Approaching borders

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[19 - 10 (entry) = 9]

There were very few places Pepper wouldn't go for adventure. If she could get there she would go there. That, however brought the predicament that she was in right now. When Pepper noticed a rolling mist start to surround her she didn't even mind it, now she seemed to be lost in a sea of haze. She tried to retrace her steps and head back where she came from but that only got her more lost. The ground under her feet was starting to incline, and she felt like she was moving up a slope.

She wasn't keen on showing fear but being lost in such unfamiliar territory made her shiver slightly. If she got into a fight here she wouldn't have any help, not that she needed it. She huffed slightly and resolved to get to the top of the hill she was climbing. Maybe the mist wouldn't be as thick there, and she could see the road back home.

A small snapping noise made her stop in place and swivel her ears. It sounded fairly close, she started to look around. Was there someone here or was she just imagining things?

"Hello" she said, "is anyone there?"

(Energy: 2 + 1 (forgot to add the last Grassy Terrain boost from last page) + 1 (new page) = 4)

Leander stifled a chuckle as the remaining spoink bounced off, terrified of the fennekin's puffy tail. He did get his concerns, though, since he had witnessed their little tag team possessing both the power to fire a flashy, powerful blast and to set fire to their surroundings simply by standing there. And that wasn't guaranteed to be all they could do, either. From what that spoink knew, all sorts of scary stuff could be hiding in that tail. It still looked funny from a distance, though.

Though the acorn disliked getting into fights with so few reliable moves, this had gone well. He even got the reward of seeing Pepper running adorable loops around their prize, the apple. Watching her hop around like that made him feel like he had done something good. That was the goal, wasn't it? To just behave and be good. For once, it had not derailed.

"Yes!!! That was soo much fun! Leander you have to show me how you did that! Was that a hyper beam? OR, or was it a solar beam?! Cmon, you have to teach me!"

Now was the time for derailment, apparently. How could he look her in those gleaming eyes and tell what he had used basically was "Shmuck Bait: The Move"? That not an ounce of that power had been his? She was so excited. So impressed. When had he ever impressed someone in battle before? Never! Spending maybe half a second thinking, he arrived on the conclusion that telling the truth would be a buzzkill. And perhaps make her think he was weak or boring. No, it had to be spiced up. Would or could she even fact check him on it, anyway? The only issue was the teaching bit, but that was easy to excuse away.

"It's Solar Beam," he said, tipping his body slightly to emulate nodding. Just doing those small tips had him feel dizzy. Being hit by two moves at once was never fun. "I'd show you, but it's so exhausting to use when you've just learned it! I just got it from a TM, so I haven't had the time to practice a whole lot, ka ka. But hey, I actually think your species can learn it too, if you j- AHH!"

The liar was cut off, almost as if he was facing a divine retribution of some sort. A bright flash of fire reminiscent of what Pepper had breathed earlier had lit up against his back with a "FWOOSH!". Though the initial blast had not been particularly big, it had managed to set fire to the withered Grassy Terrain closest to Leander, who was now scrambling away from the hit site while trying his dearest not to stumble over. It was far from easy.

From the direction the Ember had come from, a proud cry could now be heard. The remains of the fog mellowly parted to make room for the Fletchinder who had been watching them, as she vigorously flapped her wings and flew towards the duo. With another cry, she switched targets, heading from the sky and down towards Pepper with a Quick Attack. Though their combat prowess from earlier worried her a little, the Fletchinder was quite sure things would go smoothly now that she was sure she had put that supposed Solar Beam-user out of commission. She knew that it was a strong move, although she was unsure about its typing. Better to just have it be gone, really. And now that the enemy was one down she just had to get the other one before she could pull anything weird, right? Then she would be victorious, proving her strength to the other ferals!

[Energy 1 + 3 (2 GT + 1 NP) = 4]

Pepper took a seat under the apple tree and watched Leander stumble around his words, her ears twitched while she listened to some unfamiliar terms. She wondered what a TM was, she had never seen one in her lifetime. Was it a tutor of some kind? If that was the case she needed to find one of these "TM's" and become a student. In the middle of Leander's speech his sudden cry made her become alert again.

The familiar colors of smoke and fire lit up the withering leaves and plants, with all the smog and fog in the area it became hard to see Leander. What she did see however was a speeding, something, coming at her fast. There wasn't enough time to dodge! Pepper had dealt with pokemon that were faster than her before. The best thing to do was to make their speed work against them! She quickly spat ember at her feet and created a cloak of smoke and fire. Right as she was about to take on the rouge Fletchinder's attack head on, something heavy and round conked Pepper on the head. Pepper fell to her haunches, momentarily stunned, and the Fletchinder's attack hit only air.

A rapturous laughter echoed through the fog, and now smoke, filled woods. A haunter floated above the thick blanket of smoke next to where the apple had previously been. It pointed mockingly at the pokemon below and stuck out it's tongue.

Having sought refuge in some of the grass lucky enough to not have caught fire yet, Leander watched the mysterious silhouette dart at Pepper and her fiery shield. His ally was not hit by what he had expected to hit her, however. By some freaky twist of fate, their well-earned apple had turned on them. Or maybe they were just incredibly unlucky? After seeing the haunter appear, though, Leander suspected that it might have been neither of those things.

He had more urgent things to worry about, though. After missing its mark, the fletchinder's beak impaled the ground it had hit like an arrowhead, and the unfortunate bird's body was flung over it by the force and speed of the move, doing something reminiscent of a somersault. She was left on her back for a few seconds before groggily getting up, wings held to her pained neck. Her crash site was close to Leander, who was hiding himself even further inside the grass tuft he had snuck into. He was pretty sure he hadn't been spotted, but was nervous nonetheless. Bide wasn't an option with all of his injuries. And with moves like Ember in her arsenal, she wouldn't be hindered by Harden. If she attacked him now, he would have little he could do to save himself.

Before she could begin looking for him, though, the fletchinder was distracted. As a creepily enthusiastic laughter broke out, her head moved in its direction with a jolt, her eyes as round as little full moons. She hopped a few steps back, while defensively puffing out the feathers around her neck and clicking her beak. Somebody apparently was not a fan of ghosts. Even if this one seemed to just be goofing around.

The fletchinder's head would soon turn once more. The grass near her had rustled, sending more chills through her. Behind the pale straws, the seedot had attempted to use the bird's moment of distraction to move so that he could check if the fennekin was all right. He had intended to be more quiet, but things didn't always go according to plan, did they? As a result, the robin was now eyeing the grass with tension, trying to spot what had made the noise. Leander could hear a low, muted "fshhhh", and guessed that she was preparing to launch more fire. A shiver ran through his body, and as if something had snapped within him, he hopped right at the fletchinder, yelling as he impulsively tackled her down. It was far less efficient than an actual Tackle would have been, but was enough to bowl the already startled bird over. As she fell on her back, the Ember in her throat was launched skywards like an emergency flare. After that, her mouth would only spew frenzied squawks and caws.

The nut could feel sharp claws rake across his shell as he struggled to keep her down. But with his light weight and lack of arms to grab her with, he was shaken off once she began batting her wings at the ground. Both of the combatants then quickly got up on their feet again before entering a staredown. Neither dared move, in fear of what the other one would do; Leander in fear of her launching an Ember, and the fletchinder in fear of him activating the bluffed Solar Beam. Leander felt puzzled as to why the fletchinder seemed so scared of him, but was thankful that she was. The more time he had before she would strike, the more time Pepper would have to get back up on her feet and bring their team some actual, and quite literal, firepower again.

The Haunter at this point was just having fun with everyone involved. It got a good laugh out of the fox, and now it had a stare down to haunt. The Haunter phased out of sight and moved behind the seedot. It came out of the ground right behind leander. He didn't make a sound or a move but from where the pokemon floated the fletchinder and seedot had no way of knowing. The haunter started creating dark tendrils of power. The area immediately behind the seedot was shrouded in darkness.

The fletchinder already spooked from the strange occurrences took a few hops back. One look at the seedot made it seem like he was a ghostly figure shrouded in darkness. The poor bird, unknowing of the situation, let out a terrified squawk and tried to fly away. But by then Pepper was already on her. Pepper threw herself at the flame bird and dug her claws deep when she hit her mark. The Fletchinder squawked and flapped it's wings fruitlessly until it finally passed out under paw.

The haunter, satisfied with all the havoc it caused let out a creepy chuckle behind Leander before it disappeared for good. With the disappearance of the haunter the woods seemed to calm into it's regular chatter. Even the fog around them seemed to lessen. Finally there was a semblance of visibility.

Pepper was looking at Leander with saucer plate eyes. She bounded over hopped around Leander as if she was looking for something. When she was satisfied she stopped in front of him, satisfied with their  adventure. "Leander," She exclaimed, "You must be some super powered pokemon! Solar beam and those weird spooky powers. Did you have a teacher, or are you just one of those super powerful pokemon my dad told me stories about?" Her tail wagged behind her, but the answer didn't matter much. Leander pretty much just won two fights one after the other. Pepper was convinced he was strong. "You HAVE to spar with me sometime! Please?"

It's looking more and more terrified. I can't believe this is working! Maybe it's my stare? Or some kind of phobia?

Many weird ideas ran through the nut's head as the bird shrunk back, before outright hopping backwards to get away from him. This was a staredown. There was no way that he could turn around to look at the ominous darkness forming behind him. So when she finally broke under and attempted to flee into the air, Leander truly believed that no outside force had influenced the situation, and that he truly had scared this bird off somehow. The only thing that threw him off a little was the laughter he heard after Pepper had finished off the fletchinder. He realized that it was the haunter chuckling as it left, but did not connect the dots well enough to also realize the ghost had a hand in scaring the fletchinder.

That's why Pepper's reaction had him confused. While he absolutely did enjoy having her bouncing around him like that, the admiration just didn't seem fitting. She had defeated that fletchinder, while he had only tried to stay alive. What she said did help with explaining, but...

Spooky powers? What powers?, he wondered, remaining silent for a moment after the vixen admiringly asked him to spar sometime. Had something happened during the battle? Come to think of it, that fletchinder's reaction had been quite unusual. Maybe he did have some kind of power he did not know about. This would require further investigation later. Either way, the ego-trip this was giving him easily made him prone to more lies.

Breaking free from his speculative throughts, the seedot hopped up on the tips of his little feet, proudly standing tall as he began explaining "how it was" to the fennekin. "I do often get told that I'm great, but super-powered might be a bit much, ka ka!" In reality "great" was definitely a bit much, too. "I am only starting to master my powers, after all. That's why I'm careful with battling. I don't want to hurt anybody on accident while I am still learning how to contain my strength. Even with my Solar Beam back then, I was holding back." Oh boy, did he know he was stretching it now. Stopping felt difficult, however. He did want to be powerful and admired like this. It felt great. Like he wasn't weak or a troublemaker at all. If he backed out, that wonderful limelight would quit shining on him. And how would he back out, anyway? He had already lied up a storm.

"I save the sparring for only the hardiest challengers. Like powerful explorers and stuff. I'm sorry, but I have to play this safe, y'know? Maybe once you've grown stronger..." The last bit was not supposed to have been there. He simply got carried away with his status and threw it in thoughtlessly to seem more like a cool role model or something. Assuming it probably wouldn't be an issue, he did nothing to redact the statement.

As he finished spouting his cover for why he could not spar with her, the seedot came to notice that he could see some of the trees further down the hill. The fog was so much thinner now! "Oh. The fog's cleared out some more. We were supposed to get out of here, weren't we? You were going to Shadowhue," he said quickly after finishing his tall tale, in an attempt to change the subject before the fox could talk. The less questions, the easier the lie.