The First Adventure Far From Grassveil! Why the Hell is Akuroma Going to Black Mist Mountain!?

Akuroma was beginning yet another excursion into Shadowhue Forest. His bag carried the items he's gathered over his adventures along with scrolls of paper to draw maps and make notes on anything interesting he saw. However, they were the same papers he took the last few times. Nothing was changing in Shadowhue, at least nothing noteworthy for Akuroma.
'There's nothing mysterious about Shadowhue Forest anymore... and the guild still won't allow me to travel any farther without an escort, which I'd have to pay for...' the Ralts silently complained. As he continued walking he spied Enzu closing up the dojo, a rather large travel bag strapped to his back.
"Enzu! Where are you going?" Akuroma said as he walked up to the Pawniard. He hadn't seen Enzu since he trained here once with Keyami, and that was before he got the three scars across his cheek.

Enzu turned around when he heard Akuroma call out to him. "Aw Akuroma! It's been awhile since I last saw you. I'm on my way to Black Mist Mountain." Enzu remembered the time that Akuroma had came to his dojo with the Meowth Keyami for a sparring match. Even though it was over a year ago, Enzu remembered the session well. He then continued to speak, "I had heard that there is a possibility of finding Joy Ribbons there so I figured I would take some time and go searching for it. What are you up to?"

Akuroma listened intently to Enzu's talk of exploring Black Mist Mountain and Joy Ribbons. He had read about the two, though had only read about them. Then only time he actually saw a joy ribbon was when he met Mirage, who wore one like a bag.
"Oh? well, I was about to head into Shadowhue Forest again..." he said a bit glumly, though it was more of a farce to get Enzu to try and invite him along the journey. If Enzu weren't a steel and dark type, he'd have just used his psychic powers to make the invite pop into the Pawniard's head, though he wasn't so good at that either way.

Enzu chuckled at the tone Akuroma used, "You don't sound so enthusiastic about that," he said. Enzu started to walk a little closer to Akuroma since that was basically the direction that he was heading. "Well I would offer for you to come along with me to the Mountain but its going to be pretty dangerous so I'm not sure if you want to." he said. From what Enzu remembered Akuroma was basically a book worm, he might have come out of his shell in the past year but he wasn't exactly sure.

Akuroma nodded a bit at Enzu's remark. At first, Akuroma thought the Pawniard was gonna leave, but at his offer, Akuroma was a bit surprised. He kept his face plain as he feigned thought for a second.
"Well, I've never been there. It'd probably help the library and guild if I can make a good map of the area. I've read of the types of Pokemon that live there, and though I may be of no use on the dark types, I can hold my own against the other Pokemon. So, let's head out, I'm already packed up and ready to go," the Ralts responded, keeping his excitement hidden as best as he could. It was strange how a Pokemon so easily affected by the emotions of others around him could keep his outer self seem so calm all the time.

"Well okay," Enzu said, " I will do my best to hold my own and keep you safe as well." Enzu was partially worried about keeping Akuroma safe, he knew that the pokemon were dangerous so it was definitely going to be a difficult journey.

--Time skip to when Enzu and Akuroma arrive at the base of the mountain.--

As Enzu approached the edge of the path, he looked up towards the top of the mountain. It lived up to its name, in the distance Enzu could see the black mist that would be a great challenge on this journey. It was a good thing that he had done some sensory training earlier because his and Akuroma's sight was going to be limited on this journey. Enzu turned to Akuroma, "You ready to start?" he asked his new travel companion.

Akuroma looked up at the mountain. Though the mist worried him, as he had no idea if it would affect his psychic sensing, he was determined to climb the mountain. Enzu's voice shook him out of his thought process and he responded with a small nod.
"Yeah, let's go. I hope you don't mind if I collect some samples along the way. The library would love to study the black mist," he said before turning his attention back to the mountain, "Well, lead the way."

"Okay," Enzu said as he began to walk up the mountain path. At this point the path was wide so there wasn't any difficulty in traveling. "So what kind of studying would you do on the mist samples once you get them?" Enzu asked. He figured that it was okay to have a conversation for now, the mist wasn't so thick that it was difficult to see. And that meant that Enzu didn't need to focus so much on his hearing for the time being. Plus he was also interested in the information that could possibly be gathered from the black mist.

"Most likely we'll start on the composition of it, see if it's organic, and from there find out if there is a way to temporarily negate it as explorers travel through the mountain, along with how that might affect the envionrnment," Akuroma said as he followed behind Enzu.
"I would also ask you to help draw out battles if it does not seem dangerous, the library would greatly enjoy extra information on the Pokemon that live here. If we can realize the Pokemon's strength, we'd be able to better prepare exploration teams who are traveling here," he said. He stopped every now and then to look at seemingly random objects before shaking his head and continuing along with Enzu.

Enzu let out a small chuckle, "Well I will see what I can do," Enzu said, "To be honest I hoping to mostly avoid battles if possible. They are pretty tiring and I'm going to need all the energy I can muster in order to be able to climb the mountain." As they continued to walk Enzu took advantage of every moment of silence between the two of them to listen for any possible movement outside of their line of sight. "But I will still do my best to allow you to get as much information as possible." he said.

Akuroma nodded, "That will be greatly appreciated, but it is no required," he said his horn twitching a bit, "Hm? Seems this mountain is populated by several large groups of pokemon. I can sense them all even from here," the Ralts warned the Pawniard as they continued to walk. He was surprised that the Pokemon here lived in several groups, seeing as how most Pecha and Shadowhue forest pokemon were solitary or lived in small family groups. He was so surprised he didn't notice the item he was about to walk on until it was too late and he tripped over it.
"Ah, what the?" he said looking over at the item, "Oh, looks like I found something."

This dice is not existing.

Enzu took Akuromas comment and was now being a little extra wary of listening for other pokemon. With Akuroma here it was going to be easier to notice other pokemon. "Thanks, I keep that in mind." he said before Akuroma had tripped. Once his friend was on the ground he stopped and went to pick him up, "Here let me help you up." he said, he reached down to Akuroma while also glancing over at the item he had tripped on, "What kind of orb is that?" he asked.

Akuroma blinked, "Looks like an Escape orb. They can teleport the wielder and any other pokemon the wielder wants teleported with him or her to the dungeon's entrance. Exploration teams can use them with their badges to teleport all the way back to their guild. The library did a large amount of research into them," Akuroma said, taking the orb carefully, "It'll be useful to us if we end up facing off against one of those large groups," he said before placing the orb into his bag.
"We shouldn't stand around here, I can sense a rather large Pokemon moving underground near us, we'd better hurry up the mountain before it senses us," Akuroma said as he started climbing the mountain again.

Enzu listened to Akuromas description of the orb, "Yea thats a good thing for us to have, it will be good in case we get into a pinch." he said. Enzu then began to follow Akuroma back up the mountain. Enzu was starting to be glad he brought Akuroma along with him. The Ralt's sensory abilities were well trained and very useful, which made it easier on Enzu when it would come to watching out for feral pokemon.

-Time skip to near sunset-

"It's going to get dark soon, not that it would really change anything," Akuroma said, barely able to see in front of him. Thankfully with Enzu so close he could sense him despite Pawniard being partial dark types. He looked down at the direction of where his bag was, a few jars of black mist inside. He remembered having to just simple scoop up the mist with them a few minutes ago.
"I don't suppose you have any idea on what to do? I don't sense any Pokemon nearby, but then again, staying here to camp out for the night might not be a good idea," the Ralts said, looking towards the direction of Enzu.