The daycare was a wide structure with fenced yards running off each side. The old couple who ran it were named Miren and Seo.
The morning session was hands-on from the start. Miren handed each of them a brush and walked them to the nearest paddock, where a Tauros and two Mareep were standing in the morning sun.
"You learn more from ten minutes with a Pokemon than an hour in a classroom," she said. "Start with the Mareep. Brush with the wool, not against it."
Finn approached carefully. The nearer Mareep turned its head, assessed him, and went back to whatever it had been thinking about. He started brushing.
Seo moved between them, watching, occasionally redirecting a hand or pointing out where tension was gathering in an animal's posture. He didn't say much. He pointed and waited for them to work it out.
An hour in, they moved to feeding, then to basic health checks, running hands along flanks, checking hooves. Ciri took to it quickly, used to caring for horses, and the Tauros let her check its feet without complaint.
The session was almost done when one of the other attendees, a young man she hadn't spoken to, gathered his things and moved to the far end of the paddock. It was a small move. But Ciri had seen him looking at her cheek twice that morning, and the move was deliberate enough that she felt it.
Seo noticed. He said nothing about it, just redirected the group's attention back to the Tauros, but afterward when the others had filed out he came to stand beside Ciri at the fence.
"The scar," he said, not unkindly. "People here aren't used to seeing something like that. Doesn't excuse the staring."
Ciri said nothing.
"Miren has one on her arm," Seo said. "From a long time ago. She'll show you if you ask."
He walked back inside without waiting for a response.
Ciri stood at the fence a moment longer. Then the gate at the far end of the yard opened and one of the locals came through, a young man with his hat in his hands.
He spoke to Seo in a low voice. Seo listened, nodded, said something back, and turned to Miren. A look passed between them.
"A Rapidash," Miren said. "Found dead on the northern road this morning. No obvious cause." She was already moving toward the gate. "Her Ponyta was still with her."
They brought the Ponyta in through the side entrance. Small, its mane barely alight. She has a scar on her face, already treated. It came in quietly and stood in the middle of the yard and didn't look at anything.
The old couple stood beside it for a moment.
"We'll care for her," Seo said. "But she'd do better with a trainer." He looked out at the small group. "If anyone here is interested in taking her on, we'll work with you directly. Make sure you're ready." He paused. "We'll see who's serious and who isn't."
Nobody moved immediately.
Finn glanced at Ciri.
She was watching the Ponyta with her arms folded, jaw set.
He elbowed her.
"Don't," she said quietly.
"Look at it."
"I am. It's traumatised."
"Yes," Finn said.
She was quiet for a moment.
The Ponyta had moved to the far corner of the yard and stood with its back to the fence, its flame guttering slightly in a wind that wasn't there.
Ciri's arms dropped to her sides.
She thought about a girl who had stood in a cold room in Cintra after everything she had known was gone and was told to run.
She raised her hand.
Miren looked at her and smiled, small and genuine. "Come find us after the session."
—
The rest of the group filtered out at midday. Finn stayed at the fence and watched.
Miren stood with Ciri inside the yard, speaking quietly, and Ciri listened and nodded and then crouched down a few paces from the Ponyta, low enough that she wasn't looming, and stayed there. Just stayed there. She didn't reach out. She didn't make sounds. She sat with her arms resting on her knees and waited.
The Ponyta didn't move.
Seo came to stand beside Finn at the fence. "She's got the right instinct," he said. "Not trying to rush it."
Finn said nothing.
"The ones who rush it always lose them," Seo continued. "You can't explain to a Pokemon that you mean well. You have to just mean well and let them figure it out."
Inside the yard, Ciri had shifted slightly, turning her body sideways, making herself smaller. The Ponyta's ear rotated toward her.
Not much. But there is something.
After another hour, Miren called it.
"Same time tomorrow," she told Ciri. "We'll keep going until she trusts you."
Ciri stood and brushed the grass off her knees. She looked back once at the Ponyta, who was still in the corner, but facing a slightly different direction than before.
—
Back at the hotel, Finn had his bag open on the bed, working through it methodically, pulling out what he didn't need for the trip and setting it aside.
Ciri dropped into the chair by the window and sat with her elbow on the armrest and her cheek resting against her fingers, covering the scar without quite covering it.
Finn glanced at her. He set something down.
"For what it's worth," he said, "you're pretty. Scar and all."
Ciri looked at him.
"I mean it," he said, already going back to the bag. "Those kids were just idiots."
She was quiet for a moment. Then she moved her hand away from her cheek and put it in her lap.
"It's just the stares that are annoying," she said. "Their opinions, I couldn't care less."
"It's a different world, people aren't used to seeing scars like yours." Finn said. "Still, it doesn't excuse anything."
She said nothing to that, but the set of her shoulders eased.
"Half my money's in the drawer," Finn said. "Take what you need. Extend the room if it runs longer than a week. I'll be gone a month at most."
"Where exactly is this Wayward Cave?"
"West of here, behind Mount Coronet. A couple of cities on the way." He pulled the strap of the bag through its buckle. "Stay here. Keep working with that Ponyta."
Ciri was quiet for a moment. "What if the Wild Hunt finds me while you're gone?"
Finn looked up. "Then run. Leave me. You've done it before."
"I didn't mean it like that."
"I know." He went back to the bag. "I was alone before I met you. I can be alone again."
She looked at the window. The town was quiet below.
"If that happens," she said, "I'll find you again. If I can."
Finn pulled the bag shut and stood, chuckling. "Make sure you're safe first. Then worry about finding me."
He picked the bag up and walked to the door.
"See you later," he said, and left.
Ciri sat in the chair for a while after the door closed. She looked at the drawer. She looked at the species booklet on the nightstand, open to the Ponyta page.
She picked it up and kept reading.