FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

What? The previous chapter is evolving! .......... Holy crap, it's a new chapter! Anyway, hope you guys had some good times this month. It's been one heck of a ride this month for me, but I'll feel better once I get some sleep. So, I won't keep you long with anything extravagent, so you can start reading. I hope you all enjoy it! Remember, Comments and Votes are welcome and appreciated.

**********8**********

April ran as fast as she could through the surrounding forest, looking for any sort of berry or something that could cure some ailment. She only knew of a few, but she couldn't find any. It was getting harder to see with the sky darkening, even with her tail lit up. The panicking sheep made several turns and was almost turned around a couple times, but she made sure to at least keep her back toward where her temporary shelter was. Still, even if she could find her way back, it wouldn't do her any good if she didn't bring anything back to help Jari.

"I can't find anything," she mentally exclaimed as she leaned on a tree. She had been frantically searching for nearly an hour now, and was starting to lose hope. She was running extremely low on stamina. "And I haven't found anyone to help me either. How can this place be so empty?" April tried her best to keep herself calm. She knew she wasn't one to function well under stress, but knew that she had to right now. A small rustle nearby caught her attention and caused her accidentally light up her tail to it's brightest for an instant. Fortunately, or not, in that moment, she saw what made that noise. The creature looked roughly her height, with leafy appendages on its head and rear that possibly served as its ears and tail, and had little sprouts around its paws and the middle of its head. Its fur was tan, except for its paws, which were brown. April had never seen this pokémon before, so she stayed on her guard. Meanwhile, the strange pokémon was furiously rubbing its eyes due to the pain of the intense light.

"W-Who are you?" April asked. The pokémon squint its eyes at the sheep in an attempt to see her.

"You blind me and then ask me that?" the pokémon replied, indicating that it was female.

"W-who are you and w-why are you... f-following me?"

"First off, I wasn't following you." She straightened up, her eyesight mostly clear. "I saw you running and wanted to see if you were in trouble, though I almost can see now that you'll be fine if that were the case. To answer your first question, I'm Alyssa, a leafeon." April relaxed a little, but still kept her guard up. For all she knew, the leafeon could be leading her into a trap. After a moment of silence, Alysa spoke up again. "So, are you going to introduce yourself or at least tell me why you're in such a hurry?" she asked. "You owe me at least that much after you blinded me."

"N-No one told you to f-follow me," April countered, to which the leafeon laughed.

"No, I suppose not. Still, you looked like you were in trouble. Are you sure there isn't anything you need?" The sheep debated with herself as to whether or not Alysa could be trusted, but not for too long. She knew that time wasn't on her side and honestly wasn't sure if she could pass up the first offer of assistance on a silver platter. She hadn't had any luck finding anything or anyone so far and would be going out on a leap of faith trusting this stranger enough to not attack her or Jari in their shelter.

"I... I need help," she finally admitted. "My friend is very sick and I'm not sure what's wrong with him." Alysa's ears perked up in alarm.

"Why didn't you say something earlier? Hurry and take me to him!" April hastily lead Alysa back to their shelter. The return trip seemed to take less time than she thought it would. She lit up her tail even brighter once they made their turn into the shelter and was thankful that Jari was still there and breathing... more or less. The cubone was panting heavily and started to sweat over his body. The two females looked him over, April fretting over his worsened condition and Alysa trying to calmly diagnose him. "Did he eat something he shouldn't have?" Alysa asked. "Like a suspicious mushroom or something?" April shook her head.

"I'm n-not sure. We've only been t-together for a while b-before we decided t-to spend the n-night here and he j-just collapsed. I-Is there anything you can do t-to help him?" The leafeon sighed and looked up at her.

"Possibly, but I'll need your help if you want to get this done as quickly as possible."

"A-Anything! W-What do I n-need to do?!"

"Come with me." Alysa quickly made her way out with April following closely behind her. They stopped at the waters edge near the waterfall. "I need more light," she said. The sheep lit up her tail enough so that they could see the banks on the other side of the river. The leafeon looked around once more before spotting what she was looking for. There was a rock covered with moss a little distance away. April watched her jump in the water and swim over to it. In almost no time at all, the leafeon placed her paw over the greenery, ripped it off, and swam back to shore with it in her mouth. She dropped it on the ground in front of the sheep. "Put this on his head until I come back. I have to get someone who can help more than I can, but I shouldn't be gone for too long. Make sure it stays on."

April nodded and watched the Alysa turn around and disappear in the forest. She quickly ran back inside with the cool moss in her paws. She knelt down beside Jari and almost placed the moss over his forehead, but the only problem she saw was that she was sure that the skull he was wearing would be in the way. She placed the moss on the ground and made to remove the skull. However, as soon as she touched it, she was struck hard across the face by Jari with his bone and was sent face down on ground. She whimpered in pain and shock as she held her cheek and looked at the brown dinosaur with a mix of shock and betrayal.

"J-Jari?!" she exclaimed. "A-Are you awake?" There was no other response from him other than his heavy panting. Slowly, she got back up and looked him over again. He was still unconscious from what she could tell. Just to make sure, she poked his stomach a couple times. She cautiously reached for his skull again. The result was the same as last time, only she managed to avoid his swing. "S-Stop doing that!" she shouted, getting slightly frustrated and even more desperate to help him. She huffed and glanced at the bone in his paws. She noticed that he held an unnaturally tight grip on it. It was then that she got the idea to take it away from him. "It shouldn't be too hard," she thought. "Kaden does it all the time." The sheep took a deep breath and braced herself for what she was about to do, what she needed to do. There was still no telling what the dinosaur would do if she were to touch his weapon. She had to snatch it away quickly if she wanted to get away without getting hurt.

As fast as could, she grabbed the bone and pulled as hard as she could. Unfortunately, not only did she not disarm him, but pulled his body along with her. Surprised by this, she gave it a couple more hard tugs for good measure. "That's it," she grunted. April moved herself over so that she was practically sitting on his weapon wielding arm. "There; now I don't have to worry about that. Now..." She grabbed the bottom of Jari's skull with both paws. Immediately, the unconscious dinosaur started struggling by thrashing around and trying to hit her away with his weapon. April, having underestimated his strength, was almost thrown off balance when he tried to lift his arm. She held on and eventually managed to remove the skull on his head.

Jari immediately ceased his struggling and went limp. April sighed in relief after a few moments of silence went by and gently placed the skull next to her. Luck didn't seem to want to be on her side anymore that night. To her surprise, Jari let out what sounded like a battle cry and wailing to the top of his lungs. He then rolled himself over and punched April in her stomach with his other paw. The pink sheep doubled over and fell on her side. Surprisingly, she saw Jari leap to his feet and look directly at her... more or less. He was still unconscious and had his eyes closed, but he was still facing her, growling as if she were an enemy or his next meal. Under different circumstances, she would've appreciated her first look at his real face; it was actually more pleasant to look at than the skull he always wears. Now, it was the most terrifying face she's ever seen.

With feral growl, the cubone raised his club to strike her. April rolled out the way just in time, still holding her belly. The impact Jari's weapon made on the ground made it crystal clear to her that he intended to actually kill her with that blow. April was trembling with fear and suddenly found herself backed into a wall. Even then, she felt that she should be able to somehow melt away and phase into the wall to get even further from the threatening cubone.

"J-Jari, w-why are d-doing this?! I... t-thought we were... f-friends!" She shouted, trying to get through to him. Jari let out another deathly wail as he leapt at her with his club raised again. April shrieked and scrambled out of the way of his attack again. However, he didn't stop there and continued to chase her around the chamber, screaming all the while.

April was terrified for her life. She had never seen anyone look so intent on killing her in her life, especially someone who she considered a friend just a couple hours ago. She pleaded with tears streaming down face for the cubone to stop his insane attempts at her life. After nearly the fifth lap of running around, April managed to come up with an idea to stop this madness by turning the light in her tail off and ceasing her running. As much as it scared her to do so, she noticed that Jari only attacked when heard her making noise, otherwise, he would stay on the lookout for her. It was a risky, down-right dangerous gamble she was taking, but running around and begging wasn't working.

She froze in place once they were both enveloped in darkness. The sound being made was from her own heartbeat thudding in her ears and against her chest. Her breathing was almost at a standstill, only taking slow intakes of air and exhaling just as slowly, even though her lungs begged her to breathe faster. The only thing that kept her from doing so was the threat standing only three feet behind her. She constantly fought the urge to run again. The sheep could practically feel his unconscious gaze burning holes in her back, all the while asking herself why this was happening in the first place.

Minutes passed by and April had finally calmed herself down. Granted, she was still scared of the cubone behind her, but reassured herself that as long as she didn't make any noise, she was safe. She tested her theory by slowly lighting up her tail again so that she could see again.

"Okay, at least I can see where I am," she thought. Looking around, she found the skull she had placed down about five feet to her left. She came to the conclusion that the reason for the insanity was due to her removing it. "So all I have to do is put it back on; easier said than done." Gathering up every ounce of courage she had, the sheep slowly and carefully made her way over to the skull. Each step to her sounded as if she was stomping on the ground, but she knew it was all in her head. If he wasn't moving, he didn't hear her. She picked up the skull as carefully as she could and made sure she had a firm grip on it. "Got it! Now all I have to do is put it back on him." April turned on her heel and walked toward Jari, a little faster than she felt comfortable, but she wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible now.

Once she was in front of the cubone, she took a good look at him and almost gasped aloud. His face was visibly flushed and he was panting heavily through his nose, which had a bit of snot coming from it due to his crying. It wasn't something anyone would notice if they were standing behind him. He wasn't making any sounds, no sniffling or anything. It was like he was crying in his sleep, only trying to kill her at the same time. A pang of guilt swept through the sheep because she felt responsible his distress and adding to his already horrible condition.

There was only a slight sigh she made when placing the skull back on his head. As soon as it was back on, Jari fell forward and April caught him within her arms. "I'm s-sorry," she whispered to him as she lay him down. "I'm j-just... making everything... worse f-for you... I c-can't even put... st-stupid moss on your head!" She glanced over to where the discarded moss was. "It... p-probably isn't even... c-cold anymore..." she sighed. She placed a paw on her cheek and flinched away from the pain of touching there. "Probably deserved that..." Just then, she heard footprints at the entrance to the shelter.

"Hey, I brought my friend and some food to help your cubone friend," Alysa stated as she came in. Behind her was another pokémon April hadn't seen before. It looked like a dopey dog with a weird hat on its head. The tail was pretty long and the tip of it looked exactly like the end of a paintbrush. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that this new pokémon was some kind of artist. It was holding an assortment of berries and fruits in its arms. "We came as quickly as we could bu- what happened to you?!" The leafeon was referring to the slight swelling on April's face. "Did you get in fight?!"

"S-sort of..." April replied dismissively, trying not to get into it right now. "W-who's that?"

"Uh, this is Van. He's going to help your friend." The smeargle placed the food down and sat down next to Jari. He mumbled something to himself and he pressed his paws together. His whole body started glowing a faint green color and roots sprouted from ground, wrapping themselves around his legs and waist. The next thing April knew, the smeargle and Jari had suddenly swapped places in puffs of smoke. Now Jari had the roots wrapped around him and was faintly glowing green.

"That should do it for now," Van said as he stood up again. "The only thing left to do is to cut up the food so that he can eat it when he wakes up."

"Wh-what did you do?" Apirl asked.

"Ingrain, a healing move that will restore ones strength. I simply swapped places when I used it on myself."

"Oh, um... thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. Your friend still has to wake up first. Now, let's take care of that swelling on your face. Alysa, pass me one of those berries, it doesn't matter which." The leafeon batted over an oran berry between them. Van picked it up and lightly froze it over with an ice punch. "Just keep it on there." April did as she was told, flinching slightly from how cold it was. Alysa padded her way over to the sheep and sat down.

"So how'd you get that bump?" she asked.

"I just... did something I shouldn't have... I don't want to talk about it..."

"Oh, okay... Well, care to share where you came from? We haven't seen any of your kind around here before."

"Don't be so intrusive, Alysa," Van scolded. "She doesn't have to tell us anything if she doesn't want to." The leafeon looked hurt at his remark.

"I'm not... sorry..."

"No, it's okay," April quickly said, not wanting to be the cause of uneasiness between them. "I don't really mind telling you that much." Alysa perked up at that. "We were separated from our trainer after a...unpleasant encounter with an onix. I wanted us to try finding our way back, but... with him being sick, I'm not sure if we can go anywhere tomorrow..."

"Oh my, that's terrible!" the leafeon exclaimed. "I'm sure you'll be able to get to your trainer tomorrow, right Van?" She and April looked the smeargle expectantly, putting some pressure on him as to what to say next.

"Well, um... *cough* If he wakes up at all tonight, there might be a chance that you two will be able to travel by the afternoon. That is, if he's well enough to." April was thrilled at the news, even if it was heavily relying on Jari's recovery.

"Screw that..." came a raspy voice that made all of them jump. They turned around to see Jari casting them a sideways stare. "We're leaving in the morning, right after breakfast."

"Jari!" April squealed happily as she got up and knelt by his side. "I'm so glad you awake! I was really worried about you!"

"That's great, but you're shouting in my ear..."

"Oh, sorry... How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright; just a little sore in the throat. It's nothing to fret over."

"Stop lying to me! You just collapsed because you wouldn't acknowledge the fact that you weren't feeling well! We're not going anywhere tomorrow until you're feeling one hundred percent better and that's not going to happen unless you're honest about your condition! You... really scared me today..." Jari was surprised that she was shouting, or more, shouting at him. He didn't think she had it in her to do such a thing, but here she was, actually demanding he be honest with her. He actually respected her more for it, but that doesn't mean he'll tell her that. He felt that actions spoke louder than words ever could and that he'll show it than tell her.

"Fine," he sighed. "My throat's sore, I'm completely exhausted, I feel like I'm overheating, and I can hardly breath through my nose." April sighed contently.

"Okay, I'll see if Van can help you with your nose."

"Great, now tell me what the hell these things are and what happened to your face," he said as he tugged at the vines, which Alice immediately stopped by placing a paw on him.

"They're healing you, so don't pull at them. And... something just happened and I don't want to talk about it now." The cubone sighed again and gave up his struggling.

"There are some herbs I could gather that will help with his nose," Van said. "Alysa, can you come with me?"

"Uh, sure," the leafeon replied, unsure of as to why she had to accompany him. The two got up and left the sheep and cubone to themselves. A couple minutes of went by and Jari was the first to speak.

"Don't do it again," he said. April was confused as to what he meant.

"What do yo-"

"I know what you did; I could tell as soon as I woke up. That bump on your face just serves as more proof because there's no way you could've gotten that from a fight. I'll forgive you this one time, but that's it. The next time you try it, you better hope there's someone there to stop me from killing you." The seriousness in his voice scared her a little, but at the same time, it made her fully understood the gravity of what she had done.

"I'm s-sorry," she whimpered. "I d-didn't know it was... that important t-to you..."

"Don't cry about it; I forgave you already!"

"Sorry..."

"Stop *cough* apologizing!" The two eventually settled down, mostly because April was afraid that too much yelling would worsen Jari's already sore throat. Alysa and Van returned no too long after they've quieted down. Van gave the cubone some crushed peppers and berries to clear his nose and help with his fever, which worked extremely well, and told the cubone to get an early rest. He refused at first, but gave in once April started nagging him about it. "Since when did she get so bossy?" he asked himself. Once that was settled, the rest decided to get an early rest as well and soon fell asleep in a small circle.

*****8*****

April was the first to wake the next morning. The pink sheep yawned as she sat up and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. It was still pretty dark inside, so she lit up her tail just enough so that she could see where everyone was. Van and Alysa were sleeping soundly from what she could see and it looks like they won't be up for a while. Looking over at Jari, he seemed to be doing a lot better than he was the previous night before he fell asleep. Just to make sure, she crawled over to the cubone and gently prodded his belly. The brown dinosaur groaned little before lazily opening his eyes, letting out a yawn in the process.

"What do you want?" he asked groggily.

"How are you feeling?" she asked barely above a whisper.

"You woke me up just to ask that?" April nodded. "I'm sleepy; happy now?"

"Jari..." The cubone groaned, knowing she was going to keep pestering him until she got what she wanted out of him.

"Fine; I'm considerably much better than I was yesterday. I can breathe, I'm not sore, and I'm not overheating in any way, shape, or form. Does that answer satisfy you?"

"Yes, it does," she replied happily. "Are you hungry? I'm going out." There were still a couple fruits and berries left over from last night, but it wasn't enough to fill everyone's empty bellies.

"Yeah, I'm getting there."

"Okay, I'll be right back." April got up and made her to the entrance.

"Make sure you go left," Jari said before she got any further.

"Um, okay..." She was a bit confused by the sudden input, but didn't question it. He hasn't given her a reason not to go by his words, but she wondered if where he wanted her to go was where food was.

Once April exited the cave and stepped out into the morning sunlight, she took a deep breath of morning air, finding it refreshing compared to inside. It was pleasantly cool out, especially with the slight breeze blowing some of the mist made by the roaring falls nearby. "Feel nice out here," she thought. With that though in mind, the sheep began her trek to search for food, taking Jari's advice and heading left. She only walked for about ten minutes before coming across a few fruit trees and berry bushes. She was astounded by the amount of food there was and briefly wondered how last night would've been had she known about this place earlier. But the real question on her mind was how Jari knew it was right here. "He couldn't have had time to find this before finding me, right?"

Rather than thinking on it now, she decided to ask him once she gets back. She picked as many berries and fruit as she could carry, which, she admitted, wasn't very much. She sort of wished her arms were longer so she could carry more. She only had enough for one round. So rather than having to make a possible second or third trip, she ate her breakfast right there. She bit into a warm apple that was slightly toasted. She zapped it until with a low dose of electricity until it was just barely steaming. It was something she learned how to do after many failed attempts a mareep. She usually either fried them or just made them explode because she put too much power into it. Now she could enjoy a toasted apple anytime without incident.

After having her fill of two more apples and an oran berry, April picked another batch of fruits and berries and walked back to the cave shelter, where she was sure everyone was up by now. When she got back, the sheep was greeted with the sight of a surprisingly energetic leafeon.

"Oh, wow!" Alysa exclaimed. "You got food! Thanks, I was starting to get really hungry." She took a berry from her arms and settled on a spot to start eating.

"You just ate half my pear and a rawst berry. You can't be that hungry," Van said as he took a berry, albeit more politely than the leafeon, and began eating his breakfast. Alysa playfully stuck her tongue out at the smeargle and went back to eating. Van sighed, while April laughed at them. The sheep made her way over to Jari, who was wide awake now, and knelt by his side.

"I hope this is enough," she said, holding out an apple, and two oran berries. Jari eyed her collection and nodded.

"Yeah, that's cool," he replied, which made the sheep give herself a mental pat on the back. "Now, are you gonna feed me or can I finally get out of these stupid vines?"

"Uh..." The question had April turning to the smeargle a couple times before she finally asked. "Um, Van?" The smeargle looked over to her. "Is it okay for Jari to eat on his own?" Van took a couple moments to think it over.

"The cubone hadn't shown any signs of illness since I've been up," he thought. "I guess there's no harm in letting him up." "It should be fine. He looks like he could take on the world anyway," he said. As soon as he said it, Jari ripped through the vines as if they were nothing.

"Finally!" he shouted in relief. "It sucks not being able to move much for hours." He stood up and stretched his slightly sore back, making several very loud, yet relieving popping sounds that made everyone wonder if he was really okay. It was only sore because he was lying on it for an extended amount of time, not really being able to shift to his side. Once he was done stretching, he snatched an apple from April's paws and took a bite out of it. "Thanks; it's pretty crunchy and sweet," he said with a mouthful, but April was able to understand him. "Tell you what; when I take on official legendary status, you can be my official 'Legendary Food Gatherer/Chef/Caretaker'. I'll make sure you're mentioned in the many stories they'll tell of me and my many conquests."

As borderline degrading as what he said was, April felt at least a little more appreciated by the cubone, even if he had shown it in a bit of an unorthodox sort of way. "Um, thank you," she replied, not knowing what else to say to that. She suddenly remembered what she wanted to ask him. "How did you know that there was food over there?"

"I asked around," he said simply, taking another bite of the apple.

"But... when?"

"Right after I fished you out the river. Some guy told me where the mountain was and that there was food nearby."

"You did all of that?"

"Yeah; it didn't take forever, but it was enough time for you to get up and walk off."

"Sorry..."

"It's cool. It all worked out in the end."

After breakfast, Van checked over Jari's condition one more time by having him do a few simple exercises. Of course, Jari had done them with ease, even adding some difficultly just to make it challenging. The news that they'll be able to travel again made April very happy. It was only a matter of time before they would be reunited with their trainer now.

"Well, I hope you two find your trainer," Van said. "Just don't push yourselves too hard."

"We won't," April said. "And thank you again for helping us. We couldn't have gotten through the night without your help, both of you." Alysa and Van smiled at her praise.

"It was really no trouble at all," the leafeon said. "We were happy to help."

"Can we wrap this up? Long goodbyes are not my thing," Jari commented, tapping his bone on the ground impatiently. Everyone chuckled

"I guess he's right. We need to get moving." With one final thanks, April and Jari began their trek through Mt. Moon.

*****8*****

"Hurry up, Chris! We don't have time to be resting!" Alice shouted.

"We've been almost running since yesterday," Chris complained, nearly out of breath. "I'm sure April and Jari are both safe wherever they are. It won't hurt to take a twenty minute break."

"You wouldn't be saying the same thing if those were your pokémon that were missing!" Chris sighed.

"Maybe not; but we haven't really eaten anything since lunch yesterday and it doesn't make sense to keep going on barely empty stomachs if we're going to collapse sooner or later." Alice growled something under her breath before making a complete stop and dropping flat on her butt like a child throwing a tantrum. Chris sat down next her, with some distance between them, and focused on catching his breath.

Tora, clearly just as tired as Chris was, Kishan, and Aaron sat down to rest as well. The entire group had been searching since for their missing companions since yesterday. No one really thought anything of it at first when they saw that Jari was gone, but when they noticed that April was gone too, the alarms went off. Alice and Kishan went into panic mode and started frantically searching for them. Of course, they were thinking of the worst case scenario the entire time. April wasn't really one to just go off on her own without telling anyone where she was going, let alone be gone for more than fifteen minutes. Fang was the one who informed them of the destruction of the path they were supposed to be taking. Once they saw the destruction, the only thing that made sense was that they fell into the river below. Aaron had tried to locate them via telepathy, but he couldn't get a fix on their minds. That only left him with only two conclusions: either they had lost consciousness, or they were dead. Needless to say, neither of those scenarios went over too well with Alice and Kishan.

After that, they nearly skipped lunch, Chris persuaded them not to, and nearly ran all the way back down the way they came to go through the normal path. The trip back down took half the time, but nearly exhausted them just as much as going up. Alice dragged them along until it became too dark to see anymore. They only had energy to snack on some granola bars before falling asleep. Now they were, Chris estimated, most likely halfway through the mountain, and it was just about lunchtime with no sign of either missing pokémon.

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Tora asked Aaron. The psychic sighed and shrugged.

"Honestly, I'm not really sure. There are too many minds around here to scan and I'm not really sure which direction to start looking in. If they did fall in that river outside and survived, I don't know where it leads. Besides... doing all that on an empty stomach is kind of stressful on my brain."

"You're just not looking hard enough for her!" Kishan shouted, surprising Tora, not so much Aaron.

"You know as well as I do that that's not true," the psychic calmly countered.

"Yes it is! Psychics are supposed to be able to find anyone no matter where they are! How come you haven't found her yet?!"

"It doesn't work like that, Kishan. If I haven't familiarized myself with their brain waves or have made a psychic connection with them, then I'm only able to search for them only a little faster than you. It's not that I don't want to find them as much as you do, it's just that I'm not able to do much more than you right now."

"But..." The wartortle tried to come up with an argument to counter, but couldn't. He was beyond frustrated at the helplessness he felt over the situation, but that paled in comparison to his concern for April. It was no secret that he wasn't very fond of Jari, but the cubone was a member of the team and he wasn't going to leave him behind. "I'm just... worried about her," he sighed, having calmed down a little.

"We're all worried about her, both of them. We just need to keep our spirits and faith up. We'll find them. In fact..." Aaron got up and turned to Tora. "I'm going to go on ahead. I know my way around this part of the mountain, so I shouldn't have too much trouble finding them if they're around here."

"Can I go with you?" the chu asked.

"No, it'll be better that I do this alone. Don't worry about me too much." The psychic planted a small kiss on her cheek before vanishing out of sight. Even though he said that, Tora couldn't help but worry about him. Sure, he was powerful beyond anything she's ever seen, but she knows that even he has his limits. Chris, who had heard everything, reached over and rubbed her head.

"He'll be fine," he assured her.

"I know..." she sighed.

"Hey, instead of moping, help me get lunch started."

Aaron teleported outside of the mountain, more precisely, back where they had discovered the destroyed path the previous day. He then transformed back into his mew form and flew down the canyon. On his way down, he noticed a small, lengthy groove along the rocky wall. It was too unnatural to assume that it was caused by anything other than a pokémon, but which one, he had no idea. What he did know, was that it was most likely a clue to the whereabouts of Jari and April. He stopped a few feet above the waters surface when he reached the bottom and followed the rough current all the way to the waterfall a couple minutes away. The psychic peaked over the edge, quickly estimated the height and going through multiple scenarios in his head on how April and Jari could've safely survived without hurting themselves from the fall. He figured April would've panicked, while Jari would've probably dived headfirst.

"This might be harder than I initially thought," he sighed, glancing at the expanse of forestry before him. The only good he saw of this was the fact that he was familiar with the area and he wouldn't be searching in circles. Aaron flew down and began his psychic search, staying mostly out of sight above the tree lines and scanning the minds of every pokémon within a two hundred yard diameter. The process didn't go as fast as he would've liked, with most of the forest pokémon constantly moving or taking an early nap, but he eventually found a couple pokémon that have recently been in contact with the missing sheep and dinosaur after nearly forty-five minutes. He flew down in their direction, transforming into an espeon once he was low enough to the ground. He was careful not to make too much noise as he cautiously approached the two pokémon. They were a leafeon and smeargle.

"I don't see why you didn't ask that jigglypuff chick to help you," the leafeon said as she seemed to be looking for something. "She likes picking flowers and I could be doing something productive in my personal life instead of looking for a plant." The smeargle sighed.

"You know as well as I do that she can't tell a sunflower from a dandelion," he replied. "Besides, you've never had anything permanent in your personal life anyway. You set your standards too high." The leafeon looked at the smeargle in shock.

"That's not true, I just-"

"Uh, excuse me," Aaron interrupted, causing the two pokémon to shift their attention to the newcomer. "Have either of you two seen a flaafy and a cubone around here? I could really use your help in finding them."

"A flaafy and a cubone?" the leafeon asked. "Yeah, we saw them a while ago back at the mountain. They said something about finding their trainer. Why do you ask?"

"That's exactly why I'm looking for them. Their trainer is looking for them and I'm helping out. Can you tell me exactly where they went?"

"Sure. There's a cave entrance that's right next to a waterfall just north of here. If you go there, you'll run into them eventually." Aaron mentally sighed in relief. He knows he had past the said entrance a while ago.

"Thank you for your help. And the plant you're looking for is right over there," he said gesturing toward a tree to their right before taking off. Both pokémon looked at the spot he pointed to and saw the small green plant growing near the roots of a tree.

"Huh, that was easy," the leafeon commented. The smeargle went over and pulled the plant from the ground, roots still intact.

"I knew it was around here somewhere," he said. "It's a good thing that espeon showed up."

"Speaking of him, he's pretty cute. Do you think he thinks the same about me?"

"I'm not doing this with you, Alysa," the smeargle said as he began walking off, leaving the leafeon to huff in annoyance.

"I'm just saying!"

*****8*****

"I think we're lost again," April said, looking at what was quite possibly the same pile of rocks they had come across twice before.

"That's ridiculous," Jari stubbornly replied. "There's no way for anyone to get lost twice. If you're already lost, then you can't get anymore lost than you already are. And getting lost twice is requires us to actually know where we're going after getting lost in the first place."

"So... what are you saying?"

"What do you think? We're just lost." April sighed and looked around at the many paths they had to choose from. From what she could guess, they had been lost for a while now. It felt like they had been traveling in circles, which was proven since she was now sure that they had come across those rocks before. There were so many paths to choose from, it was a miracle that they had ended up going completely backwards.

"I think we should go this way." April pointed down a path she was fairly sure they hadn't taken yet. Jari gave her an indifferent shrug and walked alongside her down the tunnel.

After walking for about an hour, they had come across a few strong rock pokémon here and there. Most of them were challenged to a fight by Jari and lost, despite April's constant protest, but not without putting up a decent fight. There were lots of other pokémon they had come across, but Jari saw them as unworthy of he's time and usually scared them off. However, it seemed that the deeper they traveled into the mountain, the stronger the pokémon became. Not only that, but there were frequent tremors that reminded April of the onix they ran into the day before. Needless to say it made her nervous.

"Jari... do you think we're going to run into that onix again?"

"I don't know. You're not scared of it, are you?" April's hesitation to answer was all the answer he needed to hear... or not hear. "Tell you what; if we ever come across that loser again, I'll beat him down so fast he'll never know what hit him until I proclaim my victory over his oversized head. That way, you won't be scared for too long and can be in awe of my greatness for an even longer time. I need an audience to witness my inevitable rise to fame. That last fight doesn't count because he destroyed our battlefield and was too much of a coward to face me in a fair fight." As narcissistic as that statement was, April did find the hint that he's possibly showing some concern for her feelings... possibly. Another tremor shakes the ground, stronger this time, causing April to lose her footing and fall down face first on the rocky ground.

"Ow," she groaned. Unexpectedly, she found the cubone's paw held out in front of her. She took it and was gently pulled back onto her feet. "Th-thanks."

"No prob. Just don't fall again." Without another word, April followed silently beside Jari. They walked for ten minutes before they stumbled into a large chamber with five entrances on the other side.

"Which one should we take?"

"None of them," Jari said flatly.

"Umm... Why not?" the flaafy asked, clearly confused.

"He's coming... I can feel it." Before she could ask who he was talking about, the ground shook violently and an onix erupted from the ground with a mighty roar. The sheep squeaked as she stumbled backwards onto her rear out of fear. Jari however, was grinning wildly under his mask, tightening his grip on his club and using Focus Energy. "Back for round two, chump?!" he shouted as he lowered his stance. "I'm gonna finish you off this time! No holding back!" He made a dash at the giant rock snake with his club held high. The onix saw the much smaller pokémon approaching and swung its tail around in a sweeping motion. Jari jumped onto the tail and continued running up the body of the giant. He let out a battle cry as he jumped, bringing his club up in an upward swing and smacking the onix in the jaw. The rock snake's head jerked upwards a little, but regained its composure. It twisted around its body and managed to buck the cubone off of it.

Jari recovered with a back flip and threw his bone while still in the air. His weapon had flown true, spinning through the air in a wide arc and hitting its mark in the onix's left eye. He grinned as the onix roared in pain. "Serves you right for running away the first time!" He managed to land on his feet without too much trouble, barely even stumbling. He even caught his weapon with his left paw without looking in its direction. April stared in awe at the battle unfolding in front of her. She would've never dreamed that Jari would be going toe-to-toe with such a massive pokémon. If anything, she expected things to go as roughly as they do during training, but he was holding his own. She watched as he dashed toward his opponent again. The sheep felt slightly bad due to her uselessness in the fight, but there wasn't anything she could do to help him anyway.

April gasped she watched the onix lift its tail and slam it on the ground. Everything underneath her violently shook and cracked. She was knocked off her feet again and screamed when a large rock came deadly close to crashing into her skull. Looking up, she saw the ceiling was getting ready to crash on top of her. Jari heard her scream and quickly turned around. He saw April curled up in a ball, trying in vain to defend herself from the collapsing ceiling.

"Get the hell out of there!" he yelled as be made a dash to her. The onix wouldn't give him the opportunity though. It quickly dove ahead of the cubone and effectively blocked his path. Not one to be easily deterred from his goal, Jari attempted to force his way through. "Out of my way, unsightly creature of the ground!" He jumped, but the rock giant tackled him and sent him flying to the other side. With no one to help her, April was terrified that her life would end right there. She couldn't bring herself to move. Just as a large chunk was coming down on her, a pink, semitransparent wall appeared above her. The rubble slid harmlessly off the barrier.

"April!!!" someone shouted. A familiar espeon came running up to her. "April, are you alright?"

"A-Aaron?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, it's me. I'm going to get you both out of here safely, so sit tight." Aaron didn't bother acknowledging if she nodded or not, but instead focused on the battle in front of him. The onix seemed to be giving Jari a harder time now, using wide swings with its tail and shooting sharp rocks from its body, but he still had the upper-hand. The cubone deflected all the rocks, but was still kept at bay from the swings. He saw his chance when the giant rock snake tried to smash him with a full-on tackle. The cubone steeled himself and embraced his weapon with both paws, grip extremely tight. He planned on ending the fight right there and then. Focusing everything he had in his arms, he stood his ground and swung as hard as he could. As soon as he made contact, the onix went sailing to the left and crashed into the rocky walls, unconscious and defeated.

"Let that be a lesson to you!" he shouted triumphantly as he pointed to his downed opponent. "Tell everyone you know of the greatness that is me, Jari the Destroyer of Legends!"

"Jari!" Aaron shouted, getting the cubone's attention. Both he and April walked up to the victorious pokémon.

"What are you doing here, pinky?" Jari asked.

"I'm here to take you two back to your trainer. She's been worried sick about you two and so have the rest of us."

"Oh, is that all? Okay, you can take us back now. I did what I had to do for the day."

"Jari, you should thank him more properly," April scolded, surprising Aaron at the clarity of her sentences and Jari by the command. "He came all the way here to save us, so you could at least call him by his name."

"Fine," he huffed. "Thanks for saving us, Aaron. Can we go back to our trainer now?"

"Er, yeah, give me a moment." The espeon focused his thoughts on Tora and teleported them all back to the waiting party.

Upon arrival, they were greeted with open arms of joy. April was nearly smothered to death by Alice and Kishan hugging her too tightly. Jari however received a shorter hug from Alice and a small scolding from Kaden. Thanks to Chris' translating, Alice was also able to hear what exactly happened to the two of them during their separation. Kishan almost started a fight with Jari at the mention of the cubone hitting April, but a brief explanation from the sheep cooled him down. By the end of their story, all were impressed at Jari's skill in battle against the onix and April overcoming her speech problem, though she would sometimes stutter a few words, it was more or less an achievement for her. As far as Jari's battle was concerned, Aaron wouldn't tell anyone that he blasted the rock snake with a burst of psychic energy simultaneously with the cubone's attack. Some things were better left unsaid.

**********8**********