"Teacher" A voice seemed to seep into Ryan's ear as he slept. "Breakfast is almost ready" The voice continued. After scrunching his eyes a moment, the vagrant blinked himself awake. He wasn't a father, there were... reasons... that couldn't happen. Rubbing his eyes he looked around him sleepily. Fyr and Leveyr were where he remembered them the night before. Annwn however was lent over a pot, stirring a broth that looked quite similar to the night before. Even if Annwn didn't. Rather than standing near the height of Ryan's hip, the Pokemon was as tall as the vagrant. It looked almost like a fusion of a fox and a man in a long red cloak. His chest was golden rather than crimson, which raced down his back to his long tail. Ryan sat up, watching the creature a moment as the stick stirred the broth untouched. "I'm sorry I was the last to evolve teacher. I figured it was what you wanted." It's mouth did not move as it looked from the pot to the vagrant. Yet the voice seemed almost audible.
Thinking for a moment, his tired brain taking a moment to comprehend the situation. Annwn was a Fennekin, a pokemon with aspects of the 'Fire-' classification. And then he evolved to a Braixen, another pokemon with aspects of 'Fire-'. He nodded slowly to himself, the next step was Delphox, which is when the creature gains aspects of the 'Psychic-' classification. Several 'Psychic-' pokemon have been known to read or speak to the minds of humans. "Annwn." he thought, in a strange sense not to himself but at the creature. "Yes sir? I can hear you." The sensation was strange, almost as if Annwn wasn't the only Psychic pokemon allowing them to talk. "I've always been happy with how you are." the vagrant rose, gently moving Fyr to sleep on the grass next to Leveyr. "You didn't have to change for me. But I'm not upset that you did." He smiled, Annwn smiling with him as they shared the spicy breakfast. It took all the man's self control to not think of the terrible flavouring. After his own meal, Ryan awoke each of the other creatures that slumbered in the area, offering them their morning nutrients.
After his morning stretching exercises, where each finger was bent back in turn. And after Fyr had sniffed out a suitable tree to do his morning business on, the group headed south down the hill. South of Coumarine city was a large wasteland, which also sat to the west of Lumiose. The area was famous for its hot, dry air and heavy winds. As the vagrant pulled away from placing his tiny charge on Embeee's large back, the branch of a tree got in the way of his hand, slicing across his wrist and palm. Plunging his hand into his pocket and pressing it against the fabric, the man pressed on. Leading the group down the winding road on the south of the hill and through the main streets of Coumarine city. Standing at the gate from the city was Chuey. Ryan didn't know where she spent the night but he was glad to see her. After a smile and a wave, the pair walked through the gate to the top of the staircase. Red dirt spread far to the south and east, a massive enclosed desert. After a quick stretch, Chuey patted tha bag at her hip. "We're at the Badlands, guys, everyone come on out if you'd like!" There was an eruption of bright red light from the duffle bag, many avian and reptilian pokemon looking around the area. "Feel free to do whatever you want, just stay close." She smiled, looking over at the Dodrio racing excitedly through the dust and clay. "we come out here to train all the time since it's nice and open with plenty of air space. Not much water here, so your pokemon shouldn't have to worry about getting too wet" She noted, looking from Ryan to each of the pokemon around him. The large man chuckled and nodded, his thought's exactly.
Annwn gently lifted Fyr down off of the lioness' back. The moment his little paws sunk into the maybe two centimeter's of dust, he flopped to the side and began happily rolling around in the maroon particles. Ryan was too busy watching Chuey's Talonflame, about three quarters the size of Leveyr, circling an area to the east. "Something's wrong.." Chuey muttered, obviously noticing it as well. With a whistle she pointed to what was now her Talonflame, and her Pidgeotto, before setting off in that direction herself. As the vagrant accompanied her, neither really noticed as their hands brushed each other during their march. Leveyr joined the circling birds, Annwn walked behind Ryan, and Embeee scooped up a grumbling dirty ball of fluff before trotting after them. Annwn plucked the small canine from her mouth and moved him to her back when the lioness caught up. When the group arrived at the spot the birds signaled, both of Chuey's returned themselves to their pokeballs in quick flashes of light. Nestled into the crevice between a pair of rocks, sheltered against the wind, was a small leathery creature with a very large mouth. The small Gible looked much like a small hammer head shark with arms and legs. It grumbled and recoiled as Chuey's hands gently reached down and plucked it from it's hiding spot, taking great care not to touch any of the obvious burns, bites, slashes and even, the bullet hole.
Cradling the small creature in her arms, Chuey turned to show it to the large man beside her. There was a puncture wound above the right eye, though it didn't reach too deep. "They trained their pokemon on it" he mumbled, looking over the wounds he'd seen several times before. "When they were done they tried to put it out of its misery." he dared not touch it, less blood from his cut seep into one of the creatures wounds. "Too bad it's skull is so thick." the vagrant shook his head, noticing out of the corner of his eye as his friend's Bulb'd lizard companion lifted a rock nearby. A small puddle of red liquid oozed slowly from under the stone as it was lifted more and more, bubbling violently as it went. "Get away from there" He shouted, recognizing the danger of lava near any living creature. Hearing the alert in his voice, the lizard immediately dropped the rock, galloping over to the viper lady as fast as it's little legs would carry it. The thing that confused Ryan though, was that when the rock fell back down on the liquid, it seeped back under. With the wind blowing strongly at his back he staggered forward, stumbling to the stone. When he arrived, the lava was no-where to be seen, and curious as to it's origins, the vagrant ripped the rock away from its resting place.
Under where the rock had sat was a bubbling pool of molten rock. It was only when a pair of eyes drifted to the surface and sat staring up at him that Ryan finally understood. "I think it's a Slugma" he called over the wind while continuing to stare down at the small liquid creature. "What're you doing this close to the surface during the day?" he puzzled, looking over the hole the small thing found itself in. As he looked, the puddle creature attempted to recoil from Ryan, but with no-where to go, even as it tried slithering out of the hole, its body only stretched from some point below it. "I- I think it's stuck" he called. At this point the lady had made her way over, looking down and puzzling at how such a thing could get stuck. But more importantly, how to get it out. "Slugma are little more than a couple organs and bones, all the liquid is produced by the organs heating rock to a magma shield. There are traps designed to snag a bone" Ryan responded, waving Annwn over and ripping a strip of cloth off of one of his shirts. "I need a slow burning flame. Can you do that?" He scrunched the strip up and sat it on the ground, using his body to shield it from the wind. With a nod and a tap from his stick, Annwn set the cloth alight, though it burnt slowly and with little heat. Grabbing a rock from nearby, Ryan held it on the ground a distance away from the flame. Pushing it closer to the flame he stated clearly the word 'hotter' to the puddle, as he drew the stone away he declared 'cooler'. After repeating a couple times he completed his thought on what had to be done. "I'm going to have to reach through it."
Chuey simply stared down at the man, unsure she heard what she thought she'd heard. Ryan's last command was to say the word 'coldest' as he threw the stone as far away as he could. Pulling his right arm out of his trench coat, and having his left hand pull up the right sleeves of his shirts, Ryan slowly moved his hand closer to the bubbling liquid creature. "I'm going to help" he said calmly and gently, his hand getting closer to the puddle that did not retreat. "Cooler, cooler" he repeated as his hand began touching the surface. Small amounts of rocks began to form against his skin, almost acting as a shield between him and the liquid, though the hot air still scalded his face and forced him to close his eyes. "Cooler" he winced, a shudder in his voice as his arm plunged deeper. After a moment his hand stopped sinking and he gained the look of a man searching where he could not see, complete with tongue jutting from the side of his mouth. "Fuck, there's no release latch!" he snarled, thinking for a moment before looking at the floating eyes "here... hotter hotter hotter hotter" he seemed to wince at a pain, but the area around his arms looked to be solid rock. "Coldest" a distinct 'ting' sound could be heard before the ooze seemed to flow around Ryan's arms, melting the rock back into it at the end of the creature. It slipped up onto the rock he'd moved, sitting there looking at the man.
Chuey looks back and forth between Ryan with only a reddened, slightly steaming hand, to the slug sitting atop the rock, looking equally impressed as she was, mouth slightly ajar, completely speechless. Goosebumps could be seen over Ryan's body, he shivered a little before standing back up. "That um.. that hurt" he blushed, looking away from Chuey and toward the little creature. "Are you okay?" it rippled happily before slopping over to near his feet. "How about yours?" Ryan asked, turning back to Chuey. "Is the little lizard alright?" Chuey nodded in response, stroking the rough leather creature gently before feeding it some small blue berries. Moving over to have a look, the vagrant grew concerned at the small bullet wound. "We're going to need to get that out. It could get infected." He looked down at the puddle of lava that seemed insistent on following him around. "You want to help?" He knelt down, holding out his knife in a manner that did not unnerve the creature in front of him. "Hold this for a little bit" he placed the blade against the surface, watching as all but the hilt sunk below before he stood back up. "Annwn. Can you pull that out without hurting the poor thing" the vagrant pointed down at the wound before looking over at his companion, who stood eye to eye with him. A quick nod preceeded Annwn raising his stick, Chuey recoiling slightly before Ryan calmed her down. While the bullet in the hole slowly rattled its way back exactly how it had entered, the tall man fixed his coat before reaching down and plucking the knife from the puddle at his feet.