Healing Mirage the Zorua! A Temporary Hideout In Pecha Forest!?

Akuroma looked around carefully for any Exploration Teams that might be passing through the forest. He twisted his head this way and that before waving for Cracker to come closer. The Aipom was carrying a currently unconscious Zorua on his back. The Zorua, Mirage, was badly injured back when the three had explored Monochrome Ruins. Akuroma himself was injured, but not as badly as the fox was.

After a few more tense minutes of trying to find a safe place to go, the Ralts finally saw a rather large and hollowed out tree. Upon further inspection he found it unoccupied and signaled the Aipom to come inside.

18/22 Energy

After carting the unconscious Zorua all this way into Pecha Forest, Cracker was growing very tired. He didn’t think they’d be on the move for nearly this long but Akuroma, the Ralts he’d accompanied with dark-type into Monochrome Ruins, was determined to locate the safest place he could before they settled down. The psychic-type was concerned about Exploration Teams that might stumble upon them attempting to care for someone known to be an outlaw.

Although Cracker still didn’t believe Mirage could be the bad Pokemon she was said to be, he had to agree that keeping her hidden was best for her. If she really was on some wanted list, then they couldn’t allow themselves to wander into a group that might be out looking to apprehend her.

Standing in-between two bushes, holding the unconscious Pokemon on his wobbly legs, he waited for Akuroma’s signal to move forward before taking a deep, shaky breath and hobbling forward awkwardly. They must have traveled at least a mile by now, and it was doing a number of the Aipom’s little legs. He was unbelievably grateful when the Ralts finally settled on a large, hollow tree for their temporary hide-out; it was actually very nice, even homely.

Upon the psychic Pokemon’s signal, Cracker scurried inside and dropped to the ground immediately, flattened by the heavy Zorua’s unconscious body. The Aipom panted heavily and sighed.

“Finally!” he groaned. “I can’t take another step! I never thought she’d be so heavy, or that we’d have to go so far.”

Sliding the Zorua off his back, Cracker rolled over, limbs splayed out over the soft mulchy floor inside the tree. Looking up, he could see the hollowness extended up most of the tree, with at least one opening half-way up the trunk. Although the plant looked like it should’ve been dead, it in fact still looked pretty lively.

“This is a really nice place, Aku,” Cracker commented, staring up the tree’s hollow core as he caught his breath. “It’d make a nice home, don’tcha think?”

((Energy: 16))

Akuroma shrugged, "If you enjoy these kinds of homes. I enjoy places with a more modern touch, like Grassveil's buildings," the Ralts said before sitting down with a large sigh.

"Also, please try to control your fear...it may have not looked like it, but I was getting distracted in all our battles between your fear and Mirage's anger. I am the Feeling Pokemon. Emotions like fear, anger, sadness, and other such negative emotions can distract me, while more positive emotions like bravery, confidence, and happiness fill me with energy. Half the time we were battling I had to ignore your emotions as much as possible, which isn't easy since you're not immune to my psychic abilities," the Ralts explained. He leaned back onto the tree and closed his eyes.

"I would have us go out and get us some herbs, but my injuries are far from healed and you're exhausted. We'll have to rest for a bit and go out later..." the Ralts suggested falling asleep on the last word.

The Aipom was still musing over making this old tree into a home when Akuroma decided it was time to discuss the most notable of Cracker’s flaws. Listening to what the Ralts had to say, the Pokemon slowly sat upright, a frown growing on his face. He knew his fear of fighting big, scary enemies was a personal failing on his part, but he had no idea it was having such a detrimental effect on his companions as well. Hearing how his inability to be brave in dangerous situations had caused so much trouble for the psychic-type, made him feel bad.

Before falling into a light sleep, the Ralts suggested they head out later to look for herbs, but Cracker was still hung up on what Akuroma had said about the emotions of him and Mirage being such a distraction back in the ruins. It gave the Aipom so much food for thought that he was getting a mental tummyache. He’d never imagined his own fears could affect someone else so negatively.

Being useless was one thing but being dangerous to his own friends was something he just couldn’t handle. And on top of being a coward, he could barely fight to save his own life. Thinking back, every ‘victory’ they had was thanks to either the Ralts or Mirage. If Cracker had played any hand in them, it was from sheer luck, or motivated by fear.

When he first appeared to these two Pokemon, it was with the intention of befriending them so he wouldn’t be alone in Shadowhue Forest. He’d hoped they would get him out of there in one piece. Perhaps they would’ve been better off without him, even though he certainly wouldn’t have been without them. But if all he was doing was getting in their way…

Pouting quietly, the long-tailed Pokemon glanced at the Ralts, fast asleep against the tree’s inner wall. He didn’t want to cause harm to his friends any more than he wanted to be useless to them. There had to be a way to redeem himself. Like maybe… Cracker turned to look outside. What if he went out to get some herbs all by himself? If he could help Mirage get better, maybe he wouldn’t be so useless anymore.

The Aipom’s usual grin returned to his face, the idea striking him as very alluring. With both of his friends asleep, he could probably slip out and return without them being any the wiser. What a perfect plan! I’ll just head out real quick, find some herbs, and then Mirage will get better, and everything will be okay! he thought, leaping into the air.

He scaled the inside of the tree with ease, emerging from the first hole in the trunk he could find, which deposited him conveniently onto a branch. Peering back down at the bottom of the tree, he could see both Pokemon were still unconscious. Now all he had to do was find some herbs; how difficult could that be?

(Mirage Energy: 24)

Complete darkness, nothing but a lone zorua sitting in a lone room with a lone spotlight that seemed to come from nowhere. Mirage had been staring at her paws for an unknown amount of time, her neck would have began to ache, but due to the nature of a dream, she felt no ache. The zorua looked up, wishing to at last see the source of the light, but the brightness cut off her vision and "burned" her eyes as her mind had told her. The zorua finally picked herself up onto all four legs, and began to walk out from directly under the light, the light slowly began to stop harming her eyes and allowing her to see it, but as she neared the darkness, something reached out and grabbed her forepaws, dragging her into the void. The zorua screamed in her dream, but was only jolted awake in the real world.

She found herself breathing heavily and quickly looking around, seeing a sleeping ralts to one side, and a seemingly empty void on the other side of the small place they were in. The zorua was confused, how had they gotten here? When did she even pass out? Her body still ached, but she forced herself up. Her fur was still dirty and nearly brown and would just need a blue touch on her red fur to make her seem like a certain rare color of zorua.

The progress was slow, but the zorua eventually made it towards an opening, the opening revealed to the zorua that she was back in Pecha Forest, and not in some jail as she had feared of occurring back in the falls. The zorua looked back to the ralts, and gave a huff before using her strength to leap out of the tree. She stumbled on her injured paw during the landing, but toughed it out. She was going to get out of here, rest on her own, away from that ralts. Not once did the zorua think about how easily she could have killed the ralts right then and there, for her only concern was leaving.

She did wonder though, where had Cracker gone off to?

Apparently finding herbs was incredibly difficult. Even in such a lush, beautiful forest like Pecha, he couldn’t locate a single plant that might help Mirage get better. Of course it didn’t help that his youth had been spent goofing around instead of actually learning this stuff from the Elders in his village. Had he paid more attention, he might’ve been able to identify which growths were beneficial and which would only make matters worse.

If Cracker was going to have any chance of finding the right herb for the job, he was going to have to call on every ounce of memory he possessed regarding all those childhood lessons; not an easy task for the easily distracted Pokemon. He had to try though, for the Zorua’s sake. The quicker she could get back on her feet and be healthy again, the better.

For the better part of an hour, Cracker had been wandering the tree-tops, attempting to spy what he was after from a distance, but after so long without even a hint of what he looking for, the Aipom was forced to resign himself to the forest floor. As much as he hated it, his species didn’t always stay in trees; herb collection was one of the few reasons to touch the ground, and without doing so, he would’ve continued on a fruitless endeavor forever. Some things were just easier to spot when you were on the same plane.

As he searched, memories were trickling in very slowly. He knew of course that he had to pursue from the ground as well as some of the places he should examine like at the base of trees or beneath certain bushes, but he still couldn’t quite recall what the plants themselves actually looked like. There were lots of plants to see, but they were all weeds or flowers. What he had to find was something more unique yet still abundant in nearly every region on the planet. This inability to recall such important details was absolutely frustrating.

For a while it seemed like he was never going to find what he was looking for, but just when he was about to give up and return to the tree, he came across something that caught his eye. It was a very small sprout with silver-lined leaves. He didn’t know why, but it felt important. Perhaps this was one of herbs from his schooling. However, it could just as easily have been one of the bad ones he was meant to avoid, but he couldn’t take the chance of ignoring it.

Pulling the plant from the soil, the Aipom continued on, gathering a few more different types of plants just to be safe. Maybe his memory of which plants were useless would come back to him later. Right now though, he had to hurry back. Akuroma wasn’t likely to sleep all day, and Mirage still needed help.

Using a large leaf, Cracker gathered up everything he’d found and slung it over his shoulders like a make-shift backpack then rushed off back to the tree. Fortunately, by now the Aipom knew his way around the woods enough to navigate his way back with little difficulty. However, when he returned to the hole in the tree and slipped through, he was shocked by what he saw at the bottom of the hollow shaft.

“She’s gone!” Cracker squeaked, dropping to the mulchy floor and off-loading his pack. The Zorua was nowhere to be seen. “Mirage is gone! Aku, wake up!” Rushing over to the Ralts, he shook the psychic Pokemon.

Aku was snoring by the time Cracker got back. It wasn't well known, even by him, that he was a loud sleeper, and was prone to sleep walking. With a bubble growing and shrinking as he snored loudly, the Ralts slept right through the Aipom's attempts to wake him. The only thing that probably slept deeper than him was a Snorlax.

As the aipom attempted to shake his companion awake, the zorua was farther off, but not too far due to her injuries. She was slowly making her way around, searching for a good hiding spot hide in until night time. Explorers were out and about in the day time, and night is where her light shined the brightest with her ability to see in the darkness.

Her pained paw was slowly becoming a dull ache as she began to grow used to the pain. She continued onward, hoping to find at least a stream or something at this point. Luckily for her, that's just what she found. The zorua dipped her head to get a drink, lapping up the water with her tongue before easing herself in and washing off the dirt and grime until her fur was dark and shiny once more. She was not far from the tree, and she had left a rather obvious track of foot steps with three paws without realizing it.

Several minutes of jostling the Ralts and begging him to wake up ended up being a fruitless effort. Akuroma was clearly so exhausted that he refused to wake. After everything he’d been through though, Cracker could hardly blame him, but this was an emergency. The still weak Zorua had taken off who knows where, with injuries that weren’t healed yet. And while Pecha Forest wasn’t nearly as dangerous as Shadowhue, the likelihood of running into an Exploration Team was much greater.

The last thing the Aipom wanted to see right now, was Mirage behind bars. She wasn’t nearly as awful a Pokemon as she’d led so many to believe; he was sure of it. If the Ralts wasn’t going to wake up and help him though, then the only thing Cracker could do was go out looking for her himself. Even if she had left shortly after he did, with that paw in her current state, she couldn’t have gotten very far.

Scooping up the make-shift back-pack he’d constructed, the long-tailed Pokemon slipped it on and ascended the tree’s hollow core once more, emerging from the hole in the trunk and scurrying along the branch it led onto. He immediately began searching the forest floor for any sign of a trail, but unfortunately, he was no tracker. If Mirage had been determined enough to get away unnoticed, her wouldn’t be able to spot a trail if he tried.

This, however, didn’t seem to be a problem. After only a minute of searching, Cracker found a very clear trail though the undergrowth. Dead leaves and bunches of grass were pushed aside like something had skulked through very slowly and deliberately. There was a slim chance it could’ve been another Pokemon, but there was a distinct awkwardness to the paw-prints in the soil, so he had to assume it was her.

Hoisting up his pack, the Aipom leapt from the branch into the next tree and proceeded to follow the natural bread-crumbs Mirage had unwittingly left behind. He hoped nothing bad had happened to her. Why she left in the first place, he couldn’t imagine; no doubt though it had something to do with the Ralts.

As Cracker tracked down Mirage, the sound of distant running water eventually reached his ears. He noticed immediately after that the trailed diverted in that direction. Maybe she was thirsty, he thought, changing direction as well.

It didn’t take him long at all to reach the river, swinging through the trees like the natural he was. But when he arrived, he didn’t see anyone at first. Nor did he see a trail leading away. His first thought was he’d missed her, or that maybe she’d fallen into the river’s current and was unable to swim back ashore. The Aipom started to fret. Or maybe some wild Pokemon scooped her up for dinner!

Cracker was on the verge of flipping out when he heard a splashing sound below him. Looking down, he quickly spotted the source and a huge wave of relief crashed over him. Mirage was down by the shallowest part of the river, initially obscured by the water’s reflection of the forest’s foliage. She was busy at work cleaning herself up. The Aipom’s relief was too much for him to contain.

“Mirage!” he called, leaping out of the tree to the ground below. Dumping his pack, he jumped into the water next to her and scooped her up in a big hug. “Oh thank goodness! I thought something bad happened to you! I’m so glad you’re okay!” In his excitement, he might’ve squeezed her a little too tightly.

The zorua was surprised to see something come splashing towards her. She had panicked, and was about to flee, but a long limb had suddenly scooped her up and dragged her close, binding her tightly. She had been about to attack, but she stopped when the creature "attacking" her, as she had thought, was suddenly babbling about missing her and thinking something had happened to her.

She finally recognized the aipom as Crackers, she would have said something, but the pain in her paw was being re-introduced to her as her bad paw was bound tightly against her in the hug and her breath was being squeezed out of her. She finally managed to say, "Too...tight..." when her face seemed to be turning slightly purple due to the lack of brething and her voice sounded high pitched like a squeaky toy!

The zorua struggled to be free, but she was still weak, and the aipom seemed to be hellbent on hugging her to death, taking the term "missing someone to death" a little to literally.

Only when the Zorua wheezed breathlessly, did Cracker realize his excitement had gotten the better of him. He was practically crushing the wounded Pokemon in his arms. The instant he understood what he was doing, the Aipom released Mirage and leapt backwards in surprise.

“Oh, no! I—I’m sorry, Mirage! I didn’t squeeze you too hard, did I?” he asked worriedly. Surely in her condition, even an unusually enthusiastic hug would’ve only served to ignite old pains, if not cause a few new ones. “I’m really sorry, I was just so glad to see you, and I—Oh! I’ve got some things that might help!”

Jumping out of the water, Cracker raced over to where he’d deserted his pack, scooping it up in his arms. He hurried back, reaching into to leafy container as he moved; searching the contents for something, he prayed a re-examination would jog his memory on what plants were useful, and which were dangerous.

“See, I left our hide-out so I could find something for that paw of yours. But… I’m not very good at identifying herbs, so I just grabbed all of these and hoped for the best.” The Aipom dumped all the plants onto the ground and began poking through them. “The Elders in my home village used to teach us all about healing herbs, so if I can figure out which ones will work, we can start making that sore leg of yours feel better.”

As he poked through the plant matter, he came across the silver-trimmed weed from before. Again, it felt important, but its history as an herb was just at the edge of his memory. He held it up for Mirage to see. “This one here… I think this is one of them, but I’m not sure.” A frustrated look came over Cracker, unhappy with himself for still lacking the knowledge to assist the Zorua.

Akuroma yawned, the bubble popping as he awoke. Looking around he didn't find Cracker or Mirage, causing him to sigh in exasperation. The Ralts sat there for a minute, debating on whether or not he should go to find them. He decided that he had little to worry about, Mirage probably left in anger, and if Cracker had come back from Arceus-knows-where, he'd have immediately gone looking for her. Though...why didn't the Aipom try waking Akuroma up? He sighed yet again, standing up in the tree and heading out of the hole, guessing he should probably go find the two Pokemon. As he headed outside he noticed something sticking out of a bush.

Dracorexion carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

The zorua watched as the aipom dumped the contents of his package onto the floor, revealing various plants and ingredients. He began to pipe about his home and the elders of his village. It was not long before the monkey offered her an herb and voiced how he was not sure. The zorua hesitated, looking at the aipom for a moment as if deciding whether or trust him and take the medication or to turn it down.

'Can't hurt to try....right?' she thought, ignoring the fact that she was really just concerned she would hurt the pokemon's feelings. She had decided to just push those little irritating thoughts to the back of her mind, forever buried under her web of malicious intents and "hatred" for all but other dark types.

The zorua picked up the herb in her own teeth and ate it. It tasted awful, the bitterness of the herb made her want to recoil and gag it out, but she resisted. She chewed it slowly and painfully before finally swallowing it. The zorua waited for what seemed like hours as she tried to keep from barfing the recipe back up, until at last the pain in her leg began to drain away and her bruises seemed to hurt less as they slowly began to heal.

The healing came at a price though, as she began to feel a bit dizzy and the world began to spin.
"Wh-what?" the zorua spoke, her speech becoming slurred. She quickly got up, alarmed by this strange reaction, but the world seemed to do a flip and she stumbled back onto the ground. The alarm slowly began to fade away and be replaced by relaxation, "What was that?" she spoke, seeming to sound a bit sleepy and as if she did not have full control of her jaw muscles.

By the time the Zorua made her approach, Cracker was still fretting over the silver-leafed plant in his paws, trying to recall the type of herb it was, but to no avail. He was almost certain that this was the one for healing deep injuries like Mirage’s strained ankle, but there was something at the back of his mind, a warning of some sort that hung just beyond his mental reach.

He was so caught up in trying to remember, that when the dark-type began eating one of the leaves, he watched with a blank expression. As she ate it, he could tell the taste was bitter just by the expression on her face. Seeing her reaction triggered a momentary flash of memory that confirmed the plant’s unappetizing flavor, but it wasn’t until the Zorua began acting strangely that the mystery behind the herb finally slammed into his frontal lobe.

The Aipom was presented with a mental image of one of his Elders, a surly Ambipom named Romin, holding one of the silver leaves in his paw and waving it in front of a younger version of himself as he rattled on with a boring lecture that Cracker had been paying little to no attention to. In the vision he sat with his legs crossed, picking bits of bark from between his toes as Romin spoke of the plant.

“This here, is the Zekura Weed, a powerful healing agent. One can identify it by the silver lining on its leaves. It is very abundant, and it works well to cure most wounds, but remember!” The Ambipom cut off sharply, eyeing his students. “This plant must NEVER be eaten!”

One of the young Aipom raised their arms with a question, to which the larger Pokemon nodded his permission to speak. “Why not, sir? Is it poisonous? Deadly?”

The Ambipom grinned and shooked his head in amusement. “Of course not, young one. It just tastes spectacularly bitter and presents in an individual the warm feelings of a good strong drink. Not something you youngsters need to concern yourselves with. Just remember, anyone who ingests a Zekura Weed will become confused and disoriented, resulting in slurred speech and dulled senses. The effects are harmless, but will get progressively more debilitating unless an antidote is administered swiftly. For that, you would need this, a…”

The memory suddenly began to fade, leaving Cracker without the most important piece of information he needed. Before him, Mirage was already feeling the effects of the weed plant, causing the Aipom to panic.

“Oh no, no, no,” he groaned, grabbing the Zorua to keep her upright. “You weren’t supposed to eat it, Mirage! This is all my fault, I’ve gotta find that antidote!”

Akuroma picked the Swift seed out of the bush, looking it over for a bit before placing it in his bag. He then began to look around a bit, trying to figure out where his two traveling companions had gone. It was no wonder the Zorua's hatred and stubbornness is what cause her to leave, and with that injury of her's, she would've left a trail easy enough for Cracker to follow. However, despite the texts Akuroma had read on the subject, he himself was no expert at tracking.

It was only a few moments before he found what looked like someone having half dragged themselves away from the hollowed tree. Akuroma slowly and deliberately began to follow the trail, believing Cracker must've already caught up with Mirage and would probably be helping her back by now. He even began to whistle a little tune.