Mischevious Meetings

First topic message reminder :

Aahhh Shadowhue forest. She had been many-a-time and each time was just as calming for her and her brethren as the last. Avoiding the areas where the savage, brutal pokemon had set their homes deep within the undergrowth, preying on unfortunate-enough explorers and adventurers to wander within to attack and steal from, it was rather serene. The gentle light protruding from between the leaves up above, casting its reflective light onto the dirt-ridden leafy floor below, the lights constantly dancing and shimmering with each sway of a branch in the slight breeze. The towering trees which rose up from within the earth itself, and there were many, providing a lovely shelter against the possibility of nasty, unfortunate weather such as rain, hail, possibly snow. Night was just settling in and the dancing sunlight was coming to a close, in replacement with the glorious moon to cast its own shimmering moonlight upon the forest.

As darkness wove its black blanket around the trees and the sky, bright emerald eyes calmly wavered through the forest. Said eyes belonged to a spiritomb, a pokemon which was, in fact, a collection of one-hundred and eight spirits lodged and forced together for their terrible crimes and misdeeds upon the land, locked and bound to a mysterious, odd keystone which its purple, ethereal body was attached to. Upon that misty purple body was a jagged green grin, matching to those green, swirling eyes, and how that sly curl of the metaphorical lips hardly ever wavered from her face. For she moved with great confidence through the dirt path, turning her (assumed) head to and fro every now and again to ensure no-one was, in fact, following her or preparing to attack.

The pup struck the fox, its teeth cloaked in a strange darkness as the pup attempted to bite into the Zorua's thick scarf like fur and strike her neck. The zorua screeched in rage as the claws on all four of her limbs grew brighter and longer as she flailed against the poochyena. The poochyena continued to pin Mirage down every time she managed to escape since the attack had come as a surprise. Her barrage of scratches continued, but were failing as the poochyena grew closer with each snap.

The dark "electricity" began to gather around the zorua once more, except slightly faster than before, and collected into an orb around her before shooting outwards and blasting the poochyena into a tree. Mirage rolled onto her feet once more and viciously growled, for she was angry at how close the poochyena had come to killing her, as the poochyena fell from the branches.

(OMFG I am SO sorry about the slow reply!!!)

Like a ragdoll did the poochyena strike the base of the tree from that sudden and unexpected blast to its face with a concerningly chilling 'THUD'. Letting out a cry of pain and agony as its body slid down and rolled against the grass, ears heavily flat against its head and small whine escaping its jaws, the little pup closed his eyes and shuddered, limbs too weak to move. The little thing had certainly taken a harsh beating, evident from the many bruises across its skin partially hidden by no-longer-smooth grey fur. Another soft whine as the child attempted to get to his paws to defend his mother, yet they simply shook and collapsed under himself.

The mightyena shook her head to and fro, baring her teeth letting out a dangerous growl to remove her shaken mind and vision. Yet the moment her little child, her son, the soon-to-be Alpha of their pack, hit that tree with that spine-chilling thud, that growl transformed into a snarling of rage and fury. Slamming her paws against the leaf-ridden dirt ground, beady red eyes glimmering in the gentle moonlight, she raised her head and unleashed an unearthly roar, the wind buffeting whatever in its way all the way back violently, jaws slavering with saliva dripping against the ground.

The ghastly ghost was forcefully receded back into her keystone from that roar, the little marked rock bounding back, back, back still as it bounced away into the near distance from the force. Tpp. Tpp. Tpp. Splash.

Great.

((It's fine you sillybutt XD ))

(Puppy better not be dead, dat be one of my fav poke >I/shot and mauled by tigers)
Mirage flinched as the mother snarled and began to roar at the two. Mirage only saw the ghost pokemon that she had been fighting along side disappear, but did not see the keystone go flying into the distance. She backed up into a bush as the mother roared in the opposite direction, the mightyena was strong, and she wasn't strong enough to handle it.

The Zorua retreated into a bush and remained still as the mother rampaged about, searching for the keystone that had escaped her from the roar and the zorua that had mysteriously disappeared. The mother, however, did not leave her child's limp body. The Zorua cared not if it lived or died since if it DID die, she hadn't meant to do it. The Zorua found nothing to gain in killing other than looking like a coward, fearing that the opponent will come back and defeat them, thus killing the opponent so they will not return. Mirage remained still and waited, noticing an item just at her paws.

This dice is not existing.

Ko slowly rose from her keystone, with certainly the most irritated and furious expression one of her species could handle. Water was below her metaphorical feet and reaching up to her metaphorical waist, and as she looked up she noticed that she was in fact, in a small, almost minuscule pond. Seemed to be a water source for pokemon about wishing for a quick clean drink. The spiritomb noticed the gently swaying branches upon the trees, and how they cast a lazy shadow against the waters. Perhaps if she just sneaked her way through the shadows to get back up to where she once was? Finding Illiad not in the eyes of the mightyena was a second priority.

Her body, once again as to earlier, transformed into a black semi-goo like mist which consumed her and melded with the shadow laying across the water surface. Rather than travel through it, the shadow of the tree simply transformed into her body shape, and no later did the black mass slowly and carefully rise from beside the tree, emerald eyes quickly scanning the area for any hostiles. No, but she could hear the harsh and powerful stomps and roars of the mother rather close to her position, that terrible roar dying out as she simply seemed to bound about the area, searching, furious.

The howling died out when there was a pitter-patter of paws and a loud whine as well as a quiet whimpering. As much as Ko would love to go back and finish the little runt of a puppy, there was no chance that she could take on the bigger threat. The damned thing didn't even seem slightly dented from when she had last looked! With a quiet huff, Ko looked about. Now where was that zorua?

The mother had picked up the pup gently by the scruff and carried it off to tend to its wounds with a good licking. Mirage waited until she deemed it safe to move and picked up what looked like an Oran Berry. She stuffed it in her Joy Ribbon's pocket like device that was created when she had it tied on. The Zorua stepped out of the bushes and into the opening, the mightyena was gone without a single trace to follow it. The only evidence that it was here to begin with was the damage to the foliage that it had caused in its rampage.

Mirage sighed in relief, she was safe once more. She loathed how she had to hide though, it was cowardly, but smart. There was no way she would have been able to beat it. She was too weak, managing to fend it off for a bit was a miracle!

The zorua looked about, searching for the mysterious pokemon that had disappeared in the middle of the fight. She thought about questioning it on why it fled from the battle, but then figured it would be best to not to since that was exactly what she did.

A scuffling faded into nothing, the sounds of paws against the undergrowth becoming less so, and silence would reign once more broken only by the occasional tweet of a bird. The spiritomb poked her floaty head into the clearing where the fight took place, yet there was no sign of the pup, the mother, yet there was Illiad, just stepping out!. Listening in, the mighyena was heading in a direction which was most certainly away from them. Good. How it irritated her that she couldn't utterly destroy the damned dog...

Despite being soaking wet, the spiritomb shuffled about the clearing, the occasional drip of water falling from the keystone and soaking the blades of grass below. She lightly huffed in annoyance, examining the tricky fox with judging, observing eyes; "Goood - theey did noot eeat yoou aliive. It woouuld have been proobleematic to cleean up the meess aafterwaards," she commented with a slight smirk. Well, more so than usual. It was hard to tell with that distorted face.

"I guess that's true, I should be glad as well that you weren't crushed. It's difficult to sweep things up with no thumbs," Mirage countered with a tint of humor. The Zorua stretched, reaching out her front paws and stretching her tail high into the air before doing the opposite as she pushed herself high into the air and stretched her back legs. Hiding was a relatively easy job, so not much energy was spent on it. The Zorua looked back to the Spiritomb, "So...where did you disappear off to in the middle of the fight?" she asked, slightly curious, slightly annoyed, and mostly just bored and dying for something to do, even speaking with another pokemon, which she usually loathed to do.

She had humour. Ko supposed that was something, considering Illiad seemed to be relatively unscathed. There was a possibility of gaining something important from this fox, be it trust (which was a very fickle and flexible thing indeed) or companionship. Was it a goody-two-shoes deceiver who had been lying to her all this time for information? A pokemon just wanting to get by? A terror of the forest who many feared? The last choice was laughable. The dark-type couldn't even handle a mother and pup! ...All comments of herself aside.

"The beeaast bleew me baack intoo a raather smaall poond," she replied with minor irritation, the occasional instance of water still gently dripping from the keystone every now and again clear evidence for the ghost's words, "Aand yoouu~? Did yoou fleee with yoour taail betweeen yoour leegss?" she teased with a little smirk.

"No, it just decided I was too beautiful to look at" Mirage lied obviously. She had indeed coward away from the beast, but it was only common sense that one would run. Nothing was at risk if she did run, nothing would happen other than her not being killed. She didn't know what was on the other side of the afterlife. Would she come back as some kind of ghost Zorua? A Sableye? Would she go to some heavenly area or a firey pit of hell? The Zorua wanted to prolong her fate as long as possible, such was every animal's instinct. Those who WANTED to die must be idiots in her opinion, the unknown was a scary thing to her when it came to such a topic.

Beautiful. Ha! Needless to say only her wonderful purple body was the most prevalent beautiful thing in this discussion! Lies and slander! She grinned lightly, eyes a-glowing, circling the little fox with that tiny keystone dragging across the filthy ground; "Beeaauutiful! Reeaally with suuch black fuur like yoouur oown I'm suurprised the houund didn't skin yoou aaliive to taake it foor itseelf~" the many voices whispered teasingly into Illiad's ear, though that perhaps was not the kindest of teases with its dark implications. Almost as dark as the zorua itself.

Let's put it kindly and say that Ko is not one for giving compliments and making pokemon feel, well, good about themselves. Honestly she had quite a bit of trouble attempting it - she just had an overwhelming urge to beat down the morale and positivity of those around her, even if they proved most useful in her endeavors. Besides, little Illiad did't deserve compliments as of yet. She was still just a stranger the spiritomb had came across on her travels. Perhaps if they adventured the fox would be worthy enough to obtain such an honor. Ah, speaking of such a topic...

"Ahhhh... if oone is williiiing, perhaaps we coouuld staart an exploraation teeaam, noo?" The grin widened.

"Ahhhh... if oone is williiiing, perhaaps we coouuld staart an exploraation teeaam, noo?" The spiritomb grinned.

Mirage's ears flattened and her brow furrowed as she processed this information. This pokemon was an explorer?! She resisted the urge to turn around and leap back into the tree and into the darkness that would have consumed her in its foliage. She was an outlaw, there was no WAY she could be a part of a team! Only in Fantasy! It was Folly! Foolish!

Instead of running, the Zorua burst into a vicious bout of laughter, holding her stomach with her paw as laughter consumed her. That was right, it was a joke! This had to be a joke! She slammed her paw on the ground and spoke, "Oh how funny! An outlaw joining a guild? I think not! They would throw me in jail as soon as I stepped foot near it!" The zorua continued to laugh until it stopped being so funny, she had thought that the Spiritomb would have figured out she had been an outlaw by now. It seemed as if the spiritomb hadn't exactly crossed over to the depths of villainy, but was on the verge in Mirage's eyes. She wondered if the spiritomb was fighting against the sterotypes and stigmas that came with being a dark type, what a brave but fruitless attempt it would be.

Her expression did not waver nor change, bar that slight smirk growing all the more. Ko almost seemed... amused at the zorua's answer. Like a child had tripped over, face first. It was almost hilarious herself the way the little fox giggled and snorted. But something did cause her to raise an eyebrow. An outlaw. That would make things difficult if Illiad were another pokemon. But was she a fool? A dunce? Could she not see the possibilities with her ability, the many things she could achieve? It was almost insulting! Well, perhaps she could spread some light on the possibility she failed to see.

"Yoou aare a zoruaa. A zoruaa, I belieeve, caan chaange their foorm at wiill, correect?" she asked calmly, giving a light shake of her wispy head, "Yoou would not go in as an outlaaw, nooo. Yoou would go in aas anoother. One with the deceeptive appeeaarance of innoceence. A ruuse to trick the entiire guiild itself! The ultimate gaame, noo?" A pause. "Think of the riiches! The possibilitiiees! Rise above otherss and becoome a naame which maany feeaar! ...Or respeect." She chuckled, great eyes watching the zorua's movement with interest. A cat to a mouse, "Ahh, unless one iss a cooward to this gaame - the gaame of deceeption. I would raather not seek riiches aand pooweer with a fool. Perhaaps I shoouuld look elsewhere for suuch a queest."

"You say to merely change myself and all will be well? I think not, they have a riolu by the name of Kira in their midst, I supposed that she's honing her aura senses to near perfection by now. She could easily sense my aura and see past my disguise, I would be surrounded and doomed depending on the timing, you would be as well. So perhaps you're the fool to think an idea should work, and not think of the possible consequences. I trust odds that are known, not odds that nobody knows nor can they predict."
Mirage spoke matter-of-factly, she had come across this Riolu before, and she had seen through her disguise once before. What's going to keep her from doing it again? The riolu was what prevented her from joining under the ruse of another pokemon, and she wasn't about to risk being found out and surrounded, before being dragged off to jail. No. She won't risk any trips to the jail unless she was confident she was powerful enough to muscle her way out if she were to get caught in the act of escaping.

"I wooouuuld seeek oother pootentiaal paartners, but alaas others aare hesitaant to creeaate a teeam with mee for theeir fooul, judgemeental opinioons of uss, nooo?" she stated (and partially asked) with a growing sneer across those twisted lips. Yet it was obvious this zorua was not one to take risks for the sake of wealth. Perhaps this was not the partner she was looking for, as she did not wish for a coward to adventure with. Rather, she wanted a partner who would, in the kindest of words, do her nasty work for her. On second thought, the term 'partner' was being far too nice - if someone wanted to be exact you could almost say 'worker' or 'bumbling fool' for the thick-brained, "Oh weeell, I suppoose I musst find oone to seeek richess with eelsewheere for a laater daate. It wass a siimple offer on my paart, a shaaaame you did not taake it."

"I am not foolish enough if at all to waltz into the guild with riolu in their midst," the zorua spoke calmly. Her tail flicked, "As much as riches are tempting, the odds of getting away with any are zero and even so if they found you with me you would be dragged into jail with me across from your cell. It is better for the both of us if I don't join you."

The zorua didn't feel bad for not being able to join the Spiritomb, but was simply stating her prediction of what would happen if she were to go through with the deal. The trees rustles with a suddenly harsh wind, or what seemed to be. Something could have been up in the tree, spying on their little conversation, but then again it could have just been nothing.