Applying Pressure

"Aries?"

"Y-Yeah?"

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

Their hooves sunk into the soft ground of the marsh while the water reached up to his stomach, even higher for the deerling that trailed behind him. A slight breeze coasted over them and brushed against the long stalks of cattails as they searched for higher ground. Both of them were nervous. Their movements were quick and sudden as they breathed heavily. The sky above them refused to permit them knowledge of the time of day, instead it would choose to remain that ever-gray sheet that drove Aries's coat to dull in color. The leaves around his mane withered as his shaggy coat lost whatever sheen it had before. He was unhealthy, Yera could see it.

She herself did not have a pleasant time. While her kind was not as reliant upon the sun for nutrition as skiddo were, the trim of her pelt lacked the vibrant yellow her winter form had. The dirt that coated her fur was hard to notice against the brown nature of it at the very least. The deerling's ears sagged as she struggled through the water. She was much smaller than Aries, but she managed on her own.


The skiddo looked around them, his eyes wide as dinner plates, "Uh..." he spoke hesitantly, "N-No...Not even signs of other pokemon..." Despite the open area they were in, it felt as if they were crushed together in such a small place. He was too scared to leave Yera's side for longer than a heartbeat. He was promised that this would be a safe trip, but he was lied to. He should have just asked Skylar. He knew he should have-but she looked busy.

Yera was his employee at the moment. Her old job fell out after a particularly bad harvest, so he offered to give her employment at his own little shop. It seemed all well and fine, until he realized that Yera relied upon food for nutrients. Stock in the store dwindled suddenly and he became in a dire need of supplies. The fastest way to get supplies was to go out into dungeons, so he requested the help of some explorers from the guild. Some of the members accepted and he brought Yera along to help him carry things...and emotional support of being around a bunch of strangers.

Unfortunately, the team was not strong enough to withstand the marsh. Pokemon attacked and the duo managed to flee after the Rescue Team was knocked out. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw them escape. An escape orb. They left them. He was certain that Yera saw it too. So now, the two were stuck wandering wherever they could with the hopes that they could find either an exit or a friendly face.

He squinted and looked a little harder, before he noticed an unnatural color stand out against the swamp-like colors of the mire. A brilliant red and black. "O-Oh, over there..." he started to point out with high hopes, only for them to be dashed as he recognized the form of the pokemon.


The deerling squinted in the direction the Skiddo headed towards and spotted what the little goat could see. It was a growlithe. The sudden hesitation in the grass type's voice was difficult to miss-and quite frankly she didn't blame him. Fire types were...terrifying. It was something the two shared in common. She too would pause as the two would exchange a nervous glance. Neither of them wanted to approach the fire type-but Yera began to wonder if she had much of a choice. She was pretty sure that growlithe did not naturally live here...so this one probably came here for some reason or another by choice. It should know its way around here...right?

She looked to Aries pleadingly, but he only seemed to do the same. It quickly became apparent to her that there was no chance in hell that the little skiddo was going to approach the growlithe and speak. She looked back to the pokemon in the distance and gave a long sigh of defeat. She took in her breath again, this time in attempt to recollect her courage. She had done this once, she can do it again. Maybe they'll be like that vulpix she met in town square? Maybe they'll be nice? It was either try...or probably die. She'd rather the prior.

She stepped ahead of the skiddo, who followed directly behind her. It was clear that he tried to hide behind her despite her smaller body. As she drew near, her voice would call out, "H-Hello? Are y-you friendly?" She would immediately kick herself for the question. If they weren't friendly, why would they say otherwise?

[24-15=9]

As one of the newer members of the Guild, Opal was surprised to have been chosen and sent out to back up a rescue team who was already on the job. Her dedication must be paying off, the pup thought proudly to herself. She was striving to become one of the greatest assets they had, and it looked like she was well on the way to that.

The area she was to travel to didn't sound overly pleasant as it had been described to her, but it was natural that some missions would be in better locales than others. Cattail Marsh was a formidable place, and a pair of grass types has apparently run foul of some of the local residents. As a Guild member on duty, it was her job to help in any way she could, and she was thus eager to reach her destination as quickly as possible. The quicker the rescue, the quicker they-and she-would be back in a safe, clean place.

Finally, after days of travel, Opal arrived at the mystery dungeon she was to explore. Her clients would be somewhere within, hopefully having found somewhere to hide until she and her colleagues could find them and get them out. She went in carefully, making sure to be quiet and not step in the mucky pools she had been warned of.

With only her paws wet so far, the growlithe had made her way far into the marsh and faced surprisingly little danger. Maybe the grass types she was supposed to rescue would be in this part of the dungeon? Where were the other explorers? Neither hide nor hair had been sighted of any friendly pokemon. Had she not gone far enough?

A nearby voice calling out caught Opal's attention, someone wishing to know if she was friendly. They were talking to her, right? She looked around, confirming there were no other pokemon in the vicinity, then turned to face the voice. A deerling stood before the growlithe, with a skiddo behind them. Both looked very scared, but Opal was unaware that she was the source of their fear. She just knew that these two matched the description of the pokemon she had been sent to rescue, and that they looked like they needed it.

"Oh, hello! Yes, I'm friendly!" she responded and started to walk closer, "Say... uh... am I the first one here? There should be a rescue team around as well."

Upon drawing closer, Opal noticed the poor condition of the skiddo in particular. He seemed to be... wilting, somehow. How long had the grass types been stuck waiting for help? Where on earth were the other explorers, and why on earth had they not found their clients before her? The pup felt bewildered at the situation, but she couldn't let that show. Instead, she would focus on her task. "Oh my goodness! Are you two okay?" Opal fussed, "You don't look very good! What's wrong?"

She froze. It was not that the growlithe spoke or seemed particularly threatening, but because they began to approach. Aries bumped into her, a small squeak escaped her instead of actual words. She could hear a hushed voice that was inaudible to her. She could guess that Aries attempted to apologize only to find the same amount of success as she did. When she walked towards the fire type, it was at her own pace-something she could control and be comfortable with. The growlithe robbed her of that sense.

From what the fire type said, they said they were friendly. That was nice, but there was the fact of the matter that this was a fire type. Fire pokemon liked to burn things. Both she and Aries were highly flammable-especially with their current condition. Yera held a particular prejudice against fire types, unlike Aries who was just terrified of them. She could not help but to take their words with a bit of salt to the side-just in case.

"Er..." she attempted once more with the idea that she had no other option in mind. It was difficult to speak when it felt like her heart was in her throat. Once more with effort, she swallowed her fears and tried again, "We're uh..." she glanced over to Aries a moment before she looked back to Opal, "W-Wouldn't say we're 'fine' but we're alive?"


The skiddo was interested to hear that the fire type was supposed to be a part of the rescue team. His fear switched to confusion-though not completely. The skiddo's withered leaves likely would have shook along with him if not for the sorry water that dragged them down and clumped them together. Still, his legs were a dead giveaway. His eyes studied the growlithe with enough courage to dare to take a single step closer around the deerling.

"I-I haven't seen you around the town before..." he commented with a wary yet certain tone that seemed to unnerve his companion. Aries was a shopkeep, he's seen many faces run in and out of his cafe on top of many of the guild members when he went to give the pokemon that rescued him so long ago gifts. The fact of the matter was that it was a coincidence that Aries had never seen Opal before; there was also the possibility that she was from a different guild entirely, or even lived somewhere else, but he seemed to think otherwise.


Aries' declaration that he did not know this growlithe so soon after their claim to be a guild member unnerved her. A few steps back was all it took for Aries to be in front of her this time around, all previous courage gathered now down the drain.

What did this growlithe want? Did she want to know if the guild members were gone to see if it was safe to attack? It was apparent to him that the deerling had the same thought process as she backed away with her head lowered. His ears flattened defensively as he tried to think of what to do. They were both weak, they both had a type disadvantage, and neither of them had anything that could help them against the fire type here...besides water. Water was literally everywhere. Perhaps they could use it to their advantage?

Defiance flared past her fear as she opened her mouth to tell this obviously-an-outlaw fire type off with what was likely going to be the squeakiest, shakiest, most non-threatening demand by the likes of which this world had ever seen. She was cut off, however, as Aries seemed to have a better idea.


How could they know if they were an explorer or some bandit? It was hard to think past the instinct to simply flop over, play dead, and hope the carnivore thought he was too diseased to consume.

Think, think...he demanded of himself. Every second was precious, he was just about to call it quits and flee. Perhaps if he screamed Skylar's name and hoped, she would magically manifest at his side to kick this growlithe's butt? When the thought crossed him, it flashed an image in his mind that gave him an idea. It was something that could prove the Growlithe's identity to them.

"B-B-Badge!" he suddenly spoke out, "Where's your badge?"

All explorers of the guild had a badge, right?

Opal stopped in her tracks as she saw that her approach just seemed to scare the grass types further. The poor things must have been through a lot to be left so scarred. She felt sorry for the pair, and was even more determined to get them to safety. At least both of them were capable of walking. That would certainly help with the rescue.

The growlithe listened to their replies. The skiddo seemed to warm up slightly-very slightly-but it was clear that both were trying to assess her. It made sense to Opal. They didn't know her, so she had to earn their trust. She was wondering how to accomplish this when the bigger of the grass types asked to see her Guild badge.

"It's right here," the growlithe answered and slowly shifted to show her side, where the badge was pinned to a kind of harness that she wore during missions to keep her bag secure. It also conveniently made it easier for small pokemon to hold on during a ride, but that wasn't going to be an issue here.

A badge? That's right, explorers typically had a badge to show their authority. The little deerling looked back to the growlithe as the fire type shifted off to the side in order to show the two. The grass type remained calm and silent as the skiddo would give the item a critical gaze before he delivered his judgement.

"Okay," the skiddo spoke, a little more relieved than before. She could still see the tension in his fur as he shook. She was in a similar boat, however, as she also could not relax. The deerling had questions, but she did not have the courage to ask them. Instead, she remained off to the side of the skiddo, just behind him. It was cowardly, honestly. He was likely more afraid than she was, but still she could not help but to let him do the talking.

She took in a deep breath as she tried to steady her rapidly beating heart. She was safe...ish...she guessed?


The badge served to deliver relief. The skiddo's gaze trailed away from the shiny item to the gaze of the growlithe. He made eye contact. The growlithe did nothing to warrant it, but a spike of fear seemed to be driven right through him as he would quickly look away to avoid eye contact.

"Okay," he spoke up, "Er...sorry...but uh-the rescue team before were already here."

Bitterness swelled at the memory of it. It boiled into his tone as he would explain, "We were attacked and they couldn't handle it. So they left." His gaze fixed itself onto the paws of the canine. He found that it was easier to look there than it was in her eyes as he would finish "Without us."

Opal tried to appear happy and friendly to reassure the grass types. She couldn't help drooping her ears, however, at the news of her colleagues having come and gone. Not only that, but the clients had been abandoned! How awful! No wonder they were scared! "Oh..." she commented sadly, not sure of what to say. What could she say? The Guild had let them down.

The growlithe thought to herself. By extension, she had let everyone down as well, but she'd just got here. She couldn't very well come all this way for nothing. These pokemon needed help, and she had the opportunity to provide it.

With renewed determination, Opal took on a proud and confident posture. "Well, I'll help you! I'll get you out of here, and that's a promise! No running away!" she announced. There must be some tough pokemon indeed around these parts if they'd sent an entire rescue team scurrying, but a straight fight should be avoidable. She was getting good at using items, and had several at hand that would help them out in a pinch.

"I can start by making you two feel a bit better. I need you to try and relax, okay?" Opal told the pair. She was going to use the move Morning Sun. They both clearly needed a pick-me-up, and maybe it would help them realise that she wasn't a bad pokemon. "Focus on that nice warm feeling. That's sunlight, yeah? Drink it in. Feels good, doesn't it?

[+5 energy for one of yours]

Frebedor carried out 9 launched of one Cattail Marsh :

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