Berries and Shenanigans

For the fifth time in as many days, Cracker found himself sitting on a branch just shy of Pecha Forest's tree line, staring out at the field that separated it from the town of Grassveil. The entire time he'd been here, he stayed to the forests and rugged, untamed terrains that made up this region, never once considering leaving in favor of civilization, but lately he'd been coming here to watch the town in the distance.

I wonder what it's like there. Is it anything like back home? I don't see any trees, just a bunched of roof-tops. I suppose they'd do in a pinch, but this big open, empty space... he thought with a shudder. If the town had been closer to the trees, he might've considered approaching for a better look, but the whole place resided in a clearing, just out of reach. Maybe tomorrow, he considered, as usual after a while.

Wrapping his tail around the branch, the Aipom jumped off and swung backwards into the forest, catching himself expertly in the next tree and proceeding to venture back to his self-made home, an old hollow tree that still bore fruit. It served as both a place to lay his head, and somewhere to hide his valuables. The free meals were a nice touch, too.

As the monkey moved through the trees, he sensed motion below him. He came to a stop and listened quietly. Probably another wild Pokemon, he reminded himself warily. This wouldn't be his first encounter. By now though, he'd learned enough not to leap without thinking; usually anyway. So instead, he sat and watched quietly, beaming inwardly in the hopes of potentially finding a new friend, instead.

Enzu walked calmly as he navigated through the trees of Pecha Forest. He had just returned to Grassveil with Akuroma yesterday and I had finally finished resting and recovering his energy. Not only that, he had managed to visit Violet and pick some berries from her garden. He enjoying visiting her and seeing her own dojo for the first time. He thought it was a well run business and she seemed to be doing fine with her students.

As Enzu continued to walk he looked briefly down at his Student's Training Cloak that he got fro Dandy's boutique. It was nice that he was able to have his new Joy Ribbon customized to fit him, and he felt a cloak was just what he needed. The cloak could help partially protect Enzu from the elements, and it could also hide a first attack if he had the opportunity to prepare one.

As Enzu walked through the woods he noticed a shadow of a pokemon flew through the trees. Enzu looked up and saw that it was an Aipom. Enzu didn't think that Aipom's appeared in Pecha Woods, but he had been away for some time so maybe the species moved in. Enzu elected to ignore the monkey pokemon and keep walking, as long as it chose to ignore him as well.

When the Pokemon rustling through the undergrowth of the forest revealed itself to be a Pawniard, it made eye-contact with Cracker but continued on without a second look. The Aipom tilted his head, a little disappointed. Not even a hello? he thought. At any rate, it doesn't look wild. Not with that cloak it has on. And judging by the direction he was walking, this Pokemon had to have come from Grassveil Town. The purple monkey grinned broadly; he couldn't pass up this chance to make a new friend.

Slipping free of the branch he stood on, the Aipom vanished into the foliage of the trees, zipping about quickly as he approached the Pawniard, unaware that he might be mistaken for a wild Pokemon himself. As he worked to get closer, his natural ability to rule the forest heights would've made him difficult to pinpoint, but he was not intending to strike. Instead, as the Pokemon approached a particularly low-hanging branch, the Aipom was there in a purple blur, bursting out of the foliage excitedly.

"Hi!" he greeted cheerfully, hanging upside-down from the bundle of leaves and branches.

Out of the corner of his eye Enzu saw the Aipom begin to move once more. However this time it seemed to be moving downwards through the trees rather then across their branches. Enzu guessed that the Aipom was going to approach him, Enzu began to charge up a Fury Cutter in case that the Aipom was intending on attacking him.

As the Aipom burst out from the trees above Enzu he began to draw out his blades, but when the Aipom burst shouted out a greeting, Enzu calmed down and stopped charging up a Fury Cutter. "Hello there," Enzu said.

Only after Cracker emerged from the foliage did he realize he'd just narrowly avoided a direct assault to the face. He could see the dim glow in one of the Pawniard's claws fading away as the Pokemon greeted him instead of attacking. The relief was visible on the Aipom's face as he even went to the effort to swipe an arm across his brow.

"Hah... Thanks for not hitting me in the face," he said sheepishly. "A-heh-hit wouldn't be the first time, y'know. Anyway, uh... I was wondering--I mean... I saw you walkin' along here. You didn't happen to come from that town in the clearing, did you? Grassveil I think it's called?" Bubbling with contained curiosity, the monkey swayed side-to-side, still dangling from the branch.

Enzu was calmed by the fact that the Aipom wiped its brow, that showed that the monkey pokemon did not want to battle. If anything it showed that it was even afraid to battle. Enzu was also shocked that it said Enzu attacking wouldn't be the first time somebody just attack the monkey pokemon; he knew that there was feral pokemon in Pecha Forest, but for the most part it was a peaceful area.

"Hm?" Enzu asked, he thought that it was an odd question to ask. If he wasn't coming from Grassveil then where would he be coming from? From the question it was evident that this Aipom was not from around here, and the fact that it didn't seem to know the name of Grassveil further emphasized that fact. "Well yes I am," Enzu said, "I live in the old dojo just outside of town."

At the mention of a dojo, Cracker leapt out of the tree, flipping through the air like a little purple acrobat. He landed on a nearby tree-stump and pranced on it excitedly, clapping his paws together and chittering; or perhaps giggling. At any rate, he was bursting with joy at this otherwise unimportant thing. It may not have been a big deal to the Pawniard, but for the Aipom coming across a Pokemon from a dojo, he might as well have had his deepest hopes and dreams come true.

"A dojo? Really?!" he squealed with delight, holding his paws to his face and rubbing his cheeks. "That's wonderful! Do you know any special moves? Oh--maybe you could show me! Ah-ah! Could you teach me? I've never even been to a dojo before, what's it like? Are there lots of Pokemon there? Do you train all the time? Please, you gotta tell me! You gotta--!"

The Aipom stopped himself sharply, going so far as to whip his arms outward to physically hush his own merriment. "No, no, I shouldn't get ahead of myself, that's rude! So rude! I'm sorry--uh... Anyway, my name's Cracker, it's an honor to meet you!" Flipping upside-down, the monkey balanced on his head and held out his tail-hand in greeting, grinning broadly.

"It's nice to meet you Cracker," Enzu said with a bow of his head, he couldn't really shake Crackers tail since Enzu's hands were blades and he would cause harm to the monkey pokemon. "And as for the dojo, it is no longer operational," Enzu said, "I spent a year travelling and I only recently returned to Grassveil. And in that time span another dojo opened. But it is for the best because I feel that I was not the best person to lead a dojo." Enzu was glad to see a pokemon with as much enthusiasm as Cracker, most of the pokemon he knew were kind, but they didn't have what seemed to be limitless energy like Cracker.

The Aipom looked a little disappointed when the Pawniard bowed instead of accepting his hand-shake, but he figured the Pokemon had his reasons. Retracting his proffered tail-hand, Cracker bounced up into the air and flipped himself back upright, landing poised on his tail. Holding his paws together, he looked quite stricken when he was told the dojo was closed. Although the mention of another quickly reversed his frown. The monkey was still filled with uncertainty though. Grassveil was an unfamiliar place, unlike Pecha Forest, which he'd begun to grow accustomed to.

"You're sure? Really?" he asked, tilting his head. "You seem like a really nice guy to me. I bet you're a great teacher too. I'm a real good judge of character you know! I'm mean, sure I only just met you a minute ago, and I don't even know your name--mine's Cracker, by the way--oh wait, I already said that--but I can tell that you're a great teacher!" The Aipom lilted to the side as he looked around, seeming to space out for a moment, before snapping back to attention. "So, anyway! What're you doing out here in the woods, anyway? Secret training? On a mission maybe? Gonna help some Pokemon in need? Or maybe you're just hungry! I know a great spot to find berries and fruits!"

Enzu smiled when Cracker said that he was sure Enzu was a good teacher, "Well thank you for your faith in me," he said, "But its not as much as I doubt my skills, its more of that I have learned teaching is not for me." During his journey Enzu learned that he loved to meet different pokemon and to travel and explore different areas of the world. He liked to teach and help others, but it wasn't the thing that he wanted to do for the rest of his life. "And as for what I am doing here," Enzu said as he began to answer Lumin's next question, "I'm going to begin a journey to Black Mist Mountain with a friend, and I'm looking for any berries that we could use on our journey."

At the mention of Black Mist Mountain, the Aipom winced visibly. His memories of the place had been less than pleasant, and not just because of the region's upsetting lack of vegetation. It happened to be the home of some unsavory Pokemon, the majority of which Cracker was fortunate enough not to have the displeasure of running into. The journey hadn't been all too terrible though. It was thanks to venturing there that he found a few choice items and the Gold Ribbon he carried around with him even now as a means of carrying things.

"Black Mist, huh?" he said, sounding thoroughly unhappy with the memories dredged up by the name. "I went there with a Ralts once. Promised me berries and friendly Pokemon. All I got was misery and this ribbon here. Sad place, that mountain. Not a tree in sight that's still alive or standing. I blame the Onix. Terrible, clumsy things. Ruined a perfectly good mountain if you ask me. And honestly, what's up with that mist? Thick as Blukberry juice. Really creeps me out. Can't imagine why you'd ever wanna go there."

Scratching an itch on his cheek idly, the purple monkey looked up at the trees tilting his head in thought before abruptly springing upwards with his tail to catch a low-hanging branch. Dangling from it, he swayed side-to-side, the unpleasant expression on his face quickly being replaced with another grin.

"But hey, if you wanna look for berries, maybe I can help! Never hurts to have somebody watching your back, right? I mean even here in Pecha there's plenty of unsavory folk. And y'know, I suppose I gotta defend my territory too, so having a little back-up would be nice--I mean, if you're okay with that--oh! And maybe you could teach me a thing or two as well? That is, you don't have to--totally up to you. I can handle myself in a fight it's just, y'know, never hurts to improve right?" The Aipom paused to giggled to himself. "I'm probably over-thinking this. I can help if you like. I've been living around here for a while now, so I've got a pretty good lay of the land, know what I'm saying?"

"Okay that sounds fine by me," Enzu said with a nod. He was glad that Cracker was willing to help him look for berries and items in the forest, it would make searching much easier and also would make it more fun. "Lead the way," Enzu said. However Enzu was also thinking about the Ralts that Cracker had mentioned because he was pretty sure that it was Akuroma. After all Akuroma did say that he had made his own return trip to the Mountain, so it was plausible that Akuroma had taken Cracker along with him.

"Wonderful, splendid! You won't regret it, I promise!" Cracker blurted excitedly, swinging up onto the branch he'd been hanging from. If he tried to contain his joy even just a little right now, he'd probably explode. So he let out every ounce of his merriment as he swung happily to the next tree, waving to the Pawniard. "Come on, this way! I know a bunch of places to find berries! Maybe if we're lucky they haven't already been picked clean by all the wild Pokemon."

Leaping into the air, the Aipom caught the branch with his tail and swung himself forward to the next tree. It had been a while since Cracker traveled with another Pokemon he could talk to, which might've made him come off as a bit socially deprived, but no matter. Coming across this Pawniard was going to be the highlight of his day, even despite his new friend's quiet nature. It just meant he'd have to do most of the talking on this adventure.

After leading the way for several meters, the purple monkey stopped short and swung upside-down by his tail again, looking just a little impish. "So I hate to have to ask, but do you have a name of your own, or can I just call you Pawny? Oh, or maybe Nardy! Paw... pawn... niar-niar--you know, you guys have a really weird name."

Enzu followed behind Cracker with a slight smile across his face. He had not spent much time with such energetic pokemon, and forgot what kind of fun it could possibly lead to. As Cracker quickly swung down and asked Enzu for his name, it was only then that he had realized that he had not given his name to the monkey pokemon. "Oh I'm sorry," he said, "My name is Enzu. But if you want to call me Pawny or anything of the like you can feel free too."

Enzu had never considered being given a nickname before, he had always been called Enzu. So he figured that he would give having a nickname a try, and that he would tell Cracker if the nickname was beginning to bother him.

"Enzu, huh?" The Aipom stared at the ground in thought for a moment. "And you'd really let me give you a nickname?" He had to admit it was the first time another Pokemon, let alone one he'd just met, had ever willingly allowed him to do so. Just about everyone he knew, past and present, strongly disliked being called by anything other than their name. Thinking about it now, though, 'Pawny' wasn't the best nickname he could've come up with. A nickname required a little more planning. "That--That's great! You're the best you know, a real swell guy! Let's see, though... Pawny's a little unoriginal, so maybe..."

Clearly coming up with a worthwhile nickname was of some importance to Cracker. Swinging upright, he hopped down out of the tree and balanced on his tail-hand, rubbing his chin as he considered several ideas. He didn't want to take too long, since Enzu was on a mission, so he quickly regarded the Pawniard's appearance in search of the perfect nickname. He didn't really have much else to go on, after all. The Pokemon's appearance was very sharp, his body being composed mostly of blade-like protrusions, so maybe something knife-like.

"You're really pointy, so how about Spike? Is that too direct? What about Skiver?  Maybe that's not direct enough. Boy this is tougher than I thought. Maybe I shouldn't be basing it what you look like, that's a bit unfair. What do you think?" Cracker turned his attention to Enzu, tilting his head indecisively. "Would you want to be called Spike or Skiver? Maybe just Skive. Or how about Shiv? Lance is good; it could double as just a name too."

((Energy: 23))

Lumin carried out 3 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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(don't address any item rolls right now; if there even are any. X3)