Golden Grove

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[Energy: 17 - 11 (Entrance Fee) = 6]

Darcy continued her walk along the westmost road leading from Grassveil Town.  The Skitty had an excited spring in her step, and she hummed softly to herself as a gentle breeze ruffled her fur and sent the blue ribbon around her neck fluttering.  Today, she was hoping to fulfill a childhood dream of hers--she wanted to visit Fallen Leaf Copse.  Her father had taught her all about it when she was younger.  A secluded forest in the center of a lake, perpetually shrouded in autumn...  It sure sounded romantic.  Like something out of a fairy tale.   She shuddered with excitement just thinking about it.

Her parents had always forbidden her from venturing into Mystery Dungeons, but now that she was living on her own, there was nothing stopping her from exploring them at her leisure.  She knew firsthand that they could be  dangerous, but Fallen Leaf Copse was supposed to be about as tame as they could get.  It was  safe enough for many civilized Pokemon to call it home, in fact, so even if she did run into trouble she was sure that she'd be able to find help.  And besides, with how beautiful she had always imagined the place, how could she keep herself away?

As she crested a hill and the forest came into view, she certainly wasn't disappointed.  She was  tired from the long walk, and sore from her previous excursion into Pecha Forest, but all of that melted away as she took in the in the brilliant tapestry of gold and orange in front of her.  It was real after all...  She breathlessly loped down the last stretch of road and across the stepping stones that bridged the leaf-covered lake.

Darcy stared with wide eyes at the canopy above her as she hit dry ground, smiling giddily as she took a few steps forward.  Another breeze swept past her and she almost instantly became caught up in chasing after the orange leaves it sent swirling through the air.  She'd always had a weakness for chasing moving things, and with how enchanted she was by this forest, her inhibitions had all gone out the window.  The Skitty was completely oblivious to her surroundings as she gleefully frolicked around in the center of the copse's entrance, giggling as she jumped and pounced and crashed through piles of leaves.  It wasn't the most dignified activity for a member of the Grassveil Guild, but at the moment, she really couldn't care less.

[Energy: 0 + 5 (Apple) + 1 (New Page) = 6]

Horochi noticed the Ursaring stomping towards Darcy, whom had clearly seen something in that pile of leaves that she called a "monster", but now wasn't the time for that, so he faced the hibernator pokemon and spoke. "A-kay look big mama, m' homie here just found somethin' in a pile of leaves that kinda freaked her out, an' that's what she called a monster, not you. Oh an' th' wrumple thing, that's my fault, sorry. So yeah, I'd say at this point ya go' two options; number A; we f'rgive an' f'rget, an' letter 2; we duke it out an' I send yer sorry bee-hin' packin'. Which'll it be?"

[Energy: 0 + 1 (New Page) = 1]

Darcy edged behind Horochi as he talked.  She finally understood why the Ursaring was so angry, but as the bear towered over her, any words that she might have spoken got caught in her throat.  The Ursaring glared at Horochi for what felt like hours, but eventually, she let out a heavy sigh and stalked back to the pile of leaves she had been napping in.  "Watch your surroundings next time, kids," she grumbled.  For a moment, it seemed like the bear's magnanimity would win out, and she would leave the two of them alone...

But then the Sentret scampered forward.  "W-wait!  You can't let them go!  That girl, she...  She stole your little brother's orange gummi!  I saw!"  He turned to the Teddiursa next to him.  "Isn't that right?" he added, giving the bear cub huge puppy-dog eyes.

"Uh, y...  Yes?" the Teddiursa stammered.

At that, the Ursaring froze.  Her face darkened as she snorted and turned around, then snatched Darcy's bag from around her shoulder.

"W-wait!" Darcy said as the bear rummaged around in her bag.  "He's lying!  I just found it on the ground, I swe-"

But before she could finish, the Ursaring growled and hurled Darcy's bag at her.  "Bullying my little brother, are you?" she growled.  "You rotten brats!  I'll teach you two a lesson you won't forget!"  She snarled as she snatched Darcy by the tail and held her suspended in the air.  All Darcy could do was let out a yelp of surprise.

Meanwhile, the Sentret seemed thrilled by all of this, as if he had to restrain himself from cheering.  If he had popcorn, he would have been eating it.  His Teddiursa friend just looked distraught, like he wanted to say something but was too unsure of himself to do it.

"A'right, option letter 2 it is then." Horochi stated as he ran up a nearby tree and lept off it to score a night slash on the ursaring's face, causing her to let go of Darcy while Horochi launched ember at both sentret and teddiursa as he descended to the ground. Once he was down, he faced Darcy and asked "Hey , ya'll right there Darcy? Think ya can maybe gimme a hand with these thugs?"

The Sentret flinched with surprise as Horochi aimed an attack in his direction. "Hey, look out!" he shouted as he curled around his Teddiursa friend and took the brunt of Horochi's Ember.

Meanwhile, Darcy landed on her feet and scrambled to Horochi's side. The base of her tail hurt, and she had a slight limp due to her injured paw, but aside from that she was unharmed. "I-I'm fine!" she panted. "But, we... Can we really win? She's scary!"

As if on cue, the Ursaring rubbed the scratch on her face and let out an earth-shaking roar. She began madly thrashing towards the two explorers, her footsteps and claw strikes sending leaves swirling through the air.

Darcy narrowly avoided a blow from the bear Pokemon's claws, then hastily darted to the side to avoid a kick. She landed clumsily due to her injured paw and found herself sprawled out on the ground near the Teddiursa and Sentret. "Y-You two! Can't you tell her to stop?" she pleaded as she struggled back to her feet.

"No way!" the Sentret piped up, half of his fur charred black. "I just wanted to see my friend's sis fight, but now you jerks actually deserve it for trying to hurt him! What did he do?"

The Teddiursa started to say something but was cut off by his friend. "Heeelp! She's trying to hurt meee!" the Sentret shouted with a smug grin on his face. In response, the Ursaring reached behind herself and snagged Darcy by the tail once again, then swung the Skitty through the air like a flail and hurled her straight at Horochi.

Horochi sighed at Darcy's lack of confidence being made obvious by her asking him if they can win. "Of course we can win, jus' 'cause she's 'cary doesn't mean she's invincible." he stated as he sped around the ursaring and behind the sentret and teddiursa. He then let loose another night slash on both of them, flinging them both right into the back of the ursaring's head, causing her to fall over forwards and his the ground with a loud thud.

Darcy crashed into the ground beside Horochi. The bed of leaves covering the road cushioned her impact somewhat, but it was still enough to make her cringe with pain. She struggled to get back up and help Horochi fight, but by the time she was on her feet, the three other Pokemon were already collapsed in a pile, and the little Torchic was standing next to them triumphantly.

"Um... Are you all okay..?" Darcy said as she cautiously loped towards them. The Ursaring was clutching the back of her head and groaning, and she made no attempt to get up. She must have been hit pretty hard... Darcy hoped that she would be alright. The Sentret was in a similar state, curled up in a fluffy ball and nursing his injuries while whimpering.

The Teddiursa seemed to be the only one capable of talking right now. He clung to his older sister as Darcy got close. "I-I'm sorry," he stuttered, tears in his eyes. "I didn't... I just did what my friend said. I didn't want anyone hurt. Please just leave us alone..."

"Oh, jeez..." Darcy said as she leaned in to inspect his injuries. He wasn't hurt as badly as the other two, but he seemed at least as distraught. "I'm really sorry about all of this. Um... Here," she said, hopping over to her bag that was on the ground a few feet away and returning with the orange gummi from earlier. She placed it at the Teddiursa's feet. "I think we owe you something after causing such a scene. And it is 'yours', after all," she couldn't help but add as she flashed a quick smile.

To her relief, the bear cub picked it up and managed to get his tears under control. With that done, Darcy turned to face Horochi and frowned again. She wasn't happy with him. "Horo, why did you attack these kids, too? They weren't harming anyone..."

(Energy: 20-11=9)

Of course, the sounds of this brawl between the explorers and the forest Pokémon hadn't escaped the notice of one individual. Another outsider just like the duo. Cirrus the Togepi had overheard their battle whilst in the middle of her own Fallen Leaf Copse exploration and was bearing witness to the events that had unfolded.

She had really wanted to go up there and vouch for Darcy when she was accused of stealing the gummi but the Ursaring had scared her into a silence. A silence that had just been broken. She took tentative steps out from a bush and looked over the area. First things first, making sure that Darcy's companion knew that she wasn't feral. "Stop. That's enough fighting." Cirrus declared with an air of firmness that surprised her, but she carried on.

"I-I'm a friend of that Skitty. My name is Cirrus." she said to the trio of Pokémon, particularly the Ursaring. "I'm not here to fight any of you. This has all been a horrible misunderstanding, but please hear me out... I know that she wouldn't willingly steal that gummi... I promise you, she isn't the kind of Pokémon to do such a thing..." the Togepi poured out, eyes firmly making contact with the triad while inwardly pleading for them to believe her words. She could see visible injuries on all of them but they didn't look too serious. "On their behalf, I apologize for what just happened."

((Hi, thanks for letting me in.))

At this point, Horochi was utterly confused. He was about to ask Darcy why she was chewing him out for attacking ferals until this Cirrus person showed up and started apologizing for them to said ferals. "A'kay, I'm officially lost." He stated while holding his head in one of his talons. "So, at first I found it weird t' hear ferals talk like normal pokemon, then Darcy goes an' starts treatin'em like normal pokemon an' chews me out fer goin' about a regular routine in dungeons; attackin' ferals b'fore they attack you, then here comes Cirrus tryin' t' apologize t' the ferals that I jus' got through moppin' th' forest floor with, so what I think is that maybe you two 're tryin' t' antagonize me 'r somethin' fer doin' somethin' completely normal. Seriously, what is it that you see an' I don't?"

Darcy's ears perked up with alarm at the new voice.  She didn't recognize it at first, with how commanding it had sounded, but as soon as she spotted the Togepi among the fallen leaves she broke into a huge smile.  "Oh, Cirrus!" she said as she hopped a few steps forward, her eyes sparkling.  She didn't know what the Togepi was doing in this forest, but she was sure glad to see her again.  It was a relief to have someone vouch for her...  Maybe it would be enough to resolve all of this.

She turned to face Horochi as he spoke.  At his words, the Ursaring groaned and forced herself up into a sitting position.  "We're not ferals, thank you," the bear Pokemon grumbled as she rubbed the back of her head.  "Still...  Maybe we deserved a beating.  Did this girl really steal from my little brother?" she continued, sending the Sentret a sharp glare.

He looked between the angry Ursaring and her tearful little brother, then let his ears droop as he sighed and stared at his feet.  "...Um...  No...  I lied..." he mumbled, then stood up on his tail and looked at the Ursaring pleadingly.  "B-but it was just because I wanted to see you fight!  You're cool and strong, but you almost never do it!  I didn't want to pass it up!"

"Ugh..." the bear Pokemon muttered while holding a paw against her face.  "Kid, I don't fight when I don't have to because it gets people hurt.  There's nothing 'cool' about it.  You can bet that your parents will hear all about this."  The Sentret sat down dejectedly as the Ursaring turned to face Darcy and Horochi.  "...Guess I owe you two an apology, huh.  Shouldn't have been so hasty.  Tell you what, you can have this..."  

She dug around in a pile of leaves at the side of the road and emerged with a light blue and indigo chevron-patterned scarf which she tossed to the two of them. "It's a Trap Scarf," she said.  "Brought it here for my little brother in case the weather got cold, but it doesn't seem like that'll happen.  Make good use of it.

"And thanks to you for helping us clear things up," she continued, nodding at Cirrus.  "Might've just kept fighting if it wasn't for you...  But we'll stay out of your way now.  Sorry again for the trouble."  She got to her feet and scooped the Teddiursa up in her arms, stepping aside to give the little group space to pass.

((Come to think of it, I'm not sure if Pokemon rolls are always supposed to be treated as ferals or if you can choose whether you'd like them to be ferals or civilized.  I've always treated it as a choice, since I know that civilized Pokemon can live in dungeons too, but I don't know if that's how the dice system is supposed to work or not.  Anyway, I've been thinking that these three aren't ferals.  Sorry for any confusion.))

Cirrus took a sigh of relief once she saw everything get cleared up. "Now that's what I'd call a cool big sis. That Sentret's not far off from the truth after all." she had to remark.

She turned to see Darcy and Horochi next. "I'm glad this was all worked out... Things could have gotten pretty hairy if that fight had escalated further." She'd have tried to intervene and defuse the conflict anyway, regardless of whether or not Darcy was involved. The Togepi was just doing what she could to help. "Yeah, not every Pokémon in a dungeon are ferals that want to attack trespassers. There's some that are actually very decent creatures. I saw a Ledyba helping an exploration partner of mine when she was hurt during my first trip into Pecha Forest with some company. Then there was a Tangela that Darcy and I encountered when we first met, wanting help for their injured Hoothoot friend." That reminiscing brought her to something she should have asked earlier.

"Are you two alright? That looked like a rather rough spot you were both in..."

((I saw Evana doing this when she joined me for my very first roleplay in the forum, I'm sure it's fine. Don't worry about it.))

Horochi replied "Yea, I'd say we're fine, although it really wasn' all tha' tough. I've be'n in tougher scraps b'fore, so this 's par fer th' course fer me, though I don' think I can say th' same fer Darcy however..." He then walked on over to Darcy and decided to apologize for what he did earlier. "Hey, look, I'm sorry fer makin' assumptions abou' those guys back there. I di'nt know tha' civilised pokemon could live in dungeons like them. I jus' always assumed tha' nearly every pokemon in a dungeon was jus' some drone created by some sadistic god t' do nothin' bu' survive 'n attack outsiders 'r somethin'." he continued on, feeling more glum the more he droned on.

Darcy sighed with relief as the forest Pokemon went on their way, letting all of the tension in her body fade as she listened to Horochi.  He seemed a little downtrodden...  Not a huge surprise.  She would have felt awful if she was in his position too.  "Hey, it's alright," she said as she took a few steps forward, still bearing a slight limp.  She gently brushed her cheek against Horochi's in the hopes of cheering him up.  "All's well that ends well.  I made the same mistake back when Cirrus and I met that Tangela, actually.  And besides that, that Ursaring would have clobbered me if you hadn't done anything," she finished with a smile as she stepped away and turned to face Cirrus.

"Cirrus, this is Horochi.  We just met today and were hoping to explore the forest together," Darcy said.  "I'm really glad that you showed up to help, but you sure surprised me!  What brings you here?  Ran out of dried oak leaves, maybe?" she continued as she sat on her haunches and wagged her tail back and forth.  She couldn't be happier to see her new friend again. The Togepi was as admirable as ever, confronting the giant bear Pokemon like that. Darcy wasn't sure that she'd have had the courage to do the same thing.

"I can't call it your fault for wanting to protect her either. That's still a very decent thing for you to do." Cirrus would have admittedly done the same thing if the Ursaring had proved herself unable to reason with. She had absolutely zero intentions of calling him out on it. "Please don't worry about it, that's all behind us now." she said, wanting to try and encourage him following the scrape. "What's your name anyway?"

Darcy soon gave this answer. "Nice to meet you Horochi, my name is Cirrus. You've probably guessed this but Darcy and I have met before." New friends were always awesome to have. "Hehe, that would be nice to find here but I'm just in the area for training. This is practice for when I begin looking for rarer herbs further from Grassveil." she replied to the Skitty before recalling something with a pang of concern. "Are you limping?"

Horochi immediately looked towards Darcy's leg and remembered that she had been walking around with a limp after their fight. "Ah crap, why di'nt I bring that up earlier?" He said as he facepalmed, which caused a leaf that his talons poked through to end up in his face. "Hey uh, think ya can make it through t' th' end or d' ya want one of us t' carry ya 'r somethin'?" He asked Darcy. Today just wasn't his day, first he hastily attacks a group of pokemon living in the forest, and now he fails to light the fact that his travel buddy was injured because of said group. What would be next, somebody accidentally dropping a piano on his head and saying "I just don't know what went wrong..."?

Darcy listened to Cirrus intently.  So she was here to train her dungeoneering skills, just like Horochi!  That was great to hear, since it meant the three of them could explore the forest together.  The Skitty herself hadn't come here to train, but she supposed she could use the practice too if that was what the others were doing.  She needed to get stronger if she wanted to make good on her promise to be the one to assist Cirrus if she ever needed the help of a guildmember.

Then Cirrus asked about her limp. "H-huh?" Darcy said as she stumbled backward.  She hadn't noticed until now, but she had definitely been favoring one leg over the other.  The bottom of her right paw burned with venom and had begun to swell, and putting pressure on it amplified the pain as if she was being stung all over again.  Had she touched the sort of bug that left a stinger in your skin after attacking you?

Horochi spoke, and the thought of slowing her friends down discouraged her from checking.  "It's nothing, it's nothing!  Just a sting from a bug," Darcy said as she laughed and forced herself to her feet, trying not to cringe as her paw burned again.  If Horochi hadn't been slowed down by an Ursaring, she would be embarrassed beyond belief to be stopped by some lousy bug Pokemon.  Especially in front of Cirrus.  She set about collecting the scarf and the TM, making a point of using both legs evenly in spite of the sharp pain she felt every other step.  "Horochi is here to train too, Cirrus.  We were planning to find the Shrine of the Fallen and then have a picnic there. I'd love it if you tagged along," she said, trying to change the subject. The thought of exploring as a trio brightened her mood and made it a little easier to ignore her pain.