Team Petal-Purr

Part 1c-"Practice"

Ch. 5

On the first morning of their journey, Blossom and Shelby woke with the sun. They yawned in unison as they crawled out from their shelter in the hollow and began to stretch themselves, feeling stiff from sleeping on the ground. Blossom dug her claws into the earth as she felt the warmth of the morning creeping up on them. Shelby shook the dew out of her coat and sat down to groom herself.

Dragging her bag out from under the shelter, the Bulbasaur plopped down on the grass and opened it up to pull out two small parcels of berries for breakfast. She carefully unwrapped them both while Shelby finished up her wash and skipped over to join her.
One parcel contained a mix of dried Corrn and Qualot pieces, along with fresh Bluk berries. This sweet portion was obviously intended for Shelby, who immediately dug in. Blossom's meal was more balanced, with sun dried Pinap and pickled Rabutas rolled in a wide leaf, with a single Razz berry that she set to the side until the end.

"This feels weird. We don't have any chores to do. We could have slept in."
Blossom takes a moment to gaze around her before she starts eating. The shabby field looks different in the blue light of the early morning, with soft yellow flowers slowly opening their petals all around them. The pair had been too tired to notice them the day before, but now Blossom was able to properly appreciate their subtle beauty.

"I miss my bed."
Shelby spoke with a mouthful of food, her mouth already stained from the berries as she cruched down the rest of her breakfast. She was the first to finish eating, as always, and the two of them sat in the grass and talked together until the sun reached over the mountains.
Then they packed up their things and began the next leg of their journey, continuing on until they approached the crossroad that would lead them to the town of Firestone. Beyond the crossroad, the northen path wound up a long sloping plane, passing around the base of the mountains until the rocky outcrop met with a wooded area far in the distance.

Ch. 6

"Hey watch this!"

Shelby called out to her sister as she sprinted ahead, veering off the path and leaping into the dry, spiky grass.
"Bet I can hit that stone with my Thunderbolt!" She claims, sounding very sure of herself.

Blossom looked over at the boulder Shelby is focused on. It sat a little ways up the small hill the young Skitty was now climbing, creeping up on it as best she could with no long grass or bushes to hide her.

"At least a stone can't see you coming." She teased. Shelby was not quite so stealthy out here; her bright pink coat stood out garishly against the dull yellow of the short grass. Her sister spun her head around and hissed.

"Shut up! It's just for practice!" She yowled back, her fur standing on end as she felt the electric charge begin to build up in her body.
She bunched up close to the ground and wiggled her shoulders, then sprang forward with a mighty jump into the air. Before her feet had touched the ground, the electric energy was already visibly radiating around her.
She landed with a thump and a flash of blinding light split the sky with a violent cracking sound as the bolt of lightning appeared before her in an instant.

"ZZZAPP! ZZZAPP!"

She yelled, straining to raise her voice above the rumbling of the Thunderbolt. Her whiskers stood straight up as the last of the electicity crackled through them. Two more bolts of lightning came down around the stone, but not one had managed to strike the intended target. The rock lay undisturbed, though some of the grass right by it had been singed black. Embarrassed and frustrated, Shelby lashed her tail and tore at the ground with her claws.

"How did I miss that!? That was perfect!"

Blossom could barely hear what was said, her ears ringing from the incredible noise. A well performed Thunderbolt was not supposed to sound like that. An experienced user has the ability to concentrate the lightning much more efficiently. Shelby would learn to hone her skill in time but until then, it would be everybody else's burden to bear.

"Did you see that?!" The Skitty's voice rang out again as she hopped up and down angrily.

"Sort of." Blossom began to slowly trudge up the hill to stand with her sister. "It was really bright."

"It's not supposed to be! It's supposed to look cool!"

"It was cool."

"I didn't even hit it.." Shelby's voice lowered into a grumble as she sat down and hunched her back.

"Let me try." Unwilling to entertain her sister's sulking, Blossom took a step back and focused on the rock. She dug her back feet into the ground and reared up on her hind legs. The large flower bulb on her back brimmed with energy, sending a tingling feeling all across her spine.
With all her might, she slammed her forelimbs down while kicking upwards with her legs. The momentum threw her into a sort of handstand as a flurry of round, seed-like balls of energy shot from her back. The force of the recoil made her skid backwards a little down the hill and she lost her footing on the way down. Her back legs slid out from under her and she landed hard on her belly.

Shelby watched as the seeds flew through the air, about half of them missing the stone by a wide margin. The ones that did hit, plonked softly against the rock with an ineffective thud before shattering into nothing.

"You hit so many!" Though she knows she shouldn't be, for a moment Shelby is angry with her sister and cannot contain her jealousy. "That is NOT fair."

Shaking the dust off herself, Blossom simply rolls her eyes.

"Don't be a baby. Anyway, look." She points to a patch of grass that was blackened by the lightning. "You zapped the ground here so much, it left a big mark. My seeds didn't even do anything."

Shelby got up and inspected the stone. Sure enough, its surface showed no marks at all. The both of them still had a lot of practicing to do.

"Wanna see if you can make a dent before I can?" She proposes, suddenly sounding a lot more cheerful.

"I bet I can!"
Blossom leapt at her sister playfully and the two tussled for a moment, batting at each other before rolling apart and running to opposite ends of the hill. For a while they stayed and practiced their battle moves against stones and trees, before breaking for lunch in the shade of a hedgerow of brambles.
They were unaware of the pair of dark eyes that watched them curiously from afar, hidden deep in a sharp, thorny shrub.

Next-Part 1d