A New Life.

Skully dashed through the grasses, pausing to sniff occasionally. She was still a bit paranoid the Ariados where following her, though she had escaped yesterday... Skully shook her head to clear her thoughts. It wasn't like her to show fear, if a small pokemon like the Rattata she was showed confidence... Some times it would tip off bigger and stronger pokemon. So forgetting her fear, she sat up on her hind legs for a moment to peer over the tall grasses. She was still in her home land, not yet reaching the dense and dangerous forests she was longing to see. Skully longed to leave her home and start her own independent life... Thus, her excitment drove her forward and she began scampering towrds the darker wood.

She came to a screeching halt at the edge of the grass, most of her instincts told her never leave cover. But, she was pulled forward by her own anxiousness to leave home for the first time. She let out a quick and cautious sniff before dashing to the next patch of grass. Skully let out a squeek of releif, and began to relax a little. She hadn't seen one Flying Type or Bug type yet... That was all the worried her. Even though she knew if anything tried to make her a snack, her temper would over rule her instincts and she would attack furiously. She shook her head once more, knowing that attacking something like a Pidgeot or a Beedrill would be usless at her level. But she would probably have to beat some weaker pokemon before she got to the forest. She poked her head above the saftey of the grass again, the Deep Forest was still many, many, many patches of grass away. If she just used Quick Attack out side the grass she would be get there faster... But... She wanted to try and at least get out of her home land alive. At least making it that far would make her happy.
So she dashed back and forth between grass patches... Keeping a sharp eye for any attackers.

There is a steady transition as Skully proceeded deeper into the woods but none so drastic as to tell her that she had left what is still considered to be the Wold. As she entered one particular patch of grass, the sound of a struggle close by could be heard.

It appears that a treecko had been attacked by a Paras. It was apparent that the treecko was at a disadvantage as the paras was scratching at it furiously, always landing its own attacks before its opponent had a chance to move. Typically, a treecko is fairly agile, so it seems as if it may have been paralyzed. The paras, in its blind state of rage, does not see Skully. Treecko, however senses her nearby and looks toward her in a silent call for help. It is hard to determine whether the silent appeal for assistance is stemmed from how weak treecko was at the time or if he was allowing Skully a chance to refuse without provoking paras.

OOC:

The second she saw the Paras, her instincts pulled her back a step. Not just her instints... But her fear of Bug pokemon over ruled even more then her anger could take over her body. She all most turned to Quick Attack away... Until she saw the look on the Treekos face. Poor thing would die if she didn't do any thing. She wanted to help... She tried to force her self to feel angry at this horrible bully of a Paras. Skully angry was actually a bit dangerous. It worked too. She could make her self angry very well, especially when some one acted with such evil.

A few more second passed, and she could all ready feel the fire in her mouth. She was still learning to control Flame Wheel, but it seemed her anger and fear had brought it up with out her even trying. So she went along with it. Jumping from her slightly sheltered spot against Paras and Treeko, she began spinning above them covering her whole body in the fire coming from her mouth. Then she fell. Finding it hard to control her move she had to lean sharply and uncomfortably to the side so she wouldn't hit Treeko. Leaning to the side burnt her fur, Flame Wheel had a little pocket of air inside. Though fire types didn't have to worry about touching the fire sides. Despite the fire burning her side she forced her self to position right above the Paras, and was only second from crashing into it.


OOC: I'm perfectly fine with violence blood death... Some times I get a little over board my self XD But yes, go ahead and fill every one of my happy little Chapters with gore and death, I don't mind. :3

Paras hadn't expected treecko to be assisted by anyone and thus had its guard down. When it saw the sudden burst of flame surrounding Skully, it became terribly aware of its dangerous situation and raised its arms in a futile attempt to block the attack. The fiery attack connected with gusto as the flames ignited all over the paras' body!

Before there was even time to notice what had happened, the battle was over. The aggressor (paras) had been reduced to a scorched husk, even treecko was shocked and somewhat frightened by the sudden display of power!

Treecko was still immobilized by paralysis and was too shocked to speak, but was still very thankful for the timely rescue. He is seriously injured, but some herbs that grow locally would likely remedy this.

Congratulations! You have defeated a lvl6 paras! You gain 6 exp and 3 energy!

(OOC: good to hear, some people aren't comfortable with that sort of thing, so I feel obligated to ask)

Skully shook her self, half her body charcoaled and black. She shook it away quickly to reviel the purple fur underneath. It was a bit fire proof due to her Typhlosion heritage. Her skin was still lightly burned underneath though. She looked tourds the now slightly scared Treeko. She sniffed the air, scenting Cherri Berrys. That would help. "Wait here." she said, though she knew Treeko couldn't move even if it wanted. She was about to dash off, but she knew any thing could pick this Treeko up and carry it off for a snack while she was gone... So she scampered around the area for a bit finding a big Oak Leaf. She set it on top of Treekos body, not worrying about the tail because it all ready looked like a plant. "I'll be right back!"

With that she actually dashed off after the scent of the Cherri Berrys. She saw the bush, and made a quick dash from the grass and to its shelter. She plucked five of them and carried the by the tams with her mouth. She rushed back tourds the grass, and retraiced her steps to the Treeko. She padded up to it and set the berrys down. She sat on her hind legs, waiting for it to eat one. "You can eat can't you? I can help if you can't do it properly." she said calmly.

Treecko was struggling to move but managed to eat 2 of the berries. His ability to move restored somewhat, he quickly ate the rest of the berries.

"Thank you for saving me, I would have died if you hadn't defeated that paras when you did. My name is Lusen, I don't know why paras suddenly attacked me, usually they seem so calm. I owe you my life! Is there anything I can help you with, now that I'm feeling better?"

It seems as though the treecko, now introduced as Lusen, was quickly able to recover from his paralysis and only kept light injuries. It also seemed to be that he felt indebted to Skully for rescuing him from his dire situation. For the time being, there didn't appear to be any hostile presences in the immediate area.

Skully smiled as Treeko managed to eat the Cherri Berrys. She waited for him to finish, and to finish talking. Ah, so his name was Lusen. "No problam Lusen. My name is Skully." she replied. Then added "You don't owe me any thing either." She was glad to have made a friend. Her ears flicked quickly, she let out a curious sniff. There was no danger, for the moment at least. "Any way..." she continued. "Im heading for the Wide Forest." she said proudly. But secretly scolded her self for trying to act so proud. She wasn't there yet. Acting TOO rash or confident usually led to your own down fall.

She stood on her hind legs again, peering over the grass. She went back on all fours with a sigh, still a long way away. She had all ready took damage from her own fire in that last battle... If she ran into any thing really powerful... She didn't want to think about that. Thats when she had an idea, this Lusen really wanted to help her out. Hmm... she thought. "Hey Lusen? You think you could come with me to Wide Forest? You don't have to stay with me there, but if you could just help me get there I would be very greatful." she asked politely.

Lusen nodded, "Of course I'll go with you! I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you after saving me like that! So, do you know which way it is you want to go?" Lusen was eager to assist Skully any way he could, being as he was infinitely grateful for her earlier efforts. Around them, the forest was relatively quiet with only a light rustling in the leaves of the trees due to a gentle breeze. The sun seemed to be starting its slow journey of setting on the western horizon.

Lusen (Treecko) has joined you as a follower!

Species: Treecko
Name: Lusen
Level: 5

~no learned moves
~innate moves: pound, leer

Rescued in the wold by Skully and has since decided to accompany her deeper into the woods.

(I'll make an NPC sheet and PM it to you so that you can post it yourself, otherwise you'd need a staff member to edit it everytime you gain exp)

(kk)

Skully smiled, twitching her tail. "Thats great!" She then tried to decide about what he asked next. Sence both of them where a bit damaged... It would be best to continue in the grass. She stood on the very tips of her toes to see far above the grass, she let out a sniff as her head darted back and forth. She looked for the closest tree from the Wide Forest. It seemed as none of them where close. "Well..." she said getting back on all fours. "We just keep going straight." she squeeked pointing with her nose to the far away forests. "Come'on!" She said beginign to run through the current patch of grass.

She stoped at the edge looking back a forth, before dashing to the next patch. When she got inside, she looked back to make sure the friendly Lusen was still behind her.

Lusen lacked the same level of speed that Skully possessed, but managed to keep up fairly well as he followed behind her through the grass. The pair of lightly injured adventurers were able to travel in this way for a fair amount of time without incident.

As the sun begins to set, the forest canopy begins to stir as some of the more nocturnal creatures get ready to wake up. Ahead of Skully and Lusen, there is an especially great commotion in the upper branches of the trees. Loud rustling and the snapping of branches seems to hint at the movements of a somewhat larger resident of these woods.

"We're going to need to be careful, I don't like the sound of what's above us. Can you smell anything up ahead?" Obviously, the nighttime ambiance was not much to Lusen's liking, but probably for good reason.

Skully flicked her ears, then let out a curious sniff to respond. She could smell some thing, but she wasn't sure what. "Yes, but i'm not sure what it is... Let's keep alert, and try to stay quiet." Skully whispered, and began to stalk through the grass trying not to make any noise. She continued along quietly, not worrying about a sleath Treecko like Lusen making any noise. Skully gaze flicked upward to the tree tops the noise and smell was coming from, and a strange curiosity came over her. But she knew they should try to continue with out seeing what it was, knowing it could be a preditor to both herself and Lusen.

Skully's gaze shot up, to look at the branches any way... Her eyes narrowed, as she strained to identify the unknown thing. Though she was carful not to make any noise, with her gaze focused in the tree tops she could easily step on a twig and give up there position.

The forest seemed to hush in the immediate location aside from the movement heard above. After a brief moment, even that movement stopped as a branch and leaves fell to the ground. This was followed by a lump of meat, rendered unidentifiable due to the extent to which it was mangled; after this there was a surge of activity as what had apparently finished eating plowed through the upper canopy to return to its lair or find more food, leaving more broken branches to fall to the ground.

"It sounds like it's gone... That was close, whatever it is seems like it'd be way too strong for us right now. Do you want to keep moving?" Despite the suggestion to move on, Lusen was frozen in fear of whatever it was that had just left. He had to try hard not to cry out when the gruesome heap of flesh landed close to him, suppressing one fear by remembering a greater anxiety which would be realized if he reacted to the former.

(Now, I've been wondering about this awhile, when you say "Wide Forest," you mean "Deep Forest," right?)

(Right, lol. Sorry! Deep Forest, not Wide Forest...)

The young Rattatas ears pricked and her nose twitched at the sudden silence. She could detect the smell of blood which worried her. She wanted to get out as soon as possible, and picked up her pace a bit. Suddenly, her ears flicked quickly and she had to jump out of the way of the branches and leaves coming down. She glanced up, as somthing else started to fall.

Skully bristled when the meat ploped down beside them, then she drew slightly back in disgust. She lowered her ears, shaking her head. "Yes... lets keep moving..." she muttered, clearly still disgusted. She dashed forward to get away from what ever had mangled up the once living "meat" that had fallen to the ground. Then she remembered Lusen had trouble catching up with her earlier, and stopped to glance back.

Lusen quickly caught up to Skully, just as eager to get away from this spot. Before turning around to continue, it could be seen that a pair of ekans had slithered into the area drawn by the scent of fresh meat. They quickly divide and swallow the scraps left by the greater predator; however, as the previous scent is gone, they seem to have picked up on the presence of a rattata and treecko!

Still hungry, the twin snakes begin to approach Skully and her partner. "Delightful, more food to share, brother! Having to split that small scrap of meat only seems to have reminded me how hungry we really are!"

"I know, sister, these do look -much- more appetizing. You can have the mouse, I know you like to have rodents in your diet..."


Two Ekans have appeared! They both use Poison Sting as they spit an envenomed needle at Skully and Lusen, respectively.

Skully spun around to identify the Ekans. The smell of blood had masked there scent from reaching her sensitive nose. She instantly took defensive position againts the two preditors. Crouching, sticking her tail up and waving it (Tail Whip), and opening her mouth wide to reveil her sharp front teeth. She let out a warning call, half a hiss and half an angry squeek. Skully felt like glancing at Lusen, but she knew what he would look like. Terrified, maybe shivering. Heck, he might leave her to face the Ekans alone. She felt a twinge of guilt that she still didn't trust the Treecko much. After all, any other pokemon probly wouldn't even travel this far with a Rattata.

The sudden double Poison Sting alarmed her, breaking through her thoughts. Instead of jumping out of the way as her instincts told her, she tried a dodge to the side so she could all so push Lusen out of the way. If there was even a tiny chance he was frozen with fear and that attack hit, Skully knew it would be trouble. Not only where Grass types weak againts Poison types, but if they got Poisoned there chances of winning where pretty low... Skully rolled with Lusen out of the way of the two Poison Stings... Thanks to her good speed. After they came out of there little spin she got on her feet as fast as possible. Instinct told her to stay on her feet, or it would be over.

Skully opened her mouth again, trying to start a Flame Wheel. But the fire wouldn't come. Idiot! she thought. Skully should have known, she still hadn't perfected Flame Wheel. Oh, well... If I can some how use it later, it will be a good suprise and help us out! With that idea, she decided to test the Ekans strength. All ready having a slight grudge againts the Male for calling her "Mouse" and "Rodent" she dashed forward with a testing Tackle. She silently prayed Lusen would help out...

The male ekans took the tackle head on and seemed to be sprawled out like he'd been hit with a devastating blow. Before Skully would be able to escape or fall back, he went from an expression of pain to one of a clever hunter as he spread himself in a circle around Skully. He was preparing to wrap himself around her, binding her long enough to end this struggle, "Apologies, sister, it seems we'll have to kill them before we can enjoy this meal..."

Lusen ran towards Skully and the male twin, only to be cut off by the sister! "I'll kill you, brother kills the other, it's the natural way, weed!" The female ekans wrapped herself around Lusen; however, he managed to keep one hand free to use pound against her face, causing her to loosen her grip ever so slightly.

"I'm not going to let you eat us, you monsters!" It seems as though Lusen did have more courage than initially given credit for, though this battle would be far from easy.

Skully lashed her tail back and forth in another secretive Tail Whip as the Ekans began wrapping around her, giving no comment. Knowing if she used Tail Whip every time she got a chance his defence would weaken. Again she tried to heat her mouth up for Flame Wheel, but her body wasn't ready to use it. She kept trying though, until Ekans was just about to completely wrap around her body. She decided to give up on Flame Wheel for the moment, due to the fact she was now in Ekans Wrap attack. She let out an angry rumbling and hiss like growl all rodents can make. Though she couldn't use the Dark type power of Bite attack yet, she still had teeth. Skully clamped down on the body of the Male Ekans. She felt her sharp teeth dig past his scaley flesh and could taste the blood ozze out of the small indention. Which made her clamp down harder, knowing this would be painful to her opponent.

Again, while she bit into the Ekans she tried to focus all her energy on using Flame Wheel. Being a rodent like pokemon, when focusing she couldn't react very well therefore she did not loosen her bite nore tighten it. Though the bite was all ready in an iron grip. As she focused, she felt her skin feel a bit hotter under her pelt. Though she still didn't have enough power to use Flame Wheel yet... She began to work on building up her internal body temperture, while again going back to focusing on the battle. Coming out of her focusing trance, she checked to see if he had let her out of Wrap yet.

The male ekans was feeling incredible pain, but stubbornly refused to be made a fool of by his prey as he maintained his own iron grip. Adjusting his position slightly, he tried to gain an edge in this battle of attrition as he had his mouth hovering over Skully's head as he shot another poison sting at her!

Meanwhile, the other ekans saw her brother in pain and released Lusen to try and assist him, only to be stopped by the treecko as he pounded again on her tail. "I thought you said you were fighting me! I'm not beaten yet, so stay out of other people's battles!" In response to this, she lunged at him, simultaneously firing a poison sting at him, which stuck into his arm.

"If I knew you were in such a hurry to die as to keep me from helping my brother, I would have killed you sooner!" The female hissed as she quickly coiled around the Treecko, making sure not to let him have another chance to attack. She wanted to end this quickly before her brother could suffer more pain.

Skullys eyes widened in horror to see that a Poison Sting was coming at her. She closed her eyes, and felt the needles sting into her head. She clamped down harder. In the sudden rush a pain and fear, she felt her body temperture rise. Now! The command blasted through her brain, her mouth all ready heating up. She kept biting as the fire ran through her vains and up to her mouth. Probably blazing the poison away as well. She felt her teeth warm up, making them feel sharper and cutting deeper into Ekans flesh. The begining embers of Flame Wheel began leaking out of her mouth and onto her fur. Not a minute passed before raging flames where all over Skully's body. Yet she kept clamped on the Male Ekans body, getting tighter and tighter...

While using the attack she glanced over to Lusen. A bit suprised, and a bit guilty. She had asumed him to be a coward, but he showed much bravery againts a stronger opponent. It would be a bit sad if he left her when they got to Deep Forest... Remembering with a jolt about the battle, she turned her attention back to the Brother Ekans, biting down harder while her anger made the flames roar.

Caught completely by surprise, the Brother ekans screeched in pain as fire engulfed both him and Skully! He immediately let go and lost consciousness, covered in serious burns, with the rattata still clamped down on him.

The Sister Ekans heard her brother's cry of pain and a roar of fire, she looked behind her to see what had happened and screamed, "Brother?! No!" Without any delay, The ekans unwrapped Lusen but then whipped her tail in Skully's direction, sending the treecko headlong at her enemy both to hurt her(skully) and get her to let go as well as to potentially burn the treecko on the residual fires. No sooner had she let go before she flew directly to her wounded brother and attempted to flee with him to safety.

You have defeated the Ekans Twins, both members of your team gain 12 exp and 6 energy each.

((By the way, I apologize for kinda saying you let go without giving you a chance to do it yourself. I kinda wanted to end the battle here, I suppose you can pursue them if you have a burning desire to end their lives, but you won't gain additional exp.))

(XD It's fine.)

Skully came out of her bite as Lusen was launched at her, she extinguished the fire on her body and lept to weakly Tackle Lusen away from the fire she had spread. She collided with him and crashed into the ground. She stood up, nodding a silent Sorry!. She knew that being Tackled by her wouldn't hurt as much as being cooked alive by falling in the fire. She turned to where the Ekans now fled, a surge of pride coming over her. She had deafeated a preditor. Some thing that could easily kill her if not for her Typhlosion heritage.

She turned her attention back to Lusen now that the Ekans where gone. "Are you okay?" she asked, maybe her voice sounding a bit too worried. She had seen him battle and knew he was no coward. Just smart, and maybe like Skully relied on his intincts for alot. Due to the fact she might have been treating him like he was weak with out relising she added awkwardly, "Um... Great job. You fought bravely againts a type your weak againts. You where..." Skully searched her mind for a word from her days as a pup. "...Awsome?" She hoped that would sound like a compliment. She hadn't really hung out with any of the other pokemon her age from the Wold sence they left on there own little journeys.

Lusen smiled, "I'll be alright, the poison didn't affect me too strongly, and that tackle was a lot gentler than the alternative..." He shuddered at the thought of being lit on fire by his partner and almost more so at how that would make Skully feel if her attack had hurt (or worse) someone she had saved only hours earlier. He was also surprised to be told that he was brave, it was something he'd not really thought of himself being. "I am? Thanks! I thought you did much better than me though, that fire attack saved me again! I don't know how you do that, but it's really an amazing talent.

Lusen looked around as the forest had become quite dark after their encounter with the snakes, the sun had completely sank below the horizon and the sounds of night were everywhere. "I think we should try and find a place to rest for the night, today's been pretty rough, so we should probably take a little time to get our strength back before we head out..."

Skully nodded at the idea of sleep, she was about to try and sniff out a nice safe burrow... But then she took a quick glance at Lusen, she knew he would probably rather sleep in a tree. She shrugged slightly, and began sniffing along any way. There were tons of trees he could sleep in, but personaly she didn't want to climb a tree. So of course she would continue looking for a suitible resting place for her self. She found a nice abandoned burrow, nestled snuggly under the branches of a great tree. "This is perfect." she muttered. She stuck her head in and found it led deeper, giving her plenty of room to sleep and be safe from preditors. She took another whiff, yup it was abandoned. She pulled her head back out, glancing at her friend. "Hey, do you wanna sleep in the tree?" she asked Lusen, twitching her ears. She knew the awnser would most likely be yes, but asking didn't hurt.

"Actually, do you know if there's enough room in there for two? Normally I'd stick with a tree but today I'm a little afraid to sleep outside... It's true, both of them had been in at least one life-or-death situation that day. It makes sense that Lusen would be a bit hesitant to sleep out in the open...

Skully nodded, not actually wanting to be alone either. "Sure, there's plenty of room and I can understand after what happened to you today." She squeeked with a smile. She scrambled inside and scurried down to the farther part of the tunnel where it opened up to a proper den under ground. Suspicion that some one had abandoned such a den, made her let out a sniff. She couldn't detect any thing, there was nothing to show any thing had lived here for some time. Besides this den was probably just a very very old make shift den for a bigger pokemon. Making it look big to her. Skully sniffed around for a bit, before finaly finding a spot to settle down to sleep. "G'night." she said with her eyes all ready closed, not sure if Lusen was even there. Then she fell asleep before even hearing a reply.