Ryley lay motionless on the ground, not daring to make any movements. The only thought going through his head, besides wanting to not die, was wondering how Avery would react.
“Good idea with the pokeball, there,”Although the compliment was nice, now was not the time to be idly chit chatting. At least Melody didn’t say any more than that. Neither did Avery, which was surprising to say the least. Then again, one could say he spoke with his movement.
There was some rustling, a thud, then more rustling. Did… did Avery try to hide by climbing a tree? Ryley knew he shouldn’t be surprised by Avery’s randomness by this point, but you can never prepare yourself for true randomness. And Avery was random incarnate.
A roar startled Ryley from his thoughts. The pokeball had lasted longer than expected, luckily for them. There was some thrashing that came shortly thereafter, but no cries of pain. Avery actually hid himself well.
Sniffing followed the thrashing, the Onix apparently searching. And with the two of them in plain view… it didn’t take long. Here it was, the moment of truth.
Heated air flew over Ryley’s body in slow, measured gusts. His body screamed at him to run, but he was in control, and so he stayed. Well, that and he was frozen to the spot. Can’t be fearless, after all.
Time was irrelevant at this point. The only measure was between hot and lukewarm air. Those waves of heat eventually stopped, the Onix moving. When those waves were taken away from him, Ryley was lost. How much time had passed? Was the Onix gone? Why did it feel so cold now? If Ryley were a pokemon, he’d hurt himself in confusion.
Time must have passed, because he eventually felt a nudge. The Onix was back again? No… the touch was too gentle. Ryley hesitantly opened his eyes to see Melody standing, hand extended towards him. Had she said something? Ryley couldn’t tell. However, from what he could tell...
“The Onix is gone?”He took the extended grip, and, with Melody’s help, stood up.
“I think we’re probably safe for now. Want to head back, and try to find everyone?"Holy hell, they had survived. Ryley gave a deep sigh of relief, tension escaping his body.
“Yeah… Let’s get Avery and group up.”Group… Group… Something about that reminded him of something. He gathered his jumbled thoughts and quickly came to his senses. Oh, right! He turned to face Melody, his composure built.
“Before I forget… Don’t ever, ever do that again Melody. There’s a reason why we travel in a group, and it’s not so you can split off from it. I don’t care how noble your intentions are, it only puts us in more danger.”Ryley took a deep breath in. He had needed to get that out of his system. After he said that, he looked around for anyone else. No one, besides the hidden Avery. Geez, if others had shown up, his argument would have been a lot stronger. But still…
He continued to look at Melody, not sure of what to do next. A realization came to him. What if they couldn’t find everyone else? That’d mean he’d be stuck with the possible psycho with good intent, and the complete airhead, with what Ryley assumed was also good intent. Good intent aside, that left… Oh Arceus, please let them find the others.
