Berried Treasure

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Too Expensive for Me! – Mission Info:

Pecha Forest, as usual, was peaceful. Quiet, with just the slight breeze occasionally catching the leaves and caused them to rustle, the strong branches of the trees bending gently and going with the flow instead of fighting it. The sun had reached its peak hours ago and was starting to set, but true sunset was still quite the way away, so there was plenty of sunlight to go around. Indeed, the day was a warm and pleasant one and the forest was bright, the large holes in the canopy letting in plenty of light to keep the grassy ground bathing in the sun. Golden splotches dotted the ground and the only really shadowy spots could be found right under the largest trees – but even those shadows couldn't be considered exactly dark!

Varda had decided to take a mission. Well, he didn't have that on mind when he had first woken up that day, but it just ended happening. As he lived in the Guild, he often ended up being in the right place at the right time – or perhaps the wrong place at the wrong time, depending who answers – and this time it was no different. He had managed to meet one of the clients hurriedly looking someone to take their job – and how could have he refused, meeting the pony with a firey mane and large eyes? It was urgent, the client had said. It was something that was supposed to get done the very same day but was now forced to being pushed to another day due to a missing key ingredient.

Muffins with Pecha berries. That was what the client had wanted to do, but the berries she lacked. And the Swablu was going to go get them! While he had picked some berries for himself before and could have give them to the client right away, he found himself hesitating when offering that solution. Maybe they had to be fresh? Just picked fresh? Pecha Forest was so close anyways and, well, honestly sometimes it was quite hard to find those Pecha berries despite the forest being named after them, but he could try. If it didn't work out, then maybe he could give the client those berries he had picked earlier. But this was definitely worth the try so his client could get the best berries he could find, freshly picked, juicy and sweet!

The blue bird Pokémon stayed close to the path that led to Grassveil Town so he wouldn't get lost, his bag wrapped around his belly. He was being quite cautious as he had many times noticed how aggressive Pokémon would hide in the bushes, not getting too close to them and lifting the branches aside with his cottony wings very gently to take a look inside. This far, he hadn't found any Pecha berries, but he was hopeful. He had just started, after all.


Current Energy: 15 (20 -5 from entering)

Zorre snorted in his sleep and rolled over once again, freeing Varda from beneath him. Then his eyes shot open in surprise as the ledyba punched him in the face. He yelled loudly in pain, and scrambled to his feet, hissing at the ledyba indignantly. He raced forward at the ledyba, slashing with his scythes. His movements were a little stumbling from his sleep, but his hit landed, causing the ledyba to fly against a tree, its wings crumpling as it hit the bark. The ledyba let out a whine, examining its wings with a distressed look on its face. Zorre snorted angrily, striding forward with his scythes raised threateningly. The ledyba scrambled backward in fear, using its six stubbly legs to flee as fast as possible. Zorre huffed and turned back to Varda. "alright, you be?" he asked in concern.

Varda gasped as the large weight on top of him rolled over again, perhaps finding the uneven, bumpy surface uncomfortable even though the bird was a rather soft and fluffy one. Still, he wasted no time scrambling further away from Zorre so he wouldn't accidentally get stuck under him again, enjoying his freedom and the ability to breathe freely. The feral bug Pokémon hadn't managed to target the Swablu while it was under a bigger Pokémon, instead settling for Zorre and punching the poor sleeping bug in the face. That did wake his partner up however, yelling in pain as he attacked the feral bug in rage, his movements a bit clumsy but not any less effective.

The blue bird slowly got on his feet, having to watch how the two bugs fought fiercely. Zorre clearly had the upper hand, quickly dispatching of the feral one and sending it scurrying away. Varda's eyes glanced back at the Tangela, still finding it asleep – luckily. His gaze snapped back to Zorre once his partner spoke up, asking if he was alright.
"Yes," the Swablu replied quietly as he started to waddle closer to the bug Pokémon, his feathers looking a bit ruffled. He motioned towards the sleeping feral Pokémon as he whispered
"Shh. We need to be very quiet..."

Zorre nodded at Varda's words, edging backwards, away from the still-sleeping tangela. "Go, let's," he whispered to his companion, slipping behind a tree, only to find two weird-looking seeds and an oran berry. He stuffed them in his Explorer bag for later perusal, and continued to sneak away from the clearing, not wanting to wake the tangela.

Varda nodded at his companion as they both agreed to be quiet, not having to exchange any words to realize that leaving the scene with the sleeping, hostile Pokémon was the best idea. The two of them moved quietly, keeping their mouths shut as they slowly sneaked away, slipping deeper into the forest. The Tangela didn't seem to be hearing them, or at least it hadn't gotten up yet, still sleeping peacefully in a pile of messy, blue vines. Zorre managed to notice something on their way, but the Swablu didn't comment on it, not wanting to risk it. As long as the bug Pokémon did things quickly and quietly, he was fine with it.

Finally the pair had gotten so far that the Tangela hadn't been seen in a while. It seemed like they hadn't been followed. Varda let out a breath of relief as he slowly slid on his feathery behind, plopping down on the ground to let his feet to rest a bit.
"Phew... That sure was something," he cooed quietly, not whispering but his voice was clearly sounding like it was still being cautious,
"Are you alright...? Did you get hurt?"

"Alright, am I," Zorre replied quietly, not wanting to bring attention to the two of them. "What that be, you sung song? How asleep, fall I did?" he asked Varda, curious as to how the pokemon had made him fall asleep just with a song. He had never before encountered such an ability on a pokemon.

Varda nodded cheerfully as his partner said he was fine, his eyes closed in pure happiness. He had seen Zorre attacked by the smaller bug Pokémon a couple of times, and perhaps even the Tangela's constricting vines had hurt him a bit... But it was true that the Pokémon he had just met a while earlier looked quite fine despite all that. He had no reason to doubt Zorre's word, what was there for him to gain by lying?

But there was something else on the large bug Pokémon's mind. Mainly, the song that the Swablu had sung, the one that had caused both the Tangela and Zorre himself to fall asleep in the middle of a battle. Varda cooed a bit embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head with his cloud-like wing.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that. I didn't really mean to put you to sleep, too," he chirped rather awkwardly with an apologetic smile. He certainly hadn't meant to do that, it had made the situation rather dangerous...
"It's just... A skill I have. I learned it one day and then I could put Pokémon to sleep," the Swablu continued, looking back up at the tall Pokémon's face after a moment of glancing aside.

Zorre nodded in understanding. "Understand, do I. Alright is it, not meaning to did you." he said to varda, who looked kinda sad at his actions. "Continue journey we shall?" He asked the swablu, nodding at the path ahead of them. Surely they would soon find more pecha berries. Pecha Forest wasn't too big of a forest, after all.

Silver carried out 3 launched of one Pecha Forest :

, ,

Varda nodded happily when the other Pokémon didn't get angry, instead actually understanding that the bird hadn't meant to do what he had. The last thing he wanted was to make Zorre sad or mad, so the knowledge that it wasn't going to happen clearly lifted the Swablu's spirits. He let out a happy chirp as he hopped from one foot to another, finishing with a couple of nods as the other one asked if they should continue. Of course he agreed, they still had to find those berries!

The bird Pokémon wasted no time as he started to waddle forward, away from their previous scene of fight in case the feral Pokémon were starting to wake up and were angry. He walked with springy steps, glancing behind him to make sure Zorre was following. The much larger bug Pokémon of course had no trouble following him with his long legs if he decided to, Varda just wanted to make sure that his new friend didn't just suddenly stop without saying a word!

Suddenly, something caused the trees above them to rustle, a dark silhouette rushing by and causing the branches to bend. Few of the leaves came loose, floating down on the ground... And as the Swablu looked up, some small rocks – or perhaps seeds? – ended up falling down, one of them even striking him straight in the middle of his forehead. The object just bounced off him easily, causing Varda to just blink in confusion.


Current Energy: 11 (10 +1 from the new page)

Bird carried out 2 launched of one Pecha Forest :

,

Zorre looked up as some seeds fell from the treetops, one of them landing on his traveling partner. He glanced up to see an aipom giggling, hanging from one of the branches of the tree above them. He growled, scowling at the prankster. The aipom just continued laughing at him, confident that Zorre couldn't get up to him in the tree. Bad mistake to make for the monkey-like pokemon.

Zorre buzzed his wings furiously, quickly rising into the air, using his scythes to push off of the branches, to make his ascent quicker. He swiftly reached the aipom, who stared at him with wide eyes, laughing stopped short. He grinned maliciously at the aipom, and knocked him off the branch, sending the pokemon to the forest floor. It hadn't been too high up, so the aipom merely got the wind knocked out of him.

Zorre lowered himself to the ground again and grinned fiercely at the purple-furred pokemon. The aipom smiled weakly, and then ran away in the other direction as fast as it possibly could. Zorre snorted in derision before turning to his traveling partner. "Alright you are?" he asked Varda gruffly.

Varda looked up at the monkey hanging from one of the branches, and the feral Pokémon seemed to be quite pleased with itself. It grinned and giggled, overly confident in its own abilities now that it had hit its mark. The impact of the seed only left behind a slight pain that didn't linger for too long. But Zorre behind him started to growl at the monkey, seemingly trying to intimidate the Pokémon – but the feral prankster didn't seem to take the hint, continuing its laugh as it made a face to the other two below it.

That, apparently, was too much for his partner. Suddenly the large bug Pokémon started to buzz, flapping his wings so fast that it created a strange sound. The Swablu turned to look behind him, though he was soon forced to duck as the sudden gust of air generated by Zorre as he jumped into the air almost pushed the light bird further away. Unfortunately to the feral Pokémon, both of the Pokémon it was picking on seemed to be able to fly. And Zorre was very fast, cutting his way to the monkey before he pushed the little thing off the branch. The thing seemed to be so surprised that it had no way of reacting and saving itself from the fall!

Varda jumped in surprise as the purple Pokémon fell to the ground with a tiny thud, kicking up a small cloud of dust. Zorre returned to his side on the forest floor and the Swablu looked up at the larger Pokémon, not entirely sure what was going to happen next. The monkey had already learned its lesson in his eyes, so he could only hope that this would be where it ended... And luckily, it was. The feral Pokémon ran away with a meek smile, its little legs rushing to get away as fast as it could. The bird felt a bit sorry for it. Even though it had hurt him a bit, it hadn't really attacked...

"Oh, yes. I'm fine," he was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when the other Pokémon spoke to him, turning to look up at his much taller friend,
"It didn't really hurt at all, whatever it was that fell was quite soft," Varda chirped, his eyes quickly returning to look at the ground when he realized he hadn't actually seen what had fallen off the tree. Seeds that weren't there a while ago were now lying on the ground, just waiting to be picked up... Maybe these were the things the feral Pokémon threw down?

"Ooh, I see," the Swablu cooed, walking closer to the seeds as he inspected them. To his eyes, they all looked more or less the same and he had no idea what they did... But that didn't really matter. Seeds were tasty in his eyes, no matter what.
"They're seeds! You should take some, you helped me out there," he continued, motioning to the other Pokémon with his wings. He grabbed one of the seeds himself and placed it in his bag. Zorre could have the other two...


Current Energy: 6 (11 -1 from the item roll and -4 from the encounter roll. Got 1 Swift Seed!)

Zorre accepted the offered berries with a nod, sliding them into his pack. The reviver seed would be useful for his team if they ever got into a bad situation, and the swift seed might help them if they took an outlaw mission. Though he personally thought it would be a while before they were ready for such a difficult mission. He shook himself from his thoughts and continued on their way through the forest.

He stopped suddenly when the bushes to the side of the path rustled, and a Nidorina crawled out, facing them and growling fiercely, poison dripping from its horns threateningly. He hissed in response, telling it in the language of the ferals to leave them alone, but it stood its ground. The growling got louder, and Zorre prepared himself for a fight.

Varda nodded quite happily in return, certain that both of them were content with the way the rewards had been split. Neither of them was hurt either, so they could easily continue their search for the Pecha berries. The bird glanced up, looking at the sky that could be seen quite easily from the holes where the leaves didn't reach. It had taken them a while to find the rest of the required berries... But it wasn't too late yet. They had some time. The client would have her berries before she could even realize!

The Swablu started to continue heading in the same direction they were going before the monkey had forced them to stop. Being a small Pokémon with short legs, his waddling wasn't very fast, but he did his best anyways, keeping an eye out for the berries – and making sure that Zorre actually followed him before he accidentally lost his new friend! Unfortunately, he couldn't find any berries in the bushes that surrounded their little path, no matter how hard he looked.

A sudden rustling forced the bird to look in the direction of the sound, trying to see what it was. It wasn't Zorre, as the noise came from another direction... And then, a new feral Pokémon made its presence known, crawling under a bush. It was a Pokémon species Varda had seen before in the forest, but he wasn't entirely sure what it was called. But he did know that the last one he saw was quite the fighter! This one growled angrily as it threatened the pair... And Zorre responded in a similar manner, hissing at the feral Pokémon. The little blue bird glanced from one Pokémon to another, hoping to see one of them backing away so there would be no fight.

But then he saw it. Up ahead, in a bush... Two beautiful, plump, pink berries just waiting for someone to pick them up. Their goal, their objective. The ingredients their client needed. There was not mistaking it, they were the last two Pecha Berries. They had to get through the feral Pokémon somehow, they couldn't leave now!
"Zorre, look," the Swablu chirped quietly, almost like he was afraid that any sound he made might have angered the growling feral Pokémon. He turned to look towards the large bug Pokémon, stretching his wing to motion towards the bush with the berries. It also seemed to get the Nidorina's attention – though instead of looking at the berry bush, it started to charge towards the bird.
"There, the final Pecha ber–" Varda's sentence got cut short as the air was forced out of his lungs by the tackle of the feral Pokémon, causing the Swablu to be knocked off his feet and flying a few feet away.

Zorre looked over at Varda's words, distracted by the sight of the two pecha berries they needed to complete their mission. He was shaken out of his gaze when the Nidorina tackled his partner, and he turned to defend them. He raced forward, slashing with his scythes to the poison-type's side.

The Nidorina gave a sharp cry of pain and turned her attention onto him, trying to gore him with one of her poisonous horns. He danced out of the way just in time to avoid getting poisoned by the pokemon. He was thankful, he had heard of an ekans being blinded by a nidorino's poison -and ekans were poison types themselves! He shuddered to imagine what the poison could do to him, who wasn't even a poison type!

He hissed angrily and let out a shriek of energy. The waves of sound energy traveled toward the Nidorina, pushing the pokemon onto her back. She shrieked in rage and pain, but Zorre quickly pinned her to the ground with his scythes, putting one to her throat. She immediately stopped struggling and glared at him with angry red eyes. He snarled lowly and pushed in the blade a little deeper, causing the Nidorina to whimper in pain and fear. "Alone, leave us," Zorre growled angrily at the poison type, before shoving her away.

The Nidorina scrambled to her feet and then ran away as fast as her stubby little legs could carry her. Zorre snorted in satisfaction and crossed over to the bush with the Pecha berries. "Pick them, you? Scythes ruin bush," Zorre said to Varda, feeling a little embarrassed that he couldn't pick the berries himself.

The impact sent Varda flying, traveling through the air momentarily before he landed on his back again the ground. Everything had happened so fast that he barely realized what had happened, the realization that he was staring up at the sky took its time as well. He remembered the feral Pokémon, and he was tackled... And his body ached. It certainly was quite the attack – or perhaps the ground had hurt him more than the Pokémon. He was unsure, but he was ready to get up.

Or so he thought. He attempted to roll over, but his limbs just felt so weak that he could barely even move! The Swablu was forced to put all his strength into the task, forcing his wings and tired body to get in a position where he could get back on his feet. Luckily he wasn't a very tall Pokémon so getting up was easier, but the little bird soon found standing a bit difficult. He felt sick and tired, his head was hurting so much. Even his eyes were a bit blurry at first, forcing him to really concentrate before he could see properly again.

While Varda had been busy trying to get up, Zorre had jumped on the feral Pokémon, threatening it to leave with his sharp scythes. The bird Pokémon took a couple of shaky steps towards the pair, not entirely sure if he wanted his companion to go that far... But luckily the bug had proven to not be very cruel. Intimidating and protective yes, but not evil. The feral Pokémon was allowed to leave and the Swablu felt relieved. His eyes followed his attacker's quick retreat rather lazily, not able to keep up properly.

"Oh," the bird chirped, Zorre's voice causing him to snap out of his thoughts. Slowly, he looked at the other Pokémon, already heading over to the bush with the Pecha berries. Yes, they had to get those berries – and the bug didn't want to do it himself, the vicious scythes he had for hands being rather strong weapons but making something delicate a much more difficult task. The Swablu smiled as he started to walk towards the bush and his friend, his steps wobbly and his path swaying from side to side.
"Yes... Yes, I'll take them," he said quietly, his voice tired and a bit hoarse. Pushing some of the branches of the bush away, Varda used his sharp beak to cut the berries free.



((I guess the question now is if you want to end this after we have finished this page or if you would like to go for an extra page, both options work for me!))

Zorre looked at his partner in concern. "Town get you to, must we. Hurt, exhausted, must be you," he stated worriedly, looking over the battered Swablu. He nudged Varda gently, just to show his support of his partner. He looked around warily. He hoped that no other enemy would suddenly jump out at them randomly. They really needed to get out of this place -who knew that such a peaceful-looking forest could suddenly become so dangerous?!


(ah gosh I thought I'd replied to this ages ago O_o. Definitely you can mark it complete and get your reward. You don't have to split anything with me -Zorre just happened along anyway. ^^)