Workin' in the coalmine! (for Xam!!)
 

"...Hold this for a sec." A youngish, bespectacled girl wearing the Oreburgh Mine's uniform and a hard hat, her white hair and pale face streaked gray with coal dust, handed a chunk of coal to a Machop standing by with a box for it. "Phew...It's hard work when Roark's on break...come to think of it, I thought break time ended a long time ago..." Blanca scowled and rubbed black dust from her glasses with the back of her glove.

"And as if that isn't bad enough, Shieldy's run off again and I can't find him!" she fussed, looking for the little Shieldon for the third time in the past hour. "I wonder if he just got bored and went to play with Cranidos in the Gym?" Blanca sighed and sat down on a rock, took her glasses off. "...I'm not really his partner, more like his substitute worker!"

"Well thats not how 'I' look at you Blanca." Roark was standing right behind her with a grin, the cities gym leader and worker in the coal mines. "You should look a little more highly of yourself than that you know."

"Gah!! Roark! You're finally back...and I was wondering when you'd ever get here. Well, back to work!" Blanca grinned. "Let's see if we can be a little more team-ish now...and could I ask what you were doin' all that time?"

Suddenly, a little, oddly-colored Shieldon came charging as fast as his tiny legs could carry him! "Shiiiiiiel-DON!" he cried, leaping at his trainer's arms and nearly knocking her over in joy.

"Oof!!" Blanca fell back and slid down against the wall they were excavating until she was sitting on the floor of the mine. "...Yes, it's good to see you too, Shieldy...where'd you go?" She reached into her pocket for a Poffin and fed it to her beloved fossil Pokemon. "...I'll help you if I can ever get up! He's so heavy..."

Roark laughed at the cute sight. "Your relationship with shieldon reminds me of mine with cranidos. I was replying to a letter from my father. Sorry about that. Whats next on our work agenda?"

"Ah...well, the lady from the museum said she needed some more coal, and spheres from the underground tunnels...How is your dad, by the way? I've only met him once and that was to battle for my Mine Badge..." Blanca scratched Shieldon's thick hide affectionately and turned back to the wall.

Shieldy paced impatiently and waddled around Blanca's feet, biting at her pants leg and trying to distract her from retrieving the coal samples, apparently bored to tears by his owner having to work all day.

"I don't get along best with my dad to be honest. Should we split up, or work together to get both jobs done faster?"

"Let's work together..." Blanca began removing debris from the wall in an attempt to find more coal for the museum. Shieldy put his feet on her calf and whined loudly, rather unhappy that his 'mama' had to ignore him for more than 2 seconds and do her job.

"The Pokemon that was helping me earlier already left!! Here comes another one, thank goodness..." Another Machop with a pail made its way over to the team and stood next to Blanca, ready to work. "It's a lot more difficult without you around, to tell you the truth. There are always wild Pokemon jumping out and walls falling in everywhere..."

"I know. It's always been like that. It's hard work, but someone has to do it." He smiled and began working at the wall. Sheildon, why don't you try helping. ^_^"

(Which of us is the spankee, I confuzzled)

(ooc: In typical Lilith fashion, that'd be Roark xD;;)

"...He can help, but he does tend to get a little--"

"Shiiiiiiel-DON!" Shieldy came charging at the wall again and gave a forceful headbutt that would have made any of its peers jealous--parts of the wall caved in and fell off at Roark and Blanca's feet. A small rock hit Blanca's hard hat and bounced off, much to the amusement of Shieldy and the other workers' Pokemon.

"--overexcited. And I don't know if that was very helpful or not." Blanca laughed, though, and got Shieldy to help sort out the mess, carrying things on his back to the Machop.

Roark chuckled and said, "Sorry about that. I guess all I got was us a mess to sort out." He chuckled and began pulling rather fustrated at a particular rock. He shoved his foot against the wall trying to pull it out, and then out flung a geodude which slammed right into Blanca. "Oh my gosh! Blanca are you okay!? I should've been able to tell that was a geodude!"