"Quit'yer gigglin', yer gonna gettus caught!"
Thyra shot a playful glare at the children she'd whispered at, but could hardly keep up the look as they fidgeted in excitement. Fighting down a wicked grin, she turned back to her target: a cluster of bright red dates around two dozen feet above, safely hanging between palm leaves. The tree was one of three date palms on village grounds, and wasn't technically supposed to be harvested for another week. Traditionally, the village held a festival during which they'd collect the sweet fruit and feast, but Thyra wouldn't get to see it herself. So here she stood with her spear in hand, early enough that neither the sun nor most of her people had risen, and prepared to nick some of the fruits for herself.
With a heave that she'd practiced dozens of times, the spear followed the arc of her arm and hit home in the center of the cluster of fruits. Forgetting the secrecy of their mission, Thyra whooped and the two children let out cheers, but these quickly turned to shrieks and the youths scattered as the dates and her spear rained down from above at bruising speeds. Once the assault slowed, the three scrambled to gather the fruit, with Thyra storing them in the leather bag at her belt and the younger children stuffing them into their shirts and mouths.
"This is fun...do yeh really hafta leave today?" The youngest whined, a boy with sandy hair and full cheeks. The little girl nodded, dumping a shirtful of dates into Thyra's bag.
The young woman hummed. "Yeh, the Elder chose me 'fer the job," she told them. "Besides, I wanna figure out what's goin' on that's causin' the dragons teh suffer."
A dark expression came over the little girl's face when Thyra mentioned the dragons. Unfortunately, the girl's grandmother had been in a building recently destroyed by her own rampaging Flygon. The entire community had mourned the loss, but Thyra had noticed that the child could hardly stand to be near even the tamest dragons afterwards, and flinched when even a single Vibrava grazed her with its passing wing. Thyra loved dragons, and seeing a fear of them growing in the hearts of her people was devastating to her.
"Hey, dun look so sad," Thyra said, playfully tugging at one of the girl's dark braids. "I'm gonna help figure out what's goin' on 'round 'ere, and everything'll go back teh normal again. I prom--"
The child quickly turned her head, pulling her braid out from between Thyra's fingers, took a handful of dates from the bag, and ran. The other child let out a shout through cheeks full of fruit, indignant at being left behind, and dashed after her. The sudden action took Thyra by surprise and she huffed.
She continued filling the bag until there was hardly enough room for any other essentials, and filled a water skin from the fountain in the center of town, and finally the sun began to peek over the horizon. The sandstorms would be kicking up near the village soon. With one last look over the ivory-colored mudbrick homes, she began her trek through the village's gates and over the sandy terrain before she felt movement in her hood. Without breaking stride, she turned her head to see Dune poking his head out through the fabric, starry eyes half-lidded and sleepy. Thyra snickered and reached a gloved hand up to hold a date in front of the small Pokémon's face. Dune's breath hitched in excitement and he opened his large jaws to snap at the offered fruit, his favorite, and Thyra quickly withdrew her hand to avoid the jagged teeth with a snicker.
They traveled in silence for a period of time, enough for her to pull up her hood against the sun and for the fine sandy terrain to become packed and more loamy, and she knew that she was nearing the spot Storiror had told her to travel to. She looked up, marveling at the different environment. She'd never been one to travel before, so this was all pretty new to her. While gawking at the trees, she noticed a group of people ahead, and at a closer look, they looked like they were pretty young, around her age. She picked up her pace, much to the chagrin of Dune, who did not look happy at the increase in bouncing, even as she clutched him in her arms.
"Hey!" She called, a bit out of breath from her journey and waving her free arm. As she got closer, she was almost positive that they were the other Tamers that she was supposed to meet, though the only kind of Pokémon that she recognized was a Gabite, which must've come with its Tamer from the Garchomp Village, also in the desert. The group had begun to speak already, it seemed, and she approached the group curiously as they were beginning to exchange names. Once she'd caught her breath enough to speak, she introduced herself as well. "It's nice ta finally see someone. I'm Thyra Arnasdottir, and this 'ere's Dune. We're from the Flygon Village, in the desert. I'm guessin' you're all 'ere fer the same reason?"
