Children At Play

First topic message reminder :

If there was a king of dumb ideas...it would be Chance. Not only had he failed to learn his lesson last time of wandering away from home, but he was back at it again with an idea that had the potential to do far more harm than being eaten by a predator would. It was fortunate that he struggled so much to put it into action, that way the odds of him giving up was greater. Unfortunately, he had been at it for a solid five minutes. He tried all he could with various different ways of doing it.

What was he doing exactly? Moving a rock. It was much larger than he was, far too heavy for him to handle, but he hoped that the spherical nature of it would make it easier to roll. He tried straight up pushing it, running and jumping against it, and even the clever idea of using a stick as a lever-though he could not take credit for the idea as he simply heard about some nerd talking about this sort of thing before. Currently, he was trying to move it with the stick. The branch was properly wedged underneath it, but he didn't have the strength or weight to pull it down.

He simply hung off of the elevated end of the branch with his teeth stuck in the bark. His eyes glanced over to the rock with the hopes that it would move. No dice. Alright then. He would just have to try something else. He let go of the branch and dropped back to the ground. Hmm...what else could he try? Oh-why didn't he think of that sooner!

The little zorua paced closer to the rock before he stepped onto the branch. He struggled to keep balance on the stick, which made him doubt his plan at least a little. He didn't have the brainpower and common sense to stop himself from trying. He stood at the other end of the stick and proceeded to try to jump up and down. The stick bent and moved, but the rock simply would not budge. He decided that he would give it one last jump, as high as he could.

Up he went, and-SNAP- down went the branch. He yelped in terror as the weak piece of wood snapped into two from the weight. He failed to catch himself properly and fell over onto his side as the branch splintered around him. He lifted his head with a shake and shot a look towards the boulder.

No dice.

"uuuugggggggGGGGGGHHH!" he groaned loudly before he allowed his head to flop back onto the ground in defeat.

((22-20 = 2))

Osiris had never really been in danger before. Maybe danger of mild bodily harm, sure, but anything life-threatening? Absolutely not, he'd never even been close. When the zorua mentioned getting eaten, it was something of a reminder, but his story was a lot more than just that. Despite himself, the dratini was pretty enraptured with the tale, hanging onto every single word.

"Woooah," he uttered, rearing up slightly as he looked the dark-type over. "Close one." he said half-to-himself, staring down at the ground as he imagined the scene. It was painted pretty vividly for him, so it wasn't a difficult task. It felt like a stark reminder that wild pokemon could and would have you for lunch if you weren't tough enough. Strangely enough, what little desire he had to tough it out in this place felt bolstered.

Suddenly he really, really wanted to have an adventure. Iris wanted to be able to tell stories like that to other people. Except where he would be the hero who swooped in at the end and saved the day! It just sucked that he wasn't... well, he wasn't a "super famous explorer", as this zorua put it.

"So you... wanna be like your dad?" he ventured hesitantly, wagering a guess. "Is that why you came back out here?"

The zorua was glad that the dratini seemed to enjoy his tale. He swelled with pride accompanied by the widet grin he could manage. The expression faltered, however, as the dratini asked if he wanted to be like his dad.

"Uh..." his ears lowered a little, "He's cool and all but...nah. If I wanted to be an explorer I'd just be at the guild. I wanna be strong like him yeah, but I don't wanna be in someone's shadow y'know? Besides-that kind of business is probably gonna be what my sister's gonna do. She's uh...smart." His voice faltered a little.

He shook his head, "But no-to why I came out here. I wanted to look around! Then I saw this SUUUUPER cool thing and thought it'd be neat to try something with it. This rock is like-the perfect size for it I think? I don't know. But if it works, then it's gonna be AMAZING!"

He was back to his excited self. The zorua looked back to the rock. He couldn't help but to run in a quick and tight circle. He looked to the dratini, simply waiting for the dratini to ask what it is exactly that he wanted to do.

He just... wanted to look around.

Iris didn't know what that meant. He knew what it literally meant, of course, but did that translate to bravery? Did the almost-death experience just not get to this zorua that badly? He was tough enough that it didn't faze him, or perhaps it was a while ago and he'd gotten over it by now. Maybe he wasn't totally telling the truth, either about the jolteon attack or what he was doing out here...

Osiris shook his head a little bit. No, it wasn't good of him to just assume someone else was lying. This zorua had been pretty alright so far, honestly. "Well... can you show me the cool thing?" he ventured, curious as to what could get this dark-type so fixated on pushing a rock down a hill. He wanted to see what this guy was trying to do in the first place. He seemed pretty amped up about everything.

(+1 energy, new page)

His smile beamed as the dratini expressed interest in his discovery. "Yeah! Yeah! It's just down the hill over here, follow me!" The zorua sprung to his feet and was off before Osiris could even respond. As quickly as his paws could take him, he zipped past the trees and down the hill onto the wet flat lands he was so eager to roll the bolder towards. He stopped just a few feet away from a crater in the ground surrounded by a small pool of water. There were actually quite a few of them around here.

He waited for the dratini to catch up if he needed to at all before he would begin to ramble off, "This thing here-it does this cool thing every now and then. The others around here do it too! It's like there's a blastoise under the water firing away or something!" as if to accentuate his point, one of the craters off on the other side of the field suddenly burst a spray of water high into the air for a few brief seconds. Mist and steam remained up high while the majority of the water fell back down to the ground around the hole.

"I wanted to see what would happen if you plug it up with a big ol' rock. I threw a pebble in earlier and it sent it FLYING so high into the sky!! A bigger rock would have been waaaaay cool. Oh-and if it did. I was gonna see if I could sit on top of it and fly with it. That way I can see from REALLY high up without needing to fly or anything!"

After he caught up to the zorua (which took more than a few seconds - he took off pretty quick and Osiris was pretty sure his speed from dragon dance had faded), he listened to his plan of action with an acute ear. It started off interesting enough—especially when a burst of water came flying up out of a crater a ways away—but towards the end, Osiris would freely admit he was lost.

By no means did he consider himself a genius, but even he could put two and two together. That was a Bad Idea. But how on earth was he supposed to get that through to him? Iris couldn't leave the guy to his own devices. What if he actually got the boulder down and hitched a ride on top of it? He'd be a pancake! Not to mention he'd draw every curious onlooker to him within... miles. Oh.

"Don't get me wrong, man, this is all pretty awesome," he started, and genuinely at that. He'd never seen anything like this! "But, uh... if you went flying up in the air like that, you know how many pokemon would see you up there? How many hungry pokemon would come looking? Plus, there's flying-types in the sky." he finished in an apologetic tone. Nobody deserved to be bird food.

The dratini was excited! Then...concerned. Chance frowned as the dragon type voiced their own concerns about the plan. His nose scrunched up. He hadn't exactly thought of that, but he already had a counter-argument for it.

"That's easy! I can just make myself look like not-food. Nobody's gonna wanna pick with something really strong looking-oh-oh! Or if they can't even see me. I could make myself look as tiny as a joltik."

He couched on the wet muddy ground as his shoulders wriggled in excitement. He plotted and schemed all the different ways he could avoid that particular issue, but none of them were...practical? If anything he started to wander off into what sounded more fun than safe.

"Oh-I could make myself look like a bird too! Oooo or maybe something big and heavy so people look at it and go 'Whaaaaaaaaat??'" he mocked a highly exaggerated and confused expression to go along with it as he would ramble off all of the stupid little ideas that came into mind.

"And, uh, what about the landing?" Osiris went on, not quite ready to give up on this zorua yet. There was... a lot he wanted to ask questions about, but getting him to see the folly in taking a jump sort of came first. For safety reasons. Pro-living reasons. "You're gonna go up real fast, and you're gonna come down even faster. No way you don't not hit the ground super hard. Maybe if you send the boulder up first before you get on, then you could kinda eyeball it, but it might not be the best idea, er...

"What was your name again?" he found himself asking, coming up short toward the end there. Had the dratini gone this long without introducing himself?! That was kind of embarrassing - his mom would be disappointed if she found out. "I'm Osiris, by the by."

Chance stopped for a second, almost as if he hadn't even considered the whole "landing" concept. He looked at the hole in the ground, looked up at the sky, then to the ground off to the side as if he were visualizing the entirety of his demise right before his very eyes. He blinked.

"...Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I'll be fine!" he smiled gleefully, "I'll just land on my feet! It's not that hard for me, I fall all the time." Completely oblivious to the peril that could befall him, his optimism for situations like these were so high that he practically believed himself and his family to be impervious to danger. Death and harm was the kind of thing that happened to other people or in fairy tales!

"But we can't do aaaaany of that unless we can move the rock...but I don't think it's a good idea to talk to strangers...buuuut what we could do is find one of those mean pokemon and get them to smash into the boulder for us? Y'know, like a tauros and a red cape kind of deal?" he grinned. He thought he was so clever and smart.

"My name?" He questioned. Without missing a single beat, he proudly declared, "Kibakoru! You can just call me Kiba though~!" It was...technically a lie, but he much preferred that name over the silly one he had known as Chance. Why did his mom have to pick such a boring name for him? Why did Emmelyn have to get all the cool stuff and he was left with...nothing.

"Kiba it is," Osiris said, happy despite the circumstances that he was meeting new people. Even if they were determined to get themselves smushed in like half an hour, tops. "If you think you can move quick enough when the time comes..." he went on, nodding slowly as he digested Kiba's plan.  "Then yeah, it's a pretty good idea. Anything really big that smashes into that rock head-on is probably going right to sleep anyways!"

In a way, it was what Iris had come out here to do. Practice the whole expedition thing, build up some experience to point to when the time came to actually do something serious. Like join the guild or go on a field trip to a dungeon at school. And if he could help Kiba not hatch his plan in the process, then that was just a bonus. He'd cross that bridge when the time came though. The zorua seemed impervious to... well, rational advice.

"We gotta be careful though." he said vaguely. He wasn't sure what kind of dangers would be involved (besides the obvious) when they led a big mad jerk into a boulder like a raging tauros, but he knew he wasn't invincible.

"Well, duh," Kiba laughed, "Caution is my middle name." He stood up once more, his underbelly now caked with mud though he didn't seem to really care. He remained completely oblivious as to just how wrong his statement was. The zorua trotted away from the crater with a thoughtful look as he looked back towards the edge of the forest. "Hmm..." the little gears in his mind turned, "Usually the mean pokemon are like-out and moving around at this time of day but I'm...not seeing-"

As he his eyes searched along the edge, his sight settled on dark "thing" poked out of a bush. Chance's ears perked up, "Found one! You wake him up and then we can get him to chase me and I'll handle it from there!" He chimed before he bolted off towards the form of a slumbering Mightyena. He did not even wait for the little Dratini's response nor give them a chance to object. He was so excited to see the weird water-cannon shoot a rock high up into the sky-even if he didn't get to go on it. That pokemon certainly looked big enough to ram the rock out of place...

What on earth was cautious about surfing flying boulders?! Osiris didn't understand this Kiba guy at all. His methods, sure, his plan, sort of, and his thought process, heck no. Still, he'd met stranger pokemon, so as far as quirks go, this probably wasn't the worst. Just baffling.

"I mean, he's just sleeping, but... yeah, fine. Just hope you can run fast," Iris grumbled half-heartedly, aware that the zorua had already taken off and wouldn't hear him. He turned to fix his gaze on the conspicuously hidden pokemon, judging the distance carefully. The dratini exhaled calmly, his eyes fluttering shut as he concentrated.

He thought about all the things in his life that he had to be angry about—the dad he'd never met, the weakness he'd always struggled with, the lack of agency he had in his life for so long, the injustice that he and his friends had been faced with... Instinctively, he sucked in a great breath and held it. His eyes snapped open and his expression was uncharacteristically wrathful for an instant. Then, with a muted roar, he blasted a shockwave of raw Dragon Rage right at the sleeping Mightyena, setting it up for a rather rude awakening.

In the midst of being about to declare that "Speed" was his middle name, the zorua found that he would not have the time to do so. The mightyena received an incredibly rude wake up call as it was blasted further into the depths of the bush. Chance could barely contain his excitement. This was going to be SO cool!

The dark type burst out of the bush, looking rightfully angry. "Nya nya!" Chance teased the mightyena loudly as he stuck his tongue out at the pokemon. The a low growl rumbled from the canine's chest as the target was sighted. Chance crouched own once again, though this time he focused on the movements of the mightyena. A mischievous shine reflected in his eyes as the terrifying creature charged straight for him.

The canine was unexpectedly quick, but Chance just barely managed to react faster. He could hear the audible snap of the mightyena's jaws just barely miss his tail as he dodged to the side. The zorua zipped off towards the rock, but there was a slight complication. While the Zorua certainly managed to avoid the mightyena's fangs, he wasn't out-pacing it...His Detect would only work for so long. The Mightyena was quickly able to cut him off and stand in front of him, where Chance froze and stared up at the canine with big wide eyes.

"Uh-oh."

As soon as Osiris let his Dragon Rage rip, he stood alert for whatever happened next. There wasn't any guarantee that the pokemon would go after Kiba, since he wasn't the one to wake it up. Thankfully, though, the zorua was good on his word and quickly grabbed the mighyena's attention, which meant he could slither after them as fast he could without worrying about the thing turning around to jump him.

Iris was actually impressed that Kiba managed to stay ahead of the evolved pokemon as long as he did, dodging its bite cleanly, if a bit too close for comfort. But the mightyena had him cornered in no time at all after that and despite his best efforts to keep up, both of the dark-types had a headstart on him. He couldn't intervene up close, but maybe he could grab its attention back from Kiba...

"Heads up, sleepyhead!!" he called loudly. Iris sucked in another breath, conjured more angry thoughts, and blasted another Dragon Rage at the big dog again.

The blast of draconian energy struck the Mightyena from behind. The dark type yelped, all intimidating factors it had against the zorua vanished. Chance bolted off to the side as the Mightyena turned to cast its anger in Osiris's direction. The dratini was still a fair distance away, but it figured it would be able to close that gap in no time just like it had with the zorua.

Chance could see that the mightyena was about to go after his newly made noodle friend and promptly decided that no, that was not allowed. The mightyena made the "mistake" of turning its back on Chance, which prompted him to activate his trap card of sorts. The zorua pursued the Mightyena and latched onto its leg just behind the thigh.

The dark type yelped and attempted to grab the Zorua, but ended up just appearing to chase his tail. The wild pokemon then decided it had taken about enough of this nonsense, as it unleashed a loud and obnoxious Snarl that formed a shock wave around him that would spread outwards to both of his opponents. Chance was forced to let go of the Mightyena with a yelp and a quick fall to the ground. He popped himself back onto his feet and made yet another run for the boulder's direction, expecting the Mightyena to chase him again.

Osiris felt the mightyena's snarl wash over him and grimaced painfully, shying away from the dark-type subconsciously. Unlike Kiba, he had no resistance to such an attack and thus felt it twice as bad. He'd gotten his job done, though. The big angry dog wasn't able to take a bite out of Kiba, and the zorua even paid back the favor by jumping on it when it turned its sights on Osiris!

So far, so good, he told himself. But now was something of a moment of truth for their little plan. Either the mightyena went after Kiba and the zorua could lead it into the boulder... or it did literally anything else and the plan falls apart. For the former to happen, Kiba had to look like the most appealing thing to go after - which meant Osiris either had to be intimidating or not available. And, well, he didn't think he'd ever pulled off intimidating before.

So when Kiba bolted back towards the boulder, Osiris slithered underneath the nearest bush and tried to appear stealthy. The mutt had a choice to make, here, and it was a 50-50 shot as to whether or not it'd ruin everything. Either it would sniff out the dratini, or hunt Kiba down.

Either way, Osiris would need to spring into action. To protect himself if he was the target, or to protect his impromptu partner in case Kiba faltered on his part. With that important job in mind, the dratini began charging a thunder wave on the tip of his tail, the crickle-crackle of electricity signaling his intent to paralyze the Mightyena should the best case scenario fail to happen.