Chapter 7 - Keep On Goin'
Snizzy braces his feet against the ground, and with a claw by his side, pushes off the gr-
I am hit, square in the face, with the blunt end of a Sneasel's claw. I am sent staggering backwards, clutching my large nose and feeling somewhat dazed.
With a bleeding nose, I shake my head quickly in an attempt to recover, and look up to see Snizzy looking at me in a concerning fashion. His glaring red eyes rattle me to the bone, and a sense of impending doom overcomes me.
Escape suddenly feels impossible, and I feel an emotional miasma of terror cloud my judgement.
In spite of the fear slowly encroaching upon my heart, I feel as though Snizzy would not accept a simple surrender. Perhaps I'm being foolish, but if this is a form of evaluation, then I cannot afford to disappoint.
On a gut feeling, I jump to the left just in time to see Snizzy's claw pierce the area where my head would have been had I not moved.
Is he trying to spar with me or assassinate me!?
I spin around on a whim, hoping to catch him approaching aggressively again. Ideally, my tail would slam into the side of his head, which would hopefully give me time to think of a strategy to at least not get skewered.
When I feel my tail collide with a skull, I don't even look back. I immediately run to put distance between me and Snizzy.
Okay, let's think about this. Snizzy is clearly trying to harm me physically. I do not have any items or objects on or near me to help me in my battle against him. There are no rocks, no spikes or large sticks. All I have around me are trees, mushrooms, shrubs and…
Wait a minute… there are trees around…
Suddenly, I see a streak of purple directly in front of me. A glowing black claw strikes the ground with a Night Slash, a visible black tear in the air mending behind it. Dirt is kicked up, and I see one of Snizzy's red eyes leer at me from his position.
Now, I know Snizzy expects me to run away. I've run after the previous attack he's done. While there isn't much else I can do, maybe I can bait him into striking one of the trees?
In spite of my tremoring heart, and in spite of my trepidation, I stare Snizzy down.
Time stands still for a moment as Snizzy's burning scarlet eyes meet mine. My palms become sweaty, my breathing uneven, and I take a single step back.
Snizzy pulls his claw out of the ground, and immediately goes for close quarters strikes. First he aims for my head, then my torso, my torso again, and then the cycle begins again. There's a pattern.
I'm barely able to dodge all of the strikes, and I feel cuts form on my arms, body, and face as I retreat further and further. The dull throbbing sting from each cut is exacerbated by my sweat.
I keep facing Snizzy, but I know that I'll soon be out of ring.
Feeling a slight change in elevation behind me, I suddenly hop to the right as Snizzy goes for another strike to my head. He barely reacts, though his claw nearly penetrates a tree in front of him. He stops short, but just barely.
My heart pounds in my ears as I run across the clearing. I can feel myself tiring, my breath becoming more laboured and my muscles becoming more taxed. It strikes me that this is going to end very badly for me if I can't make something happen, both because I lack the stamina to see it to the end, and also because Snizzy clearly outclasses me.
I immediately look to the ground. I need to find a mushroom, a rock, some way of ending this battle early before I get seriously injured!
Suddenly, I feel a pressure around my neck, bef-
*Gluck!*
While I was trying to keep my distance and think of a solution to my problem, Snizzy must have waited for an opportunity to strike. I hadn't been paying enough attention, and now the fabric around my neck is being pulled taut.
I am overcome by my inability to breathe. My nose and mouth both attempt to suck in air - even the smallest morsel - to no avail.
I feel a gaping emptiness in my lungs, as they burn through whatever oxygen had been in them. They feel dark, hollow, and hot.
As I struggle and claw at the scarf around my neck, I can hear Snizzy speak behind me.
"You're techniques need work. They're serviceable, but you sorely need training and guidance. While you do have some inclination for evasion, you're execution leaves much to be desired. Even when I fully telegraphed my attacks, you had trouble," Snizzy says calmly while I choke.
Snizzy let's go of the ends of my scarf, and I fall to the ground coughing. I tear at the fabric around my neck, whipping it off as quickly as I can whilst I get up shakily on my hands and knees.
"Furthermore, while you do seem to be thinking through all your actions - reading my approach with a Slam, and attempting to stick my claw with the trees - you lack the physical prowess to fully take advantage of your intellect," Snizzy finishes as he enters into my view, arms crossed and face inscrutable.
I see Snizzy look me up and down as I clear my throat from the ground. My hands and knees can feel the soil in their cuts, the salty earth enhancing the stinging in my limbs as my throat aches from compression.
"Although… that you attempted to use the terrain itself as an asset in combat is a certain level of clever. I may have caught on, but I'd be lying if I said I expected it," Snizzy states as he walks closer.
I see Snizzy put a finger to his chin in thought as he examines me. I look away to the dirt beneath me with a hot face and negative emotions.
"I see potential," he says simply. "We'll have you here training for a week. Maybe two. That should whip you into shape - at least enough to go on lower-level missions."
I hear the shifting of feet in front of me as Snizzy turns to someone - presumably, Cole.
"Cole, bring the Snivy some Oran berries. We still have training to do, and the quicker they recover, the better," Snizzy calls out.
From my left, I hear a "Yessir!" and the scampering of talons.
I slowly get myself into a sitting position and examine my own body.
All along my arms, and on my torso, are dozens of small cuts in my scales.
It suddenly strikes me that I have scales, and not skin. I have scales, like a snake, because I am one. Each scale is a smooth, shiny green, occasionally broken by thin red lines which bleed in very small amounts. I can't help but trace the diamond patterned scales with my eyes - and eventually finger - even as I'm irritated by each slit.
The scales are smooth, and subtly… well, I don't want to say oily, but there's a certain film to it. The smoothness sticks to my fingers in a very strange way. I'm genuinely unsure as to how I would describe the sensation, but I at least don't find it unpleasant.
I also realize that, aside from the pleasant view of my scales, my body looks somewhat worse for wear. Not only am I covered in dirt and cuts, but I'm very thin for a Snivy. I wouldn't call it unhealthy, but I am rather scrawny. Not to mention, a little pale.
To be blunt with myself, I look like I either don't get out much, or am somewhat weak.
At least one of which has been confirmed.
I hear the scratch of talons against dirt to my left as I finish my self-examination.
"Hey dude, I got some Oran berries here. Y'alright?" I hear Cole ask as he approaches.
I glance over at Cole, and find him balancing two Oran berries on his head. He looks vaguely concerned for me, though to what extent I'm not entirely sure.
I reach out to grab one of the berries, and come to regret that as the cut scales of my arms slide against each other and stab inwards. Without the draining excitement of battle to distract me, the sensation stings to a much greater extent, and I flinch.
I see Cole wince, and he says, "Ooo, yeah, sorry dude. Don't wanna move too much, y'know."
He gently rolls the berries off of his head, where they land on his feathers and are gently lowered to the floor.
"D'ja know anything about berries? I mean, y'know, like on a medicinal level," he asks me. I shake my head in response, and examine the berries.
Both berries are a deep, rich blue. They superficially resemble blue berries, in that they're round, blue, and yes, berries. What strikes me as strange is just how large they are, though. Both of them are easily as large as a fist, and are speckled with fleks of a darker hue.
"Here, you're gonna wanna eat one of these. They act like a painkiller when you eat 'em raw - and they fill you up, too," Cole says, gesturing to one of the berries.
I gingerly grab one of them, and hold it up to my face. The skin is smooth, and upon closer examination, the berry is subtly lumpy and uneven. The smell reminds me of… mint? No, no, it's almost… alpine?
I raise my eyebrow at the enigmatic berry, before resigning myself to my fate and popping it into my mouth.
Texturally, the comparison to blue berries is quite apt. It has that satisfying mix of juice and flesh that, to me, makes blue berries enjoyable.
The flavour, on the other hand?
It is… puzzling, to say the least.
It's a strange, bizarre flavour, the likes of which I can't say I've ever experienced. There's the initial chew, which I would compare to a firecracker going off in your mouth. Just, the spice and sour tang of the juice, followed immediately by a puckering bitterness from the flesh, and finally a dry sweetness as I swallow it down.
I see Cole take a single look at my face, before he chuckles and says, "Heh, yeah, I know. Oran berries taste weird, uncooked, dude, I get it."
"Now check this out," Cole says, before running his feather along my arm.
I immediately jerk my arm away. His touch does not elicit physical pain from me, but I find the act of being touched at all to be deeply uncomfortable. I briefly felt every cell in my body scream in displeasure at being touched; my reaction leaving us both a little shocked.
"Woah! Sorry! Didn't mean to hurt you, 'mon. Did it not work?" Cole asks with a tilt of his head and a puzzled facial expression.
Running a finger of my own down my arm, I notice that the dull throbbing sting of all these little cuts has essentially dulled into nothing. Only upon applying pressure do I feel even the smallest tinge of pain.
Both amazed by the fast acting properties of the berry, and confused by my extreme reaction to Cole's touch, I say, "No, no, it doesn't hurt. I, um, well, I don't… I lik- don't like being touched."
I look away and down at the floor as embarrassment flushes my face.
"Hey now, no reason to get all weird, dude," Cole tells me in a softer tone of voice. "Heck, now I know - don't touch the snake boi!"
I look at him again, only to find a reassuring smile.
I can't help but give a small little smile of my own.
"Alright, now watch," Cole says, whilst gesturing to the remaining berry. I pay close attention to Cole, expecting important information.
"Eating an Oran berry acts like a painkiller. Problem is, that doesn't stop you bleeding - it just makes you not feel it, y'know?" he states.
Before I can fully process his actions, Cole takes the single berry in his right talon, and hops closer to me on the other. Then, with little fanfare, he crushes it and allows the juice to drip out and onto me.
"Buuut if you just apply the juice to the wound, it heals up real quick," Cole says with a wink and a nod.
I stare in awe and fascination as the cuts on my body slowly close, severed scales reconnecting as though never having been injured. Within moments, I look good as new.
My jaw goes slack and my eyes wide.
Wow.
This is amazing! Such efficacy from a simple berry! Utility, versatility, vitality - all rolled into a small fruit.
I've never seen anything like this. I've never heard of a medicine that works so well! Not over the counter, not prescription, not anything!
"Yeah, I know, pretty cool, huh?" Cole asks eagerly.
I nod quickly. "It's amazing! Did, uh… did Snizzy show you this stuff?"
Cole visibly deflates, just a little. I'm taken off guard by this, but before I can say anything, he seemingly bounces back instantly. Huh.
"Uh… no, Snizzy didn't show me this. I learned it a long time ago. Y'know," he says, before looking away.
Then, from behind the two of us, we here someone clear their throat.
Turning around, I find myself faced with a frowning Sneasel.
I gulp.
So after Arthur and I got done with his little lesson in medicine, Snizzy got all up on us with his training routine.
Honestly, it was kinda light for today. Not super easy, y'know, I still have to work to pull myself up a tree branch with my beak, or whatever else. We'd just do some stuff for like fifteen minutes, maybe a half hour, n' that's it.
Now, for me? This is small kee's, y'know? I've been doing this stuff for a month - 'course I'm good at it!
But Arthur? Well…
Y'know, I kinda feel bad for Arthur.
Like, he's alright. He's not too shabby for some untrained rando. He's shy, quiet, really weird - the misfit's trifecta!
And then Snizzy just decks him right in the shnozzy.
And like, I get it, too! It's supposed to be like this whole test thing where he's, like, seeing how you deal with being taken off guard, seeing if you can make reads, the whole thing. Heck, he did the same thing to me!
But with Arthur it's kinda weird, 'cause he's like this anxious little guy.
Even if he's taller than me.
I pass by The Snizz™ on my fourth lap around the clearing. I look over to where I think Arthur is, only to find him huffing n' puffing n' running all slow.
See, like, it feels weird training with Arthur 'cause he's so… I dunno, is unassuming the word?
He looks kinda frail. Y'know, slim, tired, nervous - he doesn't seem like rescuer material, if you catch my drift.
And yet, here we are.
I finish my fifth lap - the last one - and jog over to Arthur. He's kinda struggling, and I figure I may as well encourage him.
"Hey dude, you doin' alright?" I ask him, with my patented head tilt.
He looks back at me, sweaty, panting, and looking none too happy. He opens his mouth and says, "N-no. I'm not. This is torture."
"Aw, c'mon, 'mon, you got this! Just hang in there, you'll be done in a few minutes," I say, trying to be encouraging. "Keep goin', you got this!"
I give him a feather's up and my best grin.
He just kinda sighs and nods, before slowly jogging his fourth lap.
I just walk closer to the middle of the clearing, before taking a seat. As long as I'm done, I might as well chill out, right?
And speaking of 'chill,' I glance over at Snizzy.
He's leaning back against one of the trees, right next to the oran bush we came in. He's got his scowl, his crossed arms, and his air of discipline.
Snizzy's kinda weird too. Not, like, Arthur weird - weird in his own way.
I remember when I first found the guy, he was doing all these crazy moves and stunts out here in this clearing. He was slicing logs, n' breaking logs, and… logs.
He was really going at it, y'know?
At first I just kinda watched him, 'cause I'd never seen a pokemon move so dang fast!
And he didn't stop, either. He just. Kept. Going.
I mean, I think *I* felt sore when he was done training.
Then, y'know, he notices me, one thing leads to ano-
Suddenly, a sweaty, green reptile flops down onto the ground next to me. They're panting, they're laying on the dirt - they're Arthur.
I look over at the grassy boi, and I see him kinda opening and closing his mouth like he wants to talk. I figure that I better help the guy out, so I start the conversation for him.
"Jeez, 'mon, you alright?" I ask.
Arthur looks at me, bags under his eyes, and he says, "No."
I smirk at this, and reply, "C'mon, 'mon, it ain't that bad. It was only four laps, y'know."
Arthur lies back onto the dirt. His eyes focus somewhere in the sky, before he says, "Four ra- laps of hell, maybe."
I start putting together a super funny retort in my head, but Arthur's reply registers as weird. After a second of thought, I realize what it is, too.
What the heck is hell?
"What the heck is hell?" I ask, head tilted and eyebrow raised.
Arthur looks at me confusedly. His face scrunches up a bit, and he says, "Um, h-hell? The place where, uh… if I - someone is bad, and they… die, then… they go there…"
What?
"What?" I say.
Arthur just says, "I… nevermind," before turning away with a red face.
Huh.
Is Arthur from, like, a cult or something?
I mean, I guess that 'Hell' kinda sounds like the distortion world, but… y'know, the distortion world is just for all the non-Arciens, right? Like, it's not really bad bad, y'know? You can be an awesome 'mon and still end up there, or you could be terrible, 'n you'll still keep ending up there until you accept Arceus, or… something…
Look, I wasn't paying attention to those lessons, okay? I never said I was a good Arcien.
Either way, I've never heard of 'Hell' before. I don't think it's Dialgan or Palkian; I'm pretty sure they believe in the distortion world too, right?
Looking over at the enigma given grass snake form, I see him twiddling some pebbles between his fingers. He's just staring at them, with his face still all red.
"You don't have to be embarrased, y'know," I say to Arthur delicately.
His eyes look at me from the ground, and I decide to continue. "Lots of 'mon believe in weird stuff. Heck, if I'd thought about it, I'da figured you'd be an Arcien like me - you got a name, after all, even if it's pretty weird."
Arthur looks at me with a confused expression, pebbles falling to the ground. He says, "My name… ?"
"Yeah, y'know," I start. "Cause like, most 'mons who have names are Arciens, and name's have a kinda theme to 'em. My mom's name is Flaire, my old instructor was named Cindo - like, fire stuff!"
I make a sorta flappy gesture at Arthur with my feathers, and I say, "You though? I mean, Arthur's just kinda weird."
Arthur let's out a soft, "Oh…" before looking back up at the sky. He doesn't say anything after that.
Y'know, I wonder about this guy.
The worst part is that the cult thing might actually be a legit explanation.
I mean, okay, he's thin, anxious, got bags under his eyes, and he doesn't really now about stuff. Weird stuff, that's weird to not know.
But if he were like, I dunno, raised in a cult? I mean, that'd make sense. Cults suck! And they mess with your head.
So it'd make sense why Arthur'd be like this! He's all, like, cultivated!
…
Okay, so what if that's the wrong word? Look, I'm just saying - or I guess thinking! Like, if he lived all isolated raised by a cult… ?
Jeez, I think I might actually be on to something here! I should talk to Snizzy about this!
Suddenly, I hear a clearing throat from above us, and I look up to see Snizzy's frowning face looking down at me.
"That's enough sitting around," he says sternly, walking around the two of us to stand in front.
I shift and get to my talons, and I hear Arthur do much the same thing to my side.
Snizzy's piercing red eyes have the two of us standing at attention. With a small huff, he crosses his arms and says, "That's our training for today. Now, we have business."
The Snizzmeister looks at me specifically, and says, "Cole, you and I will go into town, gather supplies as necessary, and select our task or tasks for the day."
After this, Snizzy turns to Arthur, who I notice shrinks away a little, before he adds, "As for you, Snivy? You will stay here. Do not fiddle with things that are not yours. Do not attempt to wander the forest for any length of time."
Snizzy's eyes suddenly harden into a deadly mean look, and I'm super glad he's looking at Arthur and not me. "If you touch anything of mine, well… that'd be ill-advised."
Snizo drops the mean look, and finishes his little thing here with, "Now, go get your broom and do what you're supposed to, little snake."
Finally, Snizzy turns around, and gestures with his hand, "Cole, come," before walking forward and through the Oran berry bush.
I turn to Arthur, and I notice he's looking a little anxious again. I put on a little tiny smile and say, "See ya soon, Arthur. We'll be back lickity split, don't you worry!"
Arthur's eyes focus on me, and he nods. With a little smile of his own, he softly replies, "Y-yeah. See you when you get back."
With that, I turn and hurry off to catch up with Snizzy, passing through the berry bush, through the woods, and eventually ending up back at the house with the Snizzster.
I'm handed the Rescue Bag™, and with pretty much no words spoken, we're off!
Into town we go!