"No, no, you don't understand... it's not from a battle, it's, well... you'd have to see it for yourself."
Bo's mother was on the phone with the pokemon center immediately after breakfast, arranging a barn visit to examine Blaise. To her frustration, the center naturally wanted to know what the symptoms were, and were having trouble believing what they were hearing. Bo was nearby, washing the dishes from breakfast. She made a soft snorting sound, not unlike the sound a ponyta might make, as she listened in to the conversation.
"I've never seen a seed attack do this," Bo's mother said insistently, "I'm telling you, he grew vines! ...I know that's not normal. Listen, could you just... send Nurse Joy up here as soon as possible? When? No...no that won't work."
Bo could tell where this conversation was going already. She let her mom continue talking as she dried her hands and went to fetch her boots. Then she went out to the stables.
Juniper was there already. She was adjusting the bandages they had hastily applied over Blaise's new vines to try and control them. Blaise pawed the ground and tossed his head restlessly. "Shhh, it's okay Blaise... we know it's not your fault," Juniper said over and over in comforting tones. She looked up as Bo strode in, watching her sister begin to saddle up Kindle.
"The pokemon center is too busy to see us right now," said Bo tersely, "So it looks like I'm going to have to go to them."
"You're not going by yourself are you?" asked Juniper
Bo nodded, "It shouldn't be a problem, really. As long as we keep those bandages on, it'll be like a daytrip out. I'll ride Kindle, carry Blaise by pokeball. Let them see what's going on here."
Juniper seemed to think it over before she nodded in return, "Okay then. But let me get you some supplies for the trip, okay? You always forget to eat when you go riding." With that she scampered back to the house.
Bo grinned a little, then reached for the rack of pokeballs that coresponded to each of the ponyta. Taking Blaise's in her hand she walked up to the skittish colt and pushed the button to recall him. The light shone, enveloped Blaise...
...then dissapeared.
Bo pursed her lips, cocked an eyebrow, and tried again. With the same results. Blaise whickered nervously. One more try. Nothing. Bo sighed, her tongue in her cheek as she considered the predicament. "Okay... let's try the catch you method." She threw the ball this time, expecting it to scoop the ponyta up into it like it always did. Instead, it bounced off the colt's flank and Blaise looked at her as if a little surprised at being hit. He bumped the open pokeball with his nose, snuffling at the inside of it. Then he looked at Bo blankly.
"What, don't look at me like that, it was always good enough for you before" she said exasperatedly.
Blank silence answered.
She sighed, "guess I'm leading you over there. Let's get your lead line."
She grabbed the length of rope used to lead ponyta and had Blaise hooked up and next to a wary looking Kindle by the time Juniper returned with a pack of sandwiches and a bedroll. "Just in case," said the younger sister. Bo tossled Juniper's hair before hoping up onto Kindle's back smoothly "Be back soon, Jun" She clucked her tongue and Kindle started forward at a clipped walk, Blaise following along at the end of his lead.
The sun slowly climbed into the sky as Bo rode on, clouds drifting lazily across the sky. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Bo couldn't help but feel a bit at peace while on the road. She loved riding. It gave her time to think in peace and quiet. She took off her hat and let the wind tug gently at her hair. "Blaise, how are you doing back there?" She looked back to Blaise, who neighed in response, then shook his mane. "We'll get there in no time," she said reassuringly, "You know Nurse Joy will know what to do."
They were still about an hour out of the city when Kindle began to slow down and drift a little to one side of the road. Despite Bo's attempts to correct her, Kindle soon came to a full stop, Blaise beside her, the both of them looking out over the grass on either side of the roads. They were nervous.
Bo's senses went on high alert, but she tried to nudge Kindle forward anyway. Kindle shuffled forward a step or two, then turned sideways, ears pricked forward, body tense. Blaise snorted and danced about fractiously. As both ponyta started acting up more, Bo dismounted, taking hold of Kindle's reins and trying to lead on foot "Lets go girl. Keep moving. Whatever it is, we'll get past it sooner if we keep moving."
Reluctantly, Kindle and Blaise began to step forward, ears swiveling back and forth as they listened to their surroundings. Bo lead them slowly, tension creeping into her back and neck. The day seemed bright and colorful still, but suddenly much less friendly. Much more quiet. The back of her neck tingled uncomfortably as she walked, as if expecting something, though she wasn't sure what.
Slowly, slowly, they walked, taking so much longer than Bo would have liked.
It was almost a relief when the first hiss sung through the air.
The ponyta reared suddenly as the serpent shaped thing lunged out of the grasses, a blue and gold bolt of blurred motion that snapped at anything close to it. Bo was nearly pulled off her feet as she kept a hold on the reins and tried to avoid the thrashing set of teeth at the same time. Before she could recover, a hard blast of liquid struck her full in the face. Immediately her eyes began to sting and burn, and she fell back with a cry. Poison! As she rubbed fiercely at her eyes, she heard Kindle neigh shrilly, hooves stomping, hissing, and a pokemon call she couldn't quite make out. More splashing, sounds of liquid. The sound of tearing cloth and another loud neigh. She backed up away from the sounds, still rubbing her eyes as the distinct sharp sound of a whip sung in the air.
All fell silent.
Finally, Bo found her vision returning, as she stared at the blurred shapes before her until they came into focus once more. There stood Kindle, tossing her head, her mane flickering low and her tail diminished. There was the serpent shape on the ground, lifeless and limp.
And there was Blaise, his bandages lying in shreds at either side of him, fully grown vines swaying from his shoulders, his flames... no... not flames.
Leaves.
Bo rubbed her eyes again, thinking the poison was still affecting her. But the sight stayed the same. In place of the fire that usually trailed down Blaise's back from ears to tail, a path of golden, russet, and orange leaves blossomed, waving on their own as if a small breeze played over them.
Blaise turned to face her, and Bo could see then that his eyes had turned a brilliant green, and were glowing. Fearing an attack like the one in the barn, Bo reached for her knife.
Blaise stood still.
Trembling, Bo circled around the leafy ponyta, unsure what to think. Blaise remained quiet as Bo made her way to Kindle, gathering the reins in her hand like a lifeline to reality. Then she approached the blue and gold shape.
An ekans?
She nudged it with her boot. It was the right shape, but the wrong color. She had heard of rare mutations of course, but they had been described as a greenish gold. Not this. Not a deep, pure blue. Bo nudged the strange thing with her boot, checking it for signs of life, then knelt down to take a closer look. She noticed a pool of water under the thing's jaw and carefully avoided it, fearing poison in it. It couldn't be... could it? Ekans wasn't a water type, as far as she remembered.
With careful hands she picked it up and stood slowly, as if in a dream. She turned.
And was face to face with Blaise.
A startled cry escaped her lips as she jumped back, but this time Blaise only stretched out his neck and nosed her pocket. What he usually did when he was looking for treats. He seemed proud of himself somehow. It was a moment or two before Bo finally caught her breath again, and she gave a sigh of relief to see Blaise didn't seem likely to attack her.
She moved around to Kindle, retrieving her pack and emptying out the sandwiches to place the ekans body in it instead. Taking a deep breath, she turned and took hold of Blaise's lead once more "Okay... I don't have more bandages so... er... no funny business with the vines. Got it?"
Blaise snorted.
Bo ran her free hand over her face "oh boy... let's... let's get going."
She mounted back up onto Kindle's back, gave the mare a reassuring stroke on the neck, then clucked her tongue again. They took off again, faster than before.
It wasn't long before Bo's nerves urged her and her ponyta into a run.
They reached the city in the afternoon, hooves clattering over cobblestone roads as they made their way straight to the pokemon center. Startled bystanders dove out of the way, pulling double takes at the strange sight before them. They skidded up to the pokemon center, where Bo dismounted and immediately returned Kindle to her pokeball.
The doors to the center fairly blew open as Bo rushed in, leading a prancing, pawing Blaise into the center of the room and up to the desk. The receptionist there gaped in an open mouth stare at the freakish sight before her eyes.
"What- Wh-...what?!" she stammered over and over.
"This," Bo said as she leaned over the desk, "Is what my mom was trying to tell you. Where's Nurse Joy?"
The receptionist continued to blubber fruitlessly as visitors and chanseys crowded into the room.
"I'm right here," called a stern but friendly voice from behind the crowd. They made way for her as she strode through, making her way directly to the ponyta's side. She checked his eyes, the vines, the leaves, all with an unreadable expression, then gestured for Bo to give her the lead. "This just became our most urgent patient," she said to the chanseys, who fidgeted about, a little unsure of their patient.
Before Bo could ask any questions, Nurse Joy led Blaise through the doors to the back of the center, leaving a crowd of questions and stunned expressions in her wake.
With nothing else to do, Bo took a seat and began the lonely wait for answers.