Apples and Berries

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Kestro waved goodbye to his sister and caretaker again at the entrance to Pecha Forest. The young Cranidos had heard of a town at the other end of Serene Cave, but didn't feel as if he were ready for a three day trek through the dark cavern. While he'd have preferred exploring the neighboring Shadowhue Forest, his sister's worries convinced him to train in the much safer Pecha Forest. The young fossil Pokemon let out a sigh once his sister and caretaker were out of sight and earshot. "Alright, another trek through here, and then maybe I can convince her to let me explore Shadowhue," he mumbled to himself. He was a bit surprised by how much sway his sister had over his decisions, but then again, she was as hard headed as him, probably more so. The Cranidos shook his head and turned towards the forest, at the very least he might have some experience in battling and exploration before he'd start classes at Peak.

As the Lurantis' movements became sporadic and delayed from the paralysis coursing through her body, Kestro finally attacked. With a loud THUNK! he smashed his silverly skull into the Lurantis' head. The Grass type stumbled, moving to hold her head while Kestro backed away. If not defeated, the Lurantis was certainly slowed by the trio of attacks from them.

The Cranidos was about to take the chance to escape, but was stopped when he found a pair of Ralts staring at him. Just like the Lurantis they were oddly colored, but much to Kestro's relief they simply stood there like statues, not even following him as he stepped away and towards the Zigzagoon and Shiinotic.

"Ok, screw this. Osiris, get over here now!" he called out to the Dratini.

Osiris slithered backward after throwing out his thunder wave, thrilled that it worked as intended but wary of any retaliation from the strange grass-type. Kestro had taken that opportunity to get a strike in, which prompted him to prepare a Dragon Tail to keep up their momentum. But the cranidos' words stopped him in his tracks, his mental faculties grinding to a halt as he processed what he heard.

Were they running now? His friend's voice was urgent; it's what he imagined he would sound like when he gave the signal for their plan to escape. No matter what, it was probably a good idea to take his cue. Mindful of the lurantis in front of him, the dratini sped around her, granting her a long berth in case she took a swing. Fortunately for him, it seemed like the pokemon was firmly locked in the throes of paralysis, body seizing up and refusing to move as smaller pokemon maneuvered around her.

"Right here!" Osiris signaled his presence, coming to a skidding stop right behind Kestro. Maybe his friend had a plan in mind he needed help with.

"Alright! We're out!" the Cranidos yelled out, pulling an escape orb from his bag. A bright light consumed Kestro, Osiris, and their two companions. "Wait you had one the whole-" the Shiinotic said, being cut off as they all disappeared from the strange and eerie place.

"-time!" her voice ringing out as with another flash of light the quartet appeared near the entrance to Pecha Forest. They startled a few Pokemon as they reappeared. An Aipom ran away in the trees, while a bonsly attempted to hide as a bush.

"Eheh... well, we just wanted to find an extra, just in case." Osiris said nervously, glancing between the shiinotic and the zigzagon. "Like if it didn't work in that weird place or something. But it did! We're all safe now so... hurray?" the dratini finished nervously, not sure if his attempt at making peace was making things worse.

The dragon-type made a quick scan of their surroundings just in case things went south and they had to make a run for it. The four of them had landed in a relatively open clearing of trees, with a smattering of a few large rocks and bushes strewn about. He filed them away as spots to hide in case things went south. The fact that two other pokemon were using them to hide already—a morelull and an exeggcute had huddled underneath some shrubbery after they'd arrived, frightened by the sudden appearance of a group of pokemon.

"That and given how weird that place was I was nervous that you two were going to steal it and leave us stuck there," Kestro added. He certainly felt guilty for keeping it hidden, but at the same time he hooed the other two understood. The Shiinotic was about to speak up when the Zigzagoon interrupted, "Well we're out now. That's all that matters. We should probably head to the guild and report the strange dungeon. If the word isn't already out that escape orbs work there, it'll be a good warning for the public."

The grass type frowned but nodded. "Fine, we'll also add to the report that the odd colored Pokemon are natives to it, and act incredibly odd compared to normal."

"Oh, oh! Feel free to mention our names; I'm Osiris, and this is Kestro!" the dratini offered up in response. "You know, tell 'em how you met us and how we worked together and stuff. That way, you know, ah, they'll... believe you better." the dragon-type trailed off, realizing only after he was in the middle of speaking how silly he sounded. He only wanted to be credited for the potential discovery of a strange area, and to have his name floating around in the guild before he even showed up would be good for his career later.

It was a decidedly selfish impulse, and what was worse was that it was pretty much immediately obvious as soon as he supplied his lackluster reasoning. "And they can come ask us if they want to know what we found too." he added a moment later, cheeks hot with embarrassment. It wasn't like it would alleviate what he just said, but at least he could make himself useful in case any official had questions about the strange anomaly found in Pecha Forest. Certainly, it would be of some interest, considering how many of Grassveil's kids used the dungeon as a training ground of sorts.

Kestro blinked at Osiris's additional idea of them being mentioned in the report. To be entirely fair the Cranidos wanted to put the whole ordeal behind him. There was that Rampardos who claimed to be him from the future and then that really aggressive Lurantis who claimed to be his adoptive grandmother. It was terrifying, like the weird dungeon somehow pulled stuff out of Kestro's mind without him noticing and threw it back at him. And in all honesty, he still had a slight suspicion that a Pokemon could have been doing that, if not the entire dungeon.

He stayed silent though, excluding the clicking of his beak. The Shiinotic and Zigzagoon both nodded. "We'll leave a mention so that the guild can ask you anymore questions. For now, though, I think we all should return home and try to relax," the zigzagoon said, either not noticing or ignoring Osiris's obvious reach for recognition. With that the two Pokemon headed off, leaving the younger pair at the forest's entrance.

Osiris exhaled in a mix of relief and disappointment as the two pokemon departed. He felt like he'd made a fool of himself right there at the end, despite doing his best to help them out of that strange fever dream place. He shook it out of himself both metaphorically and physically, telling himself that he'd done a good thing and that this was good experience no matter how silly he acted when it was all said and done.

The dragon wyrm turned in the direction the two left, tracing their path back. "I can see where I came in from here," he noted. It would pretty pointless of them to head back into the dungeon when they had an exit practically right in front of them; especially considering that they could fall right back into that strange place. "Do you think you're gonna stick around for much longer?" he asked the cranidos next to him, turning to him with the question.

Osiris was probably going to depart here no matter what—unless his newest friend felt like heading back to where they came from, in which case he would have to talk him out of it. But otherwise, it'd been quite the trip for the little dratini, and he knew when to call it quits.

Kestro let out a sigh himself as the two Pokemon disappeared down the apth towards town. "Nope, I think I'm gonna step away from Pecha Forest for a bit. Maybe after resting for a few days I'll go to Shadowhue or another nearby dungeon. Hopefully that weird dungeon is just something in Pecha..." He trailed off for a bit, looking deeper into the forest, trying to see if he could tell where that weird dungeon began. All he saw was simple little Pecha Forest.

The thought came to him that they should have asked the other two where they noticed the strangeness started. Perhaps there was a marking or other sign that could be used to avoid the area. It was too late now though. "Thanks back there. i don't think I could have pulled off that Iron Head without your thunder wave slowing...it" he said, not really wanting to mention the Lurantis by anything more.

"Yeah, no problem," Osiris repied, a little smile growing on his face. It wasn't the way he wanted it to go down, but he'd been useful in the fight one way or another. The dratini didn't quite pick up on Kestro's hesitance when it came to the lurantis, figuring his slight pause to be merely a side effect of being tired.

He started slithering down the path that the two pokemon had left in, going along the trail that lead to home. "Thanks for the Dragon Tail TM," he fired back. "I didn't get to use it on anything, but it's definitely going to come in handy. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to learn this naturally—my mom did, and she's a dragonair—but not having to wait forever for a good move is really going to be useful."

Kestro began to follow the Dratini down the path, the leaves and twigs crunching under his claws. "Eh, I didn't really need it myself. I've got Iron Tail myself, which goes nicely with my Iron Head. And Headbutt... And Zen headbutt. I like using head moves a lot, but I wanna learn something called Rock Polish. It's supposed to make me a lot faster than normal."

He scratched his chin as they walked, or slithered in Osiris's case, "And you're right on getting a good attacking move early. So...what's a Dragonair look like? I don't really know a lot about Pokemon outside of the desert. I'm still trying to figure out a lot of the Pokemon in Grassveil."

"Picture me, but a lot longer and a little bit darker," Osiris said, thinking of his mom as he described his evolved form. "And they have these little bells on their neck that helps them control weather! My mom can make it rain outside, or make it sunny, or whatever! And instead of these little fins," he went on, his ear-fins wriggling as he drew attention to them. "Dragonair have little wings. They use 'em to fly—it's pretty awesome."

He was quite looking forward to the day when he evolved. At this stage in his life, it was probably quite a ways off, but that didn't mean he couldn't think about it. Flying was something he always wanted to do, and before he knew better, he always despaired that he had to earn the long-awaited evolution to dragonite before he could have it. Until he discovered that his mom could fly with her little ear-wings, and at that moment he actually grew to appreciate his evolved form of dragonair.

Kestro nodded slightly at Osiris's description. The fossil Pokemon could picture the evolved form pretty well in his head. Granted that was more so the fact that it seemed Dragonair was very similar to Dratini than Kestro having to imagine finer details.

"So you're a two stage like me?" he asked. Kestro thought about his own evolved form. To him, Rampardos looked vastly different to Cranidos. As opposed to his large head and small body, Rampardos had a fairly regular sized head and a massive body. Their horns and beaks were larger as well. The main thing, at least for Kestro, was that his evolved form was infamously slow in battle.

"Not... really," Osiris trailed off. "I'm a three-stage, but the third stage of my evolution, dragonite, it's pretty different from the first two stages. It's got arms and legs and actual wings, for one, and it's a whole different color. Plus I think it's kinda rare—I mean, the whole line is pretty rare—but I don't know how many of us make it to dragonite." the dratini explained. "I know at least my mom gave up on it and decided to stay as a dragonair, 'cos it takes a long time to get to that second evolution."

He exhaled slowly, needing a breath after his long-winded explanation. Osiris was always happy to talk about dragon-type pokemon—especially his favorite ones—but he understood not everyone liked to hear him rattle on about why his type was the best. "Oh, this is my way out." he noted absently, pausing as he came across a trail that visibly ran out of the forest, past the treeline and into the plains. "The way that's closest to my house, anyway. This is where I branch off..." Iris said, glancing back at the cranidos that accompanied him this far.

He wasn't sure if he would have made it this far in the dungeon without the rock-type's help, and he was grateful to have his aid through the experience. "I'll see you at Peak, yeah?" the dratini said in lieu of a goodbye, slithering backward as he made his exit. "Let me know when you make that club!" Osiris called as he made some distance between them, stopping briefly to wave goodbye with his tail.

Kestro again nodded, "Oh, I think I know a few Pokemon like that. I remember some Larvesta talking about how they take ages to evolve into Volcarona."

Once they reached the branch, Kestro nodded towards Osiris. To be entirely honest Kestro completely forgot about Peak and the club he had mentioned. "Oh, right! Today's been so hectic I completely forgot about that," he said, again scratching his chin. "Well, hopefully we don't only meet at the Academy. Maybe we can go explore more dungeons later. Without the whole weirdness that happened today. Anyways, we can talk more about it at the Academy."

With that Kestro waved goodbye to the small dragon type, heading down the opposite branch to his own home.