Marshy Marching

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(19 - 15 = 4 energy)

Rouge frowned, he wasn't sure what he was doing here. The ground was wet and hard to move around in. Every step he took here felt like three steps, and he was growing weary very quickly. Looking around, Rouge spotted nothing of interest to him. 'Look for a cave near the cattail marsh' they said, 'It will be fun' they said. Rouge huffed with discontent, there was nothing he hated more than trudging through water with mud in it than a liar. He swung his club in front of him a few times as if hitting those lairs in the face. The only thing that he got from those Pokemon was some more experience in speaking. he wasn't as bad as he was before, but he wasn't at all perfect. At least he didn't need to sound out almost every single letter any more. Suddenly he stopped and listened. He heard splashing coming towards his location.

"not st-u-pi-d... Go-al g-oo-d." Rouge stated, he personally didn't like the idea of exploring a huge amount but he currently had no choice in that, he needed a cave to live in. Rouge glanced over at Ashen and saw her blushing. Embarrassment? more than likely.

He shivered as a sudden moist gust chilled him more... moist gust? it wasn't foggy or raining... rouge looked behind him where the gust had come from and got a face full of water, causing him to flail and stumbled backwards, into Ashen's view. As he wiped the water form his eyes he saw a poliwag and a Barboach close behind them. The poliwag seemed to giggle as if it was just trying to play but the barboach seemed to have other ideas jumping straight at his face, using it's tail to slap him for a moment before going back into the water.

[Energy: 5 - 4 (Roll Results) = 1]

Ashen looked up at Rouge, smiling. "Really? You think so?" She asked in disbelief. To everyone else (other than her own mother), it seemed like her dreams were unattainable. While it might not have seemed like much, it meant a lot to her to hear the Cubone say that her goal wasn't stupid. "Thanks, Rouge..."

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw her partner swing around, and then stumble backwards a few feet. She looked back and found two water Pokemon staring at them. Looks like another fight! The Houndour thought, getting into a combat-ready pose and lunging at the Poliwag. She crashed into the little tadpole Pokemon, sending it teetering back a few meters. The Barboach attempted to hit her with a Mud Slap, but she nimbly dodged, smacking it with a Sucker Punch. It responded by spitting a glob of mud right into her eyes.

Ashen yelped, completely blinded by the Barboach's dirty attack. Reluctant to dunk her head in the water, she tried to clear her eyes with her paw, but had little success.

Rouge started to chase after the Barboach, taking a sing or two every so often in an attempt to take it down quickly. The sight of a cubone chasing the Barboach would be rather comical to anyone passerbys who happen to see it. As Rouge chased the Barboach, he slowed down, tiring. He gasped for air as he stopped looking around trying to spot the slippery Pokemon. Just as he thought he saw the barboach, the poliwag sprang up behind him and tackled him sending him sprawling forward before catching himself and turning around to face it. Not seeing either, he continued his search.
This was going to be an annoying fight, but they would win in the end. Rouge looked to Ashen and saw the mud in her eyes, immediately he started wading to her to try and help but kept being tackled by the two water Pokemon. He swung wildly every time he saw they, tiring slowly but trying to do his best to make sure that he would be able to get to his friend to help.

Ashen finally gave up trying to get the mud out of her eyes with her paws, and hesitantly immersed herself in the marsh's water. It didn't take long for the fire type to become uncomfortable. She raised her head, and gasped for air as if she had been drowning. Clearly, she wasn't used to being underwater. At first, Ashen felt embarrassed by her aquaphobia, but she quickly realized that there were more important things to worry about. She looked to her side, and noticed that Rouge was having trouble dealing with the feral Pokemon that had attacked them. She waded over to her partner, intent on helping him finish the pesky foes off.

When the Barboach jumped out of the water to tackle her, Ashen fired a fierce Ember attack at it. While she was at a major type disadvantage, the move still seemed to do significant damage to the loach Pokemon. It cried out in distress, and attempted to swim away once it was back in the water. Ashen knew that it would come back later if she let it flee the scene. A quick Sucker Punch to the Pokemon's side ended the confrontation, knocking it out cold.

"D-did you g-get the Poliwag, yet?" Ashen shakily asked her Cubone acquaintance, shivering. Now that she was completely soaked, she could feel the heat being sucked from her body. A warm campfire sounds good right about now... Hopefully, we'll get to solid land soon.

Rouge slammed his bone club down into the water, missing the poliwag several times. He huffed in a mixture of annoyance and exertion. The poliwag tackled him again once his club made contact with the water, causing rouge to lose his grip and drop his club into the water. Rouge staggered backwards and got ready for another swing, only to find that his club was missing by the time his hands hit the water. His eyes widened in surprise as he found out he'd dropped it. Getting hit by another tackle, he stumbled back more before finding the footing to brace himself. Just as the poliwag tackled him again, he manged to catch it. it flailed in his grasp, slippery but he held on trying to keep it in one stop so that ashen could finish it off.

Rouge panted from the struggle, he noted that ashen was cold, but he needed his club. He looked back to where he may have dropped it but saw no indication of where it was. He sloshed over and dived into the semi murky water in an attempt to find it. over the course of several minutes he dived over and over again but to no success... with every dive he got colder and colder. He came up the last time viably shivering from being thoroughly soaked. He waded over to Ashen, and looked up to her.

"F-in-d c-l-ub la-t-er... f-ir-e fi-rs-t...." Rouge spoke before starting to search for any solid piece of land, hoping that it could be found soon.

[Energy: 1 - 1 (Roll Results) = 0]

"T-there's a little island over there..." Ashen weakly told her companion, pointing her paw towards a small elevated area with some vegetation. It was a two minute swim from where they were, and with the water gradually getting deeper, they would no longer be able to simply wade through. The fire-type sighed in exhaustion, continuing to feel the heat being sucked from her body. Would she even be able to make it to land? I'm just gonna have to tough it out until we can make a fire... She thought to herself, becoming dizzier as time went on.

"C-c'mon, w-we should g-go," She rasped, starting to doggy paddle in the direction of the small island. It was one of the first times she had ever swam in her life, but it seemed to come to her naturally. Perhaps it was an instinct that all canines had... Regardless, this was likely going to be one of the only times she would ever use the skill.

Rouge watched Ashen swim to the small island, taking only a few steps put the water at his neck. This wasn't good, as he didn't know how to swim very well. he nervously watched as Ashen made it to the island and attempted to swim over himself. He was graceful in the slightest and was very slow, it took him a small while to actually make it. Once he finally reached the island, he collapsed on the ground, shivering violently. He was soaked to the bone with cold water, and the sky had become overcast, offering no sunlight to help him warm up. He felt helpless in this state, no bone, immobilized by sheer cold, and unable to produce any real heat.

While Rouge swam over to the small island, Ashen prepared a fire pit. After digging a small hole in the earthy soil, she left in search of timber that wasn't damp (which was difficult to find in a swamp). For several minutes, the hound Pokemon wandered aimlessly through the small wooded island. It seemed as though every stick in the entire swamp was saturated with water and therefore unusable for a fire. This came as no surprise, considering the high humidity of the area. Eventually, Ashen stumbled upon a knothole in a tree, which contained a (thankfully dry) Diet Ribbon, which was probably flammable. She also found a fallen bird's nest sitting on the ground, which could also be used.

Upon returning to the site where she had dug the pit, Ashen found Rouge collapsed on the ground. "E-eh, are you alright, Rouge?!" She barked, rushing over to the reptilian's side. Upon noticing his intense shivering, she rushed to the pit, threw the Diet Ribbon and bird's nest inside, and lit them on fire after several failed attempts. Laying down by the fire, the Houndour worriedly glanced at her partner.

It took a while but the warm of the fire finally washed over rouge. He felt the warmth, slowly working it's magic on his body. Slowly, his shivering lessened to a more manageable state, allowing him to sit up and move closer to the fire and to Ashen.

"B-be-e-et-t-te-er n-no-o-ow." rouge said, the shivering still more than enough to make him chatter and thus harder to talk. He didn't mind though, Rouge had a fire, a friend, and most importantly some land under his feet. For the first time in a while, he knew what happiness was. He was still visibly shaking but he looked to Ashen and gave the best smile he could manage at the time, The fire wasn't large and didn't look like it would last very long, but it was at least there for now.

Ashen returned Rouge's smile, and stared into the fire, perhaps seeing something that her travel companion didn't. The Houndour's feelings for her own element were mixed at best; it was widely known as being destructive, which went completely against her peaceful personality, and yet... In this instance, fire was being used to help, to heal... Perhaps the story that her mother had told her about the origins of the fire type had been, well, just a story. Maybe fire wasn't a creation of Yveltal as she had long believed.

The canine Pokemon sighed, throwing a stick into the flames. Already, the inferno seemed to be dying down, and with no more flammable objects to throw in, there was nothing Ashen could do about it. She felt bad, noticing that her Cubone partner was still shaking. In a few minutes, there would be no more fire, so they would have to make the best of it while it lasted.

"So... Uh, where are you from..?" She asked, trying to produce some conversation. The Houndour had never really been a fan of small-talk, but it seemed appropriate at the time. Also, she genuinely wanted to know more about her mysterious companion. Other than the fact that he was looking for a cave to live in, Rouge was an enigma to the hound...

Rouge looked to Ashen when she asked him where he was from. he looked down, still shivering, and rubbed his hands together nervously. Nothing he could say would explain his situation very well, but he would try at least.

"T-tr-ri-i-ibe... n-no k-no-ow w-we-er-re..." he watched the fire drying slowly. He took in a breath and stood up going over to where there was wood and plants. He started scratching at the bark with his dull claws trying to break a piece away. Once he got though he sniffed the wood, it smelled right. He then tasted the wood, and it defiantly tasted correct. He circled around the small tree and found it to be small enough that he could fit his mouth around it. Slowly he pulled more of the bark off, once that was finished he started gnawing on the tree. it took him a long while, but he managed to cut off a nice large log and brought it back, the fire was almost out at this point as he let the log rest near it. He then took notice of the cattails. he rushed over to a small clump and sniffed them. they were wet, but they seemed to be... soft? he bit the top off one and started biting the large brown part. much to his surprise he had found a cotton like substance inside. It was wet from his mouth, but otherwise it would be dry. he grabbed several of them and quickly returned to the dying fire. the movement had gotten his blood flowing and warmed him up a bit, though he was still shaking as he ripped apart the cattails and pulled out the fluff, tossing it to the flame to feed it.

This allowed the fire to keep going as he worked off the bark from the log. the log was wet, but had many small branches on it. Rouge broke off the branches and put them close to the flame to let them dry for a small while. he did the same to the log but had it further so that it wouldn't accidentally put the flame out. he looked back to Ashen at this point.

"W-wo-ou-ld b-e-e-ee-n fi-i-ire k-e-ee-pe-r." Rouge stated, he closed his eyes and smiled inwardly, he was remembering what that kind elder had taught him and was going to use it to keep the cold away. Rouge's focaus returned to the fire, feeding the small amount of cotton left to the fire, he checked the small branches before slowly feeding them as well, growing the fire.

He's from a tribe..? Okay, that makes sense. Now I understand why he isn't the best at talking. That sounds pretty rough, though... So he doesn't even know where his family is? Ashen thought, feeling pity for the Cubone. Personally, she couldn't even imagine life without her mother. And now he's just alone, looking for them... Oh, that's awful! I have to help him find his tribe again! But first, I'm going to have to focus on getting us out of this stupid swamp. Once this fire dies, we'll have to get moving again, She miserably mused to herself, not looking forward to getting back in the water.

The Houndour watched in curiosity as her partner got up and used the environment to his advantage, creating more tinder from the cattails and trees. "Wow..." She murmured to nobody in particular, her jaw open in amazement. So he was going to be a fire-keeper? That's so cool! Maybe he could teach me how to do stuff like that sometime! She thought, impressed with Rouge's skills.

The fire type also felt somewhat useless, though. She had searched for tinder for quite a while, and had come up almost empty. Rouge, however, found the task easy, collecting enough for a large fire in minutes. Ugh, I think I'm holding him back more than helping him... I have to find a way to help out!