The new Galarian Professor of Pokemon!

"aa-AaH!" She yells as she's hoisted and bounced.

She watches the Grimmsnarl lean on the brush and then fall through. She can't help but laugh.

He feel the dragon curl up and hiss at the feeling of ice water soaking through skin. Suppose it truly was an experience like no other for the wyrm. It didn’t exactly have its own skin.

Leon threw an arm over his eyes, shivering hard before forcing his body to relax.

“I’ll- I’ll live. I’ll live.”

He half muttered under his breath. The other half of him was too busy doing the linguistics of getting them both off the island. He had pokeballs on him… but none of his team. Not even Cherry. The thought was sickening in and of itself.

There was a pause as he pushed himself up slowly, rubbing his wet arms as if it would help either of them. Scanning the lake, their choices were either that Gyarados that was already glaring at them for disturbing it’s day and the other was a Lapras minding its business just a little further away…

“I’m going to get us off the island, okay? Just- just stay here.”

“Are you... you again?” she asks, tentative and still breathless as he pulls himself up. She follows his gaze, and then immediately looks back at him, alarmed. 

“You’re not serious, are you? You can’t- You can’t go catch a high level pokemon on your own, without your team! You’re amazing Leon but that’s dangerous! Just let me call someone-” 

Speaking of someone, she notices the dial tone near her head, just in time to hear her Gram’s voice. Her phone floats next to her, and her grandmother’s concerned face fills the screen. 

“Sonia! Sonia, where are you?! Are you okay? Where are you-”

“We’re on Outrage Island, we’re okay! We’re okay-”

This was certainly unfortunate for the woman, wasn’t it?

A big monster, a dead end, and limitless darkness past the treeline. Seemed like the perfect setting for a nightmare, but it was all real.

Now, Grimmsnarl werent exactly a lethal sort. Not without good reason, anyway… they liked to play tricks on others and scare them off because it fueled their egos and gave them a boost of energy.

This time was no different.

… Well… until Sonia and the fairy’s eyes met, and the Grimmsnarl’s hair rose at the shoulders, and it decided it wanted to drag this out for as long as possible. Prey in the past? It would suffice with spooking them and letting them flee. But this young professor felt like a breath of fresh air. 

Maybe, Grimmsnarl mused internally, maybe I’m just biased.

Locking eyes with the Grimmsnarl would result in the corners of Sonia’s vision growing dark and it becoming harder for her to look away, but she wouldn’t be stuck too long as her pursuer had other plans.

Puffing its chest out, it snarled loudly. Arms raised at its sides, fingers curled as if to clutch. Its mouth hung open, showing off the sickly grey tongue and those large fangs. Bully, jutting its face forward to perhaps make the poor woman stumble and fall. 

Her knees feel weak, and her vision is beyond fuzzy. Her heart jumps into her throat, choking out any scream in her throat. 

Oh how far she’d come, from the brave if anxious trainer at 10 to a grown woman who hadn’t battled in years, paralyzed with fear in the Glimwood Tangle. 

She tries to spin around and face her tormentor, but she gets tangled up in her own boots and trips, flying to the ground. 

And doesn’t get up.

Grimmsnarl froze at the scream. It pierced the stifling lack of noise in the rest of the Tangle, cutting through the trees… making herself more of a target than she’d been before. Who knows what she’d just woken up? But it mattered not, because Grimmsnarl would let no one else pursue her.

He froze in excitement, rather than shock or fear. Everything slowed down around him as eyes zeroed-in on the woman’s form. Then, she was running, and the chase was on!

The Pokemon heft itself up onto the path, landing at the other side of it where there was a thicker group of trees to obscure it. It weaved through, pushing itself off the trunks with its powerful arms, huffing in exertion.

Sonia might’ve become keen to the large beast slowly gaining on her… if it hadn’t opened its jaws to release a noise that was thrown in front of her. Loud enough to confuse and muddle the sounds of the large Fairy charging behind her, while giving her something new to focus on: the sounds of a gaggle of Impidimp coming from in front of her, and heading quickly her way.

Of course, those Impidimp weren’t real. But the point of the trick was to get Sonia to stop– maybe stumble a little, for extra fun– and confuse her long enough for her to back up unknowingly into the large chest of the Grimmsnarl that’d been hunting her.

His ears were pricked in interest, breathing heavily from its sprint through the forest. Head tilted, arms out at its side. The imaginary Impidimp would’ve been a less harrowing sight to see, but even if she’d continued forward, she’d find herself at a dead end.

A roar flooded the forest as she bolted, clutching her bag to her. It’d been so long since she battled, and she could let Yamper loose from his ball, but against whatever was chasing her, would he stand a chance? She had one other Pokemon with her but-

She screeches to a stop as a gaggle of Impidimp block the path in front of her. She stumbles back, ready to turn for another path, when she backs right into something- 

She freezes and looks slowly up. Two red eyes are looking down at her. 

Uh oh.

He pauses.

“I’m flirting with you.”

“Is that what that was?” she says, making an ‘o’ face. “Ohhh.... I see. Woops, sorry about that then.” 

“Oh, you know…”

He winked.

“Eating that taco.”

She continues to stare at him. 

     the wounds may not be as bad as previously thought, but it’s still enough to make piers lightly cringe at the sight.  the poor zigzagoon in his grasp seems  frightened  by the sudden snipping, whining as the wounds are poked and prodded at.  the hand that’s atop the little one’s head gently combs through his matted fur, the former gym leader cooing gently to try and soothe him.  

     he’s always had a bit of a talent for domesticating pokemon.  his whole team were supposed to be bad to the bone, the picture of wildness, yet off the stage, they act like regular  house pets.  vying for his attention, trying to squeeze themselves in his bony lap, he wouldn’t trade them for the world.  if only his finances were straighter  —  maybe ozzy would enjoy a little brother.

     the singer lets out a soft sigh of relief.  he doesn’t know if he would’ve been able to handle it, if things took a  turn for the worse.  he shakes his head, however.  ❝  ‘m not in any rush t’ head home, marnie knows ‘m gonna be out all night, but…  ❞  it’s late.  he doesn’t even know if the trains are still running by now, and yet…  ❝  i don’t wanna overstay m’ welcome.  ❞

“Piers... you know you’re always welcome here.” 

It’s never been easy to get Piers to come around, even when they were kids in the Challenge together. Harder still to get him to stick around for a bit when he gets there. 

She knows he’s lived a rough life, even without him saying a word of it. He doesn’t have to, and she doesn’t have to know the details to get it. 

“It’s nice to see you, actually. I wish you’d come around more - or tell me when your shows are. You know I’ve always liked visiting Spikemuth.” Or she did, before she went to school out of the region. 

The fairy had half the mind to smack the phone out of the air! Call it an instinct. But he’d refrain, not wanting to come off too strongly as a threatening force… yet. 

Instead, he ducked low into a path of shadow, hair falling to the ground to snake back to its owner in the most inconspicuous way it could. Grimmsnarl liked its anonymity when hunting, it was less fun otherwise. 

What an adorable little shriek. Grimmsnarl’s ears perked in interest, peering just over the ledge of which the path was. 

Perhaps he’d be more bold this time, keen on scaring the lady further. 

A stick was flung in the opposite direction so Sonia’s focus would shift to it. Its hair would raise from the dark again, this time to brush gently against the Professor’s neck– and lift her purse strap from it so it’d slip and fall to the ground.

She spins again when she hears the stick crack farther down the path. Her bag slips from her shoulder as something caresses the back of her neck. 

The scream she lets loose is a glass-shattering shriek. She grabs for her purse as it falls, and it dangles behind her as she snatches her phone out of the air and makes a run for the nearest path, not caring if it’s correct or not. 

She doesn’t know what’s taken a focus to her, and she’s not sure she wants to find out either. 

He winked. "What?"

She frowned. 

The Tangle isn’t a place a mere human would appreciate finding themselves alone. Especially those of a smaller stature, of which Sonia happened to possess. The gentle scent that followed was a trail directly to her, standing out among the smell of pure, unkempt forestry. 

Now, when they weren’t feeling particularly mischievous or restless, the residents of the wood would rather leave outside visitors alone. Especially now, when it was day. Despite the darkness that shrouded the place endlessly, the nocturnal Pokemon were sleeping their weary heads.

Save for one in particular. A beastly thing, and an unfortunate exception to have, as he had a nose made for tracking, and a particular interest in lone travelers. 

What joy it would feel when it tracked the scent of its new prey and found it to be that of a cute lady!

Well, he could have fun with this, couldn’t he? 

He’d start small. A gentle pull at the end of her ponytail…

There's a fork in the path. Of course there's a fork in the path. She turns, and turns again, looking at both, and tapping sadly at her phone screen as it displays a map, stuck in a loading loop.

"This is why I take the motorway- eek!!"

She jumps a foot in the air- she's already high strung, and when she feels a small tug on her ponytail, she flings her poor phone, which catches itself and hovers a ways away, frowning at her with its little face. Sonia spins around, looking frantically for who or what pulled her hair.

"Hello??"

She blinks at him, looking up.

"Huh....?"

​“Ohhh, why did I have to come here alone?” she bemoans quietly to herself as she walks along the path through the Glimwood Tangle - she thinks it’s the path, anyway. She’s better with directions than Leon, but not even her GPS is working in this thick canopy of trees.

“Why did Hop have to be busy today....”

     even now, it continues to boil down to management problems.  spikemuth has always been in a state of mild disarray, but now, even the pokemon center can’t find enough  funding  to stay open at night…  how foolish piers was, to think he could fix what was too far broken.  he can only pray marnie has better luck in those shoes.

     he nods as he moves to sit, adjusting his hold around the little zigzagoon to lower him onto the towel.  his hands are guided to hold him down, a hand gently pressed to his exposed stomach while the other  pets  the matted fur atop his head.  ❝  poor thing…  ❞  the man coos gently to the little one, before his gaze redirects back up to sonia.  ❝  how bad is it  ?  is ‘e gonna be okay  ?  ❞

To her relief, the wounds don’t seem to be as horrible as they first appeared. There is a gash that’s definitely going to need stitches, but as long as they clean and bandage it, the pokemon will be fine until the morning. 

She uses the scissors to cut some of the fur around the gash away, matted with dirt and blood from his scuffle with who knows what, and then flushes the wound out with water and then iodine before pressing gauze to it and wrapping a bandage around its body. 

“I think he’ll be okay. He should be fine through the night, anyway.” She answers, leaning back. Yamper, who had been sitting nearby watching, comes over and sniffs at Piers and the Zigzagoon from his spot on the ground.