"I'll bet," Trent replied. "Probably right around his jaw, his tailfin, and between the two middle dorsals." He was fairly confident in that assessment; Lady had very similar trouble spots.

"The dorsals, yes," Aleron agreed. "But not around his tail. He gets that by himself. His jaw does occasionally need help, but he also does some of that by himself. He had lived on his own in the lake where I found him as a Gyarados for some time before I caught him, so he's pretty self-sufficient. Most of the time."

"Yeah, he mentioned something about being King of the Mountain," Trent said, nodding. "Sort of, at least. He grumbled about being in charge. I bet he had a bunch of Magikarps to help him back then, too. Most wild Gyarados do."

"Yeah. He was in a lake, and there were a lot of Magikarp in the lake." Aleron shrugged. "He's gotten better at letting me help, though. He grumbles, but he lets me." Then she paused. "Then again, I doubt any Gyarados ever stops grumbling entirely."

"I don't think so, either," Trent replied. "Or if they do, I've never seen it." He stretched a bit. "Where did you find him, anyways?"

"Lake of Rage, over in Johto." Aleron shrugged. "We had some, ah, other business there and I had to get out to a little platform in the center of the lake. He took offense to that."

"Lake of Rage," Trent mused. "Yeah, that sounds like it was named for the pokemon you find there." He snorted. "I'll bet he took offense to it. Whatever it was, it was in his lake, that made it his."

"Exactly." Aleron rolled her eyes. "Of course, back then he didn't have nearly the immunity to electric-types as he does now, so one good Thunderbolt from Jolteon took him out, along with half the Magikarp in the lake."

Trent snorted, and couldn't help it as he kept snickering.

"I bet they all just kind of floated up on their sides, twitching a little," he said.

"Yes they did." Aleron grinned. "I know Jolteon pushed more than one out of his way when he swam out to meet me half-way. I hadn't known he could swim, but apparently he likes to."

"Interesting," Trent replied. "I thought it was only Vaporeons that liked to swim. At least from that evolutionary line."

Aleron shrugged. "I thought so too. But Jolteon likes to, so either he's strange or all Jolteons like to swim and I just never noticed. Not that I've been around many, mind you."

"It would be interesting to look in to," Trent said. "Well, except for Flareons, but still. Either way, Red seems to be doing really well, so you're taking fantastic care of him." He grinned a bit. "And I think Lady might like him."

"I have no idea how to tell," Aleron said bluntly. "He won't tell me those sorts of things, but I'm not surprised about that. And I'm still getting used to him, sort of. He's only recently started to actually cooperate with me."

"I'm not surprised he doesn't listen," Trent said frankly. "Gyarados caught in the wild tend not to. It's better if you raise one from a Magikarp." He tilted his head towards the lake. "But Red doesn't seem unhappy. Touchy that there are others in his lake, but not unhappy."

Aleron nodded. "Well, I don't use him very often for battling, and when he goes to blow off steam I just let him do what he wants. So most of the time it's not a big issue that he doesn't listen to me often."

"Well, we can see if anything changes once he and Lady have a chance to grumble at each other for a while," Trent said, grinning a bit. "I raised Lady from a Magikarp. She's a little... attached."

Aleron snorted. "Yeah, I can imagine. I've got enough snuggly ones already." She shook her head as she watched Jolteon chase Houndour across the yard, Houndour snickering the whole way. "I wonder what Houndour did."

"Only one way to find out," Trent said. He grinned. "Ask. Someone had to have seen what happened."

Aleron snorted but went over to Vulpix to get the whole story. Once she did, though, she started laughing.

"So what happened?" Trent asked once the one-sided conversation was over.

"Apparently Houndour was planning things like coming and startling us, or bowling into me, and accidentally bowled into Jolteon instead. And of course Jolteon didn't appreciate that." Aleron just grinned, amused.

Trent snorted.

"I'm not surprised," he said. "Sounds like a dark type to me. Although Quen is better to ask about how they usually behave."

"Yeah, I figured as much." Aleron rolled her eyes. "It doesn't really matter to me. I'm just glad he's settling in and not really causing too much mischief."

"And you've got some water-types around here to keep him in line if he does," Trent added.