berries, to be nice."

Flawed Translator- 10g

"Soul in a jar"- 25g

"Kitty Glove"- 15g

Oran Berries- 1g each

Sitrus Berries- 3g each

Skully decided if he was all ready going to throw in some berrys, it might not be worth getting any more. She would see... She glanced at the other items, she knew they only had 20 gold peices... So it was between Flawed Translator, and Kitty Glove... If the Translator was defective, Skully didn't know what use it would have. The Kitty Glove would help Skully her self out alot. She knew Lusen would eventually learn lots of speacial moves, while the only thing speacial she would ever get would be her Flame Wheel and a few more moves she could learn on her journey... This Kitty Glove could help her close range attacks like Quick Attack and Tackle... It would be handy... But Skully wasn't sure. Lusen might be unhappy about her choice... "Well, I geuss we can take the Kitty Glove." Skully said. She didn't want to buy any thing else, these coins could be useful later.

Sazi tipped his hat (the other odd feature to him) as he relinquished the glove and 4 oran berries in exchange for 15 gold pieces. "Alway's a pleasure doing business, kids. I think I've made my quota for this visit to town, so I'd best hit the old trail!" With that, Sazi pulled his blanket up and tied a knot on it to keep his wares all in one place as he held the sack with his tail-hand; he tipped his hat once more and scurried off.
Lusen looked at the spoils of the transaction and seemed satisfied, "We still have some coins left and we managed to get both berries AND a treasure. At the very least these berries will be helpful in our travels!" He smiled as he held the berries, they reminded him a little bit of how he had met you, and set his mind at ease, knowing that the two of you had just traded something more or less useless for things that would be helpful.

Skully took the Kitty Glove and 4 Oran Berrys happily. She nodded her thanks and waved good bye as Sazi ran off. Skully put the 4 Oran Berrys and five Gold Coins into her invintory, but she slipped the Kittys Glove onto her right front paw. "Wow! This is pretty cool!" Skully squeeked, sheathing and unsheathing the claws. Skully took another deep breath, and a quick gulp. This Flame Wheel was getting annoying... "Come on Lusen, lets keep going." she chirped in a happy tone. She dashed down the street, looking for some thing else to do in this strange human city.

As you run down the street, there seems to be a commotion in the tavern that the men dropped you off at. The door to the tavern bursts open as the men from before are thrown into the street by a group of soldiers, there appear to be two lightly armored men apprehending the poachers and a single knight giving them orders. It is difficult to determine the cause of this confrontation.

"Hey! Those are the humans that helped us out!" Skully said aloud, her voice a bit angry. "Why would they do that to them? There so nice... Maybe humans do have battles?" Skully wondered aloud. "Come on Lusen, lets see whats going on..." Skully said, rushing tourds them. She stoped in front of the poachers that had given them a ride. "Hey! Whats going on?" she asked, still unaware humans couldn't understand pokemon,

The knight looked at the pokemon which had come onto the scene, squeaking in an exclamatory fashion along with a treecko. A look into their eyes said they seemed to know the arrested men in some way.

"Odd, weren't there only poochyena with the cart? Apparently the poachers had pokemon of their own! If they're loyal to this scum, it'd practically be a service to kill them!" The knight approaches you and Lusen, drawing his sword.

Lusen looks noticeably scared by the knight and his henchmen, but stays with you. "Skully, this looks really bad. We should help them, but I'm scared. . ." the treecko shakes his head, "No, those men were very nice to us, we have to make it up to them! Let's fight."

(This Kitty Glove better be Fire-proof, cause I really like it and don't want it to burst into flames Skullys first battle with it!)

Skully unsheathed the claws of the Kitty Glove. "Your right Lusen!" She couldn't hold it in any longer now that they were surrounded in the heat of battle, Skully finaly let lose the fire that had she had been charging, it came out of her mouth so hot it was flaring blue around the center of Skully. She began spinning inside her tiny air-hole and shot forward at the gaurd. Maybe I should let my Flame Wheel charge up more often... She made a mental note to do that in preditory areas... She bounced off the ground and shot her self in the direction of the armored knight! (Tourds his stomach area, going pretty fast.)