On the behavioral characteristics of the Ralts evolutionary line

by dan-chan

In the region of Kalos was a certain pokemon researcher. His research was focused on the social dynamics of the Ralts evolutionary line. However, what began as a simple research expedition soon grew to him Learning to understand just what it meant to understand the heart of another.

5. The problem with feeling

20 June 3130. Route 4 woodland.

I woke up the next morning in a bleary state. I set my alarm to go off at 5:00 am. Well before sunrise, and with an estimated amount of time to get onto site before the Gardevoir roused for the day. As I glanced around, I couldn't help but think that field work was not the easiest thing to get used to without some kind of preparation.

I sat in the semi darkness of predawns twilight alone in my tent. Amelia and I shared different tents. This was good as she decided she did not seem to like being disturbed at night. However, as I proceeded to pull out my clothes for the day and get changed, I did admit to carrying some dark feelings on the matter. If she was going to be assisting me, she needed to have the same time schedule as I did. Otherwise, what the hell did she expect to accomplish?
After getting changed, I clawed my way out of my tent and into the cold predawn light. It didn't seem to matter if it was 21 degrees or 10 degrees (Celsius) it still felt cold compared to the tent. There was no wind, so the embers from last nights fire emitted a light smoke that hung over the area. I stumbled my way over to it, then set some wood into the fire pit. I then blew at it until I saw a small flame appear near one of the logs. Slowly, that flame spread to rekindle the fire that we had from last night.

With the fire lit, I then began to survey the camp site. There were 3 main tents set up. One was a 10 foot by 10 foot wall tent. Inside of it was all the equipment I would need for studying samples and reviewing data. There was a small solar power generator that was hung on the roof of it, braced from within the tent by a series of poles. There was a desk and a chair as well. Beyond that, it also contained additional charging equipment for the inhibitor which had yet to see use and the camera battery chargers. At some point, we were to set these up for remote video surveillance. However, this required time. Time was made by finding patterns that allowed for camouflage deployment and remote system calibration. The idea was to have a camera network set up on site so as to observe the settlement remotely should the opportunity surface.

This honestly seemed a bit of a waste as cameras could not cover the entire area at all times and until the radio repeater network was set up, it would be cost prohibitive to set up a satellite multiplexer link. Still, the department heads had dreamed big when they sent out both systems...
Aside from that equipment, there was also a trunk of additional supplies due within the day. This would be food and additional cameras as well as a lindsradt rifle with a tranquilizer dart magazine. This was pushing it to be honest.

I counted on simplicity. However, the department felt that if a settlement was observed, then long term stays were to be expected. Therefore, it would make sense to send out additional resources.

Still... who was funding this? The department was rather mum on the precise origin of funding. There was, of course, the Fey-Tuttle foundation, which seemed to stick its nose in any new survey of psychic and fairy types now, but then there was other funding sources. Clearly such sophistication could not come from just one funding source.

Take for instance the solar generator. Normally these weighed hundreds of pounds and were bulky to say the least, the solar array was rigid and usually required two people. This system however, seemed to collapse down to the dimensions of a notebook paper and yet folded our to 8 times that size and generated 100 watts. That sophistication is usually seen on military level operations into the field. Not some 2 man operation watching Gardevoir frolic in the field!

I shook these thoughts out of my head as I set about making breakfast. I figured that Amelia would come stumbling out soon. So I figured the sooner we could eat, the sooner I could get back on site.

Within 10 minutes, the food was coming along nicely. There was coffee brewing and eggs cooking along with some biscuits and gravy. With the food situation being resolved, I decided to look into something that had been bugging me since last night.

As we had retired for the night, I had heard some noises coming from around the camp. Well not really some noises in truth, rather It was just one source moving around. I figured it was a mankey or some ratattas or something. However, upon a quick inspection, it did not appear as though anything had been damaged. Nothing in the wall tent was out of place, and the fire pit did not appear disturbed. Since we kept the main food supply in our bags, it was almost guaranteed that they were untouched.

Odd. So nothing gets disturbed, yet clearly something was out and about last night...
With a sigh, I decided that whatever it was probably posed no significant threat to us. Otherwise it would have attacked last night. Hell, it probably didn't really seem too concerned if nothing was disturbed...

I shook these thoughts too out of my head as I returned to the fire pit in time to hear Amelia suddenly roll over in her tent with a groan. 5 minutes later she just emerged from her tent basically looking like hell. As she stumbled to the fire, I held up a spare mug for her.

" -'s this?" she said, clearly still groggy.

"Coffee, drink up, you're gonna need it for today."

With a groan, she settled down onto a rock across from me then began to fuss at her breakfast. Oddly enough, she had the audacity to give a confused look at the meal I had made. "Is this.. biscuits and gravy?" She suddenly asked.

"Yeah, let me guess, first time having it?"

"Seems excessive, starch on starch? Who eats this garbage?"

Rather than indulge her on regional cultures, I instead shrugged.

"You're gonna need the carbohydrates in order to function today. There could be some running involved and you'll need the energy..."

"Coffee won't do?" she asked.

"It's only good to jumpstart the nervous system and that's it..." I responded as I mixed my eggs in with the Biscuits and gravy.

She gave a repulsed look before digging into her breakfast.

"So what will we be doing anyways?" she asked.

"Well," I said as I put the plate down, "The plan is to get back on site and set up to watch them. I want to record their morning rituals to see if there is any kind of complex social behaviors in their morning rituals as well. "

"Why are you so concerned with ritual behaviors in particular? " She asked, "You've used it a few times and seem to stress something about them."

I smiled as I sat my plate, now mostly empty, then looked at her "Well, to understand this, you need to understand the reasons for why complex behavior arises. The Ralts line, like Humans, are born immature. If we think of them like birds, they are altricial. They have almost no instinctual habits. They cling to their parents who feed them over the first few months in life, then slowly begin teaching them all they need to know. Simple things at first like getting their food, to being able to vocalize, then to being able to first articulate and detect other emotional states. "

She seemed taken aback "I thought the emotional states issue was instinctual."

"In a way." He replied. "It's going to happen and they will eventually learn how to distinguish the two. However, there is a problem with this, when done individually, it takes a long time for the ralts to master this capability. In many cases, the individual results vary from trainer to trainer, yet whenever a ralts over the age of 3 years old, it has a better control over its abilities than a ralts at 4 to 5 years old raised in captivity. Why?" He then asked.

He paused a moment to finish off his food.

"The possible answer, is that the adults have a system set up to teach the ralts everything it needs to know. But when you look at what it can do by three years old, this is a wide variety of behaviors that suggest that a lot is imparted in a short time. This suggests that there is some specialization somewhere in the teaching environment. In humans, our evolutionary response was to establish a social society. Family groups whose sole purpose was to raise the children so that they too could function. Each member of the family group was specialised in how to hunt, how to speak, how to forage, how to weave, how to make tools, and so on. These are all behaviors we learn. We do not have these as instincts. Why not?"

"...Because we are born too early?" Amelia asked.

"Yes, because we walk upright, our hip bones are narrow. A more developed baby cannot be passed through the hip bones so the evolutionary response was to birth the baby sooner. This left them, like the ralts, with very few instinctive behaviors. Because of this, it had to learn everything in order to survive. "

"That sounds disturbingly like the Ralts line."

I smiled as I looked at her down my forks surface.
"Precisely. Did you know that technically we are able to breed with them?" I asked.

"I heard a few rumors but I thought that we couldn't because they were pokemon..." she said.

"Well, we cannot argue that they are pokemon. But the genetic differences between us and them are only 1.6%. " I said, emphasizing this heavily.

"Now, depending on what region we are talking about, the genetic variation in humans is only .1%, which can be found in variations of us who lived through a genetic bottleneck 7500 years ago, to .6% in all other cases. So a further 1% is all that separates us from them. Individually that means nothing though. What matters is the chromosome pairings. For us and them the pairings of chromosomes are precisely 23. Further, the pairing sequence is the same both ways. This is a very important notion. If we consider the implications of these observations. We must ask ourselves what this entails! Study of mitochondrial DNA suggests to us that the split happened between 15000 and 20000 years ago.
"Now," I said as I took a drink from my coffee, which had cooled down a bit since I began talking, "With a split that recent, normally one wouldn't expect to see much variation. After all, most of these regions were settled by 10,000 years ago. So why are they so different?" I asked.

After a moments thought, Amelia gave a tentative response "Because of technology?" She asked.

I gave her a genuine smile. "Indeed, the advent of technology can be a very important role in this. When we consider that humanity took the option of adapting technology to our environment, that means that the niches we filled were now able to be adapted for artificially. However, that doesn't explain everything. If we consider the peculiar development of their shards, for instance. It is a very interesting crystalline structure. Why does it exist? What purpose does it serve? Well we know what its current purpose is, but there are issues too. I wonder if that wasn't the first change. Some kind of crystalline form which was the initial stage of the split. "

"Ok, so you are saying that 15000 years ago there was a group of people with a crystal somewhere in them and a group of people who didn't?" she asked "Do we even have evidence of that?"

"At this time, no we don't." I said. "We know how bodies can utilize minerals to formulate complex crystalline structures. The production of a pearl in the cloyster species for example deals with a complex mantle organ producing a calcium carbonate structure as a result of foreign bodies entering the filtration apparatus. So, one has to wonder if there wasn't a similar process which the Early Gardevoir/human species didn't experience as well. '

"However, there is another issue which remains unresolved." I said as I looked at the fire. "Why has humanities genetic code stabilized so much where the Gardevoirs genetic code seems to be so unstable? Why does this exist all throughout nature but not with us? This is an unresolved question in our evolution. We do not know the sequence of events that led to us having a stable genetic structure while theirs is like every other pokemon. It is doubtful that we will be able to answer those questions about their genetics out here, but there might be an answer as to why ours stabilized. Further, I want to answer whether or not we should also re-evaluate our views on their relative sentience as well." What I ended up leaving out for her is the position that there would be opposition on purely moral grounds.

Due to mans ego, the notion of being at the top of things served as a rational justification for the concept of ownership. The International Pokemon Trainers League, for instance, advocated for peaceful co-operation and had recently petitioned the United Regions for a reassessment of trainer standards. Since the Pokemon Leagues of each region fell under the IPTL, this was assumed to have gone through without any issues.

However, one paragraph in one section ended up derailing the entire process. That paragraph in particular included language which advocated for the re-evaluation of capturing techniques. In all non-sentient versions, the classic methods would not be altered. However, in the species with higher reasoning capabilities, it was suggested that instead of ownership, a kind of contract of mutual partnership would instead be formed. This simply meant that no trainer could legally own a pokemon that had higher reasoning capabilities as this violated the U.R. Unanimous declaration of Human Rights Title B on Slavery. If a person forced another into servitude against their will, this was considered slavery. The argument, in its simplest form, went that if a pokemon could reason in parity or beyond with a human, such as the Ralts and Abra lines, it was illegal to capture them as this was forcing them into servitude. Therefore, an agreement would have to be reached using the two parties that was mediated by a neutral third party.

As expected, there was significant backlash. Various regional Pokemon Leagues faced censure and a massive campaign was instigated against it. Even though the Pokemon Leagues had popular support, they did not have the media savvy that corporations such as the Silph Industries did. It was no surprise then, that after a brutal media campaign. Voting naturally turned in opposition. The proposal was tabled and never saw a formal U.R. Vote.

"So, then what? We are out here to make a case that we shouldn't in fact capture Gardevoirs?" She finally asked.

With a sigh, I shook my head. "That attitude stays here in camp. We are not out to confirm or debunk any ideology. All we are really here to do, is to make observations so that we can actually understand what it is we are dealing with in the natural world. If they are, in fact, able to reason in a manner that we can adapt to and communicate through, then this should be known. If they have a complex social group and cultural attributes, we should also know that. We might very well also discover why there was such a drastic split a very short time ago."

We ate in silence for a few more minutes before I stood up, then walked back to my tent. I grabbed a thermos then returned to the camp fire. After filling it with the remaining coffee, I proceeded to clean off the plates and then deposit my cookware in the tent.

Amelia was still sitting at the fire, absent-mindedly eating when I finally finished then said "Come on, we should get over there before they wake up."

After that breakfast, the two of us later found ourselves on site in the blind hide.

The previous day, we set up a simple netting at 5 feet in height. It was supported on each corner by a simple black pole that was anchored into the ground using rope and a few stakes that were pushed in at a 55 degree angle from vertical. This allowed the net to have support and was not readily visible. We intentionally set this up in a grove of bushes which seemed to be of the Holly family. We selected this as it had a natural ring form and was dense enough that we could see through it without being readily seen ourselves. Further, it was flanked on the southern corner by sabal Palmettos, an oddity for this area as they were non native, and a pecha bush.

We made some slight modifications to the surroundings. One bush was trimmed and its branches redistributed to obscure the hide poles. And another was trimmed to allow us to have an unobstructed view of the Gardevoir settlement. A major sacrifice was that from a distance, the hide did look natural. However at a distance of less than 25 meters, it was clear there was some form of a structure here. However, given that it gave us room to move and was far enough away that we could observe the entire site without attracting attention, we had a relatively comfortable observation site. This beat a Land rover parked in the middle of a plains watching a herd of tauros, at the least.

The two of us settled in as the sun finally began to rise over the horizon. The Golden orange light cast peculiar shadows even on their settlement site.

What I found interesting was that at this range, we could make out most of their prone forms. The current parent group with the Ralts was sleeping curled up together under a natural branch overhang that seemed to provide a kind of natural rain shelter. The grass around them seemed to be more fibrous in nature. As if it provided a very soft cushion when laid upon.

The other pair was settled by a rock outcove. their sleeping forms were stretched out, with one within the others embrace against the rock itself. Seemingly supported into a more intimate position. The remaining one seemed to have made a sort of hammock for itself as it lay on a branch that seemed bordered on each side by branches that were secured together to provide a net like shape.

Strangely though, the lone one was actually the closest to the Eggs. Which sat seemingly exposed in the back of the nesting site. If an animal were to exercise sufficient stealth, I would not be amazed if an egg occasionally was stolen from this nest.

Naturally, I had no way of knowing this as there appeared to be no attempts thus far. In fact, the very air around here was absent a number of common dawn sounds. There was only a few isolated birds that cried. There were almost no bug noises around as well. The entire area seemed unnaturally still. Was this a side effect of Gardevoir inhabiting this area?

Amelia gave me a cross look as we realized just how still it was. We did not previously know their usual waking time. It was assumed that since they could be considered prey for dark types, they would be up at dawn, and have a vanguard of sorts to provide them protection.

"I could have gotten more sleep..." She muttered in a dejected fashion.

I simply gave a shrug as I conceded this fact to her.

"This is a fair point that I made an assumption that turned out to be incorrect. " He said in a low tone of voice. "Actually, I'm really happy that I'm wrong on this. It means that a few central assumptions, such as them having a need to have a posted guard of some sort, are about to change."

I set up a small tripod mounted camera, then set it to take a number of rapid fire pictures.

"Anything we observe here can then be correlated by more in depth studies in the future." He said quietly. "We can form a more unbiased assessment of their life styles based upon this."

She looked at him.

"I don't get why you are happy being wrong though," she said quietly "Most people are argumentative when they are wrong."

I smiled at her, "Well that's just it. If I'm wrong, I will happily concede it. Because I'm wrong about when they wake up, that means that you don't have to rush out of bed in the morning. At the same time, we see before us that there is something more going on here. I can be wrong about these things because it also means our assumptions are wrong. It also means that we don't know as much about them as we thought we knew. "

I then grinned at her.

"Any time you are wrong is an opportunity to learn more about the world..."

I then turned back to observe the settlement some more. I found it interesting how they arranged themselves, did they have a territorial nature to them? Did they like having a personal space? In certain species, you usually see them clustered together. Ranging like this seemed to mirror more carnivorous species but on a smaller scale.

Finally, between 8 and 830, there was action in the settlement site. First the apparent male parent of the ralts woke up, then seemed to walk around the settlement. It first seemed to check in on the other pair, then the lone one, then back to its own family group. Then it walked into the communal area that they ate at the previous night, then seemed to inspect something. It then emerged into the field, then looked around.

Curiosity compelled me to zoom in with the still camera, then observe closer while taking photos.

It first looked to the left, then slowly turned its head, following the treeline. It continued this in a clockwise fashion. Then it looked upwards to the sky. It seemed to be looking for something. While I couldn't be certain. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't just checking to see if it was being stalked by anything. Finally, it stopped this then walked back to the communal area. It walked back to the eggs, then inspected them briefly.

Finally, it walked back out into the clearing, then crossed the 100 yards to the small spring pond that sat near the center.

At first I thought it was just going to swim, or perhaps drink from it. Instead, it approached the waters edge, then held out its arm. I quickly took a number of photos as it then used its psychic powers to collect water into a large ball, which it then held suspended. The cameras clicking continued as it turned around, then carried this water ball in mid air behind it to the clearing.

I heard a soft shuffling sound as Amelia sat down next to me to watch this. I could hear her slow breathing as she watched these unusual events unfold in front of her.

"Is that... even real?" she asked.

"We are seeing first hand evidence that their psychic powers are disciplined enough to manipulate medium quantities of water for the purpose of collection and transport. Yes, this is real and yes, this is happening.." I responded in a deadpan voice before finally adding:

"Fruitcake..." In reference to her awe at something like this.

I said that endearingly though. I knew she was a trainer by trade, so I expected something like this to be a common sight for her. However, it occurred to me that perhaps what I had simply accepted automatically was in fact an unusual ability.

With this in mind, I took a few more photos, then settled back to make note of the event and the photo series in question that this would refer to.

At around 8:15, the lone one was awake. It seemed to simply move in its perching hammock like bed, then turned to lay on its side. Again, there was an odd sensation in my mind as it faced in our general direction. It quickly passed as the Gardevoir joined the male that was awake then began assisting in subdividing food up into separate piles.

Soon, the light sound of a ralts call was heard as it untangled itself from its mother Gardevoir, then seemingly danced over to the male that had retrieved the water. Its vocalizations were long yet rather loud as well. The male seemed to interact with it for a few moments as the female Gardevoir who had remained sleeping for an additional few moments, finally awoke then walked over to them. I raised my camera, then took a quick series of photos as they approached then began to interact. They seemed to rub their faces together followed by their chest shards. I say run but it would be more accurate to call it touching. Then, they separated, then allowed their hands to interlock. What took place then was most peculiar.

Their hands seemed to move around one another, their fingers occasionally making contact. However, their fingers mostly glanced upon their palms. Though I could not make it out, it looked as if there was some elaborate ritual under way that involved the use of their fingers and palms. Like a dance, or a greeting? I was briefly reminded of hugs and hand shakes. Was it possible that's what this was?

While the three were carrying on, the lone one finished laying out the food, then settled down. Its head was turned mostly to them, then it looked over to the other group. They were slowly awakening as well.

I directed my attention to them next. They seemed to be interacting in a similar way. Face touching, followed by shard touching, followed by hand interaction. They chose instead to do this on the ground. However, theirs lacked the complexity the 3 member family group adopted.

Perhaps the more complex rituals were reserved for large group bonding? I couldn't be sure.
Finally, after about 45 minutes of this, the 6 all seemed to settle down around the communal area, where the food was set up.

There was a pause as they looked around at one another. Then, the Ralts began eating the closest fruit to it. After it ate a few bites, the female mother then proceeded to bite into some fruit. Followed soon after by the rest. It was clear that there was a very specific reason why they ate in this manner. Perhaps it had to do with the ralts and the mother? Was this the key to dominance? I found it peculiar that it was the family group with the ralts that had the dominant female. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough information to make a call.

What I did notice, was that each one had some traits that began to be noticable afer a time. The one that ate afterwards was clearly a female. It had a rounded curvature that the other member of the pair lacked. Its hips were wider, clearly because of the egg production she did. Further, and most peculiarly, she seemed to have a small number of scars. The male, on the other hand, seemed to be scar free. Was it possible then, that the female did most of the fighting?

I looked to the only unpaired Gardevoir in the group. It seemed to be vocalizing a lot. Its colorations were slightly different from the other two pairings. While it wasn't one of the "Shiny" variants that trainers talked about, its colorations were certainly lighter green and more towards the blue end of the spectrum than the others.

"What do you think Amelia? Aquamarine?" I asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"That unpaired Gardevoir, how would you describe her coloration? It's not really blue. It certainly seems more green than that. And I was settling on aquamarine as a coloration." I elaborated.

She pulled the camera away, then began focusing on the unpaired Gardevoir herself. After a minute, she finally handed back the camera then nodded.

"Aquamarine. " She agreed, "Do you think it's a shiny pokemon?"

I grinned at the suggestion but finally shook my head. "They usually are teal in coloration. Likely this is just a slight variant from the usual greens." Still, I couldn't help but think, it was somewhat unusual.

However, as I watched them, I noticed that they all had slightly different colorations to them. Though they were more on the green side of coloration. The females, for example, seemed to run a little brighter green than the males. Further, the color of their chest shards were also unique. Through the camera, I could see that no two shards had the same coloration. Even the ralts had its own coloration that was unique to it.

"I am not too certain that their colors are like our fingerprints, or face structures, or some other feature which is not shared by others..." I suggested.

After watching for a while, I also noticed that like certain animals, the food hierarchy was being observed. The Ralts had a number of fruits to itself, which it was devouring with gusto. The parents though, they did not have nearly as much food as the child. The only one with nearly as much as the child ralts was the lone Gardevoir. Perhaps that meant it was still young? I didn't have enough to work on. Still, if this is true, it means that they are very socialized animals indeed.

"It takes a village..." I finally muttered.

"What do you mean?" She suddenly asked.

"Well, I'm just wondering." I started, "Do you see their spatial organization? The ralts and the two possible parents are sitting right next to the eggs. Now, we don't know if it is because all three of those eggs belong to them, but I'm wondering if we aren't seeing a communal bond suggesting a group child rearing structure."

The orientation indeed did suggest communality. They all face each other as they ate, and the eggs seemed to be bordered by the two adults who looked as if they were in charge, and the single one was oriented furthest away from it.

"See that one sitting alone? It's facing into the group. Last night they all faced one direction, with the same three sitting closest to the eggs. Is it possible that morning meals carry a special significance to them? Like there is a lot of ritual taking place as we speak?"

Indeed, the wind carried light vocalizations to our ears. The ralts seemingly chattering endlessly, the Parents joining in on occasion, and the Aquamarine happily vocalizing along with the child. I couldn't help but to wonder if it wasn't because they were all socially oriented, or if there was a special role being carried out by each member. Until better long-term observation can be carried out, it will be hard to tell.

"What if it's like our morning meals?" She suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well ok, when I Still lived with my parents, every morning we would eat breakfast together. We would talk about what our day was going to be like, and we just gathered comfort in each others presence before starting our day. Perhaps it's like that?"

I gave her an approving smile, then decided to concede the logic in this idea.

"Makes sense. It would also explain why all are involved. " I said.

Indeed, the communication was not in between pairings. If that were the case, the aquamarine would have been all but silent. Instead, there was an apparently endless stream of chatter taking place right before them.

The morning carried on. At some point, they had finished eating. Though it seemed to be entirely led by when the Ralts was full. It suddenly sat back and made a series of calls, then the others slowly finished as well. They then seemed to break off. The Aquamarine settled into some task we could not see, and the second pair came to the ralts pair. By all appearances, they each had some thing they all did afterwards. Though it looked like the next pair was settling in around the eggs while the parental pair led the ralts off.

It looked as though they actually took turns watching over the ralts. This is different than I thought. The parents had taken it off, and while visible, I could not make out what if they were vocalizing.

Sometime around noon, Amelia suddenly sat back from what had occupied her for the last hours.

"Ha ha! Done!" she proclaimed quietly.

I looked over to see what she was so happy about. I was surprised to find that she had made a grass mat. It was 3 feet in width by two feet in length. That meant most of the time that I had been watching the group, she had been distracted by this. Animal behaviorist she was not...

"That's neat." I complimented. "What made you make that?"

"Well," she said "The rocks had been digging into my leg for a while and I wanted something to protect them. And next thing I knew, I had this!" she seemed awfully proud of herself at her accomplishments. I could not bring myself to chide her for not paying attention. Her main responsibility was to provide cover and support if we were threatened. It is understandable that she could find this quite boring.

I turned my attention back to the group as the adult with the ralts suddenly began to depart across the field. They walked along the tree line, slowly making their way over to a bushy spot 500 meters from our camp. I zoomed the camera in on them, then took a few pictures. I could see them reaching into the tree, then plucking something. They seemed to continue doing this for a while. Each object they pulled was roughly equal to the size of their hands, or one-quarter the size of a human head. Fruits of some kind?

After a while, they slowly returned. They held suspended in front of them a large cache of berries, though different than the types that were eaten this morning. The two adults had a large pile, while the ralts made its way slowly along with about 5 fruits held in psychic suspension in front of it.

"I'm heading back to camp" Amelia quietly said after the Ralts family had returned.

"Oh?" I suddenly asked.

"Yeah, I need some food and I'm going to take my pokemon to train for a while. Will you be fine?" she asked.

I gave a simple nod. "If something important happens, I'll let you know." I responded. There was no immediate way to let her know, if I tried yelling to her, it would alert the Gardevoir to my presence. Even the action of throwing a rock would be a dead giveaway.

She shrugged at this, then quietly left.

I watched her go for a while before I finally settled in to watch the return of the family group.

I grinned as I watched this. Clearly the parents taught the child how to forage. Was this it then? Was it communality that developed as a function of raising a child?

As they settled into a lighter second meal, this time with no orientation visible. I sat back to begin eating a packaged MRE I had brought with me. I sat back from my observation post then slowly opened up the individually packaged food items.

I began with the lasanga pack itself. You could heat them if you wanted, though I prefered to eat them as is. The taste was the same, warm or not.

As I slowly ate the meal, I noticed the aquamarine, for the lunch meal, took it alone. Oddly enough, it sat more in the field itself, still close to the others, but not under cover like the rest. I found that odd personally.

Perhaps, I thought idly, there was some meaning to this, though I didn't know what. I was more focused on my meal at this point. The last meal they had indicated that there was a heirarchy, and this meal confirmed the pattern. The child got the most, the parents the least. All ate in small groups close to one another. Same as before, even though the aquamarine one seemed to self isolate for this meal.

While I ate, I found myself wondering about minor things. How well developed was a wild gardevoirs olfactory senses? Could The campfire during the day attract them? Would my food? There seemed to be more gaps in our knowledge than I previously conceded to be honest.

After I finished my meal (The aquamarine seemed to finish at the same time.) I stored away the trash for later disposal, then settled in to watch. However, as the afternoon began, I began to realize that after a certain point, activity seemed to level off and drop. The gardevoir group all seemed to settle in. The ralts curled up then fell asleep, then the parents, followed by the other pair.

The aquamarine one, however, did not. It occupied itself with some task, then, after a while. It finally stopped, then stood up. It was the only one who was awake at this point. Were they nappers? Sleeping during high heat to save energy? Or was it something else?

Nevertheless, the lone Gardevoir seemed to then break away and into the clearing again. With nothing else to do, I focused in on that one. It crossed the field to the pond, then seemed to disappear behind some foliage. However, I could tell it was still there as a minute later, its arm appeared, then proceeded to place an object on the nearby branch of a lone, dead, tree.

A light wind blew the object in question. Was it some form of cloth?

Wait.

Cloth, hanging on a tree, by water, aquamarine obscured from sight.

"I'll be damned... They bathe." I found myself saying.

They bathed, plus that gown like portion of their anatomy was also removable.

Well that was peculiar. Did that mean that their bodies generated it but then it could be freely removed? What kind of analogs did we know of in nature? What was the composition of this garment? Was it a special kind of weave?

These questions nagged at me as I watched the Bathing Aquamarine Gardevoir from the hide.

Occasionally I could make out the head of the aquamarine gardevoir as it swam around in the water for a while. Then it seemed to pull itself up to the side, then began scrubbing at itself with its hands, occasionally splashing itself with water.

After it finished this, it then slid back into the water, then seemed to float without any real purpose. Perhaps it was basking in the sun? Was this therapeutic somehow?

I couldn't be sure. However, at this point, I could now safely identify its gender as being female.

After a while, it finally lifted itself out of the water, then grabbed its garment. It replaced it over its body, then proceeded to sit down in the grass near the water. Its body was fully visible from where I was. I snapped off a few photos of it laying like this. However, from this distance, I could tell that it had not settled into sleep like the others. Instead, it was moving on occasion. Eyes were partially open and it seemed to be looking off at the sky.

Perhaps the clouds? Or maybe she was waiting for herself to dry off?

Eventually, she stood up, then began walking towards the woodline north, or perpendicular to my location. She seemed to be going at a slow pace, as if she were strolling while thinking of something. Really, she was looking up for the most part, though she was aware of where she was going.

Do Gardevoir have complex thought patterns? Does it contemplate things like we do? Does it have a sense of itself in the world on the same level as us? I had these thoughts in mind as I watched her stroll along the field to the treeline.

Something that occurred to me in the next minute was the fact that they rarely ventured too far into the woods. Instead, they would reach the woodline and then walk along it. Was that considered part of their territory? Did they not see the surrounding woods as their territory?

My opinion on this was seemingly bolstered by her turning, then walking along it rather than walking into it. She followed the woodline though walking towards me, that is, rather southeast.
I watched this, semi exposed in that direction for about 20 minutes until I became conscious of the fact that if I did not get under cover soon, she would very much see me.

I slowly crept into the hide, then proceeded to resume watching her while under cover. Her pace was slow and she did indeed seem distracted. However, As it was this close, I began to feel nervous. I began to worry that our viewing post was too discernible, or that something was not properly covered. Or even that It would somehow just know.

All these thoughts went through my mind as she approached. Her small feet still making the slightest of rustling noises.

Suddenly, she stopped. She was looking in my direction, but more upwards. As if she was looking at the hill behind me or something similar. Then, inevitably, her eyes began to lower.

Then, we made eye contact.

By this point, I had as low a profile as possible and the camera was stowed away under cover. So from the outside, I should not have been visible. Yet I still our eyes were still locked on each other inexplicably.

Then, I felt it. Something was there with me, I had the distinct feeling that my mind was not my own for a moment, as if something were shuffling through my thoughts, reading my emotions, assessing my mood.

Then, it was gone again. The headache that was associated with that feeling died and I found myself a fair bit confused.

My confusion, however, ended, as it then began walking directly towards me.
How was this possible? We shouldn't be detectable. We utilized psychic dampening to essentially hide us without leaving a psychic void, we obscured ourselves so that we simply looked like a cluster of bushes, and we made no noise nor did we have any noticable smells. We were, after all, downwind of their location. We should have been invisible.

At a little more than 25 feet away, she stopped again. At this range, I could very much make out her features. Much more clearly than all the others to date.

At this range, he could clearly discern her facial features. Her nose was very small, yet prominent. Her hair seemed to curl into one bang feature that partially obscured one eye. Her other while red, had a tint of cerulean to it. Further, there was a slight differentiation in coloration between her hair and her arms. While the aquamarine coloration was vivid in her hair, it seemed to be a more subdued blueish tint along her arms. Her dress was clearly visible at this range too. It stopped along her shoulders, and hung off her front bust. Her chest shard was 3 inches in length, and seemed to protrude between her small breasts.

Her waist was willow thin. Almost tapering off to 18 inches. However, her legs were mostly obscured by that same gown. Thus it was impossible to determine otherwise.

Her hair shifted as her head tilted to the side. She suddenly let out a quiet call as well.
Honestly, I could listen to that again and again...

I set out an audio recorder, then, making sure I selected a new file recording, rather than continuation recording, I pressed record, then sat the device down.

She made the call again, then her lips curled into a smile.

It seemed to be waiting on something. When I made a silent laugh, it gave a sudden jolt, its hands coming up to its chest, then clenching into tiny fists. It leaned towards me and its mouth opened. Then, when I closed my mouth, its hands fell to its side and, If I didn't know better, frowned.

Then it made a hopeful call again, this time leaning forward slightly. I didn't want to assume anything, but I got the distinct impression that it was waiting on some kind of response.

Then, it approached.
It did so cautiously, as if it did not wish to startle me of all things. Making the same soft call as before. It walked slowly towards the camp side of the hide, then stood there. No matter how you cut it, from this angle, it was obvious I was laying in here, and it was obvious she could see me fully. I was cut off at this point. I could not fall back, nor could I call for help. She had deceptively trapped me into this location.

I decided to sit up at this point. My ruse was over.

However, instead of trying to attack me, she then began to approach once more.
She stepped to the entrance of the hide, then examined it with I swear an expression of curiosity. Then, she ducked her torso down, then she entered the hide.

I was confused at this point.

She did not seem to fear me. Instead, I swear she was interested in me. She settled down across from me, then proceeded to smile. She made a series of cries to me, then stuck her left hand out towards me.

Reluctantly, I stuck mine out as well. She suddenly grabbed it, then began to dance her fingers around my palm quickly with a bright smile on her face. Then, she stopped then turned her own palm upwards, her fingers extended.

She then made another cry, perhaps of encouragement? Then, with her other hand, guided my fingers to repeat the process. Both times, when she did it to me, and when I did it to her, I felt a sensation, that was difficult to describe. My hand felt more sensitive than I was used to. Like the feeling that was playing out was somehow intensified.

I felt kind of dizzy at this point to be honest. She was interacting with me, my cover was blown, she did not alert the others, she was happy, I felt myself smiling, she did not alert the others.

She did not alert the others.

For some reason, as she vocalized at me a few times, I had this thought in my mind.

Did I not pose a threat?

How could she know that?

As we continued this hand ritual for a while, I got the distinct impression that we were also talking somehow. I felt questions rise up that were not my own. Like why I was here. Then a sense of answering in kind. Emotions of curiosity that mingled with my own diminishing anxiety.

A feeling of happiness that mingled with my own curiosity. A feeling of companionship that arose.

I was confused by this feeling. Were we in fact communicating this way?

After a few minutes, I realized that my hand was moving on its own. And that our hands switched out between the other. Mine would do the intricate motion, then hers would do the motion. Yet I never really looked at my hand. I kept looking at her, I looked in her eyes, at her hairline, at her ear feature, a peculiar yet intriguing tri pronged feature that seemed to be part of her entire ears only.

Strangely enough, I was no longer worried. I felt comforted by this interaction. And if this had words I could articulate, we communicated freely. Occasionally, vocalizations would occur from her. I didn't know what was said, so I tried to simply smile, and maybe grunt in response.

"Well, you can't speak english anyways..." I simply said after a while of this back and forth.

I didn't think it was possible, but her smile seemed to grow brighter.

Strangely, my thoughts at a point began to feel like they were intermingled with someone elses. As though I was no longer thinking alone. My thoughts intermingled with surges of emotion, and the surges of emotion seemed to match up with mine briefly.

Then, it was over.

A noise was heard over in their settlement, and suddenly, I was aware that our hand interaction was changing ever so subtly.

There was an impression in my mind of reluctance. Like the Gardevoir sitting in front of me did not want to cease communication. I felt a sense of reassurance swell within me. But I did not know at this point if it was mine or something else.

At this point, I wasn't even sure where my own thoughts ended, and began.

Suddenly, she brought my hand to her face, then rubbed it with her cheek. Then, she slowly extended her arm, bringing her hand to my face, then with an insistent nudge, I followed suit. There was that tingling feeling again. This time, it was warm. like I derived a certain level of comfort from her actions.

With a bright smile, she slowly began to stand up. I started to as well, then suddenly caught myself. What was I doing?! I didn't want the other Gardevoir to know I was here! This one was fine but I didn't want them to be aware that they were being spied on like a couple of rats! It wasn't right! Besides, another more rational part suddenly spoke up. We are trying to know the real them, unaffected by us...

Wait. I was suddenly aware that my hand was slowly extending as she began to crawl out. Then our arms went tight as I gently tugged against her.

A look of confusion was on her face, and felt intensely. Then, a realization and awareness.

I looked at her.

Then I smiled.

Understanding crossed her features.

She gave a coy smile, then slowly, reluctantly, our fingers began to part.
In short order, it was only out index fingers, then, suddenly, I was alone again.

She smiled at me, a presence still there, at the very edges, but muted, then slowly made her way off.

As I became aware of how alone I felt at that moment, my other senses seemed to return to me. I became more aware that my arm was extended, that my other was supporting my torso, that I was in a half crawling position, that I was sitting in my hide still. That There were the distinct sounds of birds.

The Gardevoir were waking up, and she was returning to them, and I was still sitting here, outside of their encampment, watching her go, and I began to slowly realize what this meant.

I was isolated from them.

No, I suddenly felt myself think.
One of them was aware of my presence! She could tell the others! They will attack me and the entire field study might be ruined!

Suddenly, a wave of reassurance washed over me. It was as if something felt my sudden awareness and anxiety, then sent me a wave of reassurance.

Confused, I crawled to the side of the hide, then watched her go.
She joined the others, then happily vocalized as she settled down do seemingly play with the Ralts. It seemed as if there was a more in depth conversation going on. I dimly was aware that there was curiosity and worry, but also that she was reassuring them.

Not a single one looked in my direction.

During their dinner, I did catch that she seemed to glance in my direction when the others were looking. Each time she did, our eyes seemed to meet.

And each time she did, I felt a wave of reassurance.

I noticed that each time she seemed to do this, a strange sort of feeling was present. Like I wanted to replay what had happened. Relive the experience, and enjoy it for a longer period.
I wondered, briefly, if she did this in response to that feeling.

As the sun went down, I finally emerged from the hide, then went back to the camp site.

Amelia was sitting with her pokemon, eating happily.

I settled in, then began making myself a soup.

"How was it today?" She asked.

"Very boring," I found myself lying outright, "After you left, they all seemed to sleep for a while, then they played with the ralts. I think there is a community effort in raising the young."

She gave a nod as I settled into my usual habit, while my food was cooking, of writing down the field notes for the day.

After I finished up all relevant details. I finally began serving myself a portion of soup.

Suddenly, there was a noise about 20 feet off to the right.
I felt a feeling associated with this noise. Surprise, worry, and then, curiosity.

Amelia jumped up, but I calmly stood up then began walking over.

With a confused look Amelia stopped me. "What are you doing?" she suddenly asked.

"I'm going to check it out, I think you should recall your pokemon just in case it attacks and scares her off." I responded in a calm voice.

Amelia gave a confused look, but did in fact, recall the poochyhyena.

After it was stowed away, I walked along to the edge of the camp.

There, apparently wrapped up in a length of rope that served as a perimeter, was none other than Aquamarine. The very Gardevoir from earlier in the day.

With a smile that communicated my relief, I walked over to her, then began untangling the rope from her legs. As I worked, there was a sense of confusion about what the rope was doing there and why I could handle it. I looked up into her eyes and I smiled. The confusion faded to understanding, then a sense of mirth as she found herself freed. Her hand slipped into mine then began the motion, racing along my palm.

In short order, I joined in, the same emotional connectivity? I felt earlier, once again in full play. The sense of curiosity, then understanding, then trepidation, and anxiety. Then I felt as though there was a sense that a question was being asked. I turned my head around, then stepped apart, though my hand remained connected with hers.

Amelia stood there with a look of shock.

"Rowan, a G-G-Garde-" Amelia was, suffice to say, shocked at the presence of the Gardevoir. Let Alone that it was holding my hand.

I gave a reassuring smile then began to explain.

"This is the aquamarine one from earlier. I think she was curious and came to investigate. Maybe it was our fire? Or-" I noticed that there was no wind. "It might have been the smoke."

It was because I left.

I should have stayed where I was.

Why'd You leave?

Oddly enough, those thoughts were not my own. I was very much aware of them though.

No good answer was forthcoming though.

I'm sorry.

Stay.

Come back.

Visit later.

Whose thoughts were these? Were they mine? Were they hers? Were our minds joined?

In the span of Answering Amelia, and looking at her, we seemed to have an entire conversation, if not an argument. Finally, I decided to lead the Gardevoir around our camp.

She seemed interested in the various items. She looked at the soup I had, then stuck her hand into the pot, then quickly retracted it. I felt a sense of pain. Then curiosity. She brought her finger, which had some of the soup on it, to her finger, then gently licked it.

I felt it more than I saw it. A wave of pleasure and an anticipation of more. Before she could stick her hand back in, I felt myself emotionally reacting.

She suddenly stopped, then stood up. Then, she slowly began to walk away. Again, I felt our arms begin to reluctantly separate.

Tomorrow.

I'll be here.

Tonight.

Sleep well.

Reluctant to leave.

Scared.

These intermingled thoughts played out as our hands separated.

It felt like we had been communicating.
No, it felt like we were communicating for hours in the span of a few short minutes.

"Well... I guess we know who it was that was investigating our camp last night..." I said in a deadpan manner.

As we turned in for the night, I felt as if I was falling asleep next to someone. I had a sensation of closeness the entire time that my thoughts slowly descended into dreams of woods and something aquamarine.

Notes:
I think this chapter illustrates why it is important to have the field notes chapter, then the actual perspective chapter. As I was writing this, I intentionally made certain sections more simplistic. I wanted to illustrate that these words or simple phrases were in fact communications between the two that Rowan wasn't fully aware of. Like how you could be kind of thinking of something before it occurs to you.

Further, I gave an added bit of attention to the moment where The Aquamarine Gardevoir (Affectionately being called Aqua at present, and also the name of the Gardevoir I have in Pkmn X) and Rowan begin interaction. Honestly, this scene, to me was the most important of the chapter. In fact, I kind of fell into something of a trance while I was writing it. But, because I was writing it without being 100% here, there might be errors with the way the two bonding is communicated. Simply think of it as two minds are working together, and it is hard to figure out where one mind ends and the other one begins.

While the previous chapter had a major worry about the integrity of data being ruined, this one communicates more that he found their interactions to be very powerful. This is kind of the idealistic split.

Also, not that it matters much, but I had a lot of time to write this over the weekend due to my car being stolen. I'm not too certain what the next few days hold. But if nothing else, I got to dedicate the time to this chapter. Which I was really, really, looking forward to writing.

Also, this is my longest chapter yet. I kind of lost myself as I got to typing their encounter.