Children At Play

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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))

The mightyena looked about, almost as if confused as one of its aggressors bolted off and the other seemed to disappear entirely. The canine only permitted itself very little time to waste and opted to go after the one it could see.

Chance could hear the beast gain on him. They had, for the most part, made it back to the boulder's area, but there came the problem of getting the Mightyena to crash into the boulder. it would have been far wiser to call it all off, but he was just as determined as he was dim. Chance had to think of something, but it wasn't exactly his strong spot. The best he could come up with on the adrenaline fueled spot was to lure the Mightyena deeper into the woods.

Fortunately, the undergrowth and trees provided excellent places for him to dart through that the Mightyena could not reach. He managed to slip under a log and hide himself before the Mightyena caught up. Now he just needed to find his way to get on the other side of the mightyena without it noticing. On top of that he needed to be right next to the rock so that it would properly bash into it. He could hear the mightyena sniffing around outside of his hiding spot. It searched for him. He knew it would find him quickly with a nose like that.

...He started to wonder if perhaps this plan wasn't very well thought through.

Osiris exhaled a breath he didn't know he was holding when the mightyena took off after Kiba. He might have gotten a few potshots off on the big dog, but he felt like going toe-to-toe up close was probably a death sentence. The young dratini felt relief wash over him strongly. Then immediately after he felt guilty about that feeling - a freaking mightyena was chasing his newest friend(?), he needed to help!

So he took off after the duo once more, the electricity in his tail crackling weakly as it dispersed. They had a lead on him again, so he didn't have his hopes up on intercepting the wild pokemon. Instead, he just had to follow the sounds of their frantic racing back to the boulder and be ready to pitch in if Kiba messed up his part. As he made it to the area with the boulder, though, neither zorua nor mighyena could be spotted.

"... Kiba?" he called out hesitantly. Had he lost them? Was Kiba okay?! "Kiba!!" he yelled out louder, panic beginning to rise up in him. He'd only lost sight of them for a few seconds, no way something bad had happened already!

It was here that chance started to panic. He was stuck in a hole under a log with a Mightyena looking for his scent just a few feet away. He could hear the beast's pants as if they were right in his ear. His mind raced for ideas on what to do, but the thoughts were so quick that he might as well have ended up frozen in place. The mightyena was getting closer. His mom wasn't here to save him. Hell, his dad wasn't here to save him. Sova would have said or done something by now if he was.

The zorua watched from where he hid as the Mightyena grew closer...and closer...and-"Kiba!!" a voice rang out from behind the Mightyena. The canine's attention was caught and successfully diverted as the beast would immediately abandon his search for the fox-pest and go after the serpent-pest.

He recognized that voice...uh-oh.

He wriggled out of his hiding spot and chased after the opponent, his speed managing to keep up with the Mightyena only just barely thanks to Pursuit. Once the Mightyena was close, Chance would shout out to the Dratini "WATCH OUT!" The Mightyena's mad dash led it straight towards the Dratini, snarling and growling all the way.

It didn't take long before Osiris' frantic call yielded results. Actually, relative to the time-sensitive situation he thought he was in, he got a call back very quickly - in a matter of moments. Kiba's shout was every bit as urgent as his own, maybe even more so. It prompted him to look over and be greeted with the sight of the same mightyena sprinting right toward him, its teeth bared back in a truly terrifying snarl.

"Oh, shucks-" he muttered right before it was on him. He might have had a little bit of time to react, a second or less, which would have been enough for him to at least try to dodge. But it was the first time in his life that a wild pokemon had not only set its sights on him but came at him with the intent to make a meal out of the little dratini. The most danger he'd ever seen in his life up to this point was a practice fight or two with some friends or at school, but this was for keeps. And he realized that scared the crap out of him.

As such, he offered up almost no resistance aside from a cry of pain when its jaws clamped down around the bulk of his serpentine body, immediately thrashing him around like a frenzied growlithe with its most favorite toy. He could feel the sharp teeth break through the almost nonexistent resistance of his scales, and instinctually he tried to improve his situation. Trying to move or grapple his way out, he knew, was the height of silliness. He was a big noodle in a dog's mouth... but what he could do was shock it.

In the same manner that it did for a moment earlier, Osiris' tail lit up with vibrant sparks and streams of electricity, letting a Thunder Wave loose directly inside the dark-type's maw.

Maybe this could work out to his favor. If the Dratini was quick enough, he could get the Mightyena to smack into the rock. It was perfect! Chance couldn't help but to smile in the situation as the excitement got to him. It was terrifying just a few moments ago, but now it was working! It was actually working! He stopped the pursuit just so he could watch the Dratini make an awesome dive out of the way of the Mightyena. The dark type closed in with his maw open and-nOOOOO-

The dratini was in the Mightyena's mouth. THE DRATINI WAS IN THE MIGHTYENA'S MOUTH. Time to panic. The zorua's eyes widened as he watched the mightyena shake the dratini around like a wet rag. Horror overcame him, but not long enough to prevent him from taking some kind of action...

"HEEEEEEELP!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice a little raspy from the volume. All prior bravery he held went out the window as he could only watch the dratini be attacked. He could see a spark of electricity around the Mightyena's jaws, though it only seemed to just anger the dark type even more as the growling grew deeper.

Even though he wasn't the one being assaulted, he could almost feel his own throat closing in on itself. His body began to tremble as he recalled the sparks of electricity that the Jolteon produced. He spoke so highly and passively about the encounter just moments before, but now that he was back in the moment of pure danger he could feel that very same terror all over again.

The thunder wave hadn't done anything, Osiris realized in panic. The mightyena's growls merely intensified and its jaws seemed to tighten around him, and he was thrashed around no less violently. He heard Kiba scream for help, but it seemed almost like background noise from his perspective. All he could see and hear was the extremely close, hateful visage of a mightyena and the snarls that echoed all around him. He had to do something - if he didn't, Kiba was going to be next!

All of his options exhausted, without thinking he resorted to more of the same. The dratini crackled with electricity again, channeling a second thunder wave directly into the dark-type mauling him. Whether it was the added voltage or merely pure dumb luck, this time the giant dog seemed to freeze in response. Its muscles seized up quickly, its grip on Osiris loosening ever-so-slightly. The wild jerking and throwing it was putting him through thankfully came to an end, and Iris was grateful for every second.

Unnoticed by Osiris, the reverberations of quick, heavy footsteps began to shake the ground lightly. The dratini was too focused on staring up at the stunned face of the mightyena, its eyes portraying nothing but ferocity and anger. The growling that had come to a stop after his second thunder wave slowly began to pick up again, as if in slow motion, and he could feel through the dog's teeth the beginnings of motion in its body again. Osiris clenched his eyes shut and braced himself for another round of being a dog toy.

It never happened, though. A massive, powerful figure burst through the foliage maybe a minute after Kiba's frantic cry for help. Almost in unison, Iris and the mightyena looked up at the pokemon - and what a pokemon it was. Tall, wide, muscular, and maternal, there stood a kangaskhan whose expression morphed quickly from surprise... to determination.

Iris felt the shaking of one more thundering step before a crushing weight came down on the mightyena, the kanghaskhan stepping forward and planting its foot down hard, square on the middle of the mutt's back. It sunk to the ground in response, maw spread open as the air was expelled forcefully from its lungs.

And with strength he didn't know he had, Osiris seized the opportunity for freedom. He'd never crawled and slithered so fast in his life, nearly bouncing out of the dog's jaws to collapse a healthy ten feet away, exhausted, terrified, bruised and bloody.

He was crouched close to the ground, hidden only slightly by the grass around him with his ears lowered and his tail wrapped around his side. He wanted to flatten himself against the ground as much as he could, seeing as his legs refused to allow him to run. The sudden vibrations on the ground only caused him to become even more fearful and regretful of his decision. Did he just call in something bigger to attack them??

The massive figure of a kangaskhan sent leaves and sticks flying. His gaze snapped towards the kangaskhan then back to the mightyena as the massive normal type attacked the Mightyena. His ears perked up as Osiris was released from the carnivorous fangs. Osiris fled, but dreadfully collapsed only ten feet away.

With his eyes still on the two battling pokemon and his body kept low, he carefully picked his way through the grass and bushes closer to the dratini. Ohhhhh-no he was bleeding. He didn't know what to do, but he figured this place wasn't safe anymore.

"B-Blueberry, c'mon!" he spoke to the dratini with a careful nudge of his paw, "W-We gotta get out of here."

The mightyena struggled against the Kangaskhan's foot. All prior anger immediately switched over to fear for its life as it was at the mercy of the normal type's power. All the motherly pokemon had to do was shift her weight and the mightyena who just wanted some piece an quiet to sleep in would be done for.

"Right b-behind ya, Kiba." Osiris wheezed, at that moment deliriously glad that the zorua didn't simply abandon him when the mightyena got a hold of him. He summoned as much strength as he could and tried to slither forward, and found it came to him much easier than expected. "Let's go!!" he said, taking off like a bullet and gliding across the forest floor away from the mightyena.

It didn't occur to him that it was mostly adrenaline, but he felt every bit as strong as he did when he and Kiba led the rotten mutt on a chase in the first place. And any thoughts he had about the kangaskhan or the "fight" occurring directly behind him were at the very back of his mind, as he was only occupied on getting the hell out of dodge and someplace safe with his newest friend.

Should the zorua look back, however, he might witness the sight of the kangaskhan lifting its foot up for just an instant before kicking the larger dark-type into the boulder like a soccer ball. A pained yelp escaped the dog pokemon, and it slammed into the rock boulder with a great amount of force, making it budge visibly. It didn't take off rolling down the hill, but perhaps it had been loosened...

The yelp of the canine grabbed his attention just in time to see the boulder move. The kangaskhan definitely had the strength to deal with it and he could absolute try his idea all over again but with the seemingly more powerful kangaskhan...

He was presented with a choice. He could stay here, with the danger, and hope that perhaps the fight loosens the rock more and even move it or he could follow Osiris to safety. There was also the matter that Osiris was wounded, for all he knew the dratini wouldn't be able to fend for themselves much more like that. If he stuck around, the dratini would either be alone or stay with him in the danger. While Chance was confident that he could make it out alright, Osiris made it apparent that he was not capable of the feat.

His gaze flicked between the direction the dratini went and the boulder. Odds were that the dratini would be fine...right? He could probably stay and get that boulder moving...then he could surprise Osiris later with it when the Kangaskhan and Mightyena weren't around anymore...

His ears lowered as he gave a pitiful and quiet whine. He turned and chased after the slithering serpent. As curious and confident as he was, he couldn't just leave his friend. If the dratini came back then it would just be double the trouble for the dragon type. They had to get out of there before the Kangaskhan's apparent wrath turned against them!

Up in the trees, a sentret watched the show from the safety of a branch. It popped acorns into its cheeks like popcorn as it watched the Zorua and dratini run off...fully capable of informing a potentially friendly motherly stranger where the two sad wounded children ran off to while they delivered a beat down to a mean ol' mightyena.

Osiris was totally unaware of Kiba, behind him, torn between his boulder plan and following the dratini. He was much too focused on dashing as far as he could, getting away from the danger the mightyena and kangaskhan posed to him. It also didn't occur to him that the mother pokemon could, in fact, be friendly. There wasn't a single concrete thought in his head, as he was as close to running on autopilot he'd ever been.

It was almost a full minute and a half before his strength started to abandon him, and he slowed down hard and fast. His breakneck pace slowed down to a pitiful crawl in a matter of seconds, leaving him flopping forward almost totally ramrod straight on the ground, breathing heavily. The pain of the mightyena's jaws began to creep back into him as well, Osiris being well reminded that he was not in the best way.

"Haa... I can't... I need a second..." he coughed, gathering enough of himself to form a lazy coil. "Whew, that was close. Did it getchu at all, Kiba?" he asked sluggishly, eyes closed as he focused on catching his breath, merely assuming that the zorua had followed him.

Kiba took a second to catch up, but managed to keep up enough to be on the Dratini's trail. He heard what the serpent said, but his paws still itched to keep going. His own lungs seemed to burn as he struggled to catch his breath. He couldn't help but pant with his eyes locked in the direction they had come from once he stopped.

"O-Of course not!" he stammered with a mighty need to upkeep the idea that he was not at all terrified of what just happened, "It wouldn't be able to get me if I had all four paws tied together." A complete exaggeration, but his own words put a sense of security in him. Fake it until you make it as they say. His eyes refused to look away from the direction from which they came. He wanted to know how the dratini was doing, but it felt like such a horrific idea to look away in case they needed to get moving again.

"Wh-What about you? Y-You were bleeding..." he couldn't stop himself from shaking. He had to sit down with his paws tightly pressed against his body just so it wouldn't be all that obvious. Mom and dad weren't here, so he couldn't act like a little baby now could he?

Osiris didn't immediately respond with anything but his own laboring breaths, finding it curious that he had gotten tired so quickly. The pain reminded him, of course, that he'd just been through the wringer, but still. "Prob'ly still am," he mumbled. You didn't just stop doing that once it started, right? He opened his eyes to look around, seeking a distraction from that train of thought.  

Nothing had followed him on his mad dash to safety but Kiba, and for that, he was extremely grateful. The mightyena and kangaskhan were probably still tussling back there, he figured. He thought the kangaskhan would win in the end because of the potshots he'd gotten off on the big dog during the chase, but after getting thrashed by it he couldn't imagine it going down easily. Maybe they'd get lucky and the two of them would just knock each other out, he thought dreamily, turning to face the way he came as the zorua was doing.

"I think you just saved my life, Kiba." he said, blinking a little rapidly as he realized how close he was to losing, like, for real. He had to swallow a lump in his throat, struggling not to lose it in front of his new friend. And he was definitely a friend now after all that.

Saved him? Chance was the reason that the dratini was endangered in the first place! Chance, however, did not recognize that very important factor. "I...did?" he huffed between breaths. The more he thought about it...the more he liked that idea. "Yeah I did, didn't I?" A small smile tweaked at his mouth through the heavy panting.

He finally allowed his gaze to fall away from their trail to look to the dratini-hooooo yeah that's blood. He could even smell it now that he paid any attention to it. He stepped a little closer to look at the wounds, but he couldn't help but feel a little disgusted by it. It was someone else's inside-juice. His expression scrunched up in distaste.

They needed to stop it...but Chance didn't know a thing about medical knowledge. He cursed the fact that his sister wasn't here. She was smart. She knew things. Why couldn't he ever actually know things that were useful? "Uhhh...." he started off, "Well on the bright side you're gonna get some really cool scars."

"Scars," Osiris repeated numbly. It took a few seconds for that to really register with him. "Wha... oh man. My mom is going to kill me if I come home with scars! Oh no!! How bad is... it?" he went on, trailing off as he actually looked down at himself.

One thing was obvious from looking - the mightyena had a lot of teeth. A few of them longer than others, but all of them sharp and all of them strong. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but Kiba's assessment was pretty dang fair. He, too, wasn't the most educated kid around when it came to first aid. He'd had a few scrapes before and saw how his mom did it, sure, but he didn't have faith in doing as good of a job. "Oooooh crap. M-maybe if I get home in time for my next shedding, they won't be there afterward." he babbled to himself, pinning his hopes on that. He nodded slowly, believing it more as he imagined it happening. "But if that stupid dog didn't get smushed by now, he's gonna be able to sniff me out..."

The dratini looked around their immediate area, searching for something to bind himself up with for now. Unfortunately, it was mostly leaves, and while that might help with camouflage purposes, Iris had a different idea. It kind of tore at him to consider, but... "You think you could help bind me up? We can use my headband for it." he said, butting his head against the forest floor until his oversized red headband came loose. "I don't know if it'll do much for the smell, but at least nobody will be able to follow me 'cos I'm leaking."

...Blueberry sheds? He shook the thought out of his head. There was more important things to worry about! The fact that the Mightyena or anything like the Mightyena could easily track them down was a terrifying thought. He didn't know what to do about it, but from the sounds of it the dratini might. "Uh...I'll try?" he commented as he took up the headband. He...didn't exactly know what to do, but he supposed he should give it a shot.

The zorua did what he could to help the Dratini, incredibly uncertain of himself the entire way. He may not be able to read, but he knew how to at least turn the dratini into a bandanna burrito. It was difficult without the assistance of someone else, but he managed it if the dragon allowed him...perhaps a little too tightly though. Chance looked down at his work and simply stared at it for a brief moment.

"...Yeah we should find someone that can actually do things like this."