[FIN] Discoveries Abound

[BlackFireKitsune]

Short, early shifts at work were perfect for planning afternoon excursions. With this thought in mind, Abel grabbed a dark gray hoodie from his closet and donned it, zipping it up as he headed out into his living room. "D'you know what part of the forest would be a good place to start?" He asked of Taavi as he adjusted the hoodie to sit more comfortably over the short-sleeved shirt he wore under it. "I don't usually go around picking berries in forests, so..."

Caleb barked, his ears perked and appearing quite pleased to be going out on an excursion outdoors today.

Something about the Growlithe's tone tipped him off, so Abel turned a wry grin at him, "I didn't ask you, did I? And you wouldn't know either, you were never wild."

Caleb huffed and looked away.

"Anyway," he went on, turning to his group of pokemon, "are you guys ready? We're all going, I don't want to leave anyone home alone."

Isaac responded as he glanced around at them all.

Tabitha replied in her usual quiet voice, though she couldn't help but look at the anxious Lopunny who looked significantly more anxious than usual.

all have to go?> Vanessa asked as she wrung her paws together, looking between all of Abel's pokemon as well as their trainer himself.

Sonia huffed quietly and offered a short in response, making the Lopunny wince.

Tabitha reassured her gently,

Vanessa replied, trailing off and still wringing her paws together. What if something bad happened? What if something tried to eat them? Or worse?  

[TawnyAngel]

"Yep!" Taavi said cheerfully as he shrugged into the lovely coat Sasha's sister had given to him. "I think we should start at the southern shore of the lake, fewer trees means more sunlight for smaller plants, like our berry bushes, and the lake itself being nearby means plentiful water." All of his pokemon were already safe in their pokeballs besides Valour and Scully who would of course be flying.

Taavi was cheerful not only because they'd both had an early shift and so were able to head out together but also because he'd had a headache for a week straight. He'd stopped mentioning it to Abel after the first day just in case it turned out not to be what he hoped but.... but he really hoped!

"So, uh, we're super organised people?" Taavi said with a grin as he turned to his friend. "Do you want to drive out there, or fly or-?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"That makes sense," Abel said with a nod of his head, taking a moment to commit the vague map - if it could be called so - to memory. "Oh, uhh..." The blond trailed off with a frown, shoving his hands into his hoodie pockets as he did so. "I'm used to driving or walking everywhere, not flying, but probably whichever's faster?" He suggested after a moment, offering a shrug. "That and I don't exactly know where we're going, so you'd have to give me directions if we did drive. But, I think we're all ready...?" He turned to his pokemon for confirmation, and received it from all of them... including Vanessa, who had retrieved her blanket and held it firmly in her paws.

Abel rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "Uhh, I don't really... think it'd be a good idea to bring your blanket into the forest, Vanessa," he said carefully, and the Lopunny made a plaintive sound in response before she hunkered down into a ball on the floor and threw the blanket in question over herself. "That's not.. uh... hm." The blond frowned thoughtfully for a few moments before uttering a soft "c'mere," then led the still-hiding Lopunny back into his bedroom. A minute or two later he emerged with Vanessa in tow, the latter wearing a dark blue hoodie Abel had zipped up for her; the Lopunny looked somewhat skeptical about this development, but as it was similar enough to a blanket - that she was allowed to take outside, even - she didn't think as poorly of it as she might have otherwise. "Okay," Abel said once he was back out in the living room, "now I think we're all ready."  

[TawnyAngel]

Awwwww. Taavi smiled softly as Vanessa departed and then emerged again dressed in a hoodie. "That looks really comfy Vanessa!" he said encouragingly before turning to face Abel and offering an expressive shrug. "Well flying is faster probably but with car we don't need to worry about the weather? Um, if it was me I'd go flying? Because pokemon are cheaper to fuel than cars. If you want to fly you can go on Valour or Scully, I'm cool on either!"

And between either the two strong flight capable pokemon, or Abel's car, they could easily bring back a hugeass haul of berries! Ahhh, booze sweet booze! This was going to be a fun little experiment.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Vanessa made an uncertain little noise in the back of her throat but otherwise remained quiet for now; she still wasn't sure about this, not at all, and all she wanted to do was stay home, inside, where it was safe.

"It's supposed to be a gorgeous day today so I'm not really too worried about the weather," Abel said with a slight shrug. He opened his mouth to add something with his hand raised to point, paused, sighed, dropped his hand back to his side and shrugged. "You make a good point about the gas. All right, I guess we're flying then?" The blond said, although he didn't sound as confident as he did a moment ago. "I'll uh, fly on Valour if that's cool with you," he added after a moment, after Taavi had already said it was cool with him. Just in case.  

[TawnyAngel]

"That's good!" Taavi assured with a smile and a nod. "He's used to any kind of passenger, so just climb on and hang onto the thick feathers between his neck and shoulders," Taavi made a gesture to the vague equivalent on his own anatomy, "should be pretty comfortable!" And if Abel fell of by some freak accident he knew Valour would catch him, but there was definitely no need to mention even the vague chance of falling in front of Vanessa!

From the apartment they headed down to the street and with the two flight capable pokemon ready and waiting Taavi turned to Abel with a grin. "So! Any last minute questions or thoughts before we go? I've got all the stuff in my bag for bringing back our haul.... Was there anything else?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"So kind of like riding an Arcanine," Abel noted aloud as he headed down after Taavi - once all his pokemon were stowed safely in their balls, at any rate - although looking at Valour he couldn't help but realize he was anything but an Arcanine, and thus would be immensely different to ride. "Uhh, no, I don't think there was anything else," the blond said somewhat uncertainly, although his hesitance was due less to forgetting something and more to the fact he wasn't at all used to flying. Driving, yes; riding an Arcanine, absolutely; riding a Lapras, not quite but almost there; flying? Nope, no, not even a little.

Still, he approached the Braviary, gave him an affectionate pat and, once assured the bird was ready for him to do so, he managed to awkwardly climb up onto his back and held onto his feathers like Taavi had instructed. "Ready when you are," he said as he still tried to mentally prepare himself for when they were up in the air.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Uh... I've never ridden an Arcanine but quite possibly!" Taavi said cheerfully as he climbed astride Scully's... neeeeck? Body? Uh. Scully's Scully.

<> Valour squarked, twisting his neck around to look at Abel through one keen eye. As soon as everyone seemed to be comfortable or as comfortable as they were going to be Valour launched himself off the pavement and flapped lazily into the air, taking care to move smoothly so he didn't throw off his inexperienced passenger.

<> he said once they were up above the level of most buildings. With height gained he banked around and headed west towards the forest with Scully on his tail. <> he squawked reassuringly to Abel, >  

[BlackFireKitsune]

It's the best, he wanted to say, but it was a little late for that now. Abel drew in a sharp breath and held on tightly as the Braviary took off, but once the flying smoothed out he relaxed a bit, and occasionally glimpsed down at the city below. While he did note how high up they were, the thought of falling off didn't really cross his mind. On Scully, it might have - thus his choice in mount - but on Valour he at least had somewhere more stable to sit and more feathers to grab - just in case. "Go easy on me, bud, I'm not used to this," he called to Valour and hoped the bird would be able to hear him over the rush of the wind; he was sure he already was going easy on him, but he just wanted to be sure...  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Valour replied, putting as much reassurance into his tones as he could given Abel couldn't actually understand him and all.

Over on Scully Taavi was laughing as he held on his arms wrapped around her neck just under her jewel; this was very, very different to rising Valour! What should he even do with his legs? After some thought Taavi shifted to lie flat along the Dragonair's back and hooked his ankles over one another so that he could hang on with his thighs without having the wind tugging at his feet. He was probably going to be stiff tomorrow from using muscles in ways they weren't used to but oh well! This was really pretty cool, he got a way better view of the ground than he did on Valour.

Thinking of which Taavi glanced over to make sure Abel and his avian friend were still doing okay, luckily all seemed to be well!

Soon enough they were flying over farmland with the mountains ahead of them; Valour knew the way well by now and would lead the way through the lowest pass. Once they were through there it wasn't far to the edge of the forest, and then they were practically at the lake! Today was going to be awesome; they'd find berries, Mulder and Kielo could swim in the lake with Scully, they'd all get some sun and fresh air and forget about life in the city for a while. What could be better than that?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While he didn't understand anything Valour said, he at least appreciated the response. "Thanks bud," he called to the bird, offering a brief scratch of the area his hands were in. Brief, though; he was acutely aware of being very, very high up in the air with little between him and the ground except the Braviary.

As they flew, the more Abel relaxed enough to glance at the scenery they passed far below, noting the transition between city to fields to farmland. He could spot what looked like forest up ahead, so presumably it wouldn't be too much longer... This wasn't as bad as he thought it'd be, although he still very much preferred riding an Arcanine.  

[TawnyAngel]

As they passed over the treetops Taavi wondered what it would be like to swing around under Scully's neck and hang on just with his legs. On balance though he decided that maybe he should try that sometime when Abel wasn't with them, he had a feeling it might make him a bit nervous and definitely if he hadn't been warned!

Soon enough they reached the lake and both pokemon spiralled down gently towards the ground. Scully landed first, or at least hovered a couple of feet above the ground to allow Taavi to climb down; he did so with a slight groan and started to stretch as Valour glided down, losing as much speed as he could before touching down in order to give Abel a gentle landing.

"Alright there?" Taavi asked with a grin, pulling one foot up behind himself to stretch out slightly cramped quads. "That was pretty different! Like riding on a thick pool noodle."

<> Scully said dryly.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Once again Abel found himself grateful for Valour's smooth flying, and once they'd landed he managed to slip off the Braviary's back without much trouble. It was a lot easier than getting on, at any rate. "All good here," he affirmed as he gripped one of his shoulders so he could stretch the other arm backwards in an attempt to loosen the muscles. Looked like they were both a little stiff after that, but it hadn't been bad or anything, just... different. Different was pretty good, usually, like--

A laugh burst out of the blond then, a broad grin accompanying it. "A pool noodle? Man, poor Scully - a pool noodle. Nah, I think I get it though," he managed to say through chuckles as the amusement slowly subsided, and he moved over to offer the pool noodle Dragonair an affectionate pat on the - neck? Back? Somewhere around there.  

[TawnyAngel]

Scully gave Abel a grateful, thoroughly resigned look. After the pat she flopped full length on the ground, stretched out straight, and rolled towards the water. <>

"Ahaha, okay maybe that was not a very flattering description; sorry Scully!" Taavi called after the rolling Noodleair. He then turned back to Abel with a broad grin and gestured around them. "So! What do you want to do first? Look for berries, go for a swim, lie around in the sun?" He took in a deep breath though his nose and let it out again through his mouth, enjoying the freshness of the air and drinking in the soft noises of nature around him. He missed this, he missed it a lot.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Scully's behavior earned another brief fit of laughter from Abel. "Aww, Scully," he called after her, "if it helps, you're the most beautiful pool noodle I've ever seen!"

Turning back to Taavi with a grin, he shrugged. "Dunno! Hold on, lemme..." He trailed off as he dug through his pockets, then systematically released his troupe of pokemon. "All right guys, here we are! Remember, stick together, don't get lost and all that," the blond said as his pokemon all stretched and looked around at their surroundings. Caleb and Elizabeth both trotted off - at different paces and most certainly not together, of course - towards the lake with Scully, while Sonia, Isaac, Vanessa and Tabitha remained nearby. With that done, Abel looked back over at Taavi. "What did you wanna do first? We can always lay around in the sun later on - the sun won't set for a few hours - so maybe something else first?"