"Mooooooom," Alec whines, putting his best effort into it. "Mom, I'm so boooooooooored."

She doesn't even look up from her phone. "Then go find something to do."

"But what," he says, draping himself over the back of the couch where she's sitting. His mom's engrossed in some sort of game involving feeding hungry pokemon the right pokepuff before time runs out. It's clearly not important enough for her to be not listening to him.

"You've got books, games, TV - go round to your friend's place, if you want. Just don't hang around here being annoying." She taps at her screen a few times, up up down left, and a overly cheerful victory jingle rings out. Ugh.

"None of my friends are around. And I don't feel like reading or playing."

Finally she pauses her game, but only long enough to roll her eyes at him. "Seriously, Alec? You're a healthy nine-year-old boy and it's a beautiful sunny Saturday. Go. Find something. To do."

Ughhhhhhh. Fine. This is clearly going nowhere. Alec slouches through the house to the kitchen, grabs an apple from the fridge, and slumps down against the wall. He takes a morose bite, making sure to chew with his mouth open as loudly as he can even though his mom can't see and probably can't hear him over her game. As he's trying to decide what to do, Nem slinks in through the backyard door and comes over, butting his head against Alec's shoulder before yawning in his face. Alec wrinkles his nose - the pyroar's breath smells like burnt sausages.

"Get off me, it's too hot for you to sit on me," he says, shoving at Nem's chest. Nem doesn't even budge, of course. His mane is uncomfortably warm against Alec's wrists, like standing too close to a fireplace, so Alec scoots sideways until he can stand up. Nem follows, batting at his ankles, and Alec's just about to complain to Mom about her dumb pyroar not leaving him alone when he gets an idea.

"Mom, can I take Nem out to the nature trail?" he shouts.

There's a pause, like she's thinking about it. "I guess so," she calls back. "Just make sure you're back before your mama gets home. And don't burn down anything."

"Sure thing!" Hehehe. Normally his parents won't let him in the forest by himself, since he doesn't have his own pokemon and all, but Nem's so lazy that he'll probably go to sleep as soon as they're round the corner and then Alec can do what he likes. Alec grabs his backpack and phone, snags a cereal bar and a bottle of soda then, as an afterthought, tosses in a couple of pokeballs. Never know when a rare pokemon might suddenly appear, after all!

"Come on, Nem, we're going for a walk," he says, taking Nem's pokeball from the little table next to the front door and shoving it in his shorts pocket. He pulls the door open wide and the pyroar obligingly pads along behind him as he heads out towards the edge of town. His house is on the outskirts of Laverre, so it's not too far, but it still takes about fifteen minutes to get there and sadly, Nem stays next to him the whole way along. Alec gives him a dirty look.

"Oh, so now you actually wanna walk, huh?" he mutters, and Nem chuffs back at him. Ignoring Nem, Alec turns to survey the forest before him. He's been here before, of course, but knowing that he's here by himself (mostly) makes every tree seem taller, every shadow deeper, every rustle of leaves or grass more thrilling. He strides forward into the shade of the canopy, ready to explore and uncover the secrets of this new and fantastical place, and promptly steps in a bog.

Nem chuffs at him again, in what sounds suspiciously like a leonine laugh.

"Ugh, shut up. Dumb pyroar." Alec tries to shake the mud off his sneakers, but it's no good. Anyway. Something bright in the reeds catches his eye and he goes over to investigate, finding a shelmet with its shell closed up tight. There's a karrablast nearby too, swaggering around the shelmet and spitting at it, but it scurries off when it notices him. Alec waits a few minutes, but the shelmet stays closed up so he shrugs and moves away.

Nem's finally sprawled out under a tree (the bark is slowly cracking as it dries out and the ground is steaming around him), although when Alec glances back, Nem has one eye open watching him. Alec sticks his tongue out at him and goes deeper into the forest, taking better care to watch out for puddles.

He wanders for a while, sometimes following the path and sometimes pushing his way through bushes just to see what's around. At one point he finds a roseli bush with small insects clustered around the overripe fruit - Alec almost misses the bellsprout hiding nearby until it lashes out blindingly fast and snaps a fly from the air. Later he catches a glimpse of purple out in the swamp - a goomy! If he went in to school on Monday with a goomy, it'd be so cool - but once he's knee-deep in water with a pokeball in hand, he finds it's just a quagsire's back and he turns back in disgust.

The trees here are thicker than they were at the entrance. It's getting late and he's long since eaten his cereal bar, so Alec decides it's time to go back home and raid the fridge. The way back is just… hm. Alec tries to spot which way he came in, but it's hard to see much in the gloom. He can smell a heavy sweetness to the left, though, so maybe the roseli bush is over that way?

As he starts moving, something splashes on his shoulder.

Alec looks up and that's when the carnivine drops. He screams but it's in front of him, vines wrapping around his arms. Carnivine don't eat people. Carnivine don't eat people, it'll realise and drop him in a minute, but its mouth's opening wider and wider and he's struggling to tear himself free and it's not letting him go.

Something roars like an oncoming firestorm and Nem smashes through the undergrowth, fangs bared and mane blazing. Flame billows out from his jaws. The carnivine hurriedly releases him but Nem stalks over and bites down hard on its tendril. It screeches in pain and explodes into a flurry of whipping vines, striking at Nem's face and eyes. One hits home and Nem snarls but doesn't let go. There's blood on his forehead. The air's getting painfully hot.

Alec looks around desperately. The leaves nearby are already starting to burn - if Nem doesn't stop soon, the forest might really catch on fire. "Nem!" he snaps. "Nem, stop! Look what you're doing!" But Nem isn't listening, too caught up in the battle. He can't recall Nem in case the carnivine decides to keep attacking him instead but there's nothing else that'll help, nothing else to hand -

Hand. Alec's still got the empty pokeball in his hand! With desperate hope, he throws it at the carnivine as hard as he can. The carnivine is sucked inside and it drops, bounces, shakes once twice thrice, then clicks.

Alec falls to his knees, his breath rattling in his throat. Slowly, the temperature returns to normal and Nem comes closer, nudging at him with his nose and licking his face. "I'm okay," Alec croaks. "I'm okay, Nem. I'm okay. Sorry for calling you dumb all those times."

He shudders, then crawls over to the fallen pokeball and picks it up. For a moment, he just sits and looks at it. Then Alec bursts out laughing. "This is my starter," he gasps out. Nem flicks his tail back and forth, giving a concerned-sounding huff. "This is my starter and it nearly ate me and you nearly lit the whole forest on fire, Nem. I'm gonna go in on Monday and tell everyone and it's gonna be awesome."