dominic turns a corner and comes across another spinarak at his face level. for a long moment, dominic watches it skitter across the whorled bark of a tree and then continues down along the path into a forested area. he already has an ariados, he doesn't want to grow some kind of spinarak infestation in the submarine. that being said, if he were to maintain a colony of them, he thinks he knows what he'd call them all; KOGA, JANINE, ROXIE, PLUMERIA, KLARA...

skipping

dominic draws close to a stream running through the forest, intending to follow its curvature through the trees.

he smells it before he sees it; something acrid and familiar. squinting at the mud and dirt underfoot, dominic recognises droplets of some kind poison on unknown origin and follows the trail until he comes to some stones by the water. the weakened, poisoned anorith lay almost obscured by them, and dominic only really saw it when it weakly twitched its legs.

frowning, dominic squats down alongside it and tries to ascertain if it's the same kind of poison he'd seen cropping up across the region in the past days and weeks but he lacks the medical knowledge to be sure. dominic regards the weakened pokemon for a long moment and eventually heaves out a sigh. he knows he can be merciful; dominic pulls out a pokeball with his alcremie and directs it to use AROMATHERAPY before he captures the anorith in a safari-issued ball.

capturing

the awareness that he had spent too long idling in the safari wilds comes as the shadows elongate, drawn long by the setting sun. dominic returns from the water's edge, making his way back to the central path, as he intends to follow its loop back through to the entrance. there's a rustle in the grass as a morpeko darts out and crosses his path, but dominic opts to not pursue it.

skipping

the entrance looms ahead, casting long shadows across the grass as it shudders in the brisk wind. dominic had almost made it to the exit safely when he saw the something following him along a short distance away. he turns slowly to face the pokemon and finds himself sighing when he recognises it as a castform. the pokemon twirls in the air when it catches him staring and quips a greeting. dominic stares at it for a long moment and then tosses out his final pokeball to capture it.

capturing