The Island Mystery

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The cool lake breeze brushed past the purpled-haired monkey as he shouldered his custom-made napsack composed of leaves, twigs and grass. He'd set out half a day ago to make his way to this peculiar island following a curious summons addressed directly to his tree dwelling in Pecha forest. It still wasn't clear who sent it or why, but the letter requested his help and he couldn't help but be drawn to the adventure. Of course, danger and excitement wasn't really his thing, but life in Pecha had grown stagnant and a change of scenery was exactly what he needed. The only problem was... He'd reached the last branch before the edge of the lake.

Cracker stared down at the forest floor where it transitioned from tall grass to a thin bar of sand leading into the water. It had been a while since he'd last set foot on solid ground, and he wasn't particularly looking forward to it. Safety was in the trees for him, and he just couldn't get over the texture of grass and dirt, with all those little twigs and bugs to snap and squish underfoot. Still though, the Aipom had come this far, it wouldn't make sense to give up and turn back now.

Wrapping his tail around the branch he stood on, Cracker closed his eyes tight and dove off backwards, swinging in a short arch before letting go and landing firmly on his feet. Immediately the prickly sensation of the grassy ground shot up his legs, making him dance uncomfortably. "Ooooh, why does it have to be so pointy!" he whined, shifting from one foot to the next as he quickly raced towards the shore. The sand was moderately better underfoot, but the way it squished between his toes made him shudder nonetheless.

With his tail hand, the Aipom reached into his pack and pulled out the little letter he'd gotten, perusing it once more. The neatly written words said: Please, help me. You're my only hope. Fallen Leaf Copse. That was it, no details beyond where to go. It was kind of exciting, actually. Like a mystery.

As he stood on the small beach, Cracker's feet sank into the squishy sand, the occasional wave of water helping to bury them. He could see the pathway leading to the island nearby, but the Aipom was considering an alternative means of transportation. One that would get him off his feet in particular. Shaking the sand off his feet, the monkey began scavenging pieces of driftwood scattered across the shore with the intent of constructing a boat. As he worked, Cracker started humming a terribly out of tune song.

((Energy 12))

As the Aipom kept looking for leaves, he noticed Akuroma walking down the path, pocketing something. Perking upright he bounced up onto his tail and followed the Gallade as he marched down the trail. "Did you find a leaf, huh? Didja? What colour is it? I haven't found anything yet, but we should be really close--" Cracker promptly tripped over a stone, landing flat on his face in a leafy pile.

Sitting up sharply, he shook the leaves off his head and inspected the stone he'd tripped over. It was small and green with a little lightning bolt symbol seemingly embedded inside. It took him a moment to recognize it as a Thunder Stone, but when he did, he jumped into the air and squealed. "Wow! What a prize! It's no leaf, but I'll take it!" Stuffing it into his backpack, the Aipom turned tail and raced to catch up with Akuroma.

((Energy: 16 - 8(dice roll) + 1(new page) = 9))

Akuroma looked back at the Aipom as he ran towards him. "Keep up now, I don't need you getting caught by those Ursaring again," the Gallade said as he turned back, facing down the path. One white leaf and one blue leaf, we should only need one more blue leaf and two purple leaves... The Gallade's thoughts continued to trail on as he continued to walk. It seems luck was starting to go on their side, with how little enemies they'd seen, especially with the possibility of powerful explorers out there.

[28 energy]

Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , ,

"Don't you worry about that!" the Aipom replied, catching up enough that he could slow down. "Those bears will think twice about messing with us, next time. Heehee!" Taking a moment to catch his breath, Cracker pulled out the Thunder Stone he'd found and examined it again, running his paws over the smooth surface for a few moments before very gingerly placing it back inside his backpack. It was one of the very few valuable items he'd found so far. Just knowing he had it made him all giddy.

The Aipom carried on for several more feet, struggling to keep pace with Akuroma because of his little legs, when he suddenly spotted something in a bush up ahead. "Hey! What's that?" Running on ahead, the excited Pokemon plunged his paws into the underbrush, hoping for another leaf. Instead though, he pulled free a Sun Ribbon. It came away at first, but then it got snagged on something in the bush.

He tugged on it and shook it, but the ribbon wouldn't come loose. Adjusting his posture, Cracker pulled on it with all his might until, suddenly, it gave way. The shiny ribbon flew free, but it pulled a Wurmple along for the ride, the ribbon tied around its neck. The Aipom rolled backwards several feet and the bug-type Pokemon growled, angry at having it's ribbon nearly stolen. Before Cracker could recover, it fired a String Shot directly into his face.

Akuroma ran up when he saw Cracker getting attacked, quickly stomping on the small bug type and taking the ribbon. "Next time, don't be so rude to attack before asking what's going on," the Gallade said, putting the sun ribbon away before he walked over to the small monkey Pokemon, grabbing some of the webbing sprayed on his face and pulling it off. However, the Gallade didn't notice the two Pokemon that were in the tree above, ready to attack now that their family had been attacked.

[8 energy]

The Aipom squirmed on his back for a few moments after he'd been attacked, attempting to pry the webbing off his face, during which time Akuroma dispatched the bug and claimed the ribbon. With the Gallade's help to remove the sticky residue, he regained his sight just in time to see a Cascoon and Dustox in the trees overhead, preparing to attack. "Mmmph, mrrmph mmph!" came Cracker's muffled cry as he tried to warn his friend. But both Pokemon had already descended.

The Cascoon attacked with a String Shot intended to hold Akuroma in place as the Dustox proceeded to release a Poison Powder over the duo. Although he couldn't speak, Cracker instinctively whipped his tail out and kicked up a spray of sand to block the toxic cloud, in the hope of dispersing it. But whether he was successful or not, he didn't know as the blow back covered him and the Gallade in a cloud of dust.

Lumin carried out 5 launched of one Fallen Leaf Copse :

, , , ,

Akuroma tried to look back to see what the Aipom was mumbling about, but could only see the purple powder get over taken by the dirt and leaves on the ground. The string shot, however, shot through the dust and debris, attaching itself to Akuroma's arm. The Gallade frowned, pulling at the string until he found himself with a Cascoon wrecking ball. "Oh, this'll be fun," the Gallade said as an evil smirk spread across hi face. Swinging the Cascoon around, the gallade began to bash the small Pokemon against the ground and trees before finally having it smash into its evolved form, sending them both on a wild ride as the Gallade saw fit.

Still struggling to remove the last of the sticky web from his mouth, the Aipom spotted another blue leaf on the ground. The din of the Cascoon-turned-wrecking ball flailing about faded into the background for a moment as he spied the leaf just sitting on a small pile of regular ones. He might not have noticed it with this mess going on right now, but by an odd string of luck what drew his attention to it, was the same thing currently picking it up. A small Teddiursa wearing a Sun Ribbon was watching the battle play out, not wanting to get involved. However it was happy to help itself to the leaf.

"MMmmpfhh!H-hey! That's not--Aku! There's a blue leaf! That Teddiursa has it!" he cried out, tearing off the last of the webbing. The instant the bear realized it was discovered however, it promptly turned tail and rushed back towards the bushes from which it had emerged. Meanwhile, the Cascoon and Dustox, now stuck together but their own String Shot attacks, were spraying webbing and Sleep Powder everywhere!

Akuroma looked over at the direction the Aipom was pointing, and promptly changed the direction of the Cascoon-Dustox wrecking ball, swinging it at the teddiursa before tearing the webbing off his arm. This caused the sticky-sleep powder mixture created by the two to explode in the bushes the Teddiursa ran into, a sudden cry followed by a good bit of snoring proofing that the three Pokemon were now asleep by the attack.

Akuroma carefully began to approach the bushes, holding his cloak up to his face in order to keep from breathing in the sleep powder. "Mmpfh, think I got it," the Gallade said through the fabric as he pried the blue leaf out of the sticky mess, pocketing it before quickly backing away. "Good job, Cracker, that only leaves us with a few more leaves to go."

The Aipom watched in awe as Akuroma swing the toxic Pokemon cudgel down into a bush just as the Teddiursa disappeared inside, causing it to detonate with a sticky, smoky puff. Cracker quickly returned to his feet as the Gallade approached the pushes, wary of the Sleep Powder, and eventually snagged the Blue Leaf. Following behind, the monkey helped himself to the Teddiursa's Sun Ribbon and whatever else he possessed, which turned out to be a single Orange Gummi.

"Score!" the Aipom giggled, stashing his newfound items and returning to the psychic-type Pokemon's side. "Well that was a mess but it was worth it. We're getting so close now." Bouncing up onto his tail, he continued along the path, keeping at eye on his friend. "Any ideas on what we're going to do this time when we get back to the shrine? I've been thinking, at least when I haven't been getting attacked by Pokemon, that the numbers might be related to the colours. I'm just not sure how. Hopefully we can crack it!"

Akuroma nodded, "Yeah, the separation of the lines through me off at first, but I believe that's the first step in solving the riddle. However, we should be wary of being too sure of ourselves. It may blind us from something else we need to do to complete the riddle. The Gallade continued to think of what they might be missing, if anything. The idea that Cracker had seemed as solid, if not more so, than the one Akuroma had thought of. However, what if they missed something? What if there was a second meaning to a part of the riddle? The Gallade groaned quietly to himself as he thought. Even he was having trouble figuring out the riddle, though he never really did care for them.

He cared more for knowledge placed in front of him, not protected by riddles and secret messages. It's why he explored dungeons, though mysterious as they are, much could be learned simply by finding out what lives there. And yet, this dungeon, with its shrine, was more perplexing than any he'd explored before.

"You think there's something more to it?" the Aipom inquired, still bouncing along. "Man, why do ancient puzzles have to be so difficult? It's like they don't want us to solve it!" Growing tired of spending time on the ground, Cracker quickly flung himself up into the trees overhead, latching onto the nearest branch and swinging to the next. He felt himself growing tired again, but mostly because this riddle seemed to be just beyond his reach of comprehension and it was bothering him. He wasn't the brightest of Pokemon, and if this enigma was testing Akuroma's intellect what chance did the little monkey have?

Whatever the chances may be, he was determined to help the Gallade as best he could. Even if it meant taking on this entire forest to find more leaves. Of course he didn't really know why he was so enthused to do so, but he liked having purpose and meaning. "So we just need two purple leaves now, right? How hard can it be? They're probably all over the place. We'll be back at that shrine in no time!"

Akuroma shook his head, "We still need one more blue leaf as well this time. It also couldn't hurt to hope for some extra ones in case we don't complete the riddle correctly. That is, if they could find anything. Yet again the forest was growing quiet, no oddly colored leaves nor any Pokemon who may have found some themselves. Akuroma was amazed at how quickly the forest could go from insane to peaceful. It was much different from Pecha forest which was almost always peaceful and Shadowhue which was the exact opposite. Hopefully they'll find something soon, the Gallade wasn't very keen on using more Trawl orbs to try and find more items.

Cracker came to a stop on one of the branches overhead, feeling the same silence fall over the forest as their last battle concluded. This place was much more bizarre when it came to encounters than anywhere else so far. Was it because of the madness over those leaves? That shrine appeared to be responsible for everyone here losing their collective marbles. It put the purple monkey on edge. Because if what Akuroma said was true, then there might be other Exploration Teams out there, looking for leaves or worse, looking for the Gallade.

"This place is too quiet now," Cracker said nervously, moving forward again to catch up to Akuroma. "I don't like it. One second we're battling, the next it's like there's nobody around for miles. I really hope we find those leaves soon, before this place drives me batty." Swinging down low, the Aipom returned to the ground to begin searching for leaves again. "What're we gonna do if we run into another member of the Guild? We keep battling them, and it's only going to get even harder to move around out here. Maybe you should hide next time, and I can steer them away. I'd hate to see you get arrested when we're so close now."

Akuroma shrugged, "This island may just not be populated very well." It was as good as an explanation the Gallade could think of. At least they had some time to rest, and the Gallade took the opportunity to munch on a Sitrus berry. The Aipom seemed alright, so the Gallade decided not to offer one this time.

[23 energy]
(sorry for the short post, can't think of anything |D)

"I dunno, it seems pretty populated to me," Cracker replied, riffling through a pile of leaves in search of the special ones. "I mean we've had two run-ins with the same Exploration Team so far. How unlucky can yah get?" Giving up on his current pile, the Aipom moved to another and continued his search, determined to find something. And the sooner the better. The last thing they needed right now was yet another encounter with law officials. At this rate they'd begin thinking Cracker was an outlaw like Akuroma.

"I hope we can figure out that puzzle this time, I'm really curious to find out what happens, aren't you? I mean, maybe there'll be this big beam that shoots up into the air or something. Or maybe there'll be fireworks! That'd be so awesome, don'tcha think?" As he described the events, Cracker waved his arms around dramatically, while still managing to continue his search. He really was excited to discover the secret of the shrine.

((Energy: 8))