A Useless Archen and a Childish Absol

Spoiler:

Acro swallowed as he looked up at the frozen and seemingly endlessly tall mountain. It was cold, yes, but the Archen had the warmth of the Joy Ribbon to assist him in containing his body heat. He had been assigned these two missions along with what was called a "Friend" he had worked with before. Was it William? He wondered. He tilted his Archen head in wonder as he tried to think of other possibilities. Just who was coming with him on this mission?

Tsukishiro made her way through the cold, snow covered forests. Her fur made her blend in with her surroundings, only noticeable by the stark contrast of her black features and only then if you looked close enough. Shiro couldn't help but stop for a moment to look up at the sky, in awe of the tall, white trees around her. It really was a beautiful place here. Why couldn't her tribe have formed in these wintry conditions instead of on a dark, stony mountain?

Realising she needed to hurry onward, the Absol bounded through the trees, leaving largely spaced paw prints in her wake. It didn't take long for her to spot a friend a short distance away. A prehistoric bird, with feathers that stood out among the snowy conditions.
"Acro!" she grinned, slowing her pace to more of a hurried walk as she drew closer.

"Acro!" A voice called all of a sudden that made the Archen jump in surprise. He looked around wildly before realizing that a familiar Absol was walking towards him. It was Shiro, an absol he had done a mission with before in Pecha Forest. The archen hopped and turned to look at the absol, "H-Hi Shiro!"
The Archen instantly hated himself for speaking. He was stuttering, yet again...why must he stutter? Why was he nervous when he knew this pokemon? The archen decided to let it slide and hope the pokemon didn't notice.

The Absol reached Acro and sat down, realising that she'd probably startled him seeing as her fur blended in so well with the forest around her, "Sorry about that..." she apologized before quickly moving on.
"So, how are you?" she asked politely. She hadn't seen the Archen for a while and so thought it fitting to ask how he'd been. Shiro noticed Acro's stutter but didn't mention it, after all no one liked having their faults or embarrassments pointed out to them. She assumed it was just the after effects of her accidentally startling him.

Acro shook his self as some snow was blown onto him, "I'm fine, but these pokemon need some help it seems..." The archen spoke. He looked at the jobs that were on a paper that looked a bit old and the hand writing was a bit messy.
"A duduo needs a few items and we have to find a plusle and a minun and escort them together it seems...How has your team been?" He asked. He waited for an answer as he thought of just how the doduo would work a hang glider...they had no hands, and they needed the legs to run off a cliff into the air. Just how would that work!?

The old parchment told of a pair of siblings, a Plusle and a Minun, that had lost each other within the the swirling snowflakes of the mountain and sought to be reunited. Shiro nodded, acknowledging the target of the first mission before her eyes switched to the next mission in the prehistoric Pokemon's claws.
This mission spoke of a Doduo who sought to fly. Shiro almost wondered if Acro could relate to that somehow, after all Archen could not fly until they evolved. Surely possessing wings but not being able to use them was rather... annoying at times?
Putting the thought to rest she blinked as Acro asked how her team had been.
"Oh, they're doing quite well. William managed to evolve into a Gengar. I'm kinda sad I missed it though. We really need to do more jobs together as a proper team, rather than splitting up all the time...."

On that note of teammates, Shiro wondered whether Acro was still partnered with Astrid. The naively cheerful Dratini was nowhere to be seen, however Shiro did not wish to pry and thus kept silent on the matter.

The Archen looked to the absol when she spoke of William, "William? The Ghastly? I know of him, we go on missions together a lot. I did not see him evolve either, I was surprised when a Gengar somehow knew my name.." The Archen was speaking of the mission they had together fairly recently in the Cattail marsh. It was a miserable mission, at least for Acro. Luckily it was less miserable with William there since the poison ghost pokemon was able to carry the sludge instead of him. The Archen spoke once more, "Ready to go when you are."

Shiro chuckled. She had been rather surprised when she had returned to the guild to find William a Haunter, so she knew how the Archen must have felt.
"Ready when you are," Acro had said, Shiro nodding in response.
"Alright. Let's get going then."
The Absol took a quick glance up at the large mountain before she began to pad towards it. Her white fur still blending in with the snow around her, Shiro continued forwards until her paws met hard, grey rock, marking the very beginning of their expedition to explore the mountain in search of Plusle, Minun and Doduo's items.

[Imma just be slightly evil here ^^ and spawn some poke]
Acro was slightly annoyed by the terrain of this area, the rocks were just annoying since they moved too easily and buried his talons into them with his weight. He was built for the trees, not this rough terrain. The Archen looked up at the freezing mountain, thinking that he is going to possibly regret ever accepting these missions in these freezing temperatures. Some has to do them though, right?

This dice is not existing.

This dice is not existing.

Tsukishiro did't mind the mountain as much as Acro did. She felt kind of sorry for the Archen though, as he was so much smaller than her and not as easily able to climb the mountain as she was. After all, Shiro had grown up on and around a mountain with her tribe, and her long white fur protected her from the bite of Mt. Frostmeer's chilly air.
"You okay in the snow?" she asked. The layer of white was only a thin one covering the rocks, and it was too cold for it to melt any time soon, but it looked like it was only going to snow even more as they continued climbing, judging from the clouds looming over them anyhow.

"Y-Yeah. I-WAH!" Acro was startled as a big face with a single glowing red eye glared at him. The Archen screeched in surprise before turning and trying to run, spraying rocks behind him and through the duskull. He ended up tripping and falling flat on his chin, the duskull laughed, and another rose from the ground near it.

"Uhm... Hi there," blinked Shiro, attempting to speak with the duo of Duskull rather than outright attacking them for their actions. After all it seemed like they were only playing -mostly- harmless tricks, "We're here looking for a Plusle and a Minun? Have you seen either of them?"
Partly due to being partnered with William, but partly just her overly accepting personality, Shiro disliked judging ghost Pokemon by their nature and various attempts at trickery, which was why she was reluctant to attack these two out of the blue. If they attacked her or Acro however, this would become ugly rather quickly.

"A Plusle-" One spoke that had a seemingly darker shell than the other with a brighter red eye.
"And a Minun?" the other spoke, which was seemingly lighter with a darker red eye that was more beady than glowing.
"I wonder if they were the two,"
"Strange things that we saw earlier?"The two completed each other's sentences, and drifted around the frightened Archen and the absol.
"A small positive plus,"
"And a Negative minus,"
"Wandering about, lost in the woods! Yes we saw them," The two spoke in unison, "It was fun, leading them-"
"Farther"
"And Farther away"

Acro was not getting a friendly feeling from these two as he had with William when he first met the gengar as a ghastly. These pokemon scared Acro, he could not help backing up until he hit the Absol's back leg by accident.

"Wonderful..." sighed Shiro quietly.
"Any chance you could tell us which direction you lead them in?" she asked them, her tone one of politeness as she did not wish to instill hostilities between them, even if they did appear to be rather mean. She just hoped that the Plusle and the Minun had managed to reunite... otherwise they'd have to track down them both separately. At least if they were together, they'd have each other for company as well, alone they may end up attacking her or Acro out of fear.

"The red one this way" said the darker duskull, moving to a path that lead north-west.
"The blue one this way" said the other, moving to the north-east.
"The red one up" the darker duskull spoke as he floated up a bit with a spiral and motions of what seemed to be climbing a tree.
"The blue one down" the other spoke as he sank into the ground with digging motions.
The archen that followed the absol remained silent, terrified of the otherworldly beings as they spoke of their tale of leading the plusle and the minun farther from each other than before. The duskulls seemed to chuckle at his fear, which only freaked him out even more.