Thunderstruck

Carefully, Kaida reached up and pulled herself onto the ledge. With a heavy sigh, she sat down and gazed outward at the mountains. Leaning forward, she looked down, over the ledge. It was quite a drop; she could barely see where she had begun the climb. “These human limbs are definitely better at climbing,” she remarked.

Sighing, she leaned back and lay down, her feet dangling over the ledge. It was nice to be out the house. The other girl, Luman, had made herself at home and just wouldn’t leave. She proclaimed that they were now roommates. She even had made a bed from Kaida’s treasures. Somehow, despite having no hands, the girl had even rewired one of the monitors and now it seemed to play monster movies 24/7. That last one baffled Kaida the most. Apparently she had rewired it using just her mouth. Also, as soon as something sweet came into the lab, it was eaten by Lumen. On the bright side, though, it gave Kaida the push she needed to go on a grand treasure hunt.

She had heard rumors that a stone that could alter the weather was hidden in an abandoned ruin at the top of this very mountain. Maybe some sort of super charged thunderstone? She didn’t know much about it, but even as she climbed, she had heard the sounds of thunder, despite the weather all around the peak being clear. This was all the confirmation she needed. She might have formed a different opinion, if she had been conscious during the weather trio’s rampage, but she wasn’t. Also, she spent a lot more time listening to rumors, then to actual news. Therefore, the actual cause of the aberrant weather didn’t even cross her mind.

Popping to her feet, she did one last stretch and then continued her ascent. All in all, the remainder of her journey took about another hour. Other then sounds of thunder in the background, it was rather uneventful and just involved her putting one hand over the other.

After pulling herself over the last ledge, she found herself face to face with what looked like an old, collapsed ruin. She appeared to be at an old entrance, though the door had long since crumpled to dust. “This must be it. Kaida, keeper of forgotten lore, master of treasure, will have a new stone to add to her collection!” Confident, she proceeded inward. She went slowly, though, as it was quite obvious that old ruins that contain treasure would have traps. That is just a give in. When it comes to trapped ruins, caution does not equal fear.

After a bit of exploring, Kaida eventually discovered a large hole in the floor. Peeking down it, she saw that it went several stories down, deeper then the ruins even seemed to go. Quietly she proclaimed, “This must be it!” It took a bit of effect, but carefully she made her way down. As she neared the bottom, she realized that he was now below the ruins; the carved stone had given away to mined rock. It was just then, as her feet hit the ground, that she heard a loud thundering sound. It must be this way! Quickly, she scurried to the source.

The path was easy to navigate and unidirectional; there was only one way she could go. Within minutes, she had reached a larger chamber, which was a dead end. Inside, she saw a pokemon that dwarfed her; it was asleep and on it’s side, but she could tell that it was gigantic. Suddenly, a snore, as loud as thunder, came forth from it. Was this the cause of the thundering? Was it a pokemon? Not a stone? She felt disappointed, still, she realized that not all rumors were true. It was then that it hit her. While she had been unaware of the recent rampage, she did know the myths about the trip. “Thunderus?” she stated quietly. Not wanting to face the wrath of a very destructive pokemon, she decided that discretion was the better side of valor and quietly made her way out.

However, as she finished her ascent, back into the ruins of the temple, she dislodged a rock. At the time, she thought nothing of it and left the ruins, and began her descent down the mountain. She didn’t notice, though, the complete absence of thunder as she made her way down.

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Raiko opened her eyes. What was that? While it wasn’t loud, the falling rock was enough to disturb her slumber. With a loud huff, she pushed herself to a seated position. It felt like she had been asleep for months, though it had actually been longer. Her memory of the events leading to her being here were hazy; not due to any trauma or some unknown pokemon ability, she was just still rather tired. <>

Looking around, she realized that she did not recognize her current surroundings. Slowly, she stood and decided to leave this place, if only to get something to eat and drink. Not in any hurry, she walked down the unidirectional corridor. For her, the tunnel was rather narrow; it nearly fit her like a glove. As she reached the tunnel’s end, she looked up. Overhead, several stories worth of ruins stood; a large holed pierced the structure, though, all the way to the roof. She didn’t remember it, but she briefly pondered whether she was responsible for the hole leading here. Not caring enough to investigate, she leapt upwards, through the hole and above the structures roof.

Free of the confines of the ruins, she flew deeper into the mountain range, scanning her surroundings. It was not long before she saw what appeared to be a large collection of pokeberry bushes. Her stomach growling she dove downward, landing right in front of them.

She was only there briefly, but in her wake, she left carnage. The large collection of bushes was torn asunder; every last berry was ripped from its branch. The bushes themselves were uprooted. Branches and various other plant debris littered the area. Alongside the debris, at regular intervals, the ground itself was gouged with what looked like deep claw marks. Several of the larger bushes even appeared to have been impaled, possibly by a large, solitary horn.

Her hunger sated by the massive berry binge, she began to fly south. What she needed now was some water to wash the berries down, She felt dehydrated. Suddenly, she had an idea, and stopped in midair. After using rain dance, it began to rain. She opened up her mouth, but it wasn’t enough; it wasn’t nearly enough. Irritated, she continued south, rain following in her wake.

Her destination was a river. Its current name eluded her, but she was quite certain that I existed to the south of the mountains and that it was quite a wide river; it would be more then enough to sate her legendary thirst. The trip took longer then she would have liked, though it also didn't take her nearly as long as it would have taken the average pokemon.

Upon reaching her destination, she dove straight down and did a ‘superhero landing,’ which created a small crater. Not wasting any time, she lunged toward the river and dipped her head in. It didn’t take her long to drink her fill. Afterwords, she stumbled over to the side of the river and lay down. Shutting her eyes, she drifted back to sleep, rain still falling around her.