Lawful or Otherwise

Mordred took a few cautious steps to the Mountain. He'd been here before, he knew it. In fact, how could he not know it? His right eye was now hidden under an eyepatch thanks to the events that had unfolded right nearby this mound of earth. He could still feel it seething with pain, erupting from his destroyed eye and the cuts near it. He cursed under his breath, already beginning to regret going on a mission so early. He hadn't even fully recovered yet, but still pursued. Prolonged rest helped in recovery, sure, but it didn't help in strength. If he stayed in bed until he healed, it would be no surprise that he'd require a large amount of training to regain his fighting power. He took out a sheet of paper, examining the mission he had assigned himself to.

[MISSION THREAD] Out of nowhere this crazed Ralts has started attacking me! He's a disgrace to my very species! You have to do something! Teach him a lesson! » Client: Kirlia » Target: Ralts » Place: Blackmist Mountain » Restrictions: None » Difficulty: F » Reward: 150 Poké » Exploration Points: 10

A face off with a Ralts. Typing wouldn't be in his favor, especially since the Ralts would already know psychic moves. How could it tick off a Kirlia if it didn't? Either way, in this situation, his only saving grace would be his move Faint Attack. Sad to say, he hadn't even mastered it yet. From past training sessions, he'd learned that the attack would break about half way, leaving him vulnerable but luckily still with speed. He had to hone it today, or it would be the last thing he'll ever practice.

Stuffing the paper back into his bag, he began making his way towards the Mountain. He wanted this done quick. Although the Guildmaster was much too soft, he knew he wasn't doing a very good job as an explorer with the lack of missions he had completed. It was either he got a completed mission today, or he'd be lying in his deathbed. Or simply dead on this Arceus-forsaken mountain.

A quick black fox huffed as she leaped on top of a rock. She had strayed away from her previous home, Shadowhue, and had come to this rather large mountain. She was bored, there was nothing to do, nobody to play with. She sat down on the rock and sighed, after her horrid beating by a riolu and a treecko the other day, she had been having bad luck ever since. She just hoped her luck would turn around today. Mirage looked around, spotting a strange pokemon that seemed to have some type of skin at its legs that seemed baggy. Was this a scraggy? She decided to lie in wait, to see just what this pokemon was up to.

Mordred continued walking, stopping briefly in order to adjust his eyepatch. It felt foreign to have something covering his eye, and it seemed a bit too small and clingy. Upon applying pressure, the scraggy winced, moving his hand away reflexively. So much for fixing it. He supposed he could just ask for modifications to the patch's band once he returned to Grassveil.

He stopped for a moment, deciding to assess himself. He was going to go into a large battle with a pokemon that had a type advantage, letting an item such as a scarf dangle from him freely could end up worsening his situation. He shuddered at the thought of being lifted by a scarf, getting slowly choked by both the fabric and the psychic energy engulfing him. His bag would be an issue, but he knew he'd hide it somewhere before attacking the Ralts. He got the Defense Band, before wrapping it tightly on his arm. It looked akin to the armband some leaders of his clan wore. Once he was sure he was prepared to face the harms in wait, he continued traveling up the rocky path.

He paused in his tracks, thinking he'd seen something pass. Black and red. He shook his head, deciding it was just his imagination. It was pretty much the peak of the afternoon at the moment, and from the blistering heat, there was a less likely chance anyone would be out in the sun. Luckily, he was trained by his clan often in this kind of terrain, and was pretty much accustomed to hot temperatures. However, he still had some difficulty seeing in the bright. He was still part dark type, which meant his sight was much better in the dark. Daylight made him see hallucinations. He continued on his way, hastening his pace.

The zorua noticed the change in pace, curious she followed close behind. Mira watched the Scraggy with an eye patch shuffle along, seemingly with purpose. She knew nothing of what type of pokemon were residents of the area, were there perhaps other Zoruas or more of these strange scraggy? Mirage kept behind the pokemon, ready to duck behind a rock if he were to turn around.
Could I perhaps play with him? she wondered, she was unsure though, This guy looks like a rook...slightly dangerous to a queen... the Zorua huffed, she continued to follow none the less, after all, anybody who had an eye patch had a story in her eyes.

Okay, there was definitely someone following him. He could hear it, footsteps. Most likely from a 4-legged pokemon from how the steps seem to be in a different beat than his. He continued walking, not wanting to show that he knew the stranger was pursuing him. It was possible that such an act could get him killed. He was not up for death or yet another fatal injury after the eye incident, let alone during a mission. For pete's sake, he had to fight off the healer at the Guild in order to get permission to go on this task. If he were to return battered and beaten, there was no doubt he'd be confined or maybe even kicked out.

He calmed himself, deciding to assess the situation further. Panicking would result in alerting the enemy that he was aware, and as said, he'd probably be dead if that were to happen. He maintained a calm facade, making sure that he would present himself completely oblivious as he tried to create some sort of plan to get away safely. From this early level of the Mountain, his stalker was most likely a Poochyena. Dark type canine. Definitely vulnerable to his Low Kick. One attack to the face and he can bolt off running. But if it weren't a Poochyena, he'd be asking for pain. A quick glance to his enemy would be all it takes.

He reached up, seeming to be adjusting his eye patch again. As quick as he could, the scraggy whipped around, suddenly kicking dirt and sand towards the stranger.

The zorua sniffed the air in boredom. Should she go approach him? Well, this ISN'T a waiting game...I guess it would not matter.. The zorua decided. Still, she'd rather not let him know her true self just yet. She felt her ability disguise herself, though she herself did not take a different shape. The pokemon approached the scraggy, only to have sand kicked in her eyes. She screamed in pain and began to rub her eyes with her paws, she had no idea what she looked like, but spoke anyways, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?"

This dice is not existing.

Mordred stood in a fighting stance, ready to Low Kick the daylights out of whatever had been hit by the dirt. He gave off a small scream as he was met with the sight of... something. No, he had seen this type of pokemon before. More of heard, actually. During one of his lectures, his mentors had said that a number of pokemon were supposedly extinct by now. Pokemon such as Rampardos, Archeops, Shieldon were very, very rare and very, very scarce. In fact, not many of his clan members had ever said they encountered such pokemon except the few survivors who had been in a battle with them.

This pokemon, with its bird-like figure, gray skin, large jaw, and purple wings made it  clear that it was a pokemon known as Aerodactyl. These pokemon had been sighted on this mountain many times, but most were known only as rumors. This was a prehistoric pokemon. A pokemon that was supposed to have died off a long, long time ago. And the few who lived to tell its tale in his clan were clearly horrified and battered when they reported their knowledge.

"AN AERODACTYL... Baby?" He said, lowing his defensive arms as he finally took in the stranger's small figure. It was definitely not as big as everyone had said it was supposed to be. Upon hearing its voice, the scraggy's confusion only grew. Wasn't it supposed to be screeching? Clawing his face off? Eating him alive then taking the remains of his corpse to its nest?

Areodactyl baby? Mirage thought. She blinked, and decided that she should at least act kind of like one, "Yeah, an Areodactyl, got a problem with that?" she altered her voice to be slightly squeaky so she would match the terms of being a child. Mirage seemed to glare at the scraggy with displeased eyes, "It's not nice to kick sand and dirt into people you know? You could poke someone's eye out with a rock!" The zorua knew of the eye patch, she just thought of kids as a bit more straight forward in what they say and not really care about how people take it as long as their nice about it. The "baby Areodactyl" huffed and rubbed her eyes some more, beginning to cry a little as both part of her act and part of her eye's attempt to rid themselves of the inferior particles that burned them.

Mordred stared at the small prehistoric bird. There was something... off about it. It wasn't everyday he saw an Aerodactyl, but a baby? Shouldn't the parents be hiding it in a nest of some sort? Maybe it just wandered off. He'll have to take a side mission of bringing this thing back to its nest. While he was aware he'd probably have his face torn off, there was a chance the parent could go haywire and cause even worse havoc if it couldn't find its baby. He'd rather not have other pokemon dying all because this offspring had left its home.

"Oh! Uh, sorry about that..." He apologized, not having meant to hurt the hatchling. He felt a hurt and slightly offended upon hearing the comment about the rock hitting someone's eye, having experienced that firsthand. He hid his reaction, not wanting to make the child feel worse. He pondered for a moment whether he would really take up such a task. This baby's nest was most likely located very high up the mountains. He'd have to spend a few nights here, with a whining child. That didn't seem very charming, but he knew he had to do it. Sadly, his task was going to be even more difficult now that he had upset it, and most likely lost its trust. Good going, Mordred.

"Hey, don't cry!" The scraggy spoke, not wanting to see such a pitiful sight. "Uh, where are your parents? I could take you to them if you'd like."

"You mean mama?" Mirage spoke in her squeakified voice, she decided to have some fun using her so called "mama", she spoke some more, "Mama loves me...she says she'll tear anything that takes me away apart" she chimed happily as if she was proud of her "mama". The Zorua had figured that the scraggy would want to take her back to her "nest" and wondered if he had considered the idea that the "mom" could claim him as kidnapper. The scraggy seemed to have some wound in its eye so it seemed to have gone through some harsh times, she began to wonder if he would see through her guise due to experience...

"...Right. So, do you want to go back to 'Mama'?" The scraggy asked, hiding his nervousness. The heck? Do all kids describe their parents like that? He'd left his clan at a fairly young age, and he had never heard of any of the toddlers talk anything like that. Well, mostly because they were confined and immediately taught then trained like everyone else. Still, this didn't seem normal. This 'baby' seemed really suspicious. He shook his head, knowing that suspecting a baby to be capable of doing anything dangerous was silly. They were weak, and could be about as harmful as a small, nontoxic bite. He'll just keep a good eye on this hatchling and make sure it doesn't get into trouble along the way. Then drop it off by the nest and make a mad dash out of there.

This dice is not existing.

The "baby" nodded eagerly. Mirage was having a blast, this pokemon really believed she was a baby areodactyl! It was probably more of because she actually looked like one though. Mirage giggled, "You're funny!" she spoke. She noticed a spearow not far off and spoke, "I'm hungry..." she made herself appear to be looking at the spearow hungrily before looking at the scraggy as if expecting something. She wondered if he would actually do it though, if not then he would certainly have a hilarious reaction most likely.

The smile that had appeared on the scraggy's face upon hearing the baby's giggle slowly disappeared into a frown. This thing was hungry... for meat? It wasn't actually anything too new, especially since he was dealing with the offspring of a dangerous predator species. But the idea of having to kill someone in order to feed it was just... horrifying. He looked over to the Spearow, watching it hop around on its claws, perching up on a nearby rock. Completely clueless. He could try to use Faint Attack and ambush it, but he was certain he could never bring himself to actually kill it and feed it to this monstrosity.

He stared at the youngling, a dead serious expression on his face. "Then we'd better get going." He said, before starting to walk up the rocky path once more. If it would whine, cry, and continue asking for him to kill it, he'd ignore it. Besides, it could probably signal its parent if it did that. Quicker job, less stress on him. Although it wasn't the youngling's fault, it was still wrong to want to devour the blood of another pokemon. Mordred was strictly taught to maintain a herbivorous diet in his clan, possibly to avoid any casualties of someone... eating someone else. They were never fed more than necessary, sometimes not even enough, so such occurrences weren't all that impossible. That reminder alone made the scraggy shudder.

Well he's really serious....Mirage thought, forgetting that she was toying with the scraggy. She followed the scraggy, she huffed silently in boredom...then decided to change things up again. She stopped and tore down her illusion while setting up a new one, "refreshing" it. She would now appear to be something else, since the pokemon did not seem to care for the baby much other than getting it home. I wonder if I can scare him.... she thought mischievously. The Zorua felt the process of the illusion being set up be completed and approached the scraggy from behind once more.

This dice is not existing.

Mordred continued down the path, oblivious to the Zorua's change for the first few minutes. His ignorance did not last long, however, as he finally took notice of the sudden silence. No whining, no sound of claws scraping on the ground, no sound of the baby behind him. The footprints he had been hearing were much too... light to have come from an Aerodactyl, baby or otherwise. He quickly turned around, his eyes meeting those of a familiar dark canine's. A Poochyena. He seemed to freeze for a moment, trying to process the situation as quickly as possible. The baby wasn't here. There aren't any tracks nearby indicating it fled. The Poochyena came out of nowhere, and seemed to be carrying a hint of the baby's scent.

His mind began putting two and two together, leading to only one conclusion: The Poochyena had to be punished for whatever it had done to the baby. The scraggy bared his teeth, hands curling into fists. With a low growl, the dark type was now bent on fighting. In one swift move, he launched himself at the Poochyena, his foot ready to land a painful Low Kick. What had this canine done to the hatchling? Did it drive it away into the wild? Did it eat it? No, Poochyena are much too small and this one doesn't have a trace of blood on it. But what if it lead a pack?