The Conquering Axe Of Ketchum The Barbarian

[Nidogod]

BRACE YOURSELVES

THE NEXT CHAPTER IS COMING...

[Henri]

Dude!

[trixie]

[Nidogod]

The ride back to city walls was a long one for Byrch. He had staved off death at his king's hands long enough but there was no excuse--none he could give--that would save his hide now. Through a series of incompetent decisions, he had gotten his prince kidnapped by the lowest form of scum to have ever entered Petalfort's walls. Death was certain. Pain was certain. And as his life flashed before his eyes, Byrch hoped that he could meet his inglorious end with a modicum of dignity.

"I've always hated you." sPoke the rider next to him. It was Rydel, Byrch's second in command. "However I will try my best to hide my grin and laughter for your execution."

"And what prompts these sudden confessions, Rydel?"

"There is no sense in keeping them to myself, anymore, Byrch. You are a dead man walking and it is long overdue you arrogant, swaggering son of a bitch. And when I am promoted to your position, I will actually--"

Rydel couldn't finish his sentence with the terriffic blow he recieved to the jaw, one that knocked him clear off of his rapidash. Byrch might be dying this day but he would be damned before he'd let a posturing subordinate like Rydel think he could get away with such disresPect. And how therapeutic it was! To sink fist after fist into his stupid face, on the ground, as all the other men hesitated to get between their captain and his soon to be replacement.

Or rather, would-be replacement. Byrch's unrelenting assault had killed Rydel and left a mangled face scarce recognizable. It was then that a flash of brilliance had crossed Byrch's mind.

Normandy was lounging in the royal bathchamber, pampered and carressed by concubines, and all but forgetful of the horrid day that had come to pass. It was a stark reminder then, when an infuriated Captain Byrch barged in through the chamber doors, accompanied by two of his most trusted men and the body of Rydel.

"I trusted him!!! I trusted him!!! Like a brother!!!" Byrch shouted.

"Byrch!" Normandy shouted back, "What is the meaning of--!?"

"It was Rydel, sire! Rydel, all along! Under our noses! He was the one who hired that damned savage in the first place! It was he who undermined us at every turn and now...oh sire...oh my king..." Byrch's tone had turned from one of outrage to sorrow and he dropped to his knees. "He has your son."

Normandy's face froze with horror. "Who? The savage?"

"He played the boy like a fiddle, sire. He used Maxim's impetuous confidence against him urged him on ahead of the rest of us desPite my cries of warning. Outside the city walls, the barbarian Ketchum had a company of men waiting for him. Rydel had killed the archers upon the wall and by the time we had reached them, they had the prince bound and mounted upon a maganium with a blade to his throat. They claimed that if we tried to rescue him, they'd sooner kill the boy. We had no choice..."

As King Normandy pondered the sad state of affairs before him, Ketchum, his pokemons, and the prince were putting miles between themselves and Petalfort. They pressed on well after sunset and had the brilliant light of the moon and stars to guide them. Over either the meganium's shoulders hung a pair of satchels, each filled with various goods and foods that belonged to her former owner. Ketchum and Pikachu partook of the various desert vegetables and dried meats inside, as did Blaziken who found himself more comfortable walking alongside them as they slowed down. The meganium occasionally turned her head back for a vegetable or two.

Maxim however, was stoic in his resolve. He was not offered any food, nor had he any intention of asking. And yet, the pangs of hunger grew to equal his noble pride. "If you expect me to beg--" he began, seemingly without provocation.

"I don't expect you to beg." Ketchum interrupted. "Begging is for hostages with sense and you're far more agreeable with your mouth shut."

"Just who the Hell do you think you are?"

"I am Ketchum, the Axe of Palletria."

"Well are you going to feed me or do you expect me to starve?"
Ketchum pondered these choices for a moment. Then he pushed Maxim off of their mount. "If you are hungry, this meganium shat about a quarter mile back. You can go eat that."

Maxim got to his feet, confused. Was he freed just like that? "What am I supposed to--how did--DAMN YOU!!! Damn you, Ketchum of Palletria! These indignities will not go unpunished! Just you wait..."

"Run home, little princess." Ketchum suggested as he kicked the meganium's hips bringing her to a trot. His former hostage roared curses from behind but over every dune, they faded into obscurity. The boy was more trouble than he was worth. And he was worth a lot. Ketchum had little more to his name now then he had entering that city. He could have taken Maxim to market and sold him as a slave--no, he was too whinesome for slavery. A Eunuch perhaps?

Ketchum's thoughts faded from the royal brat to his much fairer sibling. Her soft skin and musical voice left more of an impression on him than he would have cared to admit. And while he did promise Blaziken that he would reunite them, he thought too that such a promise might have been unfounded. Does a broken promise made to a pokemon count as anything? Would the creature be happier off with her married to the infamous Drewphus to whom Blaziken owed his imprisonment to in the first place? And how would such a reunion even come about?

This line of questioning faded from his mind when, at the peak of a particularly tall dune, Ketchum noticed a very faint glow on the horizon. It was too early and in the wrong place to be any hint of sunrise. A campfire perhaps? A large one.

With another click of his heals, Ketchum induced a full trot from the meganium down and across the dunes for the glow beyond. Her stamina was admirable. In a desert environment, the petals of meganiums collect far more sunlight than usual and this gives them remarkable energy to work through the night. The ones bred in these regions could also go for longer periods without food and water. After about an hour, they topped a dune tall and close enough to see the camp fire in the distance.

Ketchum bade the sizable meganium to go back and down a little bit while he, pikachu and Blaziken crawled flat on the apex and looked down, hopefully without being seen. Some smaller dunes away, they saw a caravan of camerupts and a massive torterra resting around a sizable pyre. With them were armed soldiers. Most themeselves resting, some keeping guard. One was facing just a few degrees away from them.

Though his mind was curious to the business of this party, Ketchum thought better of making contact. He had cheated death enough for the week and had everything he needed for the journey to the next city. With a whisPer, he and his two companions turned to recede back down to the meganium.

Unfortunately, as they turned, the watchman they thought blind to them cried "Who goes there?" and clearly in there direction.

The trio was quick to crouch at the beckoning and certain that now they were out of sight on this side of the dune. Yet in the distance, they heard the indistinct voices of the watchman and a few others asking questions about some movement over the ridges. Indeed, the soldiers were unsure whether they were being sPied on by men or beasts but two volunteered to mount their camerupts and investigate.

Ketchum considered his options and decided the wisest course of action was nothing. Fighting was out of the question and fleeing on a meganium would leave them with arrows in their backs. He posed no threat to this party, and was, in fact, only a curious traveler. So when the two riders came into view over the dune and demanded he state his business, he answered as nonchalantly as he could from the meganium's back.

"Apologies, I did not mean to snoop." He said with an embarassed laugh. "I'm merely travelling from Petalfort and I was curious as to the glow of your pyre in the distance. I am sorry if we caused any alarm."

"You're a Petalfort guard." observed one of the riders, noting Ketchum's trappings. "And you're out here alone with a few pets?"

"Well...yes, it's a long and funny story actually."

"I like funny stories." said the other rider while circling the quartet. "Why don't you come back to our camp and tell my mates the story of how a tattoo-faced Petalfort guard with a funny accent was out wandering the desert in the middle of the night and just happened to come upon our camp."

Ketchum sighed. "That wasn't a request, was it?"

"Not hardly." replied the soldier.

"Should she come too?" Ketchum asked pointing behind the soldier.
As the soldier turned his head to see nobody in the distance, Ketchum swung the back of his axe down on the head of his camerupt. While these mounts were normally docile and safe, a swift, hard impact to their to their heads caused the humps on their back to erupt twin pillars of flame. The taunting soldier was fast incinerated by his now unconscious ride while the other was pulled off of his by Blaziken and given a swift kick to the crotch that sent him flying over the dunes; his camerupt turned to follow the screams.

Ketchum did not need to see the soldiers mobilizing across the dunes in resPonse to the explosions to know that they were coming. Fleeing archers on the meganium would have been impractical under good circumstances but the sudden blasts of flames had her terror stricken and unruly; she writhed and moaned fearfully at the sudden violence. Fighting the oncomers didn't pose better odds. The electric, flame and plant based attacks of Ketchum's would have little effect on these war-camerupts...and yet there was little choice in the matter.

Ketchum fitted an arrow to his bow with two sPares hanging between his fingers and pointed it to the sound of the oncoming stampede that would appear at the top of the dune. "Aim for the riders." he instructed Blaziken and Pikachu whom readied themselves to fire flame and lightening.

The first rider to appear over the dune barely had time to asses the situation below, much less fire his arrow, before he recieved an arrow through his cheek. Nor did the second, whose iron platemail shirt attracted a bolt of lightening that send him off of his mount. The rest, grouped together or seperately came about further to the sides of their quarry, making them harder to attack at once. Ketchum's biggest advantage was that the moonlight shone more on his attackers and he was relatively harder to sPot in the shadows below, but Pikachu's thunderbolts, however briefly, gave away his silohuette.

Blaziken, far healthier now than when he had been discovered the day before, ran up the sands and leapt an amazing height over the small horde coming Ketchum's way. From above, he sPewed a flamethrower from his beak and rained agonizing fires over 4 or 5 of the soliers. When he landed, he took an arrow to his ribs but that did quite worry him as the sight before him; Charging his way was the torterra with the tent on its back and at its side were a few camerupt riders that appeared to try and slow it down.

Blaziken rolled out of its way and then stood up to recieve a sabre slash across his back. He fell forward in the pain it compounded with the arrow and looked up to see the rider turning back to finish him.

Back below, Ketchum took arrows to the chest and shin. His armor afforded some protection and neither arrowhead pierced more than an inch into his body but he gave back as good as he got with his arrows. Nimble Pikachu danced around his master's feet delivering bolt after bolt of lightening to any rider who got to close. The nearest rider reared up on his mount and shouted "Lava plume!" The camerupt sPat a stream of lava at Ketchum who fell to his side to avoid the molten jetstream. Once on the groud, he recieved two more arrows to his back, just barely stopped by the lamellar cuirass. In great pain, he grabbed his axe. He would go down fighting tooth and nail and drag as many of these bastards to hell with him as possible.

But to his astonishment, succor came not in the form of a friend but the torterra that came over the rising and shot bullet seeds at its own compatriots. In confusion the soldiers turned their attention from the barbarian towards the normally docile beast of burden they had ridden with and either got shot down or rode away in terror.

The torterra slowed down to a trot and made it's way over to Ketchum's meganium who, in her fear, instinctively released sweet scented pheromones that normally call other members of her own sPecies for her. They had the same effect on this other large grass type. As it warmly nuzzled this very confused but overall placated distant cousin, Ketchum saw a human figure fall from the tent on its carapace. He rose, and ambled to the slender form lying face first in the sand, his axe still gripped in his hand.

What rose to hands and knees, wrapped in fine silks, was the form of a girl. And as she stood to shake the sand out of her hair and get away from the unweildy beast of burden she opened her eyes to find a dumbstruck if familiar face staring back at her.

"Mayv..." Ketchum sighed in surprised confusion.

"Ketchum!" The princess almost shouted with the same context.

As they came together, a venomous voice from atop the now calm torterra interrupted. "I believe introductions are in order." It was Drewphus.

2 B Continued...

[Nidogod]

[Nidogod]

Prince Drewphus slept soundly atop the silken mattress in his tent. It mattered naught that he slept alone while his soon to be bride preferred the fainting couch on the other side to his presence; he dreamt of days to come with a subtle smile rocked gently to sleep by the breathing torterra benath his tent. It was with great shock then that he awoke to the cries of battle outside and quakes of his massive mount trotting across the dunes.

Though his eyes had trouble adjusting to the light, the first thing he could identifying seeing--mainly due to her screams--was Princess Mayv falling trough the side of the tent grasPing a rug. When the behemoth at his feet slowed down, Drewphus grabbed his Katana and poked his head out of the entry curtains to see Mayv below unharmed and staring into the face of a rather muscular Petalfort guard she called 'Ketchum'.

Upon announcing his presence to the stranger, he surveyed the moonlit dunes surrounding them and sPied the dead & dying bodies of his bodyguards. "Who art thou, 'Ketchum'..."he asked, nimbly sliding down the torterra's shell and dropping to the sands, "and why are my men dead?"

"Your men are dead..." Ketchum answered with heavy breaths. "...because they could not pick their fights better, because they were trained by incompetent masters and the ones who still live owe it to their own cowardice."

Drewphus smirked. "I can appreciate such an attitude in a fighting man and had you not left my fiance and myself stranded in the desert without a company of 'incompetents and cowards' for protection, I'd have been more than happy to invite to in for wine, a meal and a chance to learn how you two were acquainted. Yet here we are, somehow endangered by thine actions and I'm afraid that I really must kill you."

Mayv's eyes widened in fright and her voice was too lost by the suddenness of it all to protest. At her side, pierced with arrows and exhausted by battle hunched a venerable wildman with whom she had sPent a night of unforgettable passion. Before them, well rested, at his peak and clad only in a silk garment wrapped at his waist stood her heartless soon to be husband. His hand steadily readying a katana to strike while his opponent could barely lift his axe.

Ketchum, however, was not alone and the tempered stel of Drewphus' sword was a lightening rod to Pikachu's thundershock; The little creature had expended a great deal of energy in the previous battle but had more than enough to maim a human swordsman. Drewphus dropped his katana and fell back at the attack but he was hardly about to be undone by an electric rat.

With a whistle from her master, Drewphus' roserade bounded from the tent atop the torterra who was, frankly, too proccupied with the worried meganium to give the smaller creatures a second thought. Dahomey, as the roserade was called, was a flowery creature of deadly beauty and ferocious devotion. With only a glance at her master's expression, she was already on Pikachu with every intention of killing the thing. The flowers she had in place of hands sPat forth a pair of thorny, writhing whips, unfurling towards Pikachu at incredible sPeed.

It took agility Pikachu hadn't used that night to dodge her relentless onslaught. When he had found a moment to blast a thundershock at her, she but dodged easily and returned with sPitting thorns.

As Ketchum watched his partner with a little more concern than faith in his abilities, he was snapped back into his own predicament with a scream from Mayv. Within a fraction of a second he turned to see and evade the swordpoint Drewphus thrust toward his face and simultaneously shove the princess aside.

Mayv fell back several feet in the sand from the push and looked up to see her would-be champion do battle with her would-be husband. The katana blade was remarkably fast and Drewphus was an adept swordsman but he had rarely used the thing in combat himself. Amid the chaos, the uneven sand at their feet, the moon and starlight his eyes were more adjusted to, Ketchum, although far from primed, was in his element. His bearded axe made light by a lifetime of practice in strong, skilled arms, parried and maneuvered the enemy blade with faster precision than its appearance would let on.

As the two young men and their pokemons fought, Blaziken appeared atop the overlooking dune. He was bloodied and nearing exhaustion for the rider who attacked him proved to be harder to decapitate than one would hope...but what he saw below reenergized him with a strength he had not even begun that night with. Before him, laying in the sand with worried eyes was his beloved princess and ganering her attention was the vile human who demanded his imprisonment...fighting the friend who had freed him.

A sharp scream of rage tore through the night sky and all fighting in the sand below paused to look up at the fiery figure lunging from the dune at the vile prince. Now, for the first time that night was there fear in Drewphus' eyes. "Dahomey!" he screamed. His roserade took a fraction of a second to flick her thorny whip at Pikachu who was as caught off guard as any of them, and then took a leap to intercept the flaming bird creature before he could land on her master.

With a crash, Dahomey knocked Blaziken into the sand and away from his intended target. His greater height and close range made him far easier to wrap her thorny whips around...but this was a mistake. Blaziken's clawed hands snapped onto her neck and legs. As Dahomey looked into those burning eyes and the flames billowing in his throat, she knew she had underestimated this opponent and when the flamethrower he sPewed enveloped her body and his hands ripped her apart, it was the last thought she would ever have.

Drewphus was aghast at the sight of his loyal pet and bodyguard and possibly the only creature he ever loved reduced to burning fragments raining before him but any compassion that cold, black heart may have felt was overshadowed by fear of his own inevitable demise. He dropped his sword and held up both hands in surrender. As it happened, the only thing that could have broken Blaziken's smoldering glare did; "Torchy?" begged Mayv's sweet voice of the name she had given the creature when he was but a Torchic. Ketchum exchanged a glance at Pikachu, mouthing the silly name.

At once, Blaziken's demeanor softened. He turned his attention to his beloved princess and took steps her way. Drewphus, now alone and more helpless than he cared to be, used this opportunity to run behind Mayv in an effort to keep her between him and those who would do harm. He would pay the barbarian to accompany them back to Slaveport and make nice with the girl's frightful pet until they were back home. There were really no reasons for them to stay enemies.

Before he could voice his sudden change of heart though, Blaziken turned his head and sPat forth a flamethrower upon the wicked prince. Drewphus screamed in agony and Blaziken's attack was only curtailed by Mayv's protests. "Torchy, no!" she plead and at once, her pet stopped and looked her way with sorry eyes. Ketchum & Pikachu watched the scene in mild amusement. The young barbarian saw the shrieking, burning prince convulse in the sand at his feet.

"Hold still." Ketchum told the suddenly obedient Prince Drewphus of Slaveport...a moment before taking a piss on him. Mayv could scarce suppress a smirk even while bidding him to stop. Ketchum smirked back. "That's twice now this appendage brought a smile to your face, princess."

As the last embers on his hair and flesh died, Drewphus froze still to keep the agony marginally at bay. The former Adonis was now an abhorently burnt and scarred figure of a human being curled up in a fetal position while the pain and rage inside him boiled over. This beast of a man, Ketchum, he now knew to be the reprobate who had entered his fiance the night before and stole the ruby headdress for which all this trouble had been intended. Had there ever been such an insult?

"Where...is...the headdress?" Drewphus struggled to say.

Ketchum thought these first words to be a peculiar choice for a man in this position. But he shrugged his shoulders and replied "Lost to another thief. The gods only know where."

"Your suffering..." Drewphus growled. "...will dwarf my own. Whether I die now or outlive you all...I vow that those who avenge me will find all of you...ALL OF YOU!...and grant you all the most slow, nightmarish and undignified deaths your minds could ever conceive."

Ketchum was too busy removing an arrowhead from his torso to pay these threats any heed. It was Mayv who stepped over to address them. She looked down at the monster who would now never be her husband. She thought to pity him. She thought to sympathize and maybe even entertain a last request because her good nature told her that no creature, no matter how vile, should suffer this way. She did none of this, however, and instead opted to kick him in the balls.

Ketchum snickered while removing the light armor from his torso. The sweltering heat left by the thing was immediately cooled by the night air. Combined with this, the adrenaline rushes and blood loss, Ketchum felt light-headed and the sight of Mayv standing in her sleeping silks over the living corpse of his fallen enemy grew more and more beautiful in his eyes. As she turned to look back at him, her face shone and eyes sParkled in the heavenly lights. The motions of her perfect, lightly draped body were made all the more graceful in these conditions.

He had not even noticed how he shook as he stood until she came over and placed her velvet hands on his body and asked if he needed to lay down. The barbarian but smiled and gestured at the still cursing Drewphus. "I hadn't susPected you to be the vindictive type."

"I have never been." was her reply. "Yet I find myself open to new ideas and attitudes as of late. I credit that to your brief influence, Ketchum."

He kept his flattery silent. "We must press on. Should we put his highness out of his misery?"

"Let us leave his fate to his gods. For one who has taken joy in the suffering of others may yet learn to enjoy it in himself." was her reply. She then turned to embrace her approaching Blaziken. "Oh my pet! How I have missed thee!"

The princess and her pet helped Ketchum over to the meganium who was now greatly placated by the sweet scents of the torterra. As Ketchum remounted the creature, Mayv climbed back up into the tent to retrieve some salves, lotions and light bandaging. She then took a seat on the meganium's back, behind Ketchum and applied the healants to his wounds as he bade their mount forward. Torterra followed with Blaziken seated at the driver's station while Pikachu curled up in the tent.

As Drewphus saw the little caravan disappear over the dunes and leave his body to the sands, he vowed not to die that night. He would endure all the pain the universe could send his way and denounce death's sweet release until he could be certain that vengeance would be guaranteed.

2 B Continued...

[Nidogod]

"Master is dead. Look at him. Burned up and left to die."

"By the gods...how many were there?"

It was dark.

"We don't know. A couple dozen maybe. Mounted, heavily armed. We fought them off as best we could and figured they were retreating so some of us gave chase, you know? Take care of the problem before it came back with reinforcements...then we saw your lot in the distance."

"My poor sister...denied her chance to bring honor to our kingdom and instead taken as a plaything for marauders and raiders."

These two voices were familiar.

"Apologies, sire, but with our commander killed in action we only had the sPur of the moment to guide our actions."

"Keep your apologies. You did the best that can be expected under the circumstances. You and your men fought admirably I'm sure but these deserts crawl with dangers at night. I should know what with my recent experiences. In fact I can only hope that these dozens of marauders stuffed his body with arrows and took his head for a decorative bowl."

His eyes were closed and his breathing was shallow.

"Whose head, sire?"

"Ketchum the barbarian's."

With a terrible roar of anger, Drewphus' seemingly dead body sPrang to life at the mention of that name. His eyes popped open, his crusty limbs reanimated and he stood up too driven by rage to even feel the pain of his charred skin ripping and filling with all the loose sands that had blown over him that night. The light of sunrise revealed to him one of the soldiers who had abandoned him and prince Maxim of Petalfort reeling back toward a chariot in terror. Behind them were the remainder of his riders and those of Petalfort.

"Dozens?" Drewphus growled. "DOZENS!? It was ONE!! MAN!!! You abandoned me to be beaten, burned and PISSED upon by ONE rancid cunt and his wretched pets! The same rotting sack of shit who plowed through YOUR harlot sister the very night before!"

Maxim's night had taken a turn for the better. He was found by Byrch and his imperial riders who were sent out to find him under the king's orders and desPite Byrch's protests. Shortly after, they were met by the survivors of Drewphus' entourage and were led back, somewhat begrudgingly to this scene of attack. Yet now, the living corpse of a man his family owed a bejeweled headdress to was screaming of further victories of a man he had come to hate with all his soul. "Drewphus, you need medical attention. Come back to Petalfort with us." He turned his rapidash to allow his fellow prince a ride.

Drewephus stood there and looked ominously at his riders. "First, kill them."

With a gesture, Maxim bade his riders strike down the confused Slaveport guards from their camerupts.

2 B continued...

[Nidogod]

Morning had found the little caravan in a modest oasis. The torterra, meganium, Pikachu and Torchy the blaziken all rested beneath the shade of a few palms in the vicinity of a water sPring. Within the tent upon torterra's back, Ketchum and Mayv rested in the silken blankets of the former occupant. The princess kept her limbs wrapped extra tightly around her hero lest she woke up and found it all to be a dream. The barbarian did naught but stroke the pretty head resting on his chest for he had expunged far more energy the night before; Both during his fights in the desert and events that took place afterwards in that very tent. He had to occasionally rebandage himself so his wounds would not reopen.

"Could you not lay here forever, my love?" Mayv inquired.

"I should be very happy to learn that I died in battle last night and am rewarded with this moment to last eternally, my princess." was Ketchum's reply. "And yet my own heartbeat tells me otherwise."

"Then we have lifetimes to waste until such rewards are ours to claim. How shall we sPend them? See the world...meet fascinating new people..."

"Kill them." Ketchum grinned a wry grin. "I am not a safe man to take for a lover, princess. I have a voracious appetite for the road, for a good fight and copious amounts of women. I fear that you will lose patience with me when I grow board with you." He half expected Mayv to storm out at this remark.

"I'd wager I've gone through more handmaidens than you have." Mayv yawned.

Perhaps this girl was a keeper.

When they could finally bear to rise hours later the remainder of the morning was sPent in the relative luxury of their surroundings. They ate, drank, tended to their pokemons and played. Ketchum was rarely so jovial but the company he kept had that effect on him. It wouldn't be for long either.

It was easy to tell from discarded items that this oasis was a common route point for desert travellers and it would only be a matter of time before they were discovered. As the two were obviously wanted and sought after by two kingdoms, they could not remain there for long. Nor could they travel on either beast of burden as neither could outrun a cavalry. After studying the maps, Ketchum decided the ideal course of action would be to head southeast on foot for two days to the fishing outpost Rootopia. From there, they could take a boat to the Isle Dewfornia.

Mayv did not relish the thought of a 2 day walk across desert sands but the prosPect of adventure gave her strength.

So it happened that later in the afternoon, Ketchum dismantled the tent from torterra and saddle from meganium. The freed pokemons watched the humans rifle through the items for anything of use, put on cloaks & hoods and walk off, leaving them free.

Though her feet had rarely stepped off of polished marble surface in her life, Mayv found her footing in the sandy dunes and soon strode along side Ketchum and Torchy. Each carried a canteen or two filled with water, some foods, anything of use that could fit into a pocket and a few weapons. Torchy needed none of course, but Ketchum still had his trademarked axe as well as a bow and quiver of arrows. Mayv kept Drewphus' tanto blade sheathed at her hip. She also kept a bow and arrows at her back but had no experience with any of these.

As the sun readied to set in the west, the blaziken's keen eyes caught something in the south at the top of a hill; it appeared to be another, even smaller oasis. Ketchum remarked at what an ideal place it would be to make camp for the night and everybody hurried their pace save for Torchy who was slowed down by the weight of supplies on his back.

When they finally reached the hill, they found it's sides steeper than anticipated and could not even see the flora on top from its base. Once they had climbed it though, their sighs of relief withdrew into gasPs of worry. These were not trees nor bushes; They were cacturnes ad cacneas.

Still asleep for the moment, it was known however that these cactus pokemons woke up at sunset to hunt at night. The sun was already dipping halway on the horizon.

2 B Continued...

[trixie]

<3

[Nidogod]

[Nidogod]