cottonguarding
Giotto didn’t notice he had fallen asleep until his Elise was excitedly shaking him awake, nearly startling her trainer enough to make him fall into the body of water beside him. One would think he would have learned not to sleep next to these ponds considering how close he came to falling in when he first arrived in this mystery place. Looking behind him, he found the rest of his team had decided to take a rest outside the front of the cabin as well. All save for Elise, apparently.
Her excited squeaks didn't cease, and she pulled on his sleeve leg, nodding towards the forest and pulling on his sleeve again. The ace knew what this meant--she had gone exploring after they all fell asleep and had found something. A clue to the way out perhaps? Or something worthwhile apparently, considering how eager she was to show her trainer. No sooner was he on his feet did the raichu dash off into the forest, presumably to whatever it is Giotto needed to see.
“Elise!” He called after his eldest pokemon, waking Natsu in the process. “Keep everyone here--Elise and I will be back soon,” he told the ninetails. The fox nodded and put it’s head’s back down on it’s paws, ready to resume its nap. The rest of his team taken care of, he followed his eagerly squeaking raichu into the misty forest.
She found him before he found her, tugging on his pant leg before taking off once more, leaving the ace to chase after her in exasperated confusion. Was this something going to leave if Giotto didn’t hurry? Just what had she found?
“I’m coming I’m coming,” he said with a sigh, following after her. “You need to slow down though Elise I’m not nearly as fast as you--” he came to a halt as he saw exactly what his pokemon was trying to show him. Elise circled excitedly around a young woman with long bright pink hair, squeaking excitedly as if to say ‘see? see?’. Now he understood what this was about.
“I’m sorry if she’s caused you any trouble,” Giotto sighed, scooping Elise into his arms so she was no longer running circles around the stranger. “She get’s very...excited when she sees something or someone she deems cute,” he explained, glad Elize wasn’t trying to get out of his grasp as he’d left her pokeball back with his bag at the cabin. Though he couldn't entirely blame her--Elise had a cuteness master ribbon from his days as a coordinator, and she still got excited at the sight of anything or anyone exceptionally ‘cute’.
