Chapter 8: Santalune Forest 1/2
"Mmm." groggily, I feel myself start to wake momentarily dazed as to when I had even gone to bed last night. I slowly opened my eyes to a curtain of purple. After taking a few more moments to register what, or rather, who, is sleeping next to me, the events of last night's talk begin to come back to me and the promise that was made. "I'm not going to go back on my word. I'll definitely find out what this strange ability I have is. "No more averting my eyes and ears."
While whispering my resolve to myself, Iris finally begins to stir awake, sitting up slowly before glancing around the room before her eyes lock on mine, simply staring at me before she does something I wasn't expecting her to do first thing in the morning, or rather, I should have expected it.
"Pfft," I hear as she violently begins to shake while turning away from me.
"huh?"
"Y-your hair," she continues.
"Excuse you." I deadpan at her.
"It looks like a Tangela with how bad your bed head is!" is the final response I get before she falls back onto the bed, laughing hysterically at the experience that is my hair in the early morning. I'm well aware of how bad it can look first thing, but that doesn't require such a reaction out of her, especially since she's seen it before when we would sleep over at Shannon's place.
'Is she picking a fight first thing in the morning?' I find myself asking with a smile that would make my own mother proud while 'calmly' grabbing one of the pillows off the bed. Iris, blissfully unaware of the danger that she is currently in, continues her fit of laughter.
"Wow, I'm surprised at how bad it got. I mean, come on, you lo-URF!" Interrupting her spiel of senseless laughter, I throw the pillow with the speed and power that could put a Marowak's Bonemerang to shame, causing Iris to fall back and off the side of the bed, splendidly knocking her out.
Satisfied with my act of retribution, I begrudgingly get my hair brush before heading to the bathroom to take care of my daily routine, of course not before letting out both of our pokemon and preparing their food. Moments later, I hear shuffling from the room, followed by soft mutterings of 'stupid, scary Saya," sighing at how much things change but still manage to be the same. At the same time, I make my way back out into the room.
After we're dressed and our Pokemon fed, we make our way back down to the lobby to wait for both Tierno and Trevor to come down and meet us.
"You didn't need to react so violently, you know?" Iris complains for what, the sixth time already?
"Well, you didn't need to point out something so rude, you know?" I fire back at her for her lack of decency.
"Umm, are you two okay?" Drawing us out of our petty argument is Trevor, whom we somehow managed to miss walking up to us.
"Good morning, you guys!" proffers Tierno, who energetically does a few dance moves. 'He's getting better at that, but there's a time and place given the slightly bewildered look the Nurse at the reception desk is showing.'
""Morning."" Not wanting to redive into an argument that's lost its fun, we both greet the boys back before going back to our respective drinks from the cafeteria. a smoothie of mixed berries grown from one of the farms a few Routes over. It's actually pretty good.
"Anyway, we should probably get things going if we're going to be setting off for the forest today." I redirect everyone's attention to the task at hand. "Santalune Forest, from what I know, takes at least three days to traverse, and that's if we take the intended path without any detours. There aren't many strong Pokemon out there, and the biggest threat is the Beedrill, which has been causing a stir lately. They're fiercely territorial and will only get worse if they're taking care of Weedle, so if you run into any, it's best to back off immediately." I continue while taking glances at everyone to make sure that they're following along.
"While we may not need to worry too much with how much rangers have been clearing away the more rowdy packs, that doesn't mean that we should get careless, so if you see something, say something. okay? I don't know how much either of you get around them, but I can vouch for me and Iris being pretty well-tuned to traversing forests, so one or both of us will probably be leading us through. We should also make sure to keep one Pokemon each out in our group in case of a wandering horde, though I suspect there'll be little chance of finding one in these shallow parts."
Once again pausing to let my suggestion take root and receiving a nod from both boys and Iris, I continue once more. "For which pokemon we'll keep out, I'm planning on having my Gible stay out, as Dratini will be at a disadvantage on land since she spends most of her time in water until she can learn to fly as a Dragonair. Iris, I assume, is keeping Axew out?" earning a nod from the purplette.
"I'll keep out Pikachu; he'll help alert us with his hearing." Trevor states that he earned a nod of approval from us. Having a Pokemon that can alert us early to anything approaching can give us an advantage in being able to get ready.
"i guess i'll keep out Poliwag since Lotad still isn't quite good at walking on land and having the grass typing will make it weak to the various bug types in the forest nevermind the poison types." He's right; in terms of type variety, you could argue that both me and Tierno have the least. While you could say that Dragons are strong enough pokemon to get through the forest, the same can't be said for Tierno's Water types, who both require a water source to show their true abilities.
"It's fine, Tierno. If anything comes up that we can't handle, we'll release all of our Pokemon." i try to reassure the gentle giant who seemed a bit down at how neither of his pokemon would be able to offer much in terms of help in the forest. "Besides Gible and Axew are some pretty strong girls so don't count them out in a fight or as you saw in that battle yesterday you'll get thoroughly tripped up." With my most confident grin, I can't help but praise the pups while earning a cry of what I can only assume is approval from Axew, who pops out of Iris's hair.
"Well, if that's all the planning out of the way, should we set off? It'd probably be best to get a head start rather than leave late and burn sunlight." Trevor suggests earning a nod of confirmation from us as we checkout before heading towards the south gate towards Route 3, called Ouvert Way, which leads towards the forest.
After 20 minutes of traveling, nothing of interest happened until we saw a path of densely packed trees, which we already knew to be the northern entrance. "Alright, everyone already knows the plan so far, so let's start, shall we?" releasing Gible in a flash of light, two more accompany with a flash as both Pikachu and Poliwag greet the group as Axew stays out of her pokeball more often than not. Making sure our preparations were done, we set foot in the woods.
Having set foot in the forest, the first thing that comes to mind is how active it is. You can see and hear various denizens that call these woods home, from the Caterpie and Scatterbug to the elemental monkies who playfully jump from limb to limb in the canopy playing a game of tag. If you look a bit in the distance, you can even see other Pikachu running about. 'Well, it's the very entrance of the forest, so it's more than likely safer here than it is the further we go.'
With those thoughts in mind, we start making a leisurely pace through the woods, which has proven to be quite peaceful with only a few encounters with Bug types or a run-in with a troupe of monkies who are content to merely watch us from the treetops. Judging from Iris and Axew's relaxed expressions, I can tell that this jaunt through the forest is something that both of us are enjoying far more than the two boys, who are used to the more urban environment.
"You know, it's sort of hard to tell the amount of time that passed in here with how the leaves block out most of the light." Trevor studies the faint light fluttering in from the canopy. We've been traveling for a few hours now and haven't had anything major happen, but from what I can tell from the short glimpses of orange, I can assume it's a little past 9 p.m.
Yea, that's the weird thing if you're not used to traversing forests, is that time becomes hard to tell the more packed the trees are, but if I were to hazard a guess, it's more than likely about time we start setting up camp and preparing dinner. While the forest has been pretty quiet, the woods have a second life to them at night, so if anything, we should take caution." Iris informs the two boys about the difference between tracking time in forests and routes, earning an enlightened nod from them before we begin looking for a clearing to begin setting up camp.
Finding a relatively large area to set up the boys immediately get to work setting up the tents while me and iris go off together to gather some wood that can be used to start a campfire. After 10 minutes, we make our way back to the boys, having set up both tents, one for the boys and one for the girls, as we have a smaller group.
Letting out all of our Pokemon, we get to work setting out food for them—a mixture of pellets and berries that we had picked up during the day's travels. As we are all enjoying our meal, I bring up something we had neglected to sort out before we left the town, and that was the problem of which pair has first watch for the night.
"If we're basing it on who has the most battle potential between the four of us, it'd hands down be you two. So rather than have both heavy hitters be tired at the same time, we should pair them off as one boy and one girl? That way, if something happens, we have someone who can hold up while the other two get up." Trevor starts off the discussion by stating his opinion of how the groups strength is. It seems as though the earlier topic with Tierno had also been weighing on him, as he has more theoretical knowledge than practical experience to fall back on in terms of Pokemon and battling something you can't simply study to proficiency.
"That could work, plus I can tell that the both of you aren't quite used to the woods yet and are pushing your nerves a little bit. While that's fine for short trips into the woods, after extended time traveling, it could become a hinderance to you as you won't be able to get a moment's rest." I make my own observance after having watched them throughout the day's travels. While Tierno is surprisingly active, he's still a little bit guarded, but Trevor is completely out of his element here, and that can make him error should the situation go from good to bad in a moment.
"I think that will work fine." With both mine and Iris's consent, we decide to split the group, with me and Trevor taking first watch while Tierno and Iris rest and then swapping out after six hours.
