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))

Somewhere in the tree tops, a long noodly ferret pokemon calls down from above, "Furret!"

Chance was slightly spooked by the sudden voice from above, but he seemed to at least connect the dots enough to calm himself down. He was still a little uncertain, but the explanation seemed to serve him well. He paused for a moment before he looked to Osiris, "Water...in my belly?" he asked.

"Doesn't water always go in my belly when I drink? Why was it bad this time around?" he questioned. He was pretty sure that his lungs were the ones that were burning, but Osiris probably knew more about this than he did. He went to school after all!

"Oh. Um, sorry!" Osiris called up to the trees, sheepish. It was nice of the ferret pokemon to... keep an eye on them? Make sure they didn't die immediately after running off? Something like that.

The dratini turned back to Kiba, coiling up now that the zorua was feeling better enough to at least talk. "I don't know, but we were underwater, so... maybe it went down the wrong pipe? Breathing water's bad for most pokemon." he guessed, not at all sure of the physiology behind drowning. He just knew it was a bad idea. Kiba couldn't exactly help himself to be fair, but he was the one who wanted to know regardless.

All this talk about biology hurt Chance's head. His intelligence failed to match his sister's in any capacity, which meant that his knowledge on the subject was minimal at best. He nodded, not quite agreeing with the dratini but more so showing that he heard him. The fox studied the floor for a bit. His heart rate gradually returned to a normal pace while his breathing slowed back down. His mind slowly began to wander away as he steadily realized that he was alright. He made it out okay. He wasn't going to die...

"So..." he started off with a hesitant pause, "Did I look cool?" His ears perked up with interest, hoping that his daring and failed attempt at a rescue at least earned him some style points.

"It was pretty cool," Osiris allowed with a grin. "I couldn't shake loose that dumb fish loose for nothing! I didn't know what to do, but before I could panic I hear this splash from above and it's you! I blast the thing with a dragon rage and you scratch it up real good right after and it lets me go!" he recalled, buzzing with excitement now that the worst was over. It wasn't like the basculin could follow them on land, now was it? "Then it smacks into you so I smack it back and it just goes flying! We go up, I called for help like you did earlier, and that furret saved us."

It didn't seem as scary as when it actually happened. Maybe that was the appeal of stories - you could take the bad experiences in your life and turn them into excitement for other people. Osiris had to wonder about that jolteon encounter Kiba had told him about; he said he wasn't scared, but... well, with the mightyena and the basculin, Osiris had been pretty afraid. Still was, and would be until they got out of here.

It was easy to say that Chance fully approved of the description he was given. The zorua's whole body ached, but he couldn't help but to prop himself back into that playful stance. "Really? That's so cool!" his voice piped up. The zorua couldn't contain his own excitement either as the leaves rustled around him with his movement. He hardly seemed to even notice himself, far more focused on the exciting tale of him and Osiris VS the great sea-monster of Everspring Vale.

"I can't wait to tell Emmelyn about this! Oh-she's not going to believe it! You gotta come with me to tell her-so she knows I'm not kiddin her! The look on her face is gonna be priceless, I swear it!" he propped himself back up onto all four legs, somehow able to override the pain with his excitement and joy. It must have distracted him enough from it that he couldn't feel it.

A knot of tension in Osiris' throat undid itself as Kiba perked up and got to his feet, relief spreading through the dratini. His friend was okay! They should still probably take things slow for now, but they weren't going to be sitting ducks for whatever had a problem with them next.

"Yeah, totally. It's a bonafide story, same as the deal with the dog! We did pretty good against that one up 'til the end there," he nodded along. He'd probably censor his own terror and uselessness a bit—harmless, really—whenever he told it. "Who's Emmelyn, though? Friend of yours or somethin'?" Iris was more than happy to meet whoever Emmelyn was if it meant getting out of this dungeon.

"Ewwww nooo why would I be friends with my sisterrrrr!" He scrunched up his nose with flattened ears as if he just smelled something absolutely horrid. The disgusted look broke back into a smile, however, clear as day that he was kidding, "She's a total nerd who doesn't like to do anything but sit inside and read books all day! I tried to get her to come along with me on adventures like this, but she was too chicken." Chance was right on back to ol' self already.

"She's suuuuuper smart though. She's the one that's supposed to go to the Squeak Academy or whatever it was called. It's fun to see her reactions to stuff-" his voice suddenly became pitched and effeminate, "Chaaaance you're going to get yourself kiiiiilllled. Why are you like thiiiiiiis???" he mocked his sister before breaking into a laugh.

"She's cool though," he finished his descrption of his sister with a wag of his tail.

Honestly, Emmelyn sounded... well, a little lame, but Kiba was obviously biased. She sounded reasonable, though, apparently being the only voice of caution around for her brother. He felt a pang of sympathy for her despite not knowing her - he'd known Kiba for maybe an hour at best, and already the prospect of keeping him out of danger sounded impossible. Granted, their last escapade was kind of Osiris' fault, but there were those bits with the boulder, the geyser, and the mightyena.

Chance was a weird nickname for a guy named Kiba though, so she was a little weird for that. "Maybe she'd come along if you told her they were, like, educational adventures." Iris suggested. "Or if you told her you had a friend you can team up with against big bad pokemon and keep her safe." he went on, allowing himself to grin a little. They'd both gotten knocked around more than their fair share, but they were in one piece! Maybe somewhere a bit less dangerous than here, he could afford a bit of confidence.

The idea the dratini had absolutely thrilled him. The zorua's eyes widened at the realization, almost as if he mentally kicked himself for never having thought of it before. "That's a great idea..." he whispered, "Both of those together would be great! Especially since you helped with the mightyena-oh and the fish-thing!" He took a seat, uninterested in actually going anywhere. Despite all the noise he made, he felt quite hidden in the safety of this bush. It didn''t quite cross his mind that his voice would travel outside of the bush even though the furret proved it possible earlier.

"All three of us-we could go to someplace even weirder and cooler!" he mused as he lost himself in all of the possibilities, "OH! Maybe we could get to this place my dad went to once-Ob-si-dee-anne Cree-vice? I'm not sure what it's called, something like that. But my mom and dad fought something REALLY strong there called a gee-nee-sect. If we went there we could probably go see it! It'd be SUUUPER cool!"

The zorua was absolutely oblivious to just how much more dangerous such an area was. He and his sister wouldn't have even been able to get their on their own. There was no way his parents would let them either. "We'd have to be sneaky about it though..."

Osiris hadn't heard of an Obsideeanne Crevice or a Geeneesect before, but Kiba's enthusiam was really hard to disagree with. There was a strong chance (hue) that he was suggesting something completely stupid and dangerous like with the geyser again, but on the other hand, adventure. The only way to get stronger was to go out and do this kind of stuff, right? If he shied away from it, then he'd be a wimp.

"If it got beat up already, it probably won't want to eat us..." Osiris nodded along, recent experiences instilling a sense of caution in him. Maybe he could just find and bring along an escape orb or something, that way it'd be safe no matter what. "She won't tattle on us, will she? 'Cos if she knows where we're going, she can just turn around and get your mom and dad and probably my mom if she tattles to the right person."

(Enemies I need to spawn still: Deerling, Rufflet, Deerling, Vulpix)

Tattling huh? Well, there was a chance(hue-hue) that she would. There was that time in Festivity Forest, but that place was also supposed to be friendly. He figured there were all sorts of bad things creeping and crawling around in the deep dark deep down. They would be able to handle themselves, right? Still, Emm might get all spooky-scardy cat on him.

"Hmmm....she might if we tell her where we're goin'..." he admitted. There was the possibility that they could just lie to her, but lying wasn't exactly something he did really. At least not directly or on purpose. It wasn't that it chewed him up inside out of guilt, but more so he just didn't really care to do it. He suggested Osiris do it when it came to the scars, but he hadn't done it himself really.

"Mom and Dad definitely wouldn't let us go down there...well...maybe dad might so long as he came along, but he probably wouldn't want us to go see the strong guy since it beat him and mama up pretty bad on its own..." Chance lifted a paw to his chin as he thought as hard as he could on some sort of solution. One could practically see the math float around in his tiny brain as he concentrated.

"Weeeee cooouuullld...taaake something of her's....annnnnd have her chase us all the way there? Then we can just give it back when we're there!" He perked up as he waited for his friend to respond to the morally questionable idea.

(Vulpix and Bouffalant for me)

"That's kinda mean though, isn't it?" Osiris wondered aloud, not entirely willing to go that far. "We could just tell her about where we're going, not where we're going, you know? Like 'hey, do you wanna go check out some caves and forests and see if they're like the books you read,' or something like that? It might help if we know about some stuff she likes," he went on, scrunching up his snout as he gave the matter thought.

This Emmelyn character didn't sound like she was daring or bold at all, so getting her to tag along on an adventure was quite the conundrum. "Do you know what kinda books she reads? Probably not adventure stuff, but we could tell her that there's other good things there, which is probably true. You can find all kinds of stuff in places like this!"

While he was disappointed that his plan was not immediately accepted with open...whatever dratini's use-he liked the dragon type's replacement idea. "Well, yeah but-well, your idea might work more. Plus she probably wouldn't be as big of a grump or tell mom and dad on me as much." Like she always does.

"She's smart, so uh...I think she reads smart books? I don't...really know?" He tilted his head in confusion. He wasn't all that intelligent himself. The fact that he was illiterate probably contributed to that. He could neither read nor write, and the book mentioned earlier was a picture book. He could understand pictures-they were easy. Words? Words were boring. He didn't know how people paid them any attention.

Just outside the bush, a whispering duo of voices came into earshot. Chance's ear twitched towards the sound, both curious and mildly fearful as to what they could be. Curiosity urged him to have a look, but fortunately that one functioning cell in his brain put a stop to that notion. His mouth snapped shut as the voices grew closer. The duo of deerling passed by with whispers to one another, as if each shared secrety secrets that weren't for the ears of others...

Completely oblivious to the two skiddo, Osiris continued to hum as he pondered. "Well, maybe we should go talk to her a little," he thought out loud. "You can introduce me and we can make friends and then we can figure out how to take her on an adventure once we know more. We gotta get outta here first, though."

The dratini scanned their surroundings one last time and was content when nothing immediately jumped out to kill them. Just the same pineco sitting there against a tree and a skiddo munching on grass, indifferent to their presence. "I can move, I think. What about you?" he wriggled his body a little bit for emphasis, not just putting on a show for Kiba. He hurt all over, but making some progress wasn't out of the question.

The idea was set, the pact was sealed. This dratini had to meet his sister and then they would go on a totally awesome adventure together! He was a little concerned that the dratini continued to speak while the two voices passed, but it seemed as if the two deerling weren't concerned with the two, if anything, they just shied away from the bush to head off somewhere else, obviously not looking for trouble.

The moment the dratini reminded him that he was supposed to be in pain is when he realized that oh, right, he's in pain. The excitement drained away as he suddenly became nervous again. "Uhh...I guess? It still kinda hurts, but I-I think I might be good a little now? It...It kinda feels like I've got water in my nose still but there's nothing in there...."