“AAAAHHHH!!!”

Larry fell. Well, it wasn’t a complete fall, it was more like he was sliding down vertically on top of the floor which had been sucked into the crevice which had opened up underneath them. The entire walkway had split open vertically and sucked in the entirety of the cavern floor. And if that wasn’t enough, the ceiling his mother had caved in the hopes of stopping the stampede of Graveler had collapsed completely on top of all of them and into the collapsed floor simultaneously.

“W-WOAH!!” Larry hollered as he was jerked from side to side like he was on a water slide. The floor underneath him was continually breaking apart and collapsing underneath him and his entire body was jostled around violently. He clawed helplessly at the cavern walls, but couldn’t find any places to grab onto as the solid mass of gravel had turned to nothing but a coarse liquid under the weightlessness of falling.

Finally, the gravel floor accelerated away from him and Larry broke through another ceiling and into the dark depths of another cavern. For a quick second, Larry was happy for this to finally be over, before he realized he couldn’t even see the ground through the darkness of the cavern and had picked up quite a lot of speed, “OH NONONO-”

The floor came into view and Larry spotted a giant mound of gravel and other debris had built up on the floor. Spinning around helplessly in the air, Larry began angling himself onto his side for a landing, it would hurt, but in a bout of sheer desperation, he somehow managed it.

BANG!

“OOOUF!” Larry impacted the tip of the dirt mound on his side, and the air was forced out of his lungs, he heard and felt a very painful cracking noise from his arm as he bounced back up into the air. “Oof!” His rebound hurt and Larry finally began rolling down the side of the mound on his side, he felt close to fainting, but he forced himself to stay awake.

He finally stopped rolling on the foot of the mound of dirt, his arm stung, his lower torso which was supposed to still be recovering burned and his legs felt raw and stung like the skin on them wasn’t even there anymore.

Tears rimmed his eyes from the pain and he couldn’t get himself to do much more than breathe, his entire body hurt, yet the ceiling above him was still actively in the process of caving in. Dirt and gravel rolled down the mound and the entirety of the ceiling was steadily cracking and breaking apart.

Larry looked up at the ceiling, about to bury him alive with a smile, ‘...Hehe…The worst part is that this won’t kill me…’

As the ceiling broke, Larry saw why it was still breaking apart, as a giant green foot and tail emerged out of the darkness in the ceiling, along with an obscene amount of dirt and rubble. His mother's fall was deceptively silent, as she didn’t scream in panic like him, yet…

BOOOOM!

His mother landed even more harshly than him, smashing into flat ground without any sort of mound to slow her landing.

“Mo-, OW!!” Larry jerked up in surprise but was immediately forced back onto the ground in pain, very carefully he turned his head in her direction. His mother stood up without any complaints, seemingly not having taken any damage, and immediately turned to the dark ceilings with a sharp glare.

“...Mom…” Larry squeaked out, “...Heelp…”

For all the child endangerment that had just transpired, his mother turned and when she realized who had called immediately sprinted over next to Larry. She looked distressed at the state he was in and yelled out, “What happened?!” as she looked him over carefully, not even daring to touch him.

He looked at his mom like she was stupid before crying angrily, “You happened!”

…

‘This is probably the stupidest way for me to get injured…’ Larry thought to himself dejectedly. His injuries were bad, he couldn’t move the arm he’d landed on much, pain spiking through it every time he tried to and there must’ve been more internal injuries he couldn’t inspect. The injuries that had been healing, while irritated hadn’t opened up again, although it sure hadn’t helped either.

His mother lay beside him protectively, curling herself around him like a cat. His confidence in her parenting skills had been tested in this encounter, that was for sure. ‘I mean sure, that Golem had been the final nail in the coffin, but my mom almost got me killed!’

He gave his mother the side eye and she withered under his glare, positioning her head a bit further away from him. Larry before hadn’t been in any condition to walk, letting himself sit comfortably inside his mother's lap. Now though, Larry wasn’t in any condition to be sitting anymore either, he was laid down on the cavern floor on his good side practically only able to move his head.

“...I’m sorry…” His mom muttered bashfully, not even daring to look at Larry.

Sighing to himself Larry answered back, “I know you’re sorry, but I still need some time to forgive you, Mom.” Larry practically hissed back his answer, his insides hurt so much he could just barely talk in a whisper, “Just leave me alone for a bit.”

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She didn’t answer back, but Larry knew that his mother understood. It was back to healing duty, eating soil, dirt, and stone and just doing a whole lotta nothin’.

…

‘Ugh, I feel like a hospital patient…Wonder how long this whole mess will need to heal…’ Larry agonized to himself, his mother had picked out another outcropping in the cavern they’d fallen into and simply laid down to rest. She wasn’t feeling particularly injured, even though she’d just taken around a dozen explosions from a family of Graveler. Meanwhile, Larry had been far enough away for his mother to consider him ‘safe’ and still gotten himself immobilized.

‘Where’s that damn healing machine from the Pokemon Centers when you need it?’ Larry drawled to himself, the ceiling wasn’t very interesting to look at if you weren't in the mood to count the rocks jutting out of it. Whatever happened to those Graveler and Golem? Larry didn’t know, but he was sure if he ever saw them again he’d take some extra steps back as his mom wiped the floor with them.

…

‘Hundred and Thirteen, Hundred and Fourteen…’ Larry was bored out of his mind, counting the rocks on the opposite wall of the cavern. He had gone to sleep once again, and now it was time to eat. Another piece of soil was shoved into his mouth and Larry chewed on it. Crumbly, with a hint of sodium, iron, and lots of stony pieces. It was like a rock-hard energy bar, but his Dark-TE-empowered Bite crushed them effortlessly. The soil down here was far richer in minerals than the one on top of the mountain, in the grand scheme of things Larry and his mom were still on the third level of Mt. Silver.

‘I wish I could at least walk, I want to get going already!’ His health had increased drastically in the last sleep he’d taken. His injury from the Mismagius on his legs and torso had fully scabbed over once again and felt more muted than ever before and his hurt arm was feeling far more mobile than before, yet still hurt when used a bit too much.

Larry had tried standing up or even moving, but his legs were still slightly too raw to do much and his insides still didn’t feel right.

‘Well, I guess I’ll just go back to sleep…’

…

Larry rose onto his butt, he felt a sting in the area between his stomach and chest, but it subsided quickly enough, “Phew… Alright…”

“Slowly…” His mom muttered under her breath. She stood in front of him protectively, watching him and their surroundings like a hawk as Larry finally felt recuperated enough to stand on his own again.

“C’mon Mom, I’m not stupid,” Larry complained as he got his feet under himself, “I know how to stan- WOAH!” His leg suddenly lost its strength and Larry slipped to his side. Before he could fall, his mother's tail swooped in underneath him and caught him dramatically.

“T-Thanks…” He muttered bashfully as he found his footing again and pushed himself off of his mother's tail. Larry took his first few tentative steps, his soles still felt weird, but he could put weight on his legs and stand on his own. He bounced on the balls of his feet, testing the strength, “Yep, nice. I feel like I can walk again.”

His mom smiled at him, a slightly awkward air still between them, “Good, good…”

The relationship between them was not yet back to normal and Larry still had to accept his mother's apology. He didn’t feel like he was in quite the right headspace yet to forgive her, ‘I mean, I know she just doesn’t have much experience fighting with allies or protecting things, she’s a literal walking disaster. But would it hurt her to not go feral every time fighting is mentioned?’

She shuffled forward, “Let's keep going.”

“Yeah,” Larry answered, “but slowly.”

…

Walking side-to-side with his mom, Larry watched as his mom awkwardly tried to match his slowed pace. She had kept an eye on him like a hawk this time around, not even letting him walk a step behind her. ‘Not taking third chances, hmm?’ Larry mused to himself, slightly amused by his mother's sudden bout of overprotectiveness.

“So, where are we going anyway?” Larry asked as he looked up at his mom. She quickly turned back to the Swiss-cheese caves spread out before them, she took a second to look over the five different open paths spread out before them before pointing down one.

“This one seems right.” She said resolutely.

“Why do you think so?” Larry asked back.

His mother shrugged, “It's the only one actually going down.”

Larry looked over the multiple paths, none of them looked to be raising or lowering to him, but he’d just have to trust his mom's judgment, “Alright, let's give it a try.”

They continued and the first thing Larry noticed was the amount of Pokemon scurrying about just out of their view. This wasn’t the walkway, Pokemon lived around here, and they were all terrified of the fact that a Tyranitar was making its way down their home cave.

A Golbat which hung off of the side of the cavern's ceiling, blearily opened its eyes before doing a literal double take when it saw the giant hulking reptilian form of a Tyranitar meander past its stalactite. Its huge mouth, which took up its entire body and had hung open sloppily during its sleep closed completely, shrinking the Pokemon down substantially before a loud, audible gulp echoed down the cavern.

Larry looked back at the Pokemon, which instantly took flight in the other direction when it noticed his stare. His mom jumped and whirled around at the sudden noise, almost looking to launch a ranger attack before deciding otherwise.

“...Sorry…” She apologized when she saw her kid's confused stare.

‘I see,’ Larry realized, ‘with how much I got hurt because of her recently, she isn’t sure how to approach me or handle me…’

The cavern was going down now, it had slowly begun to slope downwards more and at this point, it was beginning to be a chore to walk for Larry. His feet had healed, but he felt his soles sting once again. It gave Larry an idea.

“Uhh, Mom?” He spoke up.

“Y-Yeah?” She answered, less confident than expected.

“Mind picking me up? My feet are beginning to hurt again.” Larry complained while reaching up to his mother with his good arm.

“Sure! Sure!” She easily picked him up and finally smiled again, she looked happy to be holding him again. She pushed him up onto her shoulder, so she could keep her arms free.

…

Larry was lucky he didn’t have a fear of heights as he rode on his mom's shoulder. The thumping footsteps of his mother echoed out around them as the silence of the cavern of Mt. Silver once again seemed to drown out everything.

A single sentence broke the silence.

“I forgive you.”