Vines dragged along the ground, at the mercy of everything around, yet unbothered by it all. The occasional puff of tired air swirled its way through the trees and sent the trailing leaves astir. It was reminiscent of confetti, flakes of green corkscrewing about and hiding the white bark of the tree they hung from.
Down below, the ground was unmoved by the dance above, resisting the long interloper across its mud and mire. The earth ignored the vines with practiced stubbornness, even as each lash made it bleed, splattering brown across the dark green leaves. It was ever stagnant, the land, but one could describe movement if they had the imagination. From the depths of the bog marched a line of reeds, growing taller with each step. The stalks that had escaped the dark water proudly celebrated by waving their brown banners, fraying white at the edges. Moss gathered to defend their settlements and clumps from intruding feet and reed armies. Grass caught in the fastenings of the half-buried wooden steps shook in terror. Ripples disturbed a nearby pond as the tall leaves within it shivered. The water was not so dark that it could hide the blue body beneath the bubbles.
All this movement at the border of a small world. Wooden steps sank less with each meter until they took flight and disappeared altogether. The path solidified, becoming harder, rockier and stonier. It was a welcome change.
Yet, as David cast his eye over the end of the marsh, he had to admit the yellowish grass, occasional flower and tall tree before him were not nearly as interesting. The soil beneath his feet became less spongy, more resistant to his passage with each step. He was no longer cradled as much as repelled.
“Finally,” David said with a sigh of relief. After days of traveling through the marshes around Fuchsia, he both wanted to be dry and to find a river he could wash in. The mud clung to his clothes and the muck seeped into his skin. He wasn’t alone in his happiness for long.
Cloudburst swooped down from a divide in the branches above, lured by the pause in progress. After their last trip through the muck, she had learned her lesson and spent the days of travel after Fuchsia flying above the white trees. It showed. The cream of her breast and wingtip feathers was unblemished. Those darker feathers that ran from her crest down her back to the long ones forming the tips of her tail were ruffled, but just as clean. If it wasn’t for the small flecks of dirt stuck yet to the tips of her talons, disguising their usual knife-like glint, she could have come out of a wash today. Alas, not even a flier could make it through this land untouched it seemed.
Not yet anyway. Cloudburst was still growing.
She circled around him once, squawking quietly and calling out her name to prod him forward. When he didn’t move, she buffeted her wings and came to a rest on a nearby branch.
David smiled at her antics and sat, which sparked another outburst of noise. As he stretched tired muscles, she began to inspect their surroundings and where he sat.
She was smart enough to notice how rarely he sat down in the marsh. Strange behavior was behavior to be investigated.
He patted the ground beside him in an attempted invitation, but she remembered the clinging muck well enough to be wary. It truly was a horrifying substance to pry out of her feathers, even with human hands and tools. Perhaps that was why few creatures had bothered them during their travels through the land.
It took another few minutes for Cloudburst to join him. Then another few were lost enjoying her chirps as she hopped without sinking for the first time in days. It wasn’t quite as cute now that she was bigger, but it was funnier in another way — her goofball antics were something to remember the next time she pulled a haughty act.
“I think Cloud, that we have left Route 15,” David said, before scurrying back to dodge a peeved bird leaping at him talons first. She refused to let the nickname catch on. “Okay, okay. Full name only, I get it.”
The ornery bird let out a caw of victory, stretching her wings out to corner him before settling down into a roost.
He let it slide, but next time she was being called Miss Hoppalots or something similar. Frog jokes would make as little sense to her as anything he said, but it was the thought that counts.
When she settled, David started talking again. “With Route 15 down, we have what? Two-thirds? Three quarters of the trip left?” He groaned. That was a lot of hiking to look forward to. Two weeks minimum if not three. “If we keep going straight we should be able to see the sea soon.”
Thoughts of frantic battles of life and death, and giant sea serpents filled his mind for a while. Swimming seemed like a fantastic idea right now, with the muck caking his clothes, but if the coastline was anything like the water under the Route 18 bridge, he might have to give it a miss.
“We still have some time to figure out where to go next anyway.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Cloudburst let out a sleepy chirp.
“Short rest? We can do some training afterwards, then travel with Venonat for a while?”
Another chirp sealed the decision.
David sat at this border of biomes for a while longer, enjoying the view of a marsh he no longer had to live in. It was much more agreeable when just passing through.
He laughed when the Oddish scurried out of its watery hideout and gave Pidgey a fright.
-.-
“Ooeeoohh!”
The cry was loud and carried over the tufts of grass with ease. It made David groan, and reach up to wipe the sweat off his brow.
It was too hot for this kind of nonsense. Especially without any trees to take shelter under. The sun was accelerating along its dive beneath the horizon, but the dry heat that plagued the plains had yet to drop with it.
At his side, and almost looking like a tuft of grass himself, albeit a purple one, Venonat perked up. His white antennae began to twist and swivel about as he tasted the air. Twitching, and letting a tuft of grass from the pincers around his mouth, Venonat crouched, ready to spring.
“Ooeeoohh!”
The sound was definitely closer this time, and he was able to track it back to the source. Two mauve fins swam the grass, a darker shape following below. The fins were jagged, with several protrusions near the top, and one half of each was a sea blue.
David recognised that sea blue.
“Try to keep your distance,” He instructed Venonat. “Expect poison and brute force.”
Turning away from the approaching Pokemon, he faced his own small bundle of world-breaking power wrapped in a monster. Venonat looked back up at him through large red compound eyes. Pokemon didn’t really have facial expressions, and that went double for Venonat, whose body was hidden under dense fur. Still, with only two antennae and a snout, Venonat was definitely giving off “Well duh” vibes.
“Right. Bug Poison type.” Keeping his distance was also Venonat’s usual tactic.
The wild Pokemon’s cry came again before David suffered under the imagined deadpan look for too long. Venonat bounced forward, staying low to the earth as he pushed through the grass.
Ahead the tufts of grass parted, and the wild Pokemon revealed itself. It led not by the two fins that had been visible earlier, but with the long horn on its forehead. This was no unicorn, though. With its two massive ears flaring out and away from its spiked spine, this Pokemon was closer in appearance to a dragon.
“Ooeeoohh!”
The Nidorino tossed its bony head, revealing fangs jutting from the sides of its mouth. It spotted David quickly, pawing at the ground, but dismissed him when it caught sight of the smaller, slower moving Venonat. Long toe-shaped claws dug into the ground in preparation for a charge.
It was a wise decision, he had to admit, given what the Pokemon knew.
But the Nidorino had forgotten to look up.
It charged, furious about some unintentional slight and hell bent on letting Venonat know. Beige puffs of smoke gathered around the Pokemon’s horn.
“Nope!”
The clouds disappeared, and the Nidorino missed a step, perhaps reassessing its plan. Too late.
With a flap of wings as loud as the crack of a whip, lavender twists rained from the sky. It was as if someone had triggered fifty glow-in-the-dark silly string cans for just an instant.
The luminous lines struck down, and once more David was reminded of how deadly this world was.
Cut and bleeding, Nidorino yelped in pain. The full extent of the damage was revealed as all the surrounding grass was cut to shreds. From above and unseen, Cloudburst had been able to put all her power into one deadly blow. Blood dripped down the wild Pokemon’s hide to sink auburn into the yellow grass.
In the confusion, Venonat darted forward.
Understanding now the mess it had put itself in, the Nidorino began a retreat.
Cloudburst used Cannon again, this time targeting Nidorino’s line of retreat. It dodged, shying back from the deadly energy. Escape was not an option it seemed. Pidgey still struck a hit on the Pokemon, cutting a new line of welling blood across its hide.
Venonat pounced, lime sparks spluttering away from his mouth.
The Nidorino cried out in pain again.
David’s two Pokemon began to dance, weaving back and forth to corral the larger Pokemon together.
He squinted at the scene. Is this bullying?
Cloudburst and Venonat were demonstrating teamwork built from a week of fighting against a superior, stronger opponent. When the Nidorino concentrated on Venonat, he would retreat and let Cloudburst strike. If it tried to attack back at the flying Pokemon, Venonat would Nope! It’s energy away. When it attempted to retreat, Cloudburst would distract, allowing Venonat to strike.
Their tactics were barely effective against Carine, Jenny’s Venomoth, and only because she was humoring them. Against this random wild Pokemon, it was... super effective.
This wasn’t a fight, it was a slaughter. It almost made David feel bad until he remembered that the Nidorino had attacked them instead of the other way around. There was no doubt in his mind that if it had the upper hand they would not be leaving unscathed.
Turnabout was fair play.
As the slaughter wore on, the intensity of their attacks lessened, to the point that Cloudburst’s Cannons weren’t even scoring the Nidorino’s hide. Then, through a series of calls and chirps that David couldn’t understand, the battle ended. When the wild Pokemon attempted to retreat next, it was allowed to do so.
Venonat stalked back towards him, while Cloudburst followed the Nidorino from above, cawing away. Eventually, she banked away too and swooped back to them.
David wiped cooling sweat off his face.
“Great job?”