To his horror, he realised he'd been this way before. They had warned him, of course, about the dangers of entering Lush Jungle, but the daring trainer from the Kalos region had decided not to listen. He had a Fletchinder as a partner, after all, what could a few grass types do? Oh how wrong he had been. And now Ulrich McKay was lost deep in Lush Jungle with no exit in sight, and the sun slowly rising.
Ulrich ducked his head under some low hanging branches as he searched for the path that the Trial Captain, Mallow, had ordered him to stay on. Scratches covered his unprotected legs as he marched through the underbrush. Ulrich felt a branch catch on his cargo shorts and he stumbled, falling into a thorny bush. He cried out in pain, the thorns barely missing his hazel eyes. Ulrich started to push himself up when he heard the underbrush nearby crunch. Ulrich froze at the sound. It was too heavy a footstep for that to be human, so what could it have been? A pokemon? Ulrich would not be surprised if it was that Passimian that had gotten him into this mess in the first place.
Ulrich listened carefully but dared not move until he heard the footsteps fade into the distance. He slowly pushed himself out of the thorn bush and inspected himself. Ulrich was starting to regret only wearing a red t-shirt and cargo shorts. He had been told Alola was very tropical in climate, but Lush Jungle was something else entirely. And as a result, his Caucasian skin was stained red from all the thorn cuts. He just wanted to get out of this place.
“Bruugo! Broo!” Ulrich’s head snapped to the right at the sound. He spotted a Passimian hanging from a tree nearby, his black backsack in its hands. Ulrich narrowed his eyes, the smug smirk on the white lemur’s face showing that it was confident it could outwit him at any turn. The little troublemaker had stolen Ulrich’s bag just as he was about to head out of the Lush Jungle. Despite being smaller than the average Passimian, the pokemon had used its strong arms to shake Ulrich from his bag and steal all its contents, including everything from all six of Ulrich’s pokemon to his only source of water and food. It had been sunset when his bag was stolen, so it had already been roughly eighteen hours since the Passimian stole his bag. He still had fifty-four hours before he was in severe danger of dehydration, but he would probably force himself to leave before that happened. Besides, in the ever changing whether of Lush Jungle, Ulrich was not even sure he would last that long anyway.
Ulrich slowly stepped forward towards the Passimian, its orange eyes watching the trainer’s every move. Just as Ulrich got within leaping distance, the Passimian stuck out its tongue at him and swung up into the tree, out of Ulrich’s reach. Ulrich cried out in frustration and began to climb the tree after the teamwork pokemon. The Passimian only climbed higher and higher, Ulrich following it as fast as he could. This was not an easy task for Ulrich. The poor black-haired boy kept stepping on branches too weak to hold him, causing him to slip and fall behind the Passimian. It seemed, however, that this pokemon was not too bright, as it never changed trees. Finally Ulrich felt he had cornered the Passimian, the lemur-like pokemon sitting on one of the top branches in the tree. It stared down at him, waving its tail back and forth in anticipation.
“Give me back my bag!” Ulrich yelled as he grabbed onto the branch just below the Passimian. The Passimian merely snickered and stuck its butt in the air, waving its tail teasingly. Ulrich noticed his bag was now wrapped around the Passimian’s tail, making its retrieval a much more difficult class than before. Ulrich started to plan out how he would acquire the bag when the pokemon suddenly jumped, dropping his bag and scampered into the canopy as far away from Ulrich as possible. Ulrich did not have time to wonder what spooked the pokemon, as he reached out in an attempt to catch his bag. The straps slipped right through his grasp and tumbled down back to the ground below. Well his water bottle was definitely not going to survive the fall, that much Ulrich was sure of. As he stared after his black backsack, a pink shape caught his eye on the lower part of the tree, and Ulrich froze. He suddenly realized why the Passimian had fled.
Mallow had mentioned that this was a trial site, so that there was a really strong pokemon that dwelled at this location. She had made sure to emphasize to stay on the path because as long as he did stray, he would not disturb this pokemon. However, because Ulrich had left the path, he had encroached on the Totem Pokemon’s territory. Halfway down the tree, a Lurantis stared up at him with fury filled red eyes. Ulrich swallowed nervously. One wrong move and he was bloom sickle food. Ulrich started to slowly reach for another branch, but even that slight movement set off the angry guardian. Using its claws, the Lurantis charged up the tree. The force caused the tree to shake quite a bit at the top. Ulrich lost his grip and slipped, falling from the tree. The Kalos native knew he was falling straight for the Lurantis and closed his eyes, hoping his end was merciful.
“Prip prip prip!” Ulrich heard the familiar cry of his partner and opened his eyes. He spotted an orange bird shoot up from the darkness below towards him. The Lurantis swung its blade at it, but Ulrich’s partner, Feu the Fletchinder, dodged with ease. The ember bird shot up to its falling master and grabbed Ulrich’s arm with its feet. Ulrich grabbed its leg with his other hand to help Feu. Feu chirped in what sounded like a chiding tone. Ulrich gave his friend a look, causing the Fletchinder to snort a little. “Pri!” Flapping its pointed black and gold wings, Feu increased the distance between Ulrich and Lurantis. Scorching flames erupted from its beak as it unleashed a flamethrower at the Totem Pokemon.
“Rruuri!” the Lurantis screeched in pain. Feu and Ulrich took that opportunity to dive past the praying mantis to the ground. Feu lowered Ulrich back to the ground, allowing Ulrich to collect his bag and scattered pokeballs. It seemed that, upon impact, Feu’s pokeball had been forcibly opened. It was lucky but Ulrich was not about to complain. Gathering up the other few scattered pokeballs, Ulrich stuffed everything in his bag. He was just starting to think he was out of the woods when there was a large crash behind him. Ulrich knew what it was before he even turned around. “Ruuu!” The man flinched at the angry cry and slowly looked over his shoulder to see the furious Lurantis. It had one of its pink blades high in the air, golden light surrounding it. It was charging an attack! Ulrich dove to the side just as the Solar Blade came crashing down, obliterating the ground where he had just stood. With Feu flying right beside him, Ulrich began to flee through the forest. He could hear the angry screams of the Lurantis along with the multiple crashes from what Ulrich could only assume where trees and other plants, but he dared not look back to confirm his assumption.
“Prrip! Prip pip!” Feu chirped, flying a little ahead of Ulrich to catch his attention. Ulrich looked at his partner and saw the bird wanted to be followed. Ulrich waved his hand, signaling Feu on. The ember bird began to lead Ulrich, ducking and weaving through underbrush and trees. Ulrich thought it might be a trick on his tired eyes, but he felt like the light was getting brighter in the jungle. Suddenly, Ulrich burst onto the path he had left eighteen hours before, but he did not stop to relax. The fiery cries of the Lurantis were growing louder by the second. Ulrich turned and sprinted down the path, recognizing this part of the path as being close to the entrance to Lush Jungle. It was not long before he spotted the Trial Gate just up ahead, and Ulrich put every bit of energy he had left in him towards sprinting for it. Just when he thought he had made it, the Lurantis burst from the trees and landed in between himself and the Trial Gate. Ulrich panted, sweating not only from the heat of the jungle but also breaking into a cold sweat from fear. He backed up slightly out of impulse. The Totem Pokemon was a lot larger than an average pokemon, Ulrich recalled hearing. This Lurantis displayed that quality quite well in Ulrich’s opinion. It raised its pink blade into the air again and began to charge when suddenly a voice called out,
“Lurantis! Halt!” The bloom sickle pokemon paused and then lowered its scythe, looked over its shoulder. Ulrich crumpled at the sound of the familiar voice. It was the Trial Captain, Mallow! “He did not mean to anger you! Please, go back into the Jungle.” The Lurantis hummed a moment before stomping off into the trees, leaving Ulrich, Mallow, and Feu to themselves. Mallow smiled and skipped over to Ulrich, offering him a hand. “Are you all right?
“How did you do that?” Ulrich asked, not even bothering to answer Mallow. Mallow cocked her head slightly, looking perplexed at the question before smiling again.
“It’s easy! The best way to anyone’s heart is through their stomach!” As if to agree, Ulrich’s stomach growled. It had been eighteen hours since he had last eaten. Mallow giggled and pulled Ulrich to a standing position. “Come on!” she coaxed, “Let’s go get you cleaned up! Lunch is on me.”
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