Blake was in the process of laughing his ass off when Alex suddenly came and kicked him in the head, "Hey, watch it!" He told Alex while rubbing the spot where he had kicked him. Alex then proposed that they camp since night was kicking in and wild Pokemon generally come out at night to hunt. Plus, they were in a forest where travelers can be attacked by Pokemon at any given time.

Blake stood up and dusted himself of all the dirt that had gotten on his coat while he was rolling around laughing. "I guess camping does sound like a good course of action for now" he said outloud, agreeing with Alex and Ryley. Then, suddenly, the ground shook beneath them. An earthquake, as rare as it was in this part of the region, wouldn't be so powerful unless it wasn't caused by nature herself. Blake looked around, looking for the pokemon that had caused it when his eyes caught something towards the route to Blackthorn.

There it was, lying in wait, blocking off the path. "I think now's the time for us to leave..." he told everyone but they seemed to think otherwise. Jackson stopped playing his funny song and charged the Onix, along with his Totodile. Unfortunatelly, it seemed that the Onix was too much for the inexperienced pokemon who received a tail to the face, the force of the hit flinging it into the air.

Then Abigail joined the fight with her newly caught Spinarak. The little pokemon used String Shot on the Onix; albeit it being not so effective, it did the trick and now Onix's attention was focused on the poor Spinarak, giving Melody, who had somehow found herself in danger, a chance to escape to safety. Or she would if Tesla had listened to her and hadn't started attacking the Onix with Tackles. Thankfully, she grabbed him and ran towards them, rejoining the group before the sheep Pokemon was seriously hurt by the Onix.

After a few moments and a couple of failed attempts to stop the raging Pokemon in its tracks, Melody called out to them, urging them to run away. Soon, Peggy, Avery and Ryley were also joining in on the escape. Blake started running away from the dangerous Pokemon, following behind everyone else.

~Melody Hemlock~

“Let's get out of here! Jasper!"

Peggy was the first to follow after her when Melody broke into a run. The other girl had seemed to have a bit of trouble with her Houndour, and had had to recall it, but caught up quickly enough. Next came Avery, and then Ryley --who seemed to be doing some kind of bizarre multi-dimensional growl attack thing with his Chikorita, Fern—and then finally, Abigail.

Sprinting past, Melody hadn’t been able to ignore the strangely unhappy look on the other girl’s face. What was Abigail thinking? But then, of course, Abigail seemed to snap out of it, recalling her Spinarak and joining her escaping companions.

And for a moment, it looked like they were in the clear. Melody sighed in relief, feeling a little hopeful--

But the Onix, of course, didn’t seem particularly happy about this. It roared and suddenly started to pick up speed. Rock Polish? Melody thought in disbelief. Are you kidding me?

It leapt into the air, surprisingly nimble for such an enormous creature, lobbing rocks at them with its tail as it made to cut off their escape path.

Could they drive it off? Melody bit her lip, uncertain. Even if Blake and Jackson combined forces with their Swinub and Totodile… they were clearly outmatched. All of them were beginners, after all. Would they be able to do it, with a brute-force strategy like that?

A rock landed only inches away from Abigail, and Melody sucked in a breath. She couldn’t let Abigail get hurt. She couldn’t! And what if Blake and Jackson couldn’t drive the creature off?

"We need a new plan! Like now!" shouted Abigail.

There was only one option for Melody. She couldn’t just stay passive and follow after Abigail, hoping that they'd both be fine. If she wanted to be Abigail’s best friend…

Then she had to prove herself, didn’t she?

She recalled Tesla, and prepared to do something reckless, heroic and maybe a little bit suicidal.

Because really. How dare that stupid Onix try to endanger Abigail? Okay, so maybe she couldn’t beat it yet… but she could at least try to distract it, right?

“Run, Abigail!” she yelled. “It’s too fast, we have to split up! I’ll try and lead it in a different direction. You guys get away, I’ll be fine!”

Would she really…? She wasn’t sure. But, well… let it never be said that Melody Avery Hemlock was a coward. And if this had even the slightest chance of helping Abigail…

Then really, she had no other choice.

Melody swerved, breaking away from the group and towards the Onix. “Thunder wave on the eyes, again!” she said, and Tesla shot an electrical wave right at the Onix. The bright lights caught its attention, and it howled in fury, swinging around to face her.

She kept running. Melody wasn’t much of an endurance runner, but at least she wasn’t too bad at sprinting when she wanted to be… though she had to admit that she definitely preferred her mother’s emphasis on prim, graceful walking to speeding around like Sonic the Shaymin.

This was quite possibly the bravest, most terrifying thing she’d ever done in her entire life

“Let’s lead it away, Zubat!” she yelled. Zubat swooped in for another aerial attack, and succeeded in driving the Onix away from the main group… but only narrowly missing getting chomped on.

The Onix roared. It was getting closer and closer, and Melody was starting to get out of breath… but she had to keep running. The Onix was chasing her, wasn't it? She couldn’t see the other trainers when she glanced behind her.

That was a good thing, she told herself. That meant that Abigail was out of danger.

But she couldn’t help the fear making her veins feel like they’d iced over. “Thunder wave again, Tesla!” she yelled. “On the eyes!”

Tesla was getting surprisingly good at this whole “aim-for-the-eyes-and-keep-running” thing. Temporarily blinded, the Onix howled. It swung around blindly.

Now what? She was definitely out of breath. Terrified, she threw herself under a bush, doing her best to ignore the creeping sense of revulsion that she was getting from being on her hands and knees in the dirt and grass. It couldn’t see her… right?

~Ryley Grisdoe~

Well, the Growl attack did slow the Onix down, but not when it decided to use it’s brain. Ryley couldn’t help but groan. Of course it knew Rock Polish. Of course. And just to add to this wonderful mess, a torrent of rocks pelted down ahead of them. That certainly didn’t help their escape. Hell, Abigail nearly got crushed by one! ...He recalled Fern just in case. Running was still the best option, but it was getting bleaker by the second.

They needed to slow down the Onix even more. There were trees around them. Bringing one down in front of, or even on the rock snake would slow it quite a bit. The problem was finding a way to bring a tree crashing down.

As Ryley was entertaining ways to fell a tree, Melody decided to act.

“Run, Abigail! It’s too fast, we have to split up!"

...No no no. Splitting up would be the worst thing to do now. They needed to find a way to slow it down with a variety of-

“I’ll try and lead it in a different direction. You guys get away, I’ll be fine!”

No no no no no no no. No no no. No. What the hell Melody. Seriously, what the hell. You don’t just do that. You don’t just lead a gigantic rock snake away all by yourself. She had gotten into a dangerous situation earlier with the Spinarak, but that was different as they didn’t know how dangerous it was. This time, they all knew the danger (Well, maybe not Avery…), and Melody was still…

By the time Ryley’s thoughts cooled down, Melody had managed to distract the Onix, and was leading it away from everyone else. She was fast, he had to give her credit, but a speed boosted Onix wasn’t anything to wag a finger at. ...And here he was, just standing like an idiot. Well, time to act. Deja vu could really suck sometimes.

“I’m going to hate myself for this…” Muttering contemptuously helped calm him down as he made his next move, calling out to the group. “I’m going after her. She's going to get herself killed”.

Without waiting for a response, Ryley turned around and chased after Melody. He couldn’t see either Melody or the Onix in sight, but the trail of destruction certainly helped. It took a while to catch up, but when he did, his blood ran cold. The Onix was there, but it had stopped. Frightening on its own, but the scary part was Melody was nowhere to be seen.

Ryley’s thoughts turned towards various scenarios that could have played out, none of them pleasant. Almost all of them ending with Melody being dead. At least, they all did until Ryley noticed a flash of pink in a bush by the trail. That was a big relief. She wouldn’t be able to hide long at that spot, but at least she was alive.

Now the burden of action lay upon Ryley. What would be the best course of action in this case? He needed to get in contact with Melody, make sure she was okay, but the Onix was currently looking around, probably for Melody, which inhibited his actions. First he needed to distract the snake somehow. The rest could come later.

Ryley picked up two decently sized rocks laying in the Onix’s wake and threw them in quick succession in the opposite direction of Melody’s location. As he waited for them to land, he noted the direction he threw them in was towards the Spinarak nest. Maybe, just maybe, he could use that to his advantage.

In any case, as soon as the rocks landed, the Onix turned towards the new sounds created. Best case scenario, the Onix would follow the sounds presuming that’s where Melody fled. As for almost every other scenario, more work was to be done. Ryley used his created opportunity to rush over to Melody’s hiding spot, sliding behind the bush, hopefully out of view. He had to make this brief.

“Sorry for barging into your party, but we need to lead it to the Spinarak nest”.

Ryley couldn’t look to see what the Onix was doing, but he hoped it was blindly following the sounds of the rocks. That would save them from the possibility of death. Y’know, nothing big or anything.

~Melody Hemlock~

Sounds. Lots of sounds. Footsteps, the light breeze, the unmistakeable sound of a giant rock snake sliding along the ground…

Well, it was a lovely day for dying. That, at least, was for certain.

And then suddenly, there came a voice out of nowhere, like a messenger of salvation. If she was religious, she'd have said that it was like he'd been sent by Lord Helix himself.

“Sorry for barging into your party,” said Ryley. “But we need to lead it to the Spinarak nest.”

Melody stared at him. She… hadn’t really expected anyone to come after her. Really, she’d basically resigned herself to a slow and painful death.

But… Ryley had come after her. Ryley had followed her right into the face of danger, and now here he was, trying to save her.

She wanted to cry, and she really wasn’t sure why. Her throat felt a little tight.

This boy can be your friend too, whispered the ugly little voice in Melody’s head. You wanted friends, didn’t you? He’s not Abigail, but protect him with your life anyway. And maybe if you stick with it for long enough, he’ll be grateful enough to be your friend forever. That’s what you want, right? To have friends?

It wasn’t fair to think like that, and Melody shook herself. They had to survive the Onix first. But she smiled tentatively anyway. She had to be brave, even if Abigail wasn’t here, and especially in front of… her newest friend.

Because really-- someone showing up to save your life, right in the nick of time? Well, it's pretty hard not to feel grateful to them. Even if you're probably both going to die.

“T-thanks,” she said tentatively. A quick glance up told her that the Onix was heading in the opposite direction. Were they in the clear? “For… for coming after me. I didn’t think anyone would.”

Unfortunately not. Even as she watched, it swung around, starting to head back.

Ryley was still standing up— not good. Melody thought fast: in a surprising display of strength, she yanked him down onto the ground next to her. “Sorry,” she whispered, recalling her Pokemon at the same time.

And then it hit her… like a ton of rocks. Heh. So paying attention in biology in middle school was going to pay off after all.

“Let’s play dead,” she said, as softly as she could manage. “I don’t know if we’ll be able to lead it to the Spinarak nest in time. But… Onixes don’t eat meat, do they? I’m pretty sure they only eat rocks. So it was probably chasing us because it was angry, not because it actually wants to eat us. If it thinks we’re dead, it’ll leave us alone... uh, hopefully.”

~Ryley Grisdoe~

A wise man once said that the eyes are the window to one’s soul. Ryley understood this as he looked into Melody’s eyes. The look she gave him was… interesting. At first, Ryley thought she was very grateful that he had come to help. But there was something else there, something he didn’t recognize fully. It was a bit unnerving. He’d have to be careful around it.

“T-thanks. For… for coming after me. I didn’t think anyone would.”

Well, hey. They were a group. They needed to stick together to survive. He was sure others were on their way to help. Well… maybe not Abigai-

Melody interrupted Ryley’s thoughts halfway through as she pulled him down to the ground. Dang this girl has some HM04! Why did she...

“Sorry.”

After his initial reaction, Ryley understood why she had done that. He must still have been in view of the lumbering Onix.

“It’s ok. My bad”.

Whispering apologies aside, they needed to act now. The Onix would find them eventually, and the earlier they tricked it, the better. However, Melody had an idea of her own.

“Let’s play dead. I don’t know if we’ll be able to lead it to the Spinarak nest in time. But… Onixes don’t eat meat, do they? I’m pretty sure they only eat rocks. So it was probably chasing us because it was angry, not because it actually wants to eat us. If it thinks we’re dead, it’ll leave us alone... uh, hopefully.”

Play dead? That would leave them open to attack, but it was the quickest, and possibly the easiest way to get out of this situation. Provided it worked, of course. Ryley didn’t like leaving himself open to the possibility of instant death.

Then again, Melody seemed to be proud of her idea, and probably wouldn’t want to abandon it after having thought it up. And with the Onix right next to them, arguing about something like that would be a death sentence for sure. So plan B it is.

“Okay, let’s do that. Be careful though, no playing ‘hero’ if this goes wrong”.

Ryley sent out Fern next to him after talking to Melody. He motioned for Fern to be quiet, then whispered to her next.

“Stay in this bush. Don’t move unless I tell you to.”

Fern nodded in response and hunched down in the foliage. With preparations out of the way, it was time to do something incredibly stupid so they wouldn’t die.

When the Onix was looking away, Ryley crawled out from the bush, and lay down on the ground, still as a metapod. He held his breath and closed his eyes when the Onix’s gaze turned over towards him. This had better work. Dying wasn’t an experience Ryley wished to have.

As the seconds ticked by, Ryley began to feel hopeful. Was this working? Was it actually working? If this actually saved them...

“NO! Give them back! GIVE THEM BACK!”

...Damn it. Of firetrucking course Avery was there. Of freaking course. Why couldn’t it have been Blake, or Alex, or hell, even Abigail? Anyone besides freaking Avery. The timing of it couldn’t have been worse either. Oh life, why did you have to be so cruel.

Ryley kept his eyes closed, not wanting to see the mess the situation had become. Well, more honestly, he didn’t want to alert the Onix of their ‘aliveness’, but that’s beside the point. Though after a while, Ryley couldn’t help but be curious of what was going on. The noises of battle were pointless without sight. Curiosity having consumed him, Ryley peeked a quick glance with his left eye of the scene. What he witnessed was the Onix eating a rock presumably thrown by Avery. Oh Avery…

Well, at this rate, Avery was certainly going to die. Ryley needed to do something, but what could he do? Silence now dominated the area, nothing moving. Once the Onix made his next move, someone would get hurt. Fern still lay in hiding, but she couldn’t do much to help out in the long run. Maybe he should just return her to her pokeball now…

...Wait, that’s it! Ryley seized the idea, as well as one of his pokeballs, and threw it at the unaware Onix. Once it connected, the Onix disappeared into the ball, hopefully not realizing what had happened. There! Now that a couple of seconds were bought, Ryley picked his head off the ground and called out to Avery.

“We’re not dead! Quick, hide or play dead, or something!”

Ryley quickly receded to playing dead right away. The Onix would break out for certain, and Ryley did not want it to know who had thrown the ball.

~Melody Hemlock~

“Okay, let’s do that. Be careful though, no playing ‘hero’ if this goes wrong,” said Ryley.

Melody nodded vigorously. Well, yeah, of course... she might have made a startlingly reckless decision with the whole "lead the Onix away... with YOUR BODY" thing earlier, but honestly, she wasn't too big on unneccessary risk-taking.

It was just... Abigail had been in danger.

“Stay in this bush,” he continued to his Chikorita. “Don’t move unless I tell you to.”

They lay in the dirt like that for a few seconds. Gross. But as time crawled by, it started to feel… like there was hope. Maybe she wouldn’t die after all.

But here’s the thing. Sometimes the universe decides it likes you, and you don’t get eaten by the giant rock snake. Sometimes you get lucky like that.

This… was not one of those times.

Fuck you too, universe.

And how did Melody know that the universe had officially decided that she and Ryley were, in fact, done for? Well… Avery showed up.

She had nothing against Avery personally, of course. In fact, she rather liked him. He was the type of guy who was incredibly difficult to dislike, and he had defused the fight between Abigail and Peggy. And he'd even supported Abigail in her decision to go to Blackthorn... which was out of the question, for now.

But sometimes, suffice it to say, Avery was not the person you wanted to appear out of the blue. Actually, Melody wasn't sure she wanted anyone to appear out of the blue. She'd been touched by Ryley coming to help her, but when it came down to it... she'd been trying to lead the Onix away from the group! The whole point of the exercise had been to have the majority of the group go in a different direction, away from the Onix... right?

Of course, Avery was a particularly bad person to be showing up. Why? Well...

“NO! Give them back! GIVE THEM BACK!”

Yeah, they were all done for. Or at least, Avery was.

She hadn’t closed her eyes, and stared in horror at the sight before her. Avery, trying to fight the Onix. Nope. Avery, throwing a rock at the Onix, which it then ate. Nope.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

If she was perfectly honest, Melody was not okay with this development. But on the other hand… she didn’t want to give away her and Ryley’s position, either. Torn, and paralyzed by indecision, she bit her lip. What should she do? How could she protect Ryley and Avery at the same time?

Was there even the slightest chance that she’d be able to see Abigail again?

Thankfully, she didn’t have to answer the majority of these questions, because it was just then that Ryley —who Melody was starting to think was some kind of genius— tossed a pokeball at the Onix.

“We’re not dead! Quick, hide or play dead, or something!”

Well, that sounded like one hell of a good plan to Melody. “Good idea with the pokeball, there,” she whispered, and then quickly shut up, trying to remain still. Very, very still.

And hopefully Avery would do the same… right? Right?

~Melody Hemlock~

So apparently, Avery could climb. In fact, Avery could climb like an Aipom.

What… the heck?

In a flash, the boy was up a tree and concealed in the leaves. You couldn’t even really see him anymore.

Melody breathed a deep sigh of relief. Thank goodness. She’d been starting to get… well, really worried.

The Onix burst out of the Pokeball in a flash of light. It roared, even angrier than before… and then stopped, seemingly confused, and understandably so. Its prey had just disappeared, of course.

Its tail lashed at the air frantically, barely missing Avery’s tree, and it sniffed at the ground. Not for the first time, Melody wished that her hair was… some shade other than brightbrightbright pink, because the Onix found them fairly quickly.

She shut her eyes hastily. The bush rustled, and suddenly she could feel the Onix’s hot breath on her face. She tried not to shake, but it was hard, especially since she couldn’t see anything and had no clue whether she was about to be eaten or not.

It won’t eat me, she told herself. It thinks I’m dead. Besides, Onixes don’t even eat meat! Uh… I think.

But she had to stay still. She had to keep her eyes closed. She had to.

A few long seconds crawled by, and suddenly she couldn’t feel the Onix’s breath anymore. She waited a few minutes, until she was certain that the telltale sound of the Onix’s long, rocky body scraping against the ground was fading away into the distance… and then she opened her eyes.

Sure enough, she couldn’t see the Onix. Still, she lay unmoving for a moment longer, before she finally deemed it safe enough to sit up.

“It… worked?” she said uncertainly, nudging Ryley, who was lying beside her. There was no sign of the Onix. Tentatively, she stood, and offered a hand to Ryley.

“I think we’re probably safe for now,” she whispered, unwilling to draw the Onix’s attention back to their little group. “Want to head back, and try to find everyone?"

They were alive. They were still alive. That crazy, stupid gamble that she'd taken had paid off, and they weren't dead.

Maybe Arceus was smiling down upon them... or something.

The sun was shining. The Pidgeys were chirping. And they were still alive.

All in all... suddenly, the day seemed so much better.

Melody smiled. It was amazing how good surviving a near-death situation could feel.

~Ryley Grisdoe~

Ryley lay motionless on the ground, not daring to make any movements. The only thought going through his head, besides wanting to not die, was wondering how Avery would react.

“Good idea with the pokeball, there,”

Although the compliment was nice, now was not the time to be idly chit chatting. At least Melody didn’t say any more than that. Neither did Avery, which was surprising to say the least. Then again, one could say he spoke with his movement.

There was some rustling, a thud, then more rustling. Did… did Avery try to hide by climbing a tree? Ryley knew he shouldn’t be surprised by Avery’s randomness by this point, but you can never prepare yourself for true randomness. And Avery was random incarnate.

A roar startled Ryley from his thoughts. The pokeball had lasted longer than expected, luckily for them. There was some thrashing that came shortly thereafter, but no cries of pain. Avery actually hid himself well.

Sniffing followed the thrashing, the Onix apparently searching. And with the two of them in plain view… it didn’t take long. Here it was, the moment of truth.

Heated air flew over Ryley’s body in slow, measured gusts. His body screamed at him to run, but he was in control, and so he stayed. Well, that and he was frozen to the spot. Can’t be fearless, after all.

Time was irrelevant at this point. The only measure was between hot and lukewarm air. Those waves of heat eventually stopped, the Onix moving. When those waves were taken away from him, Ryley was lost. How much time had passed? Was the Onix gone? Why did it feel so cold now? If Ryley were a pokemon, he’d hurt himself in confusion.

Time must have passed, because he eventually felt a nudge. The Onix was back again? No… the touch was too gentle. Ryley hesitantly opened his eyes to see Melody standing, hand extended towards him. Had she said something? Ryley couldn’t tell. However, from what he could tell...

“The Onix is gone?”

He took the extended grip, and, with Melody’s help, stood up.

“I think we’re probably safe for now. Want to head back, and try to find everyone?"

Holy hell, they had survived. Ryley gave a deep sigh of relief, tension escaping his body.

“Yeah… Let’s get Avery and group up.”

Group… Group… Something about that reminded him of something. He gathered his jumbled thoughts and quickly came to his senses. Oh, right! He turned to face Melody, his composure built.

“Before I forget… Don’t ever, ever do that again Melody. There’s a reason why we travel in a group, and it’s not so you can split off from it. I don’t care how noble your intentions are, it only puts us in more danger.”

Ryley took a deep breath in. He had needed to get that out of his system. After he said that, he looked around for anyone else. No one, besides the hidden Avery. Geez, if others had shown up, his argument would have been a lot stronger. But still…

He continued to look at Melody, not sure of what to do next. A realization came to him. What if they couldn’t find everyone else? That’d mean he’d be stuck with the possible psycho with good intent, and the complete airhead, with what Ryley assumed was also good intent. Good intent aside, that left… Oh Arceus, please let them find the others.

Shit shit shit shit shit shit.... Was all Blake could think at the moment. There was a raging Onix chasing their little group, and judging by how it dealt with Abigails', Melodys' and Jacksons' Pokemon launching their own little counterattack, the Onix was too much for them to handle. Now, all the group could really do was run, and run they did. Then Blake remembered back when they were running away from the Spinarak and how he had Swinub use Mud Sport to slow the insect Pokemon down and pondered on using the same strategy one more time, but when he turned back and saw that the Onix had started picking up speed, it was like he saw a ghost. A human one, not a ghost-type, although those are scary in their own way too...

Apparently, Onix, thanks to their bad freaking luck, had learned Rock Polish and had used it to increase its speed. There's no way now that Mud Sport would be able to slow that monster down... Just gotta run faster, I guess.... He thought as he turned and closed his eyes while starting to speed up himself. After a while of running away, Blake couldn't hear the sound of the Onix chasing them anymore and was about to stop when he suddenly tripped on something and with all the momentum he had accumulated, the only thing he could do was brace for the impact.

Blake fell forward, crashing headfirst on the ground in front of him. Then, he started tumbling until he smashed onto a nearby tree where he came to a stop. The momentum of his fall also launched Swinubs Pokeball out from Blake's pocket, the Pokeball too falling down on the ground near Blake. Swinub came out of the Pokeball, clearly dizzy and disoriented.

Blake stayed as is for a couple moments, trying to understand what had actually happened there. "Ugh, ouch, ouch ouch.." He yelped as he stood up and straightened his back, supporting himself on the tree behind him. Okay, damage report. Broken bones? Nnnah he thought as he checked himself for any bones that might have been broken from the fall. Okay, what about gashes or any other open wounds? He checked his head first, carefully examining for any wounds. Miraculously, apart from some scratches here and there and the obvious bruising all over his body, he was, for the most part fine. Must be my lucky day today, if you count out the fact that it's my first day as an official Pokemon trainer and I've already gotten myself into all this trouble.... Blake thought and sighed.

"But where the hell am I?" Blake wondered and looked around, trying to find anything that would give him a clue about his whereabouts. Apparently, he had strayed off the main road and somehow had gotten himself deep inside the dense forest, Good going Blake, you did it again... He thought to himself in frustration.

The first thing he noticed as he was looking around was Swinub. He was laying on the ground, a few feet away from him and was obviously not in the greatest of conditions. Blake rushed to his friends' aid, trying to help the Pokemon regain its composure. It took a while and although its moves were a little groggy, the little fellow managed to climb up to his usual seat atop Blake's head and rest. Blake, smiling, picked up his pokemons' Pokeball and then looked back at the second thing he had immediately noticed as he was looking around the area. The small, square-shaped box a few feet away from them. He got closer to the mysterious crate and was pleasantly surprised when he realized that that box was actually one of those chests that are scattered around the world, sometimes containing useful stuff in them. Blake had heard from a lot of Trainers passing through Blackthorn about those chests and that's how he immediately recognized the pattern on the box. "Swinub my friend, today seems to be our lucky day, as hard to believe that is" he told his friend with a chuckle.

Blake picked up a decent-sized stone and with a thwack! He smashed it on the lock of the chest, breaking it. He dropped the stone and opened the chest to take a look what was inside. Inside the chest were a Bluk Berry, two apples and, surprisingly enough, a bottle of water! If someone would watch Blake right then, they would see a crazy teenage boy with a Swinub on his head, jumping around in excitement. Having enough food and water would be so important to them until they reunited with the rest of the group. Unfortunately, it seemed like Blake had little time to waste as the sun had already started setting and as everyone knows, or should know anyway, nights out in the wild with all those wild Pokemon lurking in the shadows, were not to be trifled with. He retrieved the supplies from the chest and started retracing his steps, trying to find his way back to the main road.

Blake fell down on the cold ground, panting. He had finally left behind him all that dense forest and was now back on the main road leading to Cherrygrove. Their food supplies had been depleted, but since Blake had made sure to be frugal when it came to the water, he had managed to save around half of it. He picked the bottle from his shoulder bag and made to drink some of it when Swinub nudged him. The little Pokemon had decided to refuse to go inside his Pokeball that would shelter it from the conditions outside and had stayed on Blake's side the whole time they travelled through the forest. However, since Swinub is at the end of the day, an Ice-type Pokemon, its need for water was greater than that of the average human and as such, most of the water that had already been consumed had gone to Swinub, something that Blake happily obliged to.

Blake sat up, bringing Swinub to his lap. He signalled to the Pokemon to open its mouth and then slowly poured the water until Swinubs thirst was sated. When Swinub was finished, he too drank what was left of it and threw away the bottle. "Now what? Where do you think we should go from here?" Blake asked his little friend. There was a small moment of silence that was broken by the loud growl of Blakes' stomach rumbling. "Ha ha ha..." Blake laughed awkwardly and scratched the back of his head. There had been some time since he had eaten anything and two apples are not something you'd really call a satisfying meal.

Then, all of a sudden, Swinub started sniffing the air. "What?" he asked the Pokemon with a quizzed look on his face but quickly caught on to what was happening. Swinub had caught the smell of cooked food! "Do you think you can lead us to where the smell comes from?" he eagerly asked Swinub who without looking back at him, jumped off his lap and started walking down the road while continuing to sniff the air. One thing he had learned about Swinub while he was back at home, studying about their evolutionary line, was that they have a very acute sense of smell. That, combined with the fact that they are huge eaters, always on the look for more food, makes them able to accurately trace the smell of it from miles away at times! Blake could only follow his little piggy-hound as it lead him towards salvation.

---

Or so he thought... His hopes were instantly shattered when he reached the opening where the camp had been set up and noticed Abigail and Avery sitting next to a fire. Well, he was of course happy to see Avery but not that someone else sitting next to him. Nevertheless, he caught himself remembering back to when he had witnessed Peggy slap Abigail. A small smile formed on his lips as he remembered her shocked reaction and Jacksons' song. "Good job finding the group little fellow," he told Swinub, picking it up and putting it on top of his head before starting walking towards the camp.

This was going to be interesting, to say the least.

~Ryley Grisdoe~

Of course Avery couldn’t be found nearby. Of course. Nothing could be that straightforward with that airhead, could it? Ryley and Melody had searched for a while, trying to find that helpless kid. Oh, and of course Fern helped as well. After a fruitless search, Ryley threw his hands in the air, giving a small sigh.

“I give up. He’s probably wandered off on his own or something.”

Well, there was another alternative, but Ryley didn’t want to say that one. If Avery had actually confronted the Onix again… No, it wasn’t smart to dwell on that. For now, the two of them needed to head out. Hopefully they’d encounter Avery, or someone.

“Let’s get moving. We should try and find the others before it gets too dark.”

The sun was already beginning to set, providing a vast array of colors lighting up the sky. Needless to say, if they wanted to find the others today, they needed to hurry. Ryley recalled Fern, giving a kind nod, and took off at a jog. He had no real idea of where he was going. He just started heading back the way they came, and hoped for the best.

---

A couple of hours later, darkness was taking it’s toll across the route. Ryley could often hear a stray Hoothoot here and there. Dammit… this was starting to look bad… He and Melody still hadn’t run into any trace of their group, much less human contact. They would need to set up camp soon… and having only two people wasn’t the best case scenario.

Ryley glanced over his shoulder to see how Melody was holding up. She seemed to be fine for the most part. They had grabbed a quick drink of water a while ago, so they should be good on that end. Hunger on the other hand… Ryley turned his gaze forward. They could worry about that when they set up camp.

A very small snapping noise off in the distance caught Ryley’s attention. He signaled to Melody to stay quiet as he listened in. It seemed to be distant enough not to be a threat, but his curiosity made him tune in. There! It happened again! Though this time it was more like a pop. It was barely audible, so it was hard to distinguish. What was making that sound…?

An optimistic thought crossed Ryley’s mind. At this point, he would follow that thought, despite the risks being wrong held. He motioned Melody to follow, but stay silent. If he was wrong, he sure as hell didn’t want to attract attention. He walked slowly towards the sound, staying alert for anything that may come. However, another noise made him lower his guard.

“Thank Arceus… I think that’s the others”.

Ryley took off at a jog, not caring for precaution at this point. He craved for the safety numbers brought. As he began to draw closer, he could make out some of the words being spoken.

“W-at… e-ery--dy… t-?”

Was… was that was Avery…? What the hell Avery… what the hell… That airhead was probably enjoying the company of the others while he and Melody struggled and despaired over finding him and everyone else. That aside, however, those words struck something in Ryley. It almost sounded like they hadn’t found most of the group… not a good sign.

“If… aw-y… Onix… t-ey’re fin-… Unless… another… pokemon… you know…”

And that sounded like Abigail. A small part of Ryley hoped that she would be one of the ones they hadn’t found. However, at this point, he was just glad there was another person.

There was a small break in the conversation, silence except for the occasional snap, crackle, and pop. Ryley and Melody approached closer, the light of the fire now quite visible. He thought he heard a third person speak, but it was too hushed a tone to make out what was said. However, it was just good knowing there were at least three people there.

“Quiet you. Let’s ignore the jerk”.

...Aaaaand there was Abigail again. Unless the third person had said something insulting, then those words were very… Abigail’y’. Couldn’t really put it any other way than that. ...It really would be a lot easier on the group if she was one of the missing people.

Ryley continued to jog through the forest, until he finally broke through some shrubs into an opening, a very small camp having been set up. There was Avery, Abigail, and Blake, all there. Only three of their original eight… That meant they were still missing three. Not as bad as missing half, but he had hoped they were only missing one, or best case, none.

In any case, he had just burst into the campground out of nowhere, and a word or two needed to be put in to avoid an awkward situation. Loading witty comment in three... two... one…

“Things got a little rocky back there, huh…”

...Dammit... Brain, what the hell are you doing? ‘Rocky’? Seriously? That’s the best you can do? Ugh… well, he was tired, and he didn’t want to talk too much. That was a fair excuse, right? For now, a warm fire sounded really good right now. Ryley walked over to the heat and sat down beside it.

“Sorry… that was bad. Too tired to care right now”.