Her feet, she decided, were killing her. She had pulled out her Pokèball and released Briar sometime ago, feeling the need for companionship tug at her with invisible strings. So the Pokèmon trotted beside her, and was now waiting with a flicking tail as she pulled at her cowboy boots, pinching sore toes. She had been walking for Oracle-knew-how-long, and against the barren rocky backdrop, her imagination hadn't been too kind to her.

Maybe it had been falling into the damn black hole that had gotten her in such a bad mood. Either that, or it had been the fact that she'd landed on her butt, which she was pretty sure was busted. She sat on a weirdly-shaped rock that sort of poked, patting the area next to her for Briar to jump on if she wished. She studied the vibrantly-coloured Pikachu, so vivid against the dullness of this place. Her jewel-green eyes glanced around, almost accusingly as she sighed.

A farm girl to the bone, she thought wryly. Already she longed for the green of the pastures she had played in, the springy grass underfoot as she had run, but she squashed it, the almost-smile still playing at her lips. She glanced down at the Pikachu, almost reluctant. "So what's the verdict, Bry?" she asked the mouse Pokèmon, stretching her legs out. "You wanna get going?" If it were all the same, she'd rather sit.

Her feet were still sore, and probably red inside the scarred brown leather, and she wondered why she hadn't opted for the trainers that had sat very nicely on the table back home before she had headed for the library and - what was it? - the Oracle Zone. And that annoying flying thing with the light that had very promptly exploded a little earlier. "Aiiiieeeoooo," she let out, and with a final stretch lurched to her feet.

Confused Bryzantine was, but she wasn't about to let that stop her from... doing whatever she needed to do. Since she wasn't too certain about what she was going to do in this rocky wonderland.

[ D=< DYE! ]

The very question was what can be done though Bryzantine would have thought about that already but it's too early to say the statement yet. She was merely in an unfamiliar land, the territory of foreign creatures that may not exist to where things had made sense. Even so as Bryzantine let out a shout from all her frustration, something almost happened as if responding to her. One was Briar who broke out laughing at her Trainer's frustration. Second was the strange floating Masquerain who had momentarily glanced at her. Bryzantine felt a cold jolt of electricity down her spine when it looked at her. Although the thing had no scowling face or an evil, menacing smirk the blank, faceless mask it had on its face was intimidating. Perhaps while the thing lacks living features, it still shares some ability, namely Intimidate from the original Pokèmon?

Whatever the case is, the event has been short. After Briar had stopped laughing and the weird Masquerain thing had appeared to be less intimidating, the same fleeting emotion in the atmosphere from before returned.

Briar must have something more to say than laugh at her Trainer's frustration but something caught her attention. She saw how bright the red sun was shining. Maybe bright was the wrong word. The sun was dim and auburn but the colors were sharp and precise, glaring at Briar. Even with the presence of the sun that helped light the place up though, Bryzantine could not see anything else that should help her decide where to go, what to do and how to live in this place for all there were were countless of motionless stones and plains that were not traced with any paths. No marks were left behind, perhaps because she was the first and only being that truly exists here? Or it can be a grimmer version of the story...

“Ka-pi,” Briar called Bryzantine. The Pikachu was looking elsewhere now, pointing to some boulders ahead. Although the boulders looked typical at first sight, upon starring at it Bryzantine would be able to see a slight, greenish, alien-like glow radiating from the boulders. Not all of them though. In fact, most boulders lacked that rare and unique quality here...would it be worth checking it out? It might be dangerous.

[ Note my best but I'm half-asleep o,o ]

[-throws dye at tan-tan- And it's Byzantine, without an r. Hahaha. I get confused too v_v and it's not a problem, this stinks too. XD]

Briar laughed. Byzantine stared at her Pokèmon with some shred is disbelief before laughing on her own, cheered by her Pokèmon's... mockery? Eh. Tomatoe, tomatoh, it was the same thing. Zan was glad of the flying thing's back towards her, more or less - it freaked her out. She wasn't used to any of this, having Pokèmon, or a little thing trailing her through... Eh?

Zan glanced down at Briar, the Pikachu looking pointedly in another direction, and her own eyes followed, and squinted. Green! Was that green? Oh dear God, it was green! There was hope after all-- and that was when her bubble burst and Byzantine noticed that it was more a glow rather than a soft carpet of grass. The sun's harshness should have been clue enough to her: nothing would grow here. Had it ever rained in this place? Ever?

It was a sort of sickly green glow, just from that tiny point in the distance. Zan glanced down at her Pokèmon, reached down to give it a pat for alerting her to it, and tossing a warm smile at the Pikachu got up to face the flying thing. "Well? I'm going to guess you're gonna follow us, huh?" She wasn't sure if she was expecting a reply or not, but regardless, she was going to start going towards the green... Ew, was it flickering?

Byzantine gestured to her shoulders to see if Briar wanted to hop on and ride on them, curl around her neck or something. If the Pokèmon wanted to walk, Zan would let her walk. It wasn't a big deal, but she would probably feel a lot more confident if she had her Pokèmon near her, sharing warmth. She didn't feel too well, she concluded as she drew nearer the boulders. Not well at all.

Maybe it was the place that give her the hives, or the fact that it had been a black hole that had dragged her to this place. Add a black hole and an eerie place where nothing green grew, you probably had a winning formula for something bad to happen? The sun was harsh on her, and without her wide-rimmed hat (where had that thing gone, anyway?) she felt the traces of sunburn on her delicately freckled nose arrive.

She muttered somethng incoherent under her breath as she pushed forward, through the forest of rocks.

EDIT: wow, I musta been pretty tired. SPELLING CORRECTION. hahaha.

[ Sorry, I used Copy Paste for long names D: and gak, short D: ]

As Byzantine walked further, the weird black-and-white butterfly Pokèmon followed exactly how she had said, although it did not response to her. It was an automatic response to keep on tailing her. If only Briar would somehow do the same rather than sticking her tongue at Byzantine in response and then laughing, running along with four legs. Was she mocking Byzantine again though?

Soon, the two, three including the little fellow hanging around Byzantine, reached where the green light can be found. Byzantine discovered that the light was emitting from the boulders. There was nothing special among the said boulders minus the glow. They have the same physical structure as with the other boulders but random boulders seem to grow but Byzantine noticed that the "glowing boulders" were at least parallel to each other. Briar poked the strange, glowing boulders, glancing at the floating tyke near Byzantine and back at these boulders. The bug with Byzantine had the same glowing thing so the Pikachu wondered if there was some sort of connection with the rock.

Should Byzantine investigate further?

(:D No problems.)

Her Pikachu really was quite the sassy one, Byzantine thought wryly, but respected it's... fearlessness in the face of the unknown. Following her lead the girl kept up, headed for the sickly light in the boulders. They reached the place, and Zan felt even more sickened. "Bry!" she said in alarm as her Pokèmon patted at the rock with a yellow paw, even more ill-feeling. What if the Pikachu got some weird side-effect from touching it? But when Briar came away from it unscathed, she relaxed a little. Rubbing at her nose, she studied the rocks some more, trying to decide whether or not to touch them herself.

Such strange things, she thought. The glowing ones were arallel to each other, arranged so that it seemed unnatural when compared to the other boulders, sporadic in their growths, non-conforming to the same lines as the glowing ones. Then she noticed Briar looking at the flying thing.

Following her Pokèmon's gaze, she looked at the weird little non-Pokèmon-Pokèmon and saw that its glow now matched that of the boulders, and her eyes narrowed. Was it... connected, somehow? Unknown to her, it was the same conclusion her partner had reached. She got even closer, reaching a hand out to touch the rocks - she almost expected to feel a chill as she did so, a jolt of weird energy, but she didn't know what to expect: didn't know if it was good, or bad, only that she didn't quite trust it.

Who trusted glowing things in the middle of (what seemed to be) nowhere?

[ Sorry for the very slow updates ;-; ]

Briar looked at Byzantine's hand as it slowly descended on the surface of the boulder. The Pikachu had just touched it and nothing had happened yet Byzantine seemed to be extra cautious, feeling that something different might happen. The suspense lasted like for minutes while each second eats up. The passing time seemed so slow for those two but outside of their realm, the place started lighting up as the large celestial body, burning hotly with scarlet flames reign over the wasteland. The tailing shadows of each standing being expanded with the sovereign's presence. Briar took her eyes away from her Trainer's descending hand for a moment, feeling her pupils shrinking with the strong light raying down. She looked away, watching as the sun completely raise.

Byzantine felt the hard surface of the rock. She blinked. Just when her hand touched it, the glow had died! It was not like an on-off switch though. The light had been gradually fading into nothing until Byzantine looked like she was feeling an ordinary boulder for some crazy reasons, like thinking it was glowing. The boulder has been glowing of course; Two pair of eyes have seen it.

The Pikachu looked back at the scene, blinking with the absence of the green light. "Pika!" She gasped, looking at Byzantine accusingly of what she could have done. The Pikachu patted the rock with her electric tail as if it was a jamming PC. "Ka-chu...?" She mumbled, rubbing her chin. What happened?

Aside from the added mystery, the support the strange red sun gave enabled Byzantine to have a better close look on her surrounding. There was not a lot of difference though. In fact, it just looked bigger now that the place was not dark. There were no paths to follow at all and not a border to say, "this is a dead end wall". Looking back at the boulders too that was strange parallel to one another, now that the enigmatic light was gone, it all made Byzantine dizzy by just looking at the boulders.