Honing Techniques

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Tsukishiro gracefully bounded down towards the pond as she contemplated what techniques she would practice with her partner. She had to admit, her Perish Song and Iron Tail moved needed some work.

Tsukishiro grinned then nimbly hopped after the Houndoom, overtaking her in a matter of seconds as the exited the guild and headed for the dark forest of Shadowhue.

"Wh does it have to be here? I've herd storis about this place." Kurotaiyou said as she caught up with her friend. She was actually psycled to have this mission but the forest itself creeped her out.

The Absol laughed as they took their first steps into the forest, "It's not all as bad as it's rumored to be, Kuro."

"Let's Just get to the Zangoose. Ha-ha the way they always fight, Zangoose and Seviper, it makes me of an old story called "Riki-tivi-tavi". Have you ever heard of that story?" Kurotaiyou asked Tsukishiro. Kuro herself had heard of that story when she was younger.

"No actually, I haven't" replied Tsukishiro, turning to glance back at her partner as she walked. Shiro had been a rather solitary child, mostly keeping to herself. She even tended to steer clear of her parents, but she loved exploring. Kurotaiyou was one of her first real friends.

"Want to hear the story now?" Kuro asked as she can to a stop. "Why don't we rest for a while and I'll tell you?"she suggested.

"Sure!" she smiled, coming to a stop underneath a rather tall tree. She picked a comfortable place and sat down, ready to listen to the story.

"Ok let me see on where I should start." Kurotaiyou said as the layed on the grass in front of her friend. "A 19th-century English family — who have moved to a bungalow in the jungles of Sugauli cantonment in Bihar State, India — discover a young mongoose half drowned from a flood. They revive it and decide to keep it as a pet. The young mongoose, named Rikki Tikki Tavi, finds himself confronted by two dangerous king cobras, Nag and his even more dangerous wife Nagaina, who had the run of the garden while the house was unoccupied. After the encounter with the cobras, Rikki's first true battle is with Karait, a dust brown snakeling who touchs the young boy Teddy. Although the snake, because of its deadly venom and small size, is an even more dangerous foe than a cobra, the mongoose kills it. The grateful family pet and praise "our mongoose".

After everyone is asleep, Rikki Tikki goes out for his nightly walk around the house and runs into Chuchundra the muskrat. Chuchundra pitifully and indirectly warns Rikki Tikki that Nag and Nagaina may be planning something terrible, after being told by his cousin Chua, the rat, who lives in the garden. Rikki Tikki hears a faint scratching sound that he knows to be Nag or Nagaina lurking around the bathroom sluice. He steals off to the bathroom and hears the cobras' whispering outside. At Nagaina's urging, Nag plans to kill the human family to empty the house so the cobras can again rule the garden. She also reminds him that their eggs, laid and hidden in the garden, would hatch soon (as they might the next day) and that their brood will need room and quiet. Nag goes to the bathroom to wait and kill the "big man", but Rikki follows and bites the cobra by the head above the hood. Nag thrashes about furiously, nearly beating Rikki Tikki to death. The noise wakes the man, who fires both barrels of a shotgun into Nag, blowing him in two pieces and almost hitting Rikki. Nag is then thrown on the rubbish heap, where Nagaina mourns for him and vows vengeance.

Rikki, well aware of the threat, tries to enlist the tailor bird Darzee, a "feather-brained little fellow", to distract Nagaina while he searches for her eggs, but is instead aided by Darzee's sensible wife. As Rikki finds and destroys most of the brood (biting off the tops of the eggs and crushing the young cobras), Nagaina corners the family at the breakfast table on the garden verandah ("they sat stone-still, and their faces were white") and threatens to kill Teddy with her venomous bite. Alerted by Darzee's wife, Rikki races to the veranda with the last egg in his mouth. His appearance distracts Nagaina long enough for the man to pull the boy to safety. Rikki Tikki provokes Nagaina into a final fight with neither opponent gaining the upper hand until Nagaina snatches the egg and flees to her hole, with Rikki in pursuit. The underground fight is not described, but after an agonizingly long time, Rikki comes out of the hole in triumph, having killed Nagaina. After this victory Rikki spends the rest of his days defending the family garden where no snakes dare to enter." She said with a dramatic finish. "So what do you think?" the Houndoom asked.

"Great story!" she grinned. "I can see how the feud between Seviper and Zangoose reminded you of it.
The Absol chuckled, "So did your parents tell you this story?"

"Yep. I've always admierd the Mongoose, but felt sorry for the snake." Kurotaiyou said trying to think of why she felt sorry for the snake. "I understand the revenge part, but why didn't they just move somewhere else?" she asked.

"Who knows." Replied the Absol, glancing absentmindedly up at the sky again.

"We should get going the Zangoose are waiting for us." Kuro said as she got up. She started walking further into the forest, "How far do we have to go?"

Tsukishiro nodded and followed.
"I would think fairly far, since an outlaw isn't going to hang around on the outskirts of the forest. I'll scout the area from the trees."

The Absol then chose a tree and gracefully leaped from branch to branch until she was high enough to see a good portion of the area. Noticing that nothing out of the ordinary was here, she hopped into the next tree, staying in plain sight of Kuro on the forest floor below so that they wouldn't leave each other behind.

Kuro decided to also scout the area. "I'll look down here!" she said to Shiro-chan. She put her nose to the ground and started to sniff around. She could only rule out the scents of the trees and the grass. Just then Kuro herd a faint rustling ing the bushes. Unsure of what it was she let out a small growl, her ears perked. "Tsukishiro! There's something out there!" she called out into the trees for her friend.

"I'll check and see what it is." replied the Absol calmly. She quickly hopped from tree to tree towards the direction of the rustles. From her high vantage point in the branches, she realized it was only a group of Seedot. Tsukishiro sighed,
"False Alarm Kuro, its only a few Seedot."

"Seedotd? Man this forest is makeing me paranoyed."Kurotaiyou said as she went back to sniffing around when she slipped on something. "Ahh! Thud Ow. That was wierd."she said to herdelf as she looked to see what she slipped on. It looked like a peace of sheded skin form a Seviper was stuck to her foot. "Get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off!!" she shouted quickly while running around.

Tsukishiro came gracefully leaping through the treetops, back towards where Kuro was yelling from. She hopped down from the trees and landed next to the Houndoom, chuckling as she removed the old outer layer of skin from Kurotaiyou's foot.
"It's only a bit of skin that our Seviper friend must have shed."

Kurotaiyou shuddered, "He must be close by or he was here days ago. I hope we are getting close to the Zangoose." she said shaking herself trying to get rid of the creepy feeling of having snake's skin on her.

"At least it gives us a heads up on what it's ability must be." replied Tsukishiro, who didn't seem worries by it. "Shed Skin. Which means status effects wont have much affect since he can just shed them away."

"Your right. Something must of happened earlier." the Houndoom suggested. She looked around and saw some more of the snakes skin, "There's alot of it around here." Kurotaiyou said to her friend.

"Maybe he got in a scrap with some of the pokemon that live here." she thought aloud, padding over to a small pile of smaller scraps of shedded skin.
"It looks like he headed off over there. That's where the trail of skin seems to lead."
Tsukishiro pointed to an area where a few of the smaller clumps of skin were scattered, each a little more further away from where they were now stood.

"Where do the Zangoose live again?" Kuro asked. She woundered if they should meet the Zangoose first and then go after the Seviper. Or o after the Seviper now and bring him in to show the Zangoose.

"I don't know. But if we catch the Seviper, we can meet the Zangoose at the guild later. It saves time as well," she replied, slowly following the trail of dead skin.

"Good point. We should think of a stratagy to fight the Seviper." Kuro said to the Absol. Kuro didn't want her friend to get hurt along with her own safety. She looked around at the trees to try to see if the snake was hinding there.

"Maybe we could draw him out... like using bait or something. Do you know if he ever destroyed anything specific.. or was it always just random crops?" she asked. Kuro had the job request in her bag and Tsukishiro couldn't remember everything straight off the top of her head.