Dreamers of the Day

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The sun burned down on the dry, dusty landscape of the desert, making the oshawott currently attempting to traverse it miss the cool, dark atmosphere of Shadowhue every second of the way. Avaria trudged through the sand, being watchful of the distance in search of anything coming her way. She had to chuckle somewhat, sounding exasperated. One good thing about the area was that nothing would sneak up on her, at least not from above ground. That led to the bad thing though, all the isolation. At least in Shadowhue other wild pokemon were around, and you could hear them usually, but here there was just nothing at all.

Yeah, nobody to help out if you faint. What were you thinking, Ava... Her thoughts further annoyed her as she continued on, keeping her familiar red scarf tied around her neck, though the end piece hanging in the back was tied to the second shell resting there as well. As for what she was doing out there, well, it was simple actually. Word came up around Grassveil that there was a treasure somewhere, with some riddle from a Xatu to give them a bit of a hint. From what she had heard in her travels, and what she had been able to look into on the area, there was no doubt in her mind that she was in the right place.

You might be right, but that's not going to matter if you pass out. Look at you, you're barely going along. Should have prepared more, or more likely, should have asked for someone to come out with you. She growled slightly, fuming at the told-you-so tone of her thoughts as she stumbled somewhat, standing back up and brushing the sand off of herself. No matter what thoughts she was having, she had already gone far enough, and she didn't have any plans of turning back just yet.

Energy: 7/23. -16 for entering dungeon.

"Oh ok," Acro nodded, understanding the situation a bit more now. There was one thing though, "What if she doesn't want to be disturbed, or asks for something in return?" The archeops had figured that she must have been somewhat similar to the wild pokemon around here since she lives out all alone in some thousand year old temple. Pokemon that lived like that, at least from his experience, were rather greedy and interested in none other than their own well being. He rarely met a nice wild pokemon, but he wondered if the Oshawott had a back up plan in the chance that the Gardevoir was going to demand something in return.

Avaria opened her mouth to respond, but had a slight moment of hesitation as she thought about what Acro had said. What if she didn't want to be disturbed, or asked for something in return? Admittedly, well, she hadn't thought of that yet. Well...that's an issue. If she just doesn't want to be disturbed, I can be persistent. And if she attacks, we've got an excuse to fight her. Now, if she wants something in return...I can always make a deal. Trade her some of the treasure, if it's something we can split.

"I've got it planned out." The Oshawott lied to the Archeops, shrugging somewhat. It was a pretty convincing lie she figured, she had been working on that ever since her run-ins with a certain kirlia. Lying was easier if you were convincing about it, believe it or not. Though, there had been that moment of hesitation she had before answering. That could be a tip off, or maybe Acro was more observant then she had thought.

Energy: 8/23 +1 for a page

Pikashock carried out 1 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

[Energy: 45, +1 for page and +1 for level up]

Acro, feeling that he had no reason to doubt the small water type, believed the small otter pokemon. He wondered if it even knew where the temple was, the thought provoked the entry of another wonder, the name of the pokemon. He spoke up once more, "So, what's your name, and your friend's?" He didn't mention the usual comment a pokemon would make that it was polite to introduce yourself when introduced to, seeing that as just being rude at this moment. The desert heat didn't seem to be getting to him that much, due to him being made out of skin and feathers rather than sleek fur like the Oshawott.

Ava perked up somewhat, frowning in slight confusion as some sort of muffled sound came from the Archeops. Maybe the heat was starting to get to her, there was no reason it should have taken her that long to process what he had said...
"What?" She initially asked in response, blinking in dull surprise before thinking back on it and putting together what Acro must have asked her.
"Oh, name. Right. I'm Avaria, you can just stick with Ava. I figure she'll introduce herself when she wakes up." The Oshawott responded, looking up at Acro. Truthfully, she didn't want to introduce Vesper because she hadn't remembered to check if she was on the outlaw board or not. And if she was, then telling him who she was could cause trouble. Hopefully he wouldn't persist in asking.

Acro listened as the blue sea-otter pokemon had introduced herself as Avaria, before giving him the shorter name of "Ava" as she seemed to prefer to wield a nickname rather than using her full name. He seemed to find himself to be out of words to speak, as he would usually introduce himself to the other pokemon, but he had already done so earlier. He would have liked to keep talking, but due to the lack of conversation, aside from the short answers, the Oshawott didn't seem to want to speak, so continuing further would only result in a one sided conversation. He remained silent, studying the Oshawott from behind in case it suddenly fell over. He figured that if it did, then he would probably have to carry both of these two to somewhere shady.

The Oshawott kept listening, waiting for the Archeops to respond. He didn't though, which seemed somewhat strange to her. Maybe he just didn't feel like talking at the moment, she figured, completely ignoring her lack of willingness to talk. The silence soon began to be replaced by another noise, though. There was a droning, buzzing sound in Ava's ears, like a combee that wouldn't go away. She frowned somewhat, looking around the air as if trying to find the source of the noise. It wasn't there, though, and she wouldn't find it. The heat was starting to get to her, making her hear things.

"Do you hear that?" She asked somewhat groggily, hoping to confirm or deny her suspicions. If Acro heard it too, maybe she wasn't hearing things. But if he wasn't, then it was definitely the heat, she decided.

"Hear what?" the prehistoric bird asked, "I don't hear anything.." he looked around, nothing could be seen either other than sand, sand, and MOARmore sand. He tilted his head a bit in confusion as he looked back to the Oshawott, "You okay?" he asked, "You sure you don't want me to just fly around with both of you until we see it?"

The archeops had to admit, he didn't know if he could carry both in his talons. The roselia was fine, but the Oshawott might have to grip onto his neck, which would become dangerous due to its lack of long arms, not to mention that if things got rough in the flight, he might drop either the roselia or the oshawott.

Once Acro began to speak, the noises stopped. Ava sighed in relief at the break from them, but once things went quiet again they started up once more.
"It's nothing. I think I just need to keep my mind preoccupied with something else." She explained, blinking her eyes. Between blinks, she could have sworn she saw some sort of shape in the distance. Something that wasn't there either, more hallucinating from the heat. Gee, doing great. You're going crazy.
"Tell me a bit about yourself, I need something to think about." Ava suggested, pausing for a moment, feeling dizzy.

"Erm...okay..." the oshawott seemed to reject his offer of flight. He couldn't quite think of anything to say, but Ava seemed to be rather urgent about it, so he opened his mouth and began his speech, "I'm Acro, the sole member of Team Roark from the Grassveil Guild, when I was an archen i was smaller than most in my other species, but when I grew a bit bigger my mom had accidentally shoved me out of the nest and didn't bother to pick me back up. I was left on my own, and was on my own for a while, I then learned of the guild and made a team with a Buizel," he should probably shut up now, but he couldn't do anything but keep talking, "We were a good team until he decided that things weren't going to work out because of me, I was weak and I couldn't keep up my end of the work load properly along with getting us in trouble multiple times. Once he left, I had to go searching for another partner and found a poochyena that was willing to be in a team with me," shut up shut up, "we went on our first mission together after signing up, but he disappeared in the middle of the mission, and we never found him since, it's very likely that he realized why my previous member left and left without a word in disgust. Then when I returned, I met a dratini that got forcefully signed onto my team by my own confusion. We went on missions together resulting in him nearly dying several times until finally in a battle with a rampardos, he was sent to his death at my own fault. Once he was gone I began to hear voices of them inside my head, and they kept calling me names, degrading me, and mocking me. They would never just shut up, until finally I met with the buizel once more and he told me that he was surprised at how strong I was, there was a weird screeching in my head, and one of the voices never returned again. Everything continued this way for about a year before I went on a mission with another buizel and we got into a really dangerous situation, I evolved in the middle of it and the voices suddenly stopped. We got out of there just barely and I had nearly killed someone AGAIN and their blood is stained onto my wings and I can't get it out even if I tried. Right now I still live in grassveil with the guild and am one of the higher ranking exploration teams, I am still on my own in a solo-team but I made a promise with a nincada that we would make a team together when we both evolved. I haven't seen the nincada since though so I don't really know if we're still going to make the team...and I...I...I'm just...going to shut up now..."

Oh, no. I think I made a miscalculation in asking him to talk about himself. This could be more painful then the silence was. Ava stayed silent, listening to what Acro had to say. Despite her initial thoughts though, there was a strange sense of interest in his story as he talked about it. It seemed like at every turn something went wrong for him, and when it didn't, it was just getting ready for something else to get screwed up. It almost made her feel a little bit sorry for him. He seems like bad luck. I'd rather not stay with him for too long, from what he's said, it seems like most of the people he's met didn't exactly end up too well.

"Then again, a lot of people you've met didn't end up too well either."
The Oshawott jumped slightly at the sound of the voice, looking around. Acro didn't seem to react to it, maybe he didn't hear it or...
"Yep, you guessed it. Another hallucination." Looking ahead once more, the figure the voice came from seemed to be walking up to Ava, giving her a bit of a surprise. In front of her was a familiar Combusken, though it was strange to see her in a place like this...
"You seem to find it difficult to grasp the thought of a hallucination. Remember? I'm not actually here. I'm just your own thoughts." She said smugly, as if taunting somewhat.
"Come on, let me walk with you for a bit..."

To Acro, the Oshawott must have looked fairly strange, quietly looking around the area as if something were there. She seemed to have a strange look of surprise on her face, maybe even a bit of irritation. Disoriented and trying to remember what was real and what wasn't, she groaned slightly, putting her paws to her face.
"Okay, fine. You can come...wait, wait. No. You don't need to shut up, you can keep talking. What's life like at the guild?" She muttered, looking up at the Archeops but looking back to the empty space next to her, as if searching for someone.

"Um..." he hesitated as the oshawott seemed to be looking for something, he decided it would be best to continue and do as the oshawott said for now, "Well, i get well fed each day in exchange for doing something, I don't have to worry about shelter at night. The beds are comfortable, the rooms are well roomy, the cook is nice, the guild master is really nice. Almost everyone there is nice and friendly from my experience as well, there's a lot of different pokemon both strong and weak, they work everyday to train to become better like I do..." the archeops seemed to have less to speak about on this subject as he stopped speaking.

She listened for only a short time, moving with Acro but beginning to slow down. All along the way, the hallucination followed her, walking beside.
"Getting a bit curious about the guild, are we?" The imaginary Combusken that walked with her snickered, shaking her head.
"Sometimes I think you ask too many questions for no reason. Just go without making yourself look strange."
"I'm talking, well, thinking to...communicating with, an imaginary pokemon I haven't seen in a while. Strange describes it pretty well." The hallucination chuckled as the oshawott struggled to think of the right words.
"No, you're not. You're talking to yourself in your own head. Admittedly strange as well, but not as strange that way."
She glanced over at the Archeops, starting to stagger again and trying to catch her breath.
"Let's stop for a minute or two." The oshawott said, not as a suggestion but as a statement. Stopping in her tracks, she shook slightly, bringing a paw to her face as her vision got blurry.
"Anyways, I should be leaving you. Looks like you've reached your limit." The hallucination calmly spoke and turned beginning to walk away and disappear from her view.
"Remember what we taught you about, and don't push yourself so hard. You're not always going to find someone to help you when you make a mistake."
Ava fell over into the sand, groaning somewhat as she closed her eyes, her vision completely fading as she began to lose consciousness.
"I didn't make a mistake..." She murmured, before going silent, passing out in the sand.

The archeops squawked in surprise as the oshawott suddenly collapsed, mumbling something about a potion seller mistake. He placed the Roselia on the sand and examined the Oshawott, seeing that it was probably suffering the same heat issues as the Roselia. He sighed, thinking he probably should have forced them to let him fly them. He wasn't sure if his skill could handle it yet, but he had no other choice. He moved the two next to each other, and took off into the air, snatching them from the ground since he wasn't capable of going directly up yet and doing so would result on him standing on them. It was time to fly around until they found the temple, at least the winds might assist in fanning them all off.

A short while later, the Oshawott's eyes blinked open as she began to come to. What? This definitely isn't the ground. I guess that Archeops must have picked me up... She decided, although it wasn't exactly a difficult thing to figure out. She tried to speak, and at first it came out all garbled up, something almost sounding like potions and travelers, before sounding like something more coherent.
"...You better not drop me, or that roselia." Ava muttered, looking down at the sand as they flew above. They needed to find that temple, but it seemed harder then she once thought. There was a whole desert to search, though now that they had a view from the sky, it would probably help a lot more.

"Found it!" the archeops spoke five minutes after the Oshawott had muttered something. Acro had gone rather high into the sky, and spotted the large temple in the distance to their left, they were heading right past the temple! He veered his wings towards the temple, and began the flight closer to the amazing structure some pokemon had built thousand of years ago. The very structure that housed a Gardevoir, an all knowing by rumor, gardevoir. Acro was merely happy that they had found the temple so quickly through flight at the moment, feeling rather useful for once. He gave a cheerful cry, as he neared the temple, and landed on the steps after placing the two next to him.

(To be continued at Silent Temple.)