On the Road to Rainfront Town

First topic message reminder :

[Energy: 17 - 10 (Entry Cost) = 7]
[Exclusive Item: White Silk (Reduces cost of every other Pokemon rolled by 1)]

Pilot looked up at the large hill before him, panting heavily. After traveling on foot for hours without rest, he had finally reached the toughest part of his journey to Rainfront Town: Pricklemist Hill. The huge mound of dirt was the only thing separating the exhausted bird from his destination. If he could hurry things up, perhaps he could finish up his business with the DreamCatcher's Service by nightfall... It was a hopeful thought, considering that it was already mid-day, but if anyone could do it, it was him. I wish I could've just flown there, Pilot anxiously thought to himself, twitching his damaged wing. It still hurt from when he had crashed into a tree in Shadowhue Forest. It was beginning to heal, but flying for long distances was simply out of the question.

A dense cloud of mist surrounded the hill, giving it an ominous appearance. The area had a bit of a spooky reputation, but Pilot wasn't scared. There was no evidence of ghost types living there, so why would he be? Besides, as long as he didn't dawdle around, he wouldn't even be in the dungeon for long. Quietly whistling a tune to himself, Pilot began going upslope, starting the exhausting process of scaling the hill. I should've brought that Mim girl with me... He thought to himself, not exactly thrilled that he was traveling alone...

Horochi isn't on anything, but if you must know, it's probably just the long-term effects of whatever he consumed at one point in his backstory.

Suddenly, Horochi felt something explode in one of his ears, which woke him right up as he shouted "DOYABELIEVEINMAGIC" as he accidentally hit Pilot in the face with a scratch attack. "Aw crap! I'm so sorry, I just tend to do that sort of thing when I'm woken up so suddenly." he apologized.

[Energy: 7+1(New Page)=8]

MagicalMario carried out 3 launched of one Pricklemist Hill :

, ,

Horochi sighed, and moved on ahead as thoughts about is, er..."state of mind" started clawing at his insides for a while. "Y'know, I bet that gastly was th' one livin' here, so now we can loot the entire place! Imma go look fer some valuables 'r treasure 'r somethin'. Hey while I'm at it, should I also look fer somethin' t' cover up those scratch marks on yer face?"

Pilot rolled his eyes, displeased that the scratch marks on his face were visible. "Yeah, that'd be nice," He said bitterly, suddenly feeling very self-conscious. Well, it can't look THAT bad, can it? Maybe I'll look tough... Yeah, I can tell Hidon that I got into a fight with a giant Ursaring! The bird Pokemon thought, feeling a little better about himself.

It didn't take very long for Pilot to find a useful item while ravaging the cabinets. Among the junk, there was an oddly fresh Sitrus Berry, which he quickly slipped into his bag. It appeared as if everything else valuable had already been stripped. Perhaps the house had been raided before...

Pilot closed the drawers, finished with his intensive search. Maybe it wasn't treasure as he had hoped, but he certainly wasn't going to complain about a Sitrus Berry. He hopped forward, looking for Horochi. "Yo, Horochi, where'd you-" He squawked, just before the floor opened up underneath him. The Taillow fell for several meters before finally hitting a hard, rocky surface. He looked around. Is this... A secret basement? Sweet! Maybe there's something down here!

"Horochi, come 'ere! I found something!" Pilot called from below.

[Energy: 8 - 3(Feral) - 1(Item) - 1(Item) = 3]

Horochi searched his portion of the house for any valuables, but unfortunately only found a single gravelerock, which didn't exactly please him all that much. Just then, he heard Pilot call for him, so he darted back to where he was, seeing a hole in the floor. He looked down the hole to see Pilot staring back up at him. Horochi asked "How'ja end up down there?" wondering if he should jump in after him or not.

"There was a pitfall trap on the ground, and I fell in!" Pilot called up the his partner, looking around for any signs of a staircase leading back up. Nope, there's nothing here... Not that I can see, anyways. How am I going to get out of here? I guess I could try to fly out once I'm done looking around... He thought, twitching his bad wing. It still hurt, but not enough to prevent him from taking flight.

The Taillow looked up to the surface. It wasn't that far of a fall down, so realistically, Horochi could jump down and reach the bottom unharmed. "C'mon down here!" He shouted, smirking. Yeah, I'll catch you... Not.

Suddenly, something moved in the corner of the bird's eye. He swung around, but didn't see anything. "Huh?" He asked, continuing to scour the area for whatever he had seen. Whatever it was had disappeared into the shadows. That's... Kinda unnerving. Nothing I can't handle, though! He told himself, striking a dramatic pose.

Pilot, still distracted by whatever he had seen, walked into the darkness to investigate. As he walked further way from the dim light provided by the pitfall trap, he began to hear a strange hissing sound. What is that, a loose floorboard or something? I mean, this house IS pretty old, so that would make sense... He thought to himself, moving closer to the source of the noise, which was becoming louder. Unable to see in the poorly-lighted basement, he stuck his wings out in front of him, trying to avoid crashing into a wall. Eventually, he felt something scaly in front of him. Hey, that doesn't feel like a wall... The bird realized, but it was too late.

The hiss grew into a battle cry, and Pilot felt a sharp object being slashed across his chest. "Uh, not good, not good!" He squawked, darting towards the light. "Hey, Horochi! Can you light this place up with fire or something?" The Taillow asked, clutching his chest, which had a noticeably large gash in it.

Somewhere in the darkness, the poison snake Pokemon was lurking, waiting for another opportunity to strike at the intruders. If the room wasn't lit up, it would be relatively easy for the Seviper to wear its opponents out with a series of surprise attacks. Soon, they would succumb to the effects of its poison, and it would finally get a decent meal...

Horochi used his ember attack to light up the room, but it accidentally landed in a seviper's open mouth as Horochi got a sense of deja vu from when Pilot had woken up from his hypnosis-induced slumber, and just like then, the seviper was enraged at its potential prey setting its digestive tract ablaze.

Pilot watched in awe as Horochi not only lit up the room, but also spit a mouthful of flames down the serpent's throat! Heh, that's pretty cool. I wish I could breathe fire... The bird jealously thought to himself, dissatisfied with his normal typing. Sure, he could fly, but having control over an element seemed much cooler to him! Whether it was fire, electric, heck, even grass, Pilot couldn't help but feel a little envious.

He lowered his shoulder and charged at the Seviper, hoping that he could land the final blow. Of course, in his weakened state, the reckless attack would probably leave the foe with some health, giving Horochi another opportunity to follow up his attack.

when Pilot was hitting the seviper with his attack, Horochi also attacked with Night Slash at the same time, causing the seviper to fall on its back, unconscious. "........Well, THAT was a thing that happened." Horochi stated, watching the seviper burn from the inside out. In the dimly lit room, he noticed a little red apple sitting half a meter or so away from the likely dead snake pokemon, so he walked over and collected it.

"Whew! That was... Awesome!" Pilot rasped in between heavy breaths. They had just defeated a Pokemon that was many times their combined size, giving the bird Pokemon yet another far-fetched story to tell his partner once he made it back to Grassveil. Of course, he could only do that after his quick stop in Rainfall, which seemed to be immanent. In only another hour, he predicted that he would arrive there, and would finally be able to visit that psychic... He could only hope that they'd be able to help him.

Pilot's thoughts were interrupted by a twinge of pain. It seemed that he hadn't escaped the venomous snake Pokemon unscathed. The avian put his wing over his chest, feeling a gash that ran all the way down his body. He could only guess that the Seviper had used its blade-like tail to slash him... If that were the case, it was a miracle that he hadn't been badly poisoned. It hurt, but he refused to show this in his expression.

"Alright, so how are we gonna get outta here?" Pilot questioned, gazing around in search of a staircase.

Horochi looked around the darkened room for an exit of some kind, but all he could find was the pitfall trap that brought them here. He knew that he could use his speed to jump out of here, but then Pilot would be trapped all by himself, so he decided to try something that he had done before. "Spoink-back taime!" Horochi shouted as he used one of his legs to plop Pilot on his back, then he got a hopping start and lept out of the trap, and just like that the avian duo were back on the ground floor of the old rickety shack as Horochi set his companion down on the wooden floor.

Pilot's eyes widened in surprise as he was grabbed by Horochi and vaulted out of the pitfall trap! Wow, how'd he manage to do that? The bird asked himself, shocked by his partner's sudden display of athleticism. He just jumped an entire story high! While carrying me, too! He couldn't help but feel a little bit embarrassed; throughout the entire trip, Horochi had clearly been the dominant fighter, and had proved to be far more useful than he was. While it was true that Pilot's wings weren't in optimal condition, he didn't want to use that as an excuse. He desperately wanted to prove himself...

But their journey seemed to be coming to a close. Shortly after they escaped the basement, the duo departed from the creaky building, having already searched every corner for loot. They had come up almost completely empty (although the Sitrus Berry was certainly a welcome addition to his inventory). Of course, finding treasure wasn't Pilot's primary objective! He still needed to reach Rainfront to pay the DreamCatchers a visit... The quaint village was starting to become visible through the fog. It was a thirty minute walk away at most.

"Thanks for coming with me, Horochi," The Taillow started, staring at the sleepy town from their vantage point on the hill. "It shouldn't be too long until I get to Rainfront... But yeah, I really appreciate you helping me out," He told Horochi with a grin.

"Hey, no pro' buddy, jus' decided t' help ya through wha' with yer broken wing an' all." Horochi replied kindly. Pilot definitely made his trek over the fog-covered turd that was Pricklemist Hill much more interesting than he expected. So with everything settled, he started walking away with a smile on his face. "An' hey, if ya ever nee' help with somethin' else, jus' gimme a shout. I gotta home in Grassveil, so jus' look fer th' home with th' torchic footprint on th' fron' door if ya ever need anything." he stated as he waved goodbye with one talon while hopping away with the other.