Echoes in the Dark

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Mission Details:

Today was a nice day.  The sun was shining and it was warm.  What taunting weather....  Sova the glaceon stood at the entrance to a cave, peering inside.  Dark and cold awaited him.  Not that it made a difference to him.  He just wanted to do missions and gain ranking....  Eventually he would have the undeniably best team in the guild.  It wasn't really much of a "team" since he'd done most of the work, but that just made it even better for him.

"Well, this is definitely the spot.  Never been here before."  The glaceon spoke to himself, a bit bored and slightly lonely.  He took a step into the cave and sighed in boredom.  Hopefully something eventful would happen soon.  He didn't find the idea of being alone and bored for an extended period of time to be overly appealing at the moment.

(23 Energy)

"BECAUSE THIS WAY'S COOLER. PUN INTENDED."

"I tried shaking him. He's heavy." Sova commented as the tropius awoke. "Besides, this worked." He snickered, having had a bit of fun with it.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Veriq. I got cut, then you randomly passed out." He informed to the tropius, not completely sure what had happened. Why did Veriq pass out? He didn't seem hurt....

What could one pass out from? Injury, sleep deprivation and fear. Veriq hadn't gotten hurt, that he knew of, so that only left two possibilities. "Have you been getting enough sleep?" He said, unintentionally sounding like a doctor.

Varda let Sova handle the Whismur and its questions, much too worried about the large Pokémon lying on the ground prone and much too lifeless for his liking. But the ice seemed to have worked, causing Veriq to let out a groan and then even opening an eye, looking at his surroundings. The little bird was positively ecstatic, his eyes growing wide and bright as his beak opened in a smile. Even though the Grass-type Pokémon seemed groggy and had no idea what had happened, he did manage to light his head off the ground!

"Oh, you're alright," the bird Pokémon chirped with an excited voice before his features took a much more serious and concerned look,
"You... You are alright, right?" He tilted his head in his worry. The Swablu didn't know what had happened to cause Veriq to pass out, he had his back turned when it happened. Did the Pokémon hit his head on something or did he step on a trap of some kind...?
"Um, the exit is right there," Varda reminded the two, extending a wind towards the tunnel the Whismur had pointed out earlier,
"If you think you can stand, we should probably head back to town. Maybe we should take you to a doctor and you could rest there for a while..."

Veriq shook his head in attempt to clear a daze, "I've been travelling for quite a while, don't know about sleep though. I feel fi-" he spotted the Glaceon's shoulder wound once more and grew whoozy once more, "Oooh cover it up...get it out of here..." he looked away from the glaceon's shoulder, the red liquid creeping out of it and causing the image of the tyrantrum to flash in his mind again. He felt bile rise in this throat, but held it down. He shut his eyes tight and tried to forget about the wound, his body shivered as he attempted to keep himself from falling unconscious once again.

The tropius wasn't tired? Then that only left one thing. Made apparent to Sova by the tropius' request to cover the wound, it seemed the blood was causing it. "Are you afraid of blood?" He questioned as he took his blue ribbon off his neck with a paw. He wrapped it around his shoulder using his mouth and the paw of his non-wounded leg, having a bit of difficulty doing so.

Doing his best to make it look easy, he wrapped the ribbon around the wound, pinned one end of the ribbon to his leg using his paw and pulled the other end with his mouth, tightening it enough for it to stay put for a while. It'd have to do for now, tying knots with paws was hard.

"There, lets go." He suggested as he himself started in the direction of the exit. Now that his wound was covered, they had no reason to stay.

Varda cooed in a concerned thought as his brow furrowed in worry, noticing that the large Pokémon was looking like he would fall down again. He hopped a bit closer, perhaps hoping that he could see what was wrong or maybe to help Veriq stay on his feet... But considering his size, he would have been a bird pancake had he tried. It was something the Swablu didn't really seem to realize, offering his support.

The blue bird tilted his head as the grass giant ordered Sova to cover something up, turning around to see what was being talked about. It took a moment for him to realize that it was the wound Veriq was talking about! It was bleeding and it seemed like the sight caused the large Pokémon's knees to turn into jelly! Varda would have already offered his ribbon again so that the wound could be covered, but Sova already used his own. Was that enough, though?

"Are you alright now? Do you think you can walk...?" The Swablu cooed, tilting his head. His little beady eyes still looked so worried as they looked up at the much taller Pokémon.

"Y-Yes," Veriq spoke, "I can walk.." he cleared his throat and attempted to retain what little dignity he had left, "It's not that I'm afraid of it, it's just that it brings some rather..." he hesitated, he was not sure what that scene was. Was it a flash back? A Vision of the future? Or was it something his mind just made up due to the planted seed of doubt in his king the glaceon had placed?
"Some rather unpleasant imagery...and makes me sick..." he still seemed a bit weak and queasy, but got back up onto his stubby legs, "We should get going, i'll be fine," he promised. He figured that he would be, since the blood was no longer in direct line of sight and the gaping gash wasn't hounding his eyes.

Sova used Worry Seed on Veriq! It's super effective!

Sova stopped, turned back and tilted his head at the tropius' explanation of what had happened. Unpleasant imagery? That sounded a lot like his particular situation.... Maybe Veriq could relate to him? He wanted to see, but how would he verify if it was the same thing without explaining in detail what was wrong with him and making himself appear crazy? He probably WAS crazy, anyways. But he needed to at least try. "Imagery? Like....hallucinations, or images in your head?" He questioned, then hesitated to continue.

"I think I might be able to relate there."

Varda nodded as the large Pokémon assured him that he could still walk, but those little eyes of his still were looking a bit worried. This was the first time he had seen anything like this happening, so understandable, he was a bit shaken about it as well. And well, he didn't honestly really get Veriq's explanations, his expression puzzled as Sova tried to understand the mystery. But as the little bird thought about it for a while, his eyes brightened as he felt like he managed to come to a conclusion!

"Like a memory?" He chirped, a smile appearing on his face,
"Like... When I ate this really spicy berry once and it burned my tongue. If I think back to it then I," the Swablu didn't even manage to finish his sentence as his entire little body shuddered, thinking back to that moment he did not enjoy. If a though could give him a physical reaction, maybe Veriq was the same?
"Did you maybe fall and cut your shoulder in the past, too?"

"Uh..no...I think? This is the first time its happened...I don't remember if I've ever gotten that kind of injury," He sighed. He still felt a bit weak and confused, as he was certain that he had seen blood before at some point. However he did not remember having this kind of reaction. He knew that his memory was rather fragmented, but why would he forget something like this? Was the imagery a vision? Was that tyrantrum actually the princess? Was she going to cause the deaths of thousands? No. Impossible. She wouldn't kill senselessly like that! She just wouldn't!

First time? Sova sighed, it was almost definitely not the same issue he was having if the tropius had only had it happen this once. Probably just some hallucination brought on by blood, or maybe a repressed memory. "What ever it was, being in this dark, depressing cave probably isn't helping with it, so how about we get out of here?" He suggested.

Maybe if Veriq went by Grassveil Town, someone would know what was wrong with him. It was a long shot but it was probably better than sitting here doing nothing. Besides, he really wanted to get out of the cave and away from the whismur so he could add the bell to his collection of neck adornments and see if it helped at all.

Varda cooed in deep thought. The large Pokémon seemed to think that he hadn't suffered a similar injury in the past... But! Maybe it was someone else, then? There were so many possibilities, but it didn't seem like they were going to find the answer yet. Veriq couldn't quite remember after all, and surely he was still a bit shaken after what had happened. This wasn't the right time to try to solve the mystery.

The Swablu nodded in his usual excited fashion as Sova suggested that they would leave. The exit was nearby, if the Whismur had been right. It would only do good for them all to leave already!
"Oh, yes. The client is waiting, too," the little bird chirped happily, but he did give Veriq another concerned look,
"Maybe there's a river nearby as well. It's probably a good idea to drink," he continued, sharing those small nuggets of wisdom he had. Everything could be fixed with food, water and enough rest – or that's how it seemed to be, at least. Varda was no doctor.

With that, the little bird started to waddle towards the Whismur, hoping that the little Pokémon would show them the way. It did seem to have some courage now, so perhaps it would like having that kind of task? They were so close, nothing could go wrong! The Swablu occasionally turned to look back to make sure that the rest of the group was following – and that Veriq hadn't fainted again...

((Four more posts for the page and you guys wanna end it there? Three more after this))

Veriq nodded, "Yeah...it'd probably be better to leave..." he moved forward to follow the swablu. His head hung quite a bit however, thinking about the strange vision. What if that was the queen? What would he do? Should he stop her? Let her be? He stared off into space, the client leading the way to the tunnel's entrance that they were going to use as an exit.
He should really find the princess, and stop her from doing such a thing should it happen, maybe she could tell him that it was not a vision? Something that maybe it was a different tyrantrum? He snapped back to attention, almost hitting his head on the ceiling as it lowered.

(Sure, I'm fine with that. Dunno where else it'd go anyways.)

Sova suppressed the urge to simply Quick Attack out of the cave and test out the bell, knowing it was a straight shot to the exit at this point and that it wasn't even a long walk. He could already tell the area was getting brighter. He could wait. Besides, he didn't want to rush past the whismur and startle it.

....He couldn't wait. "I'll be right back." He said as he started off back deeper into the cave without awaiting any responses, taking the bell out of his bag when he was far enough away for it to only be faintly audible to the others if at all. He held the bell in a paw and shook it to provoke ringing, but felt nothing. He grabbed it with his teeth and shook his head side to side violently, making the ringing even louder. Still nothing.

The glaceon sighed and dropped the bell back into his bag before darting back off towards the entrance, again using Quick Attack until the others were in view. The bell was useless....but at least he made a few new friends, or at the very least acquaintances. More importantly though, he was just completing a mission and would be one step closer to having the undeniably greatest rescue team.

Varda continued to hop after their client. The Whismur seemed quite happy to finally be on the move and get out of the cave, waddling closer to the light as quickly as its little feet allowed it to. Which of course wasn't awfully quick seeing how small the Pokémon was, but as the Swablu was a small Pokémon himself, he didn't seem to mind the pace. He could keep up easily as he kept bouncing forward. The twisting tunnel they were being led through was getting brighter as they got closer to the entrance – or exit in this case – and the little bird couldn't be happier to finally see the sun again! How long had it been since he saw it, again? It felt like ages...

Suddenly Sova spoke up, dashing off before anyone was even given a moment to react. The little Swablu was left behind with the rest, blinking in confusion as he tilted his head and peered into the darkness where the Pokémon had disappeared. He... Really hoped that Sova wasn't afraid of light and he darted off because of that!
"I... Um. We should probably wait," he turned to look at the rest of the group, stopping in his tracks. It wouldn't be polite to just leave Sova alone! The Whismur seemed a bit upset by it, frowning as it looked longingly into the light that was so close yet so far away.
"He'll be back soon," Varda chirped, putting a comforting smile on his face. He hoped that was true, at least. He could hear the faint ringing of a bell in the distance, but not much else.

Sova eventually returned and the bird Pokémon seemed quite happy about that, hopping over to the other Pokémon with a great big smile.
"Welcome back," he tweeted in his chirpy voice, motioning and urging Sova to reunite with the rest and finally go outside. The Whismur already looked so impatient! But the Swablu wasn't going to blame Sova. Maybe he just really, really had to go...


((Yep, works for me!))

The glaceon left to do something, Veriq paid no attention. The tropius felt the sunshine touch his leafy wings as they exited the cave, the mission had been completed, and the client was safely outside of the dark and loud once more. Sova had completed his mission, and Veriq had found his way out of the caves along with Varda. However, the tropius seemed to only have a stronger desire to find the princess than before. If that vision was what he thought it was, then he needed to be there to stop the princess from becoming a horrid queen that destroyed all that opposed her with no mercy. The group left the Serene Cave, having found treasures and maybe even a touch of friendship all while rescuing a timid whismur.