Chapter 1 - A Temple in the Sky

Layl immediately gave Iris a look of pure and unadulterated contempt. Why on earth would she even assume the thought of that being a thing. "I'm going to take that as meat or blood, since if it was a Heartless it wouldn't eat hearts" Layl then proceeded to turn away from the girl who clearly doesn't know the serious matter that heartless were...

"...If you wanted to make jokes about Heartless... you should focus on puns" Or maybe Layl just preferred a different sort of humor when it came down to it. She quickly turned away from Iris and went off to help Shossk and Yoko, handing them her waterproof lighter. "I believe this should help...I think? "

"You mmay need to allow the leech to ffeed on you," Shossk suggests to Layl, overhearing the conversation concerning the carnivores. "I am concernned for the lack of meat as well. Iff we cannot hunt our own meat, then we will ssteal it. We have not seen any carnivores, but if they exxist, then their kills may not disappear. We would stalk a predatorr until it makes a kill, then take it for ourselves. We may also steal the food from annother team."

Shossk stiffens almost imperceptibly at that last part, his mouth hanging slightly open for a moment, before he continues. "I have agreed to rrest until we have eaten and recovered. But then I wish to enngage the group below, to defeat them and acquirre a boon. The AL creature will allow me to ssend my companions a message if I do this." He looks between Layl and Yoko, then off in the distance where Iris has walked off to, his innards feeling as though they've slightly hardened. "Iss this acceptable?"

Layl turned to look at Shossk, he simply wanted to know everyone was fine, and to let them know he was as well. She really couldn't blame the poor guy. She let out a sigh as Yoko turned to look at her, she wasn't used to taking the lead in any situation, and the one time she had, well the keyblade war happened. "Well, if we promise to rest for a bit after I feed...I guess I'll call her Umbra" She looked over at said Leech when she named her, she was sensing a theme coming on. Layl wasn't entirely sure she was comfortable with it, but the names seemed to fit.

"But if you promise to let us get some rest before, and after the fight, I'm up for it myself. We really shouldn't travel at night, but an ambush is fine" Layl looked over at everyone else, knowing that while Shossk liked her answer the other two might not.

Iris was not theeeere. She was feeding Light not just one sandwich, but both of her sandwiches, both of which the hungry Zorua scarfed down completely. There was no way she knew that was all of Light's food, but once she realized, which was when she looked up from the second sandwich to crumple the now empty bag, she immediately yelped in shock before whimpering an apology even though it really wasn't her fault. This time it was way too obvious for even Iris to find fault. She just... pushed away the Zorua that had instinctively come to closer to nuzzle comfort. She had given her Pokemon both sandwiches on purpose. It wasn't because she wasn't hungry. Nope. She was. Hungry, wet, and tired to be exact, but she had eaten her fill of that gelatin before whereas Light had eaten... nothing. The fox needed (deserved?) it more than her.

With the short meal over, Iris stood back up. She ended up uncrumpling the paper bag and quickly bringing out some of her still moist and not waterproof tools. Strange. Her notebook was drying quite nicely. Oh well, there was no chance of saving it anyways. Besides, it wouldn't fit in the sandwich bag. The other things, like her lighter, though. While they were probably broken already, there was a chance a good dry would get them working again while a good soak would really break them. Just in case, Iris put her lighter, first aid kit, and water filter in the paper bag, which went back into her bigger shoulder bag. While she was at it, she also fitted two empty basic balls with a lock case each.

Then she was done and Light had started pawing at her ankles. "Stop it," Iris complained as she stepped away.

Light just kept on looking up at her with wide, wide eyes. The Zorua was worried for her trainer despite everything the trainer hadn't done for her.

That didn't settle well with Iris, and she bent down to lift the Zorua up. Not gently, mind you, but by pinching her cheeks and pulling them together and apart. She asked, "Why are you being so nice to me?" while holding the Zorua up to eye level. She was standing while doing this.

In the air, Light wriggled in confusion and replied with a helpless question, "Zoruuuuu?".

For whatever reason, that had Iris question, <Ah... What am I even doing?> and she unceremoniously dropped Light.

Pokemon were tough and stuff, so Light handled the drop just fine like Iris had expected her to. After all, even Turk had been unfazed when dropped like that.

Oh... This wasn't good. Now Iris was starting to miss her two again. She clutched herself with her hands, but after a moment, quickly shook her head. Standing alone in this jungle could not be good for her health. "Let's go..." she said for just herself initially, but then added, "... Light. Let's go Light."

Light, who had been rubbing her stinging cheeks, sat straight up in attention before giving an affirmative yip and following after Iris.

Very slowly, Iris started walking back to camp with her dowsing rods out. She split her attention between the rods and anything of interest that might catch her eyes. She had no confidence in either hunting or gathering, but at the very least if she happened to spot something that looked sort of edible, then she could go and pick it.

Light, having not been told what her trainer was doing, just followed and stayed on guard.

Layl picks up the newly anointed Umbra, looking her straight in the eyes to make sure she understood. "Alright, you're hungry and need all the help you can get, so, after I feed Nacht over there, I want you to take a bite" Layl then proceeded to bring her wrist to her mouth, taking a light nibble against it to show what she meant. "And take just what you need, not too much" She then brought her fingers together to emphasize not too much. She hoped Umbra understood her, because her pantomiming probably didn't even get across.

She reached over to grab her bag out of her backpack, pulling out the sandwich bag that seemed to be made of miracle material. She wasn't going to complain as she brought out both sandwiches and then whistled at Nacht to come over here. Said fox was honestly just about to fall asleep, but hearing the whistle made him startle up, and come running. He glared a bit when he saw that it was just food, and looked like he was about to throw a fit, when his stomach started to grumble. He looked sheepish for a moment before he started grumbling himself, grabbing the proffered sandwich with his teeth and going a little ways off to munch on it.

Layl put her own back in the bag, She would eat after Umbra, if only because she didn't really feel extremely hungry, she knew the feeling was there, but it felt a bit...muted. Layl thought she was just detaching herself from her problems in an attempt to cope, but even then it still seemed strange. Oh well, the blood loss would make her hungrier for sure. She held out her arm towards the leech, expecting this to hurt.

<Lucky~> Iris thinks as sees a bright red Pokeball followed by a bunch of possibly edible fruit immediately after finding an orange shard. Alright, the finding of a single shard wasn't very satisfying, but with how little she could remember of the jewels, she tried to look on the bright side of things and be glad she could find one at all. Staying positive, Iris quickly nabs and pockets the ball. As for the fruit... She tries her best. "Hup!" she goes as she tries to climb up to the fruit and full a bundle down.

After her spectacular failure, however that went, Light would try to be helpful and give it a go herself. She seemed to fare better, much better, which was a little embarrassing since Iris was the one with opposable thumbs.

Layl looks down at the little Leech, not entirely sure what little Umbra wanted. She shrugged, patting the girl on her head. "Good girl, Umbra, just tell me when you get hungry again, okay?" She gave her a little nod and a small smile, trying to make the new friend feel like a part of the team.

After giving Umbra some love and attention, Layl started feeling a bit lightheaded, she probably just needed to eat. She pulled out the sandwich from her bag and bit right into it, taking only a moment to really register the flavor of the sandwich.

A whole lot better, it seemed that Light fared than Iris. "Woah. Good job, there," Iris congratulates, so surprised that even her trauma forgot to react. "Ruuuuu!" Light responds happily, even jumping a little. She was happy enough with making it all the way here, but hearing a compliment from her usually cold trainer was really the whipped cream and cherry on top.

All that was left to do now was to get the fruit down to ground level, which Iris's mind busied itself with. She didn't want to work Light like a slave or to ask of her the improbably, which was to come down safely with the fruit in her mouth. Dropping it to her seemed like it would be the best solution, but she would need something to catch the fruit with...

Iris pulled her sleeping bag out of her pack. How it fit in there in the first place? No one needed to know. The yet wet sleeping bag made squelching noises as Iris unfolded it just enough to drape it between outstretched hands. Holding the sleeping bag as a sort of makeshift basket/target, Iris did her best to position beneath Light and called out connected with her to let her know, <Light, try to drop the fruit into the sleeping bag.>

Light, after sniffing the fruit inquisitively, tries her best to drop the fruit into the sleeping bag basket thing.

Iris blinked through the fresh fruit. She did not think she could feel any stickier, between the humidity and the wet clothes. She was wrong. On the bright side, she now knew that the fruit wasn't poisonous to the touch and that it did not seem to immediately anger any of the residents of the jungle. She licked at the juice rolling down her face. Now, pretty soon, she'll learn if the juice was poisonous.

In the meantime, she was staring up at Light with the most un-amused face she could muster. She had already concluded that the Zorua had done this on purpose. She was already expecting that Zoroark's evil grin to be descending upon her. However, she had none of that. Light was frozen in shock and looking completely apologetic of what she had just done. No, more than just apologetic, she looked a little scared. Of what? <That her act is up?> that terrible side of Iris thought, <Agh. No no no. Not like that,> the side of Iris who'd been through the minds of innumerable Pokemon reeled herself back in, <She really doesn't mean it.> The Zorua's recent success at reaching the fruit and the unbridled delight of being acknowledged by her trainer had been the turning point, but everything else she had done was opposite of what Iris had been expecting. <It's too perfect,> a part of her still thought it was an act, but the side willing to give the Zorua a chance, <or am I just trying to find faults with the Zorua now?> had grown stronger since. Such was the internal battle being waged within Iris, but her un-amused expression did not change, at least.

"Light," <Calt,>Iris ordered and requested simultaneously, "Take your time and see if you can safely reach another bunch." <Could you let the other Pokemon know that there's some fruit to eat here? And maybe try to bring any of the trainers that look like they're good at climbing to tall places? It's not meat, but I'm sure your trainer would appreciate food in any form.> She had continued to keep a light tab on the owl's senses, which essentially meant she could be as far away from Calt as she wanted to be and still channel him, to make sure she still had some connection to the group while away. It was proving handy now. The only problem was that her means of communicating with the other trainers was still limited. Her hope was that with the request she issued, assuming it was followed through, it would bring one or two of the better tree climbers to her.

After issuing the two messages, all Iris had to do was wait. Light could be moving immediately, but like she said, she wanted the Zorua to take her time. She dropped her eyes to the ground so that her Pokemon would feel less pressure and issued an addendum to what she said before, "If you can't find a safe way, Light, then just come back down... Call for me if you need any help." That being said, Iris lowered her sleeping bag to the least muddy section of ground she could find and started searching for any salvageable pieces of broken fruit, hands wiping away juices as they dripped over her face. It felt terrible working like this, but what was she supposed to do?