[PRP] Tree Tops

[Blood_Goddess]

Just becasue she wasn't a trainer, didn't mean that she didn't train. Of course not that Ray would ever ADMIT it was trainer, after all, she wasn't allowed to train Pokemon, technically. At least any League official would say so.
She lost her privilege to train Pokemon.
Her privilege, the idea made her laugh. As far as she knew, the league could make a lot of calls when it came to pokemon if only for the fact that they were so big or an organization, but when it came to her life with pokemon, they had no say. they were creatures of free will, all of them. She wasn't training for fun, she wasn't training for sport.
She trained for survival, and for bonds, and that was far far from

Ray understood her job flawlessly, over the years she had learned every little detail of what her role as a trainer was.
Today she found herself in the forest where the evergreens grew, the thick threes protecting the ground mostly from the spread of snow that didn't always reach this part of the island, and didn't lend much in the way of sunlight in many sections of the clustered trees.
ashen gray hair was tied up out of her face, half lidded and board looking mossy eyes scanning the tree tops free of their usual obstetrical, broad features still with concentration.
Her legs kept her moving though, weight down only by the thick winter jacket and backpack, rugged boots guiding her easily over roots and through bushes as she followed the most faint of clues from the tree tops.

Double Stripe had a long way to go in his training if he ever wished to move silently enough to lose Ray, but the women wasn't shy at all about telling him that he was actually improving.
The candy striped snake flicked out his tongue from time to time, not having to look down to know that Ray wasn't far behind him.
The massive snake slithering with an effortless glide through the branches along the tree tops, helped along sometimes by the vines that extended from his back if a branch proved to be too far.
Even with such an uneven course, Ray had to move at a near sprint speed to keep up with his movements, one thing he was very proud of.  

[insidiousEnigma]

There was no place that Drayce would rather be.
Well...maybe riding through the clouds with Smaug...but that was another thing entirely.
The point was, Drayce couldn't think of another place that they would rather be right at this moment.

"They were riding in a troika with bells, and in the distance there were glimmering lights. I’d rather go now with you, my dears, I’d rather distract my soul from the yearning." The red-head sang softly as they reclined against the rough wood of a branch high up in the trees. While getting to explore Camphoreon was lots of fun, Drayce couldn't help but miss the quietness of a forest and while this forest certainly wasn't the forests from back home...it was still a very nice area. "Along a long road, and on a moonlit night, and with that song that flies away with jingle-jangle, and with that ancient, seven-stringed one that tortured me so much at nights…"

So maybe...they should have been paying a bit more attention to what was going on around them. Though in their defense they'd never come across this kind of pokemon before...let alone high up in a tree.

"Living this way, without joy, without torture, I do remember the past years and your silvery ha-AAAAHNDS!!" The trainer gave a startled yelp as a pokemon suddenly burst through the leaves and collided with them. "Waaah!" Luckily enough for them, Drayce had fallen out of their fair share of trees. So when they went toppling off the branch their first instinct was to reach out and grab another branch before they could hit the ground. Though today seemed to be a bit of an off day for catching oneself. "Oof!" With a winded grunt, the red-head managed to wrap long arms and legs around a branch just before the ground. "Ehhh, so close." They whine with a slight wince, letting go of the branch to dangle upside down by the legs.  

[Blood_Goddess]

While Double Stripe was paying attention to the human on the ground, he was not at all expecting to have to worry about a human in the trees. Had he been more careful with his senses, his smell and the sounds he might have avoided the indecent completely, but as it was Double Stripe would soon find himself smashing through a much softer body then any of the branches offered, the form giving way almost instantly by the snake's larger body of muscle and momentum.
He was quick enough to recover himself, his long body coiling to tense around the first hold he could get, while wide horrified green eyes search for what he had just hit.

She heard Double Stripe's movements up to the point when suddenly he stopped, with the sound of a surprised yell and the crashing of branches.
Half lidded mossy eyes actually widened as Ray stopped, eyes on the tree line, listening for what must have happened when very suddenly a flash of bright red hair appeared in front of her, the form of a person clinging to the low branches of the pine completed the image in her mind.

"... DS! I had no idea you had another evolution! I swear you look just like a person now." Ray bolstered her voice, a hint of mock surprise laced in with her genuine amusement.

The rustle from the trees above drew a glance from the women as a snake's head poked out of the leaves

"Ah well, if you're there-" She continued, putting her hands on her hips and looking back at the person. "Its in the middle of winter the nearest town is miles away, what do you think the chances are that we would bump into another human being out here?" A smirk that seemed to spread to an impossible width crossed the trainer's bread jawline. "Literally speaking, actually."  

[insidiousEnigma]

Drayce turned their head towards the source of the voice and gave a wide smile. "Hello!" They greeted, waving a hand vigorously before taking notice of their scratched up palm. "Ahhhh, gonna need a bandaid!" They muttered before letting themselves fall from the tree to land semi-gracefully on their feet. The red-head eyed this new, silver-haired person for a moment as they dug through their pocket before finally heaving a great, big sigh and shrugging their shoulders in a comical manner. "I didn't catch any'a'that." The admitted with a sheepish smile. "My English isn't so good." They explained as they withdrew a handle of bandaids from their pocket. "Aha!" They exclaimed, tearing the wrapping off of one and stuffing the garbage into their pocket before slapping that bandaid right onto their palm. "Good as new!" They nodded in satisfaction as they stuffed the rest of the bandaids back into their pocket. "Hiya! I'm Drayce, shoulda said that first but eeeeeeeeeh, this is a weird meeting anyways!" They stuck their hand out for the other to take.  

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray arched her eyebrows with a look of delighted interest as the human being hanging from the trees dropped down and promptly busied themselves with bandaging their hand up.

She noticed a number of things right off the bat, firstly of course was the accent, French- though not the same as Luke, and the clothes were certainly not the same style as Grant Ile, that and Grand Ile was bilingual.
This person obviously didn't know English as well, so they were from somewhere else completely- Possibly even France itself!
The way they moved was interesting, despite having long limbs and body they had seemingly perfect and beautiful control over said limbs meaning they were active and capable, though through years of experience as Ray could also pick out a number of scars. It was also very likely that they were a daring sort.

Another thing she noticed that wasn't nearly as well received was this person's height- even though they were crouched she could tell they were tall... possibly taller then herself.

The older women put on a calming smile and shrugged herself. "Ah thats alright, I was pretty much just saying how weird the meeting was too, in not so few of words." She opened her mossy eyes and tilted her head "You're first language is French I gather? I can't say I can speak the language, so we're going to just have to do our best." She placed a hand on her chest "The name's Ray, and this here, is Double Stripel" The gray haired women said as the massive snake fell with a heavy thud down next to Ray.  

[insidiousEnigma]

Drayce let their hand drop to their side as they nodded, "Ahhh, I see, I see!" Well that was good. They felt bad that they couldn't understand what she had said, but at least they seemed to be thinking the same thing! It was like they were sharing the same brainwaves!

...Or something like that.

"Yeeeah, I speak French. Just learned English uhm..." They tapped their chin and made a few thoughtful 'hmmm'ing noises before nodding again. "'Bout a year ago. Father taught me! Said it'd be good since I was coming somewhere where most people speak English, ya know?" With a soft grunt, the trainer stood to their full height and stretched their arms above their head. He liked this lady...this 'Ray' person, she seemed really cool and she was out in the forest...which was also really cool! "Nice'ta meetcha, Ray and Double...Double Stripe! I'm Drayce!" They bounced on their toes as they waved at the pokemon that fell from the trees. "I guess you're the one that ran inta me up there?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

"A year? Well, with only that much time under your belt, I'm impressed that you know as much as you do, you must pick up on things pretty quickly."
A hand moved to Ray's hop, where a fist clenched in on itself, the knuckles resting on the waist band of her pants.
"I know another red head who's pretty fluid in French, and if it were from you red hair alone I would assume you were from Grand Ile? Only your fashion sense is pretty distinctly NOT Grand Ile."
It was here that the gray haired women paused, crossing her arms and eyeing the other trainer thoughtfully, a light hum escaping her.
"Kalos?" she asked, making a gesture toward the pokeballs that were on the trainer's person.
"Grand Ile isn't much into training pokemon, and France isn't much for it either- though there is a League region where French is common." she explained in a boastful sort of air.

Double Stripe flicked his tongue as Ray grinned "We all call him DS, if that's easier for you. And yeah that would would be him. Evergreens are good at hiding things in their branches, though with the right training hopefully he'll get better at noticing last second surprises like you.  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Wow, wow, you're so smart!" Drayce exclaimed, bouncing excitedly. "I'm from Kalos, yeah!" They hadn't even had to explain where they were from, Ray just figured it all out by herself! "Lotsa people ask if I'm from Gande Ile but I've never, ever been before. S'my first time leavin' Kalos." They puffed out their chest and stood tall with their hands on their hips.

"DS, huh?" They smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, please let me call ya that. S'much easier to remember." Nicknames were just the best thing ever. It made remembering people's names a whole lot easier for them. "Trees are good for hidin' and the best for nappin', ya know? Purrito and I take naps up in trees all the time back-" They stopped abruptly, looked down at their empty arms, and then promptly (and frantically) started looking around, their lanky body twisting this way and that. "Purrito! Where'd you go?! Come meet Ray and DS!" They shouted before dropping onto their knees to crawl to a nearby bush.

Not that it was the right bush.

A few seconds after the summons, the little Espurr emerged from a nearby bush. He stared wide eyed up at the two strangers before giving a little wave and promptly going over to his human and patting their leg, lifting his arms up the moment Drayce turned to him. "Ah, there ya are!" The trainer grinned, scooping up the pokemon and cradling him close to their chest. "This is Purrito." They introduced. "He likes naps and playing in bushes!"  

[Blood_Goddess]

The grin over the women's broad face only spread as she was declared right, "Ah its all there, it just takes knowing what to look for." A wink followed the comment.

As the other trainer spoke, Ray shifted weight from one boot to the other, crossing their arms and watching with half lidded eyes and an easy smile spread across their face. This certainly was one of the more interesting people she had met. as far as trainers went anyway, Kodo seemed to have a luscious selection of them, it made it extremely difficult to regret ever coming to this island.

"I do tend to find trees a bit to risky to want to go taking naps in them" she replied, glancing over to DS who squinted an eye at her, earning a grin "Then again I'm not a grass type,"

When Drayce called for a pokemon named Purrito, and then something in french, Ray unfolded her arms, leaning forward a little as the taller trainer got on his knees and crawled into a bush.
Only to have an Espurr emerge from a completely different bush.
Ray and DS blinked at the pokemon, turning the mild surprise into a broad grin and waving back to the pokemon as it went back over to get Drayce's attention.
"so you're Purrito huh?" Ray asked, moving forward and holding her long fingers out toward the pokemon in greeting "Hey its nice to meet you."  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Espuuuuuuuurr." Said pokemon reached out to clasp one of Ray's fingers between both of his paws and shake it. He was pulled away rather quickly by his cooing trainer though, "Waaaaha, so cute~" Drayce gushed, nuzzling their cheek against the top of their pokemon's head. The psychic type made a noise resembling laughter before gently papping the red-head's face, "Espurr." Drayce blinked owlishly before turning their attention back to Ray and DS, momentarily forgotten. "Right!" They gasped, letting their pokemon wiggle out of their arms and settle up onto their shoulders. "How come you guys are out here anyways? We're reeeeeeeeeal deep in the woods, ya know?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

Ray watched Pokemon and Trainer interact with one another with a silent pleasure, observing until the trainer spoke up with a comment that drew a laugh from the tall women.
"That's what I said when you first dropped down." She pointed out in amusement. "That language barrier sure did get in the way of you understanding me very well though." she added with a wink.

"We're out training right now." Ray answered, reaching a hand out to place it on Double Stripe's side "Not that we don't make it a habit of making places like this our home."  

[insidiousEnigma]

Drayce blinked owlishly for a few quiet moments before nodding quickly, "Ahhhh, entraînement." They smiled from ear to ear. "I understand now. Like eh....coaching, no?" They cocked their head slightly and peered up at the trees. "Do you always coach so deep in the forest?" They asked, both trainer and pokemon giving the silver haired woman a curious, wide-eyed look. "Do you live out here?!"  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Ah yeah, coaching works too, but I would say the training is just as much for me as it is for Doublestripe." she added "Not always, we train all over the place! Mountains, beaches, cities, forests, caves, you name it. Its best to have a wide knowledge of different landscapes. Don't you think? But as of right now, yeah, mostly the forest, becasue we do infact.... live here! for the time being." She finished with a shrug and a chuckle.  

[insidiousEnigma]

The red-head took a moment to mull over what Ray had just told them, their expression almost comically serious. After muttering to themselves in French and what appeared to be a short, mostly one-sided conversation with Purrito, Drayce nodded once again. "All over the place is good." They said finally. "Makes ready for anything!" Ray was obviously a very smart person for thinking of all of this when training her pokemon. "I wish I could live out here..." They sighed wistfully. "I live in the forest back home but here I have been stayin' in the city, ya know?" They made a large motion with both of their arms, nearly knocking Purrito off of their shoulder. "In a biiiiiiiig house with many rooms!"  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Thats the idea!" Ray burst with agreement, reaching her hands out toward Purrito in a visual invite "Mind of I hold you for a little bit? I've never got to travel over Kalos, so I don't know as much about Kalos native pokemon as I would like."

Ray paused and thought for a moment "A hotel?" She asked "Whats stopping you from living in the woods now?"