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))

"Yeeaaah...maybe...but I was thinkin' more along the lines of being told I'm wrong and a moron for thinking things over and over again. I already get enough of that." He already got enough of that from the locals and even his own family on occasion. The way he spoke about it seemed casual at this point. The scent was stronger by this point. It didn't take much before he could hear the sound of trickling water. His ears perked up in excitement, "Hey! I can hear water up ahead!"

The zorua switched from a brisk pace to a full on sprint ahead. His hind legs kicked up pines and needles as he bolted forward. He wouldn't wait for Osiris as he burst through the bush with reckless glee. He spat out a mouthful of leaves and looked upon the fruits of his efforts yet again. To his fortunate, it actually was a small stream. Excitement jolted through him as he could not help but to run in a quick circle. "Yes! Yes! I~ did it~!"

"Well, it's different up at Peak. Nobody ever - aaaaand he's gone..." Osiris trailed off, all-too-ready to come to the defense of his one and only teacher Lennox. Before he could even get started, though, Kiba's nose had carried him off towards whatever smelled interesting. Iris sighed, adopting a put-upon expression as he followed.

As a very snakey snake without the luxury of legs and feet to lift him off the ground, Osiris had a much more intimate and annoying introduction to the pines and needles that littered the ground. He grumbled and grouched as he slithered over them, doing his best to dodge them where he could but also keep up with the excitable zorua he was following. He did a half-assed job at both.

Half a minute after Kiba powered through a bush to find the stream, Iris slithered out from under it to discover the same stream. "Oh, wow!" the dratini exclaimed, genuinely surprised. He kind of assumed his companion had stopped following his nose, but... "You sniffed this out, Kiba?"

"You're heckin right I did~!" Chance sang with pride, careful to avoid the naughty word. He didn't really have a clue what he was doing the entire time, but he felt as if he deserved at least a little credit on this one. He sat his rump down and puffed his chest out with pride, as if he weren't just insulting himself moments ago. He had no idea what the dragon said about the peak, but he was far too distracted by his success to really care.

"Told you it'd work out!" he boasted, "It always does." The big goofy grin on his expression was almost comical. The zorua's gaze rested on the dratini as he gestured a paw towards the river with a sort of bow.

"Think it's even clean too, cuz it's in the mountain? Last time I tried to drink water from a lake or something it made me a liiiiittle sick and kinda freaked my mom out until I told her what I did. This should at least help a little, right?" he looked back up to the dratini with an expectant gaze, almost as if he would not take no for an answer.

Osiris made a note to ask Chance what the heck water smelled like once he was done here. He had to have sniffed it pretty strongly to follow it all the way from the geysers to here, right? The dratini crept up to the edge of the stream, peering in cautiously before he made any hasty movements. "If you're sure," Osiris responded to the zorua's reassurances, only slightly sarcastic. As good as Kiba was at this, Iris wasn't sure if he wanted to put a lot of stock into anything the zorua had personally done... or planned to do.  

Still, the water looked clean enough. The rush of water was minimal, so he wasn't going to get swept up in the current, either. Perfect for a little dip and to clean out his numerous tooth wounds. Quickly the little dragon-type shed his bandana and easily slipped into the water, dipping down low before popping back up and letting his head surface.

"It stings a little," he mentioned curiously, eyes squinting in irritation. "But yeah, this should help loads! That big dumb dog won't be able to follow us past here if he got away from the kangaskhan, at least. And it'll probably be good for my cuts and stuff."

The little zorua was confident that nothing could go wrong at this point. He was happy that the dratini's cuts were helped. He had no idea what the dratini was on about before, but Chance was sure to strike up a new conversation topic.

"Oh-but if your mom's gonna kill you over the scars, then you could like-come up with a really cool story for them. Like-there was this one time when I made Ms. Lorlai-the meowth on the edge of town- reaaaaally angry because I took her coin. She took her own swipes at me and left some wicked marks on my cheek. It almost looked like a persian's strike though, so I coulda just said that I fought off some persian that was tryin'ta EAT me." His excited body movements were back, as each sentence was accompanied with its own exaggerated acting.

"You could say that the Mightyena was goin' after me an-and you dove in at just the right time or somethin! Your ma can't get angry if y'saved someone, right?" he froze with his back to the ground and paws in the air. He looked at the dratini with the same big doofy grin although upside down. He didn't seem to mind the fact that the dratini currently looked as if it defied gravity or that the tuft of hair on his head slightly obscured his vision.

Against his better judgment, it was hard for Osiris not to crack a grin at the zorua's... antics, he supposed. Either Kiba was just naturally like this or he was purposefully trying to cheer the smaller pokemon up, and no matter which it was, Iris appreciated it. The cold bite of rushing water running over a lot of open gouges was easier to ignore when he was concentrating—and failing—on not grinning hugely.

"I mean, I still might shed them off before she notices, but... yeah, if you don't mind, that sounds—" Once again, Osiris was cut off. Not by Kiba running off this time, but by something else. Bigger, thicker, and much heavier than a dratini, a blue-striped forest green fish pokemon vaulted out of the water a few feet away from the dragon-type. Its momentum easily carried it over to Iris, and by the time he was halfway through with his sentence, it had opened its jaws and seized the smaller dratini, its momentum allowing it to drag him right down underwater in one fell swoop.

It happened in about half a second, with only the sounds of splashing to really signify it. Otherwise, as the two vanished under the stream, there was only the sound of running water left to keep the zorua company.

. . .

Did...did he just watch Osiris die?!

He was quick to roll back onto his feet and rush to the water's edge. All prior confidence and optimism was replaced with fear and dread as he looked around the deeper ends of the water. It didn't take him long to conclude that he couldn't see much of anything besides maybe a cloud of red? He wasn't sure. What he was sure of, however, was one simple fact:

He couldn't swim.

The zorua paced along the edge of the river, paws slightly dipped in the cold and uncaring waters as he searched for the Dratini. "H-Hey!" he called as if it would make any difference, "Blueberry??? Come back up!!!"

He stopped. What was he thinking? Osiris is under the water, he wouldn't be able to hear him. The zorua whined with flat ears as he looked about. His heart began to pound once more as he struggled to decide what to do. Well, decide was a stretch. There was only one thing he could think of that he could do...as soon as it surfaced to his mind, he decided upon it.

The zorua flung himself into the river.

Underneath the water, Osiris was once again struggling against a pokemon that far outweighed him. The basculin was not nearly as large or powerful as the mightyena, but they were on the water-type's turf and that made all the difference. No matter how strongly or desperately he wriggled and thrashed, he couldn't dislodge the basculin's jaws from him. Murky blotches of red floated up every time the fish readjusted its grip, and it terrified the dratini.

He had a few things going for him, though. Unlike the dark-type dog, this fish only had a hold of a part of his long serpentine body. This meant he could use his head and his tail together, and thus was not helpless. He was just reaching for some kind of action plan when an echoed splash resounded above him, and a glance upward told him that Kiba had jumped in to his rescue.

A little bit of help bubbled up within him. Kiba wouldn't jump into the water where the basculin held the advantage without a plan, right? He had some kind of trick up his sleeve, and so it fell to Osiris not to be useless and give him a chance to use it. The dratini reared his head back once more, focusing his vexation and anger tightly before he let loose another pulse of Dragon Rage into the side of the big green fish. It recoiled from the close-range blow and its jaws loosened on its prize, but it was only an instant before it dug in again, getting a firmer hold.

If the zorua was going to do anything, he had best do it quickly, Osiris thought. Without some kind of breakthrough, they might both end up as fish food.

What sort of plan did little Chance fish up in that ol' mind of his? Well, it was a little bit of a sink or swim sort of deal. The zorua couldn't tell if he was falling or floating, but he considered himself fortunate that the current wasn't strong enough to hook him away.

The zorua flopped about in the water with sheer panic as he held his breath. He could hardly see under the water and already his lungs were krilling him for air. He was fortunately spot-on with his jump as he was close enough to have an opportunaty to blindly flail about with glowing clawtips in attempt to Scratch the Basculin.

Whatever plan he had before, it was a turtle disaster. Whether he struck the Basculin or not, he was as easy of a target as fish in a barrel.

As he suspected! Kiba might have been genetically inept in the water, but he got the drop on the green fish pokemon with a sneak attack, raking his claws across its flank while it was distracted with Osiris. It didn't outwardly react beyond a little air bubble of presumably surprise leaking out, but Iris felt like it was a grand chance anyway. For a second time, the dratini drew his head back before throwing it forward, belching out another surge of Dragon Rage.

Maybe it was the one-two combination or just the surprise of not one but two pokemon fighting back against it under the water, but that one seemed to do the trick. Finally, the basculin's jaws were blessedly loosened and the force of the shockwave blew it back a few feet downstream. Success! Elated, Osiris turned to look at Kiba, his eyesight slightly blurry underwater but still keen enough to see...

Kiba was flailing. Very, very inexpertly, in a way that immediately conveyed to anything with functioning eyeballs that the zorua did not know how to swim. Just as fast as hope blossomed with Osiris, it immediately shriveled up and died. Kiba, at that moment, seemed way too brave for his own good.

Especially now that the basculin had turned its sights on the less aquatically-apt of the two. With surprising speed and velocity for such a short distance traveled, it blasted forward in a full-body tackle aimed at Kiba, an Aqua Jet that spelled out a potentially very bad time for the poor young zorua.

His lungs burned. He couldn't see. He had the satisfaction of feeling the fish's scaly exterior on his claws, but it was quickly diminished by panic. He didn't know which way was up or which way was down, but he picked a direction and began to make some kind of attempt at swimming. His eyes were squeezed shut to stop the burning sensation against them, which made him completely oblivious to the oncoming attack from the basculin.

An impact smashed into the side of the zorua. He was driven downwards until he struck the sandy bottom. He instinctively attempted to cry out with now-wide open eyes, but the sound was muffled by the surrounding water. He watched as what used to be his oxygen floated up towards the surface. His mouth snapped shut as his lungs began to burn even more. His body wanted to cough and hack up whatever water got into his lungs, but the lack of air around him only made that an even worse idea.

He began to feel lightheaded. His flailing ceased as he simply began to float at the bottom. He didn't know it, but he was going to drown if this continued.

Crap crap crap! That was probably the absolute worst thing that could have happened. Not only did the basculin go for Kiba instead of him, but it hit the zorua hard enough to make him try breathing! Osiris furiously swam after the green fish pokemon, desperately wriggling to close to the distance between him and the other two so he could help.

The basculin, for its part, seemed content to simply size the struggling dark-type up. It lingered by it underneath the water, looking at it with a curious sort of expression, as if wondering what the hell a fuzzy fox was doing picking a fight with it. It took long enough, in fact, that Iris had more than enough time to buffer up a meaty Dragon Tail and swing it around, slamming it upwards against the basculin's underbelly. It immediately soared upward, and Iris distantly heard the sound of water parting; He'd knocked it up far enough that it was above water, now.

Dragon Tail wasn't the most powerful move—and that was made worse by the fact that Osiris was underwater at the moment—but it did have the added bonus of sending whatever it hit flying a decent ways. Maybe the fish landed on land, or was at least far enough down stream that Osiris could help Kiba in the meantime.

But he didn't have hands... how on earth was he going to do this? The dratini swam down in front of the zorua, his stomach twisting into knots. He had no way to move him! Unless...

Wordlessly, he turned around and shoved his tail-end in Kiba's face, hoping he caught onto the message and bit down. Osiris had no hands to carry him with, but maybe he could drag him above water and they could get ashore.

[Rolled a d20 to determine Chance's condition: 9]

He could register movement in the water, but he struggled to react. His body struggled to respond to his commands. He fought the urge to breathe even more water in, but after a certain point he was forced to at least a little. His lungs burned.

He felt something in front of his maw. He didn't know what it was, but his mind was still together enough to get a basic guess together: The fish that attacked him was here to watch him drown. He could sit here and save his energy, but instinct drove him to latch onto the shape with the intent to draw blood and simply hang on for all the strength he had left. If he was gonna die, he was gonna leave a mark to be remembered by.

Whether or not it did would remain to be seen. His strength was weak and opening his mouth only made it even more difficult to resist breathing. The dizzy feeling in his head only became stronger as he started to lose consciousness.

It was going to be okay. Kiba might not have been the best thinker, but even he had to recognize what Osiris was trying to do, right? If not, the dratini would have no other choice but to try launching the zorua out of the stream, and he really didn't want to do that—

YEOWCH. Okay, maybe he wanted to! Iris' eyes clenched shut and his body went ramrod straight when Kiba latched onto him hard. It took everything he had not to cry out and alert any other interested water-types of their presence, but he just managed it. Did the zorua have to bite down so hard?

He started the trek towards the surface of the water, but he didn't move with anything resembling speed. Kiba was heavier than he was, and sure, they might have been underwater and that helped a tad, but it wasn't like Osiris was all that strong. What gave him the strength to do just this much was the urgency of the situation, and the fact that if he didn't perform, Kiba was in serious trouble.

He just had to be fast enough. His friend had only been under for a few seconds, right? He had time, Osiris told himself. It was gonna be okay.

It was not going to be okay. He held on as much as he could as he was suddenly dragged around. It wasn't nearly as painful as he thought it would be, but he didn't exactly have much capacity for thought to begin with. Everything went black for the zorua a second before the dratini broke the surface. His body didn't react to the fresh burst of air. Instead it would start to sink into the water again. He remained limp and almost seemingly lifeless. He may not have been under long, but the hit from the very rude fish accompanied by his total inexperience with water sped up the process far faster than it would have normally taken.

As the two popped above the surface, the form of a small yet long pokemon off to the side popped up their head to the sudden appearance of the two. The furret was having itself a pleasant river-side drink, but the shock drove it to leap away from the water and twirl its way up a tree at an almost breakneck speed. The tree shifted and shuffled with its movement as it looked back down upon the two with a curious and cautious gaze.

Chance > Energy > +4 from the past pages

Kat carried out 4 launched of one Everspring Vale :

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