Neve always loved afternoons in Sootopolis. This particular afternoon was clear, warm and the water was just right. The sun was glowing brightly in the middle the rim of the volcano so there were no shadows cast over the city. Neve had finished her errands before midday so she had the whole afternoon to dive.

Like many people in Sootopolis, Neve loved to dive. The waters around the city were clear and mostly calm, and varied in depth from deep underwater trenches to the shore inside the city safe enough for toddlers to learn to paddle. It was common for people to base their lives around the water, and so many made their incomes from the sea. Neve was one of them, and she spent much of her time diving for treasures, artefacts and shards to sell and trade around the area. The sea was so vast and full of life and wonder, there was never a shortage of living to be made for anyone that worked hard.

She grabbed her canvas bag and jogged down the steps from her little house, towards the inlet sloshing in from the underwater entrance to the city. She unclipped the three pokeballs from her belt and they expanded in her hand to full size shortly before she threw them into the water before her. Splashing into the water were a Vaporeon, a Tentacruel and a Dewgong.

She was 22 years old and had lived in Sootopolis for all her life. Her parents had always loved the water and had encouraged her to swim since she could walk, and for her tenth birthday present had given her first pokemon to her as a present; an Eevee. The two were inseparable and as Neve grew so did her pokemon and she let it choose its evolution itself. Fittingly, it chose a water stone, and her Vaporeon always swam with her whenever she dived for treasures. It was called Marina and was her constant companion.

When she was fourteen she caught a Tentacool just outside the city whilst she was swimming with Marina and her friend Tristy. Tristy had bet that Neve couldn't catch the pokemon with a single pokeball and she had thrown it just to see what would happen. Luckily, the Tentacool was caught, Neve named him Tider and they quickly became fast friends. He evolved two years later after saving Neve from an overly-territorial Kingler.

Her Dewgong was named Snow and was the latest addition to her pokemon team. The Seel he evolved from met her when she was exploring Shoal Cave at high tide, looking for treasures to make into jewellery for Tristy's market stall. The Seel had led them to a cluster of pretty seashells and was eager to follow her home, so Neve had thrown a pokeball and Seel was hers to keep. He was named after the snow that sparkled on the lip of the volcano on crisp winter mornings, and he had evolved only last month. He was playing in the waves, and as he breached his soft fur glowed an even brighter white than Neve had ever seen, and his cute, chubby form elongated into something new, graceful and sleek. Droplets of water encapsulated him as he evolved and shone like hundreds of tiny diamonds. It was the most beautiful thing Neve had ever seen and as he broke the water again as a Dewgong, Neve rushed up straight away and hugged him. He seemed to be able to swim faster now and enjoyed spinning and twisting in the waves even more than before.

Neve ran the last few paces and paused at the waters edge, kicking off her trainers and socks and lifting her t-shirt over her head. She always wore a bikini top under her t-shirt, as she often went for swims during the day and didn't want to have to change. Her black wavy hair brushed her shoulders as she dived straight into the sea with her beloved Pokemon, and made for the exit to the city. The sea was so clear that visibility was never a problem, and she sped towards the exit as Snow spun around her. She dipped through the doorway and up, rising towards the surface.

Bursting through the surface and flicking her hair back, she surveyed her landscape. There was not a cloud in sight and she could hear the soft cries of Wingull flocking overhead. Apart from Sootopolis there was not an inch of mainland in sight, although there were a couple of rocky mounds a little further out she could see on the horizon. Trainers often went to those rocks to train in seclusion, as there was enough sand in the centre to camp for a few days and the rocks kept most of the tide off. She liked challenging the trainers as she swam past sometimes, as she knew they liked to be kept on their toes. To her left she could see a few sprays of water blow into the air and the occasional dorsal fin, and she knew that Wailmer, or perhaps the rarer Wailord, were about. She set off in that direction, holding Tider and letting him take her through the water at speed towards the whale pokemon. Marina and Snow played together in the waves, twisting over each other and mewing cries of delight at the speed they could reach.

As they came in sight of the pokemon she saw that it was a pod of Wailmer, and as it was spring the mothers were travelling with their new calves. The calves were enjoying their roundness as they grew larger, and sped towards the surface to bounce on the waves. Neve let go of Tider and swam a little way up to them, stopping to allow the Wailmer to approach them, giving them permission to play with their calves. They dived and swam with the huge pokemon, drifting sideways off their wake. The calves were inquisitive and circled them as they swam, curiously watching Neve's limbs and how they helped her swim, and tried to catch Snow and Marina as they sped and turned around them, like the sleekest underwater ferrets. But most of all the babies couldn't stop staring and investigating Tider's long tentacles. The anxious mothers kept an eye on them whilst they swam up to him, but they needn't worry, for Tider knew not to sting the Wailmer, and allowed the calves to play with him without any danger of a Tentacruel's lethal poison.

When the Wailmer eventually moved on, Neve took a deep breath and dived down to the bottom with her pokemon, holding onto Marina to help speed her along. The bottom of the sea here was thriving with coral forests and any sandy space was littered with brilliantly coloured pebbles. Shoals of Magikarp and Goldeen swam by, making the already shimmering light from the surface waver even more. Marina kept close to Neve, her large round eyes scanning the ocean floor for anything that might glint. Snow kept his nose in the sand, his long fins swishing this way and that as his nose flicked pebbles all about, only pausing in surprise as he scared a Relicanth from his hiding place in the sand.

"Poooreeeeeeeon!"

Marina's paws scrabbled between pebbles, and as Neve got closer she could see a tiny glint of red in the white sand. She dug with her fingers and pulled a red shard from the seafloor, stuffing it into the canvas bag at her side. She swam towards the surface for breath, and dived down to her friends once more.

After half an hour at this, they had uncovered quite a haul. Marina had found another red shard and two big pearls, whilst Snow had sniffed out some Stardust and a blue shard. The catch of the day, however, had to be when Tider had approached her and with a satisfied and rumbling "Tentaaa", had presented her with a stone dagger which looked as though it was made of black onyx held out in a furled tentacle. She knew a stone collector in Mossdeep who would be sure to pay a good amount for this, and she rode Tider to the surface and back to Sootopolis with a smile on her face and the wind in her hair.

Back in her house she emptied her bag onto her small wooden kitchen table and laid everything out. She had picked out a couple of pretty seashells to sell to Tristy, who had asked her specifically to look for small blue shells on her next dive. She washed everything in the sink to clean off the sand and saltwater and laid everything out to dry on her windowsill. She wrote a note to call her stone collector later in the afternoon and stuck it to her fridge underneath a magnet shaped like a Staryu. She made lunch for herself and her pokemon and headed over to Tristy's house with her newest treasure.

Tristy ran a stall in the square by the pokemon centre which was just down from her house. She sold some of the shards and other trinkets Neve found on the seafloor, as well as things she had found herself, and things bought from other citizens of Sootopolis. Many residents had little stalls in the square; as such trinket shops selling seafloor treasures were popular amongst tourists visiting the world's only city inside the belly of an inactive volcano. But, her specialty which set her apart from the others was her homemade jewellery. Sometimes, she would make seashells, small pebbles, beach glass, shards and pearls into earrings, brooches, necklaces and bracelets for happy tourists, and as they were such good friends, Neve always took her findings to Tristy before anybody else.

"Heeeeey beautiful!" Tristy exclaimed, before running around her stall to give Neve a big hug. Tristy had long, copper hair and freckles speckling her tanned features. Her bright green eyes complimented Neve's blue ones, and they were around the same height too. She clapped excitedly and let out a long "oooooohhh" as Neve showed her what she had brought.

"These are perfect!" she said as she held up the small blue shells. "These are going to make a wonderful pair of earrings. I sold all my earrings last week, I really need to make more. People seem to love them!"

"As long as you make a pair for me too;" Neve smiled, Tristy's jewellery was the best in the world and she always loved getting freebies for her hard work.

"Marill!" Neve looked down to see Tristy's Marill, Tora, rubbing her leg with her tail. She bent down and stroked her soft fur, and Tora nuzzled against her hand.

"Marill, rill!"

"Poreeeon." Marina rubbed her head against Tora's tail bobble like a cat, and the two mewed and chased each other between the girls' legs and under the stall.

"Neve, I gotta show you something!" Tristy reached under the counter and pulled out the ornate wooden box featuring a Wailord carving she used to keep her jewellery supplies in. She opened it and scooped out a few small objects into her hand, before scattering them out onto the table.

Neve gasped. It was a collection of the brightest, most amazing seashells she had ever seen. They were the brightest, most pure colours and each of them sparkled as if coated with a fine glitter. She picked up a pink one and examined it closely. It had a small chip in it and the sparkle ran right through it.

"I had pebbles like this too. I put them for sale yesterday, to see how they sold, and they were snapped up in no time at all. Customers were like a bunch of hungry Totodile. I'm definitely making the shells more expensive."

"Where did you get these?" Neve asked, tearing her gaze away from a beautiful turquoise shell.

"A guy. I've never seen him before, he turned up with a group of tourists three days ago and sold me these. Apparently," she said, leaning closer, "there's a cavern deep down, somewhere south of here. And I mean really deep. You'll need to get a pokemon to swim you down, because apparently it's somewhere in a trench."

Tider would be perfect for that, Neve thought. She had never seen anything like this, and she had explored these waters all her life. Who knew what else is down there?

"What are you doing later on?" Neve said; "We could do a little exploring ourselves. Our pokemon are perfect swimmers, I bet they could get us down there in no time."

"Peeon!" Marina exclaimed proudly, pausing from batting the bobble on Tora's tail.

"Then it's settled. I'll close up shop early. Time for a little deep-sea exploring!"