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Dimly-lit blue eyes scoured the skies, noticing the patchiness the sun gave to the remainder of the clouds left drifting in the sky. Sienna-burned pink; the sun seemed to be leaving for the day. That left a brief window of time for the darkness to overcome the land before the sun came for a return visit, and an even briefer time of sunlight to show the way.

Not that either Kyran or Kiara had trouble seeing in the dark, but it would be nice to be able to see how it fared in the sun. Preferably, it would be hard to see and stumble across from the outside, as well as keep the sun out of most of the place. Summertime, it could be such a bother. Who needed the days to be so much longer?

"The sun's going down, so we should probably try to hurry it up. We have maybe an hour," the darker apparition stated before turning the blue eyes towards the shiny darkrai. "Which direction you think we should try first?"

Kyran nodded at the order its sibling gave, turning around to stake his attention on the surroundings before the command was revoked. The darkrai hesitated momentarily, but turned back around when the direction was reiterated. While the eyes of a darkrai tended to burrow into a person, especially with Kyran's tendency to unintentionally stare, the sapphire blue eyes seemed to soften a bit. Despite the bluntness attached to Kiara's critiques, Kyran found itself feeling sympathy more than disdain, for while Kyran disliked the light, it didn't tend to harm the darker darkrai's demeanor in hatred. Kyran knew better than to talk back, even though the pokémon knew that going with the flow of things could ignite tempers just as easily. "You could be right about that. No need for further headaches on our hands," he attempted to justify it with logic.

The normal-hided pokémon took the lead, acting as a shield should anything happen -- though it highly doubted anyone would have the nerve to initiate confrontation with a pokémon so feared so readily. Char-black claws pulled back branches of outcropping brush as Kyran tried to lead the two twins through more forested territory, keeping the sun behind the relief of shade. "Should we stick to the mountainside? If we keep it to our left, we'd surely not get lost," the more masculine of the two asked as it trudged onward. While much of the forest proved not to be cumbersome in travel, with the way the two of them could hover over most obstacles, there was always some overgrowth here and there that would be capable of getting in the way. Ky was sure that, at this rate, with all the pausing to uproot some of these obstacles, there was the chance that it was capable of doing just what Kiara had ordered not to happen. Kyran only wanted to make the violet one happy where possible, and this may prove to only discourage that further.

"So much green..." the smoky apparition sighed to itself, scanning ahead. As far as the darkrai could tell, there was no chance of finding a home in the next mile or so. This was going to be one long night...

All in all, despite the tediousness of the entire situation and the test of patience it proved to be, Kyran couldn't say that it was completely aggravated by the situation the two darkrais currently could themselves immersed in. Although they both preferred the solitude without the chance to be spotted or approached by unwanted visitors, this short reprieve as a change of pace was almost refreshing. It wasn't even completely out of the usual, enough to keep Kyran from becoming too nervous about adapting; after all, like normal, the black-wisped one was in charge of doing the dirty work with little argument while the purple-hazed one was at the reigns. Honestly, though, Kyran couldn't see it any other way, and preferred to stick with what it knew best, even if it could hurt if the words were allowed to cut too deep.

Which is why, for all intents and purposes, it was better to just accept them. There were little victories here and there about being correct with assumptions, but ultimately, Kiara was the correct one. There was no use arguing the fact, anyway. Cobalt eyes turned skyward for a brief instant to catch a glimpse of the cover the trees truly provided, knowing full well how little they obscured compared to the pitch that caves tended toward. "That, and there are so many other things out here," concluded the darker of the two, "How far do you think the nearest one is?"

There was a barely-visible wince after the question was uttered, mostly written on the face of the one who spoke the words, as though to say, 'I shouldn't have asked that.' It would only be counted as more useless blather, wouldn't it? "Sorry, never mind," it clumsily revoked the question -- as well as the statement from before -- turning attention fully back to the task-at-hand. It wouldn't do to irritate Kiara further, for both their sakes.

Kyran worked at trying to maintain the silence. The darkrai didn't even know why words just kept falling; perhaps it had something to do with anxiety, being out in the open and surrounded by unfamiliar territory? Sure, there was the excitement aspect for the trudge into the unknown, as daring as it was an undertaking, but the sense of apprehension was still there. If only there was a way to guarantee that they would not fall under the attention of anyone nearby, then such worries could easily be null and void. That, and it would be easier to carry on with encouraging a little more happiness in Kiara.

However, now that the dark-bodied one was made bluntly aware of the mistakes made, it was easier to keep the trap shut. It's not like there was unfamiliarity in the conversations Kyran had with itself, after all; it was just more usual. In fact, it was also something that made the shadow pokémon work faster and under more of an auto-pilot setting. Claws tore through underbrush with relative ease, and there was capability to put crowded thoughts on pause when there was a need to scour further ahead on their path, made to be more vigilant when the time arose. Kyran could be the perfect, silent little side-kick the drive to be one was there, and the pokémon was determined to be just that at the moment.

The more masculine of the twins was taken by surprise when the feminine counterpart graced the other with a response, so sense of hearing was forced to tune acutely. There was a momentary pause, a lapse of a couple seconds' time, where Kyran could muster only a blank, piercing stare. Outwardly, surprise was not so readily apparent to the stony facade. However, pale wisps lowered into a nod, deciding if Kiara was going to respond in a way that Kyran preferred, the latter could do the same to the former.

This, in fact, spurred Kyran to work faster and more efficiently. There would be pride to be had if a home was found before it even turned completely dark out! Stone surface upon stone surface, though... there was so much mountain to cover. Once or twice, Kyran stopped and investigated the rock wall, only to deem the alcoves found to be entirely too shallow. While rising in frustration, there was a lack of waning in determination.

If the darkrai were capable of it, Kyran's eyes would have grown much larger in size at Kiara's outburst as he turned around to face her again; the only outward signs of the pokémon's utter surprise and confusion was a slightly brighter flash of glowing eyes. Breath was caught in its throat, no matter how much it was urged to shift, until Kiara was done spouting off. Silence would only prove to provoke more blind anger, though! Why couldn't it just say something? "I... I thought you had requested I stop with that tom-foolery?" he pointed out before pulling itself back. Really, Kyran... you need to think before you speak, it chided itself, but refused to apologize again. It had been done before, and there was no point in doing so again. Instead, eyes were lowered; Kiara could take that however the shiny one wanted, it would do no good at this point for Kyran to argue the matter. Kiara was just much too distressed over the matter to think clearly. That must have been it, or something similar at least.

Despite the layers of barriers Kyran was placing over itself in order to not feel mentally battered, it was quick to keep in-step with Kiara as the lighter of the two took lead. Sure, it hurt that Kyran was not able to do the one job he had been given to do in such a long time, but perhaps it was all for the best? Even if the direction was generally the same, it might prove better in the long run for Kiara, if nobody else, but then it could just as easily be worse.

Kyran watched as its twin carved a path through the underbrush before turning attention to the pieces that now littered the sides of the walkway. They were practically torn to shreds... had Kyran been so messy about it as well? And so loud? The darkrai jolted, taking a quick glance around the area before turning attention back to Kiara, "I'm... not sure if we're making too much racket, but keep in mind--" And with that, Kyran cut himself off. Kiara was having so much fun, did her twin really need to put a damper on it? Instead, the blackened darkrai turned efforts on making sure everything cleared away, and stayed away. If nothing else, it could put them to sleep, which Kyran had no qualms about doing.

Although turned inwardly and feeling rather meek at the moment, Kyran was still close on the metaphorical heels of the brighter sibling. Focused on settling down after the whiplash caused by what the darkrai deemed as poor judgment on its part, it took only a minute or two to regain composure and realize that it really didn't matter. There was nothing either of them could do to change or otherwise better the situation currently. In fact, the reverie that Kiara was currently experiencing, although hidden, was just barely obvious enough. The intensity the orchid-colored darkrai was putting forth on the matter, without so much as a huff or complaint here or there, was immediately evident. The destruction caused was a slight cause for worry, perhaps, but it didn't stop Kyran from smiling at the scene. That was what had been painstakingly striven for from the get-go.

Wandering a slight distance away from the thrashing of the shrubbery, Kyran put itself to work on the job it had placed on its own shoulders. It was not out of a sudden interest in completing something worth value to the goal, but rather that the pokémon thought it heard a culprit. The tanned segments were fairly easy to spot, even from such a distance, and Kyran wasn't going to risk being spotted, even if it was merely a baby of a pokémon. Glancing briefly back to Kiara to make sure that violet claws were still gleefully hacking away at the scenery, Kyran silently stalked over to the backside of the branch that occupied a rather frightened weedle.

Kyran was careful to stay out of the sight of the beady little eyes, quick to realize that said eyes were closed tight in terror, as though the action could stop what was scaring it to happen. There was a good chance that it hadn't seen anything at all, 'hiding under the bedsheets' before it could. Silly thing, Kyran mused, Turning out the lights only makes things worse, didn't you know that? In this case, it was at least quick and easy to be done with, Kyran making sure that the weedle believed that all of this was but a nightmare.

Oh, but he was enjoying this entirely too much, and he had to wrench himself away, lest he start falling behind Kiara's rampage. Lucky little bug, Kyran could have done so much worse. With a sharp exhale of a snort in irritation, the darkrai wasted no time in the retreat, reaching Kiara before the cave entirely came to view. He blinked, eyes adjusted well enough to the creeping darkness to realize that the tunnel was quite deep. "There doesn't seem to be anything occupying the space, but we should make completely sure of that. Unwanted visitors would be the last thing any of us would want," Kyran stated matter-of-factly, perhaps too confident than what he meant it to sound like. Despite it, the darkrai smirked at Kiara's pride, but turned enough to hide it from view.

Although Kyran was caught completely off-guard by Kiara's agreeableness at the moment, it knew that it was wise not to let it affect outer appearances. Showing such shock would only prove to hinder the demeanor from sticking around, so although Kyran's own expression displayed eagerness over the situation, it was not about to point attention to this little notion. No, rather the darkrai's sights were set concretely on the cave before them, ready to get the show on the road. Or, rather, off the road, if one was determined to be literal about it.

It was just about obvious that Kyran was trying not to laugh as the goal was reached. Truly, this was the part the darkrai had been waiting for. There was just something about using what one was made to utilize against something unsuspecting that had extra appeal. Perhaps it came from a long-held grudge, discontent, that made it more so, but it wasn't anything that Ky was going to argue; it was better to embrace the small portions of pleasure one got out of their job, as there seemed to be so little and far-between as it was.

However, Kyran also wasn't about to rain on Kiara's parade. If there was one thing the smoky creature wanted to be careful about now that a home was nearing security, it was placing Kiara in another foul mood now that she was finally content. "Ominous Wind?" Kyran asked, attempting to get permission to use the move and put anything in the space on edge before the two twins were even spotted. The query almost slipped the pokémon's mind in anticipation.

Kyran scoured the darkness as the two of them entered further, shrouded in the cloak of darkness. It was quite comforting, and after such a long time in the open, was certainly more than a little welcome. While the pokémon certainly didn't mind a trek through the underbrush every once in a while, to get away from the stifling of a temporary home and rock prison both, the darker one was also willing to retreat back into it. Familiarity always beckoned stronger.

The raking of Kiara's talons across the walls was almost enough to drive Kyran up the walls, but tension was enough to keep him put. The shiny darkrai's disappointment was plainly visible, but Kyran was almost glad that nothing was within these walls; after all, it wasn't too sure what Kiara would have done had the twin gotten those violet talons on something. Assuredly, it wouldn't have been the same fate as the shrubs earlier, but it was still enough of a sight to make the black one fear it. An apology almost arose from the silence, but Kyran refrained, "Too much noise to be sure, I figured you would know better." It was expected there would be conceit arising from that statement, but Kyran didn't mind, "This cave is quite deep. For all I knew, there could be something at the very back."