With her pokemon having cleaned up all the food she'd brought along, Marsha felt that it was time to move on. The young woman picked up what remained of the paper plates because she didn't want to litter. Afterwards, she zipped up her backpack and put it back on, though it took her a moment to get the left strap over her shoulder. She was surprised that no wild pokemon had tried to snatch the food, but maybe it wasn't that unusual. After all, her pokemon had eaten it so fast that none of the wild pokemon would have gotten more than a brief whiff of it. "Don't worry we'll get some more food at the nearest town, but for now I want to explore some more," Marsha explained to her team. Marsha expected them to follow as she lead the way down the trodden path, and was surprised to see it curve around the shore of a frozen pond. Correction, the pond wasn't completely frozen. It was open on the north end, where it looked like something large might have broken through. A flash of orange caught her attention, and she quickened her step in the hopes of getting a closer look before what it was could disappear. "Do you see that too Raffle?she asked of the Ivysaur, who had been doing his best to keep up with her.

Raffle glanced over at the pond that Marsha had indicated before he bobbeed his head in acquiescence. There was definitely something moving over there. The Ivysaur figured that he could get away with taking a shortcut across the ice. He was every bit as curious as his trainer, but his eagerness to find out first cost him. The ice was not very thick, and it immediately started to crack the moment that he put weight on it. He quickly reached out one of his vines and secured a grip on the trunk of a nearby tree, unsure whether he should continue or not. It was just was well that he had secured himself, because the ice suddenly shattered under the impact of a horn slicing through it. He sputtered and treaded icy cold water, and the chunks of ice were suddenly being pushed aside by a pokemon that looked a bit larger than him. The vine that was secured to the tree on shore was being strained, and he ended up retracting it before the vine could get severed by chunks of ice. He looked towards shore, waiting expectantly for some direction from Marsha.

Clegane didn't bother following Marsha or the other two pokemon. What was the point? She clearly didn't have any more food and he was still hungry. However, the local wild pokemon might have food stores of their own. He hoped he could get away with raiding some of their food staches. It wasn't like they would be able to stop him anyway. The Chestnaught did spare a glance towards his new trainer briefly, just to see which way she was headed. His eyes widened when he saw the Ivysaur fall into the icy pond, apparently being attacked by a wild pokemon. He shook his head, wondering why Marsha kept such a weak pokemon around in the first place. He turned his back on them all deliberately, since he didn't consider it at all his problem. The Ivysaur had been stupid enough to step out on the ice in the first place after all. With his mind on food, the Chestnaught sniffed the air, but his nose was cold and he didn't pick up on much. Heaving a sigh, the Chestnaught tromped off the beaten path, since he figured he would find something that had food sooner or later.

Sollum didn't like the water, since it was his antithesis. He watched with his telescopic-like eyes as his friend crashed through the ice. The little Hippopotas remained torn for a moment, before he waddled up to Marsha and bumped his snout against her ankles. He was offering to help, the only way that he knew how. He felt like he should do something, but it seemed as though Raffle wasn't too worried. How could he not be worried, facing a wild pokemon while treading in icy water? Suddenly, Marsha patted his head reassuringly, and Sollum subsided with his insistent nudging because he had managed to get her attention. Unfortunately, it didn't seem as thought it was anything but a passing interest, as she gave him no orders to engage the wild pokemon. He was disappointed, but worse than that he felt guilty, since he was also slightly relieved as well.

"Thank you for looking for me Raffle, but you didn't need to put yourself in danger," Marsha scolded, though she actually wasn't too worried for Raffle's safety. While she admittedly wasn't the most skilled of trainers, she knew the basics when it came to type advantage. Her Ivysaur had an edge over water types...although in this case, the Seaking was in its natural habitat. She was distracted from he thoughts by Sollum, but not for long. "Don't worry, Raffle can handle himself. Just watch and see," she told the little Hippopotas, though she hoped she wasn't being overconfident in saying so. When she turned her attention to the bright orange Seaking, she noticed it was circling in the water around Raffle. The wild pokemon was acting more like a Sharpedo, and that gave Marsha cause for worry. "Okay Raffle, you know what to do. Use Razor leaf!"

So, Marsha had decided that he was to fight the wild pokemon. Considering that he was already in the water with it, the Ivysaur felt he didn't have much choice. Besides, the Seaking had clearly picked the fight by breaking the ice in the first place. The Ivysaur shivered, feeling the cold of the water pretty keenly, enough so that his feet were beginning to get a bit numb. However, that didn't stop him from firing off several sharp leaves as soon as the Seaking circled in front of him. The leaves struck the water and ice mixture, and splintered the broken up ice into even smaller pieces. Raffle blinked, expecting to see his attack land home. However, the momentum of his leaves had been slowed by the ice, and they didn't reached deep enough down to strike the Seaking, who had reacted faster than he had expected. Razor leaf was one of Raffle's signature attacks, and the Ivysaur was more than a little shocked that his attack had actually missed.

Little did they know, that they Seaking had been trapped in the pond for a few weeks. She had followed a wide shallow stream down into the pond, and the stream had frozen solid. There had still been food to be found in the water, which she had sustained herself on. The pond was the only home she had now, and it's resources were limited, which is why she couldn't allow other pokemon to stay there with her. She hadn't known what pokemon had been walking on the ice, only that she had wanted it to go away. However, not only had the pokemon not left, but not she was under attack. It was a land-dwelling pokemon obviously, though not of a species that she was familiar with. The Seaking decided to attack again, since the other pokemon hadn't gotten the point to leave. Maybe she should give it the point, directly. The Seaking cut through the shattered ice with her horn, and then jabbed at the swimming Ivysaur with her Fury Attack. The wild Seaking's attack landed successfully, though it also unintentionally pushed the Ivysaur closer towards the shore.

The jabs from the Seaking's attack were painful, but it was Raffle's leaves that suffered the most from the attack, since several holes were left behind. No doubt they would be healed upon Marsha's next visit to a pokemon center, but it left him with a rough and ragged look. He was still able to tread water, but he was not paddling as quickly with his stubby legs. The Seaking was bold and wasn't afraid to get close to him, but why wouldn't it be? Raffle took a deep breath and tried to swim faster towards shore. He hadn't gotten out very far on the ice to begin with, so he didn't have far to go. Unfortunately for him, the Seaking chose to swim between him and the shore, blocking his way. "That was bad luck Raffle, but I know you've got this. Use Vine Whip next," Marsha called out to him from shore. Raffle aimed his two vines at the obstinate Seaking and tried whipping them from right to left, in the hope that he could swipe the Seaking out of his way. He watched as the Seaking tried to slip under the water to evade his vines, but the water was too shallow there. With the Seaking knocked out of his way, Raffle hurried up and swam towards shore, and it wasn't long before he felt his front feet touch the snowy ground.

The Seaking floated on her side in the water, and her fins twitched wildly. She smarted all over, but the cold water actually helped to numb a bit of the soreness. She purposefully wiggled her right fin, and then the left, before she tilted her body enough that she tipped upright once more. A small floating chunk of ice bumped up against her side, but she took no notice of it. The Seaking's wide-eyed gaze was fixed upon the grass-type pokemon that had reached shore. She debated allowing the pokemon to leave, but there was no guarantee it wouldn't return to steal her food later. No, she had to give this other pokemon such a thorough defeat that it wouldn't even think of coming back. As she looked towards shore, she noticed the greenish pokemon wasn't alone. There was a human there too, and another smaller pokemon she was unfamiliar with. Things had just gone from bad to worse. It didn't change her assessment of the situation; she hoped that defeating the grass-type pokemon would motivate them all to leave. The water directly in front of the Seaking began to bubble, and then a column of water jetted into the air. She spiralled her way up the water column, and used the momentum to propel herself at the Ivysaur with a powerful Waterfall attack.

Raffle was hit from behind by the Seaking's summoned waterfall, followed by the Seaking as well. The impact knocked his feet out from under him, and washed away a huge swath of snow. On top of that, all of the remaining ice fragments in the pond were washed onto shore or further crushed. Conveniently for the Seaking, she ended up bouncing off of his back and back into the water. Raffle was looking a right mess when he climbed painfully to his feet, with his tattered and droopy leaves. Even the edges of his bulb were wilted, and he moved slow and rather stiffly. While he wasn't weak to water, the wild pokemon had been using her key element to attack him and it had not been a weak attack. Raffle had to admit that he was rather impressed; it was surprisingly plucky for a water pokemon and hadn't backed down. However, he had a feeling his trainer wasn't going to either. He looked behind him to see a very drenched-looking human, who did not look very happy about it. Marsha looked pissed, and her command showed it. "Enough of this, use Seed Bomb before it gets back to deeper water!" Raffle didn't hesitate and launched a glowing green seed towards the Seaking that had been trying to flip itself back up in the water. Water sprayed up at the impact, and when the droplets cleared, the Seaking was belly up and prone on the surface of the pond.

Marsha wiped her wet bangs away from her forehead and shivered. She had been on her way to help Raffle up when he reached shore, but had gotten close enough to get soaked by the remnants of the waterfall attack instead. She was now shivering, wet, cold, and felt absolutely miserable. She narrowed her eyes at the Seaking after it had gotten hit by Raffle's last attack. It hadn't fainted, judging by the fact the fins were still moving, but it was probably weakened considerably. She took out a pokeball and with an underhanded throw, and then attempted to toss it at the Seaking in a shallow arc. "You were amazing Raffle. Thank you for looking out for me," she told her Ivysaur, moments before her teeth started to chatter. They definitely needed to head to the nearest town soon. She glanced back towards the pokeball she had thrown and waited anxiously.