So The Ninetales Lied

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This wasn't Grassveil or Blackspear. This wasn't anywhere near the two. The tyrantrum's steps shook the very cavern around them. Dirst and pebbles fell from the roof as she grumbled and griped to herself. They were given faulty directions and now they were stuck in this cave for safety while the blistering sandstorm and heat outside raged on. It would have been fine for a pokemon such as herself, but Osiris was a different story. On top of that, it wasn't like her species was immune to overheating.

"I am never taking directions from the word of locals again," she grumbled to aloud. She puffed a harsh exhale through her nostrils, a pocket of sand flying out. She could still feel the grains between her toes and scales. It was irritating, coarse, and everywhere. Normally she wouldn't mind, but this was just a cherry on top of the horrific day she had. Night was going to fall soon at the very least, so the two could get moving again eventually...hopefully.


(52 - 35 = 17)

This question, it reminded her of the skitty-the little explorer with a disgusting opinion about how the world should work. She'd apparently changed the skitty's mind, but the rotten "trade" for happiness left a bad taste in her mouth every time she even thought of the kitten. It was time to go through this song and dance again, but perhaps Osiris would be more willing to see things in her light with how comfortable he seemed to be with her viciousness.

"I came from a different kingdom, far far away from here. My mother and father were the rulers of it. I learned quite a lot from them through example-my father more than my mother," she explained, "I was sent away to travel before it collapsed. I haven't heard a word from them or anyone from it save for their adviser since."

"It's strange really," she mused, "Their advice often conflicted with one another. I've yet to truly follow either one's steps to the finish."

Ahh, that explained it. She was the first queen of her own kingdom, but the latest in a line of royalty. Osiris listened keenly to her explanation, ironically asking as a way to distract himself from the worst of her viciousness. The dratini merely nodded along as he slithered by her side, digesting her answer. It made sense that Victoria was more of her own ruler than a carbon copy of either of her parents. She seemed like that kind of bold person.

"I'm not really like my mom either," he put forward. "She's a lot smarter than me." In a lot of different ways. She didn't spend her time running around the world getting her butt kicked, for one. She was also just better at a lot of stuff in ways that could be accredited to simply thinking before she did or said anything. "What do you remember about them?" he asked genially, thinking of his own mom.

The tyrantrum hadn't really said anything specific about her predecessors and he wondered what kind of parents could raise up a creature as powerful and fierce as the dragon queen protecting him. They were probably strong monarchs in their own right, of course, and at least one of them had to be a dragon.

+11 energy (new page and a munchy mix)

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Sandstone Cave :

, , , 53 , , , , , ,

"Well," Victoria started to speak only to fall into silence. She contemplated her words carefully and thoughtfully. The direction of this conversation could go downhill very quickly depending on what she said. The skitty took issue with calling her mother weak, so perhaps she should avoid that. Although, Osiris seemed much more understanding than the ignorance of the feline-perhaps even more knowledgeable.

"My mother was kind, generous, and loving to many. She hated resorting to violence and would do anything she could to resolve things peacefully-even at her own expense. She always told me to be kind to everyone and that violence was only going to lead to hatred. She always quoted a particular saying, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world go blind." Her voice was always soft and low, a little unexpected coming from a tyrantrum. She always looked out for the people around her and was very forward-thinking."

"My father hated that saying. He was strict, fierce, and feared. He always went on about how kindness and generosity always led to being used. It was a tool of the weak. The strong respected him and the weak cowered before him-Anyone who didn't hated him. He protected all of us, but had a heart of iron. He always roared and yelled at anybody who displeased him, didn't hesitate to attack any who threatened us, and held most if not all the power over the kingdom."

"I remember that they hated each other. They fought constantly, both verbally and physically. Every time they were in a room together, you could feel the tension between them in the air. They left each other with wounds whenever they fought, but anything life-threatening was an accident. My father often won, but they needed each other. They both knew that."

"Then, my father started to become more violent. He started to attack the counselors that questioned him, being eaten by the king became punishment for treason, and the fights with my mother became far more dangerous by the week-until she didn't dare to fight back anymore."

"It was around then that my grandfather sent me off."

Her tone never lifted up into a casual demeanor nor did it sink into sorrow. Everything was held as a statement of fact, as if she were giving the dratini some report on what she witnessed on a mission. There was no pain or concern over the conflict of her parents, just a cold form of acceptance.

----

That was a lot of information. Osiris was glad. He didn't know what he was expecting when he asked the question; anything between "they were pretty okay," or "my mom was nice and my dad was tough," or even "none of your business you silly kid," but regardless it was way more than he thought he'd get. He digested the information silently as they progressed, scrunching his face up in concentration. The queen at his side probably expected something since she offered so much, and while she likely wasn't hoping for his opinion, it was kind of all he had to give.

"I think you're a good mix of both," Osiris offered, breaking up the silence. "As far as, uh, queenly stuff goes. You're pretty rough and tumble, yeah, and that's good since there are just some people in the world that'll only listen to a good butt-kicking." the dratini attempted to explain, thinking of a certain zorua as he made that point. He suspected he was always going to have conflicting feelings about that Halloween night, but Iris was pretty sure he didn't regret fighting back, even after he'd defended himself successfully. "But you're nice too. We just met and you've had my back the whole time. That's a good balance to have. I bet your people love you back home."

If she treated her subjects anything like she treated him, no doubt the people of her kingdom—Blacktooth, was it?—were happy to live under her protection. "I still live with my mom and she's pretty great. The nicest, most considerate person I've ever met. Patient, too," he said with a grin. Again, he doubted she wanted to hear, but he felt like it was proper to share since she did. "I get into trouble a lot and she's always having to deal with me. I'm trying to ease up on that part now though, 'cos I kinda see where she's coming from when she says how dangerous the world can be now.

"I never really knew my dad though. Never met him, never laid eyes on him," Osiris confessed, his expression and tone of voice relatively blank. "Mom says he's an explorer at Grassveil, but... yeah. I dunno. I'm probably gonna run into him one day 'cos that's where I'm probably headed, the guild I mean, but I'm not sure about anything else about him." he finished, trailing off uncertainly. He wasn't sure to this day how he felt about his dad. Osiris didn't want to be one of those kids who felt entitled to more than they had when they had more than enough. And it wasn't like he ever went without anything while living with his mom... but it still left him feeling some kind of way.

...

She didn't exactly know if her subjects "loved" her or not. Come to think of it, she'd been far too wrapped up in official affairs and projects that she hadn't really taken the time to sit down and speak with them. She was fairly certain that the little zorua that'd taken to living in her kingdom liked her-but the others? It was a guess. She knew the importance of being liked by the people under her rule, but as of then she wasn't all that familiar.

The assumption was that it was true, considering how much effort she put into getting these projects organized. Not to mention she went down herself to deal with the quakes. She failed, but she tried. The reminder of her defeat wasn't pleasant. Her mind switched to a different track, wanting to avoid the fiery spiral the thoughts were about to send her in.

Osiris spoke of his own family. His mother was pleasant while his father was...absent. Victoria had to question whether the dragonair lied to him about his father, since Osiris had apparently never laid eyes on him. The tyrantrum pondered the thought. Would it be immoral to rip that kind of band aid off? It absolutely wasn't her place to even suggest such a thing. A deep thoughtful hum echoed through the caverns.

"I don't know the full story of your situation," the tyrantrum admitted, "but no matter what's fact or fiction, it sounds as if your father is more of an S-Ranked Asshole. If he never bothered to come by to even see you, then it sounds as if seeing him around in the guild wouldn't make for a happy reunion. Assuming your mother isn't protecting you, I would much rather never see him at all if I were in your scales."

”I feel that way sometimes,” Osiris confessed, surprised that Victoria was playing along but willing enough to keep talking. ”Like I’ve made it this far without him, so I don’t want him to have any part in how much farther I end up going. But on the other hand, sometimes that makes me feel… petty. I haven’t even met the guy and I’m already writing him off, without hearing why or what he’s doing. Maybe he’s got reasons. I dunno,” the dratini sighed, trailing off once more, uncertainty bleeding into his tone and expression.

The wyrm realized this was the first time he was really putting these thoughts into words, at least consciously. Hearing himself talk about his home life made it seem so juvenile to him when he had Victoria’s story bouncing around in his head to compare it to. ”It doesn’t really matter. I’ll cross the bridge if he ever shows up, which, you know, he might not even be around still. Or alive,” Osiris dismissed, thinking of the two crocodile pokemon his tyrantrum friend put down. Life was dangerous when you ran around mystery dungeons for fun. That might be an explanation as to why he never showed up.

The light flickering around them cut out into darkness, and Osiris belatedly realized he’d dropped his thunder-wave again mid-thought. The dratini channeled electricity through himself once more, noticing a timid little shieldon in the corner of the cavern as he reinspected their surroundings. It took one look at the visibly bloody tyrantrum at his side and took off waddling in the opposite direction.”What about your grandpa? He seemed cool,” he asked.

(three fuckin’ golurks, a nosepass, and a probopass is all that’s left i think)

"He was a dick," the tyrantrum didn't beat around the bush with it. She didn't see a need to. Her eyes glanced down at the little shieldon as it scuttled off, but she paid it no mind. If it didn't want to cause conflict, then she wasn't going to bother it. "Old, and practically senile looking back on it. He hated everything and everyone around him, his son included."

"But he was fair about it. Didn't stand for other people bein' mean to people who didn't deserve it and always gave the best advice he could when anyone bothered to ask." She couldn't think of much else to say in terms of describing the old man. It wasn't often that she spoke to anyone about her family, hell, she hardly spoke casually to most people at all.

The walls along the cavern seemed to stop suddenly. The small pathway they traveled through opened up into a wide and spacious room. The dratini's light only just barely caught the walls, various shadows of all shapes and sizes cast onto them from the stalagmite-ridden floor. In the midst of the room, a shape caught the light and cast the largest shadow before them. It would have been almost diamond-like in shape if not for the large red nose that protruded from it with a red top.

On top of the red platform, was a smaller blue rock-statue. It was easily recognizable as a nosepass to Victoria, seeing as she'd seen them earlier before. The creature it stood on top of, however, was different yet similar enough for her to figure it to be some evolution. The red top of the creature popped upward to reveal two large sets of blue eyes focused directly on the dratini and tyrantrum. The nosepass on top didn't at all seem disturbed by the sudden movement.

Victora fell silent as she noticed the two. Suspicion and caution built right back up. The two pokemon didn't move a muscle. Eventually, a surprisingly deep voice echoed from the smaller pokemon.

"What is the password?"

So it turned out that grandparents were just awful. Osiris scowled in distaste—did Victoria have any cool adult in her life before she got kicked out and formed her own kingdom? He’d thought the grandpa was that dude since he got her out of there, but maybe there was just none. The dratini said nothing in response since there really wasn’t a lot to say back to “yeah my grandpa was a dick but I mean he was a dick to everyone so it was kind of fair.”

Instead, he preoccupied himself with investigating the new stuff they came across; two new pokemon, one standing right on top of another. He, also, stayed silent. The last time he had a bright idea, they’d been ambushed by a bunch of hungry desert crocodiles. That was until the two pokemon specifically requested a response, however.

Osiris glanced at his companion, interested despite the risks that came with engaging the nosepass and its evolved form. Judging from their luck so far, they’d probably get assaulted the second they answered incorrectly—and how were they supposed to guess correctly, anyway?—and then they’d be back to square one. Victoria looked heedful and mistrusting of them… but she hadn’t turned to leave yet, nor did she say anything about doing so to him.

So he was game. The dragon-type kept his tail taut and tense, ready to lash out with a paralyzing wave, but he didn’t see the harm in playing along. ”How many guesses do we get?” he asked suspiciously, not willing to attempt it until he had some assurances. ”Because if this is some kind of monkey’s paw thing where we try to guess and then we don’t get to play anymore, then we’re not doing it.” Iris informed them a little haughtily.

He might have been a little sour about the gloom-and-doom and lack of fun in the cave so far.

Her glance shifted back to the probopass after the dratini asked the question. Its eyes stared onward with not a single hint of intelligence in sight it seemed. The tyrantrum waited for the response as the two sat in silence for the longest moment in her lifetime. Suddenly, the probopass began to float off of the ground. Small flying rocks lifted up around it, pointed in every cardinal direction like a compass. Higher than the tyrantrum's height, the pokemon levitated off the ground with a loud and horrific sounding wail.

"That is not the password! You do not know the password! Permission denied! Intruder detected!"

Oh, lovely. The tyrantrum lowered her head, but kept her eyes on the probopass in preperation for the fight. A deep grumble rumbled in her throat, but it was quickly drowned by rumbles deeper within the cavern. One to the left and one to the right. Footsteps approached, steps far heavier than her. Two mirrored pokemon approached from their left and their right, massive statue-like golems that were larger than even her.

"INTRUDER!" The golurk cried. Victoria's breath grew cold, but it was quickly cut off by the quake of the ground. Her gaze snapped back to the probopass to see dust and dirt fly out from beneath the pokemon, as a third Golurk seemingly dropped in from the ceiling to land just behind the guardian of whatever it was these pokemon were protecting.

”Of course,” Osiris growled in frustration, backing up as he glanced between all three of the golurks that had arrived to attack them. ”It’d be too much to give us a fair shot or anything.” These guys didn’t even have the excuse of hunger for being jerks; they just had a secret clubhouse or something that was off-limits to anyone not a stupid robot.

Now, Iris had a lot of faith in and respect for the tyrantrum at his side. He’d only known her for a brief period, but in that time she’d demonstrated brutal power, perseverance, and righteousness. She’d taken him under her protection and even humored a little conversation with him. Not to mention she was a freaking tyrantrum and that was enough of a reason to think she was super strong. And Osiris thought he was pretty tough for a kid, too.

But suddenly they were facing off against three iron giants and a couple of robot statue dudes because they failed a pop quiz.

He figured they could use a little bit of help. ”Let’s see what this one does.” the dratini whispered to himself, almost a little excitedly. He was by no means proficient with the tools, equipment, and items of explorers—what little he knew came from tidbits he’d picked up from his mom and other pokemon—but anything was better than nothing in his opinion. The worm nosed his head into his satchel quickly, biting down on one of the random orbs he’d packed for his trip.

In one swift movement, he yanked it out and smashed it into the ground, hoping desperately for an edge he and Victoria could use in this fight. Instantaneously, he was overcome by frantic, wild energy that made him feel fast. It felt exactly like when he used dragon dance, only without the boost in attack power that came with it. He’d just used a quick orb, he realized, which meant he and Victoria had something going for them for once.

”Nice~” Osiris murmured, a little giddy. Then, thinking of that really dumb password question, he reared his head back and belched out a blast of dragon rage aimed right for the golurk standing behind the nosepass.

If it were just the nosepass, probopass, and perhaps one golurk, she would have happily confronted the challenge with a grin-bonus points if she hadn't gotten her tail handed to her just earlier in the day by something larger. A wary grumble echoed as she started to walk...backwards. It was only when she noticed that Osiris did not retreat with her that she stopped.

The crash of the orb between her and the dratini brought her attention down just in time to witness the blast of an attack rocket upward, just over the nosepass's head, and into the intended target. The middle golurk stopped in its tracks as the attack impacted its chest. The golem staggered backwards from the blast of the attack. Curious, it paused and observed the scorch marks on its chest, a hand lifted up to scratch at the charred patches left behind.

The other two golurk approached, their movements stiff and yet steady like the automatons they were. The strange pointer-like rocks along the Probopass unhitched themselves from their perch and began to fly around the rock type recklessly. Even with the nosepass firmly stood on the top, the probopass flew forward, threatening to slam the floating rocks into both Victoria and Osiris.

It looked as if Osiris thought they could win, but Victoria thought otherwise. She took in a deep breath and stepped back forward to her original position beside Osiris. Her jaws opened wide as a thunderous yet deafening roar unleashed harsh winds upon the approaching threat. The cavern shivered as the sound reverberated and bounced off the walls. Her own voice hurt her ears, but she persisted.

The steel type stuttered and stopped in their struggle against the force, but eventually lost the ability to fight it. The Probopass and Nosepass were sent flying backwards, spinning and spiraling straight into the body of the golurk with excessive force. The sound of their solid bodies cracking together overtook her roar as it began to level back out to her average volume. The golurk staggered back again, already thrown off by the Dragon Rage of the dratini, but couldn't recover this time. The colossus steadily fell backward, its hands desperately reached out to any rocky column it could cling to in order to stop its fall. The few it could find snapped at its weight, which left it helpless as it crashed into the pointed mounds just behind it. While it didn't impale the creature, it's pained cries made it clear that it wasn't a pleasant experience.

She snapped her jaws shut, the other two were still on the approach. Rocks and dirt shook and shivered from the ceiling, she honestly found it spectacular that the cave hadn't already fallen in. She didn't want to stick around to see how long a Mystery Dungeon could upkeep its structure with this much noise. She started to turn towards the exit they'd come from to start their escape, but the entrance was sealed by collapsed rocks. So much for spectacular cave structure.

She looked back to the oncoming threats. There was no way they were going to win against these. Her eyes darted back down to Osiris. He was fast and unnoticeable to these giants...right? "Osiris!" she demanded the attention of the dratini, "Focus on finding us another way out. I'll keep them busy."

...Shit, wait, could the dratini even hear her after that roar?

And they were off! As soon as his dragon rage hit its mark, it seemed every pokemon was gearing up to throw down. Osiris dug his metaphorical haunches in as the probopass surged forward, surrounded by a storm of sharp rocks. But a deafening roar exploding from his side caught him totally off guard, and it took everything he had not to shriek like a girl and jump out of his skin—he managed to suppress the former, but he couldn’t manage to resist flinching back as the tyrantrum next to him made it very clear that she was not here to play games.

There was a powerful ringing in his ears after that, but Victoria’s voice was… relatively audible, especially with how loud she was. It still took a moment to register with him, and another for him to merely regain his bearings. He was fortunate that none of these pokemon were exactly the epitome of speed. Or maybe it was just the added swiftness he had thanks to the quick orb, but when the golurk closest to him closed the distance, it wasn’t a problem for him to blast off with extremespeed, causing sand to explode off the ground from where he’d taken off.

Honestly, he’d been trying to ram into the big stupid thing to give himself a moment to breath and pick a spot to escape the fight, but he didn’t expect to pass right through the body of the golurk. The self-made rocket-noodle sailed into and out of the giant’s torso, careening through the air until he came to a skidding stop at the end of his leap, well out of the golurk’s reach. Iris blinked dumbly at what just happened, but didn’t allow himself to stay idle. Quickly, before the big lug could turn around and get a sense of where he was at, Osiris slithered off and ducked behind a stalagmite of rocks.

Victoria would be a much more pressing issue for the apparent ghost-type—he had to figure out an escape route for them in the meantime. Slowly, he peeked his head around the stalagmite, looking in the direction where they’d come from, but apparently the universe saw fit to make him work for it because that exit was blocked off by a bunch of fallen rocks. Wracking his brain, the dratini turned on a dime and stared at the probopass and nosepass duo—they’d been guarding something, right?

Maybe he and Victoria were just trespassing on some territory they needed a password to be in, but there was the possibility that the rock-types were guarding some kind of entrance to a secret base or something. It was a long shot, but it was all he had to work with. Trying to be both quick and careful, Osiris slithered along the edge of the skirmish, taking cover behind fallen rocks and in shadows, making his way to the original location of the nosepass.

While she was indeed a prioritized issue for the golurk, that proved to be just as much of a disadvantage as it was an advantage. She now had three Golurk lining up to have a little physical conversation about her presence in this cavern. Thankfully, the orb Osiris used allowed her to work a bit faster than the titans. While she couldn't risk the consequences of a well-timed Earthquake, she had a different idea of what she could do.

The tyrantrum charged forward, a trail of dirt left in her wake. The tyrantrum began to take on a peculiar blue light...then stone spires began to shoot out of the ground. The trails of rising stones ripped through the ground along her right before it quickly overtook her. The columns of solid rock formed thick spiked lines along the floor that rounded around in an arc to cut off the Golurk on the right. It was nowhere near as high as she wanted it to be along with the fact that she'd hoped to hit the ghost type at least a little, but it was enough to force the golurk to pause and observe the new obstacle.

The one ahead of her seemed to be struggling to get up after it was knocked flat onto some spiked rocks, so she twisted off into her left and charged straight into the titan. The golurk met her strength, effectively catching her. The Golurk placed a hand on her as it tried to push her down or toss her over onto her side, but it was immediately caught with the frozen jaws of an Ice Fang. Crystalline spears shot up along the guardian's arm, but they immediately shattered with the slightest movement. The golurk yanked its hand back instinctively, pulling the tyrantrum that hung on along with it briefly before she began to pull the towering creature over herself. While she couldn't brute force it, a swipe of the tail to the Golurk's leg was enough to make it kneel.

The Probopass and its strange hat weren't done from that simple attack. Steadily, they recollected themselves. The nosepass clambered back up to its rightful spot as the strange bird-like appendages gathered back around the main body. The nosepass looked about frantically, before it turned its attention to the fight. The little guy hesitated, but spoke to its partner, "Where's the talkative one?"

The sounds of fierce combat were just background noise to Osiris at this point. Even outnumbered three to one by the golurks, he knew Victoria could hold her own for at least a while, especially with the quick orb that was in effect. His main focus was the statue duo, and as he rounded a corner and peeked his head around a natural stone pillar, he got his look at them.

It wasn’t amazingly clear in the dark, but he could see the two rock-types picking themselves up off the ground. The sound of the little one speaking like a normal person irritated him—what about that stupid robot act it was pulling earlier? It was good, though, as that meant they could ask it questions when they were finished… questions like ‘how the heck do we get out of this cave,’ and ‘what exactly are you guarding?’

The urge to shout ‘Right here!’ in response before he made himself known was strong, but Osiris didn’t feel like taking chances. Instead, he quietly slithered out from behind the stone pillar and with speed he normally never possessed, fired off two dragon rages, back to back, both aimed directly for the larger pokemon. In the darkness of the cave, Iris didn’t have faith in his ability to reliably tag the nosepass, but it's evolved stage was a better target.

To its credit, the mustached rock thing took the blows pretty well. It staggered backward visibly and Osiris heard the sounds of it scraping harshly against the cave wall, sinking down to the floor. The three rocks rotating around it didn’t go limp, merely slowly hovering around the main body. Between the blowback of Victoria’s roar and his follow up, it was down and out, maybe, but with a little bit of rest, it could easily catch a second wind. He hoped to be long gone before that happened.

The nosepass was a different story. It swung towards him alertly as soon as its partner took both hits, but he spoke up before it could utter a word. ”There’s your password,” Osiris stated evenly, not at all sympathetic. ”Call of your goons or my friend’s gonna grind ‘em to dust. Then let us out of here.”

It was absolutely a bluff, and one he wasn’t sure he believed in himself. But outwardly he was a solid picture of stoic apathy, a stone-cold worm who was fine with watching his dinosaur buddy chomp on a bunch of automatons if it meant getting what he wanted. Whether the nosepass bought it and complied—somehow, if it even controlled the other pokemon—was a different story.

The golurk was brought to a kneel, but she couldn't get it to tip completely. The giant recovered its wits and yanked its hand free. Her sharp teeth scratched against the hand like nails on a chalkboard before they snapped shut. The golurk reeled back its fist before it punched downward, towards the dinosaur. The tyrantrum backed away and lowered her head. Along her side, the stone spires shot forward out of the ground pointed directly towards the Golurk's oncoming fist.

The rock crumbled and snapped into pieces from the force of the Golurk's attack. The hand recoiled from the attack, clearly distressed by the attack. The stone spires subsided in the midst of the cloud of dust and dirt. The golurk was far too focused on the inspection of its hand to notice the form of the tyrantrum burst through the cloud and straight-on headbutt it. The force of the impact and sheer surprise of the attack was enough for her to land the hit, rather than have it phase through like Osiris' did. Though it didn't nearly do as much damage as a real attack.

While she was certainly proud of her work with this golurk, she was quick to notice that the other golurk got up and the one she put behind a stone wall was just about done smashing their way through it. The one she just knocked over wasn't anywhere near finished either as it steadily started to get back up. She backed away from the approaching giants cautiously once again, uncertainty now infecting whatever confidence she had just that morning. There was no way she was going to be able to handle all three of these. Where was Osiris with that exit?

The nosepass was knocked off of its much larger partner. The landing was rough, but what was even rougher was seeing the state of the probopass when it stood once more. The nosepass's eyes widened before it snapped towards the wyrm. It was clear that all confidence it had before was now lost without the probopass to back it up. "I-I-I can't stop them-" the nosepass squeaked, "Once they go at it-th-they don't stop! You're all not supposed to be here in the first place! You don't know the password!"