there's a bit of a limp to her step. her skin is still recovering, but the red circles of pink flesh are only really noticeable if you're looking for them. around the clock care and a team of pokemon with healing life dew waters had worked wonders on her cursed body, though she mostly had Isaac Merlo's help in the direct aftermath to thank.

"i'm fine," she says easily with a wave of her hand.

suffice to say, freya's impressed with the way gwen handles herself. gishath emerges from the den as relaxed as she's ever seen him, yellow pupils lazily turning towards gwen rather than obsessively fixating. he noses against the garnet in her hand, teething it away from her, and snorts when he sees freya. 

"good, good. okay. stay right there." 

she walks past the girl and the dragon, noting the careful way the gabite watches her pass. low hisses come from gishath as she nears the mouth of the cave and its hoard, but she doesn't intrude any further on the space. she palms a sapphire and whistles lowly. 

minos emerges, fangs bared. freya waves the precious gemstone and then points at gwen.

"minos, dual chop."

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

there will always be a certain level of danger when working with dragons, but freya is confident gwen isn't in any real danger - not with freya herself commanding the garchomp. that being said, the dual chop comes down a little closer than she'd like and freya takes a step forward, heart skipping a beat. 

but then gishath is there, claws gleaming with draconic energy. minos' second strike comes in, this time against the gabite himself and he takes the hit with a snarl, but does not lose his footing. 

freya hollers and with a wave of the gem, gets minos' attention back. she tosses it into the cave and the garchomp tromps after it with an agitated snort. she'll have to soothe his wounded pride when she can. 

"well, it's a good start," she comments as she nears again. gishath doesn't stay to look over gwen. no, that will come later. she still has a while to go to prove herself to the dragon. but - 

"tell me why you didn't move, ranger. you're no use to anyone dead, especially your friend - robin, was it?"

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

she has a point. and it makes her wonder - freya knows, sure as day, that if their positions had been reversed, she'd have reacted with a tumbling to her side, bow drawn for a fight. but gwen trusted her. trusts, maybe. 

"yeah," she says, a bit rough around the edges. she looks away with a frown, shame hot on the back of her neck. that hateful spite crawls, returning to its hiding place, brushed over in another heartbeat. 

"it won't happen again, but anyway, now's as good a time as any, i think." she reaches into her back pocket and pulls out an empty pokeball to hold out to gwen.

"he respects you because you're loyal. and he might still give you some trouble, but he needs a proper bond to really flourish. i want him to be yours. will you take him?"

from behind freya, gishath watches with glittering yellow eyes.

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

they'll grow together. gishath, for all the chip on his shoulder, hasn't seen much of the rest of the region. and he hasn't known war, truly known war, as it is in hoenn. he's felt the changes in his bones. he's lived the anticipation of the coming horrors. but he's never faced them head-on with a partner. 

"bring him around the sanctuary every once in a while. he's sure to miss minos." the corners of her eyes crinkle as she smiles. "allow him to earn a new name and come to me if you need help, but no, if he accepts you then he's yours."

gwen plucks the ball from her hands and freya folds them behind her back, shoulders straight. 

"but even then that's not quite true. dragons are never really ours, gwen," she says softly. 

gishath steps away from the hoard and stalks up to gwen, head cocking at her impassioned speech. he considers, yellow gaze narrowing on the ball in her outstretched hand. a wayward glance is cast towards his small mountain of gems and then upward, at the open sky above the dome. 

he bares his teeth and rattles a low, contented hum before grazing his nose against the pokeball. 

Gwendolyn Conway

☉

a pride swells within her when the gabite disappears into the ball. and it balloons into a gut-wrenching homesickness. for a moment, she hates the soil she stands on, the strangers around them, this girl in front of her who does not have blue hair and green eyes and a quiet, intense way about her. 

and then gwen is turning back to her, beaming and thanking her. she smiles. 

"you're always welcome to stay and help. we can use capable hands." she scratches her cheek. "he'll get his bearings well enough. they're smart creatures. just stay vigilant. and maybe train him away from others while you're still getting comfortable."

her smile becomes a bit more genuine. "i want to see him strong enough to take on me and minos one day."

Gwendolyn Conway

☉