OOC NOTE: I seem to have been accidentally skipped. I would be after Ferald/Avalanche. Apologies for the late post and wall of text.The sun beat oppressively down on the dusty, uneven trail that was once Route 48. “Cianwood City, 17 miles,” a forlorn, bent-over road sign proclaimed. A hundred yards beyond the faded marker, a pile of melted flesh and charred bones, barely recognizable as the remains of a pokemon, lay in the middle of the path, surrounded by a dark stain of soot and blood. A few feet away, what appeared to be the singed carcass of an Umbreon lay on its back in the ditch by the side of the road. However, a faint spark of life remained within the tattered scrap of black fur.
Malady w as already in bad shape when she reached the Safari Zone – far too physically weak to defend herself against the infected Manectric which tracked her down the previous night. The zombie had almost total control of its electrical powers, but was nearly mindless. Malady was able to save herself with Confuse Ray, turning the monster's own powers against it, but lost consciousness in the couple seconds it took for the attack to work. The infected continued to blindly electrocute itself, pushing its decaying body far beyond its limits until nothing was left but a sizzling husk.
Celena would probably have cried if she was alive and knew the state her only surviving pokemon was in. The powerful electric current from the recent attack had burst blood vessels wherever they came too close to Malady's skin – mostly her ears, nose, paws and eyelids – and by the time the bleeding stopped the Umbreon lay in a puddle of dried blood. She was horribly thin, the outline of her skeleton visible beneath the skin that clung to her bones, and her eyes were sunken from dehydration. Her body was covered in infected sores, some of which wept blood and pus, and in places she had chewed and scratched her skin into a bloody mess trying to relieve the itching. Her fur was signed and, although too short to really tangle, matted with dirt; after an attack from a Grimer, trying to lick herself clean only raised bile in her throat, and filthy, stagnant pools of water with bloated, rotting corpses floating on the surface were no safer to bathe in than to drink from.
When she regained consciousness, it was still several minutes before Malady could summon the strength to crawl out of the ditch where she lay. The sight of the charred remnants of her attacker brought no comfort or sense of satisfaction at the irony. It was already a hot day, and Malady had been lying in the sun for hours – albeit against her will – had lost a not-insignificant amount of blood in the attack, and even the previous day had been dehydrated. She had to find water, and fast. Since Malady had spent most of her life with a trainer, her instinct was to stay on the roads. Thus far, this had been a good strategy; buildings often had wells or rain collectors, and occasionally a working faucet. But the Safari Zone had no houses, and any water that collected in the ditches would be unlikely to be drinkable. If she didn't stray from the beaten path, she could die of thirst.
There appeared to be a line of trees in the distance... trees needed more water than grass... so perhaps there was a river that way! For that matter, there would be shade.
Looking in all directions to make sure she wasn't being followed, Malady left the road and started in the direction of the trees at a brisk walk. If she had the energy, she would have run; without the artificial sense of boundaries created by the road, being out in the open in broad daylight was unsettling to a nocturnal pokemon, spooky even – a human would have felt the same way exploring a rickety, dimly lit house full of cobwebs. As she walked, the sun climbed higher into the sky behind her, and the heat got more intense. She began to feel lightheaded... she was panting, but her mouth was so dry it wasn't cooling her down at all... her head hurt... she couldn't balance...
Malady collapsed for a second, but then scrambled to her feet and sprinted forward, panicking. If she passed out now she would be dead. She had to get to the trees! Just a few hundred paces further and she would be safe. Her dizziness had now been replaced by nausea, but she forced herself to keep moving. The final hundred yards seemed to take forever. She should have been able to see individual leaves on the trees now, but they melted into an indistinct green mass. Finally, she staggered into the dappled shade. Unable to adjust to the sudden darkness and not knowing where to place her paws, she swayed precariously from side to side, recoiled to avoid crashing into the tree trunk which came within a few inches of her head, and tried to step on thin air. Crying out in alarm, she tumbled down a short bank... and felt the welcome sensation of running water against her skin. Immediately, she began to drink, lapping up the cool water as fast as she could, in her desperation no longer caring whether it was poisonous. She wasn't going to die here... at least for the moment, she could rest. She crawled to the side of the shallow stream, putting her forepaws on dry ground, slumped onto her side, and passed out.
