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[Negrek]

Take that as a yes, then, Lindsey thought, relatively unperturbed by the absol's silence. By now, she was starting to get used to it.

It was nice to get out from under Fleet Town's flame-edged shadow at least by a little bit, and though the large smoke cloud rising up from the burning city still billowed up behind her, the view she had of Route 4 before her was much more pleasant and less reminiscent of the underworld. About the only thing disappointing about it was the phasing out of the lush, vibrant vegetation that had lined Routes 1 and 3; Lindsey had been hoping to find somewhere near water to stop for the night, but it didn't look like that was happening. Oh, well. It was kind of nice to have a change of scene, anyway.

The clouds were starting to roll back overhead at last, and it promised to be a clear night. There was an absol stalking along by her side, however coldly and distantly, and she had made it through a day of training more or less unscathed. Lindsey attempted a happy little skip, but ended up landing rather awkwardly on one foot and only narrowly regaining her balance. Deciding to come back to that thought later, she settled for just strolling along, humming tunelessly as she gazed out over the dusky plains, looking for a likely place to camp.

[Solidify]

In actuality, there weren't very many places. Gravel was abundent on the road, and Lindsey could see a few small fields of sparse grass off to the side of the road. The most inviting looking place seemed to be around a relatively large and lush tree for the area. It was nice and grassy around. Simple. But it fit the bill. The massive flames from Fleet Town cast a faint, orange glow along the ground, though it was noticably less extreme than when Lindsey was actually passing by the inferno.

A strange balloon-like pokemon, a Fuwante, floated by overhead liesurely. The setting sun and rising moon penetrated its clear, thin body, and it hummed a strange, low monotone as it passed.

The Absol's eyes seemed to glow slightly in the growing darkness. He had been walking a good twenty feet ahead of Lindsey as they'd traveled and he casually glanced back over his shoulder to make sure Lindsey was keeping up.

[Negrek]

Lindsey's head jerked up as the fuwante's shadow passed over her and its strange humming drifted into her consciousness, but she then laughed aloud at the sight of the ghost-type. Talk about your crazy pokémon! That thing looked too ridiculous to actually be alive...

The sight of the tree caught Lindsey's attention soon enough, however, and she left off chuckling at the oddly illuminated fuwante to inspect it for a moment. It would do. "Hey, Astarael, I'm going to set up camp over there by that tree," she said, awkwardly jabbing the firewood she was carrying towards it. It looked to be as good as things were going to get on Route 4, and any excuse to dump this stupid wood was a good one, she thought. Her arms were starting to seriously ache--not to mention all the rest of her body, of course.

[Solidify]

Astarael, as usual, did nothing to respond. But he changed course silently and headed for the tree.

Belgaer had been watching the Fuwante pass and seemed fairly relieved that they were stopping. It'd been a rough first day for the little Natu and she chirped out her agreement with Lindsey.

[Negrek]

"Yeah, I feel ya," Lindsey said in response to Belgaer's chirp, letting the bundle of sticks drop with a satisfying clatter some short distance away from the tree and then collapsing to the ground herself, leaning up against the tree's gnarled trunk. Removing Belgaer from her shoulder, she set the natu on the ground next to her. Belgaer watched the fuwante drift by for a little bit, then turned her attention to the moon and the stars that were just coming out. Her normal stare wasn't as piercing as usual, however, and she blinked occasionally as she looked around, sometimes even closing her eyes for a couple moments, as though resting them.

Lindsey grew increasingly reluctant to move from her spot reclining against the tree, feeling like she could go to sleep as easily right there and then and relieved just to get a load off her feet. Her hunger spurred her to reluctant action, however, and she slid her pack off and set it next to her, digging out what she needed and returning to the pile of sticks and squatting down in front of them. After moving them as far away from the scraggly grass as possible and arranging them into a more appropriate formation, she proceeded to light them--or rather, try, and Belgaer hopped over to watch the process with some interest, wondering at the strange human ritual of drawing short sticks across boxes and then snarling when they failed to do anything. Eventually, however, Lindsey managed to get the match, and the fire, lit, and set up a small tripod over it, dissembling her cookware and banging the largest pot down over the flames.

Scooting back over to he pack, she retrieved her canteen and, after some consideration, dumped a liberal amount of water into the pot. "Close enough," she decided, peering in, then took a swig straight from the canteen for herself. "Mind you don't watch that pot too close, Belgaer," she joked. "I need that water to boil."

[Solidify]

Astarael slowed his walk down and eventually sat down away from Lindsey and Belgaer. His back was facing away from them as he stared out, almost in a Belgaer like fashion, at the stars and ever looming darkness.

Now, it was quiet. Save for the crackling of Lindsey's fire and the soft hissing from the water. Somewhere off in the distance, a Noctowl hooted. And further off in the distance, towards Fleet Town, a faint continuous roaring could be heard.

[Negrek]

While she waited for the water to be ready, Lindsey wandered back over to her pack and unstrapped her sleeping bag, squinting around for a likely place to spread it out for the night. The terrain suggested that she ought to resign herself to a night of unseen rocks jabbing into her no matter where she bedded down, but at last she chose a spot of relatively lush grass underneath the tree and spread her sleeping bag out after kicking away the most obvious of the rocks in the area.

By that point, the water was boiling quite nicely, and Lindsey got out her ramen noodles--or, as she discovered to her dismay, more like ramen crumbs, thanks to the tender care of her backpack. Dumping them into the pot a little dejectedly, she settled down next to it to wait, staring absently off down Route 4 towards Mura City, where she fancied she could see the faint glow of lights lying along the horizon. Drawing random patterns in the dust next to her, she reflected that the longest two minutes in the known universe were the ones in which you were waiting for the ramen to cook. "You can try some of this if you want, Astarael," she said absently, waving a hand vaguely at the cookpot. "Dunno if you'll like it, but it's about all that I've got for you, unless you want another sandwich or would prefer to go out and hunt or something."

Belgaer, who had been in a half-doze, mesmerized by the fire, seemed to take offense to this, and chirped imperiously. Lindsey blinked and looked at her in confusion, then broke into a smile. "Yes, of course you, too."

[Solidify]

((*is eating ramen as he writes*))

The ramen continued to boil on for several more moments. And in typical Astarael fashion, the Absol did nothing to respond even to Lindsey's existence. Apparently he didn't want any.

Belgaer chirped impatiently, not quite used to having to sit around and wait for her food to be prepared.

Then, suddenly, Astarael jumped to his feet. The hair on his back was bristling and he began growling under his breath. He glanced back at Lindsey, stared right at her for an all too brief and discomforting moment, then took off running towards her with a burst of speed.

[Negrek]

Lindsey glanced up as Astarael leapt to his feet and began growling, goosebumps breaking out on her arms. She looked around nervously, wondering what the absol had seen, but then let out a strangled squeak as he began to charge right at her. She grabbed Belgaer and threw herself to the side, trying to get out of the absol's way--hopefully, he had seen something unusually bad behind her and was now on his way to attack it and not her. There wasn't any explanation for Astarael's sudden change of mood otherwise, unless she had suddenly and without realizing it sprouted horns, fangs, and demonic wings or something. Which would be sort of cool, actually.

The fact that she was hoping that there was merely something very unpleasant lurking behind her was very telling, Lindsey thought, of the way her day had gone so far. Why couldn't this have waited until after dinner? she wondered, and braced for impact.

[Solidify]

The moment Lindsey dove to the side, a terrible, shrill, inhuman shriek sounded from just behind her. Astarael gained ground quickly and leaped clear over Lindsey with a vicious roar.

Lindsey heard Astarael land behind her, which followed by some very unsettling cackling.

[Negrek]

Now would be a good time to turn around and get a good look at whatever incredibly evil thing it was that crept up on your unobservant rear end.

No, no, I don't really think it would. I'm good, thanks.

With Astarael indeed rushing off to attack some unknown assailant, Lindsey cursed herself for not paying more attention to what was going on around her, as usual, and pushed herself back up, setting Belgaer on the ground again. If there was a battle to be had, she would probably resent being left out, regardless of injury, and Lindsey might need her hands free to either join in the fight or grab stuff and run.

Straightening up, Lindsey turned to look for Astarael and his new opponent, hand going to her pokédex in preparation for a scanning if it turned out to be a pokémon that was attacking. Judging by the sound of that shriek, she sincerely hoped that it was. The creepy laughter that followed was undoubtedly creepy, but might be able to pass for normal, albeit maniacal, human mirth, if you pretended that you were half-deaf when listening.

[Solidify]

And behind Lindsey was Astarael, who was growling under his breath as he circled Lindsey's provoker with obvious hostility. A Misdreavus.

"This Misdreavus is female and level 10," Lindsey's pokedex reported dryly.

The Misdreavus responded to Astararel's aggresion with playful amusement, cackling wildly and jeering at the Absol.

Astarael was not one to trifle with however and lunged at, and right through, the Misdreavus, landing harmlessly through the ghost type. Astarael blinked at his failure and hweeled back around to face the Misdreauvus, who found this all the more amusing.

[Negrek]

Great. A ghost-type. And one stronger than Belgaer, too. Astarael wouldn't be good in this fight, since he was still too young to know any of his offensive dark-type attacks. He could slash at the misdreavus all he wanted, but he wasn't going to be able to cause her any harm.

"Wait, Astarael!" she called. "That sort of attack won't work on it."

Sighing, she looked down to Belgaer. "You up for another fight?"

The natu looked tired and sour, but not about to admit her fatigue all the same. Fluffing up her feathers, she nodded grimly. "Great. All right, drive it away with a few good night shades. Astarael! Protect Belgaer. If misdreavus starts going for her, use a taunt to distract her, and block whatever attacks she tries to make. And you!" She now addressed the misdreavus. "Scram! Go on, get out of here. Your little joke's ruined; no reason to stick around." She really wasn't in the mood for a fight with the misdreavus, and would much prefer that it just drifted back off to wherever it had come from.

Sidling back over to the fire, she briefly bent down and removed her pot of ramen from the flames, setting it on the ground next to her. Whatever else happened, she wasn't about to let this fight turn into a serious tragedy by letting her noodles get overcooked.

[Solidify]

((Yes! For Heaven's sake, save the ramen! Oh, and since Belgaer was effected with only slight paralysis, I think it's safe to say it wore off after awhile.))

The Misdreavus was bobbing around playfully now, shouting what were no doubt snide insults at Astarael, for the Absol continued to growl, though he appeared much more angry now. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to pin the Misdreavus down and rip out its throat, though he listened grudingly to Lindsey, and didn't attack it again.

Next up was Belgaer, and the little Natu took only a single, brief moment to charge up her attack before launching the twin black beams from her eyes. More focused on Astarael, the ghost attack hit and penetrated the Misdreavus' side. Though the ghost energy didn't burn the target's skin as it normally did, there was a horrible sizzling noise coming from the Misdreavus' ghastly frame and the pokemon shrieked out in pain. It turned angirly at Belgaer and began viciously spiting the attack that had just hit her.

This sudden insulting of the normally proud Belgaer's favorite move seemed to have immediate effect on the Natu. Slightly baffled by how poorly performed her attack was percieved to be, Belgaer hastily looked away from the Misdreavus, Lindsey, and Astarael, embarassed by her own move.

The Misdreavus continued to bicker on when Astarael began launching taunts of his own at the ghost in the form of several hisses and growls. Instantly, the Misdreavus turned to him, fuming. Whatever the Absol had said must have been particularly insulting. And the Absol seemed to know it, eyeing the ghost pokemon with amusement. The Misdreavus zoomed forward at Astarael with hidden, unknown speed. But luckily, Astarael was pretty fast himself. He leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding the Misdreavus's attack. He continued to taunt her, raising his head smugly, his sharp tail flicking from side to side.

Irrate, the Misdreavus turned back to him, her eyes staring right at Astarael as she sent waves of psychic energy in his direction. The hair on the Absol's back raised apprehensively as this strange psychic attack was launched. He was unable to avoid it. But as the psywaves hit him, instantly going to his mind to attack his mental state, they were blocked suddenly by a dark, foreboding, protective wall surrounding the Absol's inner sanctum. Completely unaffected by the attack, Astarael tossed his head to the side, hurling yet more taunts and insults at the Misdreavus, who was further infuriated by the failure of her attack.

[Negrek]

(( Yay. ^^ Guess you've had enough of paralysis for a while, eh? ))

Lindsey sighed as Belgaer's night shade was blocked by the spite attack. "Come on, now, Belgaer," she said in exasperation, "Don't let that thing push you around. Get in there and rip it up with some pecks, then see if you can't give it another night shade for me, okay?"

Next up was Astarael. "That's the way, Astarael! Keep it up, and stay on your toes--you might not be able to hurt her, but if you stay on the alert, she won't be able to hit you, either."