Everything was okay? Pretty safe to say that wasn't the case judging by the bandaging and such. Gwendolyn shot her a look as if to ask why wasn't she spending time resting properly but never did. "O-Okay, Cap...Uh, Shalin." The captain's hair had caught the trainee's eyes. The fierce, unapologetic color had made her feel a bit more plain. She had to keep herself from staring at it for a bit while she explained her reason for being here.

"Wait, riding Pokemon?" Gwen asked, looking down at the Absol in question as his horn continued to glow. The concept had not eluded Gwen entirely, but she had never really seen something like that back home. Then again, she always stayed put in her room. The saddle on top of the recovering Absol did look comfortable to sit on but she couldn't help but wonder how the Pokemon felt about it. "Do they...like it? I know something as big as a Mamoswine would be easy to ride, but can Absol really carry you?"

While she stayed put, something approached her out of the corner of her eye. A strange being that met her gaze. Gwen took a moment to register what had come closer. It caused her to yelp in surprise and bounce back a couple of steps. The Goomy with her had slithered out and was currently stuck to her shoulder now, wiggling its antennae at the Type: Null.

"Gishath, stop! I thought I told you to- Gah!"

The figure by the beach of the Sky Pillar was of one of the many aspiring ranger trainees in the League service. Gwendolyn was trying to dig out a lump in the sand that had managed to dig up most of the sand around the beach. It moved around away from it and carved a small wave in the beach as Gwen chased after it. The lump retaliated against its chaser, the lump would spew sand at its trainer. This display continued for a second until the woman pounced on top of it. After which, a Gabite head popped out with a hiss.

"Gotcha!" she pulled her pokemon from the sand and groaned while looking at the wake of its destruction. Sand had been flung literally everywhere around the structures and passages near the base of the tower. "Ugh, I can't let you out of my sights for a second without you getting into trouble. Look at the mess you've made..."

A sudden presence about made Gwen turn her head around to come face-to-face with somebody that made her jaw drop. Gabite looked up in its usual possessive manner and hissed at the pair.

"Y-You're...Ohmygod, it's, like, actually you! Professor Morales, it's such an honor!" She beamed at Eva and had to stop herself from rambling on and on. Her eyes lit up with the might of a thousand questions and dreams to spill on this woman, held back by sheer force of will. "I'm sorry about Gishath's little roughhousing around here. I take full responsibility for it! B-But what brings you out here, Ma'am?"

"Don't worry! I plan on staying around and helping out here. It's a great way to learn more about dragon types, and I'll probably need it if I want to study up and become a Professor one day." Gwendolyn reassured Freya. Although her to-do list seemed to get bigger and bigger, there was little that could deter the girl from doing what she enjoyed, learning about new pokemon and meeting new people. "I'm still available to help anyway I can, if you do happen to need somebody who knows their way around some circuits. Or just want to chat too!"

That final part did interest the trainee. Gwen could envision it. One day, just seeing Gishath all grown up and duking it out with Minos. She would be so very proud of it all. It was still a while away, but she'd get through it all with her newfound Gabite. "Me too. I'll get him there, Ms. Morningstar, I promise." She smiled a bit and readjusted her glasses before turning to face the woman directly.

"I owe you so much. I started working with these pokemon and just now learning how hopeless I am by myself. If it wasn't for you, I would have wandered out to the mountains and tried taking a Garchomp or something...I'm really not good with this sort of stuff..."

Gwen tried to summon the words, waving her free hand about to catch the words. After a bit of silence, she decided to wing it.

"I know it's not much considering to your position, but thank you. You've been a wonderful teacher and I'll be sure to learn everything there is, not even limited to dragons. I'll become somebody who can help people like the Council and the Rangers."

Gwendolyn stood with Noah in the immensely cold blizzard, with the flock of Cacnea bouncing along in the white tundra that the two had found themselves in. She gripped her winter jacket for dear life, trying to preserve as much heat as she could. Oh how she wished she was a little ice type that could just swift swim through this slushy weather. Would this even count as rain though? Was snow really rain?

"Eight...nine...That's all of 'em!" Gwen shouted up to her fellow red head and his Machamp. Her trusty Magneton was quirkily zipzapping all around the area surrounding them as if to look for some kind of ice key in all of this snow. It's typing made it a bit more durable than humans in the blizzard. Gwen had wanted to bring out Gishath but the poor thing wouldn't fare too well in places like this. Especially scaling up a place like this.

"Wh-What? there's more?!" Noah reported back down while Gwen clung onto his arm like a lost child. She couldn't get separated in an environment like this. It spelled certain death for her, and more importantly, Noah getting into trouble for allowing it to happen. As expendable as she viewed herself, Gwen had goals to hit and a buddy to keep happy.

Gwen nodded at Noah, tightening her grip. "I'm fine! Those Cacnea are way more important than a few more minutes by the fireplace. Let's get going, Captain!"

The heat coming from the Volcarona's wings had been a welcomed gift to Gwendolyn. The shivering ranger trainee enjoyed the warmth radiating from the bug while starting to get dry from her little arctic plunge to even get into the cave. Once she was fully not freezing anymore, Gwen was finally able to go on and answer the question. She even gave a small little salute to the man.

"Ah-I was using my free time to go searching for Pokemon to catch and fill out my team, Captain!...er, Lars." Gwen answered him and felt her Goomy wiggle its antennae at the man in greeting. It let out a soft whine and slithered across Gwen's head to get inspect a puddle of cold water nearby to moisturize itself. "I was told by some other people there were some strong ones here and wanted to check it out."

The sound of somebody approaching without her noticing had made the Ranger trainee jump in sudden fright.

”WAUGH!!!”

Still shivering inside of her blanket and damp wetsuit, Gwendolyn looked back at the man standing before her. Her large glasses sat ajar on her face before being corrected by her trembling hands. ”So-S-Sorry. You scared me.” The chilled Ranger apologized to the man while offering an apologetic glance. At least, until she started to stare.

”You seem kind of familiar…” Gwen said while her Goomy wiggled around from her movements and started to burrow underneath the blanket. What she would do to curl up by that fireplace near the Ranger HQ during the Christmas season. As Gwen stared, she began to look a bit longer at her cave partner.

”Wait, I think I saw you on some of the Ranger training stuff. Yeah! You're Captain…Laurance, right?”

"Ah, Draconids. I was doing a little research on them as well." Gwendolyn informed Elise. She had only really heard of them in passing, even as so much as working for Freya while in the sanctuary with other like minded dragon type lovers. Of course, she was new to the region so such things were going to be way out of her knowledge pool. "You know the language, even if just bits and pieces, huh?"

Her second question was a bit more manageable. Gwen could at least answer that in full. "Sorta. I'm just doing my ranger patrols and figured I'd stop by." Her eyes went to the full sized Noivern that the woman had with her. Gwen looked on in envy at the sight. It had been like the compendium had read! Gwen reached into her ranger bag and pulled out the thick book that Elise could have recognized as Freya's Councilwoman Morningstar's Dragonology: A Compendium of Dragon-Type Pokemon Vol. III. She flipped some pages and went to the one on Noivern just as Elise put it away.

"But I can't lie, I came out of a personal interest. I'm getting into learning about dragon Pokemon. They're hard to tame and demand the upmost respect. It's just the challenge I need if I want to become a Pokemon Professor."

Just as Gwen mentioned her dream, a soft cry came from above. A familiar violet shape divebombed her as the Goomy on her head wiggled in response to the threat. The dragon type opened its mouth to unleash a azure spray of flames as it cast Dragon Breath at their attacker. From above, a Noibat fell onto the ground from the attack, stunned by the sudden force.

"Thanks for the save, Goomy." She looked at the weakened Noibat with a grin. Just who she was looking for. Gwen dove into her bag again for an extra pokeball which grew in her hand. "As for you..." SHe tossed it over at the fallen dragon type and watched their small form disappear into the ball. Once it was secure, Gwen walked over to collect the new member of her team.

"What kind of research were you hoping to conduct?"

Gwendolyn waded through the waters of Route 125, lightly gripping onto her Dragalge's wings as it guided her through the sweeping blues. Unlike in the summer seasons, the water today was a chilly temperature. It made her shiver a bit as her ride took her to one of the coves that had been unearthed by the lower tides. She had got it on good passerby rumors that a lot of good Pokemon could be located here. And not one to really pass up a chance at some new additions to the crew, the ranger trainee was off and away.

The two wandered up and onto the shore as Gwen shook with cold and pulled herself out of the cold water and onto land. Shaking her body free, her hands dove into her waterproof ranger bag and pull out a blanket to try and warm herself up. "S-S-So cold..." she said to herself. Even her Goomy had been pressing itself against her neck to try and warm itself up from the temperature difference.

She recalled the Dragalge after a quick apology and soon got to work on exploring the inside of the cave, hoping to find some pokemon inside of here.

Gwendolyn had been having another peaceful outing around Hoenn when she had been placed for another patrol round, this time in the forest lover's paradise, Verdanturf City. With her was her newly acquired Gabite that was out looking every which way at the new environment alongside the Goomy that was stuck inside of her jacket hood underneath the layers of orange hair.

It was pretty neat how natural the city kept its architecture and everything close by nature itself. She was busy walking along the outskirts of town before a familiar shape of green would catch her eye. And it wasn't a tree this time! Gwen squinted at the silhouette standing on the road with some Pokemon beside them before she recognized the shape and hurried over.

"C-Captain Nariya!" Gwen stood at attention and saluted Shalin. There had been a lot of discussion around the ranger boards about her. She was the wild card of wild cards. A superior in the upper echelons that was well known for her bizarre and rather obtuse methods of thrill-seeking work. Gwen was a little luck to have run into her here.

If there was one person who could break her out of her shell, it was Shalin.

"I saw you parked on the road." Her eyes went to the Absol currently looking gloomy as its horn was emitting a faint glow. "I-Is everything okay?"

Robin didn't fare too well with the bank owner, but to be fair, he was kind of anal about his wanted ad. Gwendolyn wasn't going to hold Robin accountable as she didn't really know if she had any appropriate dragon types. Goomy was likely somewhere in her bag just chilling along as Gwen dealt with her Gabite's teething. If Robin were to look, Gwen's fingers all had little bandages here and there, some even dotted with blood.

"This is Gishath, at least for now. We're still working on a name for him. But it's a funny story." Gwen said to her friend, beaming with an interest that was rarely seen outside of a computer. "I read a compendium on dragon types and went to the author of the book, Ms. Morningstar! She was a huge help and introduced me to some dragon types she was helping. Gishath was one of the ones I got to know a little and I'm taking him out to see the world outside of his home."

She smiled, thankful for the help that freya morningstar supplied her with. Sure, they were a little rough in terms of teamwork now but Gwen was hopeful that she could make something out of her little Gabite. A hand dipped into her bag to produce a faux ruby that glittered as the sunlight hit its surface. Gishath's eyes locked onto it as a soft hiss was heard from him. Gwen lowered her hand down for him to take as he approached and sniffed for for several seconds, then accepted the gift and became preoccupied with fuddling over its surfaces.

"I guess I just sort of read the book and felt inspired! I don't know if I want to dedicate myself to dragon types, but it's good knowledge to have for an aspiring Professor. And they do offer way more of a challenge than most types."

Robin showed off her signature Munchlax, who had now surpassed its former, smaller self. Once the pokemon popped out of its pokeball, a well fed Snorlax had appeared before her. "Wow! He finally evolved!" Gwen chirped to Robin. She had recalled the pain that the other girl had went through back after she was attacked. It filled her with pride to be able to show her that she just needed a little time and trust in her Pokemon. "You've done an excellent job at training him, Robin. I bet he can take on the world now! What about your other Pokemon? Anybody else improving?"