Playing in the Pond

The small pond was always a relaxing area, and the water looked fairly nice to Lincoln. Well, it would if he was still looking. He was currently standing on the branch of a tree, eyes closed and keeping his balance. He had already gotten enough physical training in for a while with his previous exploits, and now he was ready to resume working on the mental part of it. Plus, meditating was just a good way to relax and clam down for the riolu.

Crysel was doing something she never did before. Relaxing. No predators to worry about, no rations to plan, no listening for coming storms. Just... nothing to worry about. Still, old habits died hard. Crysel's body was tense as she kept her claws ready, but looking like they were just hanging there. she was walking around the outside of the pond, absentmindedly scraping those sharp claws on tree trunks and rocks. The scraping had been happening a while and there were marks all over the pond's surroundings.

Little did Lincoln know that his peaceful and relaxed atmosphere was about to be interrupted. The first few scratches he heard, he ignored them and kept still, managing to retain his focus. Even more came next, and he started to get slightly more irritated, wobbling slightly. Finally, he couldn't take any more and calmly opened his eyes and looked down at the culprit, a sneasel.
"I'm sorry, but would you mind not scraping your claws against everything you see?" He asked, sounding rather neutral but slightly irritated as he wobbled a bit more on his branch.

Crysel looked up at the Riolu and narrowed her eyes slightly, almost showing the tiniest bit of annoyance. She held up one claw. "I have to constantly scrape them in order to keep them sharp, much like you constantly do... whatever you are doing to stay in peak condition. All Sneasels and Weaviles do it. You never know when you may need your claws..." Crysel crossed her arms as she continued. "What are you doing anyway? Balancing alone doesn't improve alone. Try ice manuvering... or whatever you pokemon here do for agility."

"Right, right..." Lincoln muttered in response as he continued to stay up on his tree branch, looking out at the water.
"Who said I was working on agility? While movement and strength are important, it is also important for one to keep a calm and focused mind, relaxed even under worse circumstances to insure you don't screw up." He added, closing his eyes once more. Which was when he started to wobble a bit more then usual. Deciding to stop what he was doing at the moment, he slid off of the branch and grabbed onto it with his paws, before dropping down and landing just under the tree.

Crysel nodded, understanding his reasoning. You could be the strongest and fastest pokemon in the world, but all of that strength was completely useless without a well trained and disciplined mind to properly use it. Crysel had gotten such focus by surviving in the harsh arctic area of Icicle Woods. Those who didn't learn were dead. Crysel was a survivor. "Well I see what you are doing, but your enemies and nature will not allow you the luxury of peace. You must be able to focus your mind in any situation, to be able to adapt to it. If you can't focus with such a small distraction, you have a lot to learn."

Lincoln shook his head slightly, leaning against the trunk of the tree. The Sneasel he was talking to definitely spoke like she had experience, and had a good point.
"Well of course not, but that doesn't mean I can't take every so often to take pleasure in the quiet moments that come by. They don't seem to stick around for too long anyways." He smirked slightly as he responded, finding it interesting how it seemed whenever he tried to train, someone else came along and sidetracked it. It was a bit annoying, but he did seem to meet some interesting pokemon through it.

Crysel wasn't one to really sit still and enjoy peace and quiet. She didn't even really like not being active. If you weren't doing something, there was more chance of you getting in trouble. With a sigh, Crysel wiped the sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. In Icicle Woods, her fur was a stroke of good fortune. It kept her from freezing to death. But this warm weather was very uncomfortable to her. "How do you stand this warm weather with your fur? I'm halfway to fainting from the heat myself."

"Well, I mean I don't really spend much time in the colder areas. I guess I just kind of got used to it, maybe adapted or something." Lincoln tried to explain, looking over at Crysel and noticing her discomfort with her surroundings.
"Stupid question, but I assume you're used to much colder areas. You know, there is a pond right there you could just jump into if you need to cool off." He suggested, pointing over at the water as he spoke.

Crysel shook her head at the suggestion. "You've obviously never seen a Sneasel try to swim. Its mostly flailing around with occasional drowning. I came from Icicle Woods. Water was mostly frozen there and getting wet was a one way ticket to hypothermia. So... I never tried swimming much less learned how to. I guess I'll have to wait until we recieve colder weather."

"I'm sure that must be an amusing sight, seeing a Sneasel try to swim. Unless of course they die. That wouldn't be good." Lincoln mused to himself, thankful that he hadn't used his original idea of getting back at her by giving her a small push into the lake.
"So, if that's where you come from, what are you doing here? Just thought you would go take a look around, wanted to get away from something, what?" He asked.

Crysel crossed her arms. "I found a new... pack to join you could say. I became a member of the Grassveil guild in a rescue team under the leadership of Mordred the Scraggy. To be quite honest, I had thought that all rescue teams were little more than mercenaries or bounty hunters. However, Mordred has proven that there are some exceptions to them. At the very least he has earned my respect."

Lincoln chuckled slightly, hearing what Cry had to say about how she got where she was. "If the guild was just a bunch of mercenaries and bounty hunters I would have already joined." He responded. Truthfully, if the guild had been just about chasing down outlaws without all the side tasks of finding lost items and other things he would have his own team. As it was the guild just wasn't something for him.
"You know I would have figured you for more of a leader type. I mean I don't really know you but you know, first impressions." Lincoln added.

Crysel's eyes got a sad look about them and she looked away. "A leader takes care of their pack. Always thinks of them. protects them from danger. I do not have that quality..." She could never forget her greatest shame. Burying her family, friends, and comrades in unforgiving ice and so. It was so reckless, so stupid of her to use Avalanche. That was why she left, spent so many years alone. "I should go and leave you to training. Goodbye." Crysel strode away from Lincoln, deep in thought.

Lincoln waited for a moment, taking note of the Sneasel's mood change and considering his options to try and take everything that was happening into a different direction.
"Well hold on a second. Like you said before, training your mind isn't exactly enough. Maybe you could help me out a bit, since you seem like you have a lot of experience." He suggested, shuffling around a bit awkwardly as he asked.