arkness made her surroundings seem so different. That was her problem.

Through definitely not her only problem, as much as she tried to deny that fact.

The painted ravine was a beautiful place, less so at nightfall, where each nook and cranny could contain a monster, where each shadow around the corner could have been caused by a savage beast. She hated the night.

Akaren kept her eyes peeled for dangers, painfully aware of her growing hunger.

She had expected it to be less than a day's trip to the ravine, and therefore packed little food. She hadn't expected to need it, since she ate less meals normally, anyway. The food was just as insurance against extreme energy loss from hiking. Now it was dark, and she had no food left. No food sources at all.

She had wandered off into a side gorge, and when she had tried to make her way back, realised that looking at a path from two different directions made things seem completely different.

She refused to accept that she was lost, and in that process, made herself more lost. She refused to call for help due to her pride, event hough she reasoned it was so that no other creatures' attention was drawn to her. Besides, there were few who lived in here, and admitting her situation to any explorer would cause them to mock her. She was rather irritated with herself, too. She shouldn't have gotten lost.

Besides her tiny bag of food, she didn't pack anything else. She didn't want to be weighed down by unnecessary supplies. Unnecessary supplies that she now needed.

A series of crunches, flesh meeting stone, brought her out of self-admonishment. What caused it?

"Just stone falling, you idiot." She said out loud, hating that she had to use these sorts of tactics to calm herself down. It must have been just a rock falling on grass, to produce the muffled sound.

Still, she couldn't see everything, and there was a corner just up ahead.

It could be that she wasn't alone.

Slowly, she inched up to the turn, not bothering to be quiet. If it was an enemy, she had revealed her position anyways. If it was an ally, better for them to know her presence earlier, so they didn't attack out of fright.

It could have been no one, too, but she sincerely hoped there was someone else.

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ocks clattered under her feet, not due to her stepping heavily, but due to the stones shifting around under her. With effort she could prevent that. There was no point, however.

She could hear more stones tumbling, too far away to be caused by her. The constant sounds meant it could not possibly be due to natural causes. It meant that she had better prepare for battle. Her mind was already whirring, thinking of the best way to end a fight fast.

Despite all this, she was not ready for the creature to make an appearance, and nothing stopped her from emitting a hiss of surprise when silver and blue fur appeared some distance away from her. What was this? She wasn't fully aware of what lived in this place, but this creature was probably far from their natural habitat. Like a fish out of water.

Why would a feral pokemon migrate?

She gave the unknown pokemon a closer glance, noticing that she recognised that shape. It was too dark to discern what exactly the pokemon was at that distance without a second, much closer glance, which was what Akaren did now. The other pokemon didn't seem hostile, so she could probably relax enough to look closer.

That... she knew someone who looked like that, and it made perfect sense for them, at least, to be wandering out at night.

What was most important, at that moment, was that they also weren't her enemy.

"You." She said sourly, relaxing completely and shooting a sour glare at the umbreon rather than a burst of sleep powder that she had been producing far quicker than usual at the expense of energy she had hoped to save for a little longer. "And of course you had to give me a fright."

Not to mention making her waste all of that sleep powder. Not that she couldn't use it later, of course, but she wasn't feeling up to reasoning with her mind.

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he frowned a little at the umbreon's words, although she knew the dark-type probably didn't mean it as an insult. She was the one most people said was discourteous, something she didn't particularly think was worth fixing.

"Oh, haha. Be glad you're easy to recognize, or you'd be snoozing right about now."

The situation she was in only made her temper flare up quicker than it usually did, a little acidity already slipping into her words, although she didn't intend for them to hurt. This didn't count as hurt, at least, to her.

"Nothing important. I just enjoy walks when there is no sun in a place with dangerous creatures." She deadpanned. She wasn't particularly willing to tell the umbreon that she was lost, but there was no other way out of the conversation. Besides, there was a chance Kino would be able to find a way out for her. She liked the night, didn't she? Though she was unwilling to ask fro help from another pokemon. It felt like she was betraying herself, somehow. She enjoyed being the self-reliant one, and asking another for help was a deep blow to her pride

"I've been wandering this place since, oh, noon. Everything looks the same here." She complained, waving her hands vaguely at the canyon walls, since she could barely see them. It was unfortunate to be lacking in the ability to see in the dark, but as a creature of the sun, she didn't particularly need that ability.

It was the closest thing to the admission that yes, she was lost, the umbreon would get. Even if Akaren was lost, she still had her pride. She wasn't desperate yet, even if it was night, and she was starving. Even without this meeting, she could probably didn't her way out, once it was light, and she took survival classes in training. She could survive however many days it took for her to get out.

Though in the end, she was relieved that she did not have to do so.

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or all of Akaren's grouchiness, she was feeling more relaxed, now that she was with Kino. And it wasn't just that the umbreon could navigate the night more easily than the petilil, and therefore would make a better guide, but also because she needed the company.

She wasn't sure how much that company was worth, however, as she detected a soft chuckle from the pale pokemon. Was she laughing at her? Perhaps something she said made the dark-type amused. It could have easily been that, seeing as how she had just told a blatant lie, covered heavily in sarcasm. Whatever the intention, the grass-type let it slide for the moment, seeing as there were far more important matters at hand.

Such as, for example, that Kino also did not know the way out. It was mildly shocking to the petilil, since she knew the umbreon would feel rather at home in this circumstance. She had assumed that the other pokemon had been out on a walk, and could lead her back to someplace civilised. The fact that she was lost also had not crossed her mind.

"Sure." She agreed halfheartedly to Kino's optimism. Two head were better than one, but she would rather that both of them hadn't been in this situation, or at least one of them could lead the other home. Akaren did not believe that binding two lost people together would aid either of them becoming not-lost, especially in their situation, but she so desperately needed some positive outlook on this situation. The umbreon was far better at seeing the brighter side of things, something at which Akaren was not practiced in. She tended to be more pessimistic, in order to be more prepared. Which she should have been, before she ventured into the ravines.

She looked both ways along the ravine, but her sight did not allow her to see much detail except the two walls stretching on either side of her. The good thing about being in a pair, she supposed, was the extra pair of eyes.

"I guess." She answered slowly to the Umbreon. She was trying to recall where the river would lead. Did it split anywhere? She wasn't sure exactly where she was, nevermind what part of the river was beside her. "As long as it doesn't take too long."

Getting out of the ravine was only the first part, though. She needed to find someplace to stay until she recovered.

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ith great effort, Akaren forced herself to walk again. She wasn't tired, per se, but she was finding it difficult to move again. In other words, she was tired, and not admitting it to herself. She wasn't about to show weakness in front of anyone, much less Kino. She may not have disliked the umbreon, but she certainly did not like her, never mind the loss of face it would be to collapse or insist on a rest.

"No matter." She said in a clipped tone, lifting her head up. She would rather arrive home exhausted rather than spend another night out in this cursed place. She followed her companion's chosen path, posture immediately collapsing whenever she felt Kino wasn't looking. She was pleased to have someone along that was fine with the darkness, however. She felt certain that she would have tripped several times if she had been attempting to walk this by herself, and be bruised in several places by morning.

From time to time, she would drop a leaf into the water, allowing the bitter coldness to wake her up a little. Mostly, however, she allowed her mind to be lost in the steady rhythm of walking. She had constrained herself to a difficult life when she had decided to be an explorer rather than take the safe and secure path.

She heard the bird before she saw it. It took time for her to shake herself from her stupor and find the rufflet in the dull light of the moon. At least she remembered to stop walking before she crashed into Kino.

The rufflet screamed defiance at her, making Akaren wince, but also waking her up a lot more.


"Must you?" She complained at the rufflet, even as she was getting into a fighting stance. "You can't do this all the time, or you'd cause an avalanche, or something." Her mind may be working enough that she could make decisions, but they weren't necessarily good decisions. The rufflet screamed at her again.

"What, is your brain too backwards to speak like a civilized pokemon?"

Now the rufflet really seemed angry. Perhaps it was only disturbed from his rest before, but it was good and angry now. Well, diplomacy seemed to have failed, though it was really only Akaren's fault there. The flying type dove at her, panicking her for a moment, but then she settled. Fighting was what she trained for. Gathering up her strength, she gathered up her remaining sleep powder - curse Kino for wasting the rest of it - and sprayed it at the bird just as it dove at her, launching one, two, three fury attacks with its claws, causing Akaren to stumble backwards, momentarily blinded as the leaves on her head fell in front of her face.

She did not know if her own attack worked.

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omehow, she found her footing once more, Akaren looked up once more just as the rufflet began attacking her companion with its claws. She was still recovering, and did not have enough energy gathered to dash to the unbreon's side in time to aid the blue pokemon. Just as well - she wasn't sure what help she would be to the dark-type, especially in melee. She prepared to lob a trio of leech seeds at the rowlet, seeing as her sleep powder seemed too diluted to work on the bird, when Kino managed to escape from the bird's claws. It was also about then that the rowlet finally succumbed to the sleep powder it had breathed in.

All was now quiet, the noise fading as suddenly as it appeared. Akaren relaxed herself as Kino joined her at her side. She busily checked up on her wounds, confirming that they were only shallow. Fortunately, this was only a short battle, compared to how long it could have been. She was now out of sleep powder, and would have to rely on other tricks in later battles. She still could put others to sleep, albeit with much less certainty.

"You're all right?" She asked, breathless. She needed time to fully recover, including sapping some life off the sleeping rowlet, but she could continue on if her companion wished to press on - did not need to stay any longer. The sleep powder would not last for that long, in any case, and it would be best to depart quickly.

At the very least, she was now fully awake.

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