A Good Day's Start

[yoko]

Bright eyed and bushy-tailed takes on a whole new meaning when you're a Zigzagoon.

Zigora awoke to a bright light shining on her face. Her pins bristled as she rolled over and waved her paws to cover her eyes. Unfortunately, she rolled to far and fell off her bed, blankets and all. Sitting flat on her bottom with the sheets half covering her face, Zigora thought, How mighty Team Scratch must look with you on it!

Smiling, she shook herself off. It did no good to take herself too seriously. After all, she was training hard lately and ought to be proud of how much she'd accomplished. Her Pin Missil attack was quite fierce, if you asked her. But she had done enough lolli-gagging this morning. There were pokemon that needed help today! She was going to head to the Meeting Room, but a loud gurgling protest from her stomach prevented that.

First thing's first...I gotta get some food in my belly. She spun around quickly and headed to the Dining Hall instead. Besides...it's still early. My team wouldn't already be looking for jobs, right? I'll just grab a few apples and be back in no time.

[kitkatt]

Larka was bored. She didn't quite know why, but when she was bored, she normally gravitated to the Dining Hall. Since her team wasn't quite ready yet, there was no point in the meeting board and besides, she was hungry.

Prowling past the sturdy wooden tables, she leaped up onto one of the benches that flanked them, and helped herself to an apple that she rolled idly along the table with her long claws before sinking her sonwy fangs into it reluctantly.

She was a meat-eater naturally, but she had to find her own carnivorous fixes outside the Guild, so she had to survive as a veggie untill nightfall most days.

The bland mush of the fruit coated her tounge, and she swallowed it quickly, not stopping to savour the flavour. If she hadn't been so hungry, she would have missed the newest arrival into the spacious room.

A small, undoubtably puny Zigzagoon wandered into the room, the spiky fur and tan stripes made it easily recognisable. Larka snorted, and went back to her slightly tasteless and unappetising meal. No point in saying hello to something that she could crush with one paw, especially as she could be tempted to eat it.

Spearing the remains of the apple with one claw, she inspected it idly, the juice gleaming in the sunlight streaming in from one of the windows.

[yoko]

Zigora carried her play rather easily between her teeth. She had grabbed three really big apples and a few berries. No way would she be caught in a forest on an empty belly! The Dining Hall was pretty empty and the striped pokemon hoped that didn't mean she was super late. While chowing down on the scumptous meal, she noticed the seat she had chosen was rather close to a Luxray.

I've heard of her...she's the leader of Team Nightfire...It's incomplete right now, but I bet it'll be one of the best teams in the guild...aside from my own that is!

The Zigzagoon wondered briefly why the Luxio had not said hello.

Maybe she just didn't see me?

"Good Morning," she called, sitting only one table away. "My name's Zigora, I just signed up for Team Scratch. Your name is Larka, right? Leader of Team Nightfire?"

[kitkatt]

Larka raised her eyebrows at the Zigzagoon's bright comment. How did it know her name? Then she remembered the application for her team she had put on the team sign-up board. She sighed. Right now, Team Nightfire seemed like an impossible dream.
But, in an effort to be remotly nice to the tiny Pokemon sitting a table away, she said 'Yeah. That's me. Hi.'

She wasn't in the mood to talk, so instead she focused her energy on the apple in her hand and tried to use Spark. The apple glowed, started smoking, then suddenly, with a bright flash, dissolved into a pool of heated mush. Mildly pleased with herself, she twitched her whiskers in satisfaction.

The bored Luxio thought wistfully of her dream team; Team Nightfire, the daring team headed by her, now a super powerful Luxray, and could not help agrowl of annoyance and dissapointment.

Realising the little show with the apple could have scared the tiny Zigzagoon, she said mournfully 'Sorry about that. Just bored.'

[yoko]

Zigora was suddenly glad she had guessed right. She had not considered how embarrasing it would have been to be wrong. Those are the things she just doesn't think about. I'll have to start though. I want to get along with everyone here, and that's hard to do when you say silly-

The rest of her thoughts were utterly obliterated. She stared in wonder at the glowing apple. The noisy zap and flash of light nearly startled her out of her chair. As a natural defense, her pins hardened and bristled up, surrounding her in deadly sharp spikes. But the fierce look of her body was negated by her wide brown eyes and slack jaw.

A few seconds after Larka had spoken, Zigora responded with a slow blink. "Huh? Oh, bored, right! I get that way sometimes!" she gave a crooked smile, feeling beads of sweat dripping from her forehead. WOW! Now that's power! I'm gonna be strong like that someday! But her hopes were slightly crushed as she thought about it.

"Being normal type is so boring," she muttered, swallowing a few berries as if they would ease the sting of the statement.

[kitkatt]

Larka heard the comment made by the Zigzagoon and raised her eyebrows ironically. 'Hey, you should try giving people an electric shock almost every time they touch you!'

She felt hungry again, and was slightly annoyed at zapping the apple. It may have not been her ideal meal, but it was the best it was going to get right now. Her eyes flickered for a moment to the tiny rodent, but she quickly restrained her hunger, and sat up a little straighter.

'So...Team Scratch, eh? How's that, then?' she queried, feeling another pang of resentment at her non-existent team. It was so boring, stuck in the guild. She tried for a cheerful smile, but it quickly fell off her face.

[yoko]

Zigora gave a wry mile. That was pretty funny. Still, giving everyone a shock now and then couldn't be so bad compared to sticking them with her spikes. Every type's got their problems...If I focus on getting better I can work through them. Then I'll be a force to be reckoned with. She dug into her apple hungrily.

"The team? I literally just signed up. I was heading to the Meeting Room but I was hungry. I've actually heard that our leader, Wes (have you heard of him?). He's supposed to be on some huge trip. I was hoping he'd be back today. Anyway, there's another name above mine, so we're a whole team already and we've never met."

[kitkatt]

Larka found the notion extremely odd. Imagine never having met your teammates! She shook her mane, and said 'Wes? Yeah, I heard of him. He sounds pretty good. I heard a rumour about him going off to fight'-she dropped her voice down to a whisper-'Dialga, Master of Time!'

Having acheived the desired effect, she raised her voice to normal again as she said, 'Of course, Dialga's pretty hard to beat. I doubt I'll ever be ready to fight him-well not as a Luxio, anyway.'

She wondered whether the rumours were true. If they were, Wez must be pretty good.

[yoko]

Zigora's eyes widened. Her leader was chasing someone that big. He must be good then! She was already proud to be on his team to begin with! Her quills bristled with glee and she began to finish off her last apple, munching happily away. That just means I'll have to meet Gwen eventually, until Wes gets back.

"So where's your team Larka?"

"Right here!"

Zigora turned around quickly. He was a growlithe.

He was a suave looking creature, gliding into the Dining Hall as if he owned it. His fur was sleek with its tiger stripes, his tail was fluffy and curled peerfectly into a ball on his backside. His cream hair was slicked back into pointed spikes and he headed directly for the Luxio, glancing briefly at the Zigora before turning his shiny black nose up at her.

"The name is Ash. You're Larka, I take it?" he said, an arrogant gleam in his eye. "I just signed upp for your team."

[kitkatt]

Larka narrowed her eyes in suprise. She had a team member! The Growlithe looked a bit too arrogant, but Larka still gathered her haunches underneath her and landed right in front of her newest team member.

'Hello, Ash.' she said quietly. 'Welcome to the team!' Her eyes swept up and down his frame, before nodding her head at her friend. 'This is Zigora; I only just met her.'

Leaping back onto the bench, she continued.'It's only you and me on the team right now, so I guess we can't go anywhere as of today. Why don't you sit down?'

She inclined her head towards the bench, whiskers twictching slightly as she wondered whether he would accept her offer.

[/center]

[yoko]

Ash looked over the luxio, not in a checking out way, but more a sizing up. She looked very powerful, not one to mess with. He only hoped her attitude was as tough as her looks.

"Don't mind if I do," he replied cooly, sliding into a chair across from Larka, so that the three were at seperate but close tables. "So how is the team-building going? Is that Roster I signed old?"

No point in joining a ghost team. Not that he wouldn't mind hangng in her company for a while. His eyes wandered over to the little over to the Zigzagoon. Larka claimed that they had just met, but what if this was the sort of pokemon Larka kept in company?

Zigora bundled up tighter and ate her grapes more slowly, her eyes fixed on the new arrival. She disliked him already. He had the air of a snob, and being a little country bumpkin, Zigora detested snods. Still it was Larka's newest member.