[Serena Miller]

To say that Serena was apprehensive about coming to this school would be an understatement.  She had never been more than a couple of miles from her house, even on those long adventures where she got horribly lost and wandered quite a ways away from her house.  Suddenly, she wasn't even on the same landmass anymore, was in a completely different building, and was even in an area where there were hardly any trees in sight.  Not to mention, there were probably more people in her dorm than there were in her entire hometown.  

Coming here was a complete culture shock, and at first she didn't really know how to handle it.  For awhile, she was content to just hide in her room, under the blankets in her bed.  However, such a strategy would not last for long and she knew it.  Not only was being alone in her room hard, but just being inside all the time was hard.  Part of her wanted to go out into the public areas in the dorm and find someone to talk to, but the idea of doing that made her heart leap into her throat and just gave her a bad stomach ache.  Still, she couldn't just stay cooped up in her room all day, so she decided to take the first step and at least go outside.  That she could at least feel a little bit of actual excitement about.  There was a whole new world out there with things that she had never seen.  If she could just get over her nerves, it should be pretty fun to explore.  She had never been on a volcano before.

Serena took the trip slowly, and opted to walk rather than fly on Aerodactyl.  Flying would probably be easier, but there was something to be said for feeling the surface and actually experiencing the terrain for herself.  She wasn't sure if it was more difficult than navigated the forest she grew up in, but it was certainly different.  Trying to figure out which was harder would be difficult because they were difficult to move in in completely different ways.  This mountain was steep, and it was easy to lose your footing.  The forest was just dense and there were lots of things to trip over or to hit your head.  Here was at least clear, and there was at least flat.

Time passed more quickly than she expected it to.  What felt like mere moments in her simple enjoyment of mountain climbing turned out to be a couple of hours, and she didn't even notice until her body started to get a little tired.  Serena decided to rest, and when she turned around she realized how high she climbed.  Rather than be worried, all she could really think was how amazing the view was from up here.  Taken in by the view, she walked over to a nearby rock and decided to rest there for awhile, her Growlithe Natalia on her lap looking equally as happy at the situation.

Perhaps this place wouldn't be so bad after all.

((Preference for Axew))

[Chromatic]

Behold! The wrong Pokemon appeared!

Ability: Blaze
Gender: Male

• Eruption

• Swift

• Flamethrower

• Defense Curl

[Serena Miller]

Sadly, her relaxation time was short lived.  While she was distracted the by the nice view, a series of star-shaped rays pelted poor Natalia, knocking her off of Serena's lap.  Serena quickly stood up, and reflexively reached for her bow, only to find that she didn't bring it along.  It wasn't that surprising, she was just exploring, it's not like she would need it.  Normally when something like that happened back in her hometown, it would just be some mischievous wild animal, not an actual Pokemon.  She can't say she'd ever been attacked by one before.  Did this mean it was okay to attack it back?

Even if it wasn't, Natalia was back on her feet and was growling at the creature.  She clearly wanted a piece of it after what it did to her.  Serena was somewhat familiar with Pokemon because of her parents, but didn't actually have any battle experience herself.  Still, it didn't take a genius to realize that fire attacks probably wouldn't be effective against this Pokemon.  They were on a volcano and it was literally on fire.  This meant that half of Natalia's abilities just flat out weren't going to work here.  The other two would be fine, but how hard should she hit it?  She knew that you had to get them close to knocked out in order to actually catch them, but that still just seemed so mean.  Still, it was what she was supposed to do here, so she needed to at least try!

"Um...Y-Yeah!  I guess you can um, go ahead and bite it..."

Natalia glanced at her trainer for a moment, but she was way too into the fight to care that was the worst attack command ever.  She opened her mouth wide and bit into the other Pokemon, which recoiled and looked almost surprised.  Did it just expect them to run away after it attacked?  The Pokemon tried to wiggle away, just barely managing to escape Natalia's jaws.  After that, it just curled up and started to roll off.  Should she let it run away?  It would probably leave them alone at this point right?  So there was no reason left to fight right?  It was a strange situation.  It felt wrong to fight, but it also felt wrong to let it run away.  After a moment, Serena clenched her fists.  She came here to train Pokemon and she would never be able to do that if she just let them all get away.  So, she let out a command, still lacking in confidence, but at least stronger than before.

"A-Again!"

Natalia excitedly charged into it once more and took a good bite out of it.  This time however, it stopped moving.  Once Natalia realized this, she let go, and Serena quickly came over to see if it was okay.  It seemed she attacked it a little bit too hard and it fainted before she could capture it.

"Um, whoops."

There was nothing else that could be said really.  At least Natalia seemed happy.