A Toast to New Beginnings

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The night gave way to the morning as the sun started to rise, the first rays of light signaling many of the Pokémon that it was time to wake up and get prepared for a new day. It seemed like it was about to become a wonderful day indeed, as the previous day's storm seemed to be in the past with not even a hint of a dark cloud up in the sky. There was barely even a breeze in the air as the sun rose, painting the sky with many shades of reds and oranges before it finally started to turn into a beautiful, spotless blue. Grassveil Town seemed to stir from its slumber as the Pokémon got out to the streets, starting their busy lives for the day.

Varda had been quite lucky yesterday. After the storm that had whisked him away from home, not only did he manage to bump into someone who was capable of helping him out of the strange forest, he also had managed to find someone who let him stay the night with them! Somehow after he stumbled his way to the pond to get cleaned last evening, he got quite lost and, well... He walked into a strange building and met a strange, wingless Pokémon. The owner of a Dojo or something. That Pokémon did prove to be quite nice, as she let the Swablu sleep somewhere dry. He really did have to repay her kindness one day!

Right now, the bird Pokémon had other plans, however. The person he had met in the forest was a leader of a team by the name of Lance – and someone who had wanted Varda to join his team, even! The decision had been quite hard as the Swablu hardly knew if he was up for the job, but he had finally agreed to it. He had also agreed to meet Lance the next morning, to properly get signed up for the team and become a part of the Guild! Or something. Honestly, he had no experience of anything like this and didn't know what was going to happen, but he had been told to not worry...

Of course, with Varda being Varda, he had managed to get lost on his way to the Guild despite having been given directions to it by a couple of different Pokémon already. While the bird was most likely a bit late, he did somehow manage to – finally – find his way to where he was supposed to go. Picking up his pace as he saw the structure looming up ahead, the Swablu quickly hurried towards the Guild to meet up with Lance. They were supposed to meet outside in the morning, so surely the other Pokémon was already waiting for him!

"No, I have no questions." Lance said. He walked into the room and looked around. He then turned around and looked at his team-mates. "I'm going to go for a walk." He smiled. He always liked walking. He saw so many pokemon, and if he went for a walk before right before night, the sky would be a nice, golden-orange color, like syrup. He slipped past Varda, Dawn, and the Guildmaster. "See ya later!" He said, and went towards the exit of the guild.

Dawn saw Lance leaving for a walk. "Bye, Lance!", she said while waving, even though he was only about a meter away at that moment.

"Varda, while we are in our room, we could get to know each other" the Ralts said. Sure, she already knew and trusted her new friends, but it would be great for them to know each other better.

"Oh, you're all very welcome, dearies.", Faye spoke, silently closing the door to the room while speaking.
"Rest well, dearies. It was an exciting day today and tomorrow will likely be no different."
And so another signup at the guild had come to its end. For the new recruits it had done so at least. For the guildmaster the work had just begun, mountains of paperwork waiting to be filled out. But that was nothing to concern the young Pokémon with. They would be having exciting adventures now, forging friendships and helping those in need.
And so the guildmaster walked back to her quarters.

"Oh, bye Lance!" Varda chirped his goodbyes as the leader of their team – he was a part of it now after all – decided to leave right away, seeming to be quite busy with other things. He didn't mind that, it wasn't like Lance had to be around right now. Surely whatever it was, it was a lot more important than just sitting in their room all day! But the bird was definitely going to take advantage of just being allowed to rest and take in the sights...

"Goodbye, Guildmaster ma'am! I hope we'll see again soon," the Swablu turned towards Faye as she made it quite clear that she was leaving as well, not wanting to bother the newly formed team as she told them to rest. But Varda just hopped in the room as the door was closed by the Guildmaster behind them, wanting to pick out a proper nest for himself.

"Ooh, right," the bird Pokémon stopped once Dawn spoke up, turning around to look at her properly. Maybe getting to know his new teammate would be more important than the room they were in!
"What should we talk about...?" He cooed as he wondered, waddling closer to Dawn.

"Well," Dawn started, "we could talk about ourselves and get to know each other better. I'm a ralts -the feeling pokemon- with the ability of telepathy, I can talk to others in their mind," she said. Then she telepathically said "See? It's an ability that some Psychic types have." to the Swablu, waiting for his response.

"That sounds like a good idea!" Varda chirped in turn as Dawn gave them a subject, the most basic and obvious one everyone probably should start with, but it had completely slipped out of the bird's mind. And in his eyes, his new teammate was now a genius for coming up with it. He nodded as he listened, telling her own species – which he hadn't actually known, so it was great to hear – and also told him about her strange ability... Which she even demonstrated, her voice suddenly invading his own thoughts and talking to him.

"Wow, I have never seen anyone so that before!" The Swablu cooed in awe, his beak open as he was amazed. Dawn's ability certainly was great and interesting! It was too bad that he couldn't do anything that interesting, as now his side of the introduction surely would be a lot more boring.
"I'm a Swablu," he started the same way as the Ralts, introducing his species,
"And I don't have this tellypatty. I can... Fly?" Varda offered coyly and with a smile, tilting his head a bit and causing the feathers on his head to flop over with the motion.

"Can you talk to anyone with that ability? Anywhere?" The bird already went ahead and asked more about Dawn's telepathic capabilities, quite curious about it and any possible limitations.

Dawn answered Varda's question. "Well I can talk to anyone with my telepathy, but they have to be close to me for that. Well, when I get stronger and evolve my psychic abilities will get better." "Say, Varda, what made you want to become an explorer?" the feeling Pokémon asked.

"That makes sense," Varda nodded as the other Pokémon told him about the limitations of her ability – mainly, the range. Even the loudest of Pokémon couldn't be heard everywhere, so it did make sense that even mental speech would be affected by that and not be "heard". Dawn especially was a small and soft-spoken Pokémon like him, so he doubted she had a very loud mental voice either! Perhaps it would change as she grew stronger, like she had suspected?
"Oh, right," the Swablu snapped out of his thoughts as his new teammate wondered about his motivation to become a part of the Guild and join an exploration team. It was a good question!

"I wasn't really planning to do it – actually, I didn't really know what a Guild even was," he chirped as he started to speak,
"I kind of got lost actually. I shouldn't be here, a storm caught me and I was thrown here. I met Lance in the forest and he thought it would be a great idea if I joined!" Varda flapped his wings a bit as he told his story, seemingly more excited about it than sad about the fact that he was lost with no way to get back home. He continued in his chirpy voice.
"I mean, he said he would help me find my way back home. Explorers do a lot of that, right? Exploring? So I might find my way back this way."

Dawn was surprised. So he was lost... "Well Varda, I promise that I will help you get back home too." the ralts said. Varda seemed a lot happier than some other Pokémon would be in his situation. Dawn was happy for that, since she wouldn't have to see a friend be sad a lot.

Varda seemed to be a bit surprised as the Ralts promised to help him too. Perhaps he hadn't expected her to do that for him as well, but his surprised expression quickly turned into a big smile as he looked at her with big, bright eyes.
"You will?" He chirped as he made sure, his tone almost wondering yet still having that hint of excitement in it,
"Thank you! I'm sure that will be a great help. It might mean that you have to travel a lot, though," the blue bird Pokémon cooed a bit defeated, not certain if Dawn was going to do it anymore when she knew it was going to be hard work. Clearly, his home wasn't anywhere near Grassveil Town – they had to go further away.

"What about you?" Varda tilted his head as it was his turn to ask questions,
"Why did you join the Guild...?"

Dawn smiled when Varda asked her why she joined the guild. "Well, my parents used to be explorers before I was born. So, I wanted to walk in their footsteps and become an explorer too, so I can help others! And I also want to travel and see new things!" she said exitedly.

"Ooh, I see," Varda chirped in his excitement, flapping his wings a bit. Dawn probably had more than enough reasons that made her join the Guild – and it was no wonder how she knew so much about it! She had probably learned a lot from her parents and her choice was probably made with a lot of thought – unlike the Swablu's own decision, which had taken all of one night.

"Then maybe traveling a lot isn't such a bad idea for you after all," the bird smiled as he considered it, realizing that the more troublesome part of finding his home probably wasn't going to be such a bad thing to Dawn after all,
"We could take many different missions all over the land! Then we could help many Pokémon and explore a lot, we get to travel and experience a lot! Maybe I'll find my way back home, too."

Dawn smiled. "I'm sure you'll find your way back home!," she said. "Wait, don't we need to get things ready? We haven't picked beds yet, and I think the sun might be setting soon by now." It was true, as their talk had taken longer than they thought. "Well, we should get ready. You can pick your bed first.", she offered.

Varda nodded cheerfully to Dawn's reassuring words, being quite certain that he would find his way back home indeed – it just was good to hear it from others as well, as it made it sound even more possible that way! However, once the Ralts reminded him of them having to get everything ready for tomorrow, the bird seemed to jump a bit as he realized it, his eyes wide.
"Oh, of course! Good thinking!" He chirped as he opened his wings in surprise, turning over and waddling deeper to the room.

It was getting late, so they were going to have to sleep soon so they wouldn't be tired the next morning. Who knew what they were going to do then, it would be their first new day as an Exploration Team! It was rather exciting – though the Swablu was quite touched when Dawn was letting him to pick his own bed first.
"That's very kind, thank you," Varda cooed as he smiled and gave the Ralts a nod, not wanting to waste any time as Dawn was now waiting for him to pick a bed before she could go to sleep. He didn't seem to be awfully picky though, as he almost straight away waddled to the corner and picked the nice, dry pile of straw as his new nest.

It was going to be their first night in the Guild. The bird felt is heart fluttering as he put his bag down on the floor next to his nest before stepping on the straws. However, before he managed to stay quiet and go to sleep, he just had to turn towards Dawn and ask her a question.
"Do you think we will do a mission together tomorrow...? I saw Lance looking at something earlier..."

Dawn nodded "I'm sure. I mean, what else would we have to do? Faye said that we don't need to worry about anything else.", she said while picking a pile of straw and sitting on it "Well, we will have a long day tomorrow, so we should rest," she suggested while laying down on her bed.