March 25th, First Year
Akari found her fingers twitching as she moved to secure the fabric of the sling around Rei's neck. Ever since the accident with Yuki, she'd been taking numerous lessons on administering first aid, though her nerves were so bad that she'd been told numerous times that day to take a breather or to just relax.
She just couldn't get the image of Yuki's broken body out of her mind. He had screamed in agony and had gone so deathly still and quiet that Akari was afraid the boy was dead. But he wasn't. She took a deep breath in and moved the securing knot down to Rei's collarbone. Yuki was receiving care back in Jubilife. He would be fine.
"Nearly thought you were gonna choke me there," Rei commented snidely. He stood and made a show of trying to swing his splinted arm around. "Nice and tight, too! Great job, Akari!"
"Thanks. I wonder what we're going to do next."
"Tourniquets." A Pearl Clan scout eagerly approached them, her eyes shining as she passed the two of them long strips of fabric and a thick sturdy branch each. "You're going to hate these. They're pretty easy to do but having them done on yourself? Sheesh."
"Oh, I know. I had to practice these all the time when I was in my first year of being a scout." Rei quickly took his strip of fabric and his stick, a grimace on his face. He turned to Akari looking a little sheepish. "Perhaps we should switch partners? We'll be practicing on bare skin. Wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable."
"And?" Akari mocked. "I don't care. I'll be the practice dummy first. How's that sound?"
The Pearl Clan scout gave them both a peculiar look. "We don't usually allow for same-gender partners during tourniquets, but…" She then shrugged. "Eh, it's better practice anyway. Hold on while I get the overseer. He's much better at judging than I am. I think he's nearly finished with the other group, anyway."
"Sure."
Rei had simply told Akari to lay flat on her back with her limbs splayed out. She thought she looked absolutely ridiculous, but it would be useful knowledge in the future, she just knew it! Rei had been right about to start rolling up the sleeve of her tunic when a large shadow fell upon them.
"You are addressing the left arm, correct? Please, do continue."
Akari glanced up to see a tall man standing right behind Rei, his silver eyes almost glowing as he watched Rei tie the strip of fabric an inch or two above Akari's elbow. Rei didn't seem to notice at all. He then slipped in the sturdy branch and retied the fabric around it.
"Your speed is to be commended, young man," their overseer cheered quite loudly. "You have exceptional handiwork!"
Rei practically glowed at the praise, his smile splitting his cheeks ear-to-ear. "Thank you very much, sir! I try my best!" Rei gave Akari a worried glance. "Okay, Akari. Get ready. This is going to hurt."
Rei gave a small countdown under his breath before he began twisting the stick. The tourniquet tightened harder and harder and Akari winced. She was gritting her teeth, she just knew it. It seemed to be ages before Rei stopped turning the stick, firmly tying it down with another strip of fabric.
"Are you done yet?" she gasped.
"Yup! Sorry about the pain."
"I told you it stinks," came the snarky voice of the Pearl Clan scout. She was standing right next to the overseer who looked distinctly uncomfortable at her closeness.
Their overseer moved closer, nodding to himself as he quickly scanned over Rei's tourniquet. "Exceptional work, young man! You've done a fantastic job. Go ahead and loosen the tourniquet. Then it's your partner's turn."
She'd be lying if she said she wasn't intimidated by the man. The overseer said nothing as he watched her work, giving her polite pointers and at times demonstrating the motions with his assistant, the Pearl Clan Scout, when her nerves were getting the best of her. As they were finishing, the overseer gave her a curious look, his mouth parting as though he wanted to say something, but he faltered at the last moment.
She was a bit sad for the first-aid lesson to end. She wasn't looking forward to when she would get sent out back into the fields again. Sure, Rei was a good help in determining where certain pokémon were and he had a good eye for details, but he was… annoying. Was it a bit childish of her? Absolutely. But then, nobody ever said that she had to constantly partner up with the boy.
She made her way to the long tent, packing away some of her supplies under her cot before making a start toward the dining tent. There was still the issue of filling in pages for the pokédex. She'd stashed it away in her larger pack, deciding that if she was still stuck waiting around tomorrow, she would do some more page filling. And preferably not with Rei, she added on silently.
To her utter dismay, her paltry meal that she'd been waiting so long for had been interrupted as the older scouts began piling into the dining tent. Then came a handful of guards and clan scouts. The distinct scent of mud and sweat began to sting at her nostrils.
The Pearl Clan overseer and his assistant were standing off in one corner with a young boy swaddled in bandages, a large sun hat hiding his face. The overseer was talking animatedly with his hands, his booming voice almost loud enough to hear over the din of the rest of the tent's inhabitants.
On the opposite side were a few Diamond Clan scouts. Akari recognized Jaku in the far back, their expression unreadable under their large head scarf as they stared in the direction of the tent's opening. She also recognized Warden Mai as the older woman grouped up her fellow clanmates and began briefing them on something.
Akari's hands began to twitch again. It was rare that either clan was in the same place at the same time without ripping each other's heads off. What was going on now to get their full cooperation?
"Ahem," came a small voice. "Could I please have everybody's attention for just a minute or two?"
Akari turned, perplexed, as the little boy from earlier had taken up the center of the dining tent. He looked awfully small standing before the much larger overseer behind him but he stood defiantly, hands on his hips as he surveyed the crowd.
"That'll do. Anyway, we've finally got news about the situation here in the fieldlands," the boy drawled. "S'not good either. Most of you know that the lords are all frenzied. That is partially our faults to blame," he admitted, his one good eye shooting to Warden Mai who gave him a terse look in response. "I did some looking around and I managed to figure out where Lord Kleavor has moved to. I'll be needing to take a group over to Oreburrow tomorrow."
"As for Lord Wyrdeer, we have also managed to pick up on its frenzy and where it seems to be roaming. Both myself and Warden Lian will be leading groups to survey the lords and detail their behaviors so that we may plan to quell them." Mai beckoned to a handful of her clanmates. "I will be leading a group into the Deertrack Foothills tomorrow."
Jaku came forward, sharing a quiet snippet with Warden Mai before standing behind her. Another Diamond Clan scout quickly took up her other side. Three galaxy scouts stood from their benches and hurried to join the group. She recognized Komuro, but not the other two teenagers with him.
"Akari, pay attention!" Rei hissed in her ears.
When she came to, she found herself being stared at by the entire room. She swallowed and gave a nervous smile. The group behind Warden Lian seemed to be looking expectantly at her as Rei led her toward them. "What's going on?"
"We've been chosen to go with Warden Lian to survey Lord Kleavor. You weren't paying attention at all, were you? Come on, before I catch secondhand embarrassment."
March 26th, First Year
"Felled tree up ahead."
Akari paused and moved in closer as her group took in the sight before them. A thick swatch of birch trees had been sliced through cleanly, their withering tops decaying on the ground not too far away.
Warden Lian carefully felt along the cut stumps, his lips pulled into a worried grimace as he tipped back his hat. "Definitely the work of Lord Kleavor, no doubt about it." He turned. "Hey Ingo. You think an Onix might be able to withstand a hit like this?"
"Most likely, though a Steelix would be a more preferable option for your unruly passenger. Good thinking."
Akari had only just recently figured out that the kind but intimidating overseer from the day before was the revered Warden Ingo of the Pearl Clan. She was anticipating meeting the man that would take care of most of the heavy lifting and her initial perception of him was… daunting to say the least.
The Pearl Clan scout, Gale, had been feeding her a bit of gossip about the man but it was nothing like actually watching him in person.
Warden Ingo was intimidating, that was for certain. With his towering height, his permanent scowl, the full clip of pokéballs at his belt, and his tattered hat and jacket, he looked as though he regularly fought Luxrays and Gravelers bare-handed. He had a deep but boisterous voice and unlike the other Pearl Clan scouts, he was the only one to carry a saber at his hip.
But despite his initial appearance, he was friendly enough. Always polite and eager to be of assistance, Warden Lian was constantly asking about Ingo's opinions of this and that and the two held a sort of familial conversation at best.
They continued deeper into the fieldlands. At one point, Warden Ingo had split from the group, eyes narrowing as he disappeared into a patch of tall cattails. Lian had halted the group for a whole hour to wait and when Ingo came wandering back, his clothes were a bit more tattered and he smelt strongly of charcoal.
"Lesser Lord Rapidash has been set on different tracks for now," Ingo rasped as he drew closer, latching a pokéball back onto his belt. "We should be safe on our way to our final destination."
Akari thought her jaw would fall off of her face. He went to fight that Rapidash? And he won? She shared looks with both Rei and Daigo who looked just as stunned as she was. It was settled. She would definitely need to get pointers from him before this expedition was done and over with.
She wondered where the man came from where he was already that experienced with battling pokémon and for that matter, dealing with alphas. Did she come from a place like that too? She hoped so. She wanted to grow stronger so that nobody else would get hurt under her watch again. Not after Jaku. Not after Yuki.
"More signs over here," Lian called. He was crouched low, eyes wide with both terror and fascination as he stared at the skies overheard. "Look. They're swarming."
It was almost like she was seeing it for the first time again. The strange hum in her ears that she supposed was a fly had grown to a fever pitch, the clicks of mandibles and flapping wings almost deafening as her group drew closer to the riverbank. The noise seemed to even reverberate through her bones.
An uncountable amount of bug-type pokémon were swarming across the mud-strewn rocks either jerking involuntarily or flying headfirst into trees or branches, tearing their wings or mandibles in the process. The conifer trees had been stripped bare of their needles and any stalk of grass unlucky enough to be poking out of the snow had been whittled down to its roots.
A few of the bugs had even been torn open, their innards strewn about the rocks like fallen leaves. A group of Heracross were picking apart the carcass of a dead Ponyta, their horns sticky with blood.
"My god. It's even worse than last time," Akari muttered, her voice cracking. Rei trembled beside her.
"You've seen this before?" Warden Lian asked. "This only ever happens in the summer when it's breeding season and it's at a much smaller rate than… this. Where'd you see it? Here?"
"No. Rei and I ran into a swarm like this back near the Floaro Gardens. I knew the swarm was moving but I didn't think it would happen again."
Warden Lian paled. "If they've managed to spread all the way to Floaro- I gotta warn Warden Mai. This ain't good. We need to head back to camp, pronto. If they're swarming all over the fieldlands now then come spring, it's gonna be real bad for everybody. We need to hurry up and deal with Lord Kleavor before this swarm moves and consumes everything."
