"I'm not a trainer," Bo said patiently for the third time. She leaned against a post along the fence to her pastures and looked the visitor she had been talking to in the eye "I'm a breeder. I have no interest in fighting you, or trading with you. You want one of our ponyta, you have to be able to pay."
The visitor, a young pre-teen boy, groaned impatiently. "but my feet are so tired from traveling and your ponyta are supposed to be really good for riding, aren't they?" He made a pleading gesture, "Please? I'll even trade you two pokemon! I have a zubat and a bidoof..."
Bo held the bridge of her nose between her fingers, "Look, kid, I know you're just starting out, but I'm afraid I can't be of any help to you even if I did accept trades. There's just no room for those pokemon here on the farm. If you head down the road and into the city, there might be someone that can help you out there. Set you up with a bike or roller skates or something." She shrugged and tipped her flared cowboy hat back a touch, smiling in a good natured way "I wish you the best, really. It's a tough road out there."
The kid looked like he might cry, his bottom lip jutting out and his brow furrowing for a moment as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Shoulders sullenly pulled up, he turned and gave a huge sigh. Then he relaxed, gave a reluctant half smile, and nodded "Thanks anyway. Hope your business goes well." With that, he started off down the dirt road leading towards the city proper.
"Come on back when you get the cash!" Bo said after him, "I'll have a prize steed waiting for you!"
The kid seemed to cheer up a little and waved back before breaking into a jog. Bo smiled. 'Kids', she thought, turning back to her work checking the fence for damage. She remembered wanting to be a trainer at that age. All full of adventurous fire and dreams. She was 24 now. A little late, she thought, to be heading out into the big world. She'd missed her chance already, and now she was engrossed in the family business of raising ponyta and rapidash. It wasn't something she regretted, but she often thought about what it might have been like to be a trainer.
Even with her own ponyta, Kindle, to help her carry supplies, her work took most of the day. A storm had blown in recently and had done more damage to the fences than the usual wear and tear. By the time she was done, the sun was setting, and as she made her way back to the barn, she discovered she had some company.
A herd of ponyta, watching her with wide, hungry eyes. Some stretching their necks forward to sniff at her pockets. She laughed and wiped her brow with the back of her arm "I know, I know. Gimme a minute and you'll get your grub."
She hurried about filling the feed buckets with pellets, a bit of coal, and hay before opening the doors to the stalls and letting her charges in. They didn't need to be led during supper time. They marched in obediently, if perhaps a bit eagerly, and began to chow down. She counted heads.
"Flint, Mars, Adan, Kindle, Brigid, Spark..." She ticked off their names in her head as she went until she got to the last one, "And Ember... hmm. I'm missing one. Hey, you guys know where Blaise is?" Expectedly, the ponyta remained silent on the subject as they ate. Bo sighed. "Alright then. Out I go."
She strode off back out into the field, leaving Kindle behind to eat. Unfortunately for her search efforts, the setting sun was bright enough to make the usual glow of a ponyta's mane and tail harder to see in the field. She had to squint often and peer through the firey light carefully, but it still wasn't until the sun had gone down further that she spotted the stray foal.
Her mood set much faster than the sun.
It was that kid again! Only this time he was inside the fence, blocking off the ponyta using his other pokemon. It didn't look like a fight, but it could easily become one. Especially if Bo had anything to say about it.
"You!" she shouted accusingly, "What are you doing here?!"
He looked up at her in shock as she approached, clearly stunned at being caught red handed. "I was.. I just thought... I thought if I convinced it to be my friend-"
"That I would just let you leave with it in the spirit of friendship or something?!" She stopped outside the ring of pokemon, some of whom growled at her, some of whom whimpered and looked back at their trainer, unsure of what to do.
The boy trembled, "Well... I.. er... this one is sick anyway so..."
Bo growled, "The answer is no. If Blaise is sick, I'll take care of it. Just like I'll take care of you if you don't get off my property and leave my ponyta alone!"
He seemed to find a bit of courage in the face of the threat. He stood up straight and tall, declaring "You can't just say that to me!"
"If you don't leave, I'm calling the police. How's that for things I can't say?"
The boy gulped, licked his lips, then looked around. "Whatever. I don't want your stupid sick ponyta anyway. Come on guys!" He recalled his pokemon and ran off, hopping the fence she'd just repaired earlier that day. She watched him this time, keeping an eye on him until he disappeared over the horizon.
"Punk." She grumbled, before turning to take a look at Blaise, "Let's see how you're doing, Blaisey. You don't look sick... little gremlin was probably just looking for an excuse to... hold on. What's this?" What she thought was a leaf that had landed on Blaise's flank didn't seem to be brushing off. She frowned a little. Usually leaves and the like just burned off quickly. She pulled at it to remove it, only discover that it seemed firmly implanted into Blaise's hide. When she tugged harder, Blaise twitched his muscles and he whickered a little in protest. When she tugged harder still, he tossed his head back toward her as if to say 'ouch!'.
"That's really stuck in there, huh?" Bo said, looking quizzically at the pokemon, "well, come on anyway, we'll sort it out in the daytime."
After leading Blaise back into the stables and making sure he got his dinner, Bo went inside the main house. Her mother was there, just setting dinner out on the table with the help of her sister. Her father was absent, but that was normal. Her father was a trainer, still chasing his dream. It was the reason Bo felt she'd missed her own chance to train. With her father gone, she'd stepped up to care for the farm.
Over dinner, Bo discussed the days happenings. She turned to her sister first. "Hey Jun, in the morning can you give Blaise a good brushing? He's gotten some brush stuck in his fur pretty good."
"No problem," said her younger sister, Juniper, "how'd things go with that kid that dropped by?"
Bo scoffed a bit, "not good. Little brat left, then tried to sneak into the fields and take Blaise."
Her mother's jaw fell slack and she spoke in quiet outrage "He tried to steal one of the ponyta?"
At Bo's nod, her mother frowned, "We probably ought to start looking into more security measures then. Between kids like that and the Team Rocket rumors, we'll be looking at losing stock if we don't."
"Mom, we have Bruno." Juniper said. The whole family looked over at the aging arcanine in the corner, gnawing on a bone. Bo's mom sighed "I'm afraid Bruno is getting a bit old for guard duty, honey. If we could afford a younger brother or sister for him, that would be great, but..."
"That reminds me," Bo said around a mouthful of potatoes "Did we get the money back from the Durgens?"
Her mom gave her a gently scolding look "They didn't owe us money. They owed us a favor. Which they repaid with the potatoes you're eating now."
"Would rather it have been money," Bo grumbled, "Or feed."
Juniper shook her head, "no one has much lately," she said, "it's been a hard season."
There was silence in response. It had indeed been a hard season. The frequent storms were making it hard to work the fields, and thus keep the crops thriving like they should. And, despite the occasional overeager trainer, there weren't as many people eager to take a ponyta out into stormy weather where the fire might go out, or the ponyta itself panic. There just wasn't much business lately.
Bo finished her meal with bits of small talk here and there. When she finished, she helped her family do the dishes, then went upstairs to bed, thinking about tight finances and ponyta-thieves.
A shriek jerked her awake. It was Juniper's job to do the morning chores. What had happened? Bo was up and running in her night shirt and pjs before she was even really awake. Her mother met her on the way out and both of them hurried to the barn where the shout had come from.
Juniper stood there, a bucket of feed spilled around her feet, staring into the barn with eyes wide and jaw slack.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound echoed in the barn, sickly accented by hoarse coughing and whickering. Blaise was backing into a wall, tossing his head silently, eyes wide open. From his shoulders sprouted two huge green vines which were stretched forward...
and were wrapped around another ponyta's neck, hoisting it upwards. Choking it. The other ponyta were cowering in their stalls, backed into corners.
For a moment, no one could move. No one spoke. The sight didn't make sense!
Bo's mother recovered first, and she ran up to Blaise, tugging at the vines, only to back off a second later "His flame's hot, I can't get close!"
Her voice brought her daughters to action. Juniper ran to the tack room, while Bo ran to the choking ponyta and pulled at the vines there, trying to save the poor thing. Juniper was out a second later in a fire suit, running over to help her mom. She tried to calm Blaise, hoping that would stop the monster vines, but he seemed inconsolable, the fire from his mane glowing brighter by the minute as he panicked. Bo finally worked an arm under one of the vines, but the strength of them overwhelmed her, and she ended up trapped next to the dying ponyta. They shared a look. Its time was almost up.
Desperate, Bo used her free hand to reach for her pocket knife. She fumbled awkwardly with it, trying to get the blade open one handedly. Normally she would never use it on a pokemon but she had no other choice. She slashed at the vines, hoping the pain would make Blaise release his hold.
It wasn't until she had fully slashed through both vines that they retreated, leaving shortened, flailing stumps sprouting from Blaise's shoulders.
Juniper and her mom took over calming Blaise down as Bo checked on the freed ponyta, who was coughing and sputter as it stood in it's stall, it's legs splayed out and it's head down. Everyone was breathing heavily. But the danger was, for the moment, over.