Treasure or just A LOT of sand?

The other two Pokémon didn't even seem to notice the Krokorok and the Sandshrew that had joined the battle. Just great. And then there was a Sandstorm to be added to the battle as well.
While the Nincada's Ground typing gave him a natural resistance to the harsh weather and sight not being his dominant sense helped him keep his accuracy, his two companions didn't have abilities like his and would most likely not do well with this kind of weather.
While Ned couldn't really tell what was going on concerning the Steelix as the chaotic battle was too hectic to follow, he did know that he needed to do something about those other two Pokémon who didn't take too kindly to being awoken from their slumber in the hot desert sands.
Luckily for the Bug type another Silver Wind easily dealt with the Dark type due to its natural weakness, there was no attack that would have a similar effect on the Sandshrew.
Well, there was one, but it was an attack that should never be used. It was just too dangerous.

Still unable to see much other than the steelix right in front of him due to the sandstorm, Sova had no idea where either of his allies were, though he did know Silverdawn was no longer clinging to the beast. He could only hope they were fine. After all, he had to be worried about himself given he was already injured and seemed to be the only one fighting the steelix for the moment. Just as he prepared for another attack, the steelix spun and swung its tail at him again. He of course jumped back to avoid it, the only other option being to get slammed by the tail again, which didn't end well last time.

He just barely avoided the tail, being knocked down by the wind and sand kicked up from it. He quickly got back up and looked to the steelix. Its body was as hard as steel and his attacks weren't phasing it much, how could he fight it alone? Then he noticed the damaged segment of its body, close to the ground, in reach of the eevee. The one Silverdawn had been clinging to. Of course! The ekans had managed to weaken that segment, giving him just the opportunity he needed.

He darted forward towards the steelix, using Detect to avoid another swing of the steel snake's tail. Upon getting in range, he noticed the steelix's tail swinging again. He was in the perfect position to attack, but risked getting hit by the tail if he did. Deciding the chance was too good to pass up, he got a running start, leaped off the ground and tackled the segment of the steelix's body as hard as he could. He closed his eyes out of reflex at the pain of essentially ramming a wall as hard as he could, but heard the steelix's pained roar and the sounds of cracking and breaking, before feeling its tail swat him away, weakly.

He opened his eyes in time to barely catch a view the steelix collapsing. The sandstorm began to subside as it fell. It had several large cracks on one side of the damaged segment of its body, forming mostly between areas where pieces had earlier been broken off by Silverdawn.

The small sand particles were harmlessly landing on the Nincada's exoskeleton, almost immediately being swept away again. Obviously Ned's sight was even more reduced than it usually was, but that was no problem as he had never relied on that sense before.
And so he was perfectly capable of noticing the Ekans being flung away and did very much notice the Eevee's successful attack. However there were other problematic matters to be concerned with.
Not only was the Sandshrew still advancing on him, but the Ekans would need to be unburied from the dune as well. And as usual it would probably all fall back on the Bug type.
While the Sandshrew charged at him with a Scratch attack, the Nincada barely managed to skitter away in time. Constantly running away Ned tried to summon forth another Silver Wind. But even though the Sandstorm was subsiding it was still interfering with the attack. Furthermore attacking while running away was a difficult task and Ned had used this particular move an awful lot of times already...

(Permission from Haley to skip her turn as Silverdawn is buried doing nothing)

As the sandstorm faded, the nincada fighting....or running away from an enemy came into view. However, the ekans was no where to be seen. Taking the most obvious problem first, Sova stood up and took a step towards Ned, immediately regretting his decision not to stay down. He was hurting quite a bit from being knocked around by the steelix. Why did there have to be so many constant unfortunate events that stopped him from resting for even a second?

Upon trying to walk forward, he realized how bad it actually hurt to move. The steelix's last tail slap was harder than he thought and the pain hadn't subsided yet. Doing his best to ignore the pain, he broke into a dash towards the distracted sandshrew. He tackled it, knocking it away from his ally and onto the ground briefly. Seeing that it was getting up, he made a short dash up to it and skidded to a stop, kicking sand up around it and into its eyes, effectively blinding it for the moment.

"You alright? Where's Silverdawn?" He attempted to get all of the important questions out of the way before the sandshrew regained sight. Being distracted talking to the nincada, he barely noticed a blind slash from the sandshrew, narrowly avoiding it. Luckily the it couldn't see where he actually was.

"Yes. Buried in sand. Get out of the way."
Eshaustion was taking its toll on the Ground type, who had been rendered incapable of speaking without constantly being interrupted by a coughing gasp for air. He really would rather have been more eloquent and less brisk when dealing with the Eevee's inquiries, but they still were in the middle of battle and the Normal type was standing right in his line of fire. Or line of bug rather.
After all Ned was still charging up that Silver Wind and he would much rather not do more harm than good by wounding the Eevee with the attack. They still had a Sandshrew to deal with and would also have to get Silverdawn out of her predicament.

Sova stepped out of the way of the silver wind and was surprised and relieved to see a familiar Ekans emerge from the sand. He didn't find the ekans menacing, but the sandshrew sure seemed to. If only he could be scary like that, but alas, it is difficult for an eevee to be intimidating. Upon his health being questioned, he was reminded of his injury. It hurt to try to put pressure on that leg and he knew the injury was pretty bad. "I'll manage." He didn't want to lie and say he was fine when he clearly wasn't, but he didn't want the others to worry about him either. Though every step on his injured leg made him want to stop putting pressure on it and just walk on three legs, he knew that would make the injury look very bad....and make him look pretty pathetic.

Finally the last enemy had been made to flee as well and Silverdawn had been freed from the desert sand. But as they all knew and as the Ekans' question forced them to remember again - none of them were in particularly good shape.
"I'll manage. But I'd much rather prefer to avoid any further confrontations from now on. I fear they are doing quite a number on our health."
Of course the desert wouldn't actually comply. Most likely the group's exhaustion would actually make them an even better target and attract even more enemies. So they should get going soon despite their condition before they would be attacked...

"As much as I'd like to stay longer, can't say it'd be a good idea." Sova said with a shrug, seeming a bit too nonchalant about both giving up and being badly injured. He followed along, not wanting to even try to take the leading role with his injury. It was hard enough trying to walk normally and avoid limping, as putting pressure on the injured leg just made it hurt worse. But at least he didn't look weak....hopefully. Besides, he was certain he could handle the injury. Though it did hurt. A lot. Perhaps trying to keep pressure off the leg would have been a better idea.

At least they were leaving the desert. Surely he would be able to drop the act and rest his leg soon, once the other two were gone.

This really wasn't a nice place. No trees anywhere in sight and there probably was another enemy - perhaps even one of the dreaded Fire types lurking right beneath the sand.
And so the Nincada was quite happy indeed to hear that the other two were quite willing to leave this place as well. The Ground type couldn't help but wonder - what did the Pokémon here do for entertainment? Of course Ned spent most of his life waiting underground for his evolution as well, but he doubted that the Steelix would be trying to somehow find an as-of-yet unknown evolution under the sand. But that wasn't important. They should rather concern themselves with the best route to leave this place without encountering yet more enemies. If only Ned could use Dig. Then he'd be relatively safe from attacks and the burning desert sun. But then again it would also mean leaving the other two Pokémon behind...

♕

Silverdawn sniffed at some pieces of... candy... that she had found hidden under the sand, along with a stun seed. She supposed she would find out their purpose later, but for now, she merely swept them up into her bag. Then she turned her attention to the stun seed. She tasted the air, directing her senses towards Sova's leg injury. She hummed thoughtfully, staring blankly into darkness for a short while. Then she grinned, having thought of an idea to help Sova.

"Sova, I have an idea to help that leg of yours," she said, slithering up to him and sniffing his wound more carefully. "This stun seed here... Stun seeds paralyze pokemon, right? So if I crushed it into a paste, and slathered it onto your wound, logic suggests that the wound would stiffen up and the paste would also likely numb it, because I know that whenever I've been paralyzed everything seems kind of... muted. But what do you think? I wouldn't want to try something without your permission of course," she hurried to add, her head turned towards Sova in expectation of his words.

♕
Addressed: Sova
Mentioned: Sova
Mood: STUN SEED CURE/shot
Word Count: 189
Notes: nope

♕

"Speech" - 'Thoughts' - "Other's Speech"

♕

Table by Phynix
Image by Me

(Since I've forgotten to do this in forever)

Energy: 18 - 3 (Defense Scarf) = 15 + 2 (pages) = 17 - 1 = 16 Energy

Sova was a bit surprised someone had taken notice of his injury. He was doing his best to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal, yet it clearly was not believable enough. "Well....it's really not that big of a deal....but...." He paused for a moment to consider the option. Maybe the stun seed would help. Or maybe it'd just make things worse. "Stun seeds are most known for their powerful paralyzing effects. Just one of them nearly completely immobilized that steelix earlier. I don't know what applying a Stun seed paste to a wound would do, but it might paralyze me."

The others probably thought he was going to decline out of fear. But he wasn't too worried about himself. "Alright, but if it paralyzes me, don't let me slow you down." He said, not really worried about his own abilities to get out of the desert with paralysis holding him back. Though he'd never actually been paralyzed.

The Eevee had been injured?
Of course Ned could be forgiven for not noticing something like that - after all sight was not his strong sense and injuries without any blood were rather difficult to smell. But still they were out in the wilderness with many feral Pokémon. He should have known something like that!
But then again there wasn't much he would be able to do about injuries anyway.
Hopefully Silverdawn's idea had some merit to it as a wounded or paralyzed Pokémon would slow them down heavily while just leaving Sova simply was not an option.
This was one of the disadvantage of having spent most of your life hiding under trees. One's knowledge of herbology and medicine tended to be lacking under these circumstances.