[PRP] Adventure

[BlackFireKitsune]

She hadn't dared to move just yet, almost too afraid to in case dislodging herself from the surrounding mud would incite it to start sliding again, when the Hawlucha landed near her. "Oh, ah--" What was its name again? She'd nearly forgotten in the wake of the landslide, "Giant! Where's Shoyo? Is he--" She cut herself off abruptly upon realizing that the Hawlucha was probably looking out over the field of debris purposefully, and she inhaled sharply. "Is he-- Can you see him anywhere?" While part of her wanted to run to the nearest place for a shower and a clean change of clothes, it was a very small part and was scarcely even acknowledged as she worked to get herself up out of the mud. As she struggled to slowly but surely get back up, she became painfully aware of numerous sore spots along her legs and arms, and the few, small streaks of blood along little tears in her clothes indicated that she would probably be using a number of bandages later. Whatever cuts and bruises she had sustained mattered little at the current moment though, and she ignored them as she finally succeeded in freeing herself and standing up again on the uneven, muddy terrain. Breathless and completely covered in mud, with her hands balled into small fists and panic-induced adrenaline pumping through her veins, she quickly surveyed the area around her now that she could see better, hoping to be able to spot Shoyo, but she didn't see him anywhere just yet.  

[Suudonym]

The Hawlucha shook his head once and turned to Nicolette to watch her extricate herself from the ground amassed around her, standing by in case she was unable to succeed on her own or was too injured to walk. When his worries were assuaged, Giant again took to the sky, surveying the landscape from above. The entire area was awash with mud, bent trees, and overturned earth - at a glance, it certainly didn't look like there was anybody else aboveground.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

While she did feel slightly better with Giant looking for Shoyo from a better vantage point, it was only slightly, and she couldn't keep herself from feeling panicked and anxious. What started out as a fun trip to the mountain with her friend had turned into a disaster; she was covered in mud, cuts and bruises after a landslide, and she had no idea where her friend was now or if he was even okay. She hadn't felt this alone in quite some time, and it was frightening.

She inhaled shakily, not noticing how her body had started quivering, and raised her hands to call out but paused, lowered them to rub all the mud off on her pants but paused again, and instead wiped them off on her shirt that was marginally less dirty than her pants, then resumed her original intent with her hands cupped around her mouth in an attempt to give more volume to her shout, "Shoyo! Where are you?"  

[Suudonym]

Shoyo dared to open his eyes and was greeted with dampness and dimness; he squinted into it, hoping that his vision would adjust, but the darkness abated in no way. He made an effort to unfold himself but stopped when he bumped his head against something - when he reached up to try to identify it, it seemed to be the slanted trunk of a tree. A rustling of warmth and fluff against his chest reminded him of the Rufflet that he had turned back to grab, and he felt around for what he hoped was the top of its head (because the last thing he needed was to deal with an angry bird of prey), "Hey there, are you okay?"

The Rufflet squawked uncomfortably and forcibly shifted about, kicking Shoyo when he didn't - or couldn't - make room.

"Ow-- Look, there's not enough space, okay? Settle down, settle down." The Rufflet reluctantly acquiesced, and Shoyo imagined its feathers smoothing down as it calmed.

It wasn't a very good situation, but Shoyo was in one piece and didn't feel like anything was broken. He assumed from that fact that the tree was above him, having shielded him from the crushing force of the oncoming landslide, and so he felt that he had a pretty good idea of which direction was up. Hopefully Nicolette was okay and had managed to get out of the way; if she was able to call for rescue services then he had nothing to worry about. No worries, no worries...

Repeating the mantra in his head to stave off the feelings of anxiety that threatened to encroach, Shoyo reached up an arm to the ceiling of his cocoon and dug his fingers into the earth to begin to shovel it away. Maybe it would have been better to just sit and wait, but how could he possibly stay calm doing nothing? There was a chance that Nicolette hadn't gotten away okay, too, but he really didn't want to entertain the possibility--

"Gyah!" Dirt crumbled over the boy's face, and he rubbed his wrists at his eyes to clear it away. "Jeez...!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Silence. Nothing but silence. It was unnerving how quiet the whole area was, but Nicolette forced herself to at least attempt to breathe as she began picking her way through the mud. Every step she took made unpleasant noises that only seemed deafening in the otherwise silent mountainside, and the mud sucked at her shoes and she couldn't help but feel like it was trying to keep her from walking. She had to though; she had to keep going, she had to find her friend. She had to.

Unfortunately she didn't get too far before her foot slipped and fell into the mud with a startled yelp. This was the sort of accident she had expected - anticipated, even - before the landslide, but after it only made her tense up and try to grab onto whatever she could in her desperation not to be buried in the mud -- except she wasn't going anywhere. Nothing was moving, and the only sound she could hear was her own breathing. The mudslide hadn't started again, and she was all right. Regardless of that knowledge, the entire situation was too much for her, and tears began to slide down her cheeks as she pushed herself up to a sitting position again. This wasn't at all what she had expected when she'd agreed to a trip to the mountains. She was absolutely covered in mud; it was soaked into her clothes, had seeped into her shoes, covered her cheeks (though her crying was marginally fixing that), and clung to her hair, and the worst thing of all was that she had no idea where Shoyo was.

No, the worst thing of all was that she had no idea where he was and yet here she was, just sitting there crying about it. She couldn't do that, what if he needed help? Actually he probably did need help, and how was she supposed to give it when she was just sitting there? With that thought in mind, she wiped at her cheeks - which only succeeded in smearing wet mud all over them even more - before pushing herself to her feet and continuing on despite the persistent tears, pausing every so often to scrutinize the area for any sign of her friend and to call out to him again.  

[Suudonym]

Shoyo dutifully pushed away the earth, tossing handfuls of it to the floor of his little cavern, though as he continued in his task, his resolve wavered more and more. Maybe it was the wrong direction after all, or maybe he was buried even deeper than he thought, or maybe, or maybe...

His thoughts were cut off by his own startled cry as wet mud, dislodged by his excavation, slipped through the hole he was created and spilled into the space. Distressed, he pushed the surrounding ground to cover the opening and patted it firmly into place, plugging the hole but effectively undoing all of his work.

Shoyo frowned despairingly into the darkness. It wasn't a very big space. How much air did people need to breathe? What happened once there wasn't enough? How long did something like that take?

The Rufflet beside him, detecting his immobility, chirped questioningly. Shoyo squared his shoulders and just stopped himself from drawing in a deep breath. "Don't worry about a thing!" he replied quietly - there wasn't any need to speak very loudly in such a small space. "One way or another, I'll do it." The main question, though, was what 'it' was. Digging upwards didn't seem to be a very good option, and that didn't leave a whole lot else to try...

Resolved to try whatever he could, Shoyo adjusted his posture so that he was crouching with his back against the slope of the trunk. He wasn't sure how buried the tree was, but if it had been unstable enough to be swept away in the first place, he supposed it was worth hoping that it was unstable enough to move.

A while later, aboveground, one of the half-buried trees jostled just slightly for a fleeting moment.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Nicolette continued trudging through the mud, ignoring the tears that rolled down her cheeks as she kept up the search for her friend, pausing at various intervals to call out to him again or try to dig at a suspicious-looking area, but thus far she hadn't found any sign of him.

A soft rustling sound that lasted a split second caught her attention and she froze mid-step, holding her breath as she quickly looked all around her, hoping to either hear it again, see where it came from, or both. Was that Shoyo? What if it was just something settling -- no, she had to assume every noise was him, just in case. So where did it come from...? It sounded like it had come from somewhere nearby off to her side, so she turned to face that direction and scrutinized that area as best as she could. Most of it looked flat - or at least mostly flat, sometimes somewhat lumpy - while there were raised areas of mud around half-buried or mostly buried boulders or trees. She raised her hands again to call out as loud as she could, "Shoyo! Can you hear me?"  

[Suudonym]

Shoyo abruptly and heavily slid to the ground, lifting an arm to shield his face from the cascades of dirt that fell away from the tree trunk. It was a lot heavier than it looked, and Shoyo's small stature didn't lend him a lot of strength; he was thoroughly winded from the effort, his chest heaving with every breath. It was somewhat frightening to have to breathe so hard in such a small space.

The trunk had budged, but it was far from dislodged - in fact, it was probably right back where it started. If Giant were there, together they might have been able to do something, but--

Shoyo stopped breathing, his eyes wide in the darkness as he strained to listen. That was... Someone was calling, right? He could hear what they were saying, but if someone was calling, then someone was there, and that was all he needed to know. The boy made an effort to fill his lungs but was interrupted by a coughing fit brought on by the earthy dust. "Hey, Rufflet," he said, carefully reaching a hand in the direction he thought he would find the bird - indeed, his fingers came into contact with downy feathers, "can you make some noise? Loud, as loud as you can."

He wasn't expecting a great deal, but Shoyo reflexively raised his hands to clamp over his ears as the Rufflet agreed to his suggest and raised absolute hell. That was loud all right.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When her calls were yet again met with silence, she couldn't help but feel her heart drop into her mud-filled shoes. Perhaps it was just the sound of a tree settling or something, and wasn't Shoyo. Maybe--

The sudden cacophony - muffled and quieted though it was through the thick layers of mud - startled her, and for a few brief moments she merely stood there, trying to figure out what it was and where it was coming from. Those moments ended swiftly and suddenly she was running - well, if 'running' meant 'slipping and sliding through the mud' - towards the source of the noises. She attempted to stop but her feet slid, and she found herself falling onto a felled tree that had been almost entirely swallowed in the mud. Pushing herself off of its wet surface, she held her breath and listened, trying to puzzle out just what that sound was. It definitely did not sound anything like Shoyo, and though it was quite loud through the layers of earth that covered it, it definitely didn't sound like any sort of person. It sounded sort of like a pokemon though, but she had no idea what one it was. It took little effort for her to recall Shoyo's actions just before the mudslide hit, and his efforts to save the Rufflet he'd been about to battle -- maybe the sounds were the Rufflet? Even if they weren't, Nicolette wasn't about to just leave a defenseless pokemon trapped in the mud - it helped to hope with all her might that it was actually the Rufflet, and that it was still with Shoyo so she would find him, too - so she yelled at the coated tree in the hopes that the pokemon inside - and hopefully Shoyo too, if he was indeed in there as well - would be able to hear her (she didn't stop to think they wouldn't be able to over the loud noises the pokemon was making), "Hold on! I'll get you out!" With that done, she straightened up and raised both arms above her head, waving them in the air in an effort to flag down the Hawlucha, "Giant, please come help!" After yelling Nicolette turned and immediately started digging at a random spot, working as hard as she possibly could to dig through the thick layers of mud.  

[Suudonym]

"That's pretty good," Shoyo said when the Rufflet's piercing shriek finally trailed off into silence. The bird chirruped proudly in reply, satisfied with its performance.

Above, Giant followed Nicolette's signal and alighted beside her, eyeing the place where she was digging. His small, clawed hands weren't exactly designed for moving earth, but he certainly wasn't going to just stand there and watch Nicolette do all the work; he reached into the soft earth and pushed it aside to the best of his abilities.

Eventually their combined efforts pierced a pocket of air, spilling daylight into a small cavern that housed a certain redheaded boy with his arms over his head to protect his face from falling dirt. At the first breath of fresh air upon him, he directed his bright eyes upwards, though the expression that came to his features was one of shock and confusion.

"Nicky!" Shoyo said, his voice not quite at shouting volume but raised nonetheless. The Rufflet hopped into his lap to get a better look at their prison's exterior. "What are you doing here still?! Don't hang around when there's been a landslide!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Nicolette was grateful for any help Giant could give, and continued to dig. The unfamiliar act, as she rarely if ever had any cause to dig for anything, and the sheer amount of earth that needed to be cleared away was tiring her out. This only gave another reason for her tears to continue, and continue they did - even after her hand pushed through the dirt much easier than it had this whole time and pulled away a section of it that revealed just what she had been hoping to find. "Shoyo!" The face that greeted him was strained with poorly contained emotion, smudged over with mud, and wet with tears. A large part of her wanted to just break down sobbing right there, both out of relief for finding her friend and because that had probably been the most terrifying thing she'd ever experienced, but his surprised reaction and chiding in turn surprised and confused her. "What-- I was.. I'm sorry - I had to find you! What do you mean?"  

[Suudonym]

Shoyo opened his mouth to answer but stopped, frowned slightly, and shook his head, "I'll explain later." He didn't have the heart to go lecturing a girl who had obviously been crying and looked as though she could start again at any moment. He reached into the shadows and produced a light-colored Rufflet which he raised up to place on the ground outside the opening, "For now let's just get away from here, okay?"

The bird pokemon, smaller than the nearby Hawlucha, looked to and fro to take in their surroundings; the forest looked vastly different compared to how he remembered it from just a little while earlier. If it was like that, then his favorite nesting place was probably destroyed, and all the opponents he had bested in single combat had likely fled, thus destroying the hierarchy he had been carefully working to establish...  

[BlackFireKitsune]

His response elicited a sniffle and a nod, "Okay." She was still confused why he had reacted in such a way, and she was curious, but that could wait. The pale-colored pokemon, while adorable and definitely someone she would be excited to meet and coo over, merely got a wan smile instead as it glanced around. Maybe later. For now, though... "Are you all right?" She asked Shoyo as she peered through the hole to the small, dark space he'd been trapped in just moments ago. "Do you need any help getting out?"  

[Suudonym]

"Yeah, I'm fine!" he affirmed with a smile. "I think I can get out okay." The ground was still soft and crumbly, not the best surface to try to climb on, but Shoyo managed to hoist himself up and out without great difficulty. He took in a deep breath of air - it cool and fresh, even in the late summer weather, compared to the inside of the hovel - and glanced around their surroundings. The landscape made him uneasy, and once he climbed to his feet, he extended a hand to Nicolette, looking faintly worried, "I still think we should hurry and get out of here."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Good," she said emphatically and sniffled again; she didn't think she'd ever been so glad to hear that someone was okay. Of course she had been incredibly relieved and glad to hear that Luke was okay after his paralysis, but that hadn't involved the both of them in some terrifying, life-threatening situation that left them both completely separated and not knowing where the other was, or if they were even alive afterwards. No, that had definitely been the most terrifying thing she'd ever experienced, and she couldn't begin to fathom the depths of her gratefulness for his continued well-being.

When he began attempting to extricate himself, she moved aside to give him room, waiting to see if he needed any help, but it looked like he didn't need it. As he offered his hand, she took it in hers without hesitation and nodded in agreement, replying with an eager, "Okay." Now that everything looked different, though, she wasn't quite sure the best way to get away from there except 'down'. Perhaps that was the best route anyway?