[X] My Assistant

[Spearow]

Mack started, sitting up from his position on the mattress, his upper body inside the tent while his legs hung out. Brushing an arm across his eyes to wake up, he peered up at Eric, or at least the point where Eric's voice came from. It had grown dark while Mack was napping, or at least darker than it had been before.

"Oh - yeah. Everything's ready," he said in response to Eric's question, yawning. "And I'm just about ready to hit the sack, I think." Shifting over so that he could feel for his pack and pull his sleeping bag from it, he felt Chuckie poke his shoulder. When he turned to face the Mankey the creature held up his Pokéball with a somewhat irritable expression on his face. "Oh yeah, sorry buddy. I guess you're pretty tired too." He pressed the button on the center of the device, encapsuling the Mankey in a manner of seconds. Mack stowed the ball in his pack and pulled his sleeping bag from it as he did so. Within minutes he had it spread out atop his mattress. Peering out of the tent, he called softly, "Queenie?"

A soft chirp from a nearby tree answered his call. Queenie often preferred to roost out of her Pokéball and keep a sort of watch whenever they camped outside. "Okay," Mack said. He pulled her capture ball out of his pocket and laid it on the ground just outside of his tent. "Your pokéball is here if you feel like going inside." Queenie was proficient enough with the operation of the release button that she could let herself into the ball with relative ease.

Remembering that Eric was still outside the tent in the dark, Mack pulled one final object from his pack - his trusty flashlight. Flicking it on, he spread the beam across the grass so that Eric could hopefully see where he was going and what he was doing.

[Nogster]

After spreading the clothes out, Eric had followed Mack's voice as he was talking to his pokémon, making his way to the tent entrance and getting there just as Mack turned on the flashlight.
"Whoa! Bright!" he said, pulling a hand in front of his eyes as he entered the tent.
After crawling to where his mattress lay, he called out to Shinx.
"Shinx, you're on guard duty tonight. Wake Starly if you're getting tired." he said, remembering that he had no clue where Starly was.
"Starly? Are you around?"

The little bird made a sleepy chirp from where he sat next to Queenie in the tree.

Right. Eric thought.
I think we're good.
He said goodnight to Mack before turning around on the mattress and falling asleep.
Eric never slept in a sleeping bag unless it was completely necessary.
As he drifted off to sleep, he remembered the three voices he had heard in the night.
Who were they?

[Spearow]

"Sorry," Mack murmured sleepily as he flicked off the light and tossed it back into his pack. Turning over, he slid into his sleeping bag's polyester interior easily. The weight of the day was already pressing down upon his eyelids and his limbs, and he could feel himself releasing hold of his consciousness even as he reciprocated Eric's good night wishes with a soft, hum-like mumble.

His sleeping mind, untroubled by questions or doubts, was thoroughly permeated by the gentle wildness of the sea, the washing crash of waves punctuated with the forlorn cries of seabirds. He breathed slowly, falling as all animals must into the familiar rhythm and stirring loneliness of unconsciousness.