Chapter 26 - Stumble

The Air Continent wasn't far off from the vague description Archen had given us—it was very similar to the Water Continent, just far less humid. There were benign differences here and there of course, ranging from the colors of plants to the different flavored berries to the common species of native Pokemon. The most noticeable change was the predominant wind currents that had followed us from down the trail away from Barem Town, giving me a reasonable assumption for what the continent's name was inspired by.

Although our destination was in the south, Leah and I had ruled out the crude trail leading that way because it would just lead us to the end of a peninsula, meaning we would have to swim a good couple of miles to cross the channel to continue. That option certainly didn't take long to cast aside, and so we instead had elected to take the highway running towards a nearby trading hub that sat right in the crevice of the peninsula. From there we planned to take a more or less traveled road running around the cape in a semi-circular path and then continuing south into the mountains.

Leah and I ran across a few Pokemon on the initial path leading east, all of them traders or simple travelers who were journeying from positively anywhere on the continent. As delegated, we had enough money for the bare necessities now that Leah had used the money we had taken from our own bank account on a pointless accessory. So, although we made brief conversation whenever a friendly pedestrian strolled along, we couldn't afford to adhere to much of the marketing in spite of temptation aimed at both of us. Even so, it didn't matter much in the end; we had enough food to last to the village if we didn't indulge our stomachs, and all of the materials and wares we'd need were already stored away in the treasure bag.

Still, I tried to convince Leah to sell that silly flower-pen, even if the stark white did compliment her bright pallet of fur well. With a long road ahead of us and little to discuss, we entertained ourselves by arguing the pros and cons of selling the item to a passing trader or perhaps someone in Pokemon Square, and trying to get back maybe two-thirds what Leah had bought it for that very morning. I reiterated what I'd said earlier about how it was useless in every way, and that we could use the money for berries or, if we could get back enough, a reviver seed. She was appalled I would even suggest such a thing at first, claiming that I was a guy and "didn't understand fashion" and then adjusting it and posing flamboyantly to try and force her visual appeal. It was cute and it made me smile, but, for the sake of conversation, I wouldn't rest my case.

Our lighthearted quarreling would carry us to our first stop at Pokemon Square a lot later than I would have hoped. I realized now, standing on the bridge leading into the marketplace, that our investigation into the Mystifying Forest had taken up a good chunk of our day as it was, with the walk over here only adding to it. The sun was beginning its descent, and our hours were unfavorably numbered. We would have to spend the night somewhere between here and the heart of the mountain range; we couldn't reach our destination in time, but also couldn't keep our clients waiting for an entire extra day by staying here for the night and wasting the entirety of tomorrow walking.

Leah's misgivings concerning her wobbly sea-legs were temporarily abandoned, replaced with the absorption of the sights, sounds, and smells of the Air Continent. I knew she would only just come face to face with the amusing issue again when the time came to return to Lively Town, but that was honestly the last thing on her mind as her dream of worldwide exploration had budded and grown its first petal. The first of many.

I knew this, and perhaps I was admittedly really excited to explore too. I figured that if we weren't going to bother racing the clock in a futile attempt to arrive at our destination tonight, then it couldn't hurt to spend a little time seeing what the significant stops on our journey had to offer. Just because we weren't delegated to pay attention to the landmarks and services along the way didn't mean we couldn't enjoy their convenience. This wasn't exactly a cartography mission, but neither of us were in objection.

Leah and I were still locked in conversation when we emerged from the treeline and onto an open path, taking us past a few little houses and finally one particularly run-down house before finally arriving at the place called Pokemon Square.

It was a nice little town, and boasted a style similar to what we were used to seeing: an open space with shops all around. The teller of a stand labeled 'Persian Bank' was fast asleep with his head lying on the counter while a pair of Jigglypuff kids rolled by, laughing all the way. A trio of Magnemite hovered in the middle of the square, buzzing unintelligibly at each other while a Diglett off to the side was trying to listen in. I saw bigger Pokemon too, fully-evolved forms like a Mamoswine and an Octillery who were speaking with a passerby Pelliper making his afternoon deliveries.

The temptation to stop for food was abruptly heightened by the peculiar smell of fresh bread and foreign fruit being carried by the wind to my sensitive nostrils. My stomach growled, earning me a smirk from Leah who then pointed towards a nearby fruit stand run by a Bellossom. I shrugged, and we took a couple of minutes to grab some goods for the road. It cost money, and I winced as our remaining coins continued to decline, but it was made up by the time we wouldn't have to spend later scavenging for food.

"This place is pretty cool," I remarked during the quick break we were taking to rest our legs and have a travel snack that would serve as lunch.

"Mhm!" Leah answered after swallowing the last of her apple. "We'll have to revisit if we're ever sent to this area to map it out. It's too bad we have to leave right away, but duty calls, you know?"

I nodded once in stark agreement, casting another sideways glance at the sun's position in the sky. The more I carefully stared in its general direction with narrowed eyes, the more its sheer intensity intrigued me. What kind of immeasurable force in the cosmos was causing this mass heat wave? At first, I'd figured that it was some leftover memory of mine nagging at me about how the sun was supposed to affect the world, since something like that might be exempt from my blank mind for not being too detail-oriented. But seeing how I wasn't the only one complaining about the temperature was enough to shove aside the notion and seek other paths of reasoning.

Sure, our location on the Air Continent wasn't too geographically far from Lively Town, at least not with the entire globe thrown into context. But still, we were far enough away to assume that this heat wave wouldn't reach us with the same temperatures from before.

When I really thought about it, it had been like this since summer began on the Water Continent, all the way back to the days when Ampharos had visited Serene Village and given us our badges. It seemed almost silly to allow myself to give something as natural as the sun's movements this much thought, but at the same time, it wasn't like I could just ignore the blazing daytime heat. A little sunlight was good for me, as I had figured out that my tail ran its own involuntary photosynthesis that would substitute for food when I was hungry and needing a little more energy. But this was more than a little sunlight, the solar energy acting as a double-edged sword and forcing my body to work harder just to keep itself going. Maybe my typing was just getting the better of me?

Fed up with wondering, I voiced this interest to Leah.

She pondered it for a long moment, humming to herself deep in thought. "Well... the Water Continent is known for the rain it gets, which is reference to the name. But in reality, it's most known for its extreme and unpredictable weather patterns in general, not just the condensation. Being surrounded by four other continents tends to have this effect on the coasts, so extended periods of droughts and storms, or fluctuations of both, are pretty common even as far inland as Serene Village." She stopped and frowned, looking up at the sun as she did so. "But... this particular drought is a little weird, at least for what little I've seen. Not to mention that we're not even on the Water Continent and we're still getting cooked. It's making my fur get all matted and uncomfortable."

I nodded absently, before tilting my head. "Where did you learn all of that about the weather?" I questioned while giving her a suspicious look. "You always slept half of class away, so I doubt you picked that up there."

"The stuff about the weather?" she repeated, before recognition glowed on her face. "Oh, I can thank my Pops for that. He always made sure I knew about our culture and place in the world. Not that it mattered much since we were miles from any established society." She added the last part with a roll of her eyes and a flick of her tail. But it didn't fool me; I knew she was inwardly appreciative for the knowledge, even if she didn't realize it as much before I met her.

"Makes sense. Oh, and Leah..." I added as I finished the last of my makeshift lunch. "I think you meant precipitation, not condensation." I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "You really should've stayed awake in class, you know?"

"Pfft. Same difference," she playfully huffed. "Sheesh, let me have my scholarly moment without ruining it."

Our break was short-lived, as our conversation took up enough time for us to finish eating and begin heading south. Other than the blazing summer heat, there were no concerns to be had with the weather, with hardly a cloud in sight. The wind still blew at a moderate rate as it had been all day, but it only worked to cool us down as the day began to near retirement.

I had prayed that the journey south would be as straightforward as the four-hour walk from Barem Town to Pokemon Square. It didn't look so bad at first: fortunately the path skirted around a handful of mountains cluttered together to the north. But I hadn't really kept in mind that our destination was in a valley, which guaranteed us a fair amount of climbing.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before the mundane dirt path had transformed into a sloped hiking trail. It led up another mountain further along the way that conformed to the rest of the range, where our destination awaited us. The valley in question was right in the middle of the cluster of terrain, and my assumptions that we would fall short today were confirmed when I compared the remaining distance we had to walk to the remaining distance the sun had to be out of sight. Leah and I took nature's hint that it was time to make camp as soon as the bottom tip of the sun began getting intimately close to the craggy horizon.

This task wasn't much of a challenge in the Sheer Mountain Range since there had been plenty of water around, and since Leah and I had already begun descending toward fairer grounds by the time we had stopped for the night. I realized that it was a whole different gambit over here, however, when it became apparent that the land was not nearly as merciful. Grounded sources of water became essentially nonexistent as my observant eyes scanned for them through the ascending trees and rocks in vain. There were hardly any large openings in between the thick woods, and the few that we could see were littered with brambles and uneven ground. The pines that surrounded us from every angle, sometimes even blocking off the path altogether, did not act as hardly any overhead protection or provide the kind of leaves that could be gathered and crafted into any kind of viable bed.

We couldn't just stop anywhere unless we wanted to allow ourselves to be subject to the elements. Maybe if it wasn't so hot and windy, especially this high up, it would've been taken into consideration. But I knew there no use in longing for perfect conditions, not when the sun's on its way down and we were in the middle of nowhere. As it stood, it could be a lot worse, and that was just enough to remain focused. Not necessarily optimistic, but just focused.

With each passing minute darkening the sky, the trail led further and further up until there were no more trees at all, and eventually no more trail either. The only vegetation to be found up here was the occasional patch of needled bushes, and those really only served to get in the way. We spent the last couple hours of daylight climbing the small entry mountain, and the summit was still another hour or so away when we finally found a place suitable to stay.

"Look!" Leah called out to me from a good ways away.

I glanced up from rummaging through the sharp brush, and backtracked a few steps to make my way over to her. I swiped aside a few wayward thorns with my tail—my new leaf blade technique came in handy—before jogging into the open to see whatever it is she had found. I was caught up in my thoughts hoping that she wasn't just referring to an amazing view or something along those unhelpful lines, when I felt the ground below my left foot cease to exist.

The crevice below me was a couple body lengths from edge to edge, but looking down dismissed any implications that it was just an insignificant pit. The dim sunlight couldn't come close to reaching the bottom, and I instantly recognized the danger of falling deeper than those hopeless rays when my balance was thrown to the wind. I hadn't lifted my right foot off the ground yet, and with a startled yelp I shoved off the ground with it to launch myself forward. Not for the first time, I cursed the pint size of my legs when I felt the off-balance attempt at clearing the gap threaten to fall short. My tail ended up being the critical deciding factor, as my landing only part-way on the other side was haphazardly completed by using the swinging leverage of my tail to roll sideways away from the fall and to safety.

Leah bounded over, gaping at the thin but deep crack in the mountainside. "Holy Miltank, are you okay?!" she gasped.

I rolled off my back and hopped up, adrenaline already rushing through me. I stared back at the crevice for a few seconds before turning to her and nodding. After a deep breath, I assured her, "Yeah, yeah. I-I'm good."

"You need to look where you're going," she reprimanded with a relieved but disappointed shake of her head. "You seriously could've died just now, and in the dumbest way!"

I glanced from the crevice to her and then back to the crevice. She wasn't wrong; that kind of fall wouldn't give anyone without wings much hope for survival. That would've been a really dumb way to die.

"—But enough about that," she continued. "I found a place we can sleep that gives us shelter from the wind and weather."

My face lightened up despite the adrenaline still coursing through me. "Really? Where at?" I questioned, warranting from her a friendly nudge towards a rise in the land that jutted out as an inconsistency of the otherwise moderately-sloped terrain.

Leah led me along the wall of the rock, both of us carefully watching for any more disastrous drops that could put an early end to our careers. I saw that it extended upwards to form a cliff, the distance to the top being a good forty feet. The summit of the mountain was still further up from there, probably a good hour and a half longer of hiking, but that hopefully wouldn't be too big of an issue once morning came.

When the wall abruptly turned towards inside the mountain, I realized what Leah had been referring to. The mouth of a cave was before us now, a dozen meters wide and half a dozen tall. The immediate inside looked plenty spacious enough to accommodate the two of us, and would serve as the perfect shelter.

"Good find," I said, patting her shoulder and nodding once in approval.

"And I didn't almost get myself killed trying to find it. I get bonus points for that, right?" she answered, giving me a sideways grin that made me huff in annoyance.

"Yeah, yeah…" I rolled my eyes and dropping my complimentary demeanor. "That only happened because you called me over here in the first place anyway."

Her jocular attitude faded away like the dying sunlight, and she stared at the ground. "Oh... yeah," she muttered, a hint of guilt in her tone. "I didn't really think of it like that. I guess it's nothing to worry about, but I'll make sure to keep a better eye out in the future." A short moment passed before she glanced up and punched me in the shoulder, giving me a somber look. "You do the same though! I can't lose you to some stupid fall just because you can't stay on your feet, you know?"

"Oh please, my footwork is fine," I deflected with an encouraging grin. I understood this wasn't a topic to beat to death with satire, however, so I quickly transitioned to giving her a genuine gaze of my own. "But I was just kidding, that wasn't your fault. And I get it. We both need to be careful out here, or anywhere we go for that matter, and watch each other. It's a dangerous world."

"No joke," Leah remarked, fortunately sounding satisfied with my answer. "Just think of everything that's happened today. We really just can't catch a break."

A gust of wind interrupted our exchange, momentarily chilling me without the glaring sun to transcend it. By now the sky was lit only by twilight, and we registered that it was time to make ourselves as comfortable as possible inside the cave. We both made our way into the cave without sharing a word further on the topic before, each accepting that it was settled.

I actually ended up having to run right back out to hack up some dead brush, Leah insisting that I go slowly to keep from risking another near-death scenario. Not to my surprise, I saw a precarious fall around a corner not far from the cave entrance that I made note of to avoid tomorrow morning. The place we were staying was in a pretty stable location on the mountainside, but I knew from my experience before that there was still steep drops and hidden incisions to watch out for everywhere. I hoped this wouldn't be a recurring problem all the way to our destination, or else we might have to go slower than I'd prefer to when we set out tomorrow.

Once I'd gathered an armful of dead shrubbage, which didn't take but two minutes, I carried it back to the cave so we could start a fire. When I arrived, I tossed it down on the ground where Leah could go to work on it. She cupped her paws around her maw and gently breathed on the greenery a few times, the funneled air heating to the temperature necessary to ignite without utterly incinerating what little I had brought. A tiny flame appeared in the center, and it quickly spread to envelop the whole pile to promise us a good few minutes of light and heat. We technically weren't in dire need of either, but it would at least let us look at our map and see our dinner as we ate it.

I sat down, tossing the bag full of Archen's junk towards the wall a few meters behind me. The ground wasn't any softer than the rocky terrain outside, but the relief of resting my legs in a safe spot after all that had happened today eclipsed any insignificant discomforts. A contented groan from across the small fire implied I wasn't alone in my remission, and my mouth watered when I saw the source grab two perfect apples from the exploration bag.

"Catch," Leah said while tossing me the precious food.

The apple soared way over my head, and I had to extend a vine all the way back to catch it before it hit the ground. Retracting the tendril brought me the food, with which I then took a bite of while shooting my partner a glare.

"What?" she giggled when she saw my expression. "Just testing your reach."

"Hm," I huffed with my mouth full, before swallowing the delicious juices so I could speak. "Well, did I pass?"

She shrugged and smirked. "I'd have caught it sooner."

"Without vines?" I chuckled with raised eyebrows, taking a swig of my water container.

"Well, no. Only if I had vines."

"But... you don't have vines, so..."

"Fair point… You know, I really am the tiniest bit jealous of those," she confided after taking a couple seconds to eat a bite of her own apple. When she saw my confused expression, she pointed to my shoulder and elaborated. "Your vines I mean. Or... are they even called vines?"

"I think so," I replied while giving her a puzzled look. "But what's there to be jealous about? My arms are so short that I can barely touch my opposite shoulders."

"But make up for it, you have those two vines that can, like… cut stuff, hold stuff, catch stuff, choke stuff... I don't know, I just feel like I'd have a lot of fun with that kind of wingspan." She smiled and chuckled to herself at the thought, and I did too when I considered what it would have looked like back in Serene Village. Leah, a well-known troublemaker, running around with vines like mine trying to figure out how to use them. I remembered how bad I had been with them when I had first realized they were an alternative to my lackluster arms, accidentally coming inches from whipping off Nuzleaf's leaf-hair that day in Lush Forest. They were undoubtedly useful, but still, it sounded outlandish to me that a fire-breathing Fennekin would envy something like that. Even if she was just exploring the thought.

"Hey, at least you can breathe fire," I told her as I extended my vines out a few feet to make my next point. "Would you trade the ability to do that for these?"

She considered the question for a second, before shaking her head. "…No," she decided. "I don't think I would. I can't imagine myself not being able to use fire-type attacks."

"I can't imagine it either," I said, finishing my apple before changing the subject. "Hey, how are we doing on food?"

"We've got enough for a reasonable dinner tonight and then all three meals tomorrow, so we'll be fine. Here, catch." She peeked her nose out of the bag and reached her paw in to grab and toss me a bag containing green gummies, thankfully throwing the food at a more reasonable angle this time. I bit into the seam and split it, being careful not to let the delectables spill. I savored every bite, keeping in mind that the chances of coming across sugary snacks out here were slim to none. I saw Leah taking the opposite approach by trying to cram three of her own red gummies into her mouth at once, and I smiled to myself and shook my head. Some things don't change.

"Mmm," she mumbled to herself with a smack of her lips. The little baggie wasn't very big to begin with, being travel-size, but it was still large enough to last longer than the handful of seconds it took her to empty it out. I hadn't even eaten half of mine yet.

"I remember when miss Azumarill would hand out gummies to all the kids an hour after school got out," Leah mentioned, thinking back fondly on the memory. "They always tasted so fresh, like they were right out of Kangaskhan's storage!"

I recalled chatting once or twice with the middle-aged Azumarill that had worked at the Cafe Connection back in Serene Village. She absolutely adored kids, from the tiniest babies to those of us more matured and in school, and was usually willing to give generous handouts when they had enough to go around.

"I remember that," I confirmed with her, nodding my head to the recollection. "Too bad we were usually somewhere in the middle of a dungeon around that time. Everyone would always miss us and wonder where we'd gone off to."

Leah nodded back in an absent manner, and I caught a glimpse of melancholy in her eyes and she absentmindedly stared into the fire.

"Leah? Something the matter?"

"Hm?" she glanced up at me and exhaled, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "Oh... not really. I'm just thinking about how I miss everyone again. I really need to cut it out."

Oh. So she really has been trouble by these thoughts after all, just as I have. It made sense, Leah having lived in Serene Village her whole life, that she would feel some kind of way even if she had experienced modest rejection for most of her life. I had at least been granted a warm enough welcome.

"I get it," I finally said after a few passing moments of listening to the receding fire crackle. "I miss them too. And... I feel bad for the way we chose to leave. I don't regret the act of doing it since it was the necessary course of action, but I find myself feeling homesick all the same." I looked into the fire and blinked. "It's so frustrating the way things can be sometimes."

"It is..." she sighed, before some kind of realization hit her and a sly grin replaced her downcast frown. "But just imagine what they would say if they knew we had made it into the Exploration Society. We'd be like celebrities!"

"No doubt," I concurred, laughing a bit with her to brighten up the sensitive topic. "A few of them might not like the sound of us choosing this life over the country life, but it's hard to critique us when we're out here helping others."

"I know right?" Just like that, Leah was cheered up and smiling cheek to cheek as usual. "We're on another continent for Arceus' sake! Living the dream!

"They'd probably be jealous, to be honest," she continued. "We'll have to make sure to tell them all about it if we ever visit."

I hesitated when she said that, the prospect being so casually thrown out in the open that it caught my breath in my throat.

Visit...? I hadn't given any kind of return to Serene Village much consideration, since it would still be too risky with all of the dangerous unknowns surrounding my existence in this world. The Beeheyem had caused enough mayhem over there, and adding whatever the hell confronted me in that underground tomb into the mix was the last thing I wanted to be responsible for. Maybe one day, if I got this all figured out, a visit would certainly be warranted. But that seemed so far away that just thinking about it made it feel like a dream that hadn't even begun to put itself together into a tangible reality. Not to mention that the very act of figuring out my situation would probably involve thoroughly evaluating and possibly even reversing whatever supernatural process changed me into a Snivy, which would prevent me from visiting anyway. One way or another, I would end up keeping a fair distance. And deep down, I wasn't okay with that, even with the risks considered.

"Looks like the fire's about dead," Leah yawned. I shoved aside my thoughts and glanced at the ashen pile of shrubbery, where only an unimpressive hue of orange glowed in its core. As I had figured, the handful of dead brush hadn't lasted but a few minutes. I looked up and saw Leah walk over to the wall and lay down, puffing up her tail for a couple seconds so she could comfortably rest her head on it.

"No point in staying up any longer and wasting our energy," she murmured as she shifted to get as cozy as possible on the cold stone floor. "See you in the morning Smugleaf."

I felt the weight of my body whispering agreement, and I decided I wouldn't be far behind her. I laid down on the opposite wall near Archen's bag, closing my eyes and allowing my joints and limbs to relax. The ground wasn't really fit to sleep on, but I found that it wasn't hard to ignore when the idea of sleep alone was as appealing to me as it was now..

"Alright. Goodnight."

Dream and reality clashed together in an eternal struggle as I woke to the sensation of encompassing pain. My body was still numb, my mind was still made of pudding, and my eyes flashed open but failed to immediately adjust to the darkness. I briefly registered that something had aggressively made contact with me, although precious details like where I was and if I was badly injured escaped my bewilderment. I let out a grunt of shock and pain when something sharp hit me again, now jolting me into a state of total consciousness, and desperately tried to gather my senses and get a grip on whatever it was that interrupted my deep sleep.

I caught a glimpse of a gigantic figure looming over me, and I instinctively rolled backwards towards the mouth of the cave to get away. I conveniently did so right when its foot stomped down where I just was, and my heart started thumping loudly in my chest as fear and adrenaline overtook the unidentified pain.

Just as my eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, a blinding flash of orange and white lit up the room and made me shield my vision. After scrambling to gain my footing and blinking rapidly, my eyes adjusted once more and I finally was able to assess my surroundings.

I glanced over in Leah's direction, and my heart skipped a beat. A giant Ursaring towered over Leah, who had just blasted it with fire to keep it from mauling my half-asleep form any further. I didn't need to be fully awake to put together that it wasn't here to have a friendly chat.

Holy shit!

"Get out of our cave!" Leah barked at the colossal bear, who responded with a snarl that was twice as loud.

"I-I think it lives here!" I shouted to correct her, my voice slurred by grogginess and drowned out by the territorial feral's snarls. I doubt she'd have heard me anyway, as she was too busy scrambling out of range as it furiously tried to slash at her with its unwieldy set of claws.

Reasoning with the Ursaring was clearly out of the question. Talking things over with wild Pokemon didn't really have the best track record for success. On top of that, this cave probably belonged to it, meaning it saw us as the enemies and therefore would be substantially less willing to retreat or negotiate anyway. That meant violence was the only option, and from the looks of it, our enemy held a lofty advantage. It was five times the size of either of us, and had caught us fast asleep, totally unprepared for a fight of any kind.

My limbs were complaining about the sudden blood rush in the middle of the night, and it took the same surge of willpower it took to wake up early every morning to get my feet moving and help my partner out. After all, I had to assume that she was feeling just as sluggish as I was, so there really was no effort to be spared.

She had just finished stumbling under a slash that narrowly missed above her head when I slithered up behind the beast and slung both vines around its bulky neck. I heard it grunt in surprise and then desperation and pain as I wrapped around and pulled as hard as I could to squeeze the air out of it. Leah heard the sound and didn't miss a beat, nailing it in the stomach with a flamethrower as I struggled to hold the beast in place. It cried out in pain, and loosened its resistance as all of its strength was evaporated.

Or so I thought. I might not have fallen for the feint and loosened my grip the tiniest bit if I was wide awake, but the circumstances weren't operating in our favor in the moment that I had realized my mistake. The Ursaring, unexpectedly invigorated by the burn condition that Leah's flamethrower had inflicted, roared mightily and slung me forward by yanking onto the vines that I had just been choking it with. I refused to let up my grip as a new wave of Leah's flames hit it, this time on its backside as it turned to face me.

I felt its menacing gaze lock onto me, swearing revenge and supporting my decision to switch to a defensive strategy. I tried to retract my weapons to avoid its wrath only to find that it was gripping them both tightly in one of its massive paws, refusing to let go. I extended my vines further to take a few steps back and put distance between myself and the Ursaring, but I stopped in horror when I realized that my body was not its immediate target. My tugging became more desperate when it raised its free arm to the ceiling of the cave and brought it down, seemingly ignoring the stream of flames slamming into its backside.

I managed to yank my ties with the Ursaring to the left just enough to make it partially miss the attack, but I could tell from what I felt next that I hadn't quite done enough. Its claws made contact with a spot along my right vine, and in a split second the nerves running up from the contact point to the tip of the tendril ceased to exist. An unbearable spike of pain wasn't far behind, and I finally pulled both appendages back to me with a new desperation so I could size up the damage.

Assuming I was taken care of for now, the Ursaring tossed the severed end of the vine aside and turned back to deal with Leah, who had chosen to switch strategies a moment beforehand. As the beast turned, a psybeam pulsed through the air on a collision course with its temple, the contact causing it to stumble to the ground with a pained screech. Leah ran over to regroup with me, but ended up pushing me all the way out of the cave entrance when we saw how quickly the bear had transitioned into a devastating thrash attack headed right at us.

"Look out!" Leah rasped during the hustle to get outside and avoid its rampage.

"Ah, I can't see shit!" I cursed when I tripped on a loose pebble, causing me to lean into her for a moment to regain my balance.

We were trying to put distance between ourselves and the angry cave-dweller, but I wasn't sure simply running away was going to get the job done, especially given how little light there was to see. Even then, we'd still need our stuff lying on the ground back in the cave, so going back was an inevitability one way or another. When I looked back to see how we were doing, my stomach fell to the ground when I caught the vague outline of the Ursaring charging right towards us. And in that moment of dread, an idea was formed.

The quarter-moon didn't light the sky as effectively as I would've preferred even with my eyes fully adjusted, but I could see well enough to figure out where I was and where I wanted to go.

"I've got a plan," I hissed to Leah, whose bewildered expression was barely visible in the dim moonlight.

I didn't wait for a response as I pivoted in place and dashed towards the Ursaring at a slight angle. The distance was now closing at exponentially the rate it was before, so we collided in only a couple of seconds as I brought my uninjured vine across its face. The bear lashed out blindly, not expecting the surprise offensive, and I felt the air above my head ripple as I narrowly rolled out of the way of its outstretched claws.

With its attention now on me, I stumbled to regain my footing so I could run towards the area I had collected fuel from earlier. Inconsistencies on the ground that I hadn't bothered to remember now inhibited my progress as I found myself constantly tripping on the tiny pits and pebbles that left me with cuts and bruises on my legs. But I could hear the ground thump with every footstep of what was following me, and there was really no comparison to what would happen if I stopped.

Still running, I caught sight of the patch of dead brush that I had torn up to make a fire back in the cave, and then the corner hiding the fatal drop a few meters behind it. That was what I was here for. If the bastard was stuck in a thrash attack and was charging right for me, all it would take is a few evasive maneuvers and Leah and I would be safe once more. I reached the edge and skidded to a stop, pivoting around to face the oncoming beast.

Maybe it was just my mind being too groggy to cooperate with reality, or maybe I truly wasn't proficient at judging my own speed, but I knew something had gone wrong. Instead of a few paces back as I had expected, the Ursaring was now practically on top of me, already leaving the ground to make its final leap while too caught up in a rage to recognize the doom it was jumping into.

Taken by complete surprise, I sidestepped away from the ledge to avoid the center mass of its killing lunge. But I was a second too late, my tiny legs delivering me a disservice when I least needed it. The bear's outstretched claws dug into my shoulder, the same one that hosted my now-retracted vine that was halfway severed, and I felt a screaming pain pulse throughout my senses from the wound that opened up there. All of the chemical reactions in my body slammed into focus, and the source I had been drawing all of my strength from had faded away without a whimper.

The feeling of total helplessness that enveloped me next made the soreness and pain hardly matter to me in the following moments. Even the Ursaring, now evidently finished with its thrashing, grunted in surprise when the ledge shifted in place to a loud cracking sound. I was only inches from the edge, but that was made irrelevant when I felt the ground around me divorce with the land behind it. I could feel the cliffside I was lying on suddenly become a platform of its own, and in that horrifying moment I, too, was divorced from the earth in the blink of an eye.

Someone called my name, and as my vision began to tilt at an angle I managed to turn my head and catch sight of Leah bounding towards me. I tried to roll towards her, but I had nothing left, so it was up to her to close the gap in those slipping seconds.

She leaped just as the Ursaring had, but with intentions that I welcomed. I rolled onto my side to extend a hand to her outstretched paw, my injured shoulder too numbed and strained to extend an already-crippled vine, and she stretched as far as she could to complete the connection.

But she never did.

Several seconds had passed now since the effects of the Ursaring's final slam into the unstable ledge had begun, and that was more than nature would grant us mercy for. Whether she was in optimal position to escape or not I couldn't really tell. The entire thing collapsed, and the hopeless feeling of weightlessness was the last thing I remembered before the blackness.