Mission of (Not so) Peaceful Encounters

The eerie forest greeted them with the sound of deafening silence, not even a breeze would dare make a noise in the shade of the forlorn oak. And this did not please the Sneasel at the slightest. And to change that she did what she did best.

"So how're your wounds holding up their Jeremy? I noticed the worst one was that one that sonuva Patrat" She let out a soft giggle as it seemed the forest enhanced how loud her voice echoed. Although her voice was normally loud enough for the normal person yet for her would merely be her 'inside' voice.

Kuro smiled at the Snivy briefly before taking a few steps into the forest, she took her surroundings in and the forest had a different beauty compared to Pecha Forest. It had the same beauty as the moon's glow shining off of a serene lake. Of course Kuro only noticed this for a few seconds before her thoughts drifted off to what this Leavanny would be like, probably not too evil but she guessed her type advantage would help to two once again.

Unlike Kuro, Jeremy was NOT happy to be here. A sense of unease pervaded every sense of his being, and an almost instinctual voice told him to leave this place. It was unnatural… The latent connection he had with nature was unnerved by the presence of this forest.

And why wouldn't it? Pecha Forest was natural. Yes, the deeper you went in the wilder and more untamed it became, but it was still a natural thing, an environment where his partial plant-like nature could connect with his surroundings and make sense of it. Here… It was different. Yes, the trees were real and organic, but everything was twisted and wrong.

The trees were too high, and too closely grown together. Trees would not naturally grow like that… A force, something foreign was controlled and guiding the growth of this place… It was almost uniform… Purposeful

Because of how the foliage was aligned, the inner workings of the forest ranged from dim to dark. For the life of him, Jeremy could not find a break in the tree line above that allowed natural sunlight to filter through… No… Only the bioluminescence of strange, glowing fungi provided any sense of light, and it was a faint one at that.

Jeremy sneered at the place, looking visibly uncomfortable. "I'm fine… Well… The injuries are fine. This place though, I don't like. It isn't natural." He paused as he continued to survey Shadowhue, looking visibly agitated. "Let's just find our guy and convince him of our client's good intentions. Let me do the talking for that, and use your eyes to keep a lookout for danger… Also keep close. It looks easy to get lost here."

Idly, the male snivy wondered if 'Ida' the zorua was hiding out in there somewhere. He didn't want to deal with her again at the moment, and hoped the suspected thief would keep away from an organized group.

"Unnatural? Well I don't know what ya mean, seems perfectly fine if you ask me... despite all the dangerous pokemon that'll cut us into ribbons if we cross them in an argument.... Okay maybe slightly unnatural" She stifled a giggle and then nodded along at what he spoke. Until the no speaking portion.

"So what you're saying is... I am not allowed to talk for more than 30 seconds? But Jeremyy... I like to talk" Kuro crossed her arms with a frown, and looked up to the leaves and foliage "Well... I guess if it'll help with the mission then I guess it's okay... but only for a bit" She decided against childish pouting as it would most likely get him angry.

But she did decide to keep her eyes open, and doing so rewarded them almost instantly as while looking into the foliage wondering if there were pokemon that grew moss on them, she spotted something that caught her eye and unconsciously walked towards it

This dice is not existing.

Jeremy actually offered himself a smug little grin. "Well, I think the ideal thing is to cut down on the talking in general. And yes, I know very well you like to talk. You like to talk when you probably shouldn't be talking. I swear, if I didn't know you any better I would think you were trying to be smart with me."

The snivy sighed as he took on a look of dignity. "You need to learn to observe and LISTEN more Kuro. You are good at thinking on your feet, but a lot of problems could be avoided if you considered how certain actions would-"

Kuro was gone however. It was then, that Jeremy realized she already agreed somewhat to what he had said, and was already making moves toward… Something. Jeremy silenced himself. He saw that look in the female sneasel's violet eyes before. It was focused, purposeful.

She had found something.

The snivy quickly followed her without a word as they came upon some foliage and the item hidden within. He didn't want to get separated from her in here.

Hanging on a branch was a tangled ball of pristine, white clothe with red bands. Some sort of scarf or band perhaps? It looked like the piece of clothe had gotten caught or tangled there. For reasons, Jeremy could not say.

Tentatively reaching out, Jeremy caught the edge of a piece before he slowly started unwrapping it, nodding to Kuro to keep a lookout for trouble with her sharp eyes while he did so. Eventually, he got it free, frowning as his hand caressed and felt up the material. It was soft and smooth, almost like satin. When he attempted to gently pull or stretch it though, he discovered to his surprise that the material held rigid and strong, only stretching slightly under the strain before naturally returning to its natural shape. It was made of something very tough… Maybe some sort of bug Pokemon silk.

"Some kind of clothe." He whispered. "Pretty tough material too. Might be useful to hang on to. You found it though. It is yours to keep."

OOC: It is a defense scarf

Kuro eyed the scarf with widened eyes and a big grin on her face "Thanks, I'll try to take some more hits then" She let out a short laugh as she took the Scarf in glee, and decided to wrap it around her arm with a smile. It was almost like a piece of armor, not too heavy but it was sturdy enough to take a few blows from some less frightening attacks.

She admired it a while longer before walking onwards while looking at it, then realising the words Jeremy had said beforehand and she begun looking around while keeping her ears out for foreign noises. All that could be heard were the buzz of cicada, a slight rustling in the leaves and the sounds of Kuro and Jeremy's feet.

And then another pair of footsteps. Kuro kept on walking to not show that she knew they were being followed "Jeremy.... 7:00... footsteps" She muttered while trying to keep her normal smiling expression and observing her surroundings. The Sneasel noticed the pokemon was doing something unique, it was trying to mimic their footsteps to stop them from noticing, but it was not so experienced at doing so

As Kuro got the scarf material wrapped around herself, Jeremy kept a lookout as well. Mind you, in these conditions, his sight was more compromised than Kuro was. Even with the nearly impenetrable foliage high above their head, the male snivy was unnerved by how dark it really was. It was almost like a physical presence that was trying to swallow them.

Perhaps there was something more to this place, and that was why he was so unnerved while Kuro was perfectly comfortable… Or as comfortable as one could be in an area full of wild, feral, or bandit pokemon. Still, Kuro seemed to take in stride. As of now, Jeremy was following her lead.

They walked on for some time, with the Grass Snake Pokemon perking his head pretty much whenever Kuro would. There were a lot of sounds, but the sneasel seemed to be picking up only the ones that seemed to be of concern. Only when she relaxed, did Jeremy relax.

Unfortunately, part of their journey required them to brave a small ravine path that was getting ready to hug a cliff face. It was more of a huge, sloping hill than anything else, but falling would make it difficult to get back up. It would be a terrible place to get attacked.

And it seemed that was the case. Kuro, in one of her moments of cunning, was already taking note of their current tracker.

Slight alarm was pushed down to make room for focus in Jeremy's mind. The Grass Snake Pokemon was already picking up very, very subtle vibrations behind them. She was right. Something was following them, and was trying to make efforts to be quiet.

"Its following us into the ravine… If it catches us there…" He whispered.

All of a sudden, there was a sound of scrabbling rock and leaf litter as something started to crash directly toward them. From this distance, Jeremy could see a vague outline, but it would be Kuro who would be the first to identify their attacker.

This dice is not existing.

Kuro looked to the figure in the distance as it got closer, it was a small form she would admit that. But some pokemon can still be menacing despite the size which Kuro knew very much well, considering how much damage the Patrats did to Jeremy, and she did not want to recall that horrible experience.

She strained her eyes and saw that the creature coming towards them was merely a Seedot. She said that because despite the anger expression on the Pokemon's face it was still only a Seedot. A Pokemon Kuro could Ice Punch it once and it was out.

"Right let's be careful here.. we have to wait for it to attack us before we can strike""As Kuro was talking the Seedot made it's way closer and in good enough distance to attack. Despite it not having a attacking move it dived into the Sneasel with its full body. Knocking Kuro and itself to the ground and the Sneasel landed on the Defense scarf, it cushioning her fall.

Jeremy waited with bated breath as the hostile entity approached, but faltered slightly when his amber eyes took in the enemy pokemon. Barely a foot tall, with a round body not unlike a apricorn and dark eye shadow was some sort of grass type like himself. The creature waddled forward with a fierce, determined in his eye… But Jeremy found it difficult to be intimidated by.

It charged Kuro… Or… More like lean into her roughly. The female sneasel seemed to have lost her balance more than lose her footing from an attack.

Snickering somewhat, Jeremy put his hands on his hips as he gazed at the seedot. "Seriously? You actually had me worried there for a second."

The enemy seedot gave an angry, clicking noise as it tried to overpower the sneasel but preceded to fail miserably. "SHUT UP! Give me your valuables and I might let you live!"

"Look… This is beyond silly. How about you get off of her before she decides to hurt you?"

"KNEEL BEFORE ME!"

Jeremy sighed before turning back to Kuro. "So… Does this count as an attack? The poster asked us to hold off on attacking people first…"

"Really? Really Seedot?" She let out a small laugh and threw him off of her, jumping up to her feet with a victorious "Aha!"
Kuro recovered from the attack and looked at Jeremy with a look of almost boredom, she enjoyed an exciting, fast paced battle that got her blood boiling. Not a one-sided battle like this, it was much too easy to win and she sighed.

"Look let's not damage this little guy okay? Not too much. Just send a Glare his way and then we'll be on our way" She intended smiled at the Seedot trying to show she had no intent to hurt it but before she could she was slammed into again, this time with more force and it sent her wobbling backwards. Off the side of the cliff face. All that could be heard were her claws scraping against the rocky wall in a panic.

Jeremy looked just about as amused as Kuro was at their attacker. At her suggestion, the male snivy simply smirked and nodded. As he got ready to summon the necessary energy to his eyes however, the humorous situation quickly became alarming when the seedot stared down at Kuro, a dark glint in its eyes.

Jeremy knew what was going to happen before it did, but his realization wasn't quick enough to save Kuro. The dark/grass hybrid rammed into the female sneasel, and losing her balance yet again, she started to careen dangerously over the cliff edge…

"KURO!" the male snivy yelled. Gritting his teeth, the Grass Snake Pokemon prepared a tackle for the now exuberant, triumphant seedot. Launching himself at the offending jerk, Jeremy felt the impact as the seedot was sent flying over the same ledge he just tried to push Kuro off of, screaming bloody murder as he vanished in the darkened tree line below.

Immediately, Jeremy rushed to the edge only to see Kuro scraping to the bottom. There was no way to reach her, and cursing under his breathe in panic and fear, he ran around the ravine, hoping to eventually reach her at the bottom in time.

She scraped her claws along the rocky terrain until she came to a stop. A few feet from the floor was a easy drop for her. Kuro looked up and couldn't spot Jeremy, and saw that the path upwards was blocked by a bunch of rocks and boulders. "Jeremy! The path back up is blocked by rubble! Go ahead and we'll try and meet up back at the entrance!" The Sneasel looked around and begun walking down the opposite path.

The Sneasel wandered about with a sigh "Here I am again, wandering out in the dark wilderness all by myself. Just me and my thoughts. Although this is probably what most wild pokemon do... although they don't really have a team partner.... wonder how he's doing" While Kuro was talking to herself she knocked into someone. Someone familiar.

Crysel had been facing an irate and quite overconfident Seedot. Honestly, herbivores were a threat to it and it tried to attack her. One scratch sent it packing, faing in one hit. It wasn't dead. For some reason... she felt compelled to not kill. Maybe something from her past? She did not know. But she spared the mentally handicapped Seedot's life and just turned to go. That was when she bumped into Kuro.

At first, Crysel put up her claws. She was going to get the first strike before she was... Then she recognized the Sneasel. After all, they all look different. Only a racist would say different. She lowered her claws, knowing she was not in danger. "Oh, it is you. What are you doing here Kuro? Don't you travel with that Snivy? The one who uses unnecessary words when speaking?"

The male snivy cursed under his breathe when Kuro's form vanished from his sight. Calling out to her a few more times, he was immensely relieved when she answered in kind. Still, he gritted his teeth when her faint voice informed him on her situation. They were separated now, and they had to navigate back together again.

"Alright! I'll take your word for it. Try to follow the cliff. I'll try to catch up with you as soon as possible." Before he went on, he paused a bit, swallowing his nervousness under a guise of calm confidence. "Be careful."

Never mind the fact that it would have probably applied to the sheltered snivy more than the survivalist minded snivy… But it was the thought that counts.

Time passed, and he was running now though the forest. A few times, he had to stop to hide from an unusual sound or shape in the darkened gloom that was too close for comfort. Whatever it was, it never attacked Jeremy or otherwise made its presence known to him, and eventually he would move on.

He just cleared the ravine, and was now more in Shadowhue again. Finding a small, sheltered clearing, Jeremy sat down in the cover near a patch of glowing fungi, using the bioluminescent light to help him as he pulled out and unfolded his map once again.

He didn't realize in this secluded spot as his amber eyes rapidly traced the measured lines on the paper, that he was being watched...

Dex scurried through the treetops of what he presumed was Shadowhue Forest. It had been mentioned to him before, and was dark and scary and gave the little bug the creeps! He wished he didn't go in this for. He couldn't tell how late it was, since the sky ceiling was blocked by the dark trees. He could climb up above the treetops, but he didn't as it was definately much more dark between the leaves, and he was already scared enough. Little noises would make him jump.

The Joltik heard something at the ground and saw a green figure rush through the forest. There seemed to be a pit next to it. Dex was worried it would trip and fall in, but hoped at the same time. What if this Pokemon was looking for him? The forest was messing with his tiny mind! Still, curiousity got the best of him and he decided to follow.

Dex continued to move from tree to tree by outstretched branches. This Pokemon's movements made it seem it was worried or scared of something. Dex continued to follow, even more curious. It didn't matter what this Pokemon's alignment was anymore; the attaching Pokemon wanted answers. The Joltik followed as they passed the ravine and made it into a clearing. It had what looked to be... chargestone plants? He looked at the glowing mushrooms and was reminded of home, which was comforting in this dark and scary place. He shot a string from his abdomin and alighted on one. Its soft glow lit up his fur as Dex climbed down onto the grass of the clearing. He briefly hugged the stalk before scuttling over to the figure, who was now looked at what seemed to be a map.

"Hello..?" Dex squeaked when he was confident that he was close enough for the Pokemon to hear him. He repeated it louder food good measure.

"Finally! Another person! And someone that agrees with me!" Kuro exclaimed in delight and hugged her in excitement, then pulled off of her with a grin "I really really hate being on my own as ya can guess... been talking to myself for arceus knows how long now" She giggled slightly nervous, it could be called that but in her mind she was just excited to see another face.

She rubbed the back of her head with a slight blush of embarrassment "Yeahh... a Seedot pushed me off of a ledge, it was really weak too but... well ya know" She giggled awkwardly and looked around at the dark eerie surroundings "Say, wanna help me on my way to meet back up with Jeremy?"