Chapter Sixty-Two - The Deep Forest

Oran wasn't sure what to think of the forest. It was big, with lots of trees, plenty of bugs, and it was generally kind of boring. After the first few hours of walking along next to and ahead of Broccoli, she'd seen what she had to see.

Really, she'd much rather spend her time on her pokephone. There wasn't even much to read except for the occasional sign on the side of the road. Those, at least, she could sound out letter by letter until she could decipher what they said. With a tiny bit of help, of course.

Reading was a little bit harder than Marill—Oran! It was harder than Oran had thought it would be at first.

Still, she was getting better at it... when she wasn't in this silly forest.

They didn't have much of a choice, though. Around noon, after she got her name, and after they met that weird little pokemon along the way, they had a pause for lunch in a designated spot along the road. Jazz had brought out a map and while they ate she answered Oran's questions.

Broccoli had to play interpreter, because Jazz was one of those humans too lazy to learn how to speak pokemon. Just like how Choco was too lazy to learn how to read well.

In any case, Jazz pointed to the map and talked about where they were going next, and when Oran confessed to not knowing how to read it, Jazz explained.

The map was like the real world seen from way, way above, a pidgey's eye view of everything. Only it wasn't completely accurate. There were labels and signs on the map to help, and the road they were on wasn't actually made of giant red dots.

Oran stared at the map and read the 'legend' on the side. She had no idea what it had to do with legendaries but whatever. They were only a third of the way through the forest. That was so much more forest to go through!

Worse, their internet was cutting off a lot, and Jazz said she was impressed that they were still getting any signal at all.

Oran was rather disappointed, but that was life. They'd make it through every challenge together, even the really hard ones, like not having internet for over a day.

Broccoli told her it would be alright. The forums would still be there when she came back, and there might even be more comments!

After lunch, they kept on walking through the forest. There were a few exciting bits. They got attacked by a small swarm of paras at one point, pokemon that looked like King Krabby, but with empty eyes and large lumpy mushrooms growing out of their backs.

They liked using poison spore attacks, but were made pretty harmless by Choco. Oran got to fight a few of them off with some Bubble Beams of her own, and it only took a few minutes to wipe out a whole group of them.

Afterwards, Broccoli made sure that all of them were okay, even those that were knocked out. It was only nice, she said, to make sure that an opponent ended a fight closer to being a friend than when the fight started!

Oran wasn't so sure, but Broccoli was smart about this kind of thing, so she listened. When one of them gave her tail a pinch though, she blasted a Water Gun in its face anyway. There was only so far her attempts at friendmaking would go!

After making sure that all of the paras were alright and leaving a few snacks behind (Jazz protested, but Broccoli took from her own portions so she couldn't complain too much) they continued on their way. Jazz was worried they wouldn't make it to the camping site in time, but they got there an hour before the sun set.

It was a lot of work, setting up the tent, using repeated Water Guns to fill up some pots, and then helping Choco aim his Pounds against the tent pegs to really hammer them into the ground.

They all paused to watch as Tabitha pulled out an entire tent from her bag, placed it on the ground, and then let it unfold itself into a comfy-sized tent with flaps and little clear-material windows. Tabitha kept pulling things out of her bags. Blankets and a sleeping bag and more stuff that they didn't have.

"Done," she said.

"Show off," Jazz muttered, but it didn't sound as angry as it might have before.

"That's a very cute tent," Broccoli said. "But did you want to share ours?"

Their tent wasn't anywhere near as nice. It was just cloth in a tent-like shape. Some of the sticks inside were held together with tape. "Are you requesting that for safety reasons?" Tabitha asked.

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"No, of course not," Broccoli said. "I'm requesting it for snuggle reasons."

Tabitha politely declined before pulling out a small set of pots and pans that were much nicer than theirs. They used hers to cook supper, and it was very tasty. The best spice, according to Broccoli, was being hungry. Oran wasn't so sure about that, since she hadn't tasted all the other spices, but it did make for a very yummy meal before bedtime.

They were awakened in the night by the distant howls of a pack of growlithe. Then Tabitha was scratching at the flap of their tent and politely asking if the offer to sleep in theirs was still available. For safety reasons.

The next morning was breakfast, and then training. Tabitha helped some more that morning, instructing Oran on how the move Aqua Tail worked. She didn't know exactly because it wasn't a Psychic-type move that she was super familiar with, but she did plan on teaching Slowking the move at some point.

Oran thought she was making good progress wrapping Water-type energy around her tail. It was easier than her paws, at least.

If she wanted to master the Way of the Mystic Bun, she'd need to learn how to do Aqua Tails with her fists and feet and the rest of herself too. Then she'd need to learn other types as well.

Type energy practice after was annoying, but even if Choco was being a show-off, she worked hard. She'd get Cleaning energy down eventually, then Fire-type stuff would be within reach! Right now, her goal was to be able to face even bigger, scarier pokemon, like that beedrill they fought in the gym battle.

After training and breakfast and some time playing around, Jazz was back to leading the way. There weren't any more scary attacks, but Jazz did fight a small bug-catcher human and his bug-type pokemon for some money. It was entertaining to watch, at least.

Oran started to feel antsy as they continued. The trees were pressing closer to the road, and she didn't like how deep the shadows beneath them felt even at midday.

There were more sounds, too, of pokemon hiding in dark places. She felt as if she was being watched, and she wasn't sure if it was by someone friendly or not.

It all came to a head when the trail they were on lead to a shrine in the middle of a clearing, the route lead right up to it, then just stopped.

"This isn't right," Jazz said as she pulled out her map. "The last turn was a right, and then there should have been a fork. But even if we went the wrong way, there's no dead end. And there's nothing on here about... whatever that is."

"It's a shrine," Tabitha said as she eyed the little structure. "We... might want to consider leaving an offering."

"I've never done that before," Broccoli said. "Is it like leaving a gift behind? Whose shrine is this?"

Tabitha moved up to the shrine, then bowed at it before taking the final steps. There was a box, with an opening on its side. Within were the rotten remains of some berries, or at least the stains from their juice. "I don't know," Tabitha said. "But I'm feeling... something."

"Is it lost?" Jaz asked. "Because I'm pretty sure that's what we are right now. We're going to have to backtrack all the way back to that last fork. We must have missed it."

Broccoli walked over to the shrine, then tsked. "It's all dirty. Oran, Choco, want to give me a hand, or a paw? We'll wash this up real quick then leave... we have trail bars! Do you think the person who has this shrine would like trail bars?"

"Perhaps?" Tabitha said.

"With or without chocolate? Maybe without? What if they're like a dog and it's bad for them." Broccoli nodded. "Without."

Oran didn't know much about shrines, but she was happy to help by Bubble Beaming this one while Choco splashed it with Cleaning magic. Once the shrine was all wet, Broccoli came in with a big sweep of Cleaning magic and left it spotless. Then she put three trail bars in the little box, one for each of them.

Tabitha put a bar in as well, then Jazz, with much grumbling about wasted resources put half of one in as well. She had limits, apparently.

Strangely enough, Oran didn't feel like the forest was quite as dark as they backtracked and continued on their way.

***