Caroline was no stranger to Oldale. It was, after all, her hometown of twenty plus years. While the inner parts of the city were small - or quaint, as some often said - Caroline's home on the outskirts could almost be considered it's own town. Or so, Caroline would often joke. It was by no means a small farm, and it only seemed to grow with each passing year. There had been some considerations of moving to a large expanse to improve business, but once one considered the chaos that came bundled with living on Hoenn... Well, the business practically advertised itself at this point. Although his father moaned and groaned about it, they'd been forced to hire external staff to care for the overwhelming amount of injured Pokemon they'd received in need of rehabilitation.

On this particular evening, Caroline was making her way through Oldale on the back of her flaming horse with Mudsdale in tow. A large saddle pack rustled gently with each of the Mudsdale's strides as the setting sun splashed hues of orange, yellow, and red against the paling sky. It was a simple supply run, but Caroline took enjoyment in the simplicity of spending time with her horses. On the ground, Echo, Caroline's Lycanroc, sniffed at the stale scent marks of a Houndour.

Suddenly, an odd sound broke through the normal wave of twittering birds and trees shifting in the breeze. A long riiiip followed by thump, thump, thump. Her Rapidash stopped. The Mudsdale stopped. Lycanroc stopped. Just as bottles of medicine and bags of food crashed to the ground. A shatter made her wince, as some of the glass bottles burst into shards. "Oh shii - whoops." Maybe she had overburdened it a bit. Devon, the Mudsdale, was perfectly capable of holding - but it seems the bag had some training to do. "Oh arceus, hold on - don't step on the bottles - Devon will you move that big butt of yours - Daisy, relax."

Just as the words came from her mouth, Caroline had dropped to the ground and began gathering the un-shattered bottles and bags of supplies. "We'll have to go grab a spare bag, this isn't going to fit on the other side." Caroline mused, eyes wandering for anything she missed before falling to the a circular shaped bag of apples that had bounced to the feet of snow white crocs.

Hands full, Caroline called to the boy. "Hey, do you mind picking that up for me?"

Keenan Toral

Kee was about to start walking again, when he saw the light of a Rapidash. Being ridden on by a girl, with a Mudsdale behind her, hauling a bunch of stuff. A Lycanroc was also nearby. And he saw the rip form and tear even louder, spilling its contents. Much like her, every shatter made him wince. She nearly cussed, and gave some commands to her Pokemon. He took a step forward to help when another bag dropped and rolled over to his feet. Nodding, he picked it up. "Grubbin, you also help pick up some bottles and supplies. Be very careful though, and watch where you're stepping. And be gentle with them." His little bug Pokemon jumped off and started to gather what was left. It was even making a small pile of broken shards in one spot, and things that survived in another, ready to be picked up by the humans. It wasn't fast, but it was meticulous.

Taking the round bag of something to her Mudsdale, he couldn't help but speak up. "So where do you want me to put this? Or if you'd like, my hotel is nearby, I can run quick to get an empty bag and help carry things if you're not too far..." It was something odd, but she seemed vaguely familiar. He liked to think maybe his older brother or father might have dragged him along once to see the woman or something. But he wasn't quite sure on that. He just noticed that there was a fair amount of medicine with her. "Say...why do you need so much medicine...sorry, I don't mean to pry, it's just kind of odd..." Taking a couple bottles to hand over to her, he noticed that it was for Pokemon. Was she delivering to the Pokemon Center? Well, hopefully she was nice and would answer his inquiry.

A broken sharp pierced Caroline's skin as she knelt to retrieve a separate, unbroken, bottle. Blood pooled from the wound, but it was nothing a band-aid wouldn't solve. Besides, her arms were already too full of medicine, feed, and little packets of odds-and-ends. A tiny prick was the last of her worries. Daisy shook her head anxiously, her reaction disproportionate to the situation at hand, as she nudged repeatedly at Caroline in desperate seeking of a comforting pat. "Daisy, please. I'm going to drop something if you keep nudging me." Her attention turned to the blonde-haired male and the Grubbin gathering broken shards and bottles. "Thanks a lot," She said.

"There's not enough room in his other saddle bag for all of this." Caroline mused, bouncing a small bag of food more comfortably into her arms. Echo had trotted up to her with another small bag of treat in his jaws. Her eyes trailed the ground of broken bottles and rose to the rip in her Mudsdale's saddle bag. He was huffing in annoyance, but avoiding eye contact with Caroline as if it was his guilty fault for the tear. "I could fix it up with some twine or – oh? Well, I don't live that far away. I'm on my way right to the outskirts of the town, so if you're not busy we can carry this stuff out there." She hummed with thought, "I promise I won't strand you out there or anything. I'll give you ride back into town when we're done. I can get the replacement medicine later."

She tried to reach for the medicine bottles that he brought to her, but the unsteady pile of things in her arms shifted precariously and Caroline quickly thought otherwise. "I'm sure you've heard of me. My family owns that massive Foster's Ranch nearby. We used to be called the Foster's Rehabilitation Ranch, but now we do breeding and training, too. There's probably a business card or something in my pocket if you've ever need a professional's help."

"But anyway, if you could make a quick run to get some bags, I'll organize this stuff and we can head on over there. I'll give you some compensation for your help."

Keenan Toral

The Mudsdale started to nudge the lady a bit, and he soon saw why. She cut herself a tiny bit on broken glass. There wasn't enough room on the other side though. She said she could fix the tear with soem twine, but seemed to have changed her mind at his offer. She was pretty sure he'd heard of her, though her name still escaped him. But the business rang a huge bell for him. "Oh! I thought you looked vaguely familiar, my older brother took me there a few times! He wanted to do something similar in Johto, he's in Olivine right now. Yeah, I'll go grab my bag...if we pack it right, it should be large enough. But don't worry about the compensation." He set the bottles down carefully, and patted his Grubbin, letting it know that he'll be right back.

He ran quickly to his hotel room, busting in, grabbing his empty bag, and leaving, making Aaron just shake his head and continue working on homework. When Kee got back, Grubbin had all the broken pieces in a pile, ready for careful disposal. And most of the unbroken bottles and packages in a neat pile. Keenan had also grabbed a band-aid too. "Back! And I got a band-aid for you too...just be sure to wash the cut after we get you back there and put on a fresh one. Oh, nice job, Grubbin." He gave his little buddy a few pats on the head, earning some nice bug-like chirps from the Pokemon. Giving her the band-aid when her hands weren't full, he'd carefully start piling stuff in his backpack. While it was certainly full, it still carried everything that was good yet just fine, without any risk of tearing. Kee wasn't completely the social type, he was sort of quiet. But you could spark just about any kind of conversation with him.

"Ooh, you've been to the ranch? Aww, I always love to meet another visitor. We get so many over the years, it's hard to keep track." What does your brother do, now? She wanted to ask, but the boy had already departed before the question could part from her lips. By the time he had returned, she'd promptly forgotten the question in favor of concentration and organization of the fallen objects. She was mumbling to herself about a mental checklist until the blond-haired boy thrust a band-aid towards her.

"Thanks so much, you didn't need to get one of these. I'm sure there's something in these - oh, nevermind, thanks." She stuck the band-aid to her finger as he began piling things into the backpack. "Don't think I'm gonna let you just help without some kind of compensation." She insisted, a firm tone laced in her voice. Anyone would be damned to change her mind once she'd gotten it set. "You said your brother wanted to do the same kind of stuff I do? What does he do now?" She continued her conversation as she double-checked the untorn saddle-bag on her Mudsdale and then reached for the backpack. She'd easily be able to strap it onto the other side and then they could both ride back on her Rapidash.

Keenan Toral

Kee's Grubbin went back to his shoulder as they got done. But at the tone of her voice, it did make him do sort of a deadpan resting bitch face. Oh, you did not challenge him about that. He did that out of the kindness of his heart, not to be rewarded for it. And luckily, he did have a pokemon that knew smokescreen. She quickly changed the subject to his brother. "Oh, um, Derek Toral is his name. He's a Pokemon Breeder at Olivine City in Johto. But he also helps out a bit with injured Pokemon or those that need some form of physical therapy. But he's mostly a breeder and volunteered to take in any extra Pokemon I catch. He has a pretty good plot of land just outside the city..." Things change however. So Derek never went into rehabilitation full swing. Kee didn't know why not or anything, but he assumed that his brother just wasn't cut out for more medical related stuff.

He put his backpack on as he waited for her. And then he would walk beside her. Until...it became apparent that she wanted him to ride on Rapidash. While he had no doubt the horse Pokemon could handle it, he's never ridden a Pokemon before. At least not in earnest. Playfully, when he was a kid, yeah...his mom's Walrien and Arcanine were always fun playmates, as was her Steelix. He nervously looked at the Pokemon, then back at her. If she was a nice looking young man, he might have been a bit more willing to give it a try. "I think I'll walk, if you don't mind. I may be skinny, but I'm not that much out of shape." Says a guy that could very well become an idol if he so desired.

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Kee laughed a bit. Compared to him and Aaron, Derek looked pretty bland. "Don't worry about it too much, compared to me and Aaron, he looks pretty bland and fairly forgettable." The eldest of them didn't have the bright blond hair nor the amber eyes of the two younger brothers, and unlike them, was fairly average in height. Even if Kee and Aaron were below average height, their personalities and other physical traits kind of made them stand out a little bit. The woman didn't seem to mind that much about him walking. So off to the outskirts they went.

Then after walking a few minutes, she realized she hadn't introduced herself. Which, neither had he, and also had him sorta panicking as well. "R-right, sorry. I'm Keenan Toral. Nice to meet you. Me and my younger brother are just starting out. I'm heading towards Rustboro for a gym challenge..." And he hoped to find out what he wanted to do one day. Aaron was kind of debating between a couple of things, but he still had to go through school first. Keenan looked at the Lycanroc. "So cool...I have a Houndour that's recovering right now from capturing a Granbull..." Kee was at a bit of a loss at what else to say. Though after a bit, he hoped he didn't offend the Rapidash or Mudsdale...

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Kee laughed a little as he got out his phone and brought up a picture of their family. His dad and big bro looked a lot alike, where Aaron and him took more after their mother. In the picture, one of Aaron's eyes was blue instead of amber, like Kee and Derek. But both his dad and big bro looked pretty average compared to the two pretty boys that were the younger ones. He showed the picture to her. "Brutal, maybe, but facts. Aaron and I took more after mom, he took more after dad. Personality is great though. If you remember him, it'll be because of that." Caroline emphasized his name and thanked him again. Once again offering to help if he ever needed it. Even going so far as to offer a rideable pokemon for longer walks.

"Oh, yeah, he will be. I dropped him off at the Pokecenter before checking into a hotel. Me and the lady I was with interrupted it having an argument with a Wigglytuff. She wanted the Wigglytuff, I wanted the Granbull. It knew Outrage. I didn't even know it could learn that move, since it's a dragon-type attack. And a powerful one at that. Anyways, he seems to be adjusting pretty well at Derek's place already, I just need to spend some time with him." They soon passed beneath an entrance with a curved sign, and was welcomed back by a herd of Ponyta and Rapidashes. He just smiled warmly at them and waved.

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"Oh, sort of...Aaron's weird like that. That eye goes back and forth between blue and amber. Most doctors can come up with is that it's a genetic anomaly, though not exactly unheard of. Just extremely rare. So long as nothing bothers him or his vision in that eye goes bad, he'll be good." And gives his baby bro something to different between the two boys. Kee simply nodded. He knows he'll treat Granbull well, though he didn't know about the other lady. She seemed decent enough. Hopefully she was a good person. Once they got to the farm house, Caroline mentioned some food. Some homegrown stuff would be nice.

"Raw tomatoes aren't really our thing. But if you're insisting on food, alright. We don't plan on leaving for a few days anyways, I'll get Aaron to come up here with me. Maybe even give us a tour and show us what you do? Maybe even let us help out a little? I don't mind at least, and I'm sure Aaron won't either..." After getting inside and unloading the medicine, Kee was given some food. And he headed back into town. Hopefully Aaron didn't have anything planned for tomorrow.

Thread End.