Apples and Berries

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Kestro waved goodbye to his sister and caretaker again at the entrance to Pecha Forest. The young Cranidos had heard of a town at the other end of Serene Cave, but didn't feel as if he were ready for a three day trek through the dark cavern. While he'd have preferred exploring the neighboring Shadowhue Forest, his sister's worries convinced him to train in the much safer Pecha Forest. The young fossil Pokemon let out a sigh once his sister and caretaker were out of sight and earshot. "Alright, another trek through here, and then maybe I can convince her to let me explore Shadowhue," he mumbled to himself. He was a bit surprised by how much sway his sister had over his decisions, but then again, she was as hard headed as him, probably more so. The Cranidos shook his head and turned towards the forest, at the very least he might have some experience in battling and exploration before he'd start classes at Peak.

"I don't... think so," Osiris said after a moment. "I'll keep an eye on it, I guess. Heh. No pun intended."

Now that he'd seen the pokemon—the Unown, apparently—it was a little difficult to look away from it. He'd never been stared at so weirdly before, and he would be lying if he said it wasn't more than a little unnerving. "We should have a game plan, though." he went on, turning back to the zigzagoon and mushroom pokemon reluctantly. "Like, for getting out. Finding an escape orb is a good back up plan, but no offense, you guys have been in here for a week without finding one. What else have you tried, aside from that?" he asked, furrowing his brow in thought. His go-to thought was finding the null pokemon again and asking for directions. They sounded like the only authority around who knew up from down, to him.

+1 energy from new page

the sunset hero carried out 1 launched of one Pecha Forest :

the sunset hero carried out 1 launched of one Echo World :

"Ah, but we have found some orbs," the Zigzagoon said, pulling out an orb the same as the one Kestro just found, and another, normal looking orb. "This 'un is a Petrify orb, through and through, dunno bout this other one, looks like it's affected by by all this weird time stuff." Kestro hummed, looking at the strange orb and then his own. "We think its a Trawl orb, and we've been trying to think on if it'd work or not."

Kestro swung his tail a bit, "I just found one like it, so we can now test it and still have a spare. Maybe we'll get lucky and find an escape orb." The Zigzagoon nodded, "Ey, that's a lucky find, a'ight, let's give it a try." He then held up his trawl orb. The orb began to give off a glow that grew brighter and brighter until Kestro had to shield his eyes from the light. As the light faded, Kestro blinked to find the orb gone from the Zigzagoon's paw and a small amount of items laying on the ground between him and the Normal type.

Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Echo World :

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It worked! Osiris' face lit up in a relieved smile since he knew what this meant. Kestro's escape orb should also work. They had a way out, for sure, no matter what. It lifted a weight off of the dratini that had slowly been pressing down on him since they met the zigzagoon and his friend; Knowing that he could go home, knowing that there was a way home from this freaky forest felt great.

"Well, that's that," he said as he stared at the collection of items. "No escape orbs, but... it's only a matter of time until we find one, right?"

It felt decidedly crummy to lie like that, but he assumed Kestro had his reasons for keeping his escape route to himself. Maybe he just didn't trust the zigzagoon, although Osiris had no clue as to why. He seemed nice! And he was being helpful, providing all of this information.

Kestro leaned over the pile of items, picking up each one and looking over them. "Eh, I was hoping for a lucky break and an escape orb. None of this stuff looks really useful for us, so I suppose you can have it if you want," the normal type said. Kestro looked up at the Zigzagoon, a bit surprised at this, but nodded, gathering up the items and placing them in his bag, all but the last one. It was a seed, shaped a bit differently to the one Osiris held. He looked it over, sniffed it, and, without really thinking about it, bit into it. He was pretty lucky the thing didn't turn out to be a sleep seed or worse, and instead Kestro felt a rush of relief fill his body, as if someone went through and gave him the best massage ever.

With a few rapid blinks and a shiver as he  stretched Kestro smiled. "Hehe, a reviver seed, nice," he said to himself before he suddenly felt a smack to his beak. The Shiinotic had finally broken off from the ditto. "Don't go eating strange seeds! You've no idea what that could've been!" she, or at least Kestro assumed it was a she by its more effeminate voice, said. The Zigzagoon raised his brow, "Finally decided to join us, eh?"

"Uuuuuh huh..." Osiris trailed off, not entirely sure what came next. He had an idea or two, but the pokemon in front of them kind of threw a wrench in things. "So... ditto giving you troubles?" he asked half-heartedly. Now that they had established that items worked in this dungeon, if it were ever in doubt, there wasn't much point in them all standing around here anymore. He made the effort to talk to the mushroom pokemon and see what she had to say, but he doubted it was much more than the zigzagoon in terms of information.

He just knew that he had his way out in the form of Kestro's escape orb, so it was kind of time to move on, but doing that would be rude, he supposed. He half-expected the zigzagoon and his friend to want to come with them, but Osiris kind of wanted to keep going through the dungeon. There wasn't much harm in it, in his eyes, and they had nothing to lose. He had just learned Dragon Tail from a TM and he hadn't even gotten the chance to use it! All they'd done since getting in this weird dungeon was have a few standoffs, witness a lot of weird stuff, and stumble upon a few mysteries. The answers to which had been unceremoniously handed to them by this zigzagoon a few moments later, so even that was a bust.

The dratini shot a glance at Kestro, an eyebrow raised, his expression clearly skeptical of spending much more time here. He wanted to help these guys, sure, but if it meant upset Kestro for some reason then he'd be content to just keep going through the forest. He seemed against sharing the escape orb with them.

Kestro whined a bit as he rubbed his beak. It didn't actually hurt that much, but the suddenness of the slap took him by surprised. It was almost comical seeing the Cranidos, who'd shown a mostly stoic and calm persona throughout his adventure with Osiris, showing this weakness. The Shiinotic ignored her partner and Kestro, simply pointing to the now sleeping ditto. "Was able to put him to sleep, so once we leave the area, we'll hopefully not run into him again," she answered Osiris. She then motioned to the Trawl orb Kestro still had. "So, we gonna try to get an escape orb with that?" she asked. Kestro looked up at her, huffing as he grabbed onto the orb. Wordlessly he held up the orb, a similar blinding light shining before a small pile of items rested at his feet.

Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Echo World :

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The dratini nodded along at the shiinotic's words, surprised at the conclusion she had reached. She just put him to sleep! If he had a poke for every time a potential conflict in this dungeon had not ended in violence, he might have had enough poke to afford a freaking escape orb, instead of what they were doing now.

He wasn't too shocked or surprised by the shiinotic's forwardness or propensity toward smacking. He was far too used to such things courtesy from growing up with his own mother, who was known to give him a light whallop across the head of he was being particularly thick or behaving badly.

"Close, but not quite, I think," Osiris said as he looked over the pile of items that had materialized after Kestro used his second trawl orb. There were a couple of orbs in the pile, but they looked more like the zigzagoon's petrify orb than the escape orb Kestro had been given by the rescue team. "We might have to go searching." he continued, equal parts willing to help them out by looking, but also wanting to just get a move on.

(Using an oran from my inventory)

the sunset hero carried out 4 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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the sunset hero carried out 4 launched of one Echo World :

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Akuroma again gathered up the items, stuffing them into his bag, save for the slightly off-colored oran berry. "Grassveil is supposed to be North, if anything we can try to see if a straight line will lead us somewhere. It'd also be good to stick close. If we lose each other finding an escape orb to take us all home will be harder," Kestro said. He glanced over at the Shiinotic, not wanting another slap to his beak as he raised the berry to his mouth. The Grass type game him a look that screamed of, "Really now?" before she simply moved forward, taking the lead of the group.

The Zigzagoon fell beside her, and Kestro began to follow the two. The Cranidos looked over to Osiris and waved him over, glancing back towards the two Pokemon in front of them now. He wanted to explain himself for not revealing the escape orb to the Zigzagoon and Shiinotic. If anything, he wanted to discuss what they could do after escaping from the dungeon. Kestro himself felt bad for keeping something that was probably their two new companions' last hope at returning home. But he knew what desperation could do to a Pokemon, and at the very least he wanted Osiris to understand.

energy = 31

Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Pecha Forest :

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Dracorexion carried out 5 launched of one Echo World :

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"Right," Osiris said, falling into line and slithering after the group as they marched behind the shiinotic. Kestro's plan sounded well enough, but he still couldn't help but wonder at his motivations for hiding his escape orb. It was pointless to think about, though, as he wouldn't find an answer nor could he ask the crandios—at least not while they were traveling with these guys. He trusted the rock-type, in the end, though. He hadn't given Osiris a reason to not do so. In fact, he'd done nothing but act in the dratini's best interest, helping him through the forest and even letting him use a TM of his.

The group moved in silence for a long string of heartbeats, the only sound in the atmosphere being their respective footsteps and the rustling of grass. He felt a little sour about the trip, honestly. He hadn't exactly put on the best of performances, only traveling with Kestro and occasionally giving his input on how they should proceed. Half the times, whatever ideas or perspectives he had were straight up wrong, as well. It wasn't how he had seen his first expedition into a mystery going at all, freaky pokemon and phenomenon or no. He wished, desperately, that his journey would go faster and better from here on out. The day where he would evolve into a dragonair, and then the day where he would become a dragonite—neither could come fast enough.

Eerily enough, as his thoughts turned toward his prospective future evolutions, a shadow passed overhead. It encompassed Osiris entirely, soaring over him and passing over Kestro, the zigzagoon, and the shiinotic as well. The dratini looked upward and his heart felt like it jumped in his throat when he caught a glimpse of a large, flying pokemon, with violet scales and dark wings. Its antennae twitched as the pokemon—the dragonite, an oddly colored dragonite, just like the ralts and kirlia and unown—passed over them. It glanced down with a twitch of his head, dismissive, icy blue eyes scanning the party of four before freezing on Osiris. Time seemed to freeze for a millisecond, then the beast turned its gaze forward once more and continued flying northward, presumably uncaring of what he saw.

It happened quickly enough that Iris wasn't even certain that it had happened. But there was no mistaking the tension in his body or the cold fear and awe that had overcome him. He looked at the others, not entirely certain they'd seen the flying dragon, electing to stay silent.

As the shadow of the Dragonite passed overhead, Kestro didn't even bother to look up. Pokemon flew overhead all the time. There was the Unown, the Murkrow from before, and honestly, it passed by so quickly that the Cranidos doubted anything would come of it. Whatever it was, it left as quickly as it came, and that suited Kestro just fine. The Zigzagoon did pause, though, looking up at the quickly disappearing shape of the large dragon before continuing forward. He, at least, was a bit wary.

Suddenly the sky began to darken, the midday sun retreating towards the horizon. Except it was moving towards the East, not the West as a setting sun normally would. Not to mention it was moving entirely too fast, resting at an early morning peek above the horizon within seconds. Kestro groaned at this, his beak clicking warily. "That's not right..." he grumbled out the obvious. The Shiinotic turned backwards him, "It happens every now and again, the worst that normally comes from it is if the weather suddenly changes or if it becomes night too fast for your eyes to adjust right away."

Her explanation did little to ease Kestro's wariness at the situation. He couldn't change anything, though, and simply pressed on. After several more moments of seemingly nothing happening, both the Zigzagoon and Shiinotic stopped suddenly, frozen stiff. The Cranidos trotted forward slightly, peering past the two Pokemon. "Osiris get-" he was cut off as a Lurantis surged forward, attempting to grab at the Cranidos with its long, clawed arms. The Shiinotic and Zigzagoon did nothing, simply standing there while Cranidos fell backwards.

"Oh Kestro, come back now, let me take you back home," the Lurantis said, it's voice sounding feminine and elderly. It idly moved forward, stepping off of the other two Pokemon as if they didn't exist, solely focused on the Cranidos. At hearing that voice, Kestro froze, any sign that he was prepared to fight back disappearing like sand in the wind as he stared wide-eyed at the Lurantis. "No, no, no, no, no, that's not possible," he mumbled, the Rock type righting himself, all his attention focused on the looming grass type.

energy= 2

"Kestro, what's wrong?" Osiris called, crawling back to the front of the traveling formation. He'd fallen back when the dragonite passed overhead, but the weird transition from daytime to nighttime set him on edge. Coupled with Kestro's worried mumbling and cut off warning, it didn't take a genius to realize that something strange was afoot.

He found himself face to face with a new pokemon, one who seemingly was acquainted with Kestro. The fact that just a failed swipe and a few words reduced his new friend to a nervous mess was unnerving to Osiris—ever since he met the cranidos, Kestro had been nothing if not stalwart. Whoever this pokemon was, they must have been bad news.

"Do we fight?!" he asked, his voice loud and urgent. He kept his eyes on the strange pokemon, clutching the blast seed in his tail even tighter. He wouldn't hesitate to chuck it at the threat at the first sign of aggression—with the addition of Dragon Tail to his moveset, he felt a strong surge of confidence at the notion of a confrontation, rather than his usual urge to turn tail and flee.

"It sounds like the Lurantis who raised me! But it can't be her. Sh-she's not the weird colors like this one, and she hasn't moved like that since we left the desert!" Kestro hurriedly explained as he continued to do his best to dodge the many slashing and stabbing attacks coming his way. Even so, Kestro was thrown so off by the Lurantis sharing his caretaker's voice that he couldn't bring himself to actually attack her.

The only plus side? The Lurantis had no interest in Osiris. Her senses for solely focused on Kestro, speaking to him in a soft, sweet tone like a grandmother would he grandchild, her face seemingly calm and smiling kindly. Despite all this, each swing of her sickle like arms brought them down into the dirt. Gouges and puncture holes dotted the ground around the two as Kestro continued to do his best to avoid them. The rock type, though, was clearly not fast enough, as one of those arms was able to cling onto his tail and drag him back towards the grass type.

Osiris took Kestro's harried answer as a definite 'yes.' The poor cranidos had the pokemon—the Lurantis, apparently—right in his face, swiping at him with quick strikes. To his credit, he avoided most of them, and a good thing, too, as each one left evidence of the pokemon's power in the ground when they made impact. Whoever or whatever she was, she was powerful, and Osiris resolved to deal with her quickly before she hurt his newest friend.

With little fanfare, he slithered to the side so he'd be behind the strangely colored pokemon and eyed her speculatively. He took a moment to aim carefully before hurling the blast seed at her with all of his might. While Kestro himself had mentioned they should hold onto the item so they could see if it survived the trip back into the real world, he figured this would take precedence over a silly little theory. His throw was relatively clean and accurate, sailing in a slightly curved beeline straight for the square of her back.

If he was lucky, she'd absorb all of the blast seed's impact and slacken her newfound grip on Kestro's tail. If he could get loose, then the two of them could take the fight to her properly.

With a loud bang that caused the air to ripple, the blast seed struck true. The Lurantis stumbled forward, and Kestro was quick to pry himself out of her claws grip. Kestro scrambled several feet away before facing the oddly colored Lurantis. He was still unsure about fighting someone who sounded like his caretaker, but at the very least a sudden pool of sludge slamming into the Lurantis showed that Osiris and Kestro wouldn't have to. The Shiinotic and Zigzagoon were now quickly moving to aid the other pair, somehow broken from whatever froze them just before.

"Surround it and pile drive it to protect whoever it targets!" the Zigxagoon called out, before swinging his tail through the ground, flinging sand at the angered Lurantis. The grass type let out a deep, primal growl of frustration, like a predator's hunt being disturbed as she tried to rub her eyes.

Kestro himself whined softly. It still felt wrong to attack this Pokemon. Even still, his head began to take on the silvery sheen of his iron head attack.

Osiris was suddenly overcome by a rush of drive and thrill when his blast seed exploded against the lurantis' back. Kestro wrestled himself free immediately, and just like that, their companions waded into the fight with zero hesitation. The zigzagoon, in particular, called out commands, and Osiris eagerly obeyed. He didn't want to think, he didn't think he had it in him to consider options and weigh the effectiveness of one tactic over another. His usual plan of attack when it came to pokemon fights was not to attack; fling a thunder wave at his opponent, hope the paralysis overcame them, and run!

But now, Kestro had given him a weapon that he could work with, Dragon Tail. What better time to use it than to defend the rock-type from this strange pokemon who was so obviously getting under his skin? The prospect of coming in useful lit a fire in Osiris' eye, so when the Lurantis growled like a beast and lunged for the zigzagoon that had blinded it, the dragon-type grinned in anticipation. The zigzagoon's words rung in his mind, though, so while the normal-type scurried back from the wrathful pokemon, he figured he could try to help slow it down. He slithered up along the side of the grass-type, giving it a healthy berth on account of its long limbs. His tail crackled with a stream of electricity, and with a flick of his tail he launched a thunder wave, not unlike a moment ago when he threw the seed at it.

There was a reason that his thunder wave move had always been his go-to solution to conflicts. Paralysis was hell to deal with; the occasional immobilization alongside the general hindrance to your movement was a worst-case scenario for many pokemon in a fight. Coupled with the burst of sand that the zigzagoon blinded it with, he figured they could lock this pokemon down securely before they cut it down to size. And maybe its lack of agency would inspire a measure of confidence in Kestro; Osiris had only known the cranidos for a single afternoon, but seeing him linger on the edge of the conflict already struck him as strange.