Dappled Sunlight (Open!)

First topic message reminder :

It was early morning, the sun still rising in the sky, gracing the forest with it's rays despite it being famed for it's darkness. Russell crawled along the well worn pathway at the entrance of Shadowhue, a bag and notebook in hand. His attention was mostly focused on the tiny slivers of light that tentatively brushed past the leafy canopy, scattering upon reaching the ground, like liquid gold.

The dark forest, as was a popular name for Shadowhue, really wasn't as dark as you thought if you really looked around, and Russ couldn't help but find it oddly fascinating.

The Burmy paused where he was stood to make a small note in his little notebook, recording his musings to read later when he analysed today's exploration back at his home. When he was satisfied with his writings, he slipped the book and quill into the bag he wore and prepared to move onward.

Russell couldn't help but feel just as excited as the Spearow hopped around him. Apparently Kelina's joyful emotion was a little contagious, but the Burmy didn't particularly mind. Someone this enthusiastic about what they wanted to do would be a good for the Windrose Scouts after all!

A set of growling noises from behind him caught Russell by surprise, and he found himself jumping and whipping around to face what were revealed as two pokemon that appeared to live within the forest. These two in particular were a Slakoth and a Pinsir, and Russell found himself making a mental note about the two species for future reference.

He didn't have long to think about it though, as Kelina immediately jumped into action, using her natural flying abilities to dive bomb the feral Pinsir. The Spearow seemed to have targeted the opponent that she would be more effective against, a decision Russell could definitely appreciate. That left the Burmy to attempt to deal with the Slakoth that was left behind.

Not having many attacking moves to his name, the Burmy took a moment to consider his position, letting the Slakoth come closer. With a surprisingly decent leap, the Slacker pokemon swiped it's claws towards the bug type. Almost instinctually, Russell protected himself with a thin barrier.

The Slakoth appeared to collide with the barrier before sliding to the ground where it lay quietly for a moment, allowing Russell to take a few precautionary steps backwards to put some distance been himself and his opponent.

Kelina
Energy: 6
Items in Use: N/A

Kelina flew up into the air over the pinsir, and then dove again, this time pulling energy out of the air and focusing it into her wings before slamming into the pinsir with steel wings. The pinsir let out a cry of pain, but clamped down on her body with its large pinchers. Kelina was now the one letting out a squawk of pain.

She struggled against the strength of the pinsir's pinchers, unable to flap her wings as they were pinned down by the crushing teeth. She let out a desperate cry and pecked at the pinchers with her sharp beak, nailing attack after attack on the pinchers. The pinsir let out a cry of pain but refused to let go of her.

So Kelina powered up an attack and opened her beak, shooting a tri-colored attack right in the pinsir's face, causing the pinsir to finally drop her. She fell to the ground, and flapped her wings hard to get herself back into the air, where the pinsir couldn't reach her. But the pinsir was done attacking. It limped off into the forest, where it had come from. Kelina looked around, wondering if Mr. Yummy had finished off the slakoth or needed help.

Russell stood back and waited for the Slakoth's next move, only to be surprised as the Slakoth seemed to roll onto it's back and stay there for a moment, as if attempting to scratch the Burmy that one single time had taken all of the energy it had to give.

Having not encountered one of the Slakoth line before, this was new to Russell. Were this species just naturally inefficient with their energy use? Perhaps rather than it being optional, a Slakoth physically had to rest after each move?

He was soon distracted as the pokemon began moving once more, rolling back on it's stomach and moving closer to the bagworm pokemon. Russell, not wanting to risk being attacked once more, backed up a second time before preparing his Hidden Power move.

A small ball of pale purple psychic energy formed in front of the Burmy. He didn't use the move in this way very often, as it took a bit more out of him than levitating small objects seemed to. But he was unsure how to handle this pokemon, and so he'd rather be safe than sorry. After a moment of concentration, the Burmy released the energy he'd gained in the ball, into a beam of light that struck the Slakoth square in the chest as it was too slow to dodge.

A moment or two ago, he'd heard a cry that had sounded like Kelina, but hadn't been able to help lest he bring his opponent over and make things worse. Now that the Slakoth seemed to be a little dazed at the attack, he called out to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked the Spearow, concerned for her welfare after that particularly desperate sounding cry. He was relieved when she fluttered over to him, seemingly having dealt with her Pinsir opponent already.

Kelina gave a small giggle at the burmy's question. "Oh, I'm alright," she chirped. "Dumb pinsir trapped me in its pinchers, but I got the best of it in the end. How's it going on your end?" She looked at the slow-moving slakoth with a curious expression on her face. "Doesn't seem to be very effective, does it?" She said, hopping over to the slakoth and giving it a small peck on the head. "heh... it moves so slow! How can any pokemon survive like that?" She chirped a laugh, dodging a slow swipe from the slakoth. "Oh give it a rest, will ya? You're not going to catch me," she told the pokemon cockily.

The Burmy watched as Kelina took advantage of her speed to peck the Slakoth's head and easily dodge any swipes it made at her. He could almost feel the sweatdrop at the scene. Perhaps if he was a bigger pokemon, or something faster than a bug type it'd be that easy for him to overwhelm the Slakoth too.

Nevertheless, the slacker pokemon no longer seemed to be as much of a threat and so Russell relaxed a little.
"It is rather slow. I've never seen anything like it before," the Burmy admitted, "But I suppose there must be something to it if it manages to survive among all the other pokemon here..." he mused.

"Oh I suppose so. I guess its slowness kinda makes it difficult to see as a threat. Maybe that protects it? Or maybe it can move fast but it's deciding not to. Who knows," Kelina flapped her wings in a sort of shrug. "Anyway... I'm so happy I can be part of your organization. What kind of challenge do you want me to do? Is it going to be hard or easy? I guess it will probably be difficult because you don't want just anybody in the organization, huh? Like, hard-working pokemon," Kelina babbled happily. "Good thing I'm a hard-working pokemon. I like hard work! I love exploring. I wanted to be part of the guild, you know. OH, I already told you that, huh? Oh well."

"Either way, it's definitely an odd anomaly of a pokemon," the Burmy replied with a small chuckle. He was definitely fascinated by it, but the Slakoth probably didn't appreciate the duo gawking at it. Plus, there were things that could easily draw his attention away from it's mysteries, such as the idea of adding another member to the organisation he was proud to be the founder of.

"Oh yes!" the Burmy exclaimed as Kelina reminded him of the conversation he'd been having with her before the two pokemon had attacked them. He waited for the Spearow to eagerly explain how much she wanted to be a part of the Windrose Scouts, using the time to come up with a challenge. She'd already shown him her combat prowess and he had confidence that she'd be able to handle herself out in the field.... how about a collection challenge?

He paused thoughtfully for a moment before nodding to himself and finally moving to speak again.
"I think I have a challenge for you. I assign you to collect three non-edible items from Shadowhue Forest!" If he possessed arms, the Burmy probably would have done a dramatic pose at the reveal of the challenge. But alas, he did not, and so had to rely on the excitement in his voice to convey the greatness of such a challenge.

"Once you're done with your challenge, you'll have to write a report about how you did it, and include lots of detail. After you're done, you can come show it to me and if you pass, you'll become a Windrose Scout!"

Kelina hopped from one leg to the other happily. "Ok, I can do that! It will be fun!" She chirped happily. "I'll do it tomorrow, even! Then I can be part of your Windrose Scouts! Oh, I'm so happy! I'll have to do lots and lots of missions for you and we can map the world together! Oh, it's going to be a blast! I can't wait!" She burst out excitedly.

She raised her wings and flapped them, rising into the air and doing a couple of excited flips as she imagined her dreams of exploring the world coming true.

The Burmy was once again surprised and elated by the Spearow's excitement about getting to join the Windrose Scouts. Although she'd tried to eat him to start with, he felt that he could definitely forgive such an act now that he knew what the bird's dreams and aspirations were. Plus, it was only natural of her species to want to hunt bugs, so it wasn't as if she had been doing something dastardly.

"I look forward to it!" the Burmy grinned in response, watching Kelina hop from one foot to the other and then doing aerial flips in her excitement. In watching her display, Russell failed to notice something falling from one of the tall trees above him. In fact, he probably wouldn't have noticed at all if it hadn't fallen square on his head, causing him to cry out with a sharp, "Yowch!"

Kelina turned at the shout of pain from Russell. "Huh? What happened?" She asked, not noticing the apple on the ground next to the burmy. "Is another feral pokemon attacking?" she looked around but didn't see anything. She fluttered down next to the burmy, and finally noticed the apple. "Oh hey, look. It's an apple. Looks yummy," she chirped.

"I don't think so..." replied the Burmy as he turned and spotted what had fallen on his head. An Apple. He supposed at least this time around it was unlikely to be a purposeful attack as the tree above seemed to house a number of the fruits, though the ones in the tree were not quite as red as they should be, indicating they were not yet ripe.

The one on the ground however was shiny and it's colour rivalled that of the leaves in Fallen Leaf Copse. Definitely ripe then.

"It certainly does," the Burmy chuckled in reponse to Kelina, picking it up with his small bug feet. Russell glanced up at the tree as if to make sure no more of them would fall on him. When he was satisfied that he was safe, he turned to the Spearow.
"Here. You have it," he said, offering the apple out to Kelina, "You were hungry earlier when you tried to eat me so it makes sense for you to eat something now."

Kelina
Energy: 6 + 5 = 11
Items in Use: N/A

"Thank you!" Kelina chirped gratefully, pecking at the apple. It was sweet and yummy. She grabbed the apple in one foot and balanced on the other as she pecked at the apple. Her beak wasn't shaped the best for eating fruits -it was better-shaped for tearing apart meat, but she made do. After a couple more pecks, the fruit was gone. She stuck out her tongue to lick at her beak before looking over at Russell again.

"Well. I think its starting to get dark out," She noted, peering up at the sky. "We might not want to stick around the forest at night. That's when the really dangerous pokemon are about, right?"

Russell smiled as Kelina as she accepted the Apple. A little part of him was glad to see her eat something so that she was unlikely to still be hungry and try and eat him, but his conscious thought also wanted to trust her and believe that either way she wouldn't have eaten him and it was just a kind thing to do to give her the apple when she was already hungry.

The Burmy nodded as the Spearow pointed out the time, "You're probably right," he conceded with a glance up at the sky. Although the forest itself was already rather dark, what little light it appeared to let in through the canopy despite the darkened clouds overhead was beginning to fade as evening drew nearer.
"I wouldn't want to get eaten after I only just narrowly avoided it," he chuckled, "Plus my night vision is really bad."

Kelina
Energy: 11
Items in Use: N/A

Kelina bobbed her head. She quirked a smile at the reference to the bagworm pokemon avoiding being her lunch. "Yeah, it would be too bad if someone other than me were to eat you," she chirped. "Joking, of course," she added cheekily.

She flapped her wings experimentally, testing the air. "Well. It was nice to meet you. Where can I find you once I've completed my task, hmm?" she asked curiously.

"I'm sure you wouldn't want to eat me anyways. I don't think i'd be that tasty," the Burmy replied with an almost nervous chuckle, watching as the Spearow tested the air with a few gentle flaps of her wings. Noticing that Kelina was preparing to leave by air he nodded to himself, responding to her question.

"You'll usually find me in Fallen Leaf Copse," Russell replied with a smile before motioning to his cloak of multicoloured leaves, "That's where these came from after all," he chuckled.