Mirus was registering his new pokemon on his pokedex when Heron arrived, brushing her short hair out of her eyes.
"It sucked," she said, seeing Mirus awake. "I didn't see a single snake pokemon except for another ekans, and even that belonged to a trainer." She spotted the pokeball in Mirus's hand that he was registering. "Did one of your pokemon evolve or something?"
"No," Mirus replied. He pressed the button on the ball, and the electrike burst out.
"How come I go for an hour's walk and find nothing, and you stay here and find a dog?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Don't know. He was attracted by the food I'd used, and wanted a battle."
Heron sighed. "What're you going to call him?"
"Jazz," Mirus said straight away.
"Cool name." Heron sat down. "Anyway, it's getting late. Should we move on or stay here for the night?"
"Move on," Mirus said. "We might be able to see Plainstown."
They gathered up their bags and found the path that led through the trees- it was a wood this time, not just a copse, said Heron. After some thoughts, arguments and rock-paper-scissors games, Mirus climbed a tree that looked taller than the rest.
"What d'you see?" Heron shouted up at him.
"Nothing yet," he yelled back, still trying to edge his way up the tree. Finally he burst through the final canopy of leaves, leaves falling in a tornado around his head. He shifted his foot to a higher branch, and looked around.
He could see, to his surprise, quite a bit. Down through the leaves there were Grim and Chilli playing, and Jazz looking at them shyly, Heron looking up at him- he waved, but she didn't appear to see- and ahead, after an ocean of trees, a lump quite far ahead that might or might not be houses.
"I see something that could be Plainstown!" he yelled, sending a flock of taillow fluttering out of a nearby tree in alarm.
"What?" Heron shouted back.
"I'm coming down!" he yelled again, taking his foot of its branch to find the one lower down.
Of course, being Mirus, he found the branch wasn't there, and tripped, falling backwards. Only his hands, reaching out blindly and fastening onto another branch, saved him from falling to his death; or at least getting a nasty bruise.
He noticed something a bit strange about the branch he was holding. It was greenish and soft and bumpy in some places. His fingers probed the softness, and looking up, he saw a pokemon curled around the branch, hissing at him.
In fright, Mirus let go, but the pokemon uncurled itself and jumped after him. Luckily the boy found himself hooked over a branch, but the pokemon fell all the way to the ground, and hissed again, looking around.
"It's a snake!" Heron said, sounding positively delighted. "Thanks, Mirus!"
"You're welcome," he moaned, winded slightly, having landed straight on his stomach after falling about six feet. "A little help?"
However, Heron was more interested in the snake pokemon, which was now glaring at her. It was pale green and had a fan of leaves near the end of its tail, as well as a large mouth with dozens of tiny fangs. Marks that looked like blotches were patterned on its underbelly.
From his high viewing point, Mirus heard the bleep and information of Heron's pokedex, and he had a good battle view, even if he had a bruise the size of a Wailord on his stomach.
"Vineslice, number 194, grass. The vine pokemon. Snake type- acceptable.
"Vineslice spends its days curled around tree branches, looking like some sort of plant- or vine. If disturbed it can fly into a rage and attack anything in its path. The leaves on its tail can release a variety of spores and powders- never approach a vineslice from behind."
"Good," Heron said, putting her pokedex away. "Ekans, go! use Poison Sting!"
Ekans emerged and sensed the battle at one, letting loose a barrage of needles from his mouth. The vineslice flicked its tail left and right as it writhed around extremely quickly, then finally straight at Ekans, knocking it backwards.
"Whiplash," Heron muttered. "I forgot. Ekans, use Wrap and Poison Sting when it stops!"
The vineslice, however, did not seem to be stopping. It squirmed backwards, before crashing into Ekans again. Ekans, thoughoughly annoyed, went for it, and the Wrap Attack seemed to do nothing, but finally the vineslice stopped, and shook its head, as though dizzy.
Heron took her chance; "Now, Poison Sting!" and Ekans opened his mouth again and send out the familiar glowing needles. The vineslice was struck full on, and reared backwards in anger.
Heron was triumphant, but the vineslice was back in an instant, its tail held up and the leaves shaking softly. Mirus stared at it, worried, as a soft powder started to flow out, the light spores caught by the soft wind. A tiny amount of the powder flowed near Mirus as it spread out to fill the area, and Mirus started to feel tired.
"You're not winning this one," Heron told the vineslice, as Ekans's eyelids began to droop. "Ekans, keep going. Ignore the spores. I want you to use Bite on your tail whenever you feel sleepy. In the meantime, try a Bite on that vineslice. You know you can do it, we've come too far now."
Ekans responded by rearing up, fangs gleaming, before throwing itself forward for them to sink into its scales. Ekans, of course, was immune to his own poison, and the bite only forced him awake, before he slithered forward. The spores were settling on the ground, visible only to someone looking very close.
The vineslice was a little annoyed at how the attack had not worked, so turned back to the offense technique, trying to fend off Ekan's fangs with its own. With a hurried flick of Ekan's tail, his opponent was flung away from him, and coiled itself up on the ground, hissing but very tired from the battle.
This seemed to give Heron an idea. "Ekans, throw sand at the vineslice with your tail!"
Ekans obeyed instantly, taking time between recovering breaths to scoop thin layers of the dusty dry ground, broken by tree roots, straight at the vineslice. Too weak to be a proper Sand Attack, but Heron was only interested in the tiny spores that had settled there.
With no way to avoid its own attack, the vineslice started to feel the effect of the Sleep Powder, and started to give in to the overwhelming tiredness that perused it. And before its head touched the ground, Heron already had a fresh pokeball in her hand, and threw it.
She ran forwards to Ekans as the ball locked, embracing him lovingly. "You did it!" she said. "You're amazing- thank you!"
Ekans closed his eyes and nodded dreamily. Heron understood and called him back, before clipping her new pokemon's ball to her belt with the other two. "Did you see that, Mirus?" she called up. "That's how it should be done. It was really tough, but we did it!"
"Brilliant," Mirus yelled back.
"I'm so proud," Heron said, smiling broadly.
"And I'm really happy for you, but I think I'm stuck."
It was already dark and actually a bit cold when the duo had reached what could possibly be called the centre of the woods. The trees were blocking out what was left of the light, but it was too dark to keep going. Mirus sent out Jazz, for the sparks that crawled over his fur emited a dim light, and they searched quickly for a place to camp.
Heron found a place that was hidden from the view of the path by several bushes, to keep off the wind, but it was near enough for them not to get lost. After some more arguments, Heron set up her sleeping bag right behind the bushes, and Mirus unrolled his a little to the left. Jazz, seeing a bed set up, immediately jumped on it, and it took some more laughing and fighting for Mirus to get in himself.
He recalled the electrike and took off his pokeball belt, onto which he placed Jazz's pokeball. Everything was black, so he placed the belt in what he hoped was easy reach. Though I won't be able to see anything, he thought.
"'Night, Heron," he said.
But she was already asleep, and he got no reply.
It was still dark when Mirus awoke, the blackness pressing into his eyes like water. At first he wondered what had woken him, but them his ears finally registered the sound of someone screaming. Horrified and frightened, Mirus threw Jazz's pokeball for some light. The screaming was coming from near here.
The electrike's Static shone rays in a slow circle, and Mirus saw the screaming was coming from Heron herself, eyes closed and lying down, but the wailing, continuous noise was coming from her open mouth as she yelled. It sounded less eerie than on the ferry, but it was definatly the same.
Quickly, Mirus climbed out of his sleeping bag, crawled over to Heron's, and shook her awake. The noice stopped at once as she opened her eyes, confused.
"What?" she asked in a hoarse voice.
"You were screaming," he told her, "in your sleep. Are you alright? Did you have a nightmare?"
"I'm- I'm OK," she said. "Just a bad dream. That's all."
"What was it about?" he asked her. At this time in the night she was like a pale ghost, quiet and not at all like the girl he knew.
"My dad's looking for me," she said, and looked up at him, though her eyes were unfocused. "He doesn't know, does he? I'm sorry, Mirus."
Mirus had no idea why she was apologizing, but nodded. "It's alright."
Her face was pale, and she was shaking slightly as she spoke, as though she were cold. Jazz growled at her disturbance, but she ignored him, and instead turned over and went back to sleep.
In the morning, Mirus was awoken by someone shaking him. He moaned and tried to roll over, resulting in him getting tangled up in his sleeping bag. Someone laughed. "Get up, Mirus. Do you want to leave or not?"
He reluctantly opened his eyes to see Heron standing over him, grinning and no longer pale.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
She rolled her eyes. "Come on, it's not that early."
"No, I mean do you feel better?"
"From when?" She looked at him. There was a pause. Is she lying? Mirus wondered. "Nah, never mind," he finally said. "I just thought something, that's all."
She shrugged and moved away to roll up her sleeping bag. Mirus crawled out of his. He'd slept in his clothes because he thought he would be too cold otherwise, so only had to put his trainers on.
Heron was ripping open her last packets of pokemon food. She threw another packet to Mirus, and he struggled with it until it burst open, in that annoying way foil packets do. He sent out Grim, Chilli and Jazz, who all seemed very sleepy, but brightened up at the sight of the food. Near Heron; Ekans, Onix and her new vineslice were eating too. The newcomer seemed uncomfortable in the presence of the other two snakes, especially Onix, whose massive body and tail trailed out into the path and flattened a few bushes in the process.
Finally, after what Heron complained seemed like an age, everything and everyone was set and ready to go, pokemon recalled and lost items hunted for and recovered. The sunlight had filtered through the trees, sending waves of dappled green light washing over everything, giving it a moss-covered feel. The warmth and stickiness were starting to come back, and Mirus was wishing he'd brought some water.
It was easy to see where pokemon lived here; a pokemon's hole was biting into the earth on a bank choked full of roots; a nest that squawks issued from clung to a tree branch some way ahead; rustling from bushes came from everywhere around them. For most of the journey, neither Heron nor Mirus said a word, but just admired everything they saw.
Suddenly, the trees and shrubbery ended, leaving the dusty path to continue winding out onto plains. And, following a completely straight road with a few trees framing various parts of the route, was a fortress of houses that looked decidedly promising. Mirus sighed at the heat hit them full blast.
They stepped out of the forest- Heron remaining unfazed by the climate- away from the desperate, straggling undergrowth snaking away from the trees, that shakily marked the beginning of grassland.
And the beginning of what could be victory.
WHAT? I hear you say. After all this time, BTM has actually been updated? Well, I'm glad you care, and my answer is yes, of course. Or would you be reading this? Anyway, I am sorry about the wait- our computers are being rewired and stuff, and the internet is all over the place.
Oh, and Vineslice belongs to me. I'm going to put some pictures up in my bio soon, so if you want to have a look, you may do so :o)
Well, now I've just given you a (nice) long(ish) chapter to read. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you didn't, leave a review. If you did enjoy it... well, leave a review also. Or else I'll have you know that the "real" Jazz is level 100 and knows a nice mixture of very painful attacks. As does the real Juniper, Grim and Chilli. And more wonderful characters who you might meet later.
Heh heh.