A Chance To Relax [aria]

[Birdybot]

Luna was sat on a park bench on the banks of the river Ani. It was warmer here than it had been in the forested route two, and this far south was one of the warmest bits of Enera. Despite it being late autumn, it was still warm enough to go around without a coat, and the sun was shining cheerfully in the sky. Lazarus, her dæmon, loved it, his Espeon form stretched out beside her basking in the warm rays. A small young Vulpix - so young he still only had five tails - was pouncing on flowers nearby. She watched him with a smile. "Prometheus, you nearly fell in the river then!" she called out to him as he came dangerously close to overbalancing and plunging into the gently flowing water. He had been completely oblivious to that fact. The fire type looked up at her, then took a glance to his left, darting to the right when he realised how close he was to the river.

"Oopsie! Heh... I suppose I should be more observant," the Vulpix said sheepishly. Luna looked to Lazarus to translate, but he was too content dozing to bother. It couldn't have been anything important, then.

The trainer had recently arrived in Aniford, healed her Pokémon at the Pokémon Centre, and after a night's rest took a walk around the town. She planned to stay there for a while, seeing the sights and exploring. After all, she was in no hurry to carry on with her journey. That was the whole point of it; to see things, not to race through. She was content to take it at a leisurely pace. Lazarus wanted to get on with more exciting stuff, and pushed her to work harder at learning new things, but she wanted a rest after the walk from the lab. After all, she wasn't used to long treks like that. It had tired her out. Longer, tougher ones were ahead, she knew, but she would build herself up to those. The chance to enjoy what civilisation had to offer was not one she'd turn down. Sleeping in a proper bed was a wonderful feeling after the camping she'd been doing. Food was cooked over more than a campfire. Her legs didn't ache with all the work. The Pokémon were enjoying a break from all the battling, too. She couldn't let all four of her team out their Pokéball at once as she had been able to on the routes, but they liked seeing a little of the city, and none of them disliked being in the Pokéballs.

There were people to meet here, too. It was good to have the company of other human beings rather than just her Pokémon! She hoped that some day she might learn to understand their speech, but until then it was a slight annoyance to require Lazarus as a translator. A fairly sociable person, she enjoyed the company of others, so happily struck up conversations with any trainers she saw around. Presently she couldn't see any around her, but she'd exchanged stories with some interesting people at the trainer's hostel where she was staying. There was a big mix. A lot were like her, passing through on their way to further routes and preparing for their first gym battle, but a few more experienced trainers were here for the Safari. Those she tried to learn as much as possible from.