Alex kept on giving uncertain glances out of his window as he drove along the county road heading away from the suburbs of the Austin area, not at all recognizing the road he was driving on. "Are you sure it's out here? Seems like there's a lot of ranches and campsites for there to be enough space for something like that," Alex asked, still glancing back and forth from his left to directly in front of him.

"Yup, totally sure," a female voice from behind Alex responded, "It pretty much is just another campsite. Just one that we've uh... modified to suit our numbers and needs. It's out of the way though, so no one's gonna find it."

Alex glanced back at the shorter red haired girl who had introduced herself as Sierra sitting in the back of his car, lazily resting her elbow against the car door and staring out of the window. Alex spared her a skeptical glance before continuing to pay attention to the road. "Seems like something as big as you're describing would eventually fall apart just from the wrong person finding out."

"Well again, it's pretty out of the way. So even if someone knew to look for us, our camp isn't really connected to any path. And we're pretty quiet for the most part, so uh, yea good luck finding us," Sierra responded cheekily.

Alex cracked a smile at the girl's confidence and was about to respond before she said something else that caught Alex by surprise.

"It also helps a bit that the land manager is a pokemon too."

Alex's eyes lit up in mild surprise, still idly scanning the road for any landmarks that may point to an entry point for the pokemon camp. "Huh, guess that would help a quite a bit. Even if you were caught, you'd have an easier time getting outsiders to look the other way."

"Exactly!"

Eli, after several moments of curiously listening from the passenger side seat, finally let out a thoughtful hum. "I'm a little curious how this even started. Like... how did any one of you know to find him?"

"Oh he was actually the one who prepped the land for us weeks ago." Sierra stated as a matter of factly.

"No kidding?" Alex asked. As they continued to talk, Alex noticed they were just then passing an entrance to a public camp ground. 'Huh, I wonder if that was it.'

Alex glanced at the girl in the back seat again to see if she noticed, but the girl kept on talking, completely unbothered by Alex passing the only landmark for a few miles. "Yup. I wasn't there at the start, so I dunno for sure. But I think it went something like as soon as he was able to get all the basic camp equipment for a few dozen pokemon, he personally invited a handful of us to set up and basically live on the campsite if we wanted to, as well as give an open invite to any pokemon who wanted to join. Especially ones who looked like they needed it," Sierra explained, still idly staring outside her window, looking entirely uninterested in any of the scenery, "I guess he knew some problem like what's on now would come up and wanted to do something about it ahead of time."

Alex nodded in understanding. "Pretty good foresight of him," he muttered in agreement. Alex kept taking quick glances in the back seat as Sierra and Eli continued to carry the conversation, attempting to pick up on some sort of body language that told him they were close to their destination, but the girl just continued talking with Eli, completely relaxed as Alex drove along. Alex just let out a sigh and decided to just tune out the conversation as he tried to get his bearings right. He narrowed his eyes in mild irritation at the prospect of searching for something he didn't even know the appearance of. Very quickly, Alex decided that he really needed the girl's guidance so they didn't miss their destination. He leaned his head back to address their newest companion while still keeping his eyes on the road. "Hey, sorry to interrupt, but are we almost there yet? I've been driving on this road for like half an hour, and I'm pretty sure we just passed the campground that you said the pokemon haven was near."

Alex flinched in his seat when Sierra's head suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision as she leaned forwards in her seat to get a better view of the road in front of them. "Well let's see... ah, yup. You can park anywhere up here."

Alex did a double take back at the girl, quickly shooting her a confused glance. "What, you mean on the side of the road?"

The girl gave a nod of confirmation and leaned back in her seat. "Yup! Anywhere up the hill is fine."

Alex fell silent for a beat, but quickly jostled his head to shake away the confusion. "Alright, if you say so," he begrudgingly accepted. After looking scanning the winding road ahead of him for a few seconds, Alex spotted a wider pocket of open land that was on his side of the road just after a curve on the road. Alex began slowing the vehicle while easing them off the road until he came to a complete stop on a patch of grass several feet off the nearest lane. "Well here we are... I think."

The three leisurely stepped out of the vehicle, with Sierra and Alex stretching their arms and legs, and Eli taking a short and nervous breath as he adjusted his arm to lay in a more comfortable position in his sling, all while rapidly scanning their surroundings.

Eli took a long look at the land on both sides of the road. The opposite side of the road that they're on had a road barrier, separating them from land which had some tree cover, but was mostly open land and also overlooked the curvy road that they had just come from. The land on their side of the road was on a small hill and was more heavily covered by trees, but had a barbed wire fence separating them from it. "Where are we, anyway?" he asked.

Sierra began walking past the car and towards the barbed fence. "Just past an entrance to the camping ground we're going to. But instead of using the entrance, we're gonna enter it through the side."

Alex raised an eyebrow, giving a questioning stare at the girl. "Oookaaay? And we can't use the main entrance because why?"

Sierra began carefully climbing over the barbed wire fence, appearing to completely ignore Alex. After carefully stepping over and hopping off the barbed wire, she motioned Alex over with a wide smile. "Your turn now!"

Alex rolled his eyes. 'Sure. Just blow off a completely valid question, why don't you.' But he chose not to argue to subject and just followed the girl's lead, figuring she knew well enough what she was doing. As Alex reached the barb wire fence, he started taking nervous glances back towards the road. Occasionally, a car would pass by, but Alex couldn't see anyone paying them any mind. It seemed to be safe enough. 'Whelp... when in Rome, I suppose.' Alex took his turn to carefully climb over the wire, grabbing hold of the metal rod of the fence for support and being very careful not to spike his hands or feet as he slowly stepped over the highest point of the fence. Once Alex got both feet on the other side, he hopped off, using one of the lower wires to launch himself backwards a fair distance, and let out a stiff exhale, satisfied at getting over with no trouble.

Sierra flashed Alex and approving grin, then faced Eli. "Alright, your go. You need help getting to the other side?"

Eli kept on glancing back nervously towards the road. After enough time had passed to where Alex was worried something was wrong, Eli suddenly faced the barbed wire fence and began glowing a bright white, signalling to Alex and Sierra that he was transforming. After the white glow faded, Eli shook his head and awkwardly hobbled over to the fence. "No, I got it. Just... gimme a sec."

Alex made a move towards Eli. "Hey, if you need help-"

"No, no. It's fine. I can handle it," Eli stubbornly dismissed. After a couple times of briefly hopping onto his hind legs, only to land on all fours again in a crouched position as if trying to time a jump, Eli let out a short but impatient growl and bounded forwards, ducking his head to go under the lowest wire. The wire, which was still fairly low to the ground, scraped against Eli's body. But with a determined growl, Eli continued to slowly and awkwardly crawl under the fence, careful not to put too much pressure on his injured paw.

Alex grimaced, empathizing with Eli's pain, and made a short abrupt movement forwards to help out his friend, but he was stopped by Sierra, gently placing a hand on his shoulder, holding him back from doing anything.

"Relax. He's got this. Pokemon are a lot harder to hurt than people," she said in a tone that sounded far too casual for Alex, considering Eli's condition.

Alex had to force back an indignant scoff. 'Trust me, I know that better than anyone.' Alex shot Sierra a glance, still keeping an eye on Eli, who, despite his struggles with the iron barbs scraping against him, was slowly making his way through. "And that's all well and good, but you do realize that all either of us had to do to help our already-injured friend was lift up the lowest wire, right?" he asked pointedly, trying to put emphasis on Eli's recent injuries.

Sierra froze for a moment at Alex's point, slight concern appearing in her expression, but after glancing at Eli's progress, she just shrugged and waved it off. "Well too late now. He's already pretty much through."

Alex just rolled his eyes and knelt down to his friend's level as Eli finally wormed his way the rest of the way through. "Hey, you alright, man?"

Eli shook himself and turned to inspect his wounds. Seemingly satisfied that he got through relatively unscathed, he let off a tired grunt after a moment and continued limping in Sierra's direction. "I guess. I'll be better once we get to this camp thing so I can get myself healed up. There is a pokemon that can heal my injuries, right?" he asked anxiously at Sierra.

Sierra nodded more slowly. To Alex's mild satisfaction, she seemed to be taking Eli's injuries more seriously after getting some pushback from Alex. "There's always at least one, yea. We can get you in tip top shape no problem. Need help getting there?"

Eli grunted and shook his head, taking careful steps towards the woods. "Nah, I'm fine. Let's just get going. The sooner I can fully use my arm and paw again, the better," Eli complained in a mutter.

Alex cast one more worried glance towards Eli, but his friend's stubbornness kept him from saying or doing anything. Alex just let out a weary sigh as he stood back up and waved a hand expectantly towards the girl. "Well then... lead the way."

The trio slowly and carefully made their way through the trees in the direction Sierra continued to claim was towards the camp. But with no real path to guide them and several jagged rocks and steep inclines to make their trek all the more perilous, Alex continued to wonder if they were really on the right track towards their destination. Even so, he continued to remind himself that Sierra had mentioned before that it was out of the way of any official campsite, so Alex had to trust that she knew what she was talking about. But the terrain was not making it easy. Sierra had little trouble, as she very quickly decided to use her duskull form to simply float over the rough terrain. Even Eli, despite his handicapped state, also found it relatively easy to keep his balance and make short jumps using only his three good legs.

Alex, on the other hand, had a rougher time. Even though Alex had already been getting more physically active in the recent past and was slightly more prepared for a hike of this nature as a result, he still found himself getting winded at a far greater pace than his pokemon companions. As Alex carefully climbed around a rather large rock formation, lagging behind the other two, he began muttering and cursing under his breath, silently wishing he could just transform into his mew form to make the journey so much easier than it was in the moment.

After a longer time than Alex was comfortable with, the trio finally reached even ground. Alex took one large step to climb up the rest of the steep hill he was on, and nearly collapsed onto the ground with how weak his legs felt and how much they were shaking. Alex took several large gulps of air and slowly trudged along, trailing just behind the other two he was traveling with. "Remind me again why we can't just go through the campsite entrance?" Alex groaned tiredly.

After a brief explanation from the duskull that had been leading them up the rough terrain, Eli glanced back towards Alex. "Sierra says that the pokemon area is pretty big and has a lot of people there at any one time. Lots of people parked up front all the time would draw attention, so everyone comes in from different areas," he translated in a neutral tone.

"...uuugghh, curse my own paranoia that makes me agree with that." Alex griped.

"Oh relax, man," Eli responded, "by the sounds of things, we would need to do a bit of hiking like this anyway. Going just a bit further to get there isn't a big deal. Besides," Eli's neutral expression turned into a smirk. "just think of it as a way for you to get some muscle on that skinny body of yours."

Alex, still breathing heavily, shot a glare at the fox pokemon. "Who the hell asked you?"

Eli snickered and glanced towards where they were walking. "Well lucky you. Looks like we're almost there anyway. Look up ahead."

Alex instantly perked up, irritation completely forgotten, and his pace quickened as he began scanning the area in front of him. True to Eli's word, he spotted a tent that was almost entirely obscured by the trees around them, and seemed to have a few people standing nearby. "Oh shit, yea there's definitely something there." Alex turned to Sierra and pointed in the direction of the tent. "That's it, right?" After a quick, excited nod from the duskull, Alex let out a relieved sigh and continued walking at his increased pace. "Thank God. If it were any further, I might've just keeled over."

The two pokemon with him both let out amused laughs as they followed Alex closely behind.

The trio made their way in the direction of the tent. Alex stopped about thirty feet from it and was briefly confused as to where the rest of it was, but when Sierra continued past Alex uninterrupted, Alex just figured they weren't in the main camp yet. The three passed the tent after quickly exchanging greetings with the two men that were sitting just outside of it, casually chatting amongst themselves, and very quickly found their way to what Alex safely guessed was the heart of the camp. When they finally reached it, the mere sight of it nearly took Alex's breath away.

The camp was massive. It was a large open area with canopy tree branches providing almost complete cover of the entire camp, save for the area over the three large fire pits, spread out a considerable distance apart, that served as the centerpieces for such a large camp. In between the fire pits and the large number of tents that sparsely populated the outsides of the main campground was ample room for sitting, relaxing, and recreation of various verities. And it was then that Alex noted the sheer number of pokemon populating the camp.

Alex marveled at the multiple dozens of pokemon that were out in the open. He could see all different sorts. Large pokemon, small pokemon, humanoid pokemon, draconic, animalistic, all of which could be seen doing various different things, such as socializing, sparring, lounging and resting, eating- Alex even noted there were multiple pokemon flying overhead. Some of which were entering and exiting camp through the skies, while others were floating or flying to and from large nests or small tree huts that were undoubtedly built by various flying capable pokemon. Alex's mouth hung open and his eyes began shining, awestruck at the new environment they were in. "This is... incredible," Alex whispered out loud.

"Yea, it's pretty cool."

A sudden female voice beside Alex startled him out of his enchanted state. Alex whipped his head to meet the voice only to find Sierra with a relaxed smile, gazing fondly at the huge campsite before them. "There's a lot of us, but we're a pretty tight knit group for the most part. Sorta feels like family. Even if most of us haven't been here for too long."

Eli awkwardly shifted his weight back and forth between his two feet as he nervously scanned the area around him as if to search for something. "Okay, can we get to a healer already? The sooner I can use my arm again, the better." he cut in impatiently.

Sierra faced Eli who was also in his human form, averting eye contact with her and Alex. "I mean, we can get right to it, but you do know that you'll have to be in your pokemon form for them to help you, right?"

Eli began nervously chewing on his upper lip. "I know. I'll do it when we get there."

Sierra gave Eli a concerned frown, but decided not to press the subject. "Alright, I guess. Follow me, then. Med tent's this way," she instructed, waving both Alex and Eli to follow her through the camp.

Alex kept a close eye on Eli, who was keeping his distance even as they were being led to the medical tent. Alex slowed his pace to match Eli's and leaned in close to him. "Hey, you good, man?" he asked in a low volume.

Eli took a second to respond and mumbled in a voice that Alex barely heard. "I'm just... having second thoughts about this whole thing."

"How come?" Alex asked, trying to maintain a calm and casual tone for his friend's sake.

Eli gave a half hearted shrug while looking down at the ground in front of them as they walked. "I dunno. Maybe cuz the camp's way bigger than I thought? Guess I'm just not really comfortable around so many people yet."

Alex waited for a beat to let Eli elaborate. Eli ended up not saying anything more, but Alex felt that he didn't need any further explanation anyway. He knew his friend well enough to understand the source of his discomfort. "You know what, that's totally understandable. Especially for your situation... Hmm, well tell you what. For now, let's just focus on getting you healed up and we can see if we can get a tour of the place after, then we can go from there. Sounds good?"

Eli's expression didn't change beyond a single glance towards Alex. "I guess..."

Alex gave Eli a light pat on the back. "Don't worry. I'm with you no matter what you decide on."

Eli glanced at Alex again, giving him a small and nervous smile. "I know. And it really helps. Thanks, man."

Alex smiled back at Eli, then glanced forwards to their guide. "No problem. But uh, we might wanna pick up the pace a bit before we get separated."

Eli faced forwards on reflex and scanned the area in front of them, having to search for a few seconds before he spotted Sierra again, slowly widening the gap between them. "Shit, sorry about that," he muttered as the duo began increasing their pace.

As they caught up with Sierra and made their way to the medical tent, Alex took the time to look at their surroundings some more. Sparsely populated as the tents were, Alex quickly realized that there were still a large number of them. He reasoned that a camp of this size could easily hold a couple hundred people, if the other tent areas were as big as the one they were passing by. Alex then noticed that despite all of the pokemon that were running around, he was surprised to see that there were just as many people that were human, or at least using their human form. Alex briefly wondered if it was because a large percentage of people didn't have or weren't comfortable with pokemon forms, but after watching a few seconds longer, he noticed some were freely switching in and out of their pokemon forms. 'Huh, I guess some people are just comfortable using their forms in their own way.'

After what seemed like a very short walk, the three reached a series of frame tents pushed together to make one large shelter, complete with a white banner with a neatly hand-drawn red cross hung over the top of the entrance. Sierra walked halfway through the open entrance and beckoned Alex and Eli inside. "Right over here." After Eli hesitantly entered with Alex close behind, Sierra stepped in as well and circled around to the front. "Hey, Ashes. Think you can spare a moment?"

A woman that was sitting in a camping chair who looked older than Alex by a few years with long charcoal black hair looked up from the phone that was in her hands. As soon as she spotted Sierra, she rolled her eyes and gave her a weary stare. "Oh boy... did you get yourself into trouble again?"

Sierra gave her an exaggerated outraged look. "Oh come on, me? In trouble? Why would you think that?"

The woman simply held a deadpan stare at Sierra.

Sierra held the stare back for a few seconds, but she eventually relented, looking away from the woman and letting out a scoff. "Alright, fine, but you're still wrong. I didn't get into any trouble. Hell, it's not even me that got hurt this time."

The woman raised an eyebrow at Sierra, then began idly looking around the area close to her. "Then who is- oh!" The woman's demeanor brightened up instantly after she finally noticed Alex and Eli standing behind Sierra, and she stood up from her chair to properly greet them. "Hey! I don't believe we've met before. I'm Ashley, one of the camp's healers. And who might you be?" she asked in a far more friendly manner than she had been carrying mere moments prior, holding out her hand for them both.

Eli forced a strained smile and gave a small wave. Alex decided to answer for both of them, holding out his own arm to accept the handshake. "I'm Alex, and this is Eli," he introduced, just before walking over to one of the multiple empty cots that populated the tent, sitting in it with a satisfied and tired sigh, "We kinda just got here. Sierra brought us here cuz she thought you might be able to help Eli with his arm," Alex explained, motioning to Eli's hurt arm, still being supported by a sling.

As the woman leaned in close to inspect Eli's arm, Sierra finished the explanation as she too sat down onto one of the cots. "Yea, he just got out of the hospital today after getting into some sort of scrap. Had his paw dislocated. Doctors popped his arm back into place, but, you know, we're wondering if you could help speed up the healing."

Ashley, shot a startled look, first at Sierra, then at Eli. "You had your foreleg dislocated? Good God, what kind of fight were you in?"

"Not one I wanted any part of," Eli muttered uncomfortably, eyes once again drifting towards the ground.

The woman's expression and tone become more sympathetic right away, noting Eli's obvious discomfort. "Oh honey, I'm so sorry. Well don't you worry, if your arm is back in its proper place, there won't be any issues with the healing process. I do need you to turn into your pokemon form, though. Can you do that for me real quick?"

Eli stiffened up and took a quick glance outside of the tent as if looking for something. Apparently satisfied that no one else was nearby, Eli gave a curt nod, walked over to one of the corners of the tent, and began glowing a white light as he switched over to his pokemon form.

Ashley waited patiently and happily as the very obviously uncomfortable Eli moved at his own pace to turning into his pokemon form. She held a wider smile when Eli began his transformation, but as soon as he shrunk to size and the glow began to fade, the woman's expression shifted to one of shock and awe. "Oh... my God...! You're a zorua!"

Eli flinched violently at the sudden excited reaction, and Alex could've sworn he heard a small whine come from the vulpine pokemon.

Ashley seemed to realize right away how nervous Eli was and visibly forced herself to relax her body, as well as lower her voice to a more gentle tone. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I'm just surprised and... well, really excited to actually see one in person. I think zoruas are really cool."

Eli relaxed slightly after the woman adjusted her tone, sounding more sympathetic and friendly to the nervous fox pokemon. Eli took a moment to respond, but slowly but surely, he began to make eye contact again. "You... you think so?" he mumbled meekly.

The woman's smile widened after seeing the positive response from the shy pokemon. "Oh absolutely! Zorua and zoroark are two of my favorite pokemon ever, and ever since that first day I figured out what was going on, I've always wanted to meet one!"

Eli looked away again, but this time a shadow of a smile crossed his face.

Ashley suddenly crossed her arms as a more thoughtful expression appeared on her face. "Though to be honest, I'm surprised I even ran into you this quickly," Ashley continued, "because it seems like zoruas are really rare."

This caught Eli's full attention. "Wait, really? How do you know? And how rare, exactly?" Eli inquired earnestly.

"Oh, very," Ashley responded, sitting on the cot next to Eli, "I mean, out of the hundreds and hundreds of pokemon I've met, seen, or even just heard about, I've only ever heard of a single zorua being anywhere close to-" Ashley suddenly cut herself off and brought a finger to her chin, eyes drifting downwards in mild concern as if pondering an unseen problem.

Alex raised an eyebrow at the woman's odd reaction. "Um... is something wrong, miss?"

Ashley suddenly focused her thoughtful stare towards Eli, making him lean slightly away from her in bemusement, and briefly hung her mouth open as if trying to find the right words before she spoke again. "Hey... you wouldn't happen to be the zorua that got attacked by that mob of people near Austin this morning, would you?"

Eli's eyes widened slightly and he wordlessly looked over to Alex.

Alex was just as surprised as Eli. He did a double take as soon as he heard exactly what Ashley had said. "Wait, you heard about that? How?"

The woman hung her head down low and shook her head, growing noticeably more sad after Alex indirectly confirmed her suspicions. "I don't think there's a single person here who hasn't heard of what happened," the woman explained, facing Alex and Eli again, "It reached the entirety of the pokemon community within like an hour of it happening."

Alex let out a tired scoff and shook his head. "That has to mean someone got it on video... kinda surprised they even managed that. Heard it got out of hand fast."

"That's an understatement and a half," Eli muttered grimly.

Ashley reached a hand over to Eli to give him a comforting head pat, but after Eli flinched lightly on first contact, and as he realized he was being pet, he scooted further away, letting Ashley know that he was uncomfortable with it, prompting her to stop right away. Ashley let out a sad sigh. "I'm really sorry you had to go through that. I really don't understand how some people can just be so awful. Especially towards people like us who didn't even ask for any of this."

Eli gave no response outside of a simple head nod.

After a moment of silence, Ashley sat up straight and faced Eli directly again. "Ah, but listen to me going on. Moving on to the main issue at hand, we still need to get you all healed up."

Eli gave another quick nod. "Please. That'd be really helpful."

The woman nodded, and without another word, she stood up and began glowing a white light. Alex watched as she shrunk in height, but substantially grew in size until the glow faded, revealing a bright pink egg shaped pokemon with a darker pink pouch that held what looked to Alex like an actual egg. Alex let out a sharp, amused exhale. "A chansey, huh? Figures we'd find a pokemon like you in here."

The big pink nurse pokemon let out a light giggle at Alex's comment, then faced Eli, speaking in a voice Alex, unsurprisingly, couldn't understand. Alex shook his head and absently stared off to the side. 'I wonder if it's even worth keeping my mew form a secret here. Constantly missing out on half of the conversation is getting annoying.'

Eli gave another curt nod after the nurse pokemon finished talking. "Okay. Go ahead."

The chansey gave Eli a comforting smile and held out her short arms which began glowing a bright pink color. After a few seconds of gathering energy, she adjusted her arms so that she was pointing at Eli's forelegs and began emitting slow moving waves of the gathered energy energy that quickly enveloped the dark fox pokemon.

Eli closed his eyes as the waves of healing energy coated his body, and let out a relieved sigh as the muscles in his injured foreleg relaxed greatly, nearly causing him to fall over from being put in a state of lull. Eli shook his body as the last of the waves passed over him, and after gingerly pressing his weight down onto his foreleg, he flashed a grin and began taking small steps back and forth onto the cot, as well as small hops in place, landing on his forelegs first. "That is sick. It's like you can't even tell I was ever injured."

The chansey began glowing a bright white again, once again transforming back into her human form. "Yup, Heal Pulse certainly comes in handy quite often. I will suggest you stay in your pokemon form as much as you can for the next day or so just to help stretch those muscles."

Eli gave the woman a wary look. "How would staying as a pokemon help? I can just transform back and keep moving my arm to do the same thing, right?"

Ashley shrugged. "Well you could, it just wouldn't help as much. Pokemon forms have a muuuch much faster natural healing rate than human forms do."

Alex sat up straighter upon hearing this revelation and glanced over to Eli, who had a similarly surprised reaction, glancing back and forth between Alex and Ashley. "Wait, really? Well... shit. I might have to think that over."

"It's not gonna hurt you if you don't. I just thought I'd let you know in case you weren't aware," Ashley offered, moving back over to and sitting down in the chair she had previously been in. "If you're comfortable enough with it, you can stay in your pokemon form while you explore the camp. You said you were new here, right?"

Alex nodded. "Yea, we were going to have Sierra here give us a tour-" Alex motioned over to where he thought Sierra was standing only to find he waved his hand towards an empty space, "...where'd she go?"

Ashley glanced over to where Alex motioned to and shook her head, completely unsurprised. "That girl couldn't stay in one place to save her own life," she noted before facing Alex again, "It's fine. She won't have gone far. I'll bet you anything she's right outside the tent talking someone's ear off."

Alex's curiosity got the better of him and he decided to see if the woman was right. With a tired grunt, he slowly got up from the cot he was relaxing in and made his way to the tent entrance, looking just outside of it. Sure enough, Alex spotted her fifteen feet away, chatting with someone Alex didn't recognize. Alex let out a chuckle. 'She must have a reputation around these parts,' Alex mused. He took another step in her direction and called out to her loudly. "Yo! Sierra! You still with us or what?"

"One second!" she called back, briefly turning to the younger man she was talking to.

Alex rolled his eyes and stepped back into the tent as the girl finished her conversation. "You were right on the money," Alex said, addressing Ashley.

Ashley let out an amused scoff. "Of course I am. You ever try and get her to sit still? Even if she's hurt? It's nigh impossible."

"Hey, I'm back," Sierra said, popping her head back into the tent. "Is Eli all good now?"

Eli nodded and took a large leap off the cot he was sitting on, making a point to put most of the pressure on his previously bad foreleg as he landed on the ground "Yup! Feels pretty much like new!"

Sierra flashed Eli and Alex a toothy grin. "Glad to hear. Now c'mon," she said, motioning Alex and Eli to follow her, "we have a bunch to explore. It might seem like it's just a big campsite, but there are a couple things I think you guys will really like."

Alex turned to face Eli. "How bout it, man? Still feel up for a tour?"

Eli looked down at his paws, appearing to give it some thought, and then eventually let out a defeated sigh. "Ah what the hell." His body flashed a lavender color in an instant and Eli's human form stood in front of Alex. "I'm game. May as well after coming this far, right?"

Alex, despite how tired he was from walking, quickly exited the tent again, with Eli close behind. "Exactly what I was thinking!" Alex turned to face Sierra and made a gesture outward. "Lead the way."

"Y'all have fun and be careful out there, okay?" Ashley called out to the group as they exited the tent.

Eli looked back and gave the healer a friendly wave and a small smile. "We will. And thanks again."

"On we go, then!" Sierra declared, starting towards the center of camp. As they walked through the camp, Alex once again found himself fondly and happily observing all of the people and different types of pokemon happily living their life in such a relaxed environment. Some of the people and pokemon alike even offered friendly waves to Alex as they passed, which Alex happily returned. As Alex continued to visually explore every aspect of the campsite he could as Sierra led them on, Alex realized that this was the most relaxed he had felt in weeks. 'You know,' he thought to himself, 'if this goes well, I might just have to see about making this a second home. Good community, seems to be friendly people, nice system they have going here... If I'm being honest with myself, it isn't exactly what my first thought would be when I think of a pokemon paradise... but you know what, this is a pretty damn close second.

'I think I'm going to love it here.'

((That feel when you keep writing cuz you can't figure out where to end the chapter, only to figure out you've accidentally written almost two full chapters. Whoops... this part was actually ready days ago, but I didn't upload it for those reasons. Ah well. To make up for it, I'm going to post the next chapter later this month instead of early next month since it's almost done anyway. And in that case, I'll almost be fully caught up!))