Foomph.
The flash of light faded, letting us get our bearings. Given that we returned all our pokemon, Tristan was now a Yoda backpack for me.
The forest around us was filled with ambient noise. The chatter of bugs, stray Kriketune or something buzzing around. Maybe it was the wings of a Scyther, its wings fluttering together at blurring speeds.
I released Hurricane, and tossed Tristan onto his back.
"One more to go." We'd just finished the post lunch teleport, getting us somewhere close to where the Rangers made camp.
However, rather than risk pushing forward to try and finish the journey in one day, we would be finding somewhere to rest for the night.
While Hurricane would have been able to do the rest of the journey in one day back at the start of our little excursion, the last couple months had not been good for him. Many of his muscles had atrophied from so many weeks of laying next to Tristan. The forest environment never really let him let loose, so he hardly ever got close to running speed.
So rather than risk having to fight off anything in the dark while traveling, we've opted to find a defensible position for the night, and then simply finish the journey tomorrow.
The monkey part of my brain that refuses to consider the idea of taking two trips to carry groceries from the car vehemently disagrees with this plan, but it's the smarter move. Getting caught between raging Garchomp, Tyranitar, and Tyrantrum does not seem super fun. Especially since a Garchomp is one of the few creatures that can catch up to Hurricane at his current speed.
With turning at high speeds being difficult, due to the lack of friction in the padded plains and sand, a Garchomp could easily fly to catch up and take us down. Garchomp can fly really fast, but only in a straight line. Hence why a snake maneuver would be the best way to shake it off your tail, but given the desert plains being hard to turn at high speed, due to the lack of friction, and wiping out being an unfavorable option, we're going with the safer route of teleportation.
Despite Zuko's new dragon typing, he does really rely on his electricity to deal with stronger opponents. His fighting moves have gotten far better, but we haven't really cultivated his draconic powers yet.
So despite the fact that Zuko would jump at the opportunity, that is one of the few encounters I would like to avoid until his final evolution.
Pseudo's tend to be very dangerous. Garchomp in particular happens to be one of the most lethal pseudos. I base that off the sole fact that they have more sharp pointy objects than any other pseudo. Plus, having a natural resistance or even potential immunity to Zuko's strongest moves? And the speed to catch him on retreat?
A Garchomp is a potential death sentence.
Same goes for Flygon. A pack of Flygon can easily attack Zuko from afar, given his lack of ranged options, and suffocate him with sandstorms.
His previous method of simply running up trees and jumping to deal with flying opponents won't work in the open desert.
Azula wouldn't fare any better. Sure, she had ranged options, but they didn't really do much against those ground dragons. Fire would splash harmlessly against their scales, even if they weren't reinforced by earthly powers.
Myst.
Well, Myst was an anomaly. His powers worked in ways that I didn't quite understand. I had theories, sure, but they didn't really coincide with how I think reality should work. I'd have to do more thinking on it. That's a story for another time though.
Either way, I want to avoid any earthly dragons as much as physically possible.
The easiest way to do that is wait until tomorrow, have Gallade teleport us the rest of the way to the valley, and then have Hurricane clear us through the rest.
I hopped onto Hurricane's back with Tristan. Zuko appeared as I released him.
"Alright ladies, we're losing daylight."
Hurricane grumbled and began moving. The beasts lumbered forward, beginning the journey. One paw after the other, the trees began to thin.
We weren't anywhere close to the desert though. Instead, the forest was opening to a large grassy grove. There were still small clusters of trees, but wild grass dominated the scene. All around, basking in the sun, lay thousands of grass types.
And that wasn't even an exaggeration. It was the most pokemon I had seen, in one spot, ever. The occupants of the Tree of Iron Scales would find themselves outnumbered by the grass types I could see within my field of view. The grassy grove seemed to stretch on for miles.
There had to be tens of thousands of grass types, if not hundreds of thousands. Venusaur(the ordinary kind), Torterra, Tangrowth, Ludicolo, and dozens of other species littered the area. It was odd. Having seen such hostile Ivysaur and Bulbasaur, albeit different variants, and then seeing the lackadaisical Saurs that I had known before, it was eerie.
If these Bulbasaur and Ivysaur could still exist, here in Starfall, why did Starfallen variants exist? They seemed so peaceful. They simply sat in the sunlight, or weird limelight that existed here in Starfall, but it seemed to do the trick. It would still have to be able to enact photosynthesis if trees were to exist in the first place.
There seemed to be some patrolling pokemon, namely Sceptile and Leavanny, but they ignored us as we walked past. Maybe it was the Prius sized dragon oozing electricity and hostility, or maybe it was the proud fire type we were comfortably sitting on, but they paid us no mind.
This answered one of the biggest questions that had been bugging me since I'd gotten here. In my world, trophic levels allowed for the food chain to exist. Plants eat sunlight. Bugs eat plants. Small animals eat bugs. Energy gets passed down the line, eventually ending up in my stomach.
Here, bugs were the size of small animals. They didn't outnumber humans by 10 quintillion, thank god. I couldn't imagine trying to face a swarm of fifty beedrill, let alone thousands.
If grass types took the bottom stage of the food chain, simply by only needing sunlight, it made sense they could simply breed like rabbits and allow the food web to exist. If grass types took the place of bugs, and outnumbered every other type of pokemon on the planet by several magnitudes, it would actually explain how anything could still exist.
It certainly seemed like that was the case. The Tree of Iron Scales had been the most condensed and civilized group of pokemon I had ever seen. There were at least 200 times as many pokemon here in this grassy grove.
If groves like this were common, it made a lot of sense.
The Sceptile and Leavanny that prowled the grounds seemed to be covered in scars. One of the Sceptile was missing an arm, and its horn ended with bite marks. Others bore similar battle wounds.
Did they have the job of defending the different colonies? Were they herbivorous? The Sceptile at the Tree were certainly omnivores. They also seemed to bear more draconic features. Were those linked?
Wait… Was that what had changed the Starfallen Saurs? They were omnivores. Or maybe just carnivores. The Saurs here were probably just herbivores. What if that was the difference? Did aura have anything to do with how the variants were created? If something eats something else, but the aura's don't mix, will it taste poisonous? Or will that pokemon eventually develop ways to consume it properly, but have to change its nature to fit?
Or was it the other way around? Consuming different kinds of aura could eventually bleed into your own aura? Maybe Starfallen Ivysaur were originally regular Ivysaur. They were defenders of one of the grassy grove colonies. Somehow they started eating… no… that doesn't make sense.
Maybe it was exposure? Having fought too many dark types, they eventually gained some of those attributes to be able to compete? If dark types continually preyed on the grass types through trickery, they could have evolved their mindsets to adapt, which somehow also tainted their aura.
Or maybe they had gotten stranded in the forest, where there wasn't sunlight, and then they had to get their sustenance some other way. But if they had never eaten things before, they couldn't just imagine a digestive tract into existence. Well I guess they could still eat plants, but I don't see why they would need it if they could get everything from sunlight.
Wait…Nitrogen! Trees got it from the soil and such. Grass types wouldn't be able to do that unless they ingrained themselves. So while something like Cradily might be more plant-like in biology, most grass types would still need to have digestive tracts to eat plants to get phosphorous, nitrogen, and other necessary building blocks, so maybe the eating theory wasn't too far off.
"-... off the Trevenants." Tristan finished, making me realize I had missed an entire conversation. I'd idly noted that there were mouth noises while I was thinking, but my brain had apparently prioritized grass type theorizing.
Shit. Too many theories, not enough conclusive answers. On the bright side, when I got back to civilization, I had plenty I could research. How do I play this off like I wasn't accidentally ignoring everything Tristan had said?
Something about Trevenant. Trevenant were tree ghosts. Protectors of the forest. Oh. They probably helped protect the grassy groves at night, if they were actually benevolent ghosts. Woah. Maybe those did exist. Well, they still fucked shit up like regular ghosts, but they might do it to protect others. So a step in the right direction at least.
"What do you think we should do if we get attacked by one of them?" I responded, hoping my reply made sense.
Tristan huffed. "That's the worry. I'm not too sure. I don't think I trust your Zorua to handle everything, but I think he's our best bet. Gallade's not in any shape to fight off ghosts right now. I want Hurricane to be resting. Do you think Zuko and Myst can handle it?"
"I guess I'll get some rest then. Between the three of us, we should be able to fend anything off." I responded, already thinking of potential countermeasures. Electricity wouldn't fare too well against Trevenant. If they were truly made of bark, Zuko and my electricity wouldn't do much. Well, mine wouldn't for sure. Zuko's might. Despite all my attempts to increase my aura output, Zuko's voltage was magnitudes more powerful. Given he actually had the biology to sustain it, I couldn't really complain. I just wanted better superpowers.
Honestly my best bet would simply be to wield Oblivion. Shit. I'd been working on supplementing it with electric and fire aura, but hadn't started on trying to work with void energy. Myst and I got along, but I don't think we were that close yet. I didn't even know how I would get started on such a thing, or if it was even possible. Wielding aura was new to me, and I don't even know if it was possible to wield three kinds. Maybe two was already too much.
Without any enhancement, Oblivion was simply a standard sword. No chaos energy to slay ghosts. For all I knew, the steel would pass through the bark unaffected.
I would probably have to enhance it with fire, even if it shone like a flashlight in the dark. I guess if I was doing such a thing, I might as well release Azula too.
"I'm planning on just having Zuko and Myst out. I'll be back up with my own tools. If worst comes to worst, and Zuko and Myst can't deal with something, whether it be Trevenant or not, I'll use Oblivion. Since I'll probably have to enhance it with fire, I'll also release Azula. We'd be dealing with extra attention anyway, so with another hand on deck we should be able to deal with anything that comes our way."
Tristan and I mulled over potential encounters for a little while longer as Hurricane and Zuko cruised on. He spouted off in mock offense that Oblivions swords were basically extensions of his arms, so I had basically taken all of his limbs. I continued with how Oblivion hadn't acknowledged me since the night of the attack, and had been an empty husk I used to try and focus my aura. When I put the swords in his hands, they thrummed with recognition and life. He gave me the go ahead to use Oblivion in case of emergency, since apparently Oblivion liked me enough not to lash out, but there was clearly a connection between the swords and Tristan that I hadn't come anywhere close to experiencing myself with the ghost. We continued with our conversation; I got to talk about the electric darts I had fashioned from Vikavolt pincers. I would imbue them with electricity, and then shoot them out like blow darts with a pipe I'd made from bamboo.
Other than that, I briefly talked about the electric lasso's I'd made from Galvantula webbing, which also used the same gimmick. It made hunting easier.
The occupants of the grassy grove never bothered to spare more than a glance as we passed them. For once, I felt at peace while traveling through the Endless Forest. If only it would last. Eventually we reached the end of the grassy grove, and continued on beneath the dark canopy of the trees. I released Myst out, letting him stretch his legs. Rather than try and keep pace with Zuko and Hurricane, he jumped up to sit in my lap instead, falling asleep.
"I forgot how much I missed sunlight." I mentioned. The grassy grove had been a breath of fresh air. If only I had found one of those to make camp in. Well, I had no idea how bad those places got at night. There were likely plenty of pokemon they constantly had to fend off, using all the energy they had stowed during the day.
"I can't say I miss it as much as my legs." Tristan remarked, completely justified. I wasn't sure how to respond to that.
The only point of note in the next hour was a colony of Exeggcute and Exeggcutor. The pack of egg-like pokemon were being juggled in the air by the palm tree like pokemon. A thin veil of pink energy warped around us, but was shredded into pieces by dozens of sharp black tears in reality. Myst followed up by yipping in excitement at being able to do something. The colony of psychics instantly teleported away in fear. I imagine it was due to the instant destruction of their attack more so than the yipping fox, but I couldn't be sure.
Despite being in the company of very capable pokemon, I couldn't help but feel wary. My hair stood on end, waiting for disaster to strike. It seemed all for nought, however, as the next couple hours moving went on uneventfully. Finding a camping spot also went without incident.
Was it me? Was I the problem? Now that Tristan was back, things seemed to be going smoothly. Was I the bad luck charm? When I was on my own, everything seemed to go wrong in all the worst ways.
We made camp, eating leftover meats I had smoked the day before. A couple stories later, Tristan and Hurricane headed off to bed. I did the same. I would be awoken in a couple hours for my shift, while Myst and Zuko took care of things.
It was hard to fall asleep initially, but even with my trepidations, I eventually succumbed to a light sleep. When Zuko prodded me with a claw to wake a couple hours later, it felt like no time had passed. A dreamless sleep.
I blinked myself awake, only to notice the stench.
It was sharp, stabbing into my mouth and nose. My eyes began to water from the thickness of it. Like very spicy food, or battery acid. Looking around, I couldn't see any explanation.
Something felt different though. Like the area was more empty than before. Wait… that's it. There were fewer trees than before. There weren't any signs of battle. No splintered bark. No grass was even a hair out of place. Where trees had been before there was simply more plain grass, making me question whether I was just making this up. Even if it had been a Trevenant, or possessed by a Trevenant after, wouldn't there be signs of uprooting? I couldn't quite remember where exactly I felt like the trees had been, but this area hadn't been a clearing before. Now it kind of was.
Zuko almost looked scared, sparing a glance back at the Zorua standing guard. Myst was perfectly fine with staying up the entire night. He slept most of the day anyway. Zuko and I were the only ones switching.
The next few hours were slow. Painfully slow. Myst seemed at one with the night. Despite his natural laziness, he seemed to be constantly alert. His eyes were closed, but I could tell he was concentrating. His ears would flick different directions every once in a while, listening to every rustle in the leaves. His nose would twitch when he smelled something new. More than that, I could sense the darkness roiling off of him. It leaked out to the ground like smoke, bleeding through the grass. The night was his to command. Of that I had no doubt.
Nothing dared to try and test that. A couple hours of waiting for nothing proved that. Which was good. It was preferable that I didn't have to fight anything. But sitting sentry was always a terrible gig. I had to try and stay vigilant, even despite a perceived calm. Everything could change in an instant. Even a second of distraction could prove fatal. Trying to force your nerves to stay on fire, ready for action, while staring into the unmoving darkness was an incredible test of patience. One that I had gotten used to, but one that hadn't gotten much easier.
With the day came a slightly less dark forest, and we began preparations for the final stretch. Light actually shined through in some spots of the trees, leading me to believe that the missing trees weren't something that I was making up. I'd question Zuko about it once we got back to Champion's Hold.
A final(hopefully) breakfast of food born of the wilderness helped quell the uneasiness in my stomach. In a blast of pink energy, we left the Endless Forest.
Landing onto soft sand, I couldn't help but feel the dryness of the Valley. The air itself seemed angry, its heat greedily gnawing at my mouth and eyes, parching my throat. The winds sent sweltering grains of sand crashing into my face and hands, biting into my skin like dozens of ants. The light was blinding, a thousand spotlights shining right into my eyes.
The clearings of the Endless Forest didn't have this bright of light, despite the light source being the same. It didn't make sense, but my eyes complained all the same.
"We're at the edge of a sandstorm. Might be some Flygon or other scale having a temper tantrum." Tristan said, unable to cover his mouth or eyes due to his current position.
I released Hurricane and threw Tristan up onto the soft fur. I returned Gallade, thanking him for his hard work. Pushing his weakened psychic ability had strained him to incredible lengths. I could see hints of black lightning crackling along his skin. His eyes held a terrible pain, but he'd battled it out so we could make it this far.
I hooked up the straps on the saddle so that Tristan was locked in. Then, I hopped up onto Hurricane, doing the same for myself.
One last stretch.
The sands were blistering beneath the proud canine's paws, but he kept his pace. He hadn't been able to run wild in months, the terrain of the Forest too restrictive. He growled in happiness, picking up the pace.
I kept my eyes on the lookout, watching every speck of moving sand with caution. I was ready to release Zuko and Myst in an instant. I was also ready to draw Oblivion to join the fight if necessary.
We whipped past sand dunes, plateaus, cacti and brush at over eighty miles an hour. The wind was unrelenting, threatening to rip us off Hurricane's back like bugs on a windshield. It was disheartening to see Hurricane keeping such a slow pace, but it was still incredible that this was a slow pace to him.
There were dozens of sandstorms strewn about. The dragons were not happy today. Hurricane did his best to give them wide berths, but ahead of us were two massive sandstorms, with the way to Champion's Hold straight down the middle. Going around would cost us hours, as each sandstorm was dozens of miles wide, the dust stretching up to the clouds. Such was the power of a dragon. We would have to go through.
I pulled garments out of the packs and covered Tristan's mouth, nose and eyes. I did the same for myself, minus the eyes. I was the lookout. I wasn't going to leave Hurricane on his own out here. Besides, rushing through a sandstorm at breakneck speeds while blind sounded terrifying.
That being said, trying to keep my eyes open wasn't an option. The sand would rip through my corneas at this speed, especially since we seemed to be going into the wind.
I focused, drawing upon martial aura. Slowly but surely, I felt the brown energy warm through my chest and reach out into my arms and legs. The fighting energy came naturally to those areas, as that's where I'd used it the most. I pulled on it, trying to bring it up towards my face. I'd used it defensively to block attacks before, coating my arms and legs to absorb impacts better. In theory, it should also help me defend my eyes.
No goggles through a sandstorm is easily in the top ten worst things I've ever experienced, and we're still just on the outskirts. However, it seemed to be working, and the sand was being deflected from my eyes. Good.
I'd used all the extra garments we'd had on Tristan and I. However, since my aura thing worked to deflect most of the sand from my face, we stopped so I could quickly fashion my face gear onto Hurricane's nose, using rope to fasten it onto his snout. I didn't have anything for his eyes. He would either have to squint or run blind, relying on me to direct him. We ended up sticking with the latter.
After a couple minutes of straining my energy to keep up the shields, I hunkered down, shoving my head into my arm. I brought up my shirt to cover my mouth and nose, using it to block the sand while I just focused on coating my eyes with aura. Given the intensity of the sand, I had to pour more and more energy to keep up the shields.
I could only see fifty feet or so in front of us, and had to slow down the pace to account for obstacles, but we were still making good time. Thirty minutes of running through the thick sandstorm, and I still had yet to see a pokemon. Well, beside the rare Cacturne or other non mobile mimic like pokemon. Nothing dangerous. Or more specifically, no dragons. That's what I was worried about.
Still, the pelting sand was only getting more intense, letting me know we still hadn't reached the midway point through the storm. We would slow down every once in a while so I could clear any sand stuck in Hurricane's garments, but no more than that. There wasn't even a chance for a water break. We didn't have canisters with nozzles, so there was no chance we would actually be able to drink anything without it getting infected by sand and dust. Hurricane hunkered down and fought on anyway, the fucking absolute lad that he is.
Within the sea of shifting and raging waves of sand was a flutter of green wings, moving too fast to be anything but a bug, but they disappeared before I could get a proper glimpse. They were diamond shaped with red outlines and the size of a mattress, slipping through the sand as if it were water, but whatever lay beyond the wings didn't seem to take notice of us.
Another half hour later, the sand seemed to be dying down. We must have passed the eye of the storm. It was pelting us from the side rather than the front. We stopped for hopefully the last time so I could scrape the sand and rocks that had constantly been getting enlodged in Hurricanes paws. They were bleeding from the wear, but we pressed on. My eyes were red, strained from the pellets of sand that had made their way through my waning shield of fighting energy. I'd never used aura like this, and it was still a work in progress.
I'd had a couple coughing fits from some sand somehow sneaking its way through my shirt. It was everywhere. My lungs burned, my mouth and throat ached. My eyes, previously streaked in tears out of a desire to protect from the sand, had long since run dry.
All we could do was push on.
After what seemed like an eternity, the sand seemed to fall away, letting me glimpse the land beyond. Roiling cerulean and violet energy signaled the sky above, sending light through the storm. Clouds soft and white revealed themselves in the distance. Below, standing like a magnificent castle with tall powerful gray walls, arms outstretched in welcome, was the greatest city of the region. With only a couple miles of soft sand and brush between us and our savior, my heart soared. We'd made it.
Champion's Hold.