An Outlaw's Shenanigans, an Explorer's Horror

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(Energy - 5)

The Icy Lands were just as cold as Sova remembered them. Actually, it was colder since this time he was much farther in, nearing Mt. Frostmeer. Luckily, the snow wasn't obstructing vision, or he might have gotten lost trying to find it. Why was he even here? He thought about turning around, but the idea was quickly discarded as he was reminded of a voice echoing through his head.

His recent hallucinations brought on by the peak of Black Mist Mountain hadn't lasted with him for more than one day, yet he was still hearing the voice in his head, insulting him, calling him weak. Not because of any drug, but just because he couldn't forget it. The only thing he felt would ease his mind of the voice was to prove it wrong. What better way than risking death to climb a mountain for no sensible reason?

Even though he felt exhausted already just getting there, he didn't let up even for a break. He had to prove to himself that he wasn't weak. Though....proving something that isn't actually true in the first place usually isn't easy.

Mirage could hear nothing, just the sounds of angry pokemon telling her to get lost, go away, her kind didn't belong here. She would have tried to leave, if she hadn't been frozen in place, only able to cower in fear in the corner of her mind as the faces of the villagers of her hometown one by one turned into those in Grassviel. The archeops screeched at her, the Meganium lashed its vines like whips, the gengar chuckled eerily, an Aipom glared at her with its arms crossed, and an eevee growled at her with its ears laid back and teeth exaggeratedly sharp. Every pokemon there seemed to have scarily exaggerated features. All Mirage could do was remain where she was, and hope that they would all just get bored of scaring her and go away.

Don't die? What a horrible goodbye that would make....surely Sova could do better. He had to think of SOMETHING to say to keep Mirage somewhat attached to reality if she could hear him at all, or at the very least peace of mind if she were to die.

"You know, earlier you said you didn't think you could be loved. I think you're actually pretty easy to love, once you open up a little...." He spoke a bit quieter than previously, a bit worried his passenger would suddenly spring to life and yell at him for trying to compliment her or something.

"Die in a hole" "Go away" "You're hated" "Nobody will ever like you!" "I think you're actually pretty easy to love once you open up a little.."

...what? Mirage peeked out from under a paw, still shivering to see all of the villagers staring at the speaker in shock. The eevee from before was now a Glaceon, and he seemed to be perfectly normal now. The villagers quickly turned against the Glaceon, "Traitor!" "Monster!" the vines from the meganium wrapped around the Glaceon, picking it up and tossing it into the same corner as Mirage.

The dream continued on all the same, the only difference being someone for her to cower with. The dream slowly faded, Mirage returning to consciousness slightly and noticing herself being carried. She did nothing to act against it, and felt as if she were going to slip into unconsciousness once more, "Everyone is important to someone..." she found herself repeating some words her mother once said long ago. She never believed it herself, who the hell would she be important to? Everyone seemed to want her gone or didn't give jack sh*t about her.

"Heh, I guess so. Good to see you're alive. Still, don't go towards the light just to be safe...." Sova said, relieved to hear something coherent from his living luggage. Just in time too, as the snow on the ground began to sink lower and lower to the ground as he walked, a sign they were out of the coldest area. Of course, he was fairly indifferent to the temperature change, but he hoped it would at least help Mirage out with the whole not dying thing.

"So, how awake are you? Enough to answer?" He asked.

Mirage had been slipping back into a slumber, but the talking jolted her back awake slightly. She nodded as much as she could, "Y-yeah...uhuh..." She was still unable to think clearly, and her mind was still in a rather illogically thinking state. She hardly felt the temperature change, still numb out of her mind and feeling nothing but weariness. She figured that it was better for her to stay awake though, as she did not want to return to that nightmarish land of rejection and horror. Her mind began to trail off a bit, losing track of what was being talked about and even if there was a topic, "I wonder what a golden apple pie tastes like..."

"Uuuuh........" Sova attempted to understand where the zorua's question came from. "Well, probably like a really good apple pie....How about if either of us ever gets a golden apple, you can find out.... But you've gotta make sure you stay awake for now so you....just don't go to sleep, alright?" He pleaded.

What could be wrong with her....I really hope it's not hypothermia. That seems most likely but....there's bound to be other, less dangerous possibilities....maybe she's just exhausted.

His paranoid thoughts would likely start to get to him if Mirage passed out again. He really needed to try to keep her awake.

"Yeah Yeah Yeah...anything so I don't have to go back there again..." the zorua huffed, the effects of hypothermia still taking its toll. She was likely was going to continue to be out of her right mind until she got to a much warmer climate, or got warm in general. As of right now the zorua could only hang uselessly and watch the snow go by beneath her as the Glaceon carried her limp and incapable of walking body to...wherever he decided to take her. At this point she didn't care, she cared for nothing, just not going back to the horrid nightmare.

"Hm? Back where?" Sova asked. Where had Mirage presumed she'd gone? Perhaps she was hallucinating.... The glaceon could relate on the topic of bad hallucinations. Or perhaps it was a bad dream. Pretty much the same thing really, just less interactive. It was hard to tell whether Mirage had been passed out dreaming or semi-conscious hallucinating, though.

"Well, where ever you were, what's important is that you're here now. So, do you have any idea where "here" IS?" He questioned, hoping to get some measurement of how out of it the zorua was.

"Yippee Skippy's Happy Fun Wonderland," she spoke sarcastically before giving a serious answer, "We're in...uh...Incanto Plains..." The snow around the area and the way the ground seemed to be flat from how she looked down reminded her of the plains. To the zorua, she was back near her hometown, the Incanto plains was a large field that was always coated in snow in the winter. She paused for a moment, "We're not going back there are we? They don't like me back there..."

(gah I can't think of anything else to put)

"What....the hell?" Was all Sova could think to say. "Uh....no, we're not going back there....as long as you stay awake." He figured playing along would do more good than trying to explain the actual situation at the moment, since Mirage seemed to be VERY out of touch with reality. But at least she still understood words and was now awake. As long as she stayed awake, that meant she wasn't dead. Anything other than dead equals good.

"Good...I don't want to go back...I left for a reason..." the zorua began trailing off, signaling that perhaps just answering was not going to cut the cake for keeping the conversation going and keeping her awake. The zorua was still weak, and could only watch the snow pass by beneath her as well as her dangling paws swing back and forth or not move at all depending on what she decided to do with them. She could feel her eyelids trying to close, she forced them awake.
'Don't want to go back...'

"Yep, and you're not going back." Sova said as he stomped his front paws on the ground, shaking Mirage in an attempt to keep her awake. "You can't get out of talking to me that easy anyways." He joked. Even if he had to flail a sleeping zorua ragdoll around until she woke up, he was NOT going to let her fall asleep. Not if he was still conscious himself.

He'd figured out in the fight with the froslass almost instantly that he could adjust his body temperature, but sadly he could only make it lower than normal, not higher than normal. Or at least that's all he'd been able to do. He was keeping himself as warm as possible for the sake of the zorua laying on him, but in all honesty, he probably wasn't warm enough to help much.

[energy: 8]

"Is that a challenge?" Mirage mumbled, staring at the ground below them. It was rather boring, but she certainly could not walk on her own. She couldn't feel or even move her legs, it was like they would not respond no matter how hard she tried to move them. It made her begin to wonder if those were really her legs due to the current state of mind being of lesser intelligence than normal and rational thinking was a bit half out and half in the window.

Kat carried out 3 launched of one Mt. Frostmeer :

, ,

Mirage has a baked potato for a brain right now. Sova began to pant, all the carrying beginning to get to him. "No....not really, just don't go to sleep." He said. Then his train of thought was interrupted by what sounded like a moving earthquake. In the distance, he could see what appeared to be....a moving iceberg. "What the what...." He muttered.

As he realized it was not an iceberg, but a POKEMON, he looked around for somewhere to hide. But....to no avail. It noticed him and began walking in his direction. The glaceon was too weak to perform a very effective Quick Attack and would just risk dropping Mirage if he attempted to run away very fast, so there wasn't really much choice but to stand his ground and hope the avalugg was friendly....

As the large beast approached, it seemed to have a small brown and fluffy puffball on its back. The puffball stood on its hind legs and spotted the two. It seemed to give a jump and urge the beast it was faster. Once they were near, the puffball hopped off and darted through the snow, closer the two. It stood on its hindlegs and spoke, "Greetings! I am Kin, and that over there is Jok. We spotted you two over here and were originally hoping if you two had seen something, but it seems like your friend here needs some help. So instead we offer our help to you. You accept, yes?" the little creature gave a nod, it seemed to be rather excited to see them, despite the conditions the zorua was in.