A Westward Wind Blows

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A warm, desert wind blew across the sandy dunes and rock formations that littered the area, kicking up granules of sand and blowing them across the golden ground. In the midst of all this, a single Absol trudged onward through the sand, her head hung a bit lower as she lazily kicked the sand up with her paws. Shintara had learned over the course of her life in a different desert that when traveling through the area, it was best to keep your head down so the sand wouldn't get in your eyes while it blew around. Of course, not that having her head down was too much of a problem.

As the wind blew through, she could tell not much was around. The wind wasn't bouncing off of much, instead giving the impression of a wide, open area. And with how shifty the ground was beneath her, and the sediment getting throw around in the wind, it wasn't especially hard to figure out she was in another desert. Having lived in one before sort of helped one recognize that. Lowering her head a bit more, the Absol curiously sniffed around a bit, searching for any faint traces of other pokemon around. With the shifting sands and wind, she doubted she would find anything unless the pokemon the scent belonged to was close by. As of now, there didn't seem to be any civilization of sorts in the desert, either. Maybe she should have headed the other way when she left her mother at Blackmist.

"Well, I guess it might be time to turn around...at least I got to check the desert out a bit..." She muttered to herself, still trying to look on the bright side of things as she brought her head back up a bit, her eyes simply gazing right ahead and not moving much, not focused on anything either as she came to a halt, preparing to turn around.

Energy: 6/22(-16 for entering)

"It'd be no problem; heck, I could probably go looking for stock...-" Izumi's voice fell into a hush as the wind kicked up again, flooding her sensitive nose with a new, alien scent. Izumi lowered her head and began to glare around the surrounding area; she could tell something was coming but she didn't know exactly what. "Heads up, Shintara; we've got somebody on our tails." Izumi warned. Suddenly, a noise beneath Izumi's paws alerted her to a new presence; one she hadn't been expecting. Izumi jumped into the air in full-on panic mode as a male Hippopotas, the second of two in the area, emerged from the ground beneath her. The Dig attack hit Izumi, but the fact that she jumped before the Hippopotas hit her dampened the blow's power considerably. Izumi took the softened blow to her gut and then fell to the sand on all four paws. She dashed at the ground type and swung her shadow-engulfed scythe at it, hitting it from the side with a pursuit attack.

"Hippopotas!" Izumi choked. "They must have territory nearby; they're probably trying to assert their dominance!!"

Izumi the Absol- 1 Energy

Nodding her head in response, Shintara lowered herself into a crouch and turned around, backing up by Izumi so that she could cover them from behind. Amidst the mostly empty landscape, the wind seemed to be bouncing off of something further back, forming the shape of some sort of moving pokemon,
"Yeah, I know. I can cover us from-" While she was speaking, she heard the ground errupt from underneath her fellow Absol and instinctively stepped forward, sensing as the Hippopotas came up from under the shiny pokemon and attacked. Honestly, she wanted to help Izumi, but she kept her old mentor's teachings in mind. Right, right. Just do my job, and she'll do hers. She can handle herself. She told herself, and began to tense up a bit as the second Hippopotas began to charge at her, coming in with a Take-Down. Taking a deep breath, once it came by Tara lunged to the side, running past the Hippopotas and raking her claws across its side with a Scratch attack as she did so. The Hippopotas seemed to stagger and slow to a halt as its attack missed, and Tara pivoted around once she moved past it, turning to get ready for another attack.

Before the Hippopotas could even think about it's next move, Izumi lunged at it with no letup and slammed it with a Quick Attack. She managed a pretty lucky blow; smacking it right in the side of the head and doing a considerably larger amount of damage than normal. The Hippopotas teetered back and forth a bit, stunned by the blow, before jumping back into the sand and burrowing it's way into the ground for another dig attack. "Rats," Izumi cursed; she had been hoping to incapacitate the ground type a bit more so that it would have a harder time burrowing underground, but no dice. While the Hippopotas cowered underground, Izumi prepared her next attack. Her scythe began to glow violently and grow in size; hardening to a density unmatched by most other substances on the planet. "How're you doing, Shintara?" she called as she pooled energy into her attack.

As Izumi continued with her own battle, Tara backed up a few steps as the Hippopotas she was currently engaged with turned around and charged at her again, this time with its jaws open. With a bit of a smirk, the blind Absol prepared to do the same action she performed previously, but as she went to pass and bring her claws up, the other pokemon's jaws clamped down on her foreleg in a bite. She grimaced slightly, scowling as her paws began to glow with a light pink aura. Rearing up, she batted at the Hippopotas roughly, managing to hit it squarely across the face and knock it off a bit, making it let go of her leg. Coming back down on all fours, she kept her attention on the hostile pokemon, noticing it start to get up again.
"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm alright. This isn't exactly my first time with this sort of thing. Just make sure you're doing alright." Shintara responded with a grin, her voice sounding much clearer and calmer than it had before.

Energy: 5/22(+1 for a new page.)

Izumi smirked. "That's good to hear; it's never fun being the only one," the Absol called back, "and believe you me, I've been there a LOT." As she finished her statement, she felt a shifting in the sand below her paws, causing her to jump as she had before; albeit a moment earlier this time. As the Hippopotas emerged from the sand, Izumi drop-Megahorn'ed its face like a freaking deadly game of whack-a-mole. The creature slammed down into the sand under the force of the move, leaving a little body imprint crater in the loose soil. Izumi landed and took a few steps back, observing to see if the creature was still moving. When it didn't, Izumi felt a little more confident in moving about. "Well, that was certainly out of nowhere. Brings back a lot of memories, actually," she chuckled as she fought to catch her breath.

"Tell me about it." Tara snorted somewhat as the Hippopotas she was taking care of turned back to her. Seeking fairly enraged by this point, the hippo Pokemon began to charge once more with another attempt at Take Down. From the distance it was coming from, the blind absol didn't necessarily feel safe in dodging. So instead, she braced herself and lowered her head, planting her paws as firmly into the sand as she could. The impact was fairly painful as she took the brunt of the attack with her head, making her grimace as she found herself pushed back a bit, though she managed to stay standing and replant her paws, keeping herself from getting pushed back any further at the moment. Keeping her head pressed against the other Pokemon's, she began to turn her head, using the Hippopotas' momentum against itself, and causing it to stagger off beside her, it's own momentum making it fall over onto its side. Before it could get up again, Tara pounced on top of the other Pokemon, quickly striking it across the side of its head with a scratch attack. That seemed to do the trick, but the blind Absol continued to stand over the downed Pokemon, wanting to make sure it wasn't getting back up.
"Well...you okay?" Tara turned and angled her head towards Izumi, breathing a bit heavier and looking like she was swaying slightly, a bit dazed from her head-on collision.

Izumi, still panting and tired from the recent battle encounter, started to waddle over to where Shintara was standing, looking to regroup and recuperate for a moment now that they had a bit of time to rest. She sat down next to Shintara and shook some sand out of her fur and breathing deeply. "Yeah, I'm fine... it's been a while though," she panted.

As the Absols caught their breath, two Carbink sisters quietly approached them. Between them they held a bag. "Hello... thank you for" "ridding us of those bullies," they said, alternating between who was speaking.

"Oh.. were they... bothering you?" Izumi asked, not really sure how to handle this sudden confrontation all out of the blue.

"Yes... there are" "more like them after us." "We can't stay long, but" "this is a sign of our" "gratitude." With that, they left the mysterious bag with Izumi and took of just as quickly at they appeared, vanishing into the swirling sand.

"Um, thanks and bye....?" Izumi questioned. She took a moment to process what had happened, then began to rummage through the bag that the sister Carbink had offered her, she discovered an Oran Berry. She looked at it for a moment before snapping it up and scarfing it down hungrily, savoring the fruity taste. As she chewed, she reached into her bag and brought out another Oran Berry that she had just picked recently and tossed it over to Shintara. "Here, eat this. Keep your strength up," Izumi remarked in between chews. She then laid out the items in front of the other Absol and asked, "See anything you like?"

Izumi the Absol - 1 + 10 = 11 Energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 1 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

Glancing over at Izumi as she sat down next to the blind Absol, Tara smirked a bit, still standing and nudging her with a paw jokingly.
"Well, if you're...going to be heading out around areas like this...maybe you should do this more often, keep your strength up." She commented between breaths, before taking notice of the two Carbink that had come up to them. She simply stayed quiet through the encounter, letting the shiny pokemon take care of the talking and fidgeting with the sand a bit, shuffling it back and forth with her paws.

The berry getting tossed to her seemed to catch her by surprise as she simply blinked, the small fruit bouncing off her nose and landing in the sand. Quickly taking notice of it though, and putting the shape together with what Izumi had said about it, she picked it back up and scarfed it down.
"Thanks. And, uh..." The blind Absol stepped up by Izumi and angled her head as if she was looking into the bag, staying silent.
"I can't really, well...I don't exactly know what's in the bag." She admitted somewhat sheepishly, unable to make out the shapes inside it.

Energy: 15/22(+10 from Oran Berry)

Pikashock carried out 5 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

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Izumi snorted at Shintara's suggestion. "Hey.... I like a good fight as much as the next guy, but my job is opening boxes and giving people items. Fighting isn't my first priority," she remarked with a chuckle. "Besides, when I'm in town, I like to live a rather quiet life; it only ever gets hectic when I leave to go to the dungeons. Maybe I'll retire one day..." she sighed, pondering over this statement. "...For now though, nah. I still get some enjoyment out of the excitement." When Shintara pointed out that she couldn't see, Izumi looked at her funny for a moment and blinked. "aH-HA!!!" the Absol jumped up and exclaimed triumphantly, "I THOUGHT you were blind!!! I've been trying to ask you this whole time, but we keep getting distracted!!" She looked the teensiest bit proud of herself before sheepisly sitting back down. "Sorry.... I got a little over-excited."

The blind Abdol herself nearly jumped as Izumi exclaimed, sounding fairly excited and proud of herself. Facing towards the shiny Pokemon and smirking wryly, she shook her head.
"Well, yeah. I am. Though, I have to admit, nobody's ever reacted with this much excitement when they found out..." Tara turned away and held her head up, feeling the wind pick up again.
"I can understand that, the whole quiet life thing. I've just spent so much time fighting and training for my tribe, I guess I haven't really stopped to consider if I could handle all that peaceful time for myself." The blind Pokemon chuckled somewhat, lowering her head again.
"Anyways, the wind was blowing against me when I came out here. I figure we follow the wind and we get out, right?" She suggested, angling her head back towards Izumi with a smile before taking a few steps away with the wind.

Energy: 13/22(Encounters)

Pikashock carried out 4 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

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Izumi pondered Shintara's words for a moment. "The wind seems pretty important to you; is that how you see?" she asked before continuing to contemplate Tara's suggestion. "...that should work; I can't see why it wouldn't. It's better than anything I've got; I don't carry around a map because it takes up too much space," she chuckled sheepishly, averting her eyes in an awkward fashion. "I know my way around quite a few dungeons, but... this one I've never been to before. I don't really know my way around yet," she explained. Her nose began to twitch as she thought she smelled something nearby, but it wasn't close enough for her to pay any heed to it. Instead, she bent over to a patch of ground near her and began to dig on a whim, uncovering another of the strange stones she had found earlier. She picked it up and slipped it into her bag for safekeeping.

"W-well, yes, sort of. It's kind of hard to explain...actually, well, m-maybe not." She stuttered slightly as the adrenaline left her system, reverting back to a sort of awkwrdness as she pawed at the sand a bit. At first Tara had been preparing her usual response when she had to explain how she could sort of "see", but she realized maybe it would be easy to explain how. After all, Izumi was an Absol too.
"You know how you can sense when disasters are about to happen? You know, wind currents for storms, rumbling for earthquakes, that sort of stuff?" She asked somewhat rhetorically, blinking as she seemed to find two rocks, one similar to the one Izumi found, and the other different. Deciding to ignore them for the moment, she began to walk ahead a bit more.

"Well, the only thing that really got a boost is the wind for me, but with my lack of sight, some of my other senses got a bit boosted. Mainly for wind. So, I can sort of feel it bouncing off of things, use it to 'see' somewhat..." The blind absol finished explaining, before pausing for a moment. With the wind, she could sense something different from the desert up ahead. An end to the grainy feel in the wind, a more bouncy one as it met the ground. The wind met it, and sort of reacted like it was...water, maybe?
"Uh...Izumi, i-is there some sort of water up ahead? Like an Oasis or something?" She questioned, turning back to 'look' at the shiny pokemon, though it wasn't like she actually could look or anything. It was more customary, other pokemon seemed to appreciate when she was at least facing them while talking.

Energy: 7/22(Change from encounters.)

Pikashock carried out 1 launched of one Scorchfall Desert :

Izumi pondered over Tara's words as the other Absol explained her method of "sight." It was an extremely impressive adaptation to the environment. "Heh.... You're like a wind-powered, four-legged radar. Maybe I'll start calling you 'Radar' from now on, hmmm...?" Izumi teased. "But in all seriousness, it's really impressive that you taught yourself how to...- huh?" Izumi looked around the seemingly barren desert wasteland in search of whatever magical water Shintara was talking about, and at first she didn't see it... she couldn't smell it either, mainly because the wind was blowin towards the water and blocking her from picking it up. Upon closer inspection, however, Izumi did finally locate a suspicious glittering just past a few large sand dunes.

"Uhh, yes actually... well, maybe. I'm not sure? I definitely see something," Izumi mused, standing to get a better view. "There's definitely something over there... let's try to check it out," the Absol stated, beginning to pad off in the direction of the strange water before breaking into a full-on sprint.

With a nod of her head, Shintara smiled and began to run as well, keeping up with Izumi as the two of them ran off towards the pool of water. Of course, when the wind hit the water, it had a different sort of reverberation to it. It was like punching sand and punching water. If you closed your eyes and punched one, you could definitely tell what it was. Of course, there was a chance she could be wrong about it though. Many of her clan had talked about hallucinating in the desert, and how dangerous it was to chase after mirages like that. But, she could sense that it was there not through sight, but through the wind. She had to be right, after all, it wasn't like she could hallucinate through any other senses, right? ...right?

Well, whether she could or not, it seemed like this time, it wasn't. As the two pokemon ran towards the oasis, there seemed to be a gathering of pokemon there. All sorts of them, a Sandile, Krokorok, Carbink, and Hippopotas all seemed to be there, simply hanging around and enjoying the water. As the two showed up, the Krokorok turned his head and looked at them with a somewhat lackadaisical expression.
"Woah...new pokes...well, welcome bruhs...just...just take a dip, it'll cool you off, bruhs..." The crocodile pokemon seemed to gesture towards the water, looking to invite them in. Shintara simply stopped and blinked, her head angled towards the group of them.
"...uh...w-what?" She simply muttered, prodding at the sand with her front paws.

Energy: 5/22(-2 for encounters)

"Oh wow, a party!!" Izumi exclaimed as they rolled up to the Oasis surrounded by pokemon. Normally Izumi might have taken a bit more precaution around strangers, but stonercroc the Krokorock and his friends looked like a pretty chill bunch, and Izumi was really in need of a good cool down. "Thanks a bunch, mister! I think I'll take you up on that," the red Absol grinned as she strode past a Sandslash and a Sandshrew duo, getting up close to the water and taking a sniff. It smelled French and delicious, and Izumi couldn't stop herself from dunking her head into the cool, refreshing water. She remained under the water for quite a bit of time, much longer than one might have expected.

".....AAAAAH!!!" Izumi yelped as she yanked her head out of the water. She sounded as though she was in pain. "AAAAH, IT'S ACID; IT'S BURNING MY FACE..... Just kidding; that water felt really good.~"