Contents:
Soki
Mandrake2
Obvious exits:
South <S> leads to League Path - Route 22: Royal Road.
East <E> leads to Viridian Forest - Route 2: Small Clearing.

Lark has arrived.
Lark chooses a Plantakeet!
Aya has arrived.
Lark has left.

Rapid emerges from his pokeball!
Rapid has arrived.

Fair weather clouds sail across the blue sky, propelled by light breezes from the west. It's warm in the sun, cool in the shade, and the air is clear and dry. In the forest, the wind rustles the bright green leaves of trees and bushes and carries Oddish pollen, downy seeds, and the fragrance of wildflowers along with it. While at the coast, the ocean is a deep cool blue today, the waves lapping at the coast gently under the pleasant spring sky.

It's a beautiful spring day, and all the pokemon in the Valley are enjoying it to the fullest. Digletts bustle hither and yon, digging paths through the forest green; a Butterfree and a Dragonite dance in the air overhead; and Keeper the Ivysaur has staked out a patch of sun and is bathing in its warmth. The next event is due to start soon... but what is it?

Among the pokemon enjoying the beautiful weather are a Winneedee and a Plantakeet. The winged equine peacefully grazes in the clearing, having become much more used to the crowd of pokemon in the past day. Sitting in a low branch of a nearby tree is the colorful 'Keet who answers to the name of Aya. She watches the surroundings with her bright, happy eyes.

All the pokemon save one are enjoying the event to its fullest, actually. Soki, a.k.a. Ronin, is in a deep blue funk that started before the event even began and worsened after an entirely humiliating defeat in the battle contest of Tuesday. Ever since, he's refused to talk to anyone except for one offhand grumble at the piece of quartz he brought with him. Somehow, that's characteristic of him and yet not so at the same time.

Relaxing in the shade of a small bush near the Plantakeet's perch is Rapid, his head resting on his small paws that are spread out in front of him. The Eevee's eyes are closed, and he has his legs tucked to his side with his bushy tail covering them. The small pokemon breathes in and out slowly, obviously enjoying a nice nap in the fine weather that has come to the valley.

Just... thank goodness it's not raining. Though faring considerably better than yesterday, Peppy, who can now safely add 'Arcanines' to the long, long list of pokemon he is mortified of, is still not in perfect condition. He's up and about, however, walking about the valley very slowly, very cautiously. <Ow,> he mutters every two steps, whenever he puts pressure on his left paw. <Ow.> Step. Step. <Ow.> Step. Step. <Ow.> Still, it feels good to stretch his legs - for the past two days, he's been doing almost nothing but lying around, so he's got to unstiffen somehow. If only it wasn't so *painful*!

The Butterfree, despite its flighty appearance, is a fairly mature specimen, and it's noticed Ronin's behavior of late, coming to a conclusion. Is the conclusion right? There's only one way to find out. So it is that it flutters down out of the sky, after excusing itself from its 'dance partner', and hovers over Ronin's head. <What's wrong?> it asks. <Did your magic rock stop working?>

For lack of something better to do, the Dragonite flaps his way to a gentle landing near, but not *too* near, the Winneedee. <So, what're you gonna do with your prize?> he wonders. As for Peppy, he's not lacking for attention either. A worried-looking Chansey emerges from the woods, concerned at the lack of progress in her 'patient'. (Once upon a time, she belonged to a Joy. Long story.) <You're up! You're still hurting? Didn't you eat my special egg?>

Aya fluffs up her feathers and begins preening vigorously, sending bits of down and leaves floating in the air around her. The aforementioned prize is lain on the ground close to the napping Eevee. Balder, the Winneedee, startles when the large dragon bumps gently on the ground, and his ears flatten against his head momentarily. With an effort of will, he refrains from dancing backwards, and shyly says, <Oh, I don't know. I'm not even exactly sure what it is,> he admits. Aya flutters to the ground, looks at the rock, then shrieks at the top of her lungs (and directly into Rapid's sensitive ears), <It's a Fire Stone!>

Okay, so Ronin's on speaking terms... he just hasn't been talked to yet. The Sandshrew snaps upwards, <I never believed it worked, so I never counted on it. Bottom line is: I lost. Pitifully. It's a disgrace to have fallen so easily.> That can't possibly be the whole story, of course, but it's certainly what can be gotten to be said publicly. This kind of mood always runs deeper than what Ronin is willing to say about it.

As the various pokemon converse and low noises originate from different parts of the area, Rapid's long ears twitch ever-so-slightly, though he remains in his same position. When the Plantakeet winds up screeching right by his ears, however, the Eevee practically jumps out of his fur. "Eeeevuiiiiiiii!" he practically shrieks, jumping rather high up in the air for one that just awoke from sleep. Once he has his four paws back on solid ground, the small pokemon whirls around to face Aya and, upon realizing who it is, flattens his ears against his skull. <Why you do that?!>

The Growlithe blinks twice, coming to a steady halt and glancing in the direction of the newly arriving Chansey. His tail wags left, right, and left again, but he doesn't vocally greet the Chansey. Instead, he - almost automatically - turns his head to the side, as if to hide the scar on his cheek from the normal type. <A little bit,> woofs the dog, holding up his left paw and wincing visibly from the effort. He does show a little more enthusiasm, though, when the Chansey mentions the word 'eat'. <Eat? Do you have anything else to eat?> His tail flickers and his ears twitch. <I'm starving!> So what else is new?

The Dragonite winces sympathetically, reaching out to the Plantakeet and catching her beak between finger and thumb. Gently, yet firmly, he squeezes her beak shut. <Shhh,> he instructs, then lets her go. <Yes,> he says to the Winneedee, straightening again, <it's a Fire Stone. It's quite pretty, but it also has a special power. Some fire pokemon get stronger when they touch it.> He glances down at the Eevee. <And that one could *become* a fire pokemon with it.>

Aya has just enough time to blink innocently and ask, <Do what?> before the Dragonite clamps down on her beak. <Sorry,> she whispers in a volume that would be normal speaking for anyone else. When the 'Keet shrieks, Balder again flattens his ears to his skull, but used to the parrot's outbursts by now, that's his only reaction. <Oh, I see,> he whickers softly. <I suppose I'll give it to Lark, then. She'll know what to do with it.>

Ronin crosses his arms and growls, <Second best isn't good enough.> While he'd usually be happy to not be dead last, this case is the exception, since first place was all that counted if you wanted anything out of the contest besides bruises. As for the rock comment, he says, <The human that let me go gave it to me. Said it helped fulfil her dreams, and hoped it'd do the same for me. I guess it was just the wrong dream this time.> One step closer to the cause of his upset...

As the Dragonite reaches out to grab Aya's beak, Rapid quickly jumps to the side to avoid any contact with the pokemon, his ears pressing against his skull even more. The Eevee watches the Dragonite's movements suspiciously, but once he's decided that it's not going to harm him, the pokemon turns his head to the side to look at the Plantakeet. <Me sleeping,> he mumbles, glaring at the bird before sitting down on his haunches and raising a paw to his maw. The 'vee then sets to grooming himself with his eyes closed.

Peppy just sort of blinks at the egg that emerges, cocking his head slightly at the larger pokemon's antics. "Guh.... rowl?" <Uh... thanks?> Peppy takes a few steps towards the egg, lowering his head and prodding it softly with his nose. She just sort of... *made* the egg. So pizza grows on trees, eggs come from big white (to a colorblind Growlithe) things, and just because a Tauros smells like burgers doesn't necessarily mean she has some. How informative his little stay at the Valley's been so far! ... Sort of. Glancing up at the Chansey with hopeful eyes, Peppy asks, almost in a whimper, <Do you have any burgers?> He takes a sniff of the egg from up close. <To, um, to go with this?>

The Dragonite nods. <She's your trainer, then? Yeah, if you don't want it yourself, that's the best thing to do, I think.> He looks around. <We should probably get started on the variety contest soon,> he says. <I'm going to go do that.> With that, he heads toward Keeper.

<Yes, I suppose she is,> Balder whinnies, then drops his head down to continue grazing some more. It takes a lot of energy to keep such a large winged body going. <Sorry,> Aya says, apologetically, though she still doesn't have any idea of what she did wrong. <Don't be mad at me, Rapid!> she pleads.

Ronin shakes his head at the bug. <Unless it's some kind of contest of strength, I don't have a chance. Fighting is my one skill, and that's it.>, he grumbles. Ronin says this as if he regrets being a good fighter, at least at the expense of his other potential skills. After grooming both of his forelegs, the Eevee lifts one paw up and proceeds to cleaning his face. Once he's finished with that, the pokemon stands back up and shakes his fur coat out before looking back at the bird. He cocks his head slightly at her words before nodding approvingly and, after a short pause, offers a smile. <It okay,> he says in a reassuring voice. Once he finishes speaking with Aya, he slowly heads towards the nearby winged stallion. <Who that?> he inquires, sitting down in a patch of grass and watching the Dragonite as it heads off towards the grass pokemon. Once he's asked his question, Rapid looks up to the Winneedee expectantly.

Cringe. The Chansey says the wrong thing at the wrong time, as is noted by a sudden drop in Peppy's ears and a drooping tail. Boy, one would have thought he's gotten used to being denied burgers by now, wouldn't one? Or perhaps it's something else. Whatever the case, the Chansey only gets a slight frown and a moderately grumbly <Thank you,> as the puppy takes the egg in his mouth. It's not easy, as the egg is not tiny, but he manages it. Food in mouth, the puppy barely even glances at the normal type before he makes his way to the center of the valley, still limping slightly on his left front paw. Boy, is he ungrateful or what?

After a brief consultation with the Dragonite, the Ivysaur speaks up. <Okay, everybody, gather around. We're gonna have our last contest of the Valley now, and I want as many people as possible to participate, okay?> The Digletts zoom off toward some hidden destination, the Butterfree pats Ronin on the head before flitting off, and the Chansey pouts, but joins her compatriots in the center of the clearing.

Balder continues grazing for a moment, then noticing his small friend, raises his head and looks after the departing Dragonite. <I don't know,> he admits. <I still don't know very much about this strange place. Perhaps Aya knows?> he suggests hesitantly. Perfect timing. The 'Keet waddles after the Eevee, awkward on land, and reaches the pair just as Balder suggests her. She eagerly looks at the Dragonite, puffs out her chest, then suddenly becomes completely crestfallen. <I don't know either,> she says sorrowfully.

Ronin shakes his head again. His piece of quartz hasn't moved at all since he drew the circle around it, so he leaves it as is and heads on over to the center of the field to find out what this last contest is about. Hopefully it won't be like the one they had around this time last year...

At the sudden announcement by the Ivysaur, Rapid turns his head to watch the speaker, completely ignoring both the Winneedee and the Plantakeet for the moment. Once Keeper finishes speaking, the Eevee practically jumps to his feet. "Veeeuiiii!" he yips happily, pawing the ground with his forefeet. <We go!> he says eagerly, indicating the new contest as he continually looks back and forth from the stallion to Aya to the center of the clearing.

Once Peppy reaches the area in which he woke up a few hours ago, the Growlithe simply plops the egg onto the ground, gets down on his tummy, and begins to munch away slowly at the Chansey's treat. He appears to attempt to think about something else for a few moments, but fails miserably as the Ivysaur announces a 'contest'. The dog practically faints. If this is *anything* like the *last* contest... With a worried little "Grr-lithe," Peppy begins to frantically search about, scrutinizing the area for any hint of Kinnouka.

The Ivysaur explains the coming contest. <In a moment, my Diglett friends are going to bring back some nice thick clay from the nearby river. Your contest is simple. Use whatever tools you have-- teeth, claws, sticks, or what have you-- to make the clay look like... him.> He gestures with a vine at the Dragonite, who puffs up his chest and waves cheerily. <We'll give you all the same amount of time, and whoever makes the best-looking figure will get a prize.>

At Rapid's suggestion, Aya nods and spreads her wings, fluttering over to the area where the Ivysaur sits. Balder follows at a quick canter, not wanting to be left behind, leaving the Eevee to follow as he wishes. Once there, both winged creatures stop and listen carefully. At the end of the plant pokemon's explanation, however, Balder shakes his head carefully. <I won't be any good at this,> he says sadly. <I'm good at it! I even made a cake once!> Aya chirps out excitedly, almost as loud as she was when she talked about the Fire Stone.

Oh, now this is just too ironic. Ronin's friends back home had just gotten into wood carving, so he's somewhat used to artwork. This is just a rougher subject to model, in a different material. The Sandshrew actually has a shot at this! ...momentarily forgetting that his wood carvings weren't that good. But, at the very least, Ronin *feels* like he has a chance at victory. Which could be a blessing or a curse, if you think about it.

Rapid bolts to where the pokemon have gathered, arriving early enough to hear the explanation of the contest. <Oh! Oh! Oooohhh!> the Eevee says happily, jumping up and down several times before turning around and looking over to the Winneedee and 'Keet. <Me gonna do!> he shouts out cheerfully, <Me gonna dooooo!> The pokemon then turns around to look back at Keeper and then over towards the Dragonite once he's indicated. <Me hafta make... him?> he asks, swallowing nervously.

Peppy furrows his eyebrows, and turns his attention back to the egg. Molding clay to make a Dragonite? That sounds absolutely absurd. They should let him make a burger so he can show them what it looks like. The puppy growls a little, cheerfully, as he takes a little munch. 'If we could make figures into *anything*,' Peppy thinks (he can think after all!) to himself, 'I'd make a burger and win that prize for sure.' As it stands, he doesn't know if he could make a Dragonite.

The Digletts return, each carrying a wad of thick, moist clay on its head, then lean over and deposit them (with a series of wet squelches) in front of the contestants. Keeper says <All right, grab a lump of clay and get started. When I say stop, you stop. ...go!> With that, he turns around, so he won't see how well the contestants are doing and be tempted to stop the contest at a time favoring one over another.

Candlelight has connected.

Balder steps back a bit, not wanting to interfere with the contestants. <Good luck, Aya and Rapid,> he nickers, then turns his attention back to grazing. Food might not be the only thing he thinks about, unlike Peppy, but it is something he needs to focus on frequently. With a cry of joy, Aya hurtles herself at the somewhat damp clay, her feet grasping at the thick grey-brown stuff. She lands on it, awkwardly, her feet losing their purchase on the slippery stuff. Rather than landing gracefully perched on top of it as she intended, her feet slip, causing her to slide off of it on her belly, her yellow breast feathers abruptly becoming slimed up, some of them left fluttering behind her in the clay.

Ronin doesn't start creating just yet... instead, he analyzes the clay by rolling it around in his forepaws. Pretty hard... it'll be tough to work with, to be sure. Now, the subject: he'll need to make a head, arms, legs, body, tail... this is going to take a lot of piece-together... he tackles that problem in his mind for now.

As the Digletts come forth and deposit the clay before him and the rest of the contestants, Rapid blinks a few times, staring at the objects for a while before leaning forward and sniffing at them curiously. At the sudden shout of 'go', the Eevee quickly takes a step back, taken by surprise at the sudden shout. It takes a moment, but the Eevee regains his composure and moves forward to observe the clay again. Not entirely sure what to do, the pokemon paws at one of the closest pieces of clay, looking ready to move back and retreat in an instant if it decides to attack. "Veeee?" he asks in a low voice, eyeing the clay suspiciously.

Candlelight literally bounces as she sits down. <Yay! I love art! This is great! It's just like colored gooey stuff I used to play with seasons ago with the kids in the school! I've missed this stuff.> Candlelight takes her clump of clay and tosses it from hand to hand a few times then rolls it around on the ground however it's still pretty stiff. Candlelight pouts and knits her brow as she tries to figure out how to soften it. After a moment her face lights up, as if a light bulb just went on over her head. She carefully holds the ball in her hands and walks over to the stream. She gulps, closes her eyes, and then dunks her hands into the water. She breathes deeply and counts to five, tapping a foot impatiently. A little steam comes out of the water where her hands rest. Finally she pulls out her now softened ball and walks back to her original sitting spot to start working.

From Peppy's point of view, the first ten seconds of the contest are spent simply... staring at the clay. After the ten second mark, the Growlithe's head inch by inch begins to cock to the right, until it's almost fully on its side after twenty seconds. He blinks. Twice. Then almost all at once, the dog leaps up to all fours, shoves the egg to the side, and practically dives upon the mound, tail wagging fiercely. He glances up at the Dragonite, then peers back down at the clay. He starts out using his paws, the pain in his left front paw completely and totally forgotten.

Aya, ending up with her keel to the ground, her tail sticking up comically in the air, her feet stretched out behind her, and her black beak tip embedded in the clay. She sits there for a moment, blinking as she tries to figure out what just happened, then scrambles to get her feet under her again. She cocks her head, turning it almost completely upside down, looking first at the clay from her new position, then at the elder Dragonite. With a squawk of triumph, she attacks the clay again, this time being a bit more cautious and doing it from the ground. She begins pecking at the lump of clay, her rounded beak steadily pounding an indentation into the clay. Every once in a while, she pauses, looks up at the Dragonite again, then goes back to her rather ineffectual pounding.

Ronin nods. To work! The clay is still in an indistinct lump in his paws. First, the body. To do that, uh... maybe... see what the other guys are doing? Nope, he has to do this on his own. A round end of the lump of clay catches his eye. It's at an odd angle, but it'll have to do. With a claw, he traces an near-circular ellipse in the clay first, matching the curve of the lump in the clay, then cuts it out. It comes out a bit rough, with the soon-to-be body section slightly flat. Ronin "fixes" the situation by squishing the sides in a bit, which quite nearly harms more than it helps. At last, he looks up from his work to look at the subject. It's not an exact match, but he figures that nobody else will match it perfectly, either. Hrm... horizontal lines across the Dragonite's lower belly. With light claw strokes, Ronin draws the lines in at the right places.

Once the Eevee realizes that the clay isn't intending to harm him, he leans closer and paws at a chosen lump of the clay, this time using his paw to 'roll' it back towards himself. The first few paw touches the clay aren't too pleasant, seeing as how it's on the rather cold side, causing him to pull his paw back upon contact. "Vee!" he says in protest, wrinkling his nose a bit. "Euiiivee, vee," he mumbles to himself before continuing to pull the clay towards himself.

One if by land, two if by sea, behind me I seem to be able to see! (Saving)

Candlelight seems to just spend a few seconds relishing the feel of the newly soft clay within her fingers. Her eyes close and a huge smile comes across her face as she rolls the clay into a cylinder shape. She doesn't even seem to pay any attention to her model since she doesn't open her eyes for a full 10 seconds. She simply relishes the freedom to play again. Her tail flame dances, mirroring her happiness and if you listen closely you can hear her purr. Her hands seem to work without visual input, because if you look closely, there is a definite thicker section of the clay in the middle of the cylinder with thinner sections on each side.

Peppy, without even bothering to knead the clay (how should he know he's supposed to?), already starts out trying different parts of the Dragonite's body. He starts out on the legs with a happy face. His paws make the legs either too fat or too skinny. Putting the leg clay back, the puppy starts on the body, still smiling. The clay is too stiff and won't mold properly. Putting that clay back, the Growlithe begins on the arms, now a little cross. Much like the legs, the hardness of the clay and Peppy's general clumsiness make it a difficult task. Flinging that clay back, the canine starts to work on the head, now looking rather annoyed. The clay is too tough to make little facial expressions in. With a loud "Grrrrowlithe!" of anger, the puppy snaps his head down and tears a huge chunk out of the clay, chewing on it in pure hatred. Um. Yuck.

After a few minutes of pounding, Aya moves her head to the side to eye her mound of clay, then the Dragonite. <Hey, that doesn't look right,> she mutters, then shrugs her wings. She balances on one foot, then gets to work with the other. The bottoms of her feet were already covered with clay, but as she claws at the mound with first one foot, then the other, the thick claws and the tops of her toes begin to become encrusted as well. Within moments, the clay, rather than being a vague lump with a single indented spot, becomes an even vaguer lump with an indentation and numerous furrows where the 'Keet's claws had dug into it.

Ronin pauses to think. That body section took up far too much clay, but he hasn't the time to go and fix it. If he's going to miss parts, which could he not do withou? Head, arms, legs, wings, and tail. Well, that doesn't help much, does it? Fine, to the head next. Ronin decides to try another tactic for this one: he rips off a suitably sized lump of clay and starts to roll it up. Once it's in a ball, he haphazardly places it on the body (which is standing up, being slightly flattened at the body so it'd stick up), whereupon the head rolls off. Erk. He tries again, just to make sure it wasn't luck, and it rolls off again. Okay, so unless he wants to present a decapitated Dragonite (*that's* sure to win), he's got to come up with something. After a little thought, he comes up with the idea to cut out a small little crater at the "neck" of his model and balance the head in it, then smoosh it together. (Not quite) Perfect!

Once the lump of clay has been taken away from where it was previously, Rapid jumps over it and lands on the other side. He then leans down and hits the clay with the tip of his muzzle before rolling it forward several steps, guiding it as he pushes it along with his head to the ground. After the mound has been transferred several feet away, the Eevee looks up to get some information on what to do and, seeing Candlelight near the stream, rolls the ball over in her direction. Unfortunately for him, the way to the stream goes slightly downhill, causing the somewhat rounded clay to begin its decent without any guidance from Rapid. As the clay begins to roll down, the pokemon's eyes widen and he sets forth to try and catch up with the ball. Sadly enough, the stumbling Eevee is unable to get a hold of the clay before it slides into the stream with a 'plunk' and slowly sinks to the bottom. Rapid arrives by the stream just in time to see it roll down to the bottom. "Veee!" he shouts out loudly, leaning down low to stare at the clay mound that has now sunk to the bottom of the stream. Along with the clay dropping, the pokemon's ears droop considerably.

Candlelight finally opens her eyes and studies her subject and looks at what she's got in her hands. Well the general shape is correct, a long neck and tail with a thicker body. She gets to work on adding limbs. She pulls some of the clay that used to be in the neck and tears it off. She rips this section in half. One half she rolls on the ground repeatedly until it's thin. She then carefully divides the section into equal halves and jams them onto both sides of the torso until they stick. She then takes the other section (that she didn't roll to become thinner) and divides it into half. Jamming both halves onto the bottom section of the torso, Candlelight smoothes the attachment points so that they don't look too bunchy (although too bunchy in a kid's imaginative eyes may be different from too bunchy in an adult's critical eyes). She then pauses to look at her work. The legs are not even, despite her best work and one arm is distinctly higher on the body than the other and comes out of the dragonite's chest. Candlelight frowns then shrugs and looks towards the other artists, she notes how much trouble some of them are having and she looks at her hands with a grateful smile.

Chew. Chew. Chew. Peppy continues munching upon the clay, growling softly in anger. You show that clay who's boss, Peppy! After a moment, he twitches and spits it out, gagging softly with his tongue hanging out. Wow. Something not even Peppy will eat. He then peers at the spat up ball for a moment or two. Then at the stiff clay. Then at the spat up ball. He pokes a little hole in the drool-covered one. It's perfect. With an aura of enlightenment, Peppy jams yet another wad - this one much larger - into his mouth and begins to chew away. Disgusting. Effective, but disgusting. Spit. Chew, chew, chew. Spit. Chew, chew, chew. Spit. After a short while, most of the clay is softer and workable (if not a tad wet). Peppy has now combined his love for eating with pottery. Is that a first or something? Marveling at his wonderful intellect (and, coincidentally, ignoring that disgusting taste in his mouth), the Growlithe gets to work on making a "masterpiece".

The increasingly clay-covered 'Keet pauses in her work for a moment to gauge her progress again. Her beak, now grey-brown, parts slightly, her pink tongue emerging as she tries to figure out what is going wrong with her method. <Hmm,> she muses for a moment, then looks around at the other contestants. Seeing Ronin and Peppy dividing their clay into different parts, she chirps happily, <What a good idea!> She begins clawing at the clay again, balancing on one foot, her tongue protruding from one corner of her beak as she concentrates. Her flexing foot soon has a small bit of clay in it, and she pulls it away with a triumphant squawk. She opens her claws, expecting the sticky stuff to fall out of her grasp, but it doesn't. She shakes her foot experimentally. The small bit of clay stays where it is. With an indignant squeek, she begins shaking her foot wildly, her movements forcing her to hop on the other foot to keep her balance. Her awkward position causes her to circle wildly, finally hitting the large mound of clay with the long, stiff feathers of her tail. The force was enough to cause them to stick for just a moment, long enough for the 'Keet to lose what she had left of her balance and tumble to the ground again.

Ronin is forced to stop and think. Arms, legs, wings, and tail remain. With little inspiration, the Sandshrew's got to experiment. On a whim, he flattens the remaining clay out against his leg, with some effort. So what? Now he has thick clay paper. Ah! But what if he cut out some thin strips and rolled 'em up? He'd wind up with little cylinders that he could probably use for the arms, limbs, and tail alike. He just needs to leave enough left over for the wings. Immediately Ronin goes to work at cutting out five strips of clay that're close to the right length, but, unfortunately, not the correct width. Rolling them is going to cut the width in half, and Ronin forgot to compensate for it. It is only when he starts to roll the strips of clay up that he realizes his mistake, but can't go back and undo it due to the infernal clay's refusal to mold back together nicely. Harumph. Ronin will just have to deal with it. So now everything's ready to put in... it's the putting in that's the hard part. Ronin's first impulse is to mimic his "crater tactic" that he used for the head, cutting sockets into the body where he's to put the things. The tail works perfectly... it has the ground to rest on, so it's easy to keep in place. The legs work much the same way, as there's no way that Ronin will get this thing to stand up, so he attaches the legs at the bottom and lets them lay horizontally, jutting forward.

After helplessly pacing back and forth, the Eevee returns to looking down at the clay hopelessly. "Veeuiii," he mumbles sadly, dropping his head down to his paws for a moment. Rapid just stares at the clump of clay before an idea strikes him. With a happy 'vee' of approval to the idea, the pokemon crouches down, pawing the edge of the ground restlessly. <1... 3... uhh... Lark!> the Eevee shouts out before diving in after the 'lost clay'. Much to the pokemon's surprise, the water level only goes up to the base of his neck. However, Rapid doesn't have much time to dwell on the stream, and fights to step forward and get the clay back up on land while also preventing himself from being swept away. His first dive is in vain, and he surfaces with nothing, and in frustration, the Eevee dips his head back under and bites at the clay, getting a nice mouthful of the substance. It obviously isn't too appetizing to the pokemon, but he manages to keep it in his maw long enough to transfer to piece to solid ground. Once the first piece of the mound is safely on land, Rapid sets to work in getting the rest of it back up.

Back to work. Candlelight puts a hand under her mouth and narrows her eyes in concentration as she tries to figure out how to make her roughly snake-with-legs shaped clay into a dragonite. After a moment, she nods sagely and takes a lot of clay off of the tail (leaving traces of clay from her hands to bake on her face). She tosses the tail clay from hand to hand until it forms a ball. She's just about to stick the ball on the top of her creation's head when she hears Rapid's plaintive cry. Candlelight looks from her creation to the Evee and back again. She then sighs and tears off the entire tail and most of the neck from her own sculpture and trots over to the Evee. She very carefully slows down as she gets closer to the dangerous blue stuff and then carefully puts the clay in the pile that Rapid has formed. She smiles briefly as she watches the brave little "fox" risk her life in that hideous blue stuff and then trots back up to her own clay to see what she can do.

After about a minute of thrills with working with the slobbery but soft clay, Peppy takes a look at his masterpiece. It's just a blob. A blob with two little blobs on the side that kind of look a little bit like arms if you squint a whole lot. And Peppy seems as pleased as can be with it. "Grrr-Owl!" woofs the puppy cheerfully, glancing up at the posing Dragonite. Then at his own little figure. Back at the Dragonite. At the figure. A worried frown comes upon the Growlithe's face, and with a small whimper, he begins to change the blob around a bit. Using a paw, he makes soft little lines on the blob. They are by no means straight. At *all*. They're very swervy, and at three separate points on the "Dragonite's" belly, the lines overlap each other. He makes two tiny, tiny little mounds of clay using his muzzle and, this time utilizing his mouth, gently grabs the clay with his teeth, and sets it upon the mounds. He proceeds to attach another tiny little lump near the rear end of the Stay Puff Clay Man using his paws, most especially his right one (his left one's starting to hurt a little). It's a tail! Aww! Peppy's wonderful work of art now looks like a bloated Grimer without a head and a butt that juts out. He glances up, peers back, frowns deeply, and uses his paws once again to make the tail longer and bigger. It only works a bit - the tail becomes longer, yes, but it also just sort of falls limp to the ground about an inch after it leaves the figure's rump.

Frustrated now, the Plantakeet scrambles to her feet once again, the clay stuck to the bottom of her right foot forgotten. She hobbles over to the clay like a pirate, unbalanced by her legs now being of different lengths thanks to the "shoe" of clay on one foot. With another loud squawk, she attacks the stubborn clay again with her foot, this time adding her wings into the fray. The feathers beat against the air and the clay, the foot scratches, and soon her masterpiece is almost finished. Having completely forgotten about the purpose of the contest by this point, the 'Keet adds a few more finishing pecks to show the clay who is boss, then steps back, chirping quietly in satisfaction. What is left is a mound of clay with claw marks down the middle, an indentation at the top, and many overlapped prints of feathers to either side of the claw marks. Beautiful! What's left of Aya is hardly worth of that word, however. Her once bright feathers are caked with clay on the undersides of her wings, and on her breast from just beneath her beak until just before her vent. Her beak doesn't show a bit of its original orange color, her pink tongue glazed over with a thin layer of grey. Her legs are no longer even remotely even, her right one having a large lump of clay holding it up from the ground, causing her to lean to the side dangerously. One side of her tail is matted and ragged, with more of the sticky substance on it. Some clay even managed to make it into her crest, causing it to droop to one side strangely. Only her back and the upper side of her wings seems to have emerged unscathed. Now the only question is, which is the sculpture and which is the sculptor?

The wings alone remain. Ronin has *just* enough of his "clay paper" left to cut a-little-less-than-proportional wings out of it to attach. With a quick glance at his subject to make sure that he's got the right idea of wings (scaley, not feathered), Ronin cuts out one wing first, then the other. This results in one wing being larger than the other. Ronin snorts at this painfully obvious fact, but, as has been stated before, he can't do anything about it thanks to the clay's resilience to reformation. So he'll have to cope... again. Now, how to get these things on the back. One idea comes to mind. It's a long shot, but that's what this is all about. Once again falling back on creating an insertion point for the part to be placed in, the Sandshrew uses his front claws to cut a square hole in his Dragonite model's back and peels away at it. Once enough clay's gone, Ronin puts the non-pointy sides of the wings in as far as he can so that meet halfway, holds the model's front with one paw, and rubs the inserted sides into connection with the main body as best he can. As it stands, the wings don't fall off of the model, but the sides droop unprofessionally. Unfortunately, it's done. It's missing something... and at last Ronin realizes what it is. No pokemon on earth lacks a face! Ronin shifts around to his model's front once more, and uses his claws to poke small indentations for eyes and trace a smile in the spherical head. There we go! It's done! Ronin smiles at his creation. Perhaps he could turn this into another thing to sell back at the Base.

In a matter of minutes, the Eevee's clay has returned to land, just in various pieces, including the one donated by the generous Charmander. Once the pieces are safe, the pokemon jumps out from the stream's waters and lands near the pieces. After shaking his fur from water, Rapid turns to face Candlelight, smiling broadly. <Thank!> he says happily, <Thank!> His bushy tail wags quickly and after praising the fire pokemon several more times, the pokemon sets to work in creating the Dragonite sculpture out of clay, trying to make up for his lost time. After watching the other participants work and studying the Dragonite closely, the Eevee begins to push his paws against the softer clay. The result is, much to the pokemon's dismay, one big piece of flat clay with many pawprints in it. Growling in frustration, Rapid continues to try and work with the mound of clay, though he can't do all that much with his paws. The Eevee does manage to make a figure that is similar to that of a snowman, only with an extremely long and very flat, kinked tail. Whining slightly at the impending doom because of the contest, the Eevee crouches down again, staring at his creation and trying to figure out what else to do with it.

Candlelight sits back down and ponders. It's a headless, tailless, wingless body with feet. At first she pouts and looks at the ground. Then she jumps up with a huge smile. She takes some sticks and two leaves from next to her and puts them in front of her. Then she takes two fingers and squishes them around the top part of the torso, forcing a small part of clay above her fingers and forming a small neck. She then rounds this little bit of clay as best as she can and takes two very small sticks from the pile in front of her and sticks them on the head. She then grabs two maple leaves and sticks them into the clay's "back" to form (odd looking) wings. Then she carefully cleans off a thick stick and jams it into the ahem lower section of the clay to form a tail. Clapping with glee at her creation, Candlelight finishes it off by taking a claw and poking two eyes into the head and drawing a big smile.

Judging by the grin on Peppy's face and his wagging tail, he's having a great time. Perhaps he's proud of himself. Perhaps he thinks he's going to get the prize. Whatever the case, only a couple moments are spent reworking the Dragonite's existing extensions - the legs and arms get a little more slender (and, thankfully, stay on), and really bad-looking claws are engraved into the limbs using the pup's teeth. He then moves on to the wings. They take all of five seconds. Peppy takes some clay in his mouth, rams his mouth into the figure, pushes it out with his tongue, and nudges it softly. It looks like a backpack. The final part is yet to come! Working quickly, the Growlithe uses his mouth to yank a clump out of the mound of saliva-drenched clay, drops it on the mouth, and, tongue sticking of his mouth and pressing back against the right half of his upper chops in a very cute fashion, uses a claw to poke two eyes, a nose, and a mouth (in the shape of a tiny little poked hole). It looks awful. Taking the "head" in his mouth, Peppy plops it on top of his creation, takes a step back, glances at the Dragonite, glances at his clay figure, and smiles softly, his tail wagging. Leonardo Da Vinci better step down.

Keeper turns around, calling <Okay, stop!> -- and sweatdrops when he sees the, um, creations that the pokemon have come up with. Granted, he probably couldn't do any better, but... <...all right. I'm gonna have him,> a gesture to the Dragonite, who seems unconcerned with the crudity of form, <take a look at all your sculptures, and he'll pick the one he likes best.> The Dragonite obligingly walks to the head of the line, then moves along it, examining each clay figure and making thoughtful noises.

Aya, her frustration and irritation at the clay completely forgotten by now (after all, it's been all of two minutes!), chirps happily at the Ivysaur's words. She looks one more time at her sculpture, then plants herself next to it. She tries to fluff up her feathers with pleasure, but only the ones on her back respond. The ones on her breast and belly are too clay covered to move at all. The lump of clay remains as it has been since she 'finished.' A lump with four furrows running down the middle, the distance between furrow two and furrow three being the widest. At the very top, just above where the furrows comman, is a small indentation with an even small hole at the bottom where the needle-like end of Aya's upper beak penetrated into the gray substance. Finally, on either side of the furrows are the faint impression of feathers, looking something like a fossil of a bird would. The back side of the piece of clay looks just as it was when dropped off by the Diglett.

Ronin gives his Dragonite statue the once and twice-overs, then steps back to allow his artwork to be observed for what it is. It's got a bit-too-big body segment with the same kind of lower belly markings that a real Dragonite would have on it. From the body come the limbs and tail, which all look almost exactly the same. It's possible to see that they were rolled up, but that certainly doesn't make them look less like limbs, except for the legs, which ought to be shorter to be considered legs, or even feet. The arms, thanks to gravity, slump down to the model's side, which actually looks more natural than if they were hanging up in the air. The wings do indeed look like wings, but they're slumped down a bit from gravity and a little bit too small. And lastly, there's the head, which sports such modern features as roundness and a face, antennae not included!

One if by land, two if by sea, behind me I seem to be able to see! (Saving)

Much to his dismay, Rapid's creation doesn't look like a mirror image of the Dragonite. It looks more like a fat snow-man made of clay with a slide on its back. One that stops mid-way and has the end of it fallen off and onto the ground. Not only that, the figurine has the prints of the Eevee's paws almost everywhere, and the one large hole in the front of the object's 'head' doesn't look much like an eye. As the Dragonite begins his viewing of the sculptures, Rapid stops himself from whining any further and straightens himself, forcing himself to offer a small smile to the dragon, and at least try to look a little proud of his sculpture.

Candlelight looks up and frowns as time is called. Her lower lip trembles and you can almost hear the "Ah mom, just one more minute" although she doesn't say anything. Then she takes a deep breath and steps away from her creation. It's unique to say the least, being the only one made up more of foliage than clay. Picasso would be proud. The thing looks just enough like a dragonite to be recognizable without being obvious; well, either a dragonite or a tree with feet. It's got two uneven, thick legs, a nicely shaped torso and arms (one in the correct place, the other sticking out of the chest). The head looks kinda round with a cute face and stick antennae. The wings don't look like a dragonite's wings, being as they are made of maple leaves, but they do look like some creature's wings. If you didn't know already what it was supposed to be, you wouldn't be able to figure it out. In any case, Candlelight takes a step back and rubs her hands on her legs, trying to remove some clay but just succeeding in spreading more all over herself. She smiles a big smile and says, <That was fun. Can we play some more?>

Somebody call the Louvre, we've got ourselves a masterpiece that will probably sell for enough money to buy Peppy enough burgers to last a lifeti... well... For Peppy, maybe a week or two if we go somewhere cheap. They say all the fine arts are messy. This is, apparently, a fine art. Clay is all over Peppy's fur - which is not precisely a good thing when when you're a fire type and can't just very well go and take a bath. The Growlithe is totally and completely ignorant to his dirtiness. He is absolutely beaming at his little figure: a jetpack-wearing blob with stripes that overlap each other three times, four fat little limbs with cheesy little claws engraved in them, and a smiley face head that deserves a little caption that says, "Have a nice day!" The prize is completely and totally forgotten in Peppy's mind. He's just proud of himself. As the Dragonite walks by him, the Growlithe just woofs a cheerful little noise, tail wagging fiercely, taking the "thoughtful noises" the Dragonite makes completely and totally to heart as if the Dragonite was scritching him behind the ears and saying, '<Young Peppy, this is a wonderful job! You're a true artist!>' Peppy loves that kind of attention. The puppy takes a look at the Dragonite (who is now taking a close look at another pokemon's sculpture) and compares it to his sculpture once more. And grins even more. In his eyes, it's... perfect!

The Dragonite takes a second pass, looking at some of the sculptures more closely. Ronin's, sadly, is dismissed pretty quickly; it's a competent work, but doesn't have that certain... something. Aya's gets a second look just because it's so bizarre-looking, but the Dragonite finally shakes his head and moves on. Rapid's is considered for a sympathy vote, given all the trouble the Eevee had with his sculpture, but eventually the Dragonite has to admit that it doesn't even look a bit like him. (Besides, the Eevee will probably be the recipient of *another* prize, if the Dragonite's guess is correct.) That leaves Candlelight and Pep. The Dragonite looks back and forth. Baaaaaack... and fooooorth. Finally, he shrugs, looking over at Keeper. <I can't decide. Why don't you give them both a prize?> Keeper blinks, then shrugs in turn. <Don't see why not.>

Soki has disconnected.

Aya perks up as the Dragonite nears her, then droops unhappily when he passes her by. It doesn't help that most of her feathers are covered in drying clay, of course. Balder now moves back into the group. <It's okay, you two. I think you did great! Much better than I could do!> the equine whickers to both the 'Keet and the Eevee.

Rapid continues to keep smiling as the Dragonite views his sculpture, but as soon as the dragon passes him by, the Eevee's ears droop and his smile morphs into a frown. "Veeeee..." he murmurs to himself in a low voice before padding over to the Winneedee's side. The praise does perk the Eevee up a little bit, and the pokemon quickly looks up to the stallion. <Really? Me did good? Yay!> he shouts out happily, beginning to bounce up and down again.

Candlelight tilts her head as the Dragonite judges her work then blinks repeatedly as she's considered a winner. Her mouth opens and she points a clay encrusted finger towards her body in a "me?" pose. Then the reality sinks in and she jumps up and down and spins in a circle happily, chirping her glee the whole time. This is almost a disaster as her tail swings dangerously close to the sculpture. Luckily, Candlelight notices her errant tail and stops moving just in the nick of time. A little more cautious now, but no less happy, she simply bounces in place with a big smile.

Peppy is... completely ignorant to the Dragonite. He's simply peering at his own little sculpture, seriously swelling up with pride. Let's hope he doesn't brag about it. He could do all kinds of things with this: carry it around everywhere, use it as a teddy bear, sell it for burgers... or maybe give it to a friend! Peppy can already think of one someone off the top of his head he'd like to give his masterpiece to, and his tail wags even harder at the thought of seeing that someone's undoubtedly delightful expression. He glances at the Dragonite one final time, making one last comparison. And he comes up with a final conclusion. To himself, the puppy growls softly, <I think this looks more like a Durgonnit than the Durgonnit himself does!> ... Peppy must be extremely delusional, have one heck of an imagination, or be easily impressed. Most likely a mixture of all three. Whatever the case, he still doesn't even know he's won: heck, he's forgotten there was a contest in the first place.

Now comes the crucial question: what is it, exactly, that the two have won? The Dragonite glances at Keeper, asking <Do we have enough prizes for both of them?> The Ivysaur blinks, replying <I thought this prize was *your* department.> Uh oh. The Dragonite, the Ivysaur, and the other elders look around briefly, then quickly get into a huddle. Looks like even they can forget minor details like that.

Aya also cheers up quite a bit at the Winneedee's encouragement. <Yay! At least you won something, Balder!> she says happily, then attempts to fly up around the equine's head. She doesn't get more than a few inches off the ground before crashing down again, her laden feathers too heavy and unaerodynamic to be able to carry her at the moment. <Oh, bother,> she says cheerfully and tries again, just to crash once more.

Candlelight shrugs with a giggle as the village elders hold council. She then sits down on the ground with a plop and looks at Peppy's sculpture. She smiles <That's a great statue Peppy.> She then looks at the others too with a grin. <They are all great. What fun!> She then watches Aya for a second and frowns. Her brow furrows and her mouth forms a thin line as she thinks. <If you are one of those pokemon who like that icky blue drippy stuff, then it will get rid of the clay. I've seen kids wash their hands after playing with clay. I just had to let it flake off.>

Peppy's ear catches wing of the word 'prize'. Memories come flooding back, and the dog realizes that the Dragonite wasn't just walking by to see how pretty his little masterpiece - he was walking by to judge him! ... Suddenly, Peppy's little word of art doesn't appear quite so special. The Growlithe blushes under his fur - which irritates his injured right cheek a bit - as he glances at some of the other sculptures. Then at his own. And then Peppy isn't quite sure what to think. The puppy jumps slightly when Candlelight speaks to him. He blinks and peers at her for a moment, before glancing in the direction of her statue. Sticks! Leaves! Suddenly, the canine isn't quite the genius he was willing to call himself two minutes ago. He glances back at the Charmander, gives her a soft little smile, and throws in a quick, <Thanks, yours is great, too.>

Finally, the elders break their huddle. <Okay,> the Dragonite smiles. <We decided what you get. You'll have to wait 'til tomorrow, though, 'cause I need to get another woven basket first.>

<Ooooh, good idea!> Aya shrieks happily and waddles towards the water. Balder, concerned for his much smaller friend, follows, ready to rescue her if necessary. Fortunately, the small bird doesn't go far into the stream, just enough to enable her to start splashing water and slimey globs of clay around.

Candlelight instinctively jumps up and takes a few more steps back from the river, despite the fact that she was out of splash range in the first place. A sweatdrop forms on her check as she looks towards the river of doom but then disappears as she calms down again, safe on dry land. She's so distracted that it takes a few seconds for the Dragonite's words to register in her mind. She looks towards the Dragonite. smells the air, then she looks down at the ground, then rotates a foot in the ground in nervousness. <Um... The air smells like drippy stuff, I'm gonna have to spend the night finding a place to hide and I won't be able to come out tomorrow.>

Rapid returns to his pokeball.
Rapid has left.

Peppy's ear flickers once again as the elder pokemon begin to speak. They decided what the winners get, and they have to wait until tomorrow. He needs a woven basket. Peppy glances around nervously. Who won? Probably the pokemon who replies to the pokemon: that, of course, is Candlelight. But 'another' basket? It's only after a moment or two of thinking about it that Peppy notices - Candlelight isn't the only one being addressed. He is, too. The Growlithe is somewhat taken aback, and only a second later, he sort of lowers his head, turns it to the side so as to hide his cheek and muzzle scars, and sort of moves to hide his sculpture from view. He turns even redder under his fur, and just kind of mumbles a soft, <Um, okay. Um, thanks.> He's shy! How cute! He likes attention in the form of scritches and 'You're a good boy! Aren't you, sweetie, aren't you a good boy?' ... Not so much in the form of pokemon peering at him and telling him he did something right for a change.

One if by land, two if by sea, behind me I seem to be able to see! (Saving)

(The prizes ended up being a ride in a basket carried by a Dragonite, but neither Candlelight nor myself could stick around long enough to see it. Still, Peppy walked away with a prize greater than anything - a Grimer with a jet-pack. And that's all that matters.)