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Having left the Viridian Settlement behind a long while ago, Shaakira el-Akbari could see Saffron Village along the horizon. This was supposedly where the so-called "real money" was; judging by the rumors that she heard along the way, fellow merchants had had a lot of success, especially niche merchants such as Shaakira was aspiring to be. Soon, Shaakira herself would be among them. Her excitement was building just from the thought of it alone. She couldn't wait to get there.

Shaakira's recently evolved Akeeta, however, couldn't wait for the go-ahead to rest up. It had been forcing itself to pull an encumbered wagon with it for miles now, and was beginning to lose its strength as the day wore on. Shaakira's smile vanished momentarily as she looked back, and she saw how the poor Parasect was fearing with towing the caravan along.

[color=91ffc6]"I'm sorry, Akeeta; I guess I overdid it [i]after[/i] all..."[/color] Shaakira realized, [color=91ffc6]"We're almost there though, just a little more to go."[/color]

Akeeta was not amused but, supposing there was nothing for it, it kept going.

...

Eventually, the two of them had made it to the west gate. There were two guards there, sternly watching over it. Shaakira thought nothing of it at first, but as she and Akeeta got closer to the gate itself...

"Hold it!" the first guard held his palm out in front of Shaakira, "We need to search your caravan before you enter."

Shaakira obliged for the moment, and took the time to relinquish Akeeta of its harness while the guard signaled for his partner to go around the back and take a look inside. Akeeta was skeptical of this second guard; he was sure taking his time back there and Akeeta didn't like it. It raised its claws and rushed to try and fend this guard off but, seeing that the first one had gripped his Pokeball and was about to throw it, Shaakira clambered her way in front of Akeeta to protect it from whatever was about to go down.

[color=91ffc6]"Wait, NO!! Please, don't hurt it,"[/color] Shaakira pleaded with the guard, [color=91ffc6]"It's only trying to protect my wares."[/color]

"From [i]what[/i]? A mandatory search?" the guard queried in a grizzly tone; he'd since returned the Pokeball to his belt, but he folded his arms as his brow furrowed, and looked down on Shaakira, "Seems to me like you have something to hide back there..."

[color=91ffc6]"Wha-? N-no, I..."[/color] Shaakira's nerves were now starting to waver, [color=91ffc6]"There's only perfumes back there. I assure you, th-that's all I have."[/color]

"You realize how easy it is to slip a bottle of poison or the like in among one's supplies?"

[color=91ffc6]"Why would I...? I couldn't possibly... L-look, I don't want to hurt anyone; I just... I-I..."[/color]

"Ugh, good grief..."

The guard shook his head in disappointment. It was obvious, to him anyway, that Shaakira was yet another foreign traveler who didn't understand the way things worked in Saffron Village. And to some extent, he'd be right. She [i]didn't[/i] understand what was going on, nor did she understand why this was happening to her, of all people. Supposing he'd best get this over with, the guard moved off to one side and looked over toward the back of the caravan that was in the middle of being searched.

"Well? Anything suspicious?" he asked his partner.