The Search for the Pecha Berries is On!

After what felt like several agonizing hours of wandering the borders of Grassveil due to Sinai's false directions, he and Theo the Axew finally found Pecha Forest by what seemed like pure luck. Panting and wheezing with exhaustion, the Trapinch collapsed at the forest's entrance with his round face flat against the hard ground. "T-.. This is the place.. Told you I'd find it..." Short limbs shaking with protest at him getting back up as he glared about for signs of a Pecha Berry tree, he noticed most of them were totally bare. The sturdy arm-like branches atop the long slender trunks bore not a single fruit, with only a few leaves here and there. The last time he was here, there was snow still on the ground and a nip in the air; Obviously the Pecha Berries were a bit deeper in the dungeon.

He slightly gulped, noticing that the huge expanse of sky around them had begun to fall into the deep violet-red of twilight. "C'mon, kid.. Time's a wastin' and it's almost dark out now.. I wish we could rest, but then we'll be stuck out here all night.." Sinai's massive jaws were clamped shut worriedly, eyes darting from left to right. "N-.. Not that an invincible Pokemon like me is afraid of the dark or anything!.. Err.. Just-.. Just the sooner the better!"

(16 - 5 = 11 Remaining Energy)

Theo felt a bit more skeptical of the Trapinch every false direction they went. However, they eventually made it, and Theo sighed in relief. "C'mon, let's go!" He began to run forward, but instantly stopped as he noticed there were no Pecha berries. Glancing back at Sinai, he saw the dismay etched across the Trapinch's face. Looking up, Theo noticed the sky darkening. As the Trapinch expressed his concern, Theo nodded. "Yeah," He replied, and fell into step with Sinai as they walked along the trail full of empty Pecha Trees.

(19 - 5 = 14 Remaining Energy)

Sinai shuddered with paranoia as the duo shuffled side-by-side along the worn path of the forest. After every minute, it seemed as though the gangly trees' limbs cast longer, more awkward shadows across the ground. It was odd; The place was so peaceful and welcoming during the day, but when night fell, it was completely ominous and nerve-racking. The Trapinch was obviously on edge, but simply tried to shake it off for the sake of his reputation. "It's a bit far to get to the end of this place... But don't worry, a'ight? The mighty Sinai has your back!" He looked back with at Theo with a contemptuous smile; He had almost forgotten about the small pack of trap-making supplies that was tied tightly to one of his back legs in case one needed to be set, but continued to scrutinize every single tree in sight for Pecha Berries. No luck yet. The pair were completely unaware of the small hoarde of Ghost-Type Pokemon that have begun observing their every step from the safety of the darkness.

Theo began to feel a little worried as it got darker and darker. He wasn't a brave Pokemon; oh, no. However, he did what he always did whenever he started to feel nervous or sad. He smiled. Glancing over at Sinai when the Trapinch commented, Theo just gave him a pat on the head. "I'll do my best too!" He said. Looking back up at the trees, the Axew noticed that they started to look more menacing. Still no Pecha Berries. Sigh.

He tilted his head at the Axew's convincing smile, raising a brow. What's Theo so happy about? Isn't he scared?.. Maybe he's stronger than I thought.. Nowehere near as strong as me of course, but still. Sinai couldn't help but smile briefly himself at the Axew's little reassuring pat. It was rather cute. "That's the spirit-.. Hey! Look!" The Trapinch almost did a double-take. There, standing before them, was a tall and healthy Pecha Berry tree to the left of the path, dozens of the plump pink berries hanging temptingly from branches. "Finally!" The Trapinch nudged the Axew roughly forward and made a mad dash towards the tree, hastily trying to stand tall on his stumpy legs to reach the fruit.

Suddenly, a group of five shadowy figures lurched forward from the bushes and knocked him down sideways with a combined attack of Confuse Ray! As they came into the light, the shady Pokemon turned out to be a bunch of Phantump pranksters. "Gehehe.. We got you!" They giggled gleefully and the Trapinch let out a delayed gasp as he slid to the ground. He tried to stand back up, but simply kept tripping over himself in his confusion. Theo was quite a ways behind him and wasn't effected by the dizzying Rays, but they were starting to close in on the little Axew. Sinai snarled in a frustrated voice, surprised at how easily the strongest Trapinch there ever was was so easily knocked down like this, "G-.. Gah-.. I should've saw that coming! Why didn't I see that coming?!", He was absolutely fuming. "Those idiots are going to regret crossing a tough guy like me.. Urgh. Theo! Try to stall 'em!"

Theo let out a sigh of relief as many trees full of the delicious berries came into view. Sinai bolted ahead; he was quite fast for a Trapinch. Theo lagged behind. Something felt wrong... Why would a bunch of Pecha berries just be lying out in the open? As Sinai tried to reach for a berry, he suddenly slid to the ground. Then five figures came out of nowhere, and began closing in on him. As Sinai called out to him to stall them, the Axew began to panic. What was he to do?! He'd never fought anyone before!

As Theo stood frozen in fear, the Trapinch flailed around frantically to get back on his feet before the small Dragon-Type got hit by the looming Phantump. He was still dizzied and unable to throw together the trap materials, but in the nick of time, Sinai managed to pull off the valuable Egg Move he learned from his mother; Earth Power. "Y-.. Yes!" The attack jaggedly traveled through the soil of the forest floor and struck from underneath, inflicting damage on all of the foes at once. The meager strike didn't cause an excessive amount of damage in any way, but they looked around in shock after getting hit. The clueless Pokemon glared accusingly at one another and took their focus off of the Axew.

"Was that you?"

"No! It was you!

"Hey, why did you hit me?!"

"What?! I didn't!"

"Neither did I! I swear!"

"Liar!"

They started distractedly pushing and shoving one another in anger as they argued, and Sinai quickly took the opportunity to take up several Pecha Berries in his jaws, since he didn't have a bag of any sort. He kept his zigzagging mouth wide open, trying his best not to crush the berries. He had to hold himself back from doing so; They tasted pretty delicious. Silently, the small Trapinch zipped past the hoarde and towards the dumbfounded Theo. "Hurry! Let's get out of here!"

Guest carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

As the shady Pokemon closed in, Theo began losing hope. "Good bye, cruel world!" He sighed. But then the earth shook under his feet, and he saw Sinai using Earth Power. "Yes!" He cried out. The ambushers began bickering with themselves, and Sinai took this chance to take many Pecha Berries in his zigzagged jaws. Once the Trapinch had reached him, Theo began running along with him. Glancing behind his back, he saw the Pokemon still fighting. "We did it!" Theo said happily, jumping up into the air as he ran.

He breathed heavily as he ran alongside the overjoyed Axew, his words muffled through the bundles of berries, "Graf-.. Hah! That shorfed fem!" ("That showed them!") The Trapinch shook his head and tilted it sideways, opening his mouth slightly and dropping half of the Pecha Berries for Theo to carry so he could talk clearly. Sinai held his big head high with pride, even though they honestly had only gotten away unscathed from those Phantump by pure luck. His attack wouldn't of saved them from a more powerful and smarter Pokemon, that's for sure. "Like I told you, Theo. I'm the biggest and strongest Trapinch in all of Grassveil. Those dimwits didn't even stand a chance against a hero like me! They're just lucky I went so easy on 'em." The arrogant fellow nodded with satisfaction at his own claims, though in reality, this was his first-ever victory. Normally, he would've added in a comment about how Theo froze up back there, but for some reason, he decided not to. Truthfully, Sinai was starting to have a soft spot for little Axew. It was pretty out of the ordinary, but something about the dragon's attitude really resonated with him. And most importanly, Theo didn't disregard Sinai's 'greatness'.

After some traveling, the team was finally nearing the exit of the dungeon, or rather the entrance they originally came through. "Well, mission complete! Let's get this stuff back to Grassveil and collect that reward!"

(11 - 1 = 10 Energy)

The two slowed down a bit after they were out of sight of the Pokemon. Theo laughed as Sinai boasted, but didn't say anything about it. He was beginning to realize that the Trapinch was just exaggerating, but Theo didn't want to ruin his fun. Once they reached the exit, Theo picked up the pace again, waddling along back to Grassveil. But then he stopped in his tracks, and looked back at Sinai, laughed nervously and scratching the back of his head. "Um, which way is Grassveil?"

Sinai halted suddenly at Theo's question, skidding a bit in the grass and looking both ways a few times. There was a flat expression on his roundish face, mouth opening slightly, but not speaking right away. After a moment, he pointed a leg straight ahead with a slightly clueless and unconvincing smile. "Errr.. I think it's that way? Yeah, definitely that way.. Heh.."

Theo shrugged. Well, he would've done the same thing. "Alright, the sooner we go, the sooner we can eat!" The Axew reminded him, eyes sparkling and drool starting to come out of his mouth. He shook his head and then began to walk- rather, wander- beside Sinai. Looking around, he tried to find familiar landmarks, but found nothing.

Sinai gazed off into the distance for something obvious like Theo was behind him, and luckily it was still light enough out in the open for whatever was in the distance to be seen. He sighed, stomach growling in perfect unision, "Right.. I'm starving from that intense battle. Hrm..." They were wandering in the wide-open grassy field outside of Pecha Forest, and because of their small size, it was pretty high; Almost half-way up to Sinai's head and Theo's chest. The dark green-shaded blades bobbed and swayed in the nightly breeze, brushing against them. "Let's just take a lot of that ugly map of yours again. At least it's something."

As Theo heard his companion's stomach growl, the Axew realized that he was starving as well. "I hope we find Grassveil soon..." He murmured. The grass tickled his feet, but also felt quite soft. As Sinai suggested looking at Theo's map again, he took it out. "Whoever wrote this has really messy handwriting." Theo joked, holding the map so they could both see it. "Um... Does that mean we go that way?" He asked, pointing to one of the scribbles.

"Me too... I would hate having to wait 'till morning to get to Grassveil. We don't have time for this.. And you seriously need a snack." Sinai grumbled with a slight chuckle at Theo's gurgling stomach, which was noticeably louder than his own. He took a long hard stare at the single scribble veering off across the sheet of paper, and finally gave an unsure shrug and a nod to his friend. "It's worth a shot, even if it is a pretty pathetic map.. One of the Sneasels I met at the Guild knew the way and brought me here for some stupid apple errand, but I wasn't paying attention."