Chapter 5: The Forest is Watching

Lance's Point of View

"So there I was. At the foot of the one hundred story tall tower. The Gardevoir was begging for help, so I jumped up to her-yes, jumped-and grabbed her. I was about to leap back down with her safely in my arms, but then the Dragonite that was holding her captive attacked. Lucky for me, I'm strong and know Ice Punch. I easily avoiding its wimpy Dragon Claw and landed one blow that ended the whole fight," I tell the Lopunny I'm talking to. "As I walked the Gardevoir home, she was practically begging for me, but I told her no. I want to be available for the right girl, and I thinks that's you."

"Oh really," the rabbit asks, obviously interested. "You know, I'd love to see that jump some time."

"And I'd love to show you," I reply with a wink.

"But he can't," Homare cuts in, grabbing me by the wrist. "We're busy."

"Never too busy for someone as wonderful as her," I say, giving the Lopunny another wink.

"Actually, yes we are," my companion tells me, dragging me out of the grocery store.

"I'll get back to you about that jump," I holler right before the doors close behind us. After letting myself get dragged for a bit, I stand up properly and rip my wrist out of his grasp. "Dude! What was that for?"

"Me and you both know that's not what happened," he says, obviously irritated.

"Yeah, me and you do," I agree. "She doesn't, though!"

"What would you have done when it came time to show her the jump," Homare questions. "You can't pull it off. You'd look like more of a fool than you already do!"

"We never would have gotten that far," I answer. "I would have taken her out for a date and never talked to her again. She'll never know the truth and I get to have a good time!"

"That's jacked up," the Armarouge tells me, his disappointment obvious.

"But it would have worked," I state, completely unbothered that he doesn't like it.

"Whatever. Let's just get our next job," the Fire type says as we get to the Help Wanted board.

We've been in Forrest Village for four days. After the tower incident we started taking small jobs, like finding a phone or catching a purse stealer, and have been slowly making our way to bigger jobs. For example, yesterday we saved a guy from getting beat up by a Machamp. The four armed beast was a tough opponent, but we came out on top. The victory felt incredible and gave me a lot of hope that we are getting better and on the path to being a great hero!

"What about this job," Homare asks, pointing at bright blue paper. I grab it off the board and read it.

It is a request to find their missing child. A young male Eevee named Evan. He was last seen playing in a clearing West of town a week ago. They are offering 5000 Poke for returning the child home. "Not the most money…" I mutter.

"But that's a missing kid," my companion tells me.

"I can see that," I reply, holding up the paper. "Why would that change anything?"

"How could you not be motivated to accept this from hearing that," Homare questions with disappointment. "Someone young, being held captive far away from hope, in desperate need of saving so he can go back to his loving parents. It's hard to think about what his kidnapper could be doing to him right now!"

"I don't actually have a choice, do I," I ask, already knowing the answer.

"We're heading West," the Armarouge states happily, taking the paper back and marching away. I groan dramatically and follow, really not wanting to take this worthless job. Why does Homare always have to be such a softy?

About fifteen minutes later

Me and Homare are in the woods, investigating the clearing mentioned on the paper. This disappearance happened a week ago, so I know we aren't going to find anything. However, my partner insisted we look around anyways. I agreed to make him shut up and hurry up. The quicker he gives up on this the quicker we get to take a new quest. One that pays more and has a prettier victim.

I'm just glancing around, barely paying attention to what I'm looking at, when a broken twig catches my eye. I shouldn't find anything special about it. Just a branch that snapped. What's odd to me is that there aren't any bushes around and it's in a spot that it would be illogical if it had fallen from a tree (maybe I paid more attention than I thought I did).

"Hey, Homare," I call to my companion, my eyes never leaving the twig. "Check this out."

The Armarouge comes and looks at the piece of wood then at our surroundings. "That's odd," he says as he crouches down to the branch. "This seems out of place."

"That's what I was thinking," I agree. I look around again before crouching down with Homare. Upon closer inspection I notice that the twig is partially buried in the ground with tiny vines on it.

"This is a weird looking branch," my companion states, voicing my thoughts.

"Yeah," I mutter, staring at it more. Then, with a sigh, I stand back up. "It's probably nothing and we're focusing on it for no reason."

Hesitantly, Homare agrees, standing back up. "You're right," he replies. "Staring at a twig won't get us anywhere. We need to focus on finding solid clues to find Evan."

Me and Homare continue to look around, putting the twig in the back of our minds. After a couple minutes of hunting for clues and coming up with nothing, I just give up and decide to watch the Armarouge hunt. He's not that entertaining, though, so I focus back on the broken stick. I know I'm obsessing over nothing, but-

"It moved," I holler. Homare turns around and looks, immediately noticing. It wasn't by much. Maybe two inches, probably less, but it's still noticeable. "I-I think we should go…"

"You should," a voice says from deeper into the woods. I follow where the sound came from and only see trees.

"Who are you," Homare demands. I quickly shove a hand over his mouth (well, the place his mouth should be).

"Are you crazy," I whisper to him with panic. "Rule one of being in the woods. NEVER TALK TO MYSTERIOUS VOICES!"

"That mysterious voice might know where Evan is," my companion responds, not even trying to keep his voice down.

"And your point is," I hiss. "Look, I know you want to save the kid, but this is dangerous! Let's return to Forest Village."

"YOU'RE FROM THE VILLAGE," the voice booms, furious and enraged. The vines from that little twig shoot straight at us, wrapping around us quickly. We would have easily been able to escape, but the the other trees around us move, too, their roots and vines gripping us tightly.

"N-No," I exclaim as more of my body is seized by the trees. "W-We're foreigners! We're only staying in the village temporarily!"

I yelp as the trees's hold becomes bone crushing. My vision blurs and the vines creep higher up my face. The world goes dark as I lose conscious, the last thing I see being Homare and trees.

Okay, so this was NOT AT ALL the plan for this chapter

I actually had a completely different direction I was going with this

However, I was trying to think of a way to give the chapter a bit more length and thought "a bit of fluff wouldn't hurt"

That led to improvising which led to this

I normally would have followed with Homare's POV and more in the chapter, but that feels like a good place to end this

The next chapter will be Homare's and not have a switch after, ending when his part is done (In other words it will be the same as this but Homare)

@UnovanZorua @fineasmatei @Dragonfly102024 @Thur55555555555

Am I missing someone…

Oh well

I'll remember later

Enjoy!