CloudySkyLoftyMoon
『Teamate』
Esther R. Sophys
August 12th, ~10:15 A.M.
*~Bzt~* Dhelmise, the Sea Creeper Pokémon. A Grass & Ghost type. The soul of seaweed adrift in the waves became reborn as this Pokémon. It maintains itself with new infusions of seabed detritus and seaweed. The anchor Dhelmise throws around can stretch outward for hundreds of yards, is powerful enough to smash rocks, and can KO Wailord in a single blow.
“Wo~ow, that’s a big boy.”Esther wet her lips with a triplet of ponderous smacks. So-called type specialists really loved to run everything except their stated (read assumed) type. However, despite its impressive size—“Do we just…hang off its anchor? How does this work?”
Curiosity aside, Dhelmise-riding wasn’t in the cards for Esther. She didn’t want the easiest path up the mountain, but rather the one that let her engage with her Pokémon the most. It only took a moment for Esther to switch to her boots and fasten her crampons. She also donned her winter jacket since, with her hands occupied by the climbing, the jacket’s hood was the next best place to perch Istha.
“Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ve got this. I’ll race ya?”
Thankfully, Mt. Lanakila’s incline wasn’t the steepest. Although Çiera had soon faced trouble, lack of arms and all, the rest of Esther’s Pokémon could traverse the mountain as if it were flat land. Pyrrha especially proved an adept climber, her claws finding steady purchase between cracks and small crevices.
It only took a few minutes for Esther to deduce the optimal configuration for mountain side trekking: Çiera sat steady on her head; Istha watched the landscape from the comfort of her hood; Jecroix floated at her back, his strings looped through her backpack to share the load; Susu scouted ahead and altered her to bad footholds or potential pitfalls; and, her rope was secure around her waist, pulled along by Pyrrha and Halay.
In like manner, she moved—no, parkoured—with almost comical ease. A nearby pillar of stones had been completely doused in water, that was Susu’s signal for—“Crevice ahead!”After a holler to her companions, Esther sped up: a brisk walk, then a jog, then a full blown sprint. The crevice came into view, a few meters wide—an impossible jump—or at least, it should’ve been! But Esther was a high-flying, crevice-clearing, poké-powered long-jumper.
Jecroix inflated, the Drifloon more than doubling in size. Halay & Pyrrha raced ahead, the Pokémon easily able to make the jump. Esther tightened her hood—“Hang tight!”—quickened her steps and JUMPED!
Ropes went taunt as Pyrrha and Halay pulled, Esther’s heart thumped in her ears.“Tailwind!”
A sudden squall pushed her up, up, and into a snow pile on the other side of the crevice.
“Mffhinehhate”
A lick of fire freed the buried girl, and she wriggled herself out of the snow. The temperature had taken another dip a few minutes back as the group moved from the sparsely vegetated base of the mountain to the snow-capped lead-up into the peaks. They were still a distance from the peak itself, but this was a welcome sign of progress.
“Hey, looks like there’s someone up ahead. AHOY, Stranger!”
Malie Garden, Ula'ula Island | Alola Region
