Margaret watched him go, still a bit surprised.

"Do things like that usually happen in this region?" she asked. The Natu on her shoulder chirped brightly.

"Nope," Aleron said cheerfully. "You don't usually see gym leaders outside their gyms, unless they're doing something special, like this. And you very rarely get gifts from them. So consider yourself lucky."

"Just making sure I wasn't crazy," Margaret replied. She glanced at the little Natu and pulled out an empty pokeball. "Okay, sweetling, in you go."

Aleron chuckled and went back to exploring the ruins, taking her time and meandering around. She didn't find anything particularly interesting, but that was okay.

Margaret wandered around a little bit more and went around to a couple of the other buildings to play with the sliding tile puzzles. Something about the puzzles seemed a little off, to her, so she never finished any of them, but she got close to finishing before she stopped. Then she went to find Aleron again.

Aleron had moved back into the main room to study the pokemon, poking and prodding a few of them. They seemed amused, twisting around her and moving really close to her before backing away again.

Margaret grinned and went over to join them.

"Any luck figuring out what they are?" she asked.

"Not really," Aleron said with a shrug. "So far, all I know is they're fairly friendly and inquisitive. I don't know where they came from."

Margaret grinned and prodded one of the pokemon.

"I really want to know what they are," she said. "It's bugging me a bit." She jumped a little at one of the pokemon making noise and her from behind and she turned around. On the wall, five of them were arranged in some sort of order, and it took her a moment to figure out what they were spelling. "Unown?"

Aleron blinked. "Huh. I guess they understand us." She watched as three of them moved together to form 'yes'. "Cool. So, I guess they're Unowns. I wonder where they came from, though. I've never heard any mention of them before."

"That's really cool," Margaret said. "I wonder how they did that." She watched as the Unown rearranged themselves to spell out 'mind.' It took her a moment to realize what they meant. "Oh, they're psychic-types! I get it now!"

Aleron chuckled. "No wonder you love them," she teased.

"Oh hush," Margaret replied, blushing a little. "I don't know why I like psychic-types so much. I'm just kind of drawn to them." She reached out and nudged one of the letters, sending it spinning into its neighbors.

Aleron just laughed. "Uh huh, sure." Shaking her head, she glanced outside. "Come on, we should probably get going. It's getting kinda late."

Margaret nodded.

"Alright," she said. "I do want to get some rest before tomorrow. I do still plan to take on the Gym." She grinned. "Those birdkeepers won't know what hit them."

"That's the attitude!" Grinning, Aleron waved to the Unowns. "By, you lot! We'll be back, I'm sure. Don't get into too much trouble."

Still grinning, Aleron headed out of the Ruins and back towards town to stay the night in the pokemon center.

Margaret followed Aleron out of the ruins and back to town. She was still a bit skittish while they were on the path, because she didn't know if the legendaries were going to come back, but she relaxed once they got back to town.

Aleron settled in on a cot at the pokemon center with a happy sigh, letting out her two pokemon and stroking Vulpix. "You know, I've been meaning to get a flying type of my own. I haven't decided which I want, though."

Margaret didn't sit down right away. Instead, she went over to the transfer machine and sent her Noctowl back home to her parents. She didn't need to train the pokemon any more for the moment, and she wanted to focus on training her new Natu. Once that was done, she went to sit with Aleron.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this," she said, "but what about a Murkrow?"

"Nah," Aleron said, shaking her head. "I've had a couple bad run-ins with Murkrows, I'm prejudiced against them. A Pidgeotto or Pidgeot is never a bad choice."

"What about a Blaziken?" Margaret asked. "I mean, I'm not sure if it can learn Fly, but it can learn a ton of other moves."

"That is very true," Aleron said. "Or a Dodrio. They can't learn Fly, but they can learn a bunch of stuff."

"Yeah," Margaret agreed. "I know were you can find Doduo in Kanto... You may be able to find Dodrio there, too."

"I'm pretty sure I can find a Doduo or Dodrio here. I'll ask my parents next time I talk to them." Aleron shrugged. "We'll see, I guess."

"Alright," Margaret replied. She grinned a bit when her little Natu hopped into her lap, and she stroked the little bird's feathers lightly. The Natu chirped happily. Espeon gave the Natu a look that clearly said 'attention whore,' so Margaret reached over to pet her too.