Chapter 1: The Tower on the Cliff

"This looks territorial to me. Judging by how ill-fitting their armor is, they may be close to evolving. These are two powerful beasts and are trying to exert their influence on this section of the mountain with only each other in their way." She looks back at the melee and resounding blows, admiring their strength.

"Quite a beautiful spectacle, really." She turns back to her companions.

"We should definitely go around, though. Interrupting them now would be... Foolish." She says emphatically.

"Yes, go around, as far as we can. Got it!" Benji says, hugging Yash more, before tucking him deep in his hoodie. "No noises now, Yash, please. We need to get around quietly, ok"?

Sighing deeply, Benji removes his shoes, allowing his toes to get adjusted to the dirt before turning to the others. "Ok, let's do this. Everyone ready?" he says, smiling towards the others giving a thumbs up with one hand and his shoes on the other.

As soon as the group finishes preparations, Benji follows the expert, waiting for Jean-Marie to take the lead once again.

Survival check: Onl2PbDm3d6+2

With practised, almost casual, ease, Jean-Marie slinks down from the laid out path onto the gravelly slope below, guiding her companions to keep their footing and stay unnoticed. Without issue, she moves past the Lairon, feeling secure that the noise of their battle would mask any small sounds they might make, and that their attention would be too focused on each other for them to spot you. Apart from a close slip up from Robin, who is quickly caught by Benji (who almost seems to move before Robin trips), the three of you make it past the Lairon without issue, returning to the path once you've most past a bend and are out of sight of the metallic behemoths.

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The rest of the day passes by without much incidence, and after a couple more hours of travel, the sun starts to set, and Jean-Marie leads you all to a small hollow in the mountains, set up by the Ranger Corp to act as a shelter for travellers.

After the stressful events with the lairon, Benji enjoys the rest of the trip, making small talk with the others, playing with his own pokémon, and just plainly appreciating the views. He takes some time to carve a bit of the most interesting sights on the way, to work on another of his bracelets later, but mostly just gladly moves away from what could have been a problem.

As the group settles for the night, Benji offers to look for wood and make a small fire. It's not much, really, but what else could he do? Going around camp and searching for small branches and dry limber, he also draws small protective sigils around camp, just in case. After he gathers enough, he makes the fire in the center of the camp and starts working on his tent with Maha's help.

"Oh, don't worry about us, Robin," Benji answers, as he deftly prepares his tent with the machop's aid. "Having good food as yours is more than enough for us. Yash and I are used to mostly snacking on fruits and candies when we travel, so any warm meal would be more than welcome. I hope it would be the same for Maha..." he says, eyeing the machop who firmly nods.

Robin chuckles. "Well, that's good to hear, since I'm thinking that Caviar and Foie Gras Paté with Saffron-stuffed Lobster and Truffle Champagne might be just a little out of our price range."

That said, she gets to work whipping up an omelette for everyone, taking a moment to sniff her various herb bottles to get a good flavour combination in her head before adding it. "Hmm, Sage and Thyme, I think. Maybe some chives to level it out," she mutters to herself as she works.

Benji wakes up early, as usual, feeling quite well-rested as he lazily stretches out before some distant recollection wanders through his mind and he's instantly awake. As the memory of the dream gets clearer and clearer, he tries very hard not to panic, holding back tears as he rummages through his backpack for some paper and crayons. His hands shake as he tries to sketch something to remind him of the dream later, but he is barely able to represent a single building on the cliff before the details start to disappear from his mind. He can't seem to recognize anything but a single word from the vision, despite how familiar it felt. When he's finished, he finally notices Yash curled up on his lap, worry in its eyes.

"Oh, hey, Yash!" he says, wiping the moisture from his eyes, "Sorry, it's all good now. Thanks!" He hugs his pokémon tightly, and the yungoos licks the boy's face in return. After almost a whole minute like that, he lets Yash go and starts getting up, and a few minutes later he's all set. It's still quite early and the girls don't see to be up yet, so he decides to run a bit. It's been a while.

A few yards away from the camp, he releases Maha and the trio begins a slow jog nearby, trying not to go too far away. They eventually reach a point with a nice view, and Benji removes his hoodie, crumples it up, and screams a few times into the fabric to muffle the sound. Maha looks at Yash, who simply seems to ignore their trainer, so he too decides better not to worry and the two pokémon sit a bit to relax. After a few minutes of venting his anxiety, Benji and his party return in a much lighter mood.

"Come on, girls, it's time to wake. We still have a long way to go!" he calls them from outside their tents.

Jean-Marie opens her eyes to the clear mountain air, smiling at the rays shearing through the trees. She takes a moment to stretch and enjoy the light before addressing her companions.

"I am up too! How did you guys sleep?"

Robin's eyebrow quirks ever-so-slightly at how quickly Benji's moving, but doesn't say anything or make any obvious expression. Going a bit quick, aren't we? Didn't think we were in that much of a rush. Probably nothing, but...

After a moment's thought, she shrugs. "Fine by me. And, hey, if breakfast really was the most important meal of the day, wouldn't be so easy to skip it, would it?" She rubs his eyes a little and squats down, fiddling with the contents of her backpack. "You need a moment to check everything before we head out?" She asks, looking away but keeping Benji in her peripheral vision, curious how he'll react.