Warm reception

I almost tripped when a small girl that looked no older than five ran out of the village with an excited squeal. "FLUFFY!" the child screamed and tackle hugged Vulcan eagerly which made the legendary VERY uncomfortable. The look it gave me silently screamed "save me!" but i was far to busy laughing my ass off with Gaia. Even Birch and May looked like they were having trouble holding it together. Vulcan had no idea what to do with the small child that had already climbed onto it's back and was happily rolling in it's long flowing mane.-

"Look at that Vulcan we just got here and you are already making friends , good for you." I tease and get a positively wrathful glare in return that promised retribution. Apparently the girls mother had heard her squeals and come to investigate only to freeze for a moment when she saw our group. To her credit however she recovered pretty fast and rushed over to free Vulcan from her daughters grasp. "I'm so sorry for her behavior! She's usually so well behaved , I don't know what came over her!" the woman apologized fearfully with a very worried expression.-

I merely laughed "It's no problem at all , Vulcan needs to learn how to play nice anyways so your daughter is more than welcome to come bother him as she pleases for the next couple weeks we stick around." I said earning a betrayed look from the legendary in question while Gaia is rumbling loudly as she fell into a fit of laughter. The woman smiles and relaxes hearing this "I see , thank you in advance for taking care of Ema." she says while releasing the squirming child in her arms that wastes no time at all climbing Vulcan again.-

"A bit delayed but welcome to Littleroot Mister ?" she starts but awkwardly realized that I hadn't introduced myself yet. "Alexander drake , but I go by Alex" I say with a smile. "Mister Alex then welcome to the village! I am Emily Vine , but little May over there calls me aunty V." Emily says with a friendly smile. She was an older woman with a few wrinkles starting to appear but otherwise was fairly attractive. On her finger was a wedding ring however that told me she was off the market and thus I spoke in a friendly but neutral manner.-

I don't get anywhere near married women anymore in an intimate fashion after I slept with one who said she was recently divorced and the still very much married husband tried to shoot me. If a woman is wearing a ring or has a ring tan line on her finger I avoid getting tangled up with them even a little. Might seem a little paranoid but as the expression goes "once bitten twice shy" and almost dying from an angry husband once was plenty for me thanks. "By the way that pasture over there is where your pokemon can stay while you are here." Birch said pointing at the overgrown fenced in area.-

"You two go ahead and head over there to get it cleared out of all those weeds while I get my stuff settled." I told both of my pokemon and they both let me know they understood the assignment and headed over that way while Emily headed back to whatever she was doing originally. Vulcan still looked horribly uncomfortable as it walked away but was at least being very careful not to throw off the little girl on it's back. After that Birch lead me over to the general store while May also apparently chose to continue tagging along despite us being in the village.-

"Lee has most everyday items you could need from simple clothes to food and if he doesn't then let him know and he'll order it from his contacts for you." Birch said before opening the sliding door of the shop. Surprisingly the store wasn't overly filled with merchandise but rather had small sections of every product with the one in the greatest supply being the food. There was even a section that had a refrigerator with various berries , vegetables and meats. -

The owner , Lee was a middle aged man with short blonde hair and a thick beard that was reading a book from behind the counter. A bell rang when the store's door opened and Lee looked up from his book and immediately locked his blue eyes onto me with a raised eyebrow. "Hey Lee , I found Alex here on my way over to the Mt. Grey earlier. He got on a psychics bad side and ended up teleported over there and has been surviving for a few months and needs some new clothes as well as shampoo and what not." Birch said with a smile.-

Lee whistled in appreciation "Thought you looked like a tough customer but hadn't expected a story like that." he said honestly. "It wasn't all bad luck , I got some pretty good pokemon out of it and a good amount of muscle too." I say with a chuckle. "I can see that , Don't know if I have any clothes your size but I can get you set for the rest at no charge after whatcha been through." Lee said in a friendly manner. "I don't need much for clothes , just a pair of decent shorts will do. I've gotten used to not using anything after all." I said with a shrug.-

Lee nods "I understand , that makes things much easier for me as I was worried about your feet and chest as you are a bit bigger than normal but a pair of shorts is easy since you can just use that expert belt to hold them up if they are a bit loose." he said and gets up the go grab the stuff. "Once you get this stuff settled we'll head over to my house so you can get cleaned up , I bet you miss a warm shower am I right?" Birch asked with a chuckle and I nod.-

"Oh yeah , till now I've been using a glacier run off stream from the mountain to keep mostly clean , but there's only so much you can do without soap." I said honestly. "Heavens! That must have been dreadfully cold. You are lucky you didn't get sick!" Birch exclaimed in horror. "It actually wasn't that cold by the time it reached where I was from the mountain. My guess is that the sun warmed it up a bunch as it moved down the rocks." I said with a shrug.-

May spoke up at this point "Did you stay near a fire a lot? You smell like smoke and pine pretty strongly." she asked curiously while explaining the reason for the question. I smiled and nodded "Yeah I had a fire going all the time in the cave I lived in and the smell probably stuck to me." I answered with a shrug. Lee came back at this point and handed me a couple pairs of shorts along with a toothbrush , self cleaning products and a belt attachment for holstering pokeballs. "You can go to the bathroom to change and see if the shorts fit alright." he said while pointing to the marked door at the back of the shop.