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+1=1)

Cirrus couldn't help but happily giggle once Darcy put the leaf down upon her head. "Yeah, I'll keep it around~" she cheerily replied with a smile upon her face. Placing the purple coloured leaf in her bag with the absolute utmost of care after it inevitably drifted off her and onto the ground, she looked back at the Skitty. There was absolutely no doubt about it, she was enjoying that little girl to girl moment.

Seeing Horochi get a sting of his own had put a damper on that though. "Oh, can you walk?" she asked while heading towards him, momentarily wondering if her shell would stop such a sting. Unfortunately the Cascoon above them thought that it would be an absolute riot to startle the Togepi and fired off a small Poison Sting stream. The attack missed and startled her as intended, but her then tripping over a tree root and tumbling into the bushes clearly wasn't on Cascoon's game plan. A subsequent explosion definitely wasn't, nor was the sound of her cry during that.

"Yipes, that didn't sound good!" the Cascoon immediately said. His Silcoon elder sibling, attached to the same tree as him by a strand of silk, lowered herself until she was also visible to the Skitty and Torchic. "I've told you before to not scare others like that, just look at how it went this time..." she replied exasperatedly.

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

Horochi heard Cirrus ask if he could walk, but before he could answer he heard her trip and what seemed like an explosion. "Hey, ya'll right Cirrus?" He asked while trying to walk to where he heard her while trying to keep as much pressure off the center of his his feet as gravitationally possible since they started to really hurt now. When he did turn around, he just saw a silcoon rat out a cascoon for some reason. "Uh, did I miss somethin'?" he asked for some reason.

[Energy: 2 + 1 = 3]

Darcy settled onto her haunches and wagged her tail leisurely while Cirrus approached Horochi.  If he couldn't walk, it was a good thing the Togepi was training to be a doctor.  Bug stings were a common injury, right?  She probably had some kind of treatment for them.

The Cascoon's sudden Poison Sting surprised Darcy as well, making her jump, and the following explosion made her jump even higher.  "Y-you think?" she shouted to the bug Pokemon as she instinctively bounded into the bushes after Cirrus.

Her mind raced.  What on earth had caused that?  Wasn't this dungeon supposed to be low-key?  Should she not have let her guard down?  And most importantly, was her friend alright?  "Cirrus, are you okay?  What happened?" she called out, the pain in her forepaw forgotten entirely thanks to anxiety as she chased after the Togepi.

"It sounds as though your friend there landed upon a Blast Seed. We're very sorry for the disruption. Aren't we?!" the Silcoon said to the other two Pokémon, aiming the last bit at her troublesome Cascoon brother. "...Yes, sis. That one went out of my control. I only wanted to startle her a bit." he replied in a subdued tone. He hated it when she was right but it didn't erase the possible effects of his wayward stunt.

Cirrus somehow managed to pick herself up and look around at where she had landed. Her surroundings were rather dense and a little dark but this only helped her pick out a Gold Ribbon laying there abandoned. She put it in her bag just as Darcy arrived.

Cirrus looked a bit of a mess. Some twigs, including one sharp enough to be used as a throwing weapon, were scattered upon her head around her spikes. The shell had taken most of the hit and appeared to be a little charred but it had still softened the impact. "I'm... not hurt." she immediately said.

Horochi sighed, he was glad that Cirrus was alright after what he heard, but since his feet were getting  really sore at this point, he decided that his time would be better spent continuing on to the shrine, which couldn't be that far now, surely they were close to it by now, right? "Well, if everyone's a'right, I'd prefer tha' we ge' t' th' shrine b'fore we suffer any more injuries." Horochi stated, walking towards Cirrus while the pain in his feet becomes even more unbearable. "Cirrus, can y' still walk?" He asked her.

Darcy burst into the tiny, dark hollow, and was instantly flooded with concern when she saw Cirrus.  The Togepi said that she was unhurt, but she didn't look good at all, being covered in debris and having half of her shell blackened...

"A-Are you sure you're okay?" Darcy said as she stepped forward, then began carefully brushing twigs off of Cirrus' head with her good paw while she looked her over for any major injuries.  "I'm sorry, Cirrus.  I should have noticed those two..."

As Horochi spoke, she turned back to the path with a rather dejected look on her face.  This wasn't how she had hoped today would go.  She had wanted to take a break from any sort of fighting, but so far, this had been like any other dungeon--she and every one of her friends had gotten hurt to one degree or another.

"Say, Horo...  Maybe we should just...  Head back, actually," she said, a little sheepishly.  "The area outside of the forest is still really pretty.  Maybe we could set up our picnic there? And you two could train together if you still feel up to it?  Wouldn't that be more fun?"

Her tail flicked restlessly as she waited for a response.  She knew that they both wanted to practice exploring dungeons, but she didn't want them to overexert themselves and get injured even further...  Maybe she would feel different if she was strong or dungeon-savvy enough to keep them safe, but she had been no help at all today, as usual...  It felt like the best she could do was keep them from pushing themselves too hard.

Cirrus was glad to see Darcy's concern for her, but the Togepi wasn't all that hurt. It was more surprise than injury in this case and she was just glad to have not landed on a Wurmple instead and gotten her foot stung like Darcy and Horochi. It was obvious to her that their mishaps were longer lasting in comparison to hers. "It's ok, don't worry too much about me. I'll be fine to walk." she told them.

She listened to Darcy's idea of heading back after following her back onto the path and gave this some serious thought. "I want to go on, but if I'm outnumbered on this then I'll settle on relocating the picnic." she decided. She'd be happy either way, a picnic is still a picnic.

"Head back?" Horochi questioned. The very idea of giving up on seeing the shrine made him cringe. "Yeah, I'd rather continue onwards than wimp out. Besides, th' shrine can't be tha' far away by now, jus' a few meters over yonder I think." He said, pointing his talon down the path they were taking. Although he wasn't exactly sure how far away the shrine actually was, he was going off of how much time it took for him and Pilot to traverse Pricklemist Hill.

"...If you two are sure..." Darcy said while staring at the ground uneasily.  "I just don't want things to go south like they did in Pecha Forest the other day.  ...Let's be careful, alright?"

She wished that her second meeting with Cirrus could have been somewhere a little safer...  Somewhere that they wouldn't have to worry about ferals, or blast seeds, or anything scary like that.  She was truly delighted to be spending more time together, but still didn't feel very capable of protecting the little Togepi...  It made it difficult to relax and enjoy herself...

...But Horochi was strong, and she supposed that if they really were as close to the shrine as he said, there shouldn't be too much to worry about.  As she got to her feet to continue walking, she looked up at the Silcoon and Cascoon in the trees overhead.  "Excuse me, do you two know how close we are to the Shrine of the Fallen?  We're hoping to pay it a visit today.  This is the right path, isn't it?"

Cirrus could just taste the unease and emotion in Darcy's voice. One thing she didn't want was for a companion to feel the way this Skitty felt, down upon themselves for not protecting her. It nearly made her want to share some of the happiness stored in her shell. Until she too was stung by a Wurmple (which would affect her more seriously as a result of her Fairy typing), the girl wasn't too badly off.

The Silcoon and Cascoon turned to see Darcy when she addressed them. "Shrine of the Fallen? Yes, you're not very far off now." the trio of Pokémon were told by Silcoon. "You just keep going down this path. Watch yourselves now." Cascoon added. This reminded Cirrus of that one time in Shadowhue...

"A'ight, that's Goo' t' know. Thanks." Horochi said to the two cocoon pokemon as he continued down the path, his feet feeling like he stepped on the tip of a bergmite covered in rose vines. He even fell forward on his gut and began inching forward like a caterpie while digging his talons into the ground to further propel himself. Of course this started irritating his skin from all the twigs, pebbles, and other rigid things that the leaves covered up. At that point, Horochi decided to try and stand up again, and as he did, he felt like two needles were jabbed into his feet and out his head, and his feet were deflating from it. As he shed a few tears of pain, he noticed that it became slightly more bearable, so he continued onward with Darcy and Cirrus (whom had gotten ahead of him due to his slow movement), unknowingly leaving behind a very faint trail of venom and blood.

"Yeah, thanks for your help.  Take care," Darcy said to the two Bug-types with a wave before returning her attention to the path.  Her paw still hurt a little, but she was becoming quite good at walking mostly on three legs.  It seemed like her injury would heal with no trouble at this rate, so she put it out of her mind and turned to Cirrus as she walked.  "Again, Cirrus, I'm sorry for not noticing those two," she said with a sigh.  "I was really scared for you back there.  Um...  Do you think that next time, we could just..."

She trailed off as she noticed that a member of their trio was missing.  She turned around and quickly spotted Horo lagging behind somewhat, but the tears on his face instantly filled her with both shock and concern.  

"H-Horochi, are you crying?  What's wrong?" she said while hurrying over to him.  The tough little Torchic was the last Pokemon she expected to see tears from.  Whatever was bothering him, it must have been something serious.

Cirrus also waved goodbye to the pair of cocoon Pokémon before getting back on the move with Darcy. She too, hadn't yet noticed the heightened troubles of their Torchic companion.

She listened attentively to the Skitty and began feeling a little bad once treated to the sight of Darcy blaming herself. When she trailed off, Cirrus was a little confused. "Next time we could just what?" she asked before looking at what had caught Darcy's attention.

"Did something happen back there?" Cirrus asked Horo as she headed over, seeing a little bit of that faint trail afterwards. "Looks like you... popped it with the sharp end of a twig or something. I've got some bandages in my bag."

Horochi looked back, noticing the trail of fluids that he started leaving behind. He then sat down and examined his feet, noting the light purple liquid mixed in with his own blood, both of which were gushing from the swollen spots in the center of his feet. "Actually, I think if y' were t' put a bandage over 'em i'd actually keep th' venom in my fee' n' keep 'em from healin' all th' way, bu' tha's jus' me. You seem t' be th' health expert out 'f th' three of us, so wha' d' ya think I shoul' do?" He asked her, using each of his feet to squeeze out any remaining venom from the opposite one.

Darcy edged a little closer as Horochi sat down, then winced and let out a tiny gasp once his injury came into view.  That did not look good.  It reminded her somewhat of the Beedrill stings she had helped Cirrus treat back in Pecha Forest...  She hadn't expected Horo to be so much worse off than herself.

The sight made her want to demand that they go back to town right away, in fact.  Continuing forward like this seemed to be asking for trouble.  But...  Her companions had really sounded determined to reach the shrine, and she didn't want to disappoint them now that they were so close, so she tried to push the thought away and instead focused on racking her brain for everything her mother had taught her about first aid.

"W-Well...  If the bleeding isn't too bad, we should probably wash it before we put any bandages on, right, Cirrus?"  she said while glancing at the Togepi.  "Do you think the lake water is clean enough?  Or should we find a river, or go back to town and use a well..?"

She turned back to Horochi.  "Um...  Either way, you really shouldn't do any more walking for now.  I'll carry you on my back from here once we're ready.  Sorry about all of this..."