Chapter 7: Headstrong
The wind felt refreshing on Rose's face as she pedaled on with the speed of a bullet. Delilah was just overhead. It felt great to be back in the road – next stop was Pewter City, but they would have to cut through the Viridian Forest to get there. Rose had no idea how far they were from their destination point, but she didn't care. Traveling was the most amazing experience she had ever, well, experienced.
It was as though a thick blanket had been thrown over them as they entered the forest once again. The entire area was one huge shadow cast by countless tree all around. Rose slowed down slightly so she could watch for low-hanging branches.
Weaving in and out of tree, Rose and Delilah kept on going without stopping, until…
SCREEEECH.
Rose stopped dead in her tracks, causing Delilah to circle around and come back down to Earth to see what was going on.
A hundred, maybe even a thousand giant red spider pokemon surrounded them from all sides. They had bright yellow legs and huge jaws. They were everywhere – on the ground, in the trees, and everywhere in between.
"Delilah… what the hell are those…?" asked Rose as she tried to back up slowly.
"Ariados." responded Delilah in a whisper. "A whole fucking colony of 'em. Luckily, they're nocturnal. It looks like every one of them is sleeping. As long as we're quiet we can sneak past them. Get off the bike and walk with me."
Rose did as she was told with no argument; she wasn't exactly looking forward to being spider dinner. She crept as quietly as possible past the slumbering spiders, looking at her feet most of the time to make sure she didn't trip. The Ariados had to have been at least three feet in length, which certainly did not make them seem any less intimidating. Bright yellow and purple striped legs hung limply at their sides as they slept.
Suddenly, a long sticky web shot out from somewhere at ground level and caught Rose around the ankles. She fell straight on her back and felt herself being dragged.
"Delilah! HELP!" she screamed as she saw, what seemed to be the biggest of the Ariados, pulling her in.
Unfortunately, Delilah was surrounded by the now awakened pokemon. Pidgeot fought off as many as he could, and it seemed to be working.
Sage, with all of his courage, stood in front of the largest Ariados in an attempt to save his friend from being eaten. He shot an extremely powerful blast of water from his mouth, breaking the sticky web.
The Ariados, now furious, snapped its strong jaws together threateningly and scurried after Sage as fast as it could. Luckily, Sage was just a little bit faster as he ran, trying to lead the Ariados away from the others.
The attacking pokemon finally caught up a few yards away and snapped at Sage's tail. Sage spun around and, with all the strength his little body could muster, headbutt the Ariados.
It reeled backwards in a clumsy daze, giving one last threatening hiss before scurrying off and up into a tree. The others followed suit, obviously seeing the largest one as their leader.
"Oh wow Sage, that was amazing!" Rose ran to her little blue companion and hugged him close. Sage seemed proud of what he had done. "Delilah, are you okay??"
With an unsteady balance, Delilah got up off the ground where she was laying. There were two large puncture marks on her upper arm where one of the Ariados must have bitten her.
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." she said as she swayed a bit. "It's just a little bite, nothing serious…"
She trailed off and had a blank look to her eyes, then to Rose's horror she dropped to the ground like a stone.
