Disclaimer: I don't own pokémon!
It felt good to be back in a forest again. Rok was definitely more comfortable in cities now, but he grew up in a forest, he knew how things worked in here, knew which pokémon called it home. The surety let him walk with his head held high.
And let Silvo mock Reaper on her obvious discomfort.
"Aw, is the big scary absol scared of the trees?" the jolteon teased with a grin.
"Shut up!" Reaper hissed, white fur bristling.
"Careful, they like to trip you up with their tree roots. And sometimes," Silvo whispered conspiratorially (though he was positively beaming at this point), "there are rocks in the soil that hurt when you step on them!"
"If you don't stop right now I'll shove a rock up your-"
"Reaper, please, not in front of Rage." Smoke sighed.
Rage had probably been faring the best of all of them bar Rok and Silvo. Whereas Smoke and Reaper glanced around warily, as if expecting a wild pokémon to jump out at them just for existing, Rage appeared to be rather comfortable, even joyful, in his new surroundings.
"I've always liked forests." He said, crouching down to sniff a couple wildflowers. "Growing up, I used to hide in them to get away from my family when they were angry, and I slept in them a lot when I left them."
Rok winced in sympathy, nudging his body against Rage's leg. "I'm sorry you had to go through that Big Guy."
"It wasn't so bad." The great cat assured him brightly, "I'm really big, so the wild pokémon weren't mean to me, and I could usually Roar to make them go away if they decided to be mean anyway."
Rok frowned. That wasn't what he'd meant, but…
"Do we have any idea on where in this forest the doctor's stuff is?" Reaper said, her voice still rumbling with irritation as Silvo sniggered.
Smoke sniffed the air. "Hard to say. Tracking won't be much good in this situation, and Atala didn't give us any indication."
"If he dropped his supplies because he was attacked, they'll probably be close to the centre, where the forest is thickest." Rok mused, "More aggressive pokémon generally live there."
Reaper growled in frustration. "Great."
"We've been walking for a while, so we should be getting close." Silvo added, for the first time looking properly alert. "Wild pokémon will probably leave his stuff alone, unless he was carrying berries or something. They don't like anything to do with civilised pokémon, they see us as weak and traitors to our kind."
Reaper shot an incredulous look at Rok, as if to ask: 'You don't honestly believe this nonsense?'
Rok just shrugged in reply. That's what they were taught at the village, and Silvo would know better than him anyway, with his ambitions to be a guard.
"The wild pokémon will be more aggressive near the spot where that doctor was attacked." Silvo continued, green ears twitching as he looked around. "They get extra territorial after a trespass."
"So…we just follow the angry pokémon?" Smoke asked. He had to talk a bit louder to be heard over Reaper's groan of dismay.
Silvo smiled at him. "Yeah, pretty much."
Rok pricked his ears, listening for any sounds of snarling and roaring. It was…a bit difficult. This deep into the forest there was bound to be some pokémon fighting, and he could definitely hear the sounds of battle faintly from almost every direction if he really strained his hearing. But what they were looking for was an especially heightened aggression, of a pokémon determined to assert their dominance after a pathetic civilised weakling dared to invade its territory-
A mighty roar suddenly exploded into being, and the Misfits didn't need Silvo or Rok to tell them that that was where they ought to go, though Rage definitely whimpered a little, and Reaper groaned even more loudly than before.
The group crept slowly towards the sound, staying as low to the ground as they could sticking to the shadows. As they moved, Rok felt his body falling into a rhythm that was both familiar and wasn't. It felt a bit like when he used Pursuit, but without the energy of the attack. Just creeping forward, stalking, growing closer to his pre-
NO!
He shook his head vigorously. No. He was not going to lose control again. Besides, whatever was roaring was definitely not going to be prey for him.
He narrowed his eyes, forcing himself to focus as he looked around. The roaring was growing louder. They were definitely approaching the pokémon's territory now, if they weren't already in it.
Rok's gaze alighted on a particular tree trunk. Specifically, on the gashes slashed into the wood. A quick glance upward was enough to make his heart stutter with fear. Pecha berries. Only one pokémon carved scratches onto berry trees…
"Silvo!" he hissed, but his voice was drowned by another great roar, this one even more infuriated than its predecessors. The sound of crashing foliage and snapping branches filled the air.
Without thinking, Rok tackled whichever pokémon was closest-which happened to be Reaper-into the ground, just as a massive brown bear came thundering through the trees.
"Ursaring!" Silvo shrieked, scrambling away from the beast's sudden charge. Rage drew himself up to his full height, standing just as tall as the ursaring, and bared his teeth and claws, though the effect was somewhat diminished by the fact that he was shaking.
The ursaring growled and ran towards him, claws flashing for his torso.
Rage opened his jaws, and a jolt of panic rushed through Rok's veins as he realised what his friend was about to do.
"Rage wait don't-!" he cried.
But it was too late.
Rage had let loose an almighty Roar, the sound reverberating throughout the forest. It seemed to echo in Rok's skull, screaming at him that danger was near, he was going to get hurt and he needed to run he NEEDED TO RUN RUN RUN RUN!
"Umbreon!" he shrieked in terror, scrabbling at the dirt with his claws in his desperation to just get out of there get away from the danger run run run.
He was faintly aware of his markings burning, of someone running just behind him, but he didn't care. All that mattered was that he keep running. It didn't matter where he was running who cared where he was running so long as it was awa-
And then the ground gave way.
He yelped as he slipped down a rough, slippery slope, bouncing off of hard stone walls and feeling the dirt tug on his claws painfully as he struggled to stop his descent. Darkness closed in around him, and he blinked to adjust to the sudden lack of brightness. His marks did little to illuminate wherever he was, wherever he was going. All he could do was desperately try to slow himself down.
Until he finally tumbled to a halt on flat ground.
Blearily, Rok shook his head, hoping that would help clear it. He looked around, frowning at the sharply cut walls, weathered with age and covered in moss and vines but still by no means natural.
Something else slid out from behind him and Rok jumped, whirling around to face whatever else was now in this strange place with him.
When he was greeted with only Reaper's familiar fluffy white form however, he quickly relaxed.
She hissed in pain as she stood to her feet, her scarlet eyes scanning their surroundings. Rok opened his mouth to ask her about it, but was caught off by her loud whine. "Arceus dammit, how'd we end up in a dungeon?"
A/N: Please review!