"Roisin!" came the voice from the Staraptor's phone. "Glad I was able to get a hold of you, how are things?"

"Hey there, Rocky," Roisin replied, striding her way down the dirt path through the forest clearing beneath the midday sun. The big bird was relieved to be putting Oreburgh behind her, following the vicious beatdown she had suffered in the battle tournament, the threats from Tamsin the following day, rapidly running out of things to do in the city, along with the other two of her group having already made the trip to Eterna City. Skye, however, had thought it would be better for the pair to clear their heads by making a detour to a smaller and more serene place first. Compared to the industry and oppressive rock faces that surrounded Oreburgh, this would be a chance to relax amongst the oceans of flowers the town was famous for, enjoy the scenery of the trek there, and drink in the best of what nature had to offer.

For now, though, the Flying-type was just grateful to be seeing some trees again for the first time in a while. "It's going fine, I guess," Roisin told the calling Rocky. "Skye's dragging me to Floaroma Town right now, says it'll be a good break from everything that's been going on with the fighting and stuff."

"Skye?" asked Rocky. "Is this someone who's traveling with you?"

"Oh!" Roisin exclaimed, forgetting that the Golem hadn't been told any of this when they had first met. "Yeah, Lanturn," she elaborated, momentarily glancing up ahead to make sure Skye was still there walking along the path a few yards ahead of her. "Decided to tag along, help me try to control my energy or whatever. Big into all that spiritual junk. "

"Well, Floaroma's definitely a good place to unwind, if that's what you're needing," Rocky replied. "I've been that way a couple of times myself, as it happens. But first of all, I wanted to check how you were holding up after the Oreburgh fight. From what I'm hearing, you put in one hell of a performance."

"That's...wait, you're not serious, are you?" the Staraptor blurted out in bemusement. "I got my ass handed to me!"

Roisin had expected the Golem to want to discuss her battle against the Rhydon when he called her, and half imagined he would already have a veritable laundry list of negatives ready to go. However, she hadn't expected him to actually be praising her, especially after being eliminated in the very first round. And after her own assessment of what had happened, she certainly hadn't expected him to start chuckling.

"Here's a couple of things you need to keep in mind, Roisin," Rocky began supportively. "Firstly, that was your very first professional battle, so there's no shame at all in coming out on the losing end, okay? This is your rookie season, and it's all about learning."

"If you say so," Roisin said with a quick nod.

"And secondly, at the end of the last season, Tamsin was ranked third."

"Third?!" gasped the shocked Staraptor.

"Across the whole of Sinnoh," Rocky continued. "Now, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you put a newcomer in a fight against an Elite Four competitor, and they would last seconds at the most, but you stood up to the best that Tamsin could throw at you, and gave back a heck of a lot in your own right. If what folks are saying is true, that was one of the best showings by someone of your experience that I've ever known."

Roisin had to pause for a moment, staring off at the path up ahead, with Skye having come to a stop herself at the bird's sudden yelp a moment ago. "...thanks?" she eventually said, struggling to wrap her head around what Rocky was telling her.

"More than welcome," replied the Golem. "Now, if you're ready, there are a couple of aspects of the fight I'd like to dig into a little further, assuming that's okay with you."

"Sure, go ahead," agreed Roisin, resuming her journey back down the path.

================

"-and there were these really neat little bones, I've no idea what they were from, but I'll bet it was something really terrifying-"

"Okay, I-"

"-and so many of those sphere things that people collect, I dug so many out of there that I couldn't even carry them, they were spilling out of my pack all over the place-"

"Yes, that's-"

"-and Sun Stones! I didn't even know that's where they came from!"

"DIANE, STOP!" Roisin hollered at her phone, trying to stop herself from laughing out loud at the Gligar's unstoppable enthusiasm. "I get it, they let you go underground in Eterna, you managed to dig out a whole bunch of stuff, I don't need every single detail about what you found!"

"But it's all so cool!!" Diane protested, continuing her onslaught of information. "And they even let you mess around and make traps for other people-"

"Oh my god, put Laurie back on," the Staraptor said, rolling her eyes with a smirk, looking down into the flowing river water as the sun began to sink toward the horizon.

================

The sun had set, and Skye and Roisin had finally made it to their overnight stay in Floaroma. The skies were growing dim, and the clouds were still glowing with a soft orange light from beneath, but the kaleidoscope of flowers all around the town was still doing what they could to showcase their full rainbow of colour. And as Roisin lingered outside in the last of the dying twilight, there was still the comforting warmth of the voice on the other end of her phone.

"Well, I'm so happy that you're doing well," Tricia told the Staraptor. "And I'm so happy to hear from you, it's been such a long time since I was this worried about you."

"Yeah, I know," Roisin conceded with a slight sigh, "but everything's fine now, just took a day or two to heal back up all the way. Not half as bad as it was after I evolved, though."

"Oh, goodness, you were in such a state," the Altaria on the other end recalled. "Laid up in bed for a week, you've always been too headstrong for your own good!"

"Heh, I'm better than I was," said Roisin, with a flash of self-confidence. Compared to how she used to be, especially back as a Staravia, she was certainly a lot more level-headed than in the past. She wondered how much of that had been the influence of those she had met since then, or how much was gradually losing the effects of those she had left behind. "...how's dad taking it?"

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, as Tricia tried to find the right words. "I think he's still coming to terms with letting you go down this road," she explained. "But I'm sure he'll be okay in time."

The Staraptor could only give a regretful nod. "Yeah," she said quietly, "I hope so too."

"Would you like me to ask if he wants to talk?" Tricia gently asked.

Roisin pondered for a second, thinking back to how fraught her sudden exit from the household had been. "Nah," she reluctantly replied. "I don't think I'm quite ready yet."

"If that's how you're feeling," came the heartfelt reply. "I'll let you get away, in that case, and thank you so much for calling, Roisin."

"It's alright," replied the Staraptor, "I'll talk to you again some other time."

"Okay, bye-bye then," Tricia finished up. "I love you."

And in that moment broke a bittersweet glimmer of a smile. "...I love you too, mom."

A soft click brought the call to an end, the phone was stowed back in the pocket of her jeans, and Roisin made her way indoors for the night.

---

000 - New Arrival
014 - Investigation Interruption
016 - Old Enemies