FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Bui! Bui!"

The call came from off to the left, where Lusu had scampered off to just moments ago. I carefully clawed my way through the thick undergrowth, and after a moment of struggling in the dark foliage, my hand broke through the sharp leaves. In front of my, the long, otterish body of my Floatzel, Lusu, stood at the brink of a cliff, overlooking the most breathtaking sight I'd seen on my long trek.

Far in the distance, Mt Coronet reached up into the sky, its serrated edges shooting jagged edges into cloud-studded sky. From this distance, I could only see faint blotches of green where trees clung desperately to the sides of the mountain, covering its surface in an emerald shaded rug. At its center, the barren peak rose above the cloud cover, the green blending into grey and brown, then starkly to white where its top sat littered with snow.

Lusu stood on her hindlegs, transfixed by the sight. After a moment, I sat next to her, dangling my legs over the edge of the perilous cliff. I heard rustling in the brush behind me, and Razz extricated himself from the cloying bushes with much more grace than I'd managed. We all gazed towards the majestic mountain, taking the time from our long journey to stop and appreciate the path we were on.

"Right, this is the perfect place to stop for lunch." I exclaimed, and drawing myself back from the cliff, I shed my backpack and rooted around. First out of the pack came a rather smelly flat pancake, as large as my hand and crisp. I handed it across to Lusu, who accepted it gracefully with two forepaws, before flopping onto her back on the verge, fish pancake held to her belly and gnawing on its edge.

Another reach into the backpack pulled out a carefully wrapped cardboard box, and I could faintly smell greasy noodles, though Lusu's fish seemed to infect everything with the smell of the sea. Lastly, I found a paper wrapped cube. I folded the sides of the paper out like an elaborate origami flower. Inside was a brown colored substance. Eager and hungry, Razz laid his head on my shoulder, waiting as patiently as he could while I prepared his meal. Finally finishing the unwrapping, I laid the food on the ground next to me, sitting in its paper wrap, and as I pulled my hand away, Razz dug into it with enthusiasm. It looked bland and unappealing to me, but Razz loved those cubes more than any other elaborate meals we'd tried.

With both of my companions feeding contentedly, I finally lifted the lid from my meal. Each compartment of my little bento box was covered individually, to keep the ingredients from mixing. I lifted the flaps, laying the segmented lunch bare, and tore into the spiced noodles and meat strips.

As we ate, I watch spiralling flocks of Pidgeys play on the air currents in the valley below us. In amongst them, I spotted the larger, white forms of a few wingulls that'd come inland. Once in a while, I'd spot a spearow as it darted from the side of the cliff; there must have been nests down there, built into the side of the rock.

Razz finished his meal first, with me catching the last of the stringy noodles between my chopsticks just half a minute later. Lusu was only halfway through her cake, but none of us were in any great rush to leave our little scenic outlook.

The full meal, coupled with the spectacular view and lethargy after a morning of hard travel had me in a philosophical mood. "What do you think, Razz. Do we have what it takes?" The luxray stayed characteristically silent, letting the breezy up draft from the cliff ruffle the crown of spiky fur atop his head. "We've still got a long way to go, and there's only the three of us. Most trainers on the challenge have a whole army of..."

Razz turned a put a paw on my thigh. The glare on his face spoke volumes, and I shut up. He was right. We'd fought some of those trainers, "practice" they called it, and trainers who carried too many of the bright little red-and-white balls simply didn't hold a candle to Lusu and Razz. The three of us knew each other so well that I'd stopped calling out "commands." The two of them knew what to do. Sometimes, in a strange reversal from my other trainer brethren, I wondered why Lusu and Razz bothered to keep me around at all.

Then Razz put his nose into my backpack, and pulled out the thin case in which I kept the badges. Six of them stood out like gleaming jewels in a sea of dark leather. We were a team. I did for them things they couldn't hope to do on their own, so in return, they fought for me. Willingly and eagerly. All of this, Razz implied simply by expression and action. To anyone else, he'd simply be sitting, silent and impassive, but to me, his message was as clear as if he'd spoken.

"Fine, Razz, you don't need to yell." The luxray threw me an aggrieved look, then trotted back into the undergrowth, back towards the path.

Lusu was cleaning the last specks of fish cake from her webbed forepaws. I stood, gathering the discards and stowing the trash in my backpack. I headed back towards the path, calling over my shoulder. "Come on Lusu, if you don't walk that off, you'll get fat."

Two seconds later, a pair of floatzel canines dug themselves into my ankle. "Ow, you weasely little bitch! That hurt, you overgrown slinky!" She cackled, chirping with her little guttural barks as she scampered through the bushes ahead of me. Back in good spirits and ready to travel, my feet found the path we'd left, turned myself eastwards, put one foot in front of the other, and walked.

---

Time passes strangely when you're travelling. When the air is clean and fresh, and sunlight is streaming down through the heavily populated and squawking tree cover, miles disappear beneath your shoes in heartbeats. When the heat and humidity have finally broken into a cold, drenching summer shower, though, every plodding step feels like an eternity.

Well, for some of us. I slogged through the mid-afternoon shower, focusing only on putting one shoe in front of the other while I dreamed of nice, warm, and primarily dry beds. Razz seemed in the same sorts, head down and tail low as he walked in his own self-absorbed misery.

At odds to our plodding place, Lusu scampered around from puddle to puddle, each playful splash adding to my misery like salt in a wound.

"Lusu, stop that." I growled irritably. The floatzel turned to me, and after a fierce glare, pantomimed our glum trod. She plopped every footfall down heavily, swinging her head in a lazy approximation of my own dismal gait.

Somehow, the little mustelid's clowning of my attitude brought a smile to my face. "That's right. Be miserable like the rest of us." I taunted, and Razz gave me an aggrieved stare. As downtrodden as I felt in the rain, the wet was doubly so for him. Electric based pokémon like him just did not agree with a rain storm.

A splash of muddy water soaked my shoe, Lusu glaring at me defiantly.

"I will get you back this time, you overgrown water rattata!" Finally succumbing to the floatzel's playful nature, I stomped into a puddle near my foot. When I was a kid, as all kids do, I loved to play in puddles, getting as muddy as possible, and thus cause the most amount of trouble for my mother in her immaculately clean household. At some point, I found that if I angled my foot just right, the water would follow the channelled arch in my shoe, and would squirt a jet of water with uncanny accuracy. True to form, a few droplets spread in a wave from around my stomping foot, but the majority of the displaced water shot from the side of my shoe, catching Lusu squarely in the chest.

What happened next could only be called a puddle melee. The dampened (but undefeated) floatzel scooped down into the puddle with a webbed paw, and there was a flash of blue light as Lusu's ability flared to life. A thick spout of puddle water arced towards me, and only a hasty dodge to the side saved me from wet doom. I stomped again, and rather than wetten my slippery companion, the splash of rain water only egged her on.

Through all of this, Razz retreated to the edge of the path, standing stolidly on all four legs and glaring at us in disapproval. By the edge of the path, the foliage was thicker, and less of the drenching rainfall fell on the uncomfortable pokémon's hide.

Lusu and I battled back and forth for minutes, but the water fight ended as quickly as it started. All of a sudden, Lusu stood on her hindlegs, gazing off towards the edge of the trail expectantly. My last splash hit her in the side of the head, but she didn't even budge. Her ears swivveled like radar dishes atop her head, her entire body alert and anxious. Razz was also staring into the distance, both of my companions listening to something that I couldn't hear. Then, after a minute of listening and almost as one, both Lusu and Razz scampered off.

"Guys? Where are... Guys?" By the latter end of my sentence, they'd both crashed through the underbrush, and were gone in a second.

I'd never seen them act like this. Alarmed, I dashed into the underbrush, following the sound of the two pokémon crashing through the foliage. Wet leaves slapped at my face and arms, tendrilous and whiplike bush branches tangled my feet. I fell at least once, but as I heard Lusu and Razz's sounds growing fainter, I stumbled to my feet, trying to catch up. "Guys! Wait up!"

It took me a moment to notice that the sound had stopped. Suddenly lost without direction, I paused, listening. After a moment, I heard Lusu's plaintive call. "Buiii!" She must have been no more than ten feet from me, inside the leaf cover of a large bush with dark, pine-green leaves.

"What's the problem? Why'd you both... Oh!" I pushed through the thick leaves, and inside the cover of the bush, there was a small, orange lump of fur curled up near its roots. Lusu was sitting next to it, nosing at it and making worried sounds under her breath. Razz was standing, facing away in his patented "guard" position. Nothing was getting into this bush without a fight.

Feeling cold wash of dread, I kneeled next to the curled up creature. It was clenched tight, and it took me a few moments to recognize it as a growlithe. I brushed its side, and it made a few pained cries of its own. My hand came back stained with runny red liquid.

"Shit, he's hurt, but I can't see what's wrong. Lusu, can you get him to uncurl?" Now that I was here and in control, both Razz and Lusu acted without question like the team we'd trained so hard to be. I ducked a shoulder, and Razz was already by my side to take the backpack from me. I heard him bite at the tie and start fumbling around inside. Meanwhile, Lusu had ducked her head into the curled growlithe's form. Slowly, while making soft chirping sounds, she lifted her head, and the growlithe followed. Slowly, it uncurled, following the alluring floatzel's sweet noises, caught in her hypnotizing gaze.

As he uncurled, I got a good look at the growlithe. It, no, he, was in his prime. Bunched muscles slid smoothly underneath silky, shiny orange fur. He was a little older than I would have expected for a growlithe as well. Usually, before they hit adulthood, a juvenile would have found a sufficient amount of firestone to evolve in the wild, but here was a fit and healthy male adult defying my training and expectations.

Healthy was a relative term at the moment, though. His right thigh had a deep gouge, and as he moved, I caught the white gleam of bone as he stumbled to follow Lusu's urging. "Lusu, enough, he shouldn't move with that." The floatzel stopped dead, and I felt a nudge at my side where Razz held a potion he'd fished from my bag in his muzzle.

"Not yet. I don't want to trap whatever's gotten into that wound inside his thigh. I need fresh water to clean this out." I reached out and Lusu resumed her gaze, keeping the wild pokémon docile while I worked. I lifted his hind end and laid it on the side, his wounded leg giving an involuntary kick. Claws caught my wrist, leaving thin scratches, but I ignored them. Behind me, Razz let out a frustrated growl.

"Got that water yet?" I felt another nudge and Razz dropped the canteen to the ground next to me. Empty. I must have finished the last of it off this afternoon.

My brain whirled for a moment. "Right. Lusu, are there any streams or rivers nearby?" The floatzel lifted her ears for a moment, swivelling them about, then without dropping her gaze, she nodded. One of her tails flicked about, then flopped to the ground pointing away from the roots of the bush.

"Good. Lusu, get on my shoulders, I'll carry this guy. Razz, keep an eye out for any other wilds." The luxray loped from my side, taking the backpack with him, slung over his back with a loop of the arm strap trapped between his jaws. I lifted the growlithe as Lusu sidled up my arm to my shoulders, keeping eye contact with the unfortunate. Following the way Lusu had pointed, I pushed my way out of the bush and hurried back into the undergrowth.

The going was slow, most of the ground cover came up at least to my waist, and deceptively strong branches resisted being pushed with each step I took. I heard Razz prowling around us, navigating the bushes with much more skill than I. Even though I know it must have been less than a mile away, it still took me more than half an hour to push my way through to the stream Lusu had located.

When I arrived, though, it was clear that she'd found more than just a stream. A broad river, far enough across that fog and rain shrouded its far shore, meandered slowly into a wide delta. Not far downstream, half a mile or so from the sounds of it, I heard the rumble of a waterfall, probably where this river emptied into the basin we'd overlooked during lunch. The shore was sandy, and without delay, I doffed my shoes and socks and waded into the water.

Near the shore, the water was shallow, no deeper than my knees for hundreds of paces out into the river itself. The sand was dark, and even flush with cold rain water, the river was warm. Much to my surprise, Razz waded in with us, and Lusu dropped down into the stream as I lowered the wounded growlithe to its surface. Thinking and reacting like a second set of hands, Razz held out a finely haired brush to me. My patient let out a loud, pained yip as I swiped at the wound, the water dyed red and running sluggishly away from us downstream. Determined, I brushed again, holding the growlithe a still as I could while I knocked free dirt and detritus from its wound.

It took a while, minutes at least, before I was happy that it was clean. The growlithe had latched onto my arm and was biting, but I was willing to shed a little blood to make sure that I wasn't causing more harm than good. Finally satisfied, I slowly detached my arm from the growlithe's maw, and reached back. True to form, Razz had in his muzzle a potion, a good quality one from the looks of it. With three expert squirts, I emptied the potion into the sides of the growlithe's wound.

Watching the potions function always made me a little queasy, so I glanced away as muscle and sinew visibly began to mend. Gazing at the water upstream, I caught faint splashes in the surface of the river, turbulence or creature, I couldn't tell. In my arms, I heard a faint hissing sound, and after a moment of radiating heat, the potion finished its course.

I glanced down, and the growlithe lay in my arms recovering. His flank was pink and naked where the wound had been, but the skin was unbroken. Ugly, but healthy.

"There you go, one perfectly healthy growlithe." I turned the pokémon upright and set him down in the water. He splashed about for a bit, but found his legs quickly. With a backwards glance at me, he stumbled through the water to the shore. Without a second glance, he shot into the brush near the edge of the river, leaving nothing but a faint wet-dog smell behind.

"Hmf. Well, there's gratitude." I joked. Lusu slid off of my shoulders and into the water. She smiled a brilliant smile up at me. It was the only gratitude I expected I'd get, and it's the only gratitude I needed. Razz splashed off towards shore with the backpack, and only now I realized that even though my clothes were wet before, I was now soaked to the skin. It'd seem obvious after wading into water, but I wouldn't be going any further today without changing.

I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it to the shore. Razz caught it, placing it gingerly near the backpack. Lusu was obviously glad to be back in her element, because she was little more than a blur in the water. She swam out ten yards, then floated back towards me, spinning and twirling the whole time. An unbidden smile sprang to my face, her playful nature infectious as a summer cold. I waded back towards shore, stripping the baggy trainer's pants that had, by this point, managed to collect a few extra pounds of water. I paused for a moment in indecision, but Razz decided to solve the problem for me. I felt his paws on my thigh, and he bit at my underwear. With a sharp tug, the wet garment slid down my hips, pooling around my knees and sticking.

I gave a sigh. This far from society, there'd be nothing but my pokémon and the fish to see, and I knew that at least the fish wouldn't care. I stepped out of my underwear and felt the cool, humid air tug at my privates. Only one solution for that; I dashed back into the warm water, a hundred paces in, until I was wading up to my belly. Lusu was flipping playfully past me, swimming between my legs with each lumbering step of mine, hopping out of the water in front of me and flashing her yellow floatation sack, and even once jumping straight over me as I ducked to wet my hair.

Finally starting to get warm, I ducked, closing my eyes as I submerged completely. I felt Lusu nose at my face, and I blew bubbles at her. She bumped against me again, then strangely, I felt her bump against my back at the same time. I did a double-take. Wait, wasn't she just in front of me?

I stood, a bit startled, and glanced around, Lusu glimmered in front of me, then just behind her, another brown and yellow shape shot through the water, hot in pursuit. I felt a bump against the back of my legs, and I spun. I caught another buisel-shaped form duck through the water. There was a splash behind me, and a familiar weight landed on my shoulders. I held up a hand, petting Lusu, as around us, ten or more curious muzzles poked up from the water. Each one was broad and rounded, bewhiskered to the point of comedy, with eyes that were bright and intelligent. A sudden realization struck me, and I would have laughed if I didn't think it'd upset Lusu. Wild buisels!

The playful forms gambolled and cavorted around us in the water. On my shoulder, Lusu was shivering. She was excited, I could tell, but it wasn't just her eagerness to play with others of her kind. She was tense, as if she was anticipating something. A glance down into the water confirmed my suspicions. At least one of the buisels circling us was male, and he was proudly displaying just how he was hoping to play with Lusu. My floatzel companion nipped at my ear lightly, and I patted her rump. "Sure hon, go to it. Just come to the shore when you're ready." Without waiting for another invitation, she dove from my shoulder. After a second of brown bodies flitting madly below the surface, it was tough to tell which of the madly twirling forms in the water was her, even though I knew every bit of my beloved Lusu's form.

Shaking my head bemusedly, I started back towards the shore, where Razz sat on the shore, acting like no more than a drenched cat. Before I got two steps, though, the water exploded in front of me. I got just enough of a glance of the creature to identify it as Lusu, before she ducked back beneath the surface, two of her buisel suitors in tow. They dashed off through the water, and I continued on towards the shore.

Whether because of Lusu, or because of their curiosity, the buisels stayed within a few paces of me, only stopping once I reached water that was too shallow for them to play. Razz rose and waded delicately to meet me, acting like each step through the water was an offence to his sensibilities. I stopped and bent, ruffling the fur behind his ears, and much to my surprise, he sat, planting his hind end straight into the warm water. Far be it for me to refuse that kind of sacrifice, so I sat as well, resting in the soft, dark sand as I watched the buisels play.

Brown forms shot to and fro beneath the water, but since the water was so shallow now, they spent just as much time above it as they did below it. What I saw as I examined them didn't surprise me. They were all unevolved, adolescent males, probably brothers. By dint of her size and evolution, Lusu was a prize to be had, wanted and venerated like a slippery goddess of the water. One of the males broke the surface, sliding along it on his back, letting his floatation sack handle buoyancy. Standing in stark contrast to the dull brown of his belly, a hot pink spike jutted up from his crotch, advertising his intentions more clearly than words.

Lusu was still leading the boys a chase, but I knew her too well. It wouldn't last much longer. I put my arm around Razz, tugging the luxray close as we both watched with anticipation. Watching pokémon for this kind of display might be frowned upon in decent society, but thanks to Razz and Lusu, I'd long since lost my regard for decent society's morales and codes of conduct. Lusu had brought these males close to the shore for our benefit, I was sure of it. Without a doubt, we were about to get quite a show.

Razz shuffled towards me, water rippling from him as he moved. His hips thumped against mine both of us sitting upright in the shallow water as the first of the buisels caught up to Lusu. The male was quite a shower, too, sleek and slim, with two quick tails and flashy submersed acrobatics. Lusu slid on the sand just as the water became too shallow for her to stay fully submersed, and the male slid behind her, hopping to all fours as momentum carried him straight over Lusu's back.

I leaned forward a bit, and I felt certain parts of my anatomy slap against the shallow water as they rose to attention. The buisel that'd mounted Lusu was already sporting a slender pink length, bobbing in the water as he stood on his hindlegs. Without pause or hesitation, the male bent forward as Lusu's tails flipped to either side. I drank in the sight of the bright pink tube as it slid beneath the floatzel's tails, and after just a few tentative thrusts, disappeared into Lusu's slit.

Having felt it myself, I knew the energetic ride this male was in for. Much to my amazement, he held his own admirably. Just as Lusu clenched and flicked her tail, ducking her hips for her quick humps, the buisel fucking her grasped her floatation sack with his forepaws and tugged, grinding against his willing prey. Seconds later, both of them were sliding slickly against each other, a flurry of brown hips and twirling tails. I could catch a quick glimpse of bright pink every few seconds where their bodies joined. Around the mating pair, the other buisels flipped and swam, either watching the show with obvious enjoyment, or waiting their turn.

As I watched, I gently pet my hand along Razz's damp fur. As he shifted, though, a quick glance showed me that this wasn't the type of stroking that he was looking for. Just like mine was standing straight out of the water from my crotch, Razz's excitement was straining from his sheath, dripping every few seconds into the warm water. Feeling a bit of pity for him, and hoping to get some fulfilment of my own, I reached my hand down between his hindlegs. He jumped as I touched his pink cock, but quickly settled, and once he was over the shock, eagerly pushed the length into my fingers. I felt a thrill in my stomach, a very low sort of shudder passed through me as Razz discharged a low voltage shock into the river, grounding himself out as he lost a bit of his control.

In the water in front of us, the humping buisel let out a trill of chirps. Lusu let out her own call as both of them clenched for a moment. I was disappointed by the anticlimax, but the show quickly improved as the male dismounted. With a lazy pace, the male backed off, the slippery shaft sliding from Lusu's slit, jets of watery seed shooting over her back as her wild lover dove back into the warm river. Before Lusu could rise, though, another nosed its way into place over her, eagerly awaiting his turn. Much like the first, he slid himself over her back, anxiously prodding against her rump as the pink and dripping rod slid beneath her tail.

Razz and I both sat still in the water. For my own, I was afraid that if I moved too quickly or too much, I might interrupt the wildly mating beauties in front of us. Lusu was absorbing the attention from the pack of buisels with grace, flipping her tails and grinding her hips back with such enthusiasm that the rest of the group, eagerly awaiting their turns, were starting to show their impatience. They were flipping through the water, heads turned to Lusu and her current paramour thrashed in the shallow water.

Razz caught movement with his sharp eyes before I did. One of the buisels, impatient to the point of desperation, slid through the water towards the mating pair. He broke the surface behind his fellow pack mate, standing on his hindlegs with his bright red shaft dangling in the cool air, throbbing each second as liquid dribbled from its tip. There was a sudden cacophony of angry chitters from the surrounding group, but ignoring their complaints, the desperate third slinked awkwardly on hindpaws behind the mating pair and draped himself across the male's back.

I couldn't stop the crazy giggle that spurted from my lips as the two males struggled. Lusu, for her own right, lay eagerly quivering, still clenched around the slim length of the one atop her.

I made a bit of a jump myself as I felt something smooth slide over my own cock. I glanced down and found Razz's head in my crotch, licking at me with short, teasing little licks. "Oof, good idea, Razz, but not what I'm looking for." As I said this, the three lovers in the spotlight seemed to have worked things out. The first buisel had renewed his energetic thrusts into Lusu, and as I watched, the interloper pushed the humping male forward, leaned over his back, and mounted him. The view from my angle was gorgeous, as the sandwiched male stopped thrusting for a few seconds as the throbbing shaft poked between his own quivering tails and slid into his tailhole.

"Good idea." I nodded towards the oblivious buisels, and pushing Razz's head from my lap, I leaned forward, transferring weight to my knees. I plopped my hands down into the shallow water and waved my rump back and forth, looking back over my shoulder at the bemused luxray. He sat in the water, the tip of his cock just barely breaching the surface of the water, the star-shaped fluffy tip of his tail swaying back and forth as his excitement grew. We'd tried this before, but it'd been a while since he'd had this type of invitation. Excitedly, he pranced forward, splashing in the water, and hopped his forepaws over my back.

I had the end of a delicious show to watch while Razz manoeuvred himself into place. The pair of humping males had finally worked out a good rhythm, and as I watched, Lusu hit another shuddering peak, filling the air with loud chirps and trills. The water splashed around her as her two tails flipped and spun, churning the surface like a blender. Just as the sandwiched male stiffened, his climax leaking translucent white into the water around Lusu's hind end, I felt Razz tug with his forepaws as he found the mark.

It'd been a while since Razz had taken me, and I instantly regretted being out of practice. His length, even though it was slim and tapered, still burned as it spread me wide. He held himself hilted for a few moments, shivering slightly in the cool air. Slowly the humping buisels disengaged, and Lusu, for her part, acted sated. She rolled a bit, then nipped at another eager male who'd jumped in to try to take his turn. She turned to me, uttering a lazy "Buiiii..." then flipped herself towards deeper water, swimming off with the remaining males in procession behind her.

Now alone with our own pleasure, Razz started to move. His hips flexed, sliding the tapered shaft deep, then relaxed as he circled back. Quickly, he worked himself up to a quick, smooth rhythm. He was so slick with the humidity and his own liquids that all I could feel was hot flesh sliding against mine continuously. I closed my eyes, both hands in the warm water, and simply enjoyed the ride.

The water jostled around us, and I heard a familiar grumble over my head, and felt a sudden tugging in my gut as his shaft throbbed. I looked down between our legs, my sight blocked by my own throbbing erection, but whitish liquid slowly dripped from past my vision, falling in little explosions of ghostly tendrils in the river water, sluggishly floating downstream.

I sighed happily, but as I glanced back through my own legs, preparing to finish myself off while Razz twitched inside me, something behind us, a ways away at the dry(ish) shore caught my eye. The fog drifting up from from the warm surface of the river blurred it enough that I couldn't be completely sure, but next to the lump I knew was my backpack, a squat, orangish figure sat.

Razz, as caught up in the moment as he was, took a few moments to notice my surprise. In the lethargy of afterglow, he slowly slid from my back. I could feel the mild annoyance radiating from him, frustrated that something had interrupted his mounting. As we both turned around in the water, though, his annoyance changed to surprise. Both of his ears flipped towards the figure on the shore.

More curious than I, Razz waddled towards the shore, dripping length still dangling hard between his thighs. I lowered myself to sitting on my feet, my rump hitting the water and letting the water carry the luxray spunk coating my ass downstream. As Razz approached the figure, he let out a startled whuff, then looked back at me. He flicked his head towards the shore, and obediently, I stood and followed.

Now that I could see clearly, there was a growlithe sitting on the shore. It didn't take a leap of intuition to figure out who it was. As I began to approach, he shied away nervously. It looks like we weren't the only ones who'd been enjoying Lusu's show. In fact, maybe the growlithe'd been enjoying my own show with Razz. Either way, the orange and cream color of his fur was broken up by the pink length standing between his sitting thighs. Razz trotted up to him through the water, and as he climbed onto the shore, the growlithe held out his head, sniffing cautiously at the luxray.

I didn't fare so well, though. With each step I took towards shore, the growlithe became more and more nervous. I truly didn't know what else to do, but Razz couldn't do much to calm him. Just mere feet away from the shore, the growlithe's tension finally broke. He stood and scampered backwards, then with another hindward look, crashed through the foliage and back into the forest.

I knelt at the shore. "I thought he'd be long gone by now. Why'd he come back, do you think?" I asked, rubbing the scruff around Razz's neck. He shrugged emphatically, then turned to the backpack. A fresh and dry set of clothes were dragged free. I looked down at myself, and realized that with all the fun I'd had, I'd lost the mood in chasing the growlithe. With a self-depreciating grimace, I tugged the clothes Razz had selected over my limbs, making a lazy job of getting dressed.

"We're still not going anywhere without... Oh." I felt a nip to my calf, and without turning, I knew I'd find Lusu there. She was sleek and pretty as ever, the water had just sluiced from her oily fur.

"I see you're both ready to travel." I frowned, while both of my companions nodded assent, both tramping back up the shore towards the forest. The rain had stopped, even though there was still fog in the air from the warm river. "Fine." Trust the two of them to have their fill, then leave me hanging. "You both owe me tonight."

Lusu made a rude sound with her lips, and Razz rolled his eyes, before he tromped off into the bushes. I glanced back at the river; we'd left it just as featureless as we'd found it. A thought struck me as we waded back into the undergrowth, a leap of intuition if nothing else. The growlithe was probably still out there, watching. I couldn't exactly "feel eyes on me" as my mother used to say, but I had the nagging feeling that he wasn't far.

Lost in thought, but following my two ace pokémon through the trackless forest, I waded through the fog. The day wasn't over yet, and before it ended, I knew with certainty that we'd see that growlithe again.