TEEN: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers (Chapter 4: Second Time Twice the Effort)

[jasonwolf]

Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers​

Two days ago...

The kingdom of Aigon has always reigned of this land with justice and peace as its will. Sadly that ideal has not been in every heart.

A stranger enters the castle city, Kaim. He wears simple clothes and the hood of a black cloak hide his face. He doesn't draw any attention as he approaches the inner castle. Once at the gate the guards stop him and ask for a name. Instantly the stranger points at the guards and lightning arcs from his fingers killing the two instantly. Simply by directing it so he lifts open the gate and enters the castle grounds. Any guards that attempt to attack him are dispactched with lightning, fire, ice, or other brutal spells. When he reaches the front door two elite guards exit to meet him. They hold out magical stone and shout,

"You will fall this day wizard. Go, Arcanine!"

"Stand tall my Absol!"

The two beast emerge as light from the stone before becoming real. The wizard smirks, and produces a stone of his own.

"Go, Drudigon! HA ha wa!"

The dragon pokemon forms and roar so loud that the castle shakes. This pokemon is a giant compared to the others, and quickly slaughters them all without mercy.

"Good my pet now rampage some more while I deal with the king."

The dragon runs off to attack the village. The wizard enters the castle killing all he meets until he reaches the king. The king reaches for his magical capture stone, but the wizard casts a spell binding the king to his throne. He approaches and laughes in the kings face as he produces a knife.

"I will not waste my magic on such an old man."

He drives the dagger deep into the kings heart, and then uses the blood to bind the kingdom to a curse.

"Too Strong to break, by common will, this curse so dark, my wish fulfill. No man nor beast of this earth shall bring about freedom's birth. Now give to me my wish you see of life and power eternally."

---------------------------------------------

Chapter 1:

That morning I woke up in the usual blurry haze after a long night. At first I attempted to go back to sleep, but I couldn't find a comfy position on my mattress. For some reason it felt flatter than normal, the pillow smelled funny, and I was still in my normal clothes, so I sat up and swung my feet off the bed. I placed them down on the cold wood floors. One problem my room had carpet. I eyes flew open, and I found myself in a small room with stone walls. There wasn't much else in here. The shitty bed was in the corner next to a big wooden door, there was a chest of drawers in the corner opposite the bed, a table and stool at the foot of the bed, and one small window opposite the door. I went to the window, and noticed the wall curved somewhat. Not something common in architecture. I looked out to see the sky, and then down to see a forest far below. I was slightly panicking mumbling to myself trying to think of something good. I rummaged through the drawers, and found: a leather jacket, leather cuisse, they're like shin guard for your thighs... I play a lot of RPGs, also there was a belt with various pockets to be placed on it, and a small bundle of food wrapped up in cloth. Maybe this psychopath was gonna hunt me down, or something equally messed up. Inside the bundle was bread and dried meat, but better yet a knife. Sure it wasn't a real weapon, but better than none. I turned around and noticed a pair of boots under the bed. I put on all the armor then the boots. I approached the door wielding the knife underhand in my right. I slowly opened the door with my left and peeked out.

I seemed to be in a tower of sorts. Outside my room was a wooden balcony above an entire floor and below another balcony. To my right and left were a wooden door, but to the right were stairs down and to the left stairs up. I slowly made my way towards the stairs on the right, but heard a creaking sound behind me which quickened my pace to a sprint. I went right on down another set of stairs from the next floor. Arriving two floors down I saw a bald man dressed in green robes. This was who kidnapped me. I snarled with anger. Taking a deep breath I ran at the man leaping into the air ready to stab him right in the head. Everything slowed down as the blade got closer. was it the adrenaline? No everything didn't slow it was just me. The old man turned at normal speed and looked me in the eye.

"Would it not be best to be silent when sneaking up on someone?" The old man asked.

"Uhhhhhh..." I said paralyzed by fear and time.

"Oh... yes." The old man mumbled putting me down.

"uh...." I said again.

"Oh dear." The man muttered, "It seems rather than heroes I've summoned nitwit children."

"Children? I'm eighteen."

"I am seven thousand and ninety six. You are a child to me."

"Uh..."

"Not this again." The man rubbed his temple.

"You expected a different reaction to being kidnapped by a magician?"

"Still your tongue child. I am a sage no mere street trickster."

"Congrats your an herb."

"It it were another time I'd strike you down for that, but things are dire and I desper-"

There was a sudden creak that cut him off. We both looked to the stairs and saw two people watching from the between the bannistar. THe wizard sighed and shook his head dissapointed. Obviously I wasn't the only 'child' he summoned. These two, a guy and a girl, were around my age I assumed. I chuckled this guy was getting what he deserved. He'd have to deal if wanted to deal with this supposed dire situation, which I then realized I knew nothing about.

"Hey Eldertree. Why did you bring us here?"

"Elderwood. You are very impudent child."

"Just means I don't take shit."

"Come again?"

"Oh right ye olde language. Uhm... little help?" I said looking to the two on the stairs.

"uh..." They said in unison.

"Do all of your kind groan like this!?" The sage shouted getting upset.

"Everyone shut up!" I shouted.

The man glared at me. I glared right on back. I wanted answers. I was done being distracted.

"Where are we, and why are we here?" I growled.

"Well your persuasion has changed." The sage noted, "You are in the Kingdom of Aigon. I summoned three heroes or rather I got you three while trying to summon heroes to save this kingdom from its dictator Daelis."

"So we're fucked."

"I'll assume by tone that is a negative term."

"yes." I groaned, "Can you just send us home then?"

"That would be impossible. Daelis is a wizard with powers nearly the same caliber as my own. He placed a curse on the kingdom with the kings royal blood to seal under his control. I barely had time to cast the spell to bring you here. Now all spells belong to him. I cannot send you home."

I lowered my head, and mumbled.

"Shit."

 

[kintsugi]

Re: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers

SO. HI.

Um. I'll just split this into Prologue and Chapter One, because that's how you split the story. Awesome.

The prologue was short, sweet, and to the point, and I liked that. The present to past switch from the prologue to chapter one was a bit weird, and I think your prologue would've been okay in past tense like the rest of your story, but hey. Personal decision.

I do wish you had a bit more description in the prologue, though. This epic evil wizard guy is striding into a castle and slaughtering everything with his pokemon, but it'd be great to know how. You don't have to do blood and gore and stuff, but pokemon battles are all about the flashy effects, so you could just show some of the things instead of just saying that the pokemon got slaughtered without mercy, ya know?

A couple of quick grammar notes. This is a helpful guide online about punctuating dialogue properly. I'd explain the rules, but they seem to do it better there, haha.

Also, when you're addressing someone, like

Stand tall my Absol

You need to add a comma, so it's like

Stand tall, my Absol

so we know that you're separating the command from the rest of the sentence.

A quick run through MS Word or any other text processing system beyond Notepad should help with most of these problems, actually. ^^

Chapter one was amusing, and I did enjoy Elderwood's jokes and general uncomprehending of curse words and the like. He seemed entertaining, even if he was the victim of the "OH WHOOPS INSTEAD OF SUMMONING HEROES I GOT THESE SUSPICIOUSLY HERO-LIKE KIDS INSTEAD UGHH."

I do wish, however, that your character's reactions had been a bit more realistic. Your unnamed (I think?) main character seems pretty chill waking up in a world straight out of a medieval RPG, and while, sure, you can imagine that it'd be cool, I think most people would be freaked out. Kidnapping would come to mind, and then pranking, but I don't think that a normal person would be like "huh, that's cool, I woke up somewhere completely different!" and then go off to find a knife and kill the old guy.

Also, did Elderwood stop time or not in that section? I couldn't tell, but apparently magic was all sealed away, right?

Anway, back to the reaction questions. Elderwood doesn't seem upset that he summoned kids instead of heroes, the girl doesn't seem confused that she woke up in this place either, and your narrator seems absolutely unperturbed that he's been transported to a world with mages and arm cuffs and beef jerky instead of bacon or whatever.

Realism. You need to think about how a normal person would react to these situations and why, and then describe it. Everyone should show more emotion and reaction than they did in this chapter to the, quite literally, world-altering events that just happened, but they all seem pretty chill with that, and their nonchalance is kind of off-putting. If there's a twist that all of your characters are psychopaths, more power to you, but otherwise, your characters come across as quite unrealistic.

Overall, though, nice job. ^^

 

[Flaze]

Re: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers

I have to agree with kintsugi in that you have to keep things more realistic. As she mentioned before it feels as if your characters adapted to the situation really quickly, the main character himself, a normal guy just suddenly jumped at Elderwood after barely making himself familiar with the place he was in. Not just that but you need to add more description when they speak, adding more feeling and reactions to it will make it seem more real.

Now about the chapters itself. I was a bit taken aback by the prologue until I realized that it was a dream, then I became interested because it was a really unique way to describe your character's dream, though a little bit more in depth description would've helped. It would've been better if he had described what he was seeing in more detail.

The first chapter itself started well, aside from quite a few sentences that were missing some key words thus it got a bit confusing as to what was being said. After that the chapter just felt kind of rushed because so many things happen quickly and with little detail to expand on it.

Essentially you're good on the grammar end of the spectrum, though rereading will help make it better. What you need for next time is to work on the details and description of the chapter itself, as well as working on the character's personalities and their reactions to what happens to them.

 

[jasonwolf]

Re: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers

Chapter: 2 Winds of change and glass shards.


I glared at the wizard, and considered trying to stab him again. Instead I headed up to my room, and by that I mean the one I woke up in. I threw myself on the bed and put my face down in the pillow. Not only was I stuck here because of me this entire universe was damned. Why'd it grab me? I don't even have some ironic relation to the term hero. I work at a lumberyard own by my friends family. I load and unload palettes for a living. How could be what these people needed. I fought tears, and did so well since I was so used to them. Rage followed by depression. Every time, it happened every damned time. I can't even remember what the psychiatrist used to call it. Been years since I gave enough of a fuck to go. The stress made me pass out.

I woke some time later to an annoying tapping noise. I slapped face a few times trying to fully come to. I stretched and yawned looking around the room. With a groan I got up and went to the window. There was a little bird on the ledge tapping on glass. The more it did so the more cracked the old pane got. Apparently I got a bit to close as I scared the bird into taking flight. I thought it would fly off, but instead it hovered there flapping its wings. It went faster and faster until you could hear wind whipping around outside. I stepped back unsure of what was happening. There a hurricane strength gale blew in the window sending shards down on me and throwing me to the ground then pushing me along the floor into the opposite wall. I groaned in pain as some of the glass cut in and my back ached from the impact. At least the bird flew off.

"What the fuck?" I groaned.

Sage Elderwood soon came slowly into the room, and looked at me confused.

"What are you doing? Wheres the window."

"There... there was a bird... but it was small and then it... Crash!" I tried to explain even making gestures to help.

The sage stroked his beard thinking before saying, "It sounds like a small flying type."

I gave him an odd look then replied, "Well no shit it could fly we're three stories up, and ya ain't gonna see any ostriches or emus in a forest like this."

"Ostriches? Emus? Pray tell what sort of pokemon are those?"

"...Pokemon? Is that Gallic or something? They're birds big fat ones with long legs."

"Pokemon is the traditional term for the creatures and beasts of this realm, and the two birds you named are not ones I have heard of."

"So they aren't animals... they're 'Poke mon'." I said trying to comprehend.

"Well Pokemon are animals... I do not see the problem."

"I'll try to make this simple. The world I'm from does not have birds that can flap their wings to make tornadoes. We have nothing like that."

The sage began to stroke his beard again now trying to imagine this world without pokemon. Meanwhile I grabbed onto the bedpost and pulled myself to my feet. Both my back and bravado were bruised. I had been beaten by a little bird. I sat on the bed rubbing my aching spine.

"So Elderwood every animal is like that bird? They have magic superpowers and stuff?"

"Oh that's not magic."

"...Says the wizard."

"Its not magic because wizard cast magic. Pokemon are born with these powers. Its not magic at all. Its a science."

"In my world there's a saying magic is unexplained science, but whatever. Can you tell me what that damn pokemon was?"

"Perhaps. Come along with me to my study."

Sage Elderwood left, and headed down. I slowly got up still very sore. I eventually got downstairs to find Elderwood searching his wall of bookshelves. I leaned on the table in the center of the room waiting for him. He found the volume he was looking for and place it on the table.

"This is a pokenomicon. A collection of information on all the pokemon I and others have seen. If you could describe the pokemon please."

I told him about the little blue bird. It had a red tuft on its chest and a red belly, but besides that it was rather plain. Elderwood opened the book at a random page and there it was the bird I saw, or rather an illustration. On the page opposite was a description of the pokemon and other information about it.

"This is so strange. So there's classifications and stuff with these things? Whats 'normal/flying' mean? Whats an ability? Whats most of this stuff?"

"Pokemon are very complex creatures. It would take me a long while to explain it all to you. Perhaps instead you should take this to your room. The tower will have repaired itself by now."

"Ok... wait the tower repairs itself? I thought Daelis got rid of magic."

"No he halted casting magic. Even a strong mage like I can barely cast a simple charm. Enchantments and other innate magic is still fine."

"Handy." I admitted.

I took the book and went back upstairs. Elderwood was right. The window magically was back in place, and there wasn't a crack anywhere on it. I put the book on the desk and opened it to the front page. From there I just read it absorbing all I could. In school I tended to just read through the textbooks and ignore the teacher, so this wasn't hard. I read all the way until dusk fell. It was too dark to read so I just went to bed. The next day went about the same. I got up went to the desk and read til it was too dark to. Occasionally I'd hear the other two kids talking to themselves or to each other about how crazy this all was, and trying to cope. I had just accepted it and found something to occupy me. After two and a half days of solitary reading I headed down to see Elderwood. He was sat in a chair by his table in the study.

"Elderwood. Call me a fool if you want, but I think I have an idea of how to deal with Daelis."

The wizard looked up to me puzzled but hopeful, "Go on."

"According to this pokemon can be captured in magical stones, and trained. We could capture some really strong ones and use them to fight Daelis."

"Truthfully it isn't an impossible plan, but Daelis is extremely powerful, and he has his own collection of devistating pokemon. I do appreciate the intention, but it would not be enough."

"Then let me make it enough. This says that pokemon can be trained to be far stronger than those in the wild. A really good trainer can make pokemon nearly undefeatable. With time I could do that."

The sage sighed and shook his head. Standing up he went over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"My boy you have told me in your realm pokemon do not exist yet you believe you could train and master them? You showed your impulsiveness when we first met, but this is pure foolishness."

I looked down and away clenching my fists.

"You're a fucking wizard. You could control time and space and all the elements, and you're going to doubt me? You have powers that are impossible, so why can't I try a task that is? You and this entire world is proof that this isn't impossible." I growled.

I looked Elderwood right in the eyes.

"I will do this with or without your further assistance."

He closed his eyes nodding.

"I guess that if you wish to try something then why should I stop you?"

"So then. What first?" I asked with a half smile.

"If you are going out there then there is much you will need."

Sage Elderwood headed towards the stairs down and beckoned for me. I followed. The floor below was a lab of sorts. There were tables with jars, bottles, and all sorts of odd instruements you'd see in a classic mad scientist lab, but we carried on down another floor. This floor must have been the ground floor as there were three rooms going off to the west, south, and east. On the north wall were two large wooden doors with metal decorations flanked by two tall arched windows that showed the beautiful forest outside. Right in the center was a large circular fire pit with a chimney that branched off along the ceiling in the four cardinal directions and then into the wall. Most likely it helped to keep the tower warm. Elderwood brought me into the east room which was a huge rectangle. It was a storage room filled with crates and chests. In the center was a staircase down. We went into the basement to find a different kind of storage room. This room was very orderly and kept clean. All along the walls were suits of armor, and hanging on the walls above them were weapons and shields.
"Fancy." I commented admiring the shiny suits.

"These are weapons and armors from some of Aigon's ancient heroes and heroines."

"Elderwood I've never worn armor or used a real weapon like these. That's why I suggested we use pokemon. Why are we here?"

The wizard smiled and just lead on. We went around to the side opposite the stairway. In the dead center of that wall was an empty display stand, and above it a golden bronze greatsword was mounted.
"You were mistaken when you said you never wore armor. Your first day here. The armor in your room. I knew the heroes would be summoned in those rooms, so I had placed that set in the one you awoke in. That armor belonged to Sentinel Ryvix. Long ago when I was still of a young age Aigon was not the bulwark of justice and honor it is known to be. A revolution started, but common peasents did not have the skill to fight the cruel kings armies. One of their leaders was Ryvix. He was a brilliant thinker, and one of the truest believers in justice. I enchanted that armor for him so that it was stronger than an Agron's hide, but kept him nimple as a Bisharp."

"Whoa."

Elderwood chuckled, "Indeed. I also imbued his sword with magic. The weilder despite their skill will find they fully understand the weapon, and know how to use it. A true blademaster will far surpass them in skill, but the weilder will not be without ability. You will find it to never dull and cut through far more than a normal blade could as well."

"Well even if I knew how that is his kinda huge, and its gotta be heavy."

"Take it down from the wall."

I looked at elderwood then shrugged. I went over to the wall and stretched to reached the sword's handle. I lifted it off the display's arms, and just held it a moment. Elderwood stepped back and nodded to me. I took some deep breaths then performed a few slashes and then a thrust. I wasn't fully sure how I did it, but my muscles did. It felt like I had done it many many times before. Like riding a bike.
"This bout as heavy as I dunno... Alright so its lighter, but still its huge. Lugging this around could make it a bit hard to move sometimes."

Elderwood held out his hands and I gave him the sword. He slid two finger along the flat side of the sword from the tip of the blade to the hilt. As he did so the sword shrank from five foot to four to three. He gave it back and I again did some practice swings. I even made some with one hand. The sword could elegantly cut through the air and defeat my invisible foes.

"You thought of everything didn't you?"

"Yes I may just have. I was a bit more creative in my youth. Now go grab the sheath for the blade."

The sheath was hanging off the back of the armor rack, so took it and added it to my belt. I sheathed the sword, and went back to Elderwood.

"Does this sword have a name?"

"A name? I never gave it one. Some self centered wizards give names to their creations as so that they may improve their fame. I found it unimportant."

"I wanna name it."

"But why? You aren't even the first user of this blade."

"I don't care. I want to name it." I took a deep breath and began to speak in a victorious voice, "This blade shall be called Legacy!"

"...A strange name."

"It cause its been used by two different heroes for two different battles. I think its cool."

"It is metal it tends to be of a lower temperature. Well unless it is very warm out."

"Yeah... anyway we should get the other things I'll need. I left the jacket and cuisse upstairs."

"You should fetch those. Meet me in my study. I will have gather the other supplies for you."

I nodded to him and ran off. Hurrying up to my room I grabbed the other pieces of armor and put them on. I saw my reflection in the glass window, and smirked. The medieval armor did seem a bit odd over my red shirt and cargo pants. Despite that I was excited really excited. This small chance to do something would either be my greatest achievement or a hell of a cool way to die. I was gonna be stuck here for the rest of my life if I did nothing so may as well be ready to die like a badass. I went down and met Elderwood in his study. He had a knapsack with a bedroll strapped to it on the table along with a few other things.

"Ok. Since you've studying the pokenomic so much you know what of these are. correct?"

Elderwood and made a sweeping motion over the collection of items on the table. There were twelve spherical crystals that were clear as glass, six vials of a purple liquid, and four light brown diamond shaped crystals.

"Those," I pointed to the spheres, "Are capture crystals, they're slightly better than capture stones. The vials are potions for healing pokemon. The brown crystals are revives for restoring pokemon who are incapacitated."

"Good. These are all I can spare for now in terms of pokemon supplies. In the bag I packed food rations, a northstone, some rope, what I could in medical supplies, and water rations."

"Whats a northstone?"

"Its a special rock which points north always." Elderwood said pulling it out, it looked and basically was an odd compass.

"Ah ok. Thank you."

"Additionally I am going to give you these."

Elderwood pulled out a small book and a folded piece of parchment. I took them both. Firstly I opened the book to find it was a much smaller pokenomicon. The parchment when unfolded was a map of the forest. I smiled to Elderwood.

"These will be useful."

"Now I would suggest that you remain in these woods for now. If you need help you can come back here. Additionally this forest will be a good place for you to practice. Strong pokemon are warded off by spells cast on the tower and the forest. Now we are to the final piece of preparing. If you are going to train pokemon then to begin you should take one that I have here. Come along."

Elderwood once again left going downstairs. I collected my new belongs, and went after him. We went back to the ground floor, but this time went to the south room. This room was a large conservatory with glass walls and windows, but the floor was actual grass the plants grew right out of it. It was much warmer in there, and I appreciated that. Guessing by temperature it was early to mid spring here, so the twenty degree increase between rooms was nice. I could hear strange cries echoing around the room. They weren't really intimidating ones, but definitely weird. Elderwood and I went a farther into the room until we happened across a gathering of the strange creatures known as pokemon. Five of them were sitting around near a small pond. A turtle with a stick on its head, a white and blue otter, a big brown owl, an orange lizard with one hell of a tail light, and dog with tiger fur. All of them acknowledged us but then went on doing as they did.

"Look I'd love to try and make this seem hard, but I'm going with the little dragon. I just have to." I said matter of factly.

"Well that one is charmander. He's a fire type. He has what we call the under-typing of dragon."

"Yeah he's part dragon, but he has decreased strengths and weakness of a drgaon type. So ice isn't as strong, but his dragon attacks aren't much stronger because he is a dragon."
"Precisely."

"Told you I read the book."

"Yes. Apparently you did. Now you should go introduce yourself."

I walked over to the group of pokemon, and stopped next to the charmander. All the pokemon looked at me wondering what I was doing there. They were plenty docile at least. I looked at the charmander and it cocked its head to the side looking at me.

"Elderwood says that you can help me. So little fella can you be a good fighter and help me out?"

The charmander seemed to think for a second. Then it shrugged.

"Char." It added.

"...I'll have to take that as a yes."

The charmander nodded.

"Ok." I took a breath. "Then you'll need one of these."

I pulled a capture crystal from a pocket on my belt and tapped it on the charmander's head. A white light shot out and consumed the charmander pulling it into the crystal. The clear crystal turned into a orange amber sort of color. I put it back into my belt and turned to Elderwood.

"Alright. That's everything."

"Indeed."

The Sage and I went back to the center room where we found the girl and boy standing by the fire pit. They looked over at us. The girl seemed surprised and confused but the guy just observed with his dark grey eyes.

"Wait... what?" The girl exclaimed, "Are you seriously trying to play hero?"

"Yes cause fuck sitting around here." I replied quickly

"So you're going out there alone to stop Daelis?" the girl inquired.

"Nope. I got Jercio." I said pulling out the orange crystal.

"He gave you a pokemon. You... pokemon..." She said as those the two were incompatible.

"I'll assume Elderwoods been teaching you two?"

"Yeah. We needed something to do." The girl replied, "Not all of us can just lock ourselves in a room an read."

"Its a gift." I joked.

Elderwood all the while was stroking his beard curiously.

"Elizibeth, Tyler, would you both consider accompanying... hmm... I don't believe you gave your name."

"I wasn't with you guys for two days, so its possible. My name is Jason. Honestly I have no opposition to them coming so long as you have more gear for them. Otherwise they'd just get in the way. Oh and if they do come I'm not putting up with bullshit."

Elizibeth and Tyler glanced at each other. Elizibeth seemed a bit apprehensive, and maybe insulted by my comment, but Tyler kept his cool collected appearance simply shrugging to her. It took them a minute or two but they nodded in agreement. Elderwood nodded back then took them downstairs to the armory. I waited by the fire pit keeping warm. They all came up a little bit later armored up and with weapons. Then the three of them went upstairs most likely to the study. A bit more time passed and they came back with backpacks of supplies. This time I got a good look at my two associates. Elizibeth was simply wearing a dark green tunic and cloak, some boots that went about half way up her lower leg, and she had a shiny silver necklace on. Hopefully all this stuff was enchanted too. Tyler seemed better off. He had some pieces plate mail on his shoulder, chain mail sticking out from between his shirt and undershirt, metal gauntlets, and some reinforced boots. All the metal was a darker gray and not very shiny. I was almost jealous. Again I couldn't spot a weapon though.

"Done examining us?" Tyler coughed.

"Hey you do the same thing."

"I know how to do it right though."

I shrugged. Elderwood finally took the duo to the conservatory to get a pokemon. This took a while. I must have been staring at the fire for over twenty minutes before they came out. Elizibeth held up a blue crystal and Tyler had a green one.

"So now our ragtag team is ready to... well whatever it is we were going to do. Hmm... maybe I shouldn't be in charge of that."

"You're in charge? We ain't coming back alive." Elizibeth groaned facepalming.

"We're all new to this. Least he was willing to try it." Tyler reminded her.

"I do actually have a suggestion for you three." Elderwood said, "If you check the map I gave Jason you can find the Black Grove. In its center you will find a very useful artifact."

"Thank you. Now we should go. We only have half the day left." I told the others.

We pushed open the front doors, and stepped outside. The forest stood tall before us. It was daunting, but by this point what else could we do? We began walking into the woods headed straight for the black grove.

 

[jasonwolf]

Re: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers

Chapter: 3 Book taught and life learned

The forest around Elderwood's tower was a dense mess of trees that seemed to lack any decent pathes. We were constantly hiking over uneven terrain and through thick ferns and other ground plants. I was begining to see an issue with using Jercio in these woods. His tail was a mini bonfire, so he'd light this place up instantly. So much for my epic dragon. So far none of us had said a word. Oddly Tyler broke the silence.

"So are you two going to be able to work together?"

"You assuming we can't?" I shot back.

"I know that so far you two have been less than friends."

"We've barely talked. Its not my fault whenever conversation comes up it turns into an arguement." I shrugged.

"I really don't care. I think we're all just a bit crazy and anxious so we take it out on each other." Elizibeth said.

"Then you two best learn to deal with it differently cause we're gonna run into a lotta shit soon."

Tyler grabbed my shoulder as I was in lead, and pulled me back. Before I could say anything he glared at me and pointed ahead. Somehow he had spotted something I didn't. Maybe twenty yards ahead standing in a creek were a couple of weird blue and purple animals. Obviously pokemon. They were covered in spikes and the purple one looked real pissed.

"Toldya." Tyler whispered.

"You saw them how?"

"I go on lots of nature walks."

"...You are a strange person."

"Yeah yeah braveheart. Now come on we can get the jump on them."

Tyler lead us closer ever so quietly. Not exactly what I expected from the guy in the heavier armor. We got into some brush about five yards from the creek.

"Guys I can't send Jercio out in that. Its water. He's a fire type."

"Then let us. Get it in your head now that you can't always do something." Tyler warned.

"You are just full of soul crushing philosophies."

Tyler and Elizibeth pulled out their crystals, and readied themselves. They stood up out of the brush and Tyler shouted,

"Go, Ked."

Then Elizibeth yelled, "Come on, Torok."

A green and a blue light shot from Tyler's and Elizibeth's crystals respectively. The light warped and twisted into solid shapes. The otter and turtle pokemon from before formed. They both looked around before seeing the two pokemon in the creek. The turtle pokemon growled at them setting his feet firmly on the ground. The otter meanwhile was quick to pull a shell off its belly and swing it around as to taunt its foes. The purple pokemon roared angrily surprising the otter pokemon who staggered back in shock. The blue pokemon stood beside the purple one ready to fight as well.

Realizing I could still be of use I pulled out my pokenomicon. It instantly flipped to the otter pokemon's page. That one was oshawott a water type with fighting as an undertype. I turned the page to see the turtle pokemon, turtwig, a grass undertyped ground. Then I got to the enemy pokemon. Nidorino and Nidorina. They were poison types who were actually in their second stages. I chuckled evilly. Tyler and Elizibeth would have their hands full here.

"You two have fun now." I joked.

"Oh we will." Tyler replied not missing a beat, "Ked ram them."

Ked lowered his head charging at his foes. He smashed his head hard into the nidorino's shoulder then leapt back to a safer distance. The Nidorino and rina knew they weren't going to just scare us of, so they went in for attacks as well. The Nidorino jabbed Ked hard with the horn on his nose. The little turtle didn't budge taking the hit full on. He must have one heck of a shell to shrug that off. At the same time the nidorina had run over to Torok and was slashing wildly at him. Not all the attacks hit, but Torok still got scratched up some.

"Torok push them back with a water blast." Elizibeth ordered.

The oshawott took a deep breath before spraying water like a fire hose from its mouth. The nidorina was pushed back across the creek, and seemed very staggered. Ked went ahead without a command and went about bashing the nidorino over and over again. The nidorino backed off to where the nidorina was. Neither pokemon must have expected so much fight. Torok shot another blast of water at them and they decided it was best to just move on, so they fled upstream.

"Whimps." I called.

"Thanks for all the help mate." Tyler said sarcastically

"No seriously that was pathetic. I mean those guys were evolves and shoulda been able to screw over your turtwig." I said showing them the book.

"...Nerd." Tyler grumbled.

"I'm not a nerd! Ok well I am a nerd, but its not a bad thing!"

"Yeah sure... cause that book isn't gonna save us. Its gonna be what you can do in a fight now, and you did nothing."

"Look I know more than either of you about pokemon because of this book, and my study of it. Not mention I'm just useful physically. I'm not one of those fat losers on WoW. I actually have a life I just am actually smart." I yelled at him ranting.

"Then prove it next time. Be helpful."

I glared at him. Tyler was jsut gonna keep juding like this was American Idol. I pulled out my sword and made it extend to full length. Tyler whipped his arms downward and two massive arm blades appeared with small shields on the upper part.

"Then let's find something to do."

"First one to beat or capture a pokemon?"

"Hell yeah!"

Tyler glared at each other then sprinted deeper into the woods.

"Men." Elizibeth groaned as we ran off, "...wait don't leave me!"

Tyler and I went off in opposite directions. I don't know why made it impossible for us to know who won, but the bet didn't last long. A terrifying roar echoed through the woods. I jumped and then dove to the ground hiding in some bushes. I looked to the others, but realized I was alone. The last thing I wanted at this point. Sure in the nice warm magical tower I was confident. Now I was in the dark dank and terrifying woods. I send out Jercio who looked survaying the area. I swear there was some magic bullshit that made his tail not catch everything on fire, but hey that was a good thing. Another roar howled, and we both jumped. I rumaged for my compas and found my barings. the sound was coming from the north, as in the direction we needed to go. I moaned as I directed Jercio to followed and we headed towards the loud terrifying noise of a monster that would split me in twain faster than robin hood's arrow.

Jercio and I slowly went along hiding in the brush and behind trees as we went. His tail still caught nothing on fire, which now concerned me as to whether or not he could hurt people with it. I wasn't testing that now though. Save it for Tyler. I chuckled to myself at the thought, but another roar reminded me of my prior mood. The black grove was kinda freaking obvious as the trees all had nearly black leaves. The roar was a lot louder now, and I would shake like a tree in a tornado everytime I heard it. I was impulsive and crazy not brave, don't judge me. Jercio was yet to even budge.

Jercio and I ventured into the grove, and found very quickly the grove was very small. Only a few minutes in and we found the center of the grove. How could we tell? There was a giant stone obalisk which made it seem damn likely. I looked around some, and noticed two maybe two foot wide holes in the ground. I began to walk to them then noticed an odd noise as I walked. It was familiar from work at the lumberyard it was the squek of wood under stress. I knelt down and examined the ground, and pushed away the grass. This was a poorly built weaved roof covered in grass. Why would you build this? I realized why when I fell through.

I dropped maybe fifteen feet into pile of leaves and hay and other stuff that I don't know or want to know. I looked up to see Jercio staring down from the surface. He then jumped down with a smile and landed on me. Ugh! He got off of me and I looked around. I was in a big room with a wall of rusted metal bars. Sitting around were Elizibeth and Tyler playing cards.

"Where'd you get playing cards?" I asked

"I had them on me when I came here." Tyler replied still not giving a fuck.

"You slept with playing cards?"

"Correction I passed out after tournament poker game with playing cards in my pocket."

"That... explans so much." I said getting out of the leaf pile.

"So this is a jail cell of some sort?"

"We have no clue." Elizibeth sighed, "and we're all stuck here too so take a seat."

I went and examined the bars. They were old and had green rust all over, but the cores of the bars were still there and would hold. Who would have a jail out here, and to hold who or what? Then there was the pitfall trap roof. Maybe that was all there was to it. This was a trap. On the otherside of the bars was a room which was mostly taken up by a staircase down into the earth.

"Down there is probably where the artifact is."

"Not like we can get to it." Elizibeth reminded me.

"Yes we can." I said taking the challenge, "Jercio heat up the bars."

My charmander walked over to the bars and placed his tail against them. The flame on the tip of his tail erupted into life twice the size as normal and no where near as docile. I directed him to do it to an entire section.

"Elizibeth get your oshawott out."

She did so, and I asked it to spray water at the now super heated bars. The water turned to steam and the bars cooled quickly. Raising my sword I sliced right through the bars.

"How'd you do that?" Tyler asked.

"Its copper. By heating it and cooling it so fast it got softer. I work at a lumber yard, and we also do some metal work on the side. Now come on we gotta get the top part."

We repeated the process. Jercio jumped around happy as the metal bars clattered to the ground.

"Char mand Rar!" He roared.

"gojob" I told him, "Now lead the way you got the light."

Jercio trotted on down the stairs with the three of us behind him. I had my sword at the ready the entire time, and Tyler got out his arm blades. Elizibeth still didn't reveal her weapon. The stairs led down at least two stories, and into a tunnel carved right from the stone. Jercio's tail lit the cave up with an orange glow, but didn't cover much of the ground infront of us as he blocked his own light. Tyler produced a golden stone which held infront of him. It shone like a flashlight, and he took over the lead.

"Thanks." I admited, not even I enjoyed stumbling around, but I wasn't gonna dissapoint Jercio.

"You take point." Tyler said, but implied it as an order.

I still did so since I agreed. Jercio's tail lit up behind up so we couldn't get caught off guard. I'd occasionally check behind us a bit nervous we'd get ganked. This tunnel was going on for forever, and that only made it more tense. I mean especially with that terrifying pokemon that had been roaring. Which made me think to ask,

"Hey did you guys hear that roaring before we got in here?"

"Yeah. Its how we got here." Tyler said

"Did you see the pokemon?"

"No... why?" Tyler asked

"No reason... just couldn't it be in here."

We all stopped.

"Don't go trying to spook us." Elizibeth said shivering

"I'm not. I'm just warning you."

"He's right. Keep your guards up. That pokemon easily could live down here." Tyler said stilling carrying on all the same.

Elizibeth sighed taking her necklace off, and it transformed into two sickles attacked by a chain. I looked at the shiny new toy in the fire light. It looked like a bit of a crazy choice, but hey whats wrong with crazy?

"What is that thing?" I asked.

"Its a kasurigama. Chain scythes. I thought you were a nerd Jason."

"I don't get to know everything though now that I think of it theres a character in an anime I watch who has those. Uhm... oh whats the one. Theres a kid with guns and one with a normal scythe. All the weapons are kids too... its japan."

"Shhh. It echoes to much down here. Quiet down and listen."

There was a low rumbling. Something was nearby, and sounded to have a very bad temper. My impulses were starting to take back some control. Now that it was all three of us I wanted to just charge on down the hall. After another five minutes of walking I did so.

"I'm bored. Time to make things interesting!" I sprinted on down the hall with Jercio in hot pursuit.

"Moron." Tyler grumbled.

I went on running until I saw the light at the end of the tunnel. I slowed down and we stepped into the light. There was a large room with tile floors, and in the very center a dinosaur like thing with big plant growing on its back. At first I was terrified as it looked damn pissed, but I knew one thing. It was grass type. I smirked and told Jercio to stand his ground.

"You can move aside or die." I threatened.

The green flower pokemon roared not wanting to give up its position. It dwarfed Jercio, but damnit I, we, were gonna kick ass. I brandished my blade giving it a final warning. It stood firm as stone. I laughed before commanding Jercio,

"Burn it to a crisp."

Jercio leapt forward running at the giant pokemon. His jaw dropped and flames poured out consuming the face of his foe in the orange fire. I mean while pulled out my pokenomicon and check the stats on the pokemon. It was a venisaur, twice evoled, and doubly weak to fire. It was really fucking strong, but really weak as well. I put the book away and saw the lumbering venisaur stumbling backwards to get out of the fire. Jercio just kept spewing it until he couldn't sustain the flame. He ran back as the Venisaur sent out massive branch sized vines to pummel us with. He whacked Jercio only once, but that sent him flying across the room. Furious with the Venisaur, I joined the fight.

I charged in with my sword and sliced clean through on of the vines when the Venisaur tried to strike me. It reeled them back into its back in agony. I used this time to get closer and deliver a few slashes to its face. It already was in terrible pain from Jercio's fire attack, and this was beging to hit the breaking point, or so I thought. The venisaur returned the favor by shooting leaves like blades out of its plant. Most dinged right off the armor, but one caught me in the shin and tore through my jeans, skin, and muscle down to the bone. I dropped to my knee, and grabbed the wound. Maybe I had over estimated the effectiveness of fire. Either way I was screwed. Sending its vines back out the Venisaur whacked me sending me sprawling then it slammed the other vine down on top of me both blows hitting me square in the chest. I was on the verge of blanking out. It was like getting hit with truck. The Venisaur walked up to me and I got a good look at the damage I did to its face. I had made considerable gashes, but this thing was built like a tank, and was barely even bleeding. The venisaur knew I was out of comission so it turned to Jercio who was coming back into the fight. Running around the slow grass type Jercio would launch vollies of fireballs at it before it could turn to catch up. I watched as Jercio completely out played the venisaur. It backed away from me trying to get some distance from Jercio. Tyler, Elizibeth, and their two pokemon finally showed up, and I hate to admit but thank goodness. Tyler took position between the Venisaur and me blocking anything that came my away and striking when the venisaur was distracted. Elizibeth and Torok kept up with Jercio's method and would run around randomly making swift strikes. Ked stood around repeatedly ramming into the Venisaur to try and keep its attention, and then taking the full force of its attacks after. The Venisaur roared angrily and vines shot out of the ground grabbing Ked, Jercio, and Torok. Elizibeth had jumped out of the way and Tyler must have been out of reach like me. The Venisaur turned to the entangled pokemon. It began whipping the pokemon with its vines, and they were helpless to evade them. Kathrin looked in horror as the Venisaur bludgeoned our pokemon. She threw one of her kasurigama and it stabbed into the Venisaur's back. It got stuck there. The Venisaur shifted in pain, but knew it could take down out pokemon first then deal with Elizibeth. She pulled with all her strength trying to dislodge her weapon or maybe cause the pokemon enough grief to distract it. Instead she ripped the weapon out and the Venisaur dropped suddenly with a huge thud that dropped small rocks from the ceiling.

We all just looked on shocked. Apparently what Elizibeth's scythe was stock on was the Venisaur's neck. She had sevred it, and killed it that fast. We had gotten lucky. Very very lucky. I sat there holding my leg watching as my blood pooled on the floor. Tyler walked over still looking unphased. He bandaged me up. I scooted over to the left side corner of the room by the entrance. Tyler set his stuff down there too. He then went to gather up the pokemon, and got them back into their crystals. I looked over to Elizibeth. Her skin looked green, but very pale. She was shivering and staring at the corpse of the giant grass type. Tyler went over to her and guided her to the corner and sat her down. She curled up holding her knees still shaking. I took off my jacket and put it on her. She didn't react at firt, but then pulled the coat around her holding it tightly.

"It... it was like... I wasn't even in control. I just knew I had to do something..." Elizibeth stammered.

Why did I think any of this would work out? None of us were ready for this. We made ti two fights, and now two of us were out of comission. My leg would take weeks to heal correctly, and Elizibeth was in no state to keep doing this. Had we jsut not realized we'd be killers? Of course we must of known that, but we didn't realize how much that really meant. This was a mindless animal. What if we encountered a person who wanted us dead could we kill then?

Tyler told us to rest, and there may have for once been some compassion in his voice. I pulled out my bedroll, and lied down. I had to be very careful of my leg, as any bump made an extreme pain shoot through me. I lied there thinking about how we never had a chance. I was cripple, Elizibeth was mental, and Tyler couldn't do this alone.

It was a few hours later when Tyler got us up. I only knew because Tyler had a watch. It was nine at night. He was sitting down by his shiny light stone thing reading my pokenomicon. I didn't really care. In one of his hands was a small flat gray stone. I sat up to get a better look. It was inscribed with odd symbols, so going off my great RPG knowledge, I assumed it was the artifact.

"Any idea what it does?" I asked

"No. Its not really in this fancy book of yours either. Been reading up on how pokemon use attacks though. Its recommended that trainers call out specific attacks to better direct their pokemon."

"I'll keep it in mind."

I sighed looking around. Elizibeth had rolled over and gone back to sleep. Couldn't blame her. I was a bit curious how Tyler was staying up. I had just slept for about five hours and I wanted more. That fight took it all out of us.

"You think she'll be alright?"

"Her?" Tyler looked at Elizibeth, "Hopefully. Can't be easy killing something for the first time. Something sentiant at least. I had no problem fishing and dear hunting, but these things... these pokemon have minds and thoughts. I mean look at ours. They have emotion and intelligence. These aren't just animals."

Besides that being the most I had ever heard tyler say I was taken aback. He was right. These things were far more, and it would not be easy. I asked for the stone, and he gave it to me. It was a rune of some sort. Most likely magical imbued with a single strong property. Within a few seconds of me holding the stone it began to glow green and emit cool energy. It pulsed, and I could feel it centralizing in my wounded leg, and bruised chest. It was like someone was gently putting it back together, but their hands were like ice made my body tense and stiff. The glow faded, and noticed the pain in my leg was gone. I undid the bloody bandages, and found the wound reduced to a faded scar.

"I see why we were sent to get this." I chuckled relieved to have the wound gone.

"Ah. Like Elderwood said all enchanted items still work, but no one can cast spells. This rune is basically a spell of healing or something like that, but in an object." Tyler said taking it back, "I wonder if it works on our pokemon too."

"Here check it on Jercio he took a beating." I said calling for my little lizard.

Jercio burst from his crystal, and appeared before us. I patted him on the head and told him to go over to Tyler. He simply did so. Tyler held the rune against Jercio's forehead and it began to glow. I assumed the sensation was the same as Jercio became rigid as his bruises and cuts faded away. Tyler then grabbed Torok's crystal and healed Elizibeth's pokemon. Finally when he tried to heal Ked he found the rune was no longer working.

"Must only work so many times. Maybe it recharges. We should keep it." I guessed, "For now give him one of these."

I handed him a potion which he made Ked drink. I put the empty vial back in my bag. We now had a tool to fix physical wounds, but the mental ones worried me more. Tomorrow we would head back to Elderwood's tower, and see what he could offer. Maybe we'd stay there a while and let Elizibeth calm down. We could even practice more, so when it comes to a more serious fight we'd be ready. For now I told Tyler to rest and I'd watch.

Jercio and I sat around watching the entrance tunnel for hours. It was eerily quiet and I now understood why Tyler had gotten my book out. I did as well and began to read specifically about Charmanders. I wanted to know all I could so that Jercio would be the strongest one of his kind. I did this for next six hours at which point I woke Tyler back up. I returned Jercio and lied down. Elizibeth had aparently woken up, and was blankly staring at the cracked wall.

"Ya know hyped about all of this though I may seem, I can tell you neither of us want have to do that either. It just happened and it was an acident. We'll be better, stronger, more skilled next time, and then we can make sure not to do it." I told her before rolling over and resting.

"Yeah..." she said ever so quietly as though it escaped with her breath.

I happily returned to my dark sactumn as sleep took me again.

 

[Jennife]

Re: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers

I became fascinated because it was a exclusive to explain your character's desire, though a little bit more detailed information might have assisted. It might have been better if he had described what he was seeing in more details.
signs gold coast

 

[Prez]

Re: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers (Chapter 3: Book taught Life learned)

I'm here to review chapter two: So first of all, Hi! I really like the idea of this fanfiction so far. It seems like an interesting situation for the protagonist. There's only a few things I noticed. First of all, there seems to be a bit of grammatical issues. Now, I'm not sure if it was lazy typing or if you really are not good with grammar itself. I'm going to go with the former, as most of these mistakes seem like very silly mistakes probably from a lack of proofreading. This is good because grammar issues like this are quite easy to fix if you pay attention to them. Like, what I noticed is mostly a lack of apostrophes and commas, sometimes even a lack of words.

Along with this, the most noticeable issues would be description. While I'm not so fabulous at this myself, I am able to notice a few issues. The narration of your character's thoughts seemed a little choppy? Maybe try combining sentences to make reading it much smoother. Likewise, during conversation, I find that there is a distinct lack of description. During those huge chunk of paragraphs scattered throughout this chapter, the description is just fine, choppy at worst. But, during conversations, this seems completely absent.

ex. of when description was used-

I woke some time later to an annoying tapping noise. I slapped face a few times trying to fully come to. I stretched and yawned looking around the room. With a groan I got up and went to the window. There was a little bird on the ledge tapping on glass. The more it did so the more cracked the old pane got. Apparently I got a bit to close as I scared the bird into taking flight. I thought it would fly off, but instead it hovered there flapping its wings. It went faster and faster until you could hear wind whipping around outside. I stepped back unsure of what was happening. There a hurricane strength gale blew in the window sending shards down on me and throwing me to the ground then pushing me along the floor into the opposite wall. I groaned in pain as some of the glass cut in and my back ached from the impact. At least the bird flew off.

ex. during conversation:

"Wait... what?" The girl exclaimed, "Are you seriously trying to play hero?"

"Yes cause fuck sitting around here." I replied quickly

"So you're going out there alone to stop Daelis?" the girl inquired.

"Nope. I got Jercio." I said pulling out the orange crystal.

"He gave you a pokemon. You... pokemon..." She said as those the two were incompatible.

"I'll assume Elderwoods been teaching you two?"

"Yeah. We needed something to do." The girl replied, "Not all of us can just lock ourselves in a room an read."

"Its a gift." I joked.

See, the two excerpts appear to be from two different stories. My last comment would be that Elderwood seems a bit stereotypical with him stroking his beard and all, but hey, I can't tell if you meant for him to be like that on purpose so...

Overall there are issues that can be fixed quite easily. Keep up with your writing, this is looking to be very interesting~

As for my questions: What will happen in the woods? How will these characters bond? What will come of them?

 

[jasonwolf]

Re: Pokemon: Dungeon Delvers (Chapter 3: Book taught Life learned)

Chapter: 4 Second time twice the effort

We all got up when it was eight in the morning. Tyler seemed unphased by his lack of rest. The guy wasn't human. Maybe that was a good thing. Elizibeth was completely silent for the entire time we were underground. She only made a faint sigh when we mde it to the entrance we had fallen into. It was raining lightly, but that may have been the trees blocking some of the rain. We could hear faint thunder, so the only storm was far off. I asked Elizibeth for her weapon and she handed it to me. I made an excellent throw and used it like a grappling hook. We all climbed up the chain and out of the ruins.

We trudged on using my northstone to find our way back to Elderwood's tower. All the pokemon must have been hiding away from the weather as we didn't even see any much less encounter them. The walk back to the tower took a few hours for all of which we never made a sound. We were all crestfallen. The weight of this quest finally hitting us. The sight of the bleeding pokemon corpse fresh in our tired minds.

We arrived at the tower and let ourselves in. Elderwood was sitting by the central firepit reading.

"Sage Elderwood. We've returned."

He looked up, and wasn't sure what to think. He just stared confused. Perhaps he didn't expect us back so soon? Maybe at all?

"We had a run in when we retrieved the artifact. It wasn't exactly how we planned. We hoped to rest here again."

"Yes of course. You may have your rooms here always." Elderwood scoffed.

Elizibeth and Tyler went upstairs. I went and sat by Elderwood.

"We killed a pokemon."

"Oh? I'm impressed."

"We're not. After it happened we all realized we weren't ready to kill like this. We've never done this. This is what we aren't ready for."

"Mhmm. I always find it unsettling when I am forced to use my magic to end a life. Many times I have had to kill in the name of justice and the kingdom. The rebellion was a time when I and many others who a saw as friends had to kill. None of our glory came from fighting, but what we fought for. We were wild dogs when we fought, but heroes once we ushered in the era of peace. Remember that Jason. You are saving this kingdom, this world, and though you will never find killing an easy to handle task you must know the innocent lives you save, the peace you will bring, and the justice served to those who do wrong."

"Guess we really can't turn our backs on this. "

"You can do whatever you feel you have to."

"I'll ask the others later. For now food would be nice."

"The kitchen is over there. Eat what you will."

Elderwood directed me to the one room I hadn't been to before. Inside was a dining room with a rather nice chandalere and huge wooden table. Off to the side was the kitchen. I found some roles, apples, and dried meats. I piled these up on a tray and brought them upstairs. I knocked on Tyler's and Elizibeth's doors telling them I had food. Tyler opened up after a second or two, but Elizibeth took her time. It would be foolish to think she'd be getting over the issue quickly. I hoped that with some practice we'd be much more in control of our weapons and ourselves. We'd get through all of this. I had them both come to my room to eat, and also to talk. It was time that I as leader led.

"Alright you two. We've gotta start practicing. We got our asses handed to us fighting that Venisaur, so I say every day we get at least four hours of practice in with out weapons, and another four with the pokemon. Together we can do something rather epic. Once we're ready for real we'll head off again."

"You're suddenly into this again. Your vigor gonna run out when we start work?" Tyler asked.

"I'm sure this time. We got brought here to help, so lets give Daelis hell. I'm ready to fight to the end."

Elizibeth shifted uncomfotably. Obviously she wasn't too keen on going back to fighting. I wasn't sure what to say really. Elderwood had summed it up so well that I could hope to repeat the same thing with the same impact. I wanted help, but didn't know how. I looked over to her an sighed not having anything good to say.

"Jason... do you really think we can just become killers?"

"Huh?" I was taken aback, "uh... no... what?"

"We're normal teenagers, and you think we can just turn into murderers."

"We're not murderers. We're soldiers."

"Whats the difference?"

My eyes widended and I jumped up. I grabbed Elizibeth and shoved her against the wall.

"Don't you dare say that again!" I roared.

Tyle pulled me off of her and threw me into the other corner of the room.

"Have you lost it? you were just saying how we had to start working together."

I was breathing heavily. My rage was still burning inside of me. I rubbed my eyes with one hand trying to clear my mind. Elizibeth had just crossed a line she really really shouldn't have. She looked honestly terrified. This wasn't going to help things at all. It was silent for a while the only sound was the rain tapping on the window.

"You just... you just have no idea." I muttered finally.

"Then give us one." Tyler said.

"Its a touchy subject for me alright. My brother was a soldier." I left it at that, but my tone lead that there was more.

I closed my eyes so they couldn't see the other emotion welling up.

"Leave me be for a while." I demanded, and they left.

I flopped on my bed and broke down. This was the one thing I couldn't hold it back for. It was the enitre reason for who I was. My brother was the one who taught me everything, the one who guided me, and showed me what matters in life. I wasn't going to let anyone insult him.

Later when I had calmed down some I snuck off to the conservatory to get some air without getting soaked. Go fucking figure everyone else is sitting around a small fire pit out there. I glared at them all like it had been on purpose that they were here when I was before walking out and going to the basement armory. It was the most out of the way place I could think of. I jsut walked around in circles thinking.

Eventually I grew tired of the stale aired basement and decided I'd rather be wet and have fresh air. I was used to it. Either get wet working or don't get paid. I strolled out the front door, and walked to the treeline. Under the canopy there was less rain, so I didn't get as wet. Everything else was smart enough to be hiding away out of the rain, so I didn't run into any pokemon. Not that I could have Jercio fight in rain like this. it was far too damp for him to get off strong attacks. That and I really didn't want to have him fight anymore. During the last fight when he got sent flying by venisaur I was in panic. I had to get over it fast, so I turned it into rage, but damnit I was terrified for him.

My greatsword swung bumping against my leg as I walked. It was still hard to believe I was the owner and user of a deadly weapon like it. I mean I moved sticks for a living, and now I was some sort of morally skewed paladin. Maybe I was a death knight or something then again I was doing this all for the right reason, and I was good to those I cared for. Jercio was my pet, and he had the mentality of a child young, but very willing. He was fighting very hard and dutifully, so I had a responsibility to him just as he did to me. I sighed standing there.

"Me and Jercio."

He was the only one I had really gotten along with the little devil lizard. I almost had tyler on my side, but I blew it in the tower. I had always been unstable, and that put people off, but Jercio just took my odd behavior as matter of fact, and went along. Perhaps he would be the only friend I got out of this.

I stumbled through the woods somemore until I came upon a shaking bit of brush. It was rustling, and I was sure something was moving around inside. I drew my sword, and left it at its smaller size since the trees were close around me. I kicked a nearby rock into the grass and a high pitched squel was emitted. A brown mushroom bigger than my head jumped out. It had green spots, a little face, and legs, obviously it was a pokemon. Without a second thought I brought my sword down on it and landed a direct hit. My blade slashed across the creature's body. The little pokemon cried in pain, and fell over. was that it? Could some pokemon really only take one hit like that. I looked at the thing cringing in pain, and saw that I had just struck down an innocent creature. Now I was a failure of a paladin with skewed morals. I bent down and picked up the little guy. He began to wail and struggle, but I held him tight.

"No no. I'm sorry. You scarred me is all. I can help." I tried to sound calm and caring, but usually I was neither.

It took a lot of consoling to get the pokemon to calm down enough for me to inspect the wound. The cut was no worse than the one I got in my leg. I pulled out the healing rune, which I had kept, and placed it on the pokemon. I felt him go stiff as the magic worked, and then relax. I sighed relieved. I looked down and saw the creatures blood covering the leaves. I pulled out a crystal and pulled the mushroom pokemon inside saying,

"I'm making up for before."

It didn't resist as the crystal captured it. I knew Kathrin was right about killing in this case. This was accidental, and this pokemon didn't deserve to die, but had been one who would attack me I wouldn't feel any remorse atleast I hoped not. Sooner or later I'd find out. With my current thoughts it was most likely sooner. With two pokemon now I was feeling a bit more confident and was beginning to consider my original plan. What if I went off on my own? I wasn't so bad. I held my own against the venisaur for a while, and that was a really strong pokemon. With two of my own I believed a test was in order. Something real that would prove wheether I was capable of this journey or not. I returned to the tower and locked myself in my room. I didn't emerge until past midnight when I snuck away into the forest. I had my test. I would travel deep into the woods out of range of the magical wards. I would be in the real wilds.

I hiked through the forest using a magical stone like the one Tyler had. The stone lit up the around around me in all directions so I felt rather secure. In my other hand was of course my sword. I could hear the sounds of all sorts of pokemon. Most sounded like they weren't predators, but that wasn't really a good thing either. I slowly but surely continued through the dense trees until I couldn't go further. I found myself a good sized tree and began to climb it. Within minutes I was up in the branches where I rest for some time. I figured if this was good enough for my bags when I'm camping why not me too. I didn't stay up there long. I rsted for an hour or so listening to what sounded like crickets and frogs and the occasional night bird. It was nice out here. It reminded me of Falls spent camping at the state park. My brother and I adored those trips. I never really got to see the forest in spring like this since we could only afford to go once a year maybe once every two. Before I got too sentimental I was back on the forest floor hiking due east. There was a mountain range out this way that Elderwood had mentioned, and I figured I'd camp out around there. The sun was already coming up, and made me notice how tired I was even more, but I still went on years of long nights helping me to fight off the urgre to stop.

I found myself at the bottom of the great granite cliffs within a few hours. I slowly began to scale them. I could only go so long before I found the sweat making it impossible to maintain a grip. I rushed to find a large enough ledge to rest on. I say one, but it was a few meters away. I took a deep breath then lunged for it. I barely made it on top of the two foot wide outcropping. I sat on it catching my breath and rubbing my red aching fingers. I was amazed they hadn't bled. I wasn't going to be able to scale this by hand. I need to reach to the flat parts of the mountain another way. I slowly went back down to the forest floor. I would have to fine a more sloped area to hike up rather than going head first at this cliff.

I began hiking again, but I was tired and rather bored, so I decided I needed a companion. I sent out my new mushroom pokemon. It jsut sat there asleep. I poked him trying to wake him up. I rolled my eyes as he slept on. I returned him to his crystal and sent out Jercio. He smiled as soon as he saw me, and looked around trying to figure out where we were. Jercio looked up at me with his head cocked to the side in a confused manner.

"We left the others. We're gonna be training on our own. They just... they just weren't like us. They weren't ready, so we have to do this without them. Come on buddy we've got walking to do." I explained doing my best to sound confident in my plan.

Jercio looked down then seemed to shrug as he accepted the fact. He walked along side between the cliff wall and me. Somehow Jercio's flame was unable to light anything unless he wished it, but I wasn't taking a chance. We walked along, and I was jsut as quiet as before. I guess I didn't actually have anything to talk about, and Jercio surely couldn't respond in clear english. I sighed as we walked on; this would be a test of body and mind.

We found a nice sloping area to hike up after about an hour of walking. I slowly trudged up the boulders stomping hard to make sure they wouldn't give way. Jercio on the other hand had to jump from rock to rock, but did so with exceptional grace. I remember my pokenomicon mentioning charmanders coming from the mountains. Perhaps this was jercio's prior home. We reached the top of the slope and found it did plateau for mile at least. the rocky soil was dotted with trees and grass, but it was nothing like the forest bellow.

"Jercio scout around. Look for a nice place to camp." I asked my partner.

He cried back, "Ar ar" and ran off. We were a good distance outside of the wards, and I wanted a good place to camp out in at night. I began to search as well, but found there was no good secluded places to set up a camp. Jercio retured carrying a rock. I facepalmed thinking he had misunderstood me.

"Why did I think you knew all english?" I groaned, "I'm such an idiot."

Jercio dropped the rock and tugged at my pantleg before walking off the way he had come from. I followed now getting mixed signals. It turns out that rock was from a small cave that went back maybe ten feet and its opening was maybe four tall. Inside it was an eight foot tall dome.

"Good job. Sorry I underestimated you. Theres jsut so much I'm still figuring out. So you understand everything I say not just bits and pieces?"

Jercio nodded smiling.

"Wow... you're really smart. I beat most pokemon can't do that."

He then shook his head.

"What?"

"Char!" He replied indignently.

"I'm trying here... so... they doooo understand." I guessed.

Jercio once again nodded.

I was dumbfounded. All pokemon understood perfect english, but yet they didn't speak a word of it. That was a wild. Then again what was I supposed to expect from magical creatures who according to a wizard weren't magic. One issue would be a campfire, but I guessed it would be ok to use Jercio's fire. It burned bright even when he slept so it'd be safe to use inside the cave. I set down my bag and laid out my bedroll. I sat down on it before deciding a few minutes of rest would do me good. My eyes closed and then opened an hour or three later. Jercio was sat over on the other side of the cave playing with a few rocks: piling them up to make little towers.

"Morning... er whatever time it is..." I mumbled to my pokemon.

"Cha'ar" he replied happily.

He wandered over to me and looked to me eagerly. I wasn't sure what he was expecting, so I just began talking with him.

"Uhm... so what should we take care of first? We've already gotten a look around. We need drinking water, firewood, and food. We probably can do some other stuff too, but we need those first."