Road to Fallarbor, more or less nowadays-ish
After or before some other ongoing adventures, Silent finds himself exiting the desert and entering the road to Fallarbor. As usual, the veil of falling ash gives the journey both an interesting touch and an extra hindrance. Silent muses about the stuff he has pending to do in Fallarbor and wondering what has been going on in PEFE HQ recently, whereas with having to walk through the entire place and sift through the 20cm or so of ash leveling the road, the team seems to be pretty unhappy-
Ichtacya the Leafeon♀ -licking herself clean: <This is getting boring and repetitive... I can barely get any sunlight.>
Harriet the Honchkrow♀: <This thing is getting in places in between my feathers I didn't even know I had...> >_>
Shahinne the Starly♀: <Uff.... uff.. uff....> -- tries to wade through the layer which sometimes gets about as high as up to her chest...
Algira the Masquerain♀ -stands on Silent's shoulder: <This dust doesn't let me be colorful...> -- shakes herself a bit again.
Dintel the Sandshrew♂: <Wheeee~ I'm a plower~> -- rolls and pushes through the layers of ash ahead.
-...Well, at least someone is happy.-
-Silent sighs, only barely paying attention to the team-
"Guys come on you are getting lazy, Maekrite never complained this much."
-Obviously not. Maekrite liked to complain about other things. Such as about Silent "sucking at this" because he dedicated himself to collect rocks and lost items on the road instead of fighting trainers-
Copahue the Fearow♂ -bats his wings: <Well some of us don't really like this place. At all...>
-Harriet moves aside to let Copahue catch up with her and she stares at him worriedly. The Fearow obviously does not think any highly of this place where, a couple of years ago, he went through a depressive episode that nearly ended with him dead and buried under a pile of ash. The mere fact that the thing just continues to pool around himself and the others as they keep walking makes him reluctant to delve any further into the road, cleaning himself up along the way-
Harriet♀: <Don't worry, there's a...> -- stops to shake dust off her wings -- <house up ahead, we can rest there I guess...>
Copahue♂ -stares down: <We could have gone the other way and-ugh!> -- notices more soot piling up at his talons, shrieks and shakes it off to keep walking.
-Harriet follows after him, the two birds staring eerily at both sides of the road where every feature of the landscape is covered under soot layers and painted the same. Mounds of soot left and right, mounds of soot ahead and behind. It's a nightmarish equalizer.-
Ichtacya♀ -barks to Silent: <We get nothing from this, you know?> -- points a paw ahead -- <We could have used a bag or something and made out with a lot of soot for that old man down the road...>
Copahue♂ -threateningly: <This... thing... just... won't... come... off...> <_<
-Harriet coos at him then looks behind to check that Shahinne is following them both; she stands there for a moment, scanning...-
Algira♀: <We could have made some money...>
"Not really, he only trades the soot in craft for flutes. Dunno what would we want flutes for."
-Algira buzzes angrily, then shakes herself off and flies to hang on Silent's backpack, which doesn't seem to pick as much soot as the rest of his body-
Harriet♀: <...Shahinne?> -- bats her wings at the road -- <You here?>
-She hears something coming from the left side of the road-
Shahinne: <I'm... uff... ufff...>
-Harriet sees the Starly wading through a smaller layer of soot, and relaxes a bit; however, she hears Copahue grunting again and turns to him-
-The team keeps walking for a moment, with Dintel plowing through to make the road a bit easier for the rest.-
-At a given moment, Silent stops to give the Sandshrew a potion and a drink so that he can keep at it without much more issues. The other mons gather and Copahue and Harriet speak to each other for a bit, both of them looking still tense but not as tired as before-
Copahue♂ -dusts himself off: <I just don't want anything from this place...>
Harriet♀: <Worry not...> -- nuzzles him -- <We went through the worst of it...>
Copahue♂ -starts dusting off his mate: <This is a bad place... I just... all I see here is gray and bad memories.>
-Harriet pecks the Fearow softly on the head and helps him brush his chest off-
Harriet♀: <You are not alone in this, see? And we... we got good things from this.>
-The two birds shyly look at each other for a moment, then Copahue covers Harriet's side with his wing. He calms himself enough that at least he lets a small layer of soot to build up on him and Harriet again before the two start cleaning each other off again-
-Meanwhile, Algira stays perches upside down at Silent's bag, which now hangs from a tree, and buzzes a blue-ish signal-
Algira: <How long to Fallarbor? Couldn't the birds just... fly there?>
-Silent crosses his arms for a moment and turns to the duo-
"This sootstorm is pretty dense. I prefer the group to stick together just in case we have to shelter somewhere. Now, if they want to return to their Pokéballs..."
Dintel♂: <I'm okay> -- wanders about, piling soot into Trapinch-shaped mounds.
Algira♀: <Just let me hang in here for the rest of the trip. I actually like the scent in the air, just not the soot.>
Copahue♂: <I, er... perhaps we could nap for the rest of the way or something... would you like that, Shahinne?>
-...-
-...-
-The two birds look around, only seeing soot, mounds of soot, spires of soot, and Trapinch-shaped soot-
-...-
Copahue♂ -very nervously: <...SHAHINNE??????>
-...-
-Some of the mounds of soot move or shake a bit, though that might just be the wind. Copahue blinks, looks at himself covered in a growing pile of soot and goes white eyed for a moment-
Copahue♂: <No no no not again... not her... please not her...>
-Harriet tries to peek into the distance, noticing nothing; then she bats a wing at a pile of soot, which dissolves into nothingness-
Harriet♀ -quickly dusts herself off: <Little bird?>
-Silent turns to the two and sees them pacing around, trying to check for Starly footprints. Of course, all they see is a uniform, deadly layer of soot, with their own tracks only barely remaining-
-Copahue breathes harder and more soundly as he scans, and Harriet starts batting at the piles of ash with her fanned wing, checking for any traces-
Copahue♂: <...Where are you?>
Harriet♀: <Dintel did you see her?>
-The Sandshrew simply points to a point in the road right besides them, which is of course covered by ash and looking just like everything else-
-Copahue keeps scanning for a while, and Harriet once again calls for Shahinne's name-
????: <...Here!>
-Harriet looks around, not being able to distinguish the source of the call. Ichtacya walks in, moves her ears around-
-Silent meanwhile produces his Pokéball, just in case-
Copahue♂: <Where?>
????: <...Hey!>
Ichtacya♀: <It's coming from...> -- dusts herself off -- <that way!>
-Ichtacya points to the edge of the road and Copahu and Harriet quickly fly over there to land on the side and start cooing at the various piles of soot, looking distressed-
-Suddenly... with all the piles of soot wiggling and apparently moving by themselves from the wind, Copahue freezes, remembering clearly how once this part of the world seemed to have gained life of its own and was intent on killing him; even more, he feels like he starts hallucinating when he sees some of the piles of soot inch closer to him with what he hopes is not malevolent intent-
-Harriet at first doesn't seem to notice, and she just keeps scanning-
-The piles of sooth wiggle and drag themselves closer to Copahue, he can hear them calling for his name...-
-Copahue steps back, trying to get away from the piles, but they're everywhere; feeling cornered, he bats a wing, fighting against himself, a part of him telling to fly away to the south, for his life, while the other screams to protect Shahinne...-
-Some of the piles of soot are about to reach for the Fearow's talons, and he can remember in his muscles the lack of inner force to fight against the mound of soot reaching up to his throat back then, even when he wanted to escape, a part of him wouldn't let him...-
-Copahue swallows and nervously turns to one of the piles of soot inching closer to him, wings still spread-
-Copahue stares at the small pile of ash for a moment, his feathers standing on end and his neck muscles tenses; he's obviously stressed at thinking he's just lost Shahinne, and nervously coos as he eyes the pile of soot-
-Suddenly, the ash mound shakes a bit and Copahue jumps back scaredly, to notice what seems to be a beak emerging from it-
AshMound!Shahinne: <Look, dad! I'm a Pidove!> ^.^
Copahue♂: <....> o.o
“Thou hast forgotten the face of thy Lord. Remember, mortal, and fear pet me.”
