Lily chuckled quietly to herself at the few people she saw around her getting ill from the rocking motion of the boat. After her many travels to and from Dewford Town on the ferry she was completely used to the continuous rocking motion of the ship. Others, it seemed, were not so lucky. She snapped her head away from a person who was gripping the deck and looked as if they were about to see todays breakfast again, and instead focused her attention on the startling blue waters, and the array of Pokemon that were going about their daily lives. She took in a deep breath of salty air and made the quick decision to go for a jog. Reaching up, she pulled what she could of her lengthy pink hair into a ponytail and pulled up her skirt a fraction. She knew it would only get in her way if she left it too long.
She set herself off around the deck of the ship at a gentle pace - she didn’t want to get herself too worked up before they made land - but she still wanted to be able to think for a while. She was actually going to become a Ranger! She’s always been around Pokemon; her parents had been Pokemon Trainers when they were younger and had a habit of keeping a load of Pokemon close with them in the house. But, being a Trainer was never something that Lily had ever aspired to be. Of course is was something her Parents wanted her to do - it was only natural after all - but she had bigger plans for herself. She wanted a future that involved helping so many more people and Pokemon than she could ever do as a Trainer. That’s why, when she’d seen the applications were open for the PRA, she hadn’t even hesitated in filling it out. She’d decided to wait to tell her parents too, until she had her results. She didn’t exactly want to go through a bombardment of questions and interrogations just to find out she hadn’t been accepted. Her parents though, surprisingly, had been a heck of a lot calmer about it than she first thought they would be.
“It’s your life, sweetheart. We’re not going to stop you if you want to go down a different path than we did. Just please remember to stay safe. Being a Ranger is not an easy business.”
Lily smiled at the memory as she quickened her pace a little. She knew her parents were right. Being a Ranger was not going to be a easy job, but she hadn’t set out on this path in the hopes of it being easy. She tucked a stray bang behind her ear and began to slow her pace on her last lap of the deck, before heading back to her assigned room. She hadn’t worked up much of a sweat but she knew they would be making land soon, so she quickly locked her door behind her and peeled her clothes off.
A cold spray of water washed all the tension out of her muscles from her run, but as she looked down it was washing out something she most definitely didn’t want. A steady stream of light pink was trailing away with the water,and she made a mental note to buy the first load of dye she found. The sound of the foghorn from above her brought her out of her thoughts, and she cursed herself for not coming down to shower earlier - she hated leaving her hair wet. She finished off washing herself and dried and dressed quickly, opting to pull on her running boots rather than her heeled ones. Knowing she didn’t have much time left to get back up to the deck, she towel dried her hair as best she could and packed up the small amount of belongings she’d left out, eternally grateful she’d decided to pack lightly. She pulled up the strap of her holdall onto her shoulder and took one last look at the room to check her things, then headed off towards her new life.
She reached the deck just in time to join the rest of the new Rangers filing off the boat onto the island, and after listening to the introductory greetings from the senior rangers, she gripped her back a little harder as her eyes fell on the boy-who-looked-like-a-Blaziken. Such a distinct look was something that could not be forgotten, and Lily knew she had seen him before. But, she had no idea where. She was pulled from her thoughts once again by one of the Senior Rangers handing her the equipment she would need for her new life as a Ranger, and after a few more introductions and bouts of information, they were off once again.
Boy was she glad she’d chosen her running boots.
(Edited for a very unfortunate spelling mistake)