"There is zero reason for you to treat your pokemon that way," Ithica said, ignoring what he said. "Look at it, it's scared of you, that's not okay."

"It's my pokemon, not yours," the guy snarled. "Now shut up and go away. Mind your own business." He made a rude gesture at her.

Ithica returned the gesture.

"I'm not going to let you keep doing that to that Zorua," she said. "You don't deserve to have it if you're going to treat it that way."

"Alright, lady, you're asking for it," the guy snarled. "You think I'm a terrible trainer? Fine. I'll battle you to prove I'm not!"

"Pick your poison, then," Ithica shot back. She wasn't afraid of the battle; they were close enough to Rustboro still that she could go back and get Dratini looked at afterwards if she needed to. She glanced at her pokemon. "You up for this?"

Dratini trilled at her and moved forward. It was angry at the other trainer, too.

"Go on, you worthless lump, prove you're worth something," the trainer snarled at Zorua, which flinched but moved forward.

"That's cheap," Ithica snarled. She disliked this other trainer more by the moment. She went over the low-level moves a Dratini would know. "Okay, let's start this off with Twister!"

The battle didn't last long. The Zorua wasn't super strong, and was more afraid of its trainer than anything, which just hindered it. Dratini felt bad but that didn't stop it from battling.

The trainer stared hard at Zorua for a moment after the battle was over. "Fine," he snarled. "Worthless thing. Take it if you want!" He turned and stormed away.

"Good riddance," Ithica murmured. As soon as the battle was over, she went over to examine the Zorua. "Are you okay? Hold still, I think I have a potion here somewhere..." She started to rummage around in her pack.

Zorua flinched back from her, watching her warily. Dratini trilled at it, reassuring it, and Zorua settled down. A little.

Ithica managed to find a potion in her bag and turned back to Zorua.

"Just hold still," she said gently. "This may sting at first." She sprayed the potion on every place she could see that the Pokemon was hurt.

Zorua held very still, watching her carefully the whole time. But it didn't try to run away or anything.

"There we go," Ithica said when she was done. "Now... I did not think this all the way through. You're not native to this region. So what am I going to do with you?"

Zorua looked at her, waiting for her decision.

Dratini chirped at them both, nudging Zorua gently before looking at Ithica again. Clearly Zorua just needed to come with them.

Ithica blinked at that.

"You want it to come with us?" she asked Dratini. She paused, thinking that over. Zorua were good Pokemon, and Zoroark were powerful. She looked at Zorua. "What do you think?"

Zorua thought it over before it shrugged a little. Dratini trilled at it, and the two had a short conversation before Zorua gave a tentative nod.

"Okay, then," Ithica said. She reached into her bag again, rummaging around until she found a spare pokeball. "Aha!" She pulled it out and held it out to Zorua. "Ready when you are."

Zorua still looked a little wary but it tapped the pokeball, and vanished as red light into the ball. It didn't even shake, but settled immediately.

Ithica looked at the pokeball for a moment, and then at Mel.

"That just happened, right?" she asked.

"I certainly saw it," Mel agreed mildly. "That definitely happened. Congrats, you have a Zorua now."

"That's awesome," Ithica said, grinning. "Zorua are awesome."

Mel snickered. "Well, there you go," she said. "Have fun with that. Looks like you'll have a bit of work to do but it'll be worth it."

"Definitely worth it," Ithica agreed. Minimizing the pokeball, she attached it to the trainer belt she'd bought. "For now, I'll give it some time to settle again. When we get to Fallarbor, I'll let it out again and we'll see how it's doing."

"Good idea," Mel agreed. "Okay, so there was our excitement for the day. Want to look around here a bit more or keep moving?"

"Well, we need to keep going to make it to Fallarbor," Ithica said. She grinned. "And they have hot springs there behind the Pokemon center, according to the games."