Simply Sideways

Kyraen hopped along the pebbled path that led to the Small Pond, just outside the Grassveil Town boundaries. He had given his brother, Keenan, and his sister, Krystine, the slip when they had all gone to the market for groceries. One moment he was behind the two older eevee, and the next, he had disappeared in the crowd, slinking off to do some exploring on his own. He loved his siblings, but they could be a bit overbearing and overprotective sometimes.

He didn't know why, of course. The world was full of friendly pokemon just waiting for the silver-colored eevee to make friends with; why his siblings wanted him to stay away from all that was beyond the simple-minded furball. So he bounced happily along, humming to himself, a little diddy that his parents had taught him when he was young.

"What a great big world, a sight to behold; what a perfect place to be~♫ What a great big world for life to unfold, and it's filled with mystery~♫ All my friends are gathered around and its such a sight to see~♫ And we work and play and we get through the day, like a great big family~♫"

A young Burmy clad in a cloak of autumnal leaves wandered towards Grassveil, a bag wrapped around his tiny body to carry a few of his more important belongings. It had been a while since he had returned to Grassveil since leaving to set up the Windrose Scouts, and he was quite excited to be back there, even if it was just to experience the positive atmosphere of camaraderie that the town's market place seemed to exude. He smiled to himself as he wondered what his parents might have been up to lately.

Grassveil Town was near, but Russell knew he was close to the small pond that lay just outside the town's boundaries. After a short moment of thought, he figured that it would be nice to visit there too, since it was on the way and he hadn't visited the area in a while. As a younger child he would often come and play here, just because it was a well known safe spot that parents could let their children go wild in.

The Burmy slowly made his way towards the pond, catching the sound of someone singing as he wandered along the beaten path. Russell couldn't help but find himself bobbing his head and humming along with the old tune. He hadn't heard it in a while either. Coming back to Grassveil sure brought on the nostalgia full force, he chuckled to himself.

As the voice he had heard singing the first and second verses came to a halt, Russell found himself continuing from where it had left off, reciting the words as easily as if he had been singing it for years;

"From the mountains to the prairies~♫ The heavens down to the ground~♫ All the creatures great and small, our song makes the world go 'round! ♫
It's a great big world, a sight to behold~♫ An enormous place to explore~♫ With the friends we make and treasure we take~♫ Who could ask for something more?~♫" he sung with a grin.

Kyraen giggled in delight as a voice answered his tune, carrying on the next two verses. "In this world, there's so much to do, and so much we can't understand; but we work and we play and we get through the day and we do the best we can~♫ In the mornings when we wake up and in the night as we lay, all our spirits join together in song to sing our tears away~♫" He finished the song, and fell over laughing.

"Who's singing with me?" He called, looking around. He noticed a little burmy some ways behind him. "Ooh, oooh, was it you?" he asked with a big, innocent grin on his face. "Oh boy! We should be friends since you know the song to make the darkness go away!" He burst out, jumping around the burmy as a little bundle of fur and excitement.

"Oh oh! We should play together? Wanna play with me?" he asked, his tiny childish voice raised in high pitch as he looked at the burmy with large, pleading eyes.

Russell was just as delighted as Kyraen was when he heard the voice sing back to him. It was always nice to finish the song properly as well. He pinpointed the voice as coming from the fluffy silver furred pokemon in front of him, and grinned as wide as a Burmy could as the original singer asked who had been singing with him.

When the shiny Eevee turned around, Russell blinked. As far as he knew, Eevee were brown furred, right? Oh well. It didn't particularly matter, and he nodded at the Eevee's question as to whether he was the other singer, watching as he jumped around him in excitement.

The little Eevee's cheerful attitude seemed to be almost contagious, as Russell couldn't help but agree to the pokemon's request.
"Sure, why not!" he smiled, "Playing sounds like fun~ Are you heading to the pond?" he asked. It was a logical assumption to make, considering the fact that they were both present on the same path, but the Burmy figured he'd make sure.

"Yaaaay!" Kyraen burst out when the burmy agreed to play with him. "Oh boy oh boy oh boy, we get to have so much fun together! We'll become friends and do everything together, and then we can have parties and have cake and we'll just have so much fun!!!" He jumped around the burmy, then stopped as the little bug asked him a question about the Small Pond.

"Oh yeah!" He said, reminded of where he was going in the first place. "Heh, I forgot I was going there at all! Hahaa!" He turned his head and beamed at the burmy, his eyes scrunching up with delight. "Oh oh, what kind of games do you like to play? Do you play hide-and-seek, or do you like tag better? OHHH? What about "Guess that pokemon?!" Do you like that, huh, huh, huh?!" He just couldn't slow down, he was so excited about meeting this new friend. And his friend was so nice; he was going to play with Kyraen and they were going to have lots and lots of fun!

Kyraen leaped ahead, bouncing around the path to the Small Pond. He couldn't wait until they got to the Small Pond so that they could start playing. He looked back at the burmy, and realized that he didn't even know his friend's name yet? "OOHH! I'm Kyraen, by the way. What's your name, new friend?" he asked excitedly.

The Burmy found himself a little overwhelmed as the Eevee seemed to speak so quickly and move on so fast that he almost couldn't keep up. Nevertheless he tried his very best. There was something about parties and cake... and then hide and seek and tag and asking what game he'd like to play...

The Eevee then introduced himself as Kyraen, asking the Burmy what he was named and finally seeming to pause for a breath. Russell took the opportunity to answer some of Kyraen's questions.

"Oh, i'm Russell, pleased to meet you," he smiled at the excitable pokemon, "I suppose any game is fine, although i'm not very good at tag because I can't run very fast..." he admitted, trailing off. He then asked a simple question of his own.
"What game do you want to play?"

"It's great to meet you too, Russel!" Kyraen giggled. "Russel. I like that name. It's like the word 'rustle', like the rustle of leaves, and you're made of leaves! Isn't that cool?" He beamed happily at the little burmy, glad to have made the connection between rustling of leaves and the pokemon's name. "Oh, I like to have fun with any kind of game. I especially like 'who's that pokemon?' Do you know it? It's a game about guessing what kind of pokemon the other guy is thinking of! I'm really good at it!" Kyraen said happily.

He bounced back and forth, unable to contain all the excitement inside his tiny body. His fur was all ruffled up and he could not sit still, he was so happy about the new friend that he had made.

Russell found himself laughing along as Kyraen made the connection between his name and the word 'rustle'. Since he was just so used to his name, he'd never made that connection before and he had to admit it did seem rather fitting now that it was pointed out.

"'Who's that Pokemon' sounds like a great game," the Burmy replied warmly, "I've never played it before but i'll give it a go if you want," he chuckled as the duo continued to make their way towards the pond. Just a little further and they'd arrive in the small clearing and Russell couldn't help but wonder how many other pokemon might be there just to relax on this nice day. If he and this Eevee did end up playing a loud game, he hoped he wouldn't disturb anyone else.... although he was pretty sure anyone going to the pond would have learned to expect that sort of noise level by now.

Kryaen bounced along the path as they finally emerged into the small clearing before the pond that the Small Pond was named after. Kyraen squealed happily as they emerged in the clearing, causing the many pokemon already gathered at the pond to look over at the duo curiously.

There were all kinds of new pokemon here that he could be friends with! This made the silver-furred eevee very happy. "Ok, ok! We should play 'who's that pokemon'. You start. Think of a pokemon, then give a sentence about it. 'I'm thinking of a pokemon that... yada yada yada!" Kyraen burst out, giving his tail a happy wag as he turned to the burmy.

As they finally reached the pond, the Burmy made his way closer to the edge of the water. He'd always used to sit there as a youngster and wonder if he could make a cloak out of the pebbles at the bottom of the pond. Russell watched the Eevee he was accompanying with a soft smile of amusement, not caring about the eyes that suddenly turned to them.

"Okay!" Russell nodded as Kyraen explained how the game would work. He paused, thinking of a few of the pokemon he had encountered lately. He wasn't sure what types of pokemon Kyraen might know, but the pokemon that came to mind was one who had recently joined the Windrose Scouts, and his species was known by many, giving the younger of the duo a better chance at finding the answer and allowing Russell to ascertain just how many pokemon the Eevee knew about.

Living in Grassveil was definitely an advantage when it came to this sort of game as one would encounter many species of pokemon whom were wandering through or heading to the guild.

"Hmm... I'm thinking of a pokemon that... can sense disasters," the Burmy began the game, looking to Kyraen to see if he would guess the right answer.

Kyraen bounced happily as the burmy sat down near the edge of the pond and began the game. Kyraen was so happy that he knew what pokemon his new friend was talking about right away.
"Oooh ohh! I know! It's Absol! That's the disaster pokemon!" he giggled. "That was too easy, silly. Think about something like... oh! I'm thinking of a pokemon that's motherly!" Kyraen bounced around in a circle, wondering if his friend would guess the pokemon that he was thinking of.

Russell watched the excitable Eevee hop up and down, his gaze following the movements with amusement sparkling within his eyes. Kyraen seemed to get the answer pretty quickly, and it appeared that Russell had underestimated the youngster's wealth of knowledge.

"Haha congratulations! You really did get that one pretty fast," he smiled before turning his mind to think about the clue he'd been given, "Hmm..."

When he thought of motherly, honestly the first pokemon that came into his head was his own mother. But Wormadam weren't particularly known for their motherly behaviour, so he delved further into the list of pokemon that he'd seen before.

He remembered one that had carried it's baby in a pouch on it's front. Was that what the Eevee was thinking of? It was worth a shot?
"Is it Kanghaskhan?" he asked, unsure if his answer was truly correct.

Kyraen jumped around his friend joyously. "Yeah, yeah! That's exactly the pokemon I was thinking of! Wow, you're just as good as I am on this game!" he exclaimed in a high-pitch. "Now it's your turn to think of a new pokemon!" He couldn't wait until his friend came up with a pokemon for him to guess. He hoped it would be more difficult, like 'this pokemon is blue'. There were a lot of blue pokemon! Then he would get to ask more questions about the pokemon, and they would have such fun!

Russell grinned at the youngster's praise. Although he'd never played this game before he was having fun with it, and it seemed like an interesting way to test your knowledge on different pokemon species at the same time.

The young Eevee then told him it was his turn again, and the Burmy stood for a moment in thought, hmm-ing and haa-ing between two options before he decided upon one and continued the game.
"Alright I think i've got an interesting one," he grinned, "I'm thinking of a pokemon that looks like a plant..." he began in the customary way that started the guessing game.

"Ooh that's a tough one," Kyraen said. "There's lots of plant pokemon... Hmmm. Is it one of the bulbasaur line?" He asked curiously, jumping around the bagworm pokemon.

"Ooh! Does it have four legs or any legs at all?" he questioned next. He skipped in a circle, all of his energy pent-up and bursting out of the little pokemon. The eevee was simply too excited to keep it all inside himself.