The morning came quickly for Chloe. Awakening fully rested, she looked to Rowan. He was still sound asleep, his face still buried deep within her fur. She smiled as she watched the gentle rise and fall of his breathing as he slumbered peacefully. It was almost a shame that she had to disturb him.
Shifting around in his sleep slightly, Rowan buried his face deeper into his fur and gripped her tail with his paws. Pulling it closer to him, Chloe flinched at the discomfort but nonetheless allowed it.
"He was so adamant in sleeping on his own," Chloe thought to herself with a chuckle. "I didn't take him for a cuddler."
A knock on the door surprised her. Before she could say anything, her door opened and she watched in dismay as Fergus stumbled into the room, his paws rubbing his temples with his head hanging. He was clearly very hungover.
"Lass, I owe ya an apology," The otter croaked. "I didn't mean ta say what I did like that. Twasn't proper o-"
Fergus froze as he looked up and saw the two of them in bed, their limbs intertwined and with Rowan's face buried within her. For the first time Fergus was left at a loss for words. Before she could explain herself Fergus bolted out of the room, yelling out a garbled apology as he fled. The noise woke Rowan, who only raised his head half-asleep.
"Huh?"
"Anything I should know before we get to Siliset?" Rowan asked as he walked between Chloe and Felix.
"Not really," Felix answered. "If anything special happens, I'm sure me or Chloe will be around to guide you."
"Alright," Rowan replied, unconvinced. "Do I need to do anything special to get permission to go?
"No," Chloe replied. "They keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, but for the most part you just walk in and out as you please."
As they walked along the path, Rowan wondered what pokemon cleared the roads, which ones maintained them, and how they did it. He had heard the others talk about pokemon civilizations occasionally, but he had a hard time imagining it. The fact that pokemon could construct buildings so quickly boggled his mind, regardless of how much sense it made. It didn't matter how much he knew of a pokemon and their pokedex entries, seeing it in person was totally surreal.
Spending the time in idle conversation as they walked, Chloe gave him minor demonstrations of her powers. Rowan watched her all but vanish from sight from her Snow Cloak ability. Next she showed him her ability to manipulate ice, launching ice shards into the air to be shot down, creating varying shapes with different meanings.
"You know she used one of those before we found you," Felix commented.
Rowan tried to remember if he managed to see it, but couldn't.
"I must have missed it," Rowan replied.
"That's okay," said Chloe cheerily. "I'm just glad you can see them now."
Before he knew it, he could see buildings in a clearing through the trees. Eager to see for himself, Rowan sprinted off ahead of them to see everything himself.
The layout was similar to the suburbs he grew up in, but each building was different, sometimes wildly so. Different heights and sizes were constructed for varying pokemon to suit their needs. The streets were extremely well kept and clean despite the traffic of pokemon walking up and down them.
His eyes drawn from pokemon to pokemon, he watched on in growing excitement. A machoke walked down the street carrying several wooden beams somewhere. Several Pichu played around their parents as they sat eating their lunch. Stalls were set up occasionally in front of the buildings offering different services for passers by.
"Incredible," Rowan breathed. Before his eyes sat the culmination of every fantasy he had for this world. In the distance a superstructure towered over the rest of them, casting a lengthy shadow over a part of the community.
"This is just a small town, nothing that special," Felix said as he walked up behind him.
"This is small to you?" Rowan said incredulously. He pointed to the colosseum-sized building. "Seriously?"
"Sucks Fergus isn't here to see you now," Felix smirked. "He'd be ragging on you over this… C'mon, we aren't here to gawk at it are we?"
"He's going to be... busy today." Chloe said flatly as she walked past them. Rowan looked at Felix confused, but he seemed to be just as lost as he was. With a shrug, Felix followed after her and Rowan quickly caught up to them.
Memories from his youth assailed him as they entered Siliset, many of the buildings much larger than he had imagined. Most of his attention, however, was drawn to the stalls dotting the street sides.
From grooming services to several equipment stands stretched down the road. A massive Mamoswine stood beneath a particularly large one with its eye closed as a swarm of monkeys tended to it. Swinging to and from ropes, they dragged comically large combs through its fur. Whatever fell to the floor was quickly devoured by a group of hungry Trubbish.
Suddenly the scent of something incredible wafted through the area, making his stomach rumble. Looking for its source, Rowan noticed a Cinderace cooking at an incredible pace. The smell of herbs and spices attacked his nose mercilessly, eliciting another growl from his stomach.
"Are you hungry?" Chloe asked, following his sight.
Embarrassed, Rowan shook his head. Regardless how hungry he was, if he wanted to perform well in the training area, he couldn't afford to be weighed down by a mass amount of food and the portions the Cinderace was preparing would without a doubt interfere with that.
"No thanks," Rowan replied and explained why. Chloe seemed to want to say something else, but didn't press the issue.
"Okay," Chloe nodded. "We can just swing by afterwards. I'm sure you'll need the pick-me-up."
Before they continued, a small tap on his shoulder caught his attention. Looking over, a small Buneary nervously stood next to him. The small rabbit pokemon's nose twitched.
"Momma said you can have this!" The small pokemon squeaked in a girlish tone. His heart softened at the adorable pokemon as it presented a pecha berry to him, holding it above her head. The berry itself was nearly two inches across, large enough for a light snack.
Looking up, Rowan saw a small booth on the side of the street. The Lopunny at the booth met his gaze and winked. Rowan felt blood rush to his cheeks.
"That's awfully nice of her," Felix said as he walked over. "Do we get one too?"
The small bunny quickly pulled the berry away, hiding it from the snake's sight.
"No!" The Buneary exclaimed with a childish grin. "Momma said it's for the good looking one!"
Behind them Chloe stifled a laugh while Felix scoffed and took a step away. The kid held the berry to Rowan again. While he didn't understand why he was considered to be the 'good looking one,' Rowan decided to accept her good will.
Nervously, Rowan bent slightly and snapped it up. Sweetness he hadn't had before flooded his mouth as his teeth pierced the Pecha's flesh. The taste closely resembled the peaches he had at home, but the aftertaste lingered and was far more potent.
"Isn't it yummy?" the child asked. "Momma growed these herself!"
With a paw, Rowan patted her on the head; the buneary giggled.
"That was delicious," Rowan agreed with the child. "Tell your mom I said thank you."
As the bunny hopped away, Rowan watched as the Lopunny bent down to listen to her kid as she whispered something into her large ears. The mother smiled at her and gave her a hug, giving Rowan a quick wave before returning to her stall.
"What happened to not wanting to eat?" Chloe asked playfully.
"Who could say no to something like that?" Rowan replied.
"Me," Felix replied gruffly.
"You're just jealous that I'm the good looking one." Rowan teased. The Servine groaned and walked away. Laughing even harder, Chloe followed them as they made their way to the ridiculously large building ahead of them.
Despite him stopping every so often to see the sights, the group finally made it to the training grounds. The monumental height of the building astounded him. Part of him wanted to believe the building was as large as he saw, but he quickly remembered his stature as a Glaceon was far smaller than when he was human.
"I did it again," Rowan thought as he bit his lip. He was a pokemon, not a human. The sizes of architecture and their relative sizes were useless if he kept thinking of himself as a human within a pokemon body.
"Pretty impressive, isn't it?" Chloe asked as she looked up.
"I'll say," Rowan replied as he craned his head with her. "Is... this normal?"
"Yep," Chloe answered. "It has to be this large. Some team members on any rescue team are so large they need it to be this big. It's also for mock battles and other events, too. The size also lets the town thrive by charging admission to anyone wanting to watch the proceedings."
"Wait…" Rowan asked with a gulp. "I'm going to have an audience? Is it required?"
Felix glanced over at the nervous Glaceon before turning towards Chloe. Her eyes widened at the realization of her mistake.
"You didn't explain this before?" Felix grumbled. "Goddammit Chloe, How'd you manage to forget that?"
"No, no," Rowan interjected. "I-It's fine. Just uh, would've been good to know."
"Well, better late than never," Felix grumbled as he walked towards the building. "I'll sign us up for a section. Chloe, you need to explain everything to him."
As the snake walked through the giant arch of the doorway, Rowan watched him walk up to a pair of Granbull with sashes across their chests. In their paws were parchments they scribbled on as they conversed with him.
"So…" Rowan said out loud. "You said this is a training area right?" Chloe nodded. A million questions sprawled across his mind over how everything worked, but decided to stick to the important ones.
Chloe had already explained that the arena was used to generate income for the town, so his questions were all related to its operations. Members of each team would sign up according to their experience and pit against each other. Only in specifically rare cases were experienced members pitted against newbies to prevent rivalries and unnecessary injuries.
Much to his relief, medical staff were onsite at all times in the event of an accident. Each 'battle' was timed to five minutes as well as being regulated to a point system. The battle would continue until either one of the Pokémon was unable to continue, won/lost to a technical knockout, or the time ran out. If time ran out, the pokemon with the most points won.
The rules seemed quite simple to him. The idea of fighting someone else as new as him was relieving to say the least. This way he felt like he at least had a chance.
"Okay," Rowan said as he took a deep breath, trying his best to squash his unease. "I can do this."
Chloe nodded and followed him inside, equally worried and excited at his potential. In such a short time, he had quickly worked hard to get himself into shape. She hoped it was enough for him to gain some confidence as a pokemon when he officially became a member of Team Union.
From their table a pair of red eyes bore into Rowan from a distance, watching him walk and talk with Chloe. The Umbreon spat in distaste at the sight. He had just succeeded in driving away Tryst and now there was another obstacle in his path of conquest.
"Remind me again why we're spying on our own team?" Myra asked irritably as a Scorbunny brought a bowl of soup to her. Thanking her miniature waiter, she lapped up some of her meal as she waited for Sydney to explain himself.
"Because that Glaceon she's with, he's new," Sydney replied, glaring eerily at the colosseum entrance. "And they're going to the training grounds."
With a snarl, Myra stood up in disgust. They had just gotten to town last night and happened to chance across their teammates today. Despite losing Tryst, Sydney seemed to only want to focus on the new member because he was the newest competitor.
"Nuh-uh, No Sydney," Myra spat venomously. "They still don't know what happened and there's fresh blood right there on a golden platter. Don't fuck this up for the team."
"Fuck off Myra, I know what I'm doing," he spat back. "I won't allow garbage to be around Chloe. I'm going to watch his...performance."
"And I'm going to go join the others," Myra replied. "They need to know about Tryst anyway. The fallout of that will sit squarely on your shoulders. I'll have no part in that blame game."
"Do what you will," Sydney muttered. With a sigh, Myra brushed past him roughly as she left to join their comrades as he headed into the spectator entrance. "I'll prove he's trash, too."