New Happenings

Cracker awoke to the chirping of nearby Pokemon nesting in the hollowed tree he called home. Some sort of flying-type Pokemon. Pidgeys, or maybe Pidove. Whatever the case they were harmless these days. It had taken a while for the wilder inhabitants of this forest to accept his presence, but he was finally on good enough terms to coexist with them. Of course there were still the occasional scuffles, usually regarding those he'd pranked previously; somewhere out there that flock of Pidove and Tranquill still had it out for him too, so he had to keep his head down near the border of Pecha and Shadowhue.

Sitting up, the Aipom yawned and stretched his arms before worming out of his bedding made of leaves and grass. He'd been used his Golden Ribbon as a makeshift blanket, which he promptly and very carefully folded up to put away. Quickly stuffing it into his new backpack, made of fabric instead of the cruddy old bits of plant matter that had since fallen to pieces, he shouldered the burden and sprung into the air, hoisting himself up to the closest hole in the large, old, hollow tree he'd taken up residence in. Poking his head outside, he climbed out onto a branch extending from the hole and took a long, deep breath of the forest's fresh air.

With a content sigh, the purple monkey let out one more yawn, shook himself awake and took off into the forest. He didn't really know where he was going, or what he was looking for. Really he just wanted to get away from his house for a while, maybe explore more of this vast forest. Possibly even meet new Pokemon. Actually, meeting a new face would be just the thing to brighten this already sunny day. As he swung through the trees, the Aipom sung a joyful tune. Unfortunately it was completely off key and painful to the ears; he was a terrible singer, but that never stopped him.

((Energy: 23))

Nearby, a lone eevee was enjoying a morning alone in the forest, finding the melodies of chirping to be soothing. Skylar had laid down by a tree for a rest, almost lulled into sleep by the tunes of the flying-types when she heard something quite different. It was definitely not from any bird pokemon she'd ever heard. It sounded terribly off-key and loud enough to startle the eevee awake. She stood up and looked around, searching for the source of the sound in hopes of convincing who ever was attempting to sing into ceasing the attempt.

As the Aipom swung through the trees, singing his broken, grating tune, Pokemon that had been nesting or hiding nearby were fleeing in droves. Taking to the sky or scurrying away on the ground, Cracker was creating a swath of retreating Pokemon, all seeking to escape his awful singing. He was entirely oblivious of it though. In fact, he tried to chase some of them down, hoping to make friends, but it was futile.

"Hey, where's everybody going?" he called out. Falling silent, he watched the remaining Pokemon disappear into the forest, all except for one. On the ground below an Eevee was looking around, like she was trying to find something. Cracker's face lit up with joy as he leaped out of the tree and swung down closer to greet her. "Hi!" he blurted loudly. "My name's Cracker! Thanks for not running away. I don't know why everybody was in such a hurry, really. Must've been something super important!"

Skylar almost jumped at the abruptly loud voice. She immediately recognized it as the same one that had been...."singing". She looked to the aipom, now able to put a face to the noise that had disturbed her. After considered telling the aipom the more likely reason everyone had fled in horror, but decided against it as it likely would have hurt the monkey's feelings.

"Must have been. But I've got nowhere to go, I was just taking a nap, or trying to, when....something woke me up. I'm Skylar, by the way. Call me Sky if you like." She said with a smile.

Wrapping his tail around the branch he stood on, Cracker jumped off and hung himself upside down near the Eevee, grinning with enthusiasm. He was excited to have met another Pokemon so quickly. Especially one that didn't just attack him out of the blue. And the way she spoke to him, he could already tell she was one of the nicer ones.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sky!" he beamed cheerfully, swaying side to side. "I bet it was those noisy Pidgey that woke you up, right? Or maybe it was Pidove. I can never tell. Anyway, they woke me up too. So I decided I'd go for a stroll. Maybe check out some caves around here. Y'know, like an adventure! Oh! Maybe you could come with me! It's never as much fun when I'm alone. I bet we'd have a great time!"

Skylar laughed nervously at the comment about the bird pokemon being what woke her. "Well, it was definitely something noisy that woke me...." She commented, then paused to consider the offer to explore with the aipom. A cave seemed like a gloomy place to go and a waste of the nice day, but this aipom seemed nice enough to be good enough company to make up for going to such a place. Besides, it'd be rude to decline.

"Sure, I'd love to go on an adventure with you. Why caves in specific though? Something about them got your attention?" She spoke in hopes of figuring out what was so special about the caves, and maybe getting to know her new friend a bit better.

"Why caves? Oh, aheh... Well... no reason. In... particular." It was Cracker's turn to laugh nervously. Biting his lip he considered for a moment whether or not to answer honestly. "Okay. Well... Promise not to tell anybody but, um... I'm kiiiinda scared of small, dark places. It--It's no big deal really, but... I've been meaning to try and conquer my fears for a while now. Cuz see, I really really want to join an exploration team, and--I know it's silly--but I just feel like a member of the guild shouldn't be afraid of the dark."

Releasing the branch above, Cracker dropped to the ground, flipping upright to catch himself on the beefy appendage on the tip of his tail. Balancing expertly, he clapped his paws together and quickly shifted the topic forwards.

"Anyway, I decided there's no time like the present, and who better to conquer my fears with than you! I bet you're really brave, right? We shouldn't have any problems at all! So c'mon, let's go!" Bouncing on his tail like a spring, the Aipom started to lead the way through the woods to the nearest cave he knew of.

Skylar fell silent for a moment at the talk of fears and joining the guild. She also wanted to join the guild, but she hadn't considered her fear of water to be anything worth stopping her....Perhaps it was something to think about. Maybe if she talked to the aipom about it, she could convince him not to go to a place as unappealing as a dark cave, or at the very least make him feel a bit less embarrassed about his fear.

Then, as if fate was urging the conversation to go in that direction, the topic of Sky's own "bravery" came up, cutting off her train of thought. "Oh....okay, but you know, it's not like I don't have fears. Everyone's afraid of something, it's nothing to be embarrassed of." She said as she followed the aipom, hoping to lighten the mood a little.

Hopping along a rough-hewn trail, the Aipom turned to face Sky, continuing on with his back to where he was going. "Oh no, I know that. I'm not really embarrassed about it. It's just... I don't wanna be a handicap, y'know? I mean what if one day, I'm given a mission to go into a deep dark cave to fight some big scary Pokemon? I need to be brave in the face of fear! I gotta fight with it and beat it down!" As he spoke he made hand motions like he was wrestling an invisible ball. "I can't get all weak-kneed and whimpery like I do now. So I mean, even if I can't cure my fear, at least I can get some practice overcoming it."

Cracker came to an abrupt stop when his tail-hand caught on a tree root. Tumbling to the ground, he immediately recoiled off the dirt and onto the root he'd tripped over, shuddering visibly. "Nnngh! And maybe while I'm at it, I can work on... this whole 'touching the ground' thing. Guh, I can't stand it. It's all... grainy and scratchy." Shaking off the feeling on the earth he turned back to the Eevee. "So what scares you then, Sky? Probably something amazing, I bet, like explosions or earthquakes. Heehee!"

Skylar's first thought as the aipom turned to face her as they walked was that he would fall, and fall he did. She suppressed a laugh at the clumsiness to avoid being rude. She had her own downfalls too, anyways, so she wasn't in a place to judge others for theirs.

As if at the slightest thought of her own "downfalls", the topic once again called for discussion of her own fears. Her ears flattened a bit. She couldn't just lie and refusing to say after the aipom trusted her enough to talk about his own fears would be incredibly rude and probably hurtful, so it seemed the only choice was to discuss it. "Well....ahah...."amazing" isn't quite the word...." She spoke hesitantly, stalling the topic out a bit.

"I'm scared of water. Well, drowning in specific. I like being around water, but not in it. Never in it." She shuddered at the thought of drowning. "And unlike you, I don't really plan to try to....face it. It's too....yeah." She attempted to explain her reasoning, probably ending up sounding like a coward.

Cracker blinked in surprise when Skylar confessed her fear of water. He didn't know what to make of it at first. Water was harmless, at least in lakes and ponds. Unless she meant rivers or oceans where storms and fast currents could endanger one's life. That had to be it. After all, no one could be scared of just plain old water. Could they? He was a little disappointed that she had no desire to overcome her fear though.

"I can understand," he replied, smiling warmly. "Water can be pretty scary, especially during storms. But are you really scared of all water? I mean what about puddles, or if you're taking bath maybe? A glass of water?" Cracker giggled to himself, "Sorry, I don't wanna offend or anything, but I bet you're less scared of water than you think. Just gotta take baby steps, y'know? Like me for instance, I'm only gonna go into a small cave. Where I know I can't get lost."

Skylar rolled her eyes at the remarks. "Like I said, I'm not scared of water so much as drowning. If it's enough water to drown me...." She paused for a moment. "Well, you get the point. I just can't do it." She drooped her ears for a moment, but forcibly perked them back up, not wanting to kill the mood. "BUT enough about me, you wanna face your fear, so lets go do that! I'll be with you the whole time!" She said in the most cheery tone she could muster, followed by a convincing smile. This was a happy day, she had made a new friend. There was no reason to spoil that dwelling on things.

Cracker eyed the Eevee with a blank expression for a few awkward moments before his mouth suddenly cracked upwards into a big grin again. "Right! Time to face my fears! Get ready darkness, Cracker's gonna show you who's boss! Heehee!" Leaping up into the air, he caught himself on his tail and bounced onward through the forest.

"There's a nice cave right up ahead here," he called out as he moved. "Not too deep or scary. Should be perfect! And maybe after we could go for a swim!" The Aipom jumping into the air to fly over a large log crossing the path, shouting out, "Just kidding!", before disappearing on the other side.

Skylar worried for a moment that the aipom had been offended by something, but sighed in relief as he returned to the energetic perky state that seemed to be the norm for him. How could someone be so....bouncy all the time?

"Ahahahah" She laughed clearly sarcastically at the the comment about water. She wasn't mad, but she definitely wasn't going to let the joke go without any form of payback. She then turned her attention to the log. Given she'd recently woke up, she didn't feel like trying to jump over a log, so she simply walked around it, taking the boring way.

By the time Sky had made the trek around the large log, Cracker had reached the mouth of the cave several yards ahead. He was hanging by his tail from the closest tree, smiling as the Eevee emerged from the foliage. He waved an arm and pointed at the dark opening leading into the moist earth. The cave was relatively dry, but a small stream trickled in on one side, leading down into the depths.

"This here's the cave, see? Bloody terrifying! I'm getting goosebumps just looking at it. So... dark and ominous. It gets even darker down there, too. I'm... kind of having second thoughts now that I'm here." Biting his lip, the Aipom hugged his head, trying to shake himself free of the lingering fears that kept him from entering the cave. "No, no. I promised myself I'd do it. I... I can do it. Will you come with me? Not to... sound like a scaredy-cat or anything, but... I'd feel more comfortable with company, y'know?"