As Marcy continued to gaze at the beautiful scene layed out before her, eyes sparkling as she viewed the majesty of the open sky and sea laid out before her. after a few minutes, movement around her caught her eye, and she glanced over at her newfound partner. Sable got up from beside her and began to search among the beach. He shifted through the sands, picking up shells and inspecting them before discarding them.
"What are you doing?" Marcy asked, not moving from her comfy spot on the sands.
"Taking care of transport," He grunted back. "You don't want to be stuck on this island forever, do you? Now help me look for shells."
"Shells?" Marcy glanced around, and picked up a nearby seashell. "I don't see how this is going to help us go anywhere."
"Not the shells, dumby. Things inside the shells. If you see any shells that look like they're licking the sand, grab them. We'll need at least a few in order to get a flight off of this rock."
Marcy just cast him a rather incredulous look, but decided against arguing. She wanted to see what this 'licking shell' business was all about. As she began to poke around the sand nearby, Sable waded into the shallow water, splashing about and occasionally snatching something out from the bottom before grunting and throwing it away.
Marcy followed him into the water, the gradual waves washing over her ankes every few seconds. She giggled to herself, plopping down in the water and splashing about excitedly. Some of the drops inevitably landed on Sable, who just glared back. With a clawed hand, he swipes at the surface of the ocean, sending a burst of water directly into her face.
"Come on, stop being such a brat. We need to find this stuff before the sun rises and trainers start wandering about again. We're lucky that no one is out tonight."
Marcy stops splashing at his warning. "Do trainers really come around here? I've never seen any before. I thought they went all over the world! But I've never seen one at home..."
"Your little pocket is pretty deep in those caves. And those bloated humans have a hard time getting through the fissures that we took to get out," he replies, scratching his face. "But it's really only a matter of time before they smash that wide open. Humans get everywhere eventually." With a flash in eyes, Sable's hand darts into the water, pulling out a scallop from the water. He inspects it before throwing it away, grumbling.
Marcy looks down, thinking to herself. "Oh. I guess I wouldn't have had to wait forever for a trainer to find me..." She murmurs, kicking at the water, her enthusiasm gone.
Sable glances over again. "You were waiting for them? Why the hell would you be waiting for a trainer?" He growls accusingly, hunched over as he lifts his head from searching.
She glances away, staring out at the wide ocean. "... I don't want to hurt anyone else. Trainers are really good at making you do what they want, right?" She kicks at an enroaching wave half-heartedly. "...Maybe being in a ball isn't so bad."
Sable barks out a sharp laugh. "I'll never understand what goes on in your head. Listen up." He catches her gaze, staring intently at her. "Being caught in one of those wretched machines is an instant ticket to enslavement. That's awful and all, yeah, but we pokemon can do that to ourselves just fine too. The proof that there is no justice in the world is that humans are so weak!" He hisses vehemently. "If humans were actually strong, they wouldn't need us. But they could never beat us in a fight. So instead, they make some stupid red ball that lets any child with an allowance have power over us." He starts wringing his claws, tapping the hard points together. "Oh, if only I could-" He halts midsentence, pumping the brakes on his train of thought.
Marcy stares back with a mixture of mild fear and confusion, no words coming up to fill the silent pause between them. She'd never really imagined what a trainer was to other pokemon. Instead of being a distant vision of complacancy, they were a looming threat of conquest.
As the pause grew longer, Sable turns away, seemingly having let off enough steam for the night. "Just… find those clams already." He grumbles, snatching at the ground only to have the sand slip through his grasp.
By the time they found the necessary mollusks, the horizon was seeping a bright orange across the sky. Neither of them talked much, each one preoccupied with their own thoughts. Holding the fruits of their labor, Sable directs her along the shoreline, urging her further as it turns from a gradual beach to a thin, rocky pathway, waves beating against the slick rock face. By the time they managed to reach the secluded inlet, the sun had risen properly.
"How do pokemon live like this?" She groans, the relentless light singin even the tiniest opening of her eyes leaving her only barely able to pick out Sable's shadowy mass agianst the shimmering water and rocks.
"You better get used to it. It's not going away anytime soon." His voice drifts back to her. "Now quiet down, he gets testy if you don't wake him up gently." His voice is nearly lost among the crash of waves and some odd, intermittent rumbling that made her want to fill her ears with moss.
Her eyesight is just returning as Sable stops in front of a section of the rock wall. She follows his gaze up, spotting a blue and white figure seemingly asleep above them.
Sable cuts off her question as its coming out of her mouth. "Sush. This part's delicate." Kneeling down, he grabs a pebble off the sand, examining it. He tosses it up and down in his hand, testing its weight. He looks up and flings it up at the slumbering figure, the dull thump stoping its snore mid-utterance. "Time for breakfast, you useless batch of feathers that somehow qualifies as a Pelipper!" Sable yells up, waving the clams wildly.
The figure grumbles and complains from its perch before rolling over and off, tumbling to the ground before snapping his wings open, deftly avoiding impact against the rock face and leisurely gliding down to them. A last second correction sends the large bird barrelling directly into Sable, sending him to the ground with a bleary-eyed Pelipper on top of him.
"This… is no way… to treat someone… who brought you breakfast." Sable wheezes, almost managing to sound angry with what little breath he had to work with.
"I'd feel worse about it if you ever decided to work on your alarm." The bird sighs, shuffling off with deliberate slowness to let him up.
"What? Pelting you with rocks is practically tradition at this point." Sable smirks, managing a heaving chuckle as he fills his lungs up again, before offering up the clams, all of them having been peeled open on the way here.
The Pelipper snatches the shells out of Sable's hands, swallowing them in a single gulp. "Awww, that hits the spot." After enjoying his brief meal, he finally notices Marcy. "Should have known you didn't dig up those extras to say thanks. Who's your friend?" He asks, settling into the sand.
"I'm Marcy!" She instantly perks up, hopping from foot to foot. "You can fly? That's so cool! And your mouth is huge! I bet you could eat a whole pile of shells. Why do you like those clams, though? They smelled awful to me." She rambles off quickly, her eyes glinting happily at the pudgy pelican.
He laughs, a deep throaty sound that made Marcy want to laugh too. He turns to Sable. "I like her already! Certainly a nice change from your usual angst and irritation." He lets out another chuckle and turns back to Marcy. "Well, Marcy, its nice to meet you. I'm Perdy. Ready to see the world?"
Sorry for the delay everyone! In all honesty I've been having trouble deciding where I want to take this story. Writer's block is no fun. In any case, I hope you all liked this chapter! Let me know what you think!