[attr="class","rubyw"]

You could take a girl from the desert, but the desert would never truly leave her. It would be forever ingrained in her body, letting her recall in an instant how she had survived in it before. For many, the desert was a trial of survival. For her, it was just a natural part of life, like breathing. Heck, Route 111's desert was one of the first places Ruby had gone to search for wild Pokémon after arriving in Hoenn from Orre. It was where she'd found her Skorupi, Skorpios, who scuttled along his trainer, happy to be back in his home terrain.

[break][break]She was dressed for the part of a desert survivor, too. Her skin was protected from the sun with loose, light clothing, a wide-brimmed hat, and sunglasses, and she had a sturdy backpack filled with plenty of water, energy bars, trail mix, and various other medical and survival supplies. She probably wouldn't need all of it, but it was always best to prepare for the worst in such an unforgiving environment. It would have been preferable for her to travel in the evening when it was cooler, but her current mission meant she had to contend with the merciless sun.

[break][break]Oh, well. Not like she hadn't dealt with it before.

[break][break]"See anything, Skorp?" she asked in a low voice. She'd been keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of something serpentine, but she hadn't exactly done her homework on snake-tracking. She figured her and Skorpios's combined desert expertise would get the job done well enough.

[break][break]Skorpios paused in his scuttling. Oh, right, he was supposed to be looking for snakes, not just enjoying a walk with his trainer! He opened his eyes wide and let his gaze dart around the sandy dunes and rocks around him. Ah-ha, there was an indent in the sand! He chittered to get Ruby's attention, then pointed to the long trail with one claw.

[break][break]"Ah-ha," Ruby whispered. "Get ready, buddy."

[break][break]The two crept after the trail until they saw something move behind a dune to the left. Without being told, Skorpios dug down and continued following from under the sand while Ruby waited from a distance, listening carefully. But the next sound she heard didn't sound like Skorpios driving his tail into his prey, even if she did also hear a distressed warbly hiss immediately after. She rounded the other side of the dune to see a Silicobra pinned down by some Y-shaped fork attached to a pole. Holding onto said pole was a redheaded, eyepatched woman losing her balance in the sand, something the Silicobra was taking advantage of in its attempts to wriggle free.

[break][break]"The hell?" was all Ruby could say to the sight.

[attr="class","mon"]

[attr="class","monbody"]At the unexpected sound of Ruby Garcia's voice in what she'd thought was an empty stretch of desert, Aurelie looked up for a moment in surprise—just long enough to lose her already-uncertain footing in the sand. As her feet slid out from under her, she went sprawling face-first into the sand. The snake-trapping pole dropped out of her hands, and the snake she'd been attempting to pin down managed to wriggle free.

"Damn it," she cursed under her breath, spitting out grains of sand that'd made their way into her mouth. She could imagine she made quite a comical sight at the moment, and she couldn't help laughing a little at herself despite her own embarrassment and frustration. "Arceus, this is ridiculous. I can't believe I let him get away because I fell over!"

Scrambling to her feet, Aurelie scanned the area for any signs of the snake, only to see the tip of its tail disappearing beneath the surface of the sand as it successfully made its escape. She thought it might have been a small Silicobra, from what little she'd seen of the colors of its scales. Probably not the most valuable catch she could make, but considering it was the only snake Pokemon she'd seen so far, she couldn't help but let out a disappointed sigh.

Only once she knew it was gone for good did she look back toward the person who had spoken up earlier, distracting her. She saw a young woman, outfitted like a wilderness survivalist with a wide-brimmed hat, practical loose clothing, and a backpack brimming with supplies. Unlike Aurelie, she looked quite at home in the desert environment, or at least far more comfortable than the red-haired bladesmith was feeling at the moment. Aurelie paused to adjust her sunglasses, wondering how to explain herself in a way that didn't sound suspicious, in case the stranger was just an ordinary civilian on a hike through the desert.

"Um, hello. Sorry you had to see all that just now," she said cautiously. Deciding to keep it simple, she added, "I came out here to study some snakes. What brings you here to the desert?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Normally, the sight of someone getting a mouthful of sand like that would have made Ruby at least snicker, but she was already sorting through too many emotions. One, she still wasn't sure exactly what was going on. Two, she was just as surprised to see someone else in this stretch of the desert; she'd chosen this spot specifically because it seemed out of the way enough for her to work without question. And three, goddammit, the Silicobra was getting away—!

[break][break]"Skorp, now!"

[break][break]But the call came just a moment too late. Skorpios's pincer shot out of the sand and clamped down on the air mere millimeters away from the Silicobra's tail. A full two seconds passed before the Skorupi poked his head out of the sand with a confused chitter. Ruby groaned and slapped her palm over her face.

[break][break]The redheaded stranger was, at least, kind enough to summarize what had just happened. "You're telling me," she said. She looked at the strange pole that the woman had been carrying. "What, are you studying how they react to getting stabbed by a weird fork?"

[break][break]Her question had been completely sincere, but only once it left her mouth did Ruby realize that this woman might not just be "studying" snakes. Was she hunting them, too? Ruby didn't want to ask that outright, at least not yet. She'd wait to see how the stranger responded first.

[attr="class","mon"]

[attr="class","monbody"]Aurelie frowned at the stranger's response, nonplussed by her answering the question with another question and further confused by her evident confusion over the tool she was using. Perhaps her tool didn't look like the commercially-made snake tongs or hook that a professional herpetologist would use, but she didn't think it looked like a trident or pitchfork either. Before she could retort something to that effect, though, she noticed the Skorupi poking its head out of the sand and fell silent as the pieces slowly fell into place.

The stranger had looked surprised to see her, but had responded quickly and alertly to the sight of the Silicobra, as if she'd been searching for it. More importantly, she'd ordered her Skorupi to seize it and had groaned with disappointment when the snake got away. She looked like someone who'd come looking for snakes, and not exactly to charm them, either—much like Aurelie herself.

"I'm just out here doing some grunt work, trying to please my bosses," Aurelie replied, tilting her head to one side, "and I suspect that y-"

She cut herself off in mid-sentence when she saw a flicker of sudden movement in the sand behind Ruby Garcia. During their conversation, a couple of small birds had alighted onto the sand, chirping and hopping about lightly. When one landed back on the ground, the sand nearby suddenly parted as two more Silicobras jumped right out of the sand, fiercely focused on the now-startled and squawking birds. One of the Silicobras shot sand from its neck pouch at the birds, knocking one of them to the ground.

With a determined cry, Aurelie lunged past the woman toward the two Silicobras, intent on pinning and capturing at least one of them to be skinned. She held the snake tongs extended in front of her, ready to squeeze as soon as the Y-shaped end closed on one of the Silicobras. She was as startled as anyone when her aim and reaction time actually proved true, and the snake grabber tool clamped onto the body of one of the Silicobras before it could burrow beneath the sand in time.

"Yes! Got it!" she exclaimed. This time, she carefully set her feet so that she was well-balanced and standing on firm ground. With one hand squeezing the tongs on the end of the pole to keep the now-thrashing Silicobra firmly captured, she slowly and cautiously reached her other hand for one of the knives in her belt.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Even if it had been a bog-standard snake tong, Ruby still wouldn't have recognized it; it wasn't like she knew anything about herpetology. Hell, if someone had said the word "herpetologist" to her, her first assumption would have been that they studied something very different. The only way she knew how to catch snakes involved Pokémon and, if she wanted to keep them, Poké Balls. But she wouldn't be using the latter today.

[break][break]The stranger's explanation definitely reminded Ruby of her own mission. The way she said "suspect" had Ruby think she'd been found out, but then the stranger stopped short and looked past Ruby. At the same time, Skorpios hissed in agitation. Ruby turned around to see him snapping his pincers at the birds as they flew in close.

[break][break]Then the sand parted, and out came two perfectly good targets. The birds' attention was drawn away from Skorpios and to the attacking snakes, only for one of them to be downed by a Silicobra's sand shot. Perfect! Ruby just had to get one good shot in while they were distracted, and then—

[break][break]And then the stranger let out what sounded like a battlecry, and Ruby watched, bewildered, as she charged at the Silicobra with her snake tongs. "What the hell are you—?!" Ruby was ready to yell out her frustrations again, to tell this woman who clearly didn't know how to deal with the desert that she'd just scared off even more snakes with her clumsy recklessness... but to everyone's surprise (including the stranger's, apparently), she managed to grab one without falling face-first into the sand.

[break][break]"... Doing. Holy shit, that actually worked."

[break][break]A simultaneous angered hiss and taunting squawk had Ruby turn her eyes to the other Silicobra, who was being lifted off the ground in the other bird's talons. "Oh, no, you don't!" Ruby pulled a Poké Ball from her belt and tossed it up. "Grimm, Quick Attack!"

[break][break]The Scyther was already beating her wings when she emerged from her Ball, and she used that momentum to slam into the bird at full speed. It let out a comically pained squawk as it was hit and dropped the Silicobra back to the ground. It wasn't a terribly long drop, but it was enough to disorient the snake Pokémon, and that gave Skorpios the chance to clamp down on its tail for real this time. The Silicobra hissed and tried to slither out, but Skorpios's grip held firm, and he curled his tail forward to inject the Silicobra with a Toxic poison. The snake's hisses grew louder in its pain for a moment, then began to die down along with its wriggling.

[break][break]"There we go," Ruby said with a satisfied grin. Grimm nodded, and Skorpios, still holding onto his catch just in case it caught a second wind, chittered excitedly.

[break][break]Luckily, the bird that Grimm had hit realized that it was fighting a losing battle and flew off, scattering feathers onto the sand in its panic.

[break][break]Ruby looked over to the other woman, curious to see how she'd take care of her own catch, and saw her reaching for one of the knives in her belt. That all but confirmed it. "Heh. Looks like we are here for the same thing." She set down her pack and reached into it to find her pocket knife. It wasn't anything fancy, but it'd probably get the gruesome job done.

[attr="class","mon"]

[attr="class","monbody"]Aurelie couldn't help admiring the efficiency with which Ruby Garcia's Pokemon caught and dispatched the wild snake Pokemon, her single visible eye widening with appreciation at their combination of good teamwork and innate abilities to capture the snake with half the struggle and none of the good luck that Aurelie had needed to grab her own snake. Watching them, Aurelie decided she shouldn't be accepting missions like this in unfamiliar wilderness environments without a lot more preparation and knowledge of what she was getting into. Because I needed the money would have been a very poor reason to end up sustaining a snakebite, suffering heatstroke, or lost in the desert with nothing to show for it.

"Yeah, I can't believe that worked either," she agreed, in response to the other woman's surprised comment after looking like she was ready to tell Aurelie off for her impulsive attack. "Ugh, I'm not looking forward to this next part..."

Without the benefit of a venomous scorpion Pokemon, Aurelie pondered the best way to dispatch the snake she'd managed to capture with her hand-forged tongs. With a wince, she settled for bashing the snake's head a few times into a nearby rock to knock it out, before using the longest-bladed knife she had brought to cut off its head, slicing quickly through scales, bone, and muscle with a few powerful strokes. It was—unpleasant. And not easy.

But eventually, she managed to complete the process and left the head where it lay a few feet away, leaving a carcass that was considerably messier than what the other woman had ended up with. She stared at the body and the pool of blood soaking into the sand, troubled and disgusted by what she had done. Nope, I was not ready for this at all, Aurelie thought, involuntarily shivering despite the oppressive desert heat.

There was nothing to do but keep going, though, and not waste the good fortune that had let her catch the snake as well as the hard, nasty work that left it dead here in her tongs. She cleaned the first knife, replaced it in her belt, and took out a second knife better suited to skinning wildlife, with a shorter, curved blade with a narrow clip point. Flipping the snake over, she began cutting upward from the ventral opening, her lips pursed in concentration as she focused on separating the skin from the body without puncturing the delicate skin.

More blood. More toil. More wincing and grimacing.

"Good knife there," she remarked in the midst of the skinning process, looking over at the other woman's pocketknife. One corner of her lips curved up in a faint, crooked smile. "Well, if we're not both here to do the sme thing, then I think we'd both have a lot of questions for each other. So, I certainly hope we're on the same side! Good to meet you," she added, "though under the circumstances, let's not shake hands."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby wasn't sure why she felt a little swell of pride in her chest. Maybe it was something about the way the other woman was watching her team work? Either way, it made her grin.

[break][break]The stranger's admission that she didn't think it'd work, either, startled a quick laugh out of Ruby. "I woulda been pissed if it hadn't," she said good-naturedly. Honestly, she could appreciate the woman's determination to make her plan work, especially since it had worked. And if it weren't for the way she winced, her way of dispatching her catch would have been pretty badass, too.

[break][break]But Ruby had her own work to focus on. The Silicobra shot a puff of sand at its attackers from its neck pouch, but it was already too weak to do much damage. "All right, let's make this quick." She nodded at Grimm, who raised one of her scythe arms. It glinted in the hot desert sun before slashing down and through the Silicobra's neck. It barely had the chance to weakly cry out before being silenced with a spurt of blood.

[break][break]"Good work," Ruby said, patting Grimm's shoulder. Skorpios chittered and waved his claws for attention until Ruby knelt down to give him a scratch, as well. "Keep an eye out while I skin this."

[break][break]She glanced over to see how the other woman was doing while her Pokémon took up watch duty. She still looked uncomfortable with what she was doing, but she'd pulled out a second knife for the actual skinning part. It looked way better than Ruby's little pocket knife.

[break][break]"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled in response to the other woman's remark on it. "You've got some fancy knives for someone who looks like they've never done this before."

[break][break]She began cutting through the skin in the center of the belly, eyes narrowed in concentration. She'd dealt with snakes back in Orre before, but her tools weren't nearly as specialized as the other woman's. Man, now she wanted a cool knife...

[break][break]"Heh, even if we're not on the same side, can't exactly rat each other out." She flashed the woman a grin. "You got a name? Or should I just call you Knife Girl?"

[attr="class","mon"]

[attr="class","monbody"]Aurelie's face visibly brightened when Ruby Garcia complimented the quality of the knives she'd constructed for herself—especially given her lack of survival or nature skills—and she broke out into an answering grin when the other woman asked her name. "You have no idea how tempting it is to just say 'Yes, call me Knife Girl,'" she answered laughingly. "I'll have to remember that if I ever need a code name or secret identity or something like that. But no, call me Aurelie. That's my name."

Tilting her head to one side, she added, "What about you? Or should I call you, uh...Snake Slayer Girl?" She chuckled and shook her head at herself for her lack creativity.

She fell silent as she continued with the work of cutting through bundles of fascia connecting the Silicobra's skin and body, biting her lip as she encountered a particularly thick and unyielding section near what she guessed was the neck area. It was enough to make her wish she'd packed extra towels or at least napkins in her gear. Instead, she dripped a little water from her bottle to wash away the blood and then took a drink of water herself to wet her dry throat.

Finally, after a few more minutes, the skinning process appeared to be finished. Taking firm hold of the snake's body with only a single grimace of distaste, she carefully eased the skin off the Silicobra a few inches at a time, pausing now and then to use the point of her knife to trim off bits of tendon and muscle she missed earlier. Thankfully, this part took much less time than separating the skin from the body. Soon enough, Aurelie had a single, fairly intact snakeskin, missing only the head and a few bits from the tail end. She cleaned off her knife on the one small towel she'd brought, making sure no blood remained on the steel surface of the blade.

"All right, I was hoping to get more, but I think that's my limit for hunting and skinning for today," she sighed. "I'm out of here! It was good to meet you and see you in action. And..."

Aurelie hesitated for a moment and then took a calculated risk on a fellow Rocket member. "If you like my knife, want to borrow it for a while?" She offered it to the other woman, holding it out handle-first. The knife was a good one, but she'd forged it mostly to keep in practice than to sell or use frequently, and she couldn't help seizing an opportunity for some free advertising. "It's one I forged myself from 1095 steel, with a good hollow-ground edge. You can use it as long as you'd like, or you can return it to my workshop in Lilycove City when you're done with it. I run the Iron Lady Forge there. No pressure either way, though."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Ruby chuckled along with "Knife Girl." She'd meant the name as a joke, but it went off even better than she thought it would. She would definitely have to keep an ear open for that one ever popping up. She nodded in recognition of the woman's actual name. Aurelie, huh? Ruby had never heard a name like that before, but she guessed that just made it exotic.

[break][break]"Snake Slayer Girl" was a bit of a mouthful, but... "Snake Slayer sounds pretty badass," she said with a toothy grin. "Name's Ruby."

[break][break]With the underbelly sliced through, Ruby turned her attention to the neck pouch. She had no idea if it'd be wanted, but she figured she'd try to keep it just in case. Carefully, she began to cut around it until she could separate it from the rest of the Silicobra's body. The rest of the skinning process was pretty simple: All she had to do was peel the skin off by hand, occasionally using her knife to carefully free some particularly stubborn parts from the rest of the body. It was messy work, but hey, what else could a person expect from such a grisly job?

[break][break]A shadow passed beneath her. Already, a couple of Mandibuzz were circling above, drawn by the scent of blood. Skorpios and Grimm watched them carefully, but they seemed patient enough to wait for the humans to finish. Ruby wouldn't need the rest of the body, so she'd be more than happy to toss these vultures a bone or... however many bones a Silicobra had in its body. Did Silicobra even have bones?

[break][break]Satisfied with her work, Ruby cleaned off her pocket knife and Grimm's scythes with some towels and water. "Good work, guys," she said before recalling them into their Poké Balls.

[break][break]She was surprised that Aurelie offered her the knife, but she sure as hell wasn't gonna say no. "Yeah, sure," she said, taking it. "Iron Lady Forge. I'll keep that in mind." And she meant it, too. Aurelie had surprised her with what she was capable of, and now she apparently forged her own tools? That explained the look of the snake tongs.

[break][break]And okay, Ruby had to admit she was attractive, too.

[break][break]"I'll see you around, then." She flashed a smile, though it looked more like a smirk with Ruby's default expression. "I'm gonna see what else I can find around here." Maybe she'd get a chance to test out her new knife, too...

[break][break]As she trudged through the desert sands, supplies and skin neatly packed up, the Mandibuzz landed behind her to pick at the remains of her job. The circle of life was a hell of a thing sometimes.