[Naveta Lejori]

After exploring all the areas relatively close to the city to the south, it was time to continue onto other parts of the island.  Naveta briefly considered just continuing along the southern coast until she made it all the way around the island, but it was getting to be quite the hike.  Her body could handle it, but the sheer amount of time it would take to get to the other side of the island was not something she wanted to deal with right now.  If she was lucky, maybe she'd eventually get a pokemon she could either fly on or ride on while it swam.  She had a couple that fit the bill, but they were kind of small right now and she wasn't really interested in crushing them.  So, for the time being, she opted to go along the north coast instead.

This was one of the places she was least looking forward to checking out.  Naveta hated sand.  It was difficult to move through, and had a tendency to get everywhere.  Seriously, it wasn't unusual for her to be pulling sand out of her hair and clothes for what felt like weeks after she visited a sand dune.  The worst part was, the sand was probably too hot to stand on, and she had to deal with potentially stepping on scorpions, so she couldn't even take her shoes off.  At least on the beach she could do that and move through the sand more easily.  Unlike the beach, these places tended to have literal mountains of sand that took a lot more energy to climb than even a normal mountain in her experience.  Sure, they didn't tend to be as steep and they tended to be flatter, but she sank with every step she took and it was just obnoxious.  

To make matters worse, the dune here wasn't even all that weird.  It was just a typical coastal dune, and it probably explained why the areas to the south were so nice.  These dunes would protect them from whatever harsh weather this island might have.  Naveta just sighed.  At least she wouldn't have to come back here that often given this place actually made sense.

[Chromatic]

Behold! A wild Pokemon appeared!

Species: Cacnea
Ability: Sand Veil
Gender: Female

• Sand Attack

• Needle Arm

• Cotton Spore

• Sucker Punch

[Naveta Lejori]

At this point, Naveta was tired and cranky.  She was almost to the top of one of the higher dunes she saw, so hopefully once she reached the top she could get a good view and then go home.  Her clothes were getting sweaty and covered with sand.  She would be so glad when this leg of the survey was over.  Once she reached the top, just over the crest of the dune she saw a pokemon coming up the other side.  She didn't really care what it was or what it could do since all pokemon were worth catching on some level, and she didn't care what it could do or what it was weak to because there was one particular pokemon she was going to use no matter what.  Cirque was a naught little fox a couple of days ago, and this seemed like the perfect place to make up for it.

When she let the Zorua out of her pokeball, she just remained curled up on the sand like she was going to try to continue to try to sleep there.  Naveta just folded her arms and stared at her.  Cirque was a little self-conscious about such things, so she knew that it would get her attention pretty quickly.  As expected, the Zorua opened one of her eyes and stared back at Naveta.  The staring contest continued for a few minutes until the fox made a quiet whining noise.  Naveta was unfazed.

"You know what you did.  Did you think that I somehow wouldn't notice that a bag of my chips suddenly disappeared?"

Cirque stared for a moment longer before bursting into tears.  Naveta just rolled her eyes.  To some Cirque's actions may look like remorse, but Naveta knew her better.  She was just doing anything she could to get her trainer off her back.  It wasn't going to work on her though.  Cirque was going to fight that cactus thing whether she liked it or not.  Cirque wasn't stopping the tears though, so with another roll of the eyes and a shake of her head, she stepped next to the Zorua, causing the sand to slide thus causing her to slide towards the cactus pokemon.  Naveta was often harsh towards her pokemon, much like she was people, but in the end she cared for them.  She just wasn't going to put up with any of their bullshit.

"Those tears better be directed towards that thing, 'cause you're wasting your energy trying that on me."

Cirque turned towards the cacus, tears still in her eyes.  Sadly, it looked like the cactus cared about her tears about as much as Naveta did and just punched her right in the face.  It knocked the fox down, but she got up quickly with a huff.  She narrowed her eyes, now clearly annoyed at the pokemon.  At this point, she was more than willing to comply with Naveta's order to annihilate the cacus, and used the move it picked up recently: Shadow Ball.  That would do.  Before the cactus could retaliate, she threw a pokeball at it and the pokemon was unable to escape.  With that, she went back to Cirque's side and recalled her.

"Good job.  Now stop stealing my food."