Life's a Peach

First topic message reminder :

The earlier storm that had raged in the distance was long gone. Even the slight drizzle it left in its wake had ended, and the gray clouds hanging above the forest's canopy had dispersed, letting the rays of sunlight seep in through the leaves. The smell of rain was still quite present, and the green leaves and blades of grass were dotted with little droplets of water, sparkling as the light touched them. Pecha Forest seemed to be quite peaceful in its current state and not many Pokémon were out and about, most likely having stayed in shelter during the rain. It was still so quiet, almost as if every living being was still waiting to see if it was safe to go outside or if the rain would come back again.

Varda didn't have much of a choice. Not knowing where the wind had blown him during the storm, he didn't really have any safe places to hide in, not having found any shelters that would keep his completely dry. Not that it mattered anyways, as the bird Pokémon had already been completely soaked by the time he got to the foreign forest. His usually pristine feathers were ruffled and wet, even having spots of mud and dirt in those spots he was having a hard time reaching himself. Even his head feathers were soaking wet, their new heaviness causing them to be smoothly pressed against his back! The Swablu's belly seemed to be the cleanest, as it was constantly being brushed by the tufts of wet grass underneath as he walked.

He had no time to waste! Even though the wild ride of the storm that taken him from his home and brought him to the forest had left him exhausted, the Pokémon showed no signs of stopping. His wings were too tired for flight, but his little feet pitter-pattered tirelessly through the greenery. Every now and then, Varda stopped, his beady eyes scanning his surroundings in case he finally found something familiar that would tell him where he was and lead him back home. Honestly, he had no idea where he was or what direction he even came from! Most likely, the bird was just walking in circles, anyways...

The Swablu visibly brightened up when his eyes finally managed to see something new, something that just wasn't wet grass, rocks, trees and bushes. He could see a more traveled trail snaking through the forest and the endless sea of green, which was a good sign! Obviously, a road wouldn't be created unless others had walked through this very same spot multiple times. Where the trail went, there would surely be Pokémon! Perhaps even Varda's family! Hopeful and with new-found vigor, the Swablu hurried to the little dirt road, starting to follow it.


Current Energy: 14 (19 base, -5 from entering)

"Teams do a lot of things. Sometimes they go item-hunting to get items that will help them in dungeons. Sometimes they go exploring, and sometimes they help other pokemon that need help. Teams are usually free to do what they want." He picked up the watmel berry that was in the first bush and moved over to another bush. "And yes, sometimes looking for items is pretty dangerous. There are a lot of aggressive pokemon in the forest too. And you can help me if you want." He then looked inside the bush, wondering what was inside.

LanceTheDragon carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

Varda listened carefully, his eyes sparkling in anticipation and amazement. The concept of a "team" was slightly foreign to him, but collecting items... Was a job he knew of, but one he had never tried! It did sound quite exciting though, going somewhere and looking for anything they could find, something that could possibly help them. Surely even this peaceful forest could be filled with many mysteries and surprises, and finding something like that sounded like fun! It was like every day was a birthday and you got a new surprise gift no matter where you looked.

The Swablu couldn't help but ooh and aah when he noticed a brightly striped berry emerging from the bush when Lance pushed some leaves and branches aside. He stood up and tried to take a better look, excited of the find. It looked so... Easy! A team would just have to look into a bush and get any item they wanted! Lance didn't have to ask twice when he mentioned that the bird could, in fact, help him if he wanted – and the warning of things being dangerous seemed to be completely ignored. Or forgotten. Or perhaps not even heard in the first place.

Varda walked over to the other Pokémon with a cheerful spring in his step, deciding that it would be a good idea to search where Lance already found something, in case there was more! Sticking his head inside a bush, he took a good look around. It was a bit dark, but he was able to see something with stripes alright... Which could have been another berry? At least it was big like the previous one – no, even bigger! Excited, the bird Pokémon pushed himself further, grabbing the striped object with his beak to yank it out.

He found himself with his back against the wet grass, unsure how he got there. Slowly sitting back up, he noticed that he had actually flown quite far from the bush he had been inspecting and his head hurt. A snarling, hissing Zigzagoon jumped out from the bush, quite angry and in pain from having its tail bitten by a sharp bird beak. It had retaliated almost immediately, tackling its attacker and sending the light Swablu flying through the air until he had finally hit the ground behind them.

Lance saw the zigzagoon attack Varda, and he quickly jumped in front of the pokemon, ready to fight. He used blaze kick, scorching the zigzagoon. It didn't faint, but it was greatly ingured, and it didn't want to take another blow like that. It quickly scurried away, and Lance ran over to Varda. "Are you ok?" He asked. He hoped his friend wasn't too injured. He moved Varda back to the tree, and started checking for any serious injuries.

Varda's head was spinning a bit, his surroundings looking quite strange now in his dazed condition. He did notice how Lance – probably – kicked the Zigzagoon, sending it scurrying away. The bird couldn't be entirely certain, as the shapes he saw were rather blurry at points and the flashing lights and stars he was seeing were obstructing his vision. Shaking his head with closed eyes as he tried to clear it, everything was slowly starting to calm down and look a bit more normal. The Swablu hadn't noticed Lance approaching while his eyes were closed, but he looked up immediately when he saw the other Pokémon next to him.

"Oh. I think so!" The bird responded when he was asked if he was alright. As he was helped back to the tree, he seemed like he was more or less like his usual self now. He did seem cheerful and while everything hurt, he was rather soft and apparently surprisingly resilient when it came to taking damage. Mostly the Pokémon was just a bit dirtier now, having slid across wet grass and gaining some green grass smears on his back feathers.
"It was a bit surprising!" Varda said with a little laugh, explaining that he was more surprised than truly hurt. Still, he much rather stayed put for a moment now instead of getting back on his feet and starting to roam the forest again.


Current Energy: 15 (14+1 from not rolling anything for a page at least I think this is how it works, sorry if I messed it up!)

"Well, I'm glad to see that you're ok." Lance said. "One thing about item hunting is that your not always going to find items." He walked over to a tree. "Another thing is that you can try to search for multiple items at once. But that also increases the chance that you will encounter pokemon. So it's all about luck." He grabbed the tree and shook it, wondering what it contained.

[Energy: 11-1(Watmel berry)-2(Zigzagoon)+1(Full page)=9]

Varda nodded happily, happy that he was alright himself as well! And happy that the other Pokémon was happy about it, too. Everything was going well and everyone was happy despite what had happened! The dull throbbing the pain left behind was starting to subdue and soon it was like the Swablu hadn't even been hit in the first place! Well while he was resting, at least. Surely the hit had done some damage, but there were no visible injuries and the bird did seem quite chipper, so it couldn't be awfully serious in the first place.

The Swablu tilted his head, curious as he heard explanation from the team leader Pokémon. Lance certainly was taking his position seriously and teaching his possible new team member well! His eyes were watching intently as the other Pokémon walked over to a tree and started to shake it, apparently trying to show how items or Pokémon could be found like it. It did make sense, as trees could have many things hidden inside them, which would then fall as they would shook. As a bird though, Varda thought that flying up to check the branches might have been a better idea so nothing accidentally fell and hit them, but he stayed put and let Lance do things his way. After all, he was showing the Swablu an example and Lance didn't seem to have wings or the ability to fly...

Bird carried out 3 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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Nothing came out of the tree Lance shook, but as he turned around, he did notice that there were things in the tree Varda was sitting at. A Murkrow and a Tangela came out of the tree and faced him. When they came out, one of them hit a pecha berry hanging from the tree, and it fell on the ground. Lance didn't notice that. All he noticed is that Varda was about to be attacked. He used quick attack to get over to Varda quickly, and turned to face the tangela. He wasn't able to take on a flying target and a land target at the same time. "Varda," Lance said, "I hope you're a good fighter, because I can't take on both pokemon at the same time. You take on the Murkrow; I'll fight the tangela."

Varda kept looking at the tree the other Pokémon was shaking with bated breath, anticipating that something would fall. However, nothing really seemed to be dropping down. The shaking motions just ended up causing the droplets of water that had gathered on the leaves to drop down, almost like it caused another small, very local rainstorm under the tree. A couple of leaves seemed to gently float down as well, but that was all. The Swablu still kept looking at the tree and Lance's demonstration, confident in the other Pokémon's abilities and expecting something to suddenly drop down because Lance had chosen this tree in particular. Surely something was in there?

As he noticed Lance turn around, it seemed like the dog-like Pokémon's expression changed into something more serious. Varda didn't understand and didn't know how to react when Lance suddenly started to rush towards him, though a certain thump sound behind him did catch his interest. Turning around and facing the ground, the bird noticed a nice plump, pink berry having fallen on the ground. He was about to pick it up, excited how Lance had managed to cause an entirely different tree to drop something!

Just as he ducked, something swooped over him. That caused the Swablu to jump back and actually turn around, taking a look at the situation. Suddenly, two new Pokémon had appeared! A strange pile of vines, and... A Murkrow! Varda's eyes grew large. While he didn't recognize this particular Murkrow, he had seen many of them in his flock! Perhaps she knew where his home was?
"Um, ma'am," he called out to the Murkrow, glancing at Lance and the other strange Pokémon before allowing his gaze to return to the dark bird. What did Lance mean by "fighting" here? Or taking on the Murkrow? Surely they were friendly!

"Who ya callin' ma'am here? I ain't that old!" The agitated Murkrow called out, her eyes clearly tired as if she had stayed up for a couple of too many nights. Or days, considering how Murkrow did like to stay up during the dark, too.
"O-Oh, I was just wondering if you knew where my home was–" Varda tried to explain, stuttering a bit as he hadn't expected such an explosive reply, but the Murkrow quickly cut him off.
"Ain't never even seen ya, kiddo!" The black bird snapped, starting to flap her wings to rise into the air,
"Ya handle the pup, I take care of this," the Murkrow continued as she glanced towards her Tangela buddy. The Swablu just didn't understand! What had they done wrong, why were these two attacking them? What were they up to? There were so many questions!


Current Energy: 9 (15 -1 from Pecha Berry -3 from Tangela -2 from Murkrow rolls) Gained 1 Pecha Berry! (...Which will be picked up after the fight)

Lance was using quick attack on the tangela, striking it then getting away. The tangela was starting to get frustrated, unable to hit a target moving that fast. It kept tying to hit him with vine whip, but he kept missing. The tangela finally hit him, causing him to fall down and tumble into a tree. It then proceeded to wrap its vine around Lance's leg and drag him to the Tangela. It dangled him in front of its head, looking quite confident since it knew that he couldn't use any of his attacks. Lance couldn't hit the tangela, because he wasn't close enough. Lance then did the only thing he could do. He grabbed the vine with his paws and bit into it as hard as he could. It wasn't as effective as an actual bite attack, but it was enough to make the Tangela drop him, wincing in pain. His head hurt, since he hit it on the ground when the tangela dropped him, but he quickly got back up on his feet and used blaze kick, hitting the tangela's head as hard as possible. The blow knocked it out, and Lance looked at it. It was quite a tough opponent. Lance then looked over at Varda, wondering how he was handling the murkrow.

Varda didn't understand, but he was forced to open his wings and flap despite how tired they were after the storm, rising up into the air with the other bird Pokémon. Surely the two of them couldn't have done anything that would have angered their attackers! But Pokémon didn't just attack without reason, right? The earlier Zigzagoon seemed to have a reason as the Swablu had accidentally bit it, but these two just showed up and started to pick on them for no good reason! It was a mystery that didn't seem to have an answer.

The Murkrow was quite fast and a skilled flier compared to the pudgier and more relaxed Varda. The Swablu even seemed to be more worried about Lance, constantly glancing down and checking on his new friend, just to make sure that he was fine.
"I'm not sure why we are fighting!" The blue bird chirped loudly, trying to communicate more with Lance below than the other bird Pokémon trying to target him, his lack of attention causing him to cry out as the air was forced out of his lungs by a vicious peck. Lost and uncertain, the Swablu did his best to regain his wing control and dropped down, fluffing up his feathers as he let out a high-pitched growl.

It certainly did have an effect on his attacker, but the Murkrow didn't seem too impressed – much less afraid, like Varda hopefully was hoping she would be. He hardly was an intimidating Pokémon, so a cackling laugh escaped the Murkrow's beak, clearly amused by the show the other Pokémon was giving her. Thinking that it was a joke and completely hilarious, not able to even take the Swablu seriously! Varda of course was unsure if the Murkrow had just missed his intimidation attempt, so he tried again when he was given some time, letting out another pitiful growl. The darker bird was almost in tears right now, trying to suppress her giggles as she tried to get serious enough to attack. Backing up a bit to get some speed, she lunged at the Swablu to peck him with her beak again.

The beak hit Varda, but... It wasn't as painful as the Murkrow's first attack. It seemed like she couldn't quite take her opponent seriously after the growls anymore and couldn't perform as well – or didn't care enough to try – so her attacks felt awfully weak now. Had the Murkrow even noticed herself? The Swablu certainly wasn't feeling the pain! Now that she had finally come so close however, the white-winged bird could retaliate. Closing his eyes, he gave the other bird Pokémon a quick peck that seemed to take her off-guard after his earlier pitiful intimidation attempts. He was really sorry for it, too, but... But she was being a bit mean right now and he wanted her to stop by showing her that it hurt when one hit others with a beak!

The Murkrow seemed to want to say something, but she just opened her beak for a moment before closing it, narrowing her eyes. She took a quick glance below them and noticed that the Riolu had actually managed to best her partner! The black bird was in shock. Noticing the Swablu approaching her, she realized she was going to have two Pokémon coming after her now! While the light blue ball of fluff wasn't exactly frightening, she didn't want to risk it now. Swooping down, she quickly grabbed the unconscious Tangela's foot and tried to lift it, though the Grass-type Pokémon was proving to be way too heavy. Still, the Murkrow somehow managed to stay in the air and dragged her friend out, spitting out quiet and rather angry swears and threats as she flew away.

"W-Wait! Come back!" Varda called out from the sky, descending and even wondering if he should try to chase after the two. He still wanted to hear what the two had been doing and why they had attacked, but his wings just were too tired to try to catch up even though the Murkrow was flying awfully slow with her added weight. Even though she had claimed to not know the Swablu or where his home was, he was still hoping that maybe she actually did know...

Lance watched as the murkrow flew away with her partner. His head still hurt, but there was nothing he could really do about it. He walked over to the tree the attackers jumped out of. "I don't think there are anymore pokemon in this tree... but it might be safer if we go find another one." He looked over at Varda and smiled. "You did a great job of fending off that murkrow. Though I've never encountered a pair like that. They might possibly be a gang hanging around in this forest." He looked around, wondering if there were more gangs like that. "Well, I'm going to search for items a little more." He then remembered something about this forest. "Oh, by the way, if your feeling tired, it might be a good idea to look for traps. I ran into a couple traps before that made me feel better. But you always got to remember that you might run into something else." Lance then walked over to another tree and shook it, wondering if he would get anything good.

LanceTheDragon carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

LanceTheDragon carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

LanceTheDragon carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

Varda lowered his feet on the ground, still looking after the odd pair of Pokémon that had just run away, still being able to see their strange shape flying into the distance through the forest, twisting around the trees. The bird looked back at Lance when he got compliments, though his little beady eyes seemed quite confused – and maybe even a bit concerned. He did like the compliments, but he was still unsure if he had done the right thing. Apparently Lance had never seen those two before either, so the theory that they might have had it for him didn't seem to hold water.

"...Do you think it was the right thing to do?" The Swablu asked as he wondered, glancing in the direction their two attackers had scurried off to one last time,
"Why did they attack us?" Varda had so many questions and no one else to turn to except the Pokémon he had bumped into on the forest road. Lance had been very helpful and knowledgeable this far, so it was possible that he knew something about it! A gang of Pokémon like the Murkrow and vine pile... Sounded strange and dangerous.

A little smile seemed to appear on the bird's face as Lance talked more about finding items, mentioning something in particular: a trap. A trap that apparently would make one feel better, which sounded quite odd to him!
"That sounds like a weird trap! Aren't traps supposed to do bad things? Why would someone hide a good thing?" Varda chirped cheerfully, quite excited and his questions seemed to be asked because he was curious, not because he was doubting the other Pokémon. Indeed, the Swablu started to walk around, not minding a trap that made him feel better after all the hits he had taken.

Not straying too far from Lance, Varda tried to find some longer grass he could search. It made sense for a trap to be well hidden – that's why it was a trap – so it had to be somewhere where it would be hard to see! Having it out in the open in the middle of short grass wouldn't be very trap-like. It seemed like the new information had distracted him enough to not even feel how sore he was.
"What do traps look like?"

Bird carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

Three pokemon fell out of the tree Lance shook. One of them was a Zigzagoon, the other two were a Nidorino and a Nidorina. And none of them looked happy that Lance made them fall out of of the tree. The zigzagoon, he could probally take on. But he couln't take on a nidorino and a nidorina. There was only one thing left to do: Flee. He didn't want to flee. It always made him feel like a coward. But he didn't want to be poisoned either. He looked over at Verda, and called out to him. "Verda, I think it would be a wise desision for us to run." He avoided a poison sting attack, and started to run towards Varda, with the other pokemon in persuit. He scooped up a pecha berry that was laying on the ground, just in case someone did get poisoned.

Varda shuffled through the tall grass, his beak close to the ground so that he wouldn't miss even the smallest thing that might have been hidden under his feet! He really did want to find the kind of trap Lance was talking about. It was strange, how many Pokémon were so willing to not only find a trap, but to step on it and set it off? Probably not that many, but what did the Swablu know. He did believe in the existence of such a helping trap when Lance said that one existed, not having any reason to distrust the other Pokémon.

As closely as he kept an eye on the ground, what was directly in front of him went mostly unnoticed by the bird. As such, it wasn't too big of a surprise for him to bump into something soft and warm, feeling the ruffled fur press against his feathers. Looking up, Varda saw an all too familiar zigzag pattern of brown and white fur, even hearing the same kind of snarl he had heard earlier while looking for berries in the bushes...

It didn't take too long for the Swablu to waddle out of the tall grass, heading towards Lance for protection as he ran away from the hissing Zigzagoon. Unfortunately the other Pokémon hadn't been very lucky either, having his own posse of Pokémon chasing him towards the small bird.
"I think there are a bit too many Pokémon here!" Varda let Lance hear his opinion of the matter as he ran. Funny, when he first got to the forest, it seemed like it was completely empty. But it did make sense. All the Pokémon they had found this far had been hidden in some way, either in grass or bushes or even high up in the trees. It was no wonder that the Swablu hadn't seen anyone before he actually started looking in places like that.

Grabbing his own Pecha Berry in his claws before taking off into the air, Varda flapped his wings slowly, quite tired already. Still, he agreed with the other Pokémon's idea that it would be better for them to leave somewhere else, following Lance around as he did his best to keep up.

Lance ran through the forest, trying to lose the other pokemon. He zigzagged through the trees, making sudden turns every once in a while. He got rid of the nidorino and nidorina, but the zigzagoon was still hot on his trail. He knew that he couldn't get rid of it, so he turned around and faced it. It was coming in with a tackle attack, but Lance used blaze kick right before the attack hit, sending the zigzagoon into a tree. He slightly injured his foot doing so, but it was only slightly. He looked around. He got himself somewhat lost while running, since he was running in random directions. He looked around for Varda, wondering if the bird pokemon was following him the whole time.