Pokemon Madness!

Artemis nodded in understanding at the phrase and the floor option. Indeed sleeping in the floor would make sense, but it wouldn't be comfortable for more than a night and even then it might be the cause of Lizzy waking up the next morning all sore and possibly grumpy. She decided not to voice those thoughts however and continued to devour her food.

She chuckled as Lizzy pointed out the purple spots potential. Joking was a good sign. "Nah, you're good. You have some juices running though." She commented as she felt the sides of her mouth all moist and sticky from the fruit juice. She reached over her backpack and pulled her tissue pack out, taking one for herself before pushing it towards Lizzy, in case she wanted one as well.

"No I didn't find any trails. Totodile showed me the way to a berry field where we gathered the berries and fruits from Tropius, but it wasn't a marked trail. I did find several spots where we could fish pokemon, but I am not very comfortable with the thought of fishing pokemon and eating them." She said as she tried to decide on a pokemon berry she could try and eat. Picking up a large, soft, fuxia pear shaped berry with green leafy top, Artemis thought about it for a moment. "The sun seems to be starting to go down, but if we have a flashlight with us and hang the lantern at the entrance we should be fine getting back even if it gets dark by the time we return." She voiced her thoughts on the matter and took a bite from the berry.

Immediately her eyes watered and she set the berry aside "Too.damn.sour...." She coughed and reached for her water bottle. Taking long gulps to wash away the sour taste from her mouth, emptying the bottle in the process.

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For the first time since they started this terrifying disaster of an adventure, Lizzy opened her mouth and laughed at Artemis's expression. "I guess I know which berry to stay away from." She said, taking the offered napkin pack and wiping her mouth with one. Speaking more seriously, she added, "If the sun is going to go down soon, it might be good to leave a more solid trail, maybe do like Ariadne, use a string. You know, when it gets dark, everything looks different, and if we're going through some trees, it might be hard to see the cabin light. We should probably leave as soon as we're done eating."
 
Artemis coughed some more, but an awkward smile appeared on her face as Lizzy fully laughed at her misfortune with the berries. "Definitely. Can use it as lemon juice replacement though." She said and took another Tropius fruit to make the accursed sourness disappear. She thought about what Lizzy had suggested. She was right if they were to go through a thicket of trees it would've been harder to see the cabin light.

"You're right. But I'm not sure about the string, unless you found some rope I wouldn't want to risk our fishing gear. I will be making markings on the trees now and then with my knife. Arrows to point the way back." She commented as she ate. It wouldn't be long before they finished eating and then they could head out to explore just a little bit before it was time to retire in the cabin and call it quits for the day.

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Lizzy sighed. "You're right about the string. I haven't found any rope. Knife marks are good, though, as long as we can see it." Taking a deep breath, she folded up her napkin neatly and tucked it into a pocket after some consideration, then stood up. Unable to think of anything to bring, she stood up and brushed herself down. "Erhm. Should we go, then?"

After they were properly prepared, they began to make their way up the mountain. Lizzy quickly found herself out of breath, never having been much good at the athletic stuff, and having been some time since the last time she'd been on a hike. She was growing hot and sweaty, but the cooling air was both refreshing and alarming her, and she hiked on without pause until Artemis indicated it was a good place to stop.
 
Artemis nodded and while Lizzy was patting herself down, she put on her boots and shirt as she had finally dried enough to not make a stamp on the white T-shirt. Checking that her knife was still hanging from her belt and that she had grabbed both her phone and the extra flashlight they had found in the Cabin, she made her way out the cabin. Once placing the lantern at the wall most visible to the side they would be walking off to, they began their hike, with Artemis occasionaly stopping to carve an arrow pointing home.

With Lizzy tiring soon and herself full from eating and having to hike immediately after they moved slow, but eventually managed to get to descend altitude, or what felt like a decent altitude. Artemis couldn't be sure as there were surrounded by trees and their view was limited. "Okay this is high enough." She said panting and looked around to see where the trees might be thin enough for them to get a good view. Which she found a little further ahead on their left, but she wanted to be safe and picked a nearby palm tree to make one final arrow mark.

But as she pulled her knife blade out, she suddenly heard an angry gurgle and was suddenly smacked really hard on the back, sending her staggering away from the tree. "Τι στο....?" She yelped as she tried to regain her balance, only to see the palm tree rise and move. "Fuck." Was the single response to the pokemon that appeared to be some type of Exeggutor that looked more like a palm tree instead of a weird fat bush with three heads and awkward legs. Keeping herself calm, even though she was trembling, she folded her knife and made a point to slowly put it in her pocket. That way she looked less threatening to the angry pokemon that was swaying its long neck back and forth, making angry noises.

Artemis took a single step back and realized she had been hit by the pokemon's tail that also had a goofy looking face. Now she was actually getting nervous. What kind of an exeggutor was this? This hadn't been on the games she had played so far....

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When Artemis yelped something in Greek, Lizzy was leaning down, hands on her knees, trying to recover her breath. She really had never been the sporty type. She was a little slow to look up, and when she did, she wasn't sure, at first, what she was seeing. Artemis was slowly backing away from, what looked like a palm tree, but.... Following the Greek girl's gaze up, she noticed that in the palm tree were three yellow coconuts, and on those coconuts were faces.

Instantly forgetting all about her exhaustion, Lizzy opened her mouth and let out a blood-curdling scream.
 
Artemis grimaced and glared at Lizzy when she screamed. This was the worst thing she could've possibly done. You never scream when confronted with an angry animal. Weird Exeggutor let out an angry cry and moved forward towards Artemis after a momentary swing of its tail towards the screaming girl. However as the pokemon was clearly in attack mode, Artemis was presented with a choice. Fight or Flight?

It took less than a second before Artemis had turned tail and ran away from the angry pokemon as fast as her legs could carry her in the slope without falling on her face. "I'm sorry, I thought you were a tree!" She yelled as she ran. She knew that apologizing would probably do little, but she had nothing to lose by trying. She really wished Totodile had chosen to go with them instead of nesting in the cupboard after than nice meal. She could use a savior just about now.

With her focus slightly away from the terrain, Artemis tripped on an exposed root and found herself tumbling down, scraping her palms and knees while also feeling a rather sharp pain on her left ankle. Despite it's short and stubby legs, Exeggutor was close enough to just slam her by bringing its long neck down on her. Artemis tried to get up and flee, but the moment she tried to put weight onto her ankle it was as if it had been unscrewed and couldn't comprehend what it was supposed to do with that weight.

Artemis was now completely panicked. This was it. Even if Exeggutor didn't attack her with one of those special moves, just a slam like that could cause severe injury and without a hospital it would be a disaster, if not lethal. Looking around wildly trying to find a weapon she could use to scare the angry tree pokemon or to at least shield herself somehow, Artemis felt like this was it. It was fun while it lasted.

But no attack came. Instead a volley of shiny rocks hit the side of Exeggutor and a small dog pokemon Artemis had never seen before appeared and stood infront of her growling protectively. Artemis, out of pure instinct, scrambled away and used the support of a nearby tree to stand up and watch as the face-off took place.

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Lizzy was kicking herself the second the scream came out of her mouth. What did they tell you about confronting a bear or lion? Make yourself look big, make a lot of noise, don't look it straight in the eye, but don't show it weakness. "Screaming" hadn't been really high on the list of recommended actions. She ducked when the pokemon swung at her, grateful for her quick reflexes, and when she looked up, saw it chasing Artemis straight down the hill. And away from the careful markings they made in case they got lost. For a second, she was frozen with fear, unsure of what to do. Then, a tiny sliver of recklessness rose to the surface.

"Oh screw it." She said to herself, and began to slip slowly down the hill. She was trying her best to move quickly, but the fear of falling like Artemis had prevented her from going terribly fast. She saw Artemis limp upwards, something clearly not right with one of her legs, and the weird... tree-thing bearing down on her. She wasn't going to get to the other girl in time. She swallowed and skidded along a little faster. The next thing she knew, a small dog had popped up in front of Artemis, looking just about ready to fight to the death with the tree-thing. Normally, Lizzy would've been scared of it, but as it stood, gratitude and relief were the first things that came to mind. Sidling around the two creatures going behind some bushes as quietly as she can, she made her way over to Artemis, grabbing her arm to sling around her shoulders for support. "What are those?" She asked, shakily, not terribly steady on her feet herself.
 
When someone caught her arm, Artemis' first instinctive reaction was to jump and shakily draw a deep breath in fear. Then that someone helped stabilize her and she realized it was Lizzy. That's when guilt made it's first appearance. She had left lizzy all alone back there to save her own skin. "Thanks" She murmured to Lizzy, but she had no time nor mind to pay much attention to that small seed of guilt as she watched the two pokemon having a quick battle with moves that Artemis could barely recognise. She could guess that the move the dog pokemon had first used was probably Rock Throw, but she couldn't be sure.

"I don't know the name of the dog pokemon, but the other one is an Exeggutor, but it's not supposed to look like a palm tree. It was more of a bush in the previous games. Maybe the developers paid attention to the gaming community and designed subspecies or something...." She trailed off as she pondered on that. While she knew that there was going to be several new things introduced in the new games, she had barely enough time to keep up with all the press release and walkthroughs. She didn't want to spoiler herelf and exams had been her main focus until a couple of weeks ago.

However now that she was injured with a twisted ankle and having angered a pokemon with no real means to defend herself, Artemis was beginning to have a deeper understanding of the seriousness of their situation. She really wished she had a pokedex just about now, so she could finally have some of her questions answered, but she didn't. The only thing close to that was the mysterious book with Totodile's description and it was back at the Cabin.

Jaws made out of some type of white energy biting down at the tail of this new Exeggutor finished the fight and the Palm Tree grudgingly retreated. The dog pokemon was a little ruffled but it wasn't anything a couple of Oran Berries couldn't fix and they had a couple of those back at the Cabin. The brown pokemon walked up to the two girls, barking some kind of 'Are you alright?'.

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Gaming community... subspecies. Lizzy would have liked very much to be able to slap these pokemon people for thinking it was a good idea to come up with any of this crap in the first place, but she kept that thought to herself. When it was in a game, it was harmless. They couldn't possibly know that a couple of randomly unfortunate girls would end up in a world where these actually existed.... She decided she'd still like to slap them right now anyways.

She watched in anxious silence as the fight continued, and the only thing that stopped her from jiggling up and down on the balls of her feet with that anxiety was the weight of Artemis on her shoulder. It was also the only thing that stopped her from hastily backing up when the dog bounced up to them with a bark. Dogs were... well, sometimes Lizzy was okay with them. This one wasn't very big, but it barking at her, was Lizzy's version of a small nightmare. She swallowed hard and then faintly managed a weak, "shoo, shoo," gesturing with her free hand.
 
Artemis patted Lizzy in both a comforting manner as well as a sign to let her go. Being careful not to put any weight on her injured leg, Artemis took a step closer to the dog, providing that small 'wall' between her scared friend and the dog pokemon. In any other case, Artemis would've gotten to eyelevel with the pokemon or animal in question, but she knew that if she did that she wouldn't be able to get back up on her own.

"Thank you." She said to the puppy as she inspected it for any serious damage. "Do you think you can take care of yourself or do you want to have an Oran Berry to help you heal? We have some back at the cabin." She asked the pokemon and looked around as if for the first time.

"Lizzy, tell me you remember which way is the cabin....."

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Lizzy didn't get the hint at first, doing her best not to jerk backwards as the dog thing approached them, but finally she let go of Artemis, and let the injured girl step in front of her. It was a bad idea, in her estimation, but it wasn't like she would have been able to help anyways. Fear either made her jumpy or frozen in her boots, and neither were much good against a creature that could throw… fire from its tail or whatever it was doing.

She stared at Artemis' back as if the other girl was missing half her brain, when she attempted to speak to the pokemon yet again. It had worked with the blue crocodile, she supposed, but it wasn't as if any of the animals had deigned to try and talk back. She also wasn't so sure what an "Oran Berry" was or why it would help a pokemon heal or whether or not one of the picked berries was what Artemis was talking about. Gaming logic, honestly.

What shook her out of her slightly sour thoughts was Artemis' excellent question. Swallowing the lump of fear rising in her throat, Lizzy looked back up the hill. For all her fear of getting lost, Lizzy had a pretty good sense of relative direction, so she could confidently say, "Well, we came from that way." She pointed up the hill in the general direction they'd come from. It helped that she hadn't been tumbling down the hill like Artemis had. Once they got to where they'd been, however, she had no idea how they were going to find their way back in the growing dark, since Artemis hadn't been able to make that last check mark, and they were probably going to have to look for landmarks that were no longer visible to find the trail back.
 
The dog pokemon barked negatively and was quick to bound away from the two girls and into the thicket. A sigh of relief escaped Artemis as Lizzy answered her question positively.... well, as positively as knowing where they had been attacked by that Exeguttor could be. She watched for a few moments the spot that the pokemon had disappeared to before turning back to face Lizzy again. "Okay..... so.... we go up and try and find one of the markings again. We better get back to the Hut soon.... my ankle is killing me." Artemis said drawing a shaky breath. That was an experience she wished she would never get again. She could feel her ankle swelling up and she hoped it was nothing more than a serious twist and that it would go away by tomorrow morning. She would have to bandage it once they returned to the Hut and she knew she had to keep her weight off of it.

She cursed herself for not bringing with her that large branch she had found and had thought of turning into a spear. She could've used a walking stick just about now and in the twillight she couldn't really see something similar lying around for her to use.

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Lizzy had no idea how they were supposed to crawl all the way up the hill with Artemis clearly unable to put her full weight on her ankle. Flat ground would've been a pain, but up the hill to where they'd been, and then back down the hill to the hut? It was definitely going to be very dark by the time they got there. This had been a bad idea after all, and they hadn't been able to see much before the.... coconut tree thing whatever it was had chased them down the hill. Gently trying to sling the other girl's arm around her shoulders again, she grimaced up at the hill. "Uh.... Soon. Right. Are those... Oring berries going to be able to heal you, too? Or.. something." Between the two of them, she'd figured out by now that she was not the more adventurous, athletic, or capable one, and it made a much bigger difference having Artemis hurt her ankle than Lizzy. She took a tentative step forward, to see how Artemis took to it.
 
Artemis gave Lizzy a grateful smile as the other helped support her as she took a tentative step forward, grimacing as she put pressure on her ankle, but kept herself from sucking in a pained breath. This was no time to whine about the pain and the inconvinience. She would just have to suckit up and deal with it. Looking up the hill though did scare her. There was no way she would be able to do it all in one night and with darkness coming, it would be extra hard for her to keep moving.

"I don't know if they can heal me. I have never seen anything in the show or the games about humans using the berry as a medicine, but it's worth a shot. Good idea!" She commented and tried to find a steady rythm she could limp on. "Do you think that if we go up at a slight angle, we will be able to find one of the markings?" She asked uncertain.

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Lizzy almost sputtered at the "good idea" comment. That hadn't been an idea! That had been a question based on desperation and ignorance. She was starting to wonder just how much this other girl really new about the world they were in. Oh great. They were dead. They were sooooo gonna die.

She grimaced up at the direction they were heading. "Erhm..." she said aloud. It was most definitely their best bet, but she couldn't say with even a smallest tinge of confidence that they would find a marking, even going at an angle. "Sure." She said, voice rather bleak. All the same, she tugged them slowly forward.
 
Lizzy wasn't optimistic. Artemis could tell that from a mile away, but they couldn't really do much about it could they? They had pretty much walked a straight line from the cabin to the point where the Exeguttor chased them, but then Artemis had had to run in zigzag fashion, trying to throw off her persuer. They had lost their markings and she really hoped they would be able to find one before it was too dark. She was injured and during the night, ghost and dark times were out and about in larger numbers. Always mischievous and potentially hunting. Artemis didn't know what new Ghost and Dark type pokemons Alola region had, but she would much preffered it if they spend the night in the cabin, with the door locked.

She didn't say anything for quite a while, trying to focus on her walking with minimum weight on her ankle while also not being too heavy on Lizzy. But it was getting increasingly dark and eventually Artemis would have to use her phone's light to be able to check on trees for markings and on the ground for any uneven patches. "So, um..... what's it like where you live?" She asked awkwardly, in an effort to take their minds off the increasing worry that they might not find a marking anytime soon.

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@firejay1 You can have them meet with Lizzy's poke whenever you feel like it :3
 
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((Not quite yet.))

Lizzy was working herself into a fine panic, growing more and more silent as her mind spiraled into the horrible possibilities, so she jumped and squeaked a little when Artemis spoke again. It was probably good she did, since it jolted her out of her panic spiral. "Oh uhm... it's..." her voice cracked and she cleared her throat, regaining a bit of her composure. "Well... I'm from California. You know, in America. It's, uhm... you know, fine. Just a regular small town ish thing. We're close to San Fran, though, so big city close by. I'm in my last year of high school. I mean, I will be. It's the summer right now, so I have summer school."

Talking about mundane things like school was actually relaxing her. "It's kind of boring, but it's not like I have anything better to do. My parents didn't really want me to work until I got a little older." She bit her bottom lip, suddenly remembering her parents, and worrying about whether or not they knew she was gone. Unless some magic time shenanigans were going on, they were going to be worried sick. She'd been trying not to think about that. "What about you?" She asked hastily as they continued to hobble up the hill. "What's it like where you live?"
 
Artemis listened as Lizzy started to slowly regain her composure when she described her home. She didn't really gave many details, but she guessed it was okay. She was either too panicked or not fully trusting Artemis just yet, which she totaly understood. "Hm..." She hummed a little before answering.

"Well, I live in a small town about an hour away from Athens. That's in Greece. I, uh, just took my University entry exams and now I'm waiting for the results. It was a gruesome two years of extreme studying, but I think it will pay off in the end." She grimaced thinking back on all the long hours and how her brain would always feel fried by the end of the day. "But, no summer schools for us, ever. Unless you count me preparing for my Horse riding exams. Those won't be until later on and I love volunteering at the stables, so it's not really school if you don't ever want to leave." She chuckled in a knowing manner and kept walking. Speaking about life helped her a lot with taking her mind off the pain of her ankle.

"Why would you be bored and actually want to go to school in summer though? California is next to the sea right? My town's also by the sea, my friends and I go there everyday and my grandfather often takes me with him on his fishing boat. Don't you go to the beach?" She asked curiously. Her knowledge about America was only what she knew of Hollywood movies and she knew that those aren't the most reliable of sources.
 
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The slew of Artemis' words contained a lot Lizzy wanted to comment on, but the very first thing that popped out of her mouth was, "Horse-back riding!?" She seemed to come alive as she asked, for the first time really seeming happy about something they were talking about. She began to relax further and accidentally picked up her pace slightly, stopping herself when she remembered that Artemis was injured. "I've always wanted to go horse-back riding." She jabbered happily. "Horses are the one animal I can stand, most of them scare the living daylights out of me." She laughed wryly. "Apparently including pokemon. I don't want to go to school in summer, summer school is what I was saying was boring. Though, I don't go to the beach much, either. Cali's close to the sea, but going to the beach is a day out. My family... doesn't really do a lot of days out." Her voice got a little dreamy, "I think it would be lovely to be able to ride a horse on the beach, though. Ignoring the poop." She laughed lightly.

As they walked, they made it further up the hill. It was growing darker and their progress was slowed slightly, because they had to be more careful where they put their feet. Lizzy's eyes strained to read the landscape for possible landmarks. She thought she saw one of the odd petrified trees she'd noted on their way up, and headed closer in that direction, though if that was the tree she thought it was, they weren't noticeably close to a marker, and they needed to be finding one soon.