After the evolution

A day later found Vali sitting outside with her back against a tree trunk watching her newly evolved Flareon work out his new limits with the help of his fellow pack-members. She was speaking to Lance currently since Steven had called yesterday which meant she'd told him what had happened already. She showed Lance the scene in front of her, "And now he's pretty much trying to figure out the limits of his body. Since we pretty much ensured he'd gotten as strong as possible while in his Eevee form, he's got a pretty decent base to work with."

"He really forced his evolution," Lance chuckled softly as Vali turned the pokenav back to her, "How are you feeling? With what happened to you, I mean?"

Vali smiled a little weakly, "I'm mostly tired and achy. Everything hurts a bit, but other than that I'm pretty much fine."

"Hurts?" Lance looked concerned, "That's not good, have you-"

"I'll be fine," Vali waved off his concern, "It's just my energies settling in this new bond between Thorin and I," She grinned a bit at Lance's confused look, "Flareon's chosen name. It's one from a story back home just like every one of my pokemon's names. He had Elrond's help telling me. He decided that with his evolution it was finally time to take a name for himself,"

"Wow," Lance looked a bit stunned, "Unexpected if understandable, is everyone okay with this?"

"They're trying to absorb it for the most part," Vali frowned slightly as she remembered how everyone had reacted, "Balto was slightly unhappy though accepting while Smaug only cared that our pack has gotten stronger. Elrond was glad that Thorin finally began to settle into himself. Celina wasn't very pleased with the connection though seemed happy enough Flareon has gotten stronger. Idril was happy same as Terra and Arwen. Pele didn't seem to have any opinion while Pippin was just happy Thorin's gotten stronger. Aragorn's torn between being very jealous and pleased same as Eowyn. Empress is happy to have a stronger sparring partner. Bombur just seems to be happy same with Galadrial. Irmo's ignoring everyone around him. And Magby doesn't seem to understand what exactly it means for Thorin to have evolved, he's pretty confused," She smiled lightly, "So it's pretty much split between unhappy, accepting, jealous, or pretty much ignoring it,"

"That's not bad," Lance hummed softly as Vali's ears caught the distant sound of roaring, "Though not all unexpected. So Balto's only unhappy with it?"

"Well," Vali grimaced a bit, "He threw a minor fit and sulked. He's still sulking a bit,"

"That's fairly expected," Lance looked a bit amused and slightly sad, "He'll get over it,"

"I know," Vali sighed softly and leaned her head back, "It's going to take awhile though," She heard the roaring again, "Hey, what's that roaring about?" She dropped her head back to look at the pokenav in her hand, "That's the second time I heard it,"

"Oh, one of my cousins is attempting to challenge for their right to a Salamence egg from one of the former gym leaders corner stones," Lance answered with a light grin, "He's probably going to fail miserably. That Salamence is aggressive as hell most of the time and has only ever given up her eggs a handle of times, I might try after the next mating season, but I haven't quite decided,"

"Is that really a good idea?" Vali asked with a frown, "Shouldn't you leave her be for a bit?"

"Maybe, but she might not have another season after the next one considering how old she is," Lance replied with a slight shrug, "And unlike your interesting luck, I won't have an easy time finding a Bagon,"

Vali's cheeks puffed up, "I always pay for my luck or do you not recall all of the bad luck that ends up falling on me in return?"

Lance opened his mouth before pausing for a moment. He closed it with a sigh before saying, "True, I'm still trying to figure out how your luck works."

"You and me both," Vali replied with a grimace, "I'm the one who has to live with it though," She grimaced at the old argument, "Anyway, I still say you shouldn't do it. Let her spend what time with the babies she has, she's probably been forced to give up most of them and that's definitely not helped her become less aggressive towards humans,"

Lance frowned softly, "I'll consider it."

"Maybe try for an Altaria next, they might be considered a 'cute' pokemon, but they're pretty powerful," Vali reminded him, "Altaria has a lot of bulk, moves, and an interesting typing. You can train it for more long-term flight since Dragonite aren't exactly made to do it comfortably. It can also learn moves like Heal Bell, Roost, and Sing. With it's access to status moves, you can wear down opponents allowing you access to a pokemon that most wouldn't expect you to have,"

"Very true," Lance gained a contemplative look, "I've got a lot to consider,"

Vali grinned, "Besides if you get an Altaria, I'd be able to cuddle it's fluffy clouds and burry my face in it."

Lance snort softly, "Of course that would be your ulterior motive."

Vali just continued to grin at him in reply.

Blaine looked over Thorin with a critical eye, "Not bad, he has definitely been strong enough to evolve for awhile if he's this strong just after evolving."

"I'm still somewhat disappointed in how he evolved, but I am glad he got to choose how," Vali replied earning a nod.

"Granted the whole fact of him stealing a stone from Oak is funny as hell, it is good he evolved by choice rather than force," Blaine looked at her quizzically, "Didn't you have a second fire-stone he could have used?"

"Apparently he wants Aragorn to have it when he's finally ready," Vali smiled in amusement, "So I'm just hiding it from Aragorn, he'll probably be ready be the time we're done my apprenticeship or just afterward,"

"From what I can tell, he probably will be, but we won't know until he's actually ready," Blaine finally backed up from Thorin who released a relieved sigh and jumped off of the desk he was sitting on, "So this connection Oak talked about, is it permanent?"

"Yes," Vali nodded as Thorin moved to settle at her side and she laid a hand on his head, "It won't be a problem when he battles or trains. We've been practicing with it," Thorin radiated a sense of contentment towards her, "It's still a struggle to figure out what all we can do, but we're going to work through it,"

"Good to hear," Blaine nodded as he reached up to rub to his mustache, "This will definitely be an interesting prospect to work with, we must be careful though if we succeed, you'll both be stronger for it,"

Vali nodded with a light smile as she looked at Thorin who nodded his head with determination singing through him, "We're looking forward to it."