Venture into the Dark

A gentle midday breeze filtered its way though the dense arrangement of trunks that clotted the Shadowhue Forest, creating a nice and calm atmosphere between the woody pillars. Adrol would have been glad to have the entirety of his most recent expedition remain this serene; it would have made for a very nice start to a brand new week, as well as a very nice chapter to close another full month in his new home. The off-colored Snivy waded through the underbrush with his cloak trailing and fluttering behind him without a care in the world, immensely pleased just to be in such a quaint moment preluding another exciting investigation into a dungeon, this one far more local to his current base of operations in Grassveil.

Adrol was keenly keeping pace with another new acquaintance, a kind samaritan by the name of Niko whom he had hailed in the town about the adventure not too long ago. He found it quite easy to keep up with Mr. Niko on account of their comparably sized limbs causing them to maintain a similar pace without Adrol having to think much about it at all. The little white snake was beginning to enjoy his rapid-fire excursions with all of these new people; he couldn't imagine a better way to get to know this new country and he felt much more confident with a base of friends and acquaintances set up. Slowly but surely, this place was beginning to much less foreign to him. He was beginning to find thrills in seeking out the finer details of the landscapes that surrounded him, as well as in learning all about the people that called it home.

Granted, the company was also just pleasant. It was a nice puddle of calm in the whirlwind in the whirlwind of his sliiightly accidental relocation.

"I must sincerely thank you again for agreeing to come all the way out here with me, Mr. Niko," Adrol remarked to his new colleague after a void grew in their idle chatter, "I know it can be a bit of a trip to get here from town, and I fully appreciate you taking the time out of your schedule to come with me. It is a very humbling gesture." He accented his statement with a polite tip of his infamous cap. "How ironic it is that the places my skin agrees with the most, my eyes agree with the least. I suppose that's how life tends to work out, however," he added with a chuckle. He hoped he didn't sound too ungrateful. His cloak certainly did wonders to block out the sun, but that didn't fully negate the discomfort of being in direct sunlight. A nice shady place with dull colors like this... well, it was a blessing despite the navigational challenges it presented.

Adrol focused his drifting "Well, I haven't tripped yet so it seems like we still have a little ways before we really get into the thick of it," he joked casually with a light smile on his face. "If it wouldn't be a discomfort to you, I'd be interested in getting to know a little more about you; while we have the time. You mentioned being new here as well...?"

Adrol the Snivy - 10 Energy

Next to the strangely white coloured Snivy could be seen a Piplup of approximately the same size. The young penguin was, for now, enjoying his time: the gentle wind softly stirring the forest's leaves and the sparsely golden light projected on the ground made for a nice environment that pleased Niko. He always enjoyed exploring forests, as his ancient home was surrounded by them, although the ones he used to go through were not as dense as Shadowhue. Niko payed however little attention to this last detail and continued his walk on the side of his new found companion, which he learnt earlier was named Adrol. In fact, he also payed little attention to Adrol's first words, the atmosphere making him feel a bit dreamy, and so he made out the sens of the Snivy's chat based on the few words he heard.

"Oh, it's nothing really! I was gonna explore the neighbouring dungeons at some point anyway, I figured it'd be better with company." he casually replied, hoping that the white snake didn't notice his momentary idleness. The woodland did bring back a lot of past memories to him, and he only now managed to entirely focus back on reality, just in time to avoid a particularly well place root that would have definitely made the penguin fall over. He always thought that it was quite paradoxical how he liked forests while being, as any Piplup, a mediocre walker.

After this time clearly listening to the Snivy's speech, and being somewhat surprised of him referencing tripping over right after his thoughts, he instinctively responded "Eh, don't worry, I'll probably be the first one to trip if we reach more hazardous terrain." he didn't really like speaking about his walking capability, but the words just came naturally. He quickly continued his talking, as to forgot about his first sentence"As I said im new here! I actually used to live in a small village far from here with my mom and dad and after hearing of Grassveil I decided to just move here. The place sounded very nice to me, and it looks like it is, for the most part. But what about you ?" Niko already had a fair understanding of the Snivy's condition as he already managed to encounter a couple of albinos pokemon himself, but he knew next to nothing of the pokemon's background.

[energy 19-10=9]

Adrol found himself pondering a bit on what the Piplup's home might have been like. They seemed like such precious, fantastical places to him after hearing about them from the citizens of the capital city during his extended confinement to the royal boulevard. Simple places full of people and culture... the kind of place that really appreciated peace. They had sounded like marvelously serene places. He had never really seen that in person, however; his visits were usually political in nature so the places would always be up in a tizzy for the event during his stays. He had tried quite hard to go out on trips to see them when seasonal rains would blow through the country side. There just was never enough cover for him to reasonably make it there and back... He supposed it probably they probably weren't quite such special places to the people who lived it them; at least not in the way that they were special to him.

There was a small part of Adrol that couldn't imagine why Niko would want to leave such a quirky and whimsical setting, but then there was a much bigger part of him that absolutely did know. "I can definitely appreciate a drive to strike off on your own; good on you for taking the leap. You definitely could have done leagues worse than this place." He couldn't help but take a deep breath and appreciate the fres air around them now that the topic was brought up. "I certainly concur; this place definitely provides what it promises."

Adrol couldn't help but have to stifle a chuckle as Niko asked him about his heritage. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to chortle at you or anything; pardon my outburst... he quickly added, apologetically but lightheartedly. He certainly hadn't been laughing at Niko, he just found that every time he talked to someone about his heritage it seemed to invite some kind of ordeal. "Well, if that wasn't evidence of enough, I should warn you my story sounds and is a little silly," he explained. "This will sound strange, I was the heir inherent of a royal line in a city unthinkably far away from here. The land there housed mystery dungeons as well, and when I found I might be considered for actual coronation drew near I decided to go investigate them with a few colleagues, as fufillment of a certain cultural tradition. My journey ended while were at the farthest reaches of that lands border. I parted ways with my colleagues there and began to wander alone a bit..." Adrol paused to let Niko absorb everything up to that point. His face bore an embarrassed smile, and he chuckled as the end of the story loomed over him - as if it was staring down and waggling it's finger at him.

"...I think you've probably caught on to how that story ends, at this point. My poor vision led me so far in the wrong direction that I unknowingly passed a point of no return and got myself stuck in this land."

"...I apologize; I'm aware that that's the most reasonable part of everything I've said."

The Piplup continued onward with the same pacing, listening to Adrol's words and nodding to them; he was midly irritated by the pokemon chuckling, thinking it was toward him, however he quickly stopped being so when the same pokemon explained his laugher, and even more when he started speaking about his past life. Niko did somewhat guess that the pokemon was, like him, not from here, but it was the only information he could have picked up earlier on his newly found partner; his good behaviour and way of speaking also hinted Niko that he was at the very least not from a small village like him, and so wanting to know the pokemon more he listened carefully.

After listening to Adrol, he looked at him with a confused look. "Uh." he marked a short pause. "That's a lot to take in." Niko was never really interested in politics; and now that he thought about it, he never even wondered how his town was run. He did hear about diverse far away lands ran by kings and queens in fairy tales and such, and he also picked up the words a few times while listening to his parents, but the concept of royalty seemed still very foreign to him. He didn't even know how it worked; all he thought of when thinking about it were pokemon with crowns living in some fancy place owning immense sums of money. It did give an explanation to the overall behaviour of the Snivy, as he often heard in the same fairy tales that they were also cultured and well educated.

"I-I do believe you tho" Niko quickly said, not wanting to offend the snake. The rest of the story did seem somewhat believable to him, and he overall trusted the Snivy, as the later gave him a trustworthy impression.

After a short but yet awkward silence, Niko cocked his head to the left while looking at Adrol. "Hum... how... how does royalty work, exactly ? Is... it a thing for royals pokemon to be albinos ?"

Niko seemed reasonably taken aback by "I apologize; it was quite a spiel to present you with all at once. I appreciate your faith, though." He smiled, comforted at the very least by the piplup's willingness to try and understand things. Adrol wasn't always met with such a positive reaction; nor did he expect to be when sharing such an obtuse and complicated story with others. Most were incredulous and skeptical at best. He figured it was probably best to start reconsidering how he introduced himself. It was hard to know exactly what to present to others when he had barely made a life for himself in this new land, however. Still, it was no easier to try and make his past digestible for pokemon outside his culture, and it was especially difficult to answer questions like the next two that Niko asked. After a moment of consideration, he decided that the second of them would be easier to address first.

"Oh, no, my status had nothing to do with my strange coloring," Adrol responded. "The albinism was only a slight coincidence, though there is a history of it in my lineage. It didn't affect my selection as an heir apparent though; that was purely based on my lineage and time of birth. It's hard to explain exactly how royalty works as it varies from place to place... but our culture had what you could essentially call a king and a queen. I was a direct child of those two governing bodies, so I received higher priority in the consideration processes for new leaders." He found it difficult to accurately capture his position without delving into the nuances of his homeland politics. He struggled to paint a picture that was as simple as he could muster for Niko, even despite the troubles that the crude explanation stirred up in the back of his mind. He couldn't help but feel unsettled by the fact that none of this was quite accurate to how things really were, but he found it best to swallow his pride rather than risk confusing Niko any further. They were reasonable questions, but they weren't questions that Adrol could answer easily or briefly. He had to choose between a short answer or an accurate one every time, and not everyone had the patience or comprehension to lend to the latter of those two options. It was best to just offer the least he could, he decided.

...Thinking on it again, however, Adrol found there were some things he felt it appropriate to elaborate on further. "That isn't to say my coloration had no effect on my selection. It just changed the context under which I was considered," he explained carefully, trying to ensure he chose the right words. "That is to say, I was definitely seen as a disadvantaged candidate, but that also made my greater accomplishments stand out. It was only circumstantial though, much like the other strange anomaly I was born with."

"...Well, thanks for explaining to me how that all work." Niko was actually left with more questions than answers; but he didn't want to bug Adrol more, moreover it would probably take a long time for the Snivy to explain everything that Niko didn't get. He could probably learn all that fairly easily by himself anyway, and politics had yet to really interest him in the first place; at the very least he learned a few informations on the matter. He just might question the Snivy about it later on in case their travel get boring, as their little adventure seemed oddly calm; Niko wasn't complaining about it in any ways though, as he did like a nice stroll from time to time. It again reminded him of some past experiences he had younger.

However as he was processing Adrol's last phrase, something confused him. "...Hey, what's that "second strange anomaly" ?" Niko asked.  What could it possibly refer to? Surely the Snivy didn't refer to his poor vision, as Niko already know that it naturally come with albinism. After some time, he figured that it was best just to ask the Snivy about it; it couldn't be too big of a deal anyway.

"Hmm?" Upon thinking about it, Adrol realized he had been rather unnecessarily vague in describing his strange ability. He didn't want to seem like he was inflating his own importance. "Oh, pardon me. I should have clarified. It was a strange sort of... 'second sight' I suppose." How to describe it? Admittedly it hadn't been something that he could just easily call upon - even when he had been in his homeland he didn't frequently have access to it. It had been a fickle power, to be sure, and he had never truly gotten used to using it because of how inconsistent it had been. "It was... like sometimes I could see things when I touched things. Things that had happened, or things that were yet to be. I couldn't tell one from the other innately, of course; I just had to figure it out through context. It didn't happen reliably though, so I could only get use out of it in certain circumstances."

Adrol began to chuckle to himself as he reminisced on the subject more. "It really wasn't all that amazingly useful. In fact, it's kind of humorous how big a deal the court made out of it in hindsight. They definitely made it sound more fantastic than it was." He knew that the ability had been over-hyped. He had never relied on it, though it was helpful in situations where it was helpful. It wasn't exactly a king-maker or anything outside of that; it certainly didn't directly make him better at politics. Not to mention...

"...Come to think of it... I haven't been able to see anything since I ended up in this place." Adrol mused in sudden realization. "I mean, I also haven't tried..." he paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.

Adrol the Snivy - 10 energy

FoxFireAlchemist carried out 10 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

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