[Silver]

“Come on, Ichabod, you’re making me nervous,” Strike snorted.

“Sorry, sorry!” The Archeops fluttered his wings, then folded them at his sides so he would stop chewing on his wing feathers as a nervous habit. He was just so worried about the mission that he could hardly contain himself.

The Zebstrika noticed how anxious and twitchy he was, and though it was pretty annoying, she did feel for him. She knew that he had a hard time with missions, which was part of the reason she was chosen to lead on this one. She flicked her tail and turned to him, trying to think of something comforting to say.

[Silver]

“It will be alright,” she said in her most friendly voice. It was still gruff and tipped with a hint of annoyance. “This is not a difficult quest, and I know that you are a strong fighter.”

“Oh, maybe, but…” whatever the ‘but’ was, he never verbalized it. It wasn’t the fighting part that he was worried about, not really. He didn’t want to let anyone down, his team, the guild, or the person who requested the item. They were all counting on him, and he doubted his own ability to follow through. He never should have agreed to go along.

[Silver]

Strike wondered why he would even join a guild if he was so afraid of adventuring. It was basically what they were there for. Even she wasn’t insensitive enough to just ask, though. She would just have to keep that thought to herself and hope that he eventually got used to it. She wouldn’t always be along to babysit him, after all.

“Are you going to be okay?” Ichabod asked after a long silence.

“I could ask the same of you,” Strike responded. It wasn’t her that was so twitchy and uncomfortable looking, after all.

“I mean, if there’s a sandstorm,” he explained. “This part of the desert is infamous for its vicious sandstorms. That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? The heart of the desert is filled with smooth stones like the one Larvitar wanted.”

[Silver]

“I will be fine,” Strike insisted. Unlike him, she wasn’t resistant to the damage of a raging sandstorm, but she was tough and confident that she would be able to work her way through it. She was used to fighting through rough conditions like the desert, that’s probably why they chose her to go despite her typing.

“Hmm, okay,” Ichabod said. He didn’t really seem convinced, but he even less wanted to argue with her about it. If he was honest, he was actually a little afraid of her.

“Strike? Can I ask you something?” he asked after another prolonged silence.

[Silver]

“Sure,” she said. The fact that she didn’t hate silence made others think she was unfriendly, sometimes, but she wasn’t actually opposed to conversation, either.

“Why did you choose this quest? Of all the places you could have gone, the desert doesn’t seem like it plays to your strengths at all… I mean, not that I don’t think you can handle it, but I’m just… I’m sorry, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want, I’m just curious…”

Strike let out an amused snort. He was right, really. With the kind of moves she knew, she was ill suited to fighting the ground and rock types in the desert, and hooves weren’t exactly the best thing for traveling across sand. “I guess I just wanted to see what it was like out here,” she said. “I’ve never been out here before.”

[Silver]

For some reason that didn’t fill him with confidence. He was always under the assumption that his teammate knew what they were doing, despite any evidence to the contrary. It was just easier to assume that others knew what was going on, so he didn’t have to put too much pressure on himself.

“How many places have you been?” Ichabod asked. He had only been on relatively few adventures, most of them close to home. He had to imagine that she had been to so many more places than him.

“Plenty,” she said rather dryly. She did like exploring, but she didn’t always like to think of her past. “I enjoy seeing new places with my team,” she explained, more softly than before.

[Silver]

“Even if they are terribly hot and dry.” This she phrased a bit like a joke, commenting on how uncomfortable travel through the desert was.

“I think I’d like to see more places, too,” Ichabod said, looking up at the unusually clear, bright blue sky. It looked so different from the sky at home, but they weren’t even that far away in the grand scheme of things.

“For what it’s worth,” Strike said after a brief pause. “I think you are a pretty good adventurer.”

“Really?” Ichabod said, looking at his toes. “Thank you, I think.”

[Silver]

“With some practice and a little confidence boost, you could be one of our best,” Strike said. Ichabod wasn’t sure that was a compliment, but he made the choice to accept it like one.

The conversation dropped off again after that comment and the two of them proceeded toward the heart of the desert where the smooth stones they were after were said to be. It went from being dry and flat and hot to being quite windy in almost an instant. Ichabod frowned. This was surely the sign of an impending sandstorm. He could feel it in his feathers.

[Silver]

“This is it,” he said. He pulled his wing up to shield his face as the storm gained momentum. “We must be close, right?”

“I can certainly hope so,” Strike said. She squinted into the storm, hoping to see a golden crystal poking up from the ground. It was so hard to see anything, but she pushed through anyhow.

“Here, maybe this will help,” Ichabod said. He flew up and landed on her back, then used his wings to cover as much of both of them as he could. “It’s not much, but it’s better than sand in your mouth.”

[Silver]

“Thank you,” she said. She was happy to carry him if he kept the sand out of her eyes. “Keep your eyes open… I can’t see anything around here. The stone must be somewhere, hopefully not too buried.”

“Right,” he nodded. “I don’t see much…”

Just as he said that, Strike jumped back and danced on her hooves for a bit. “What was that?” she shouted, clearly surprised. She had stepped on something sharp in the ground.

“Wow, you won’t believe this,” Ichabod said as he hopped down to get a closer look. “It’s the stone!”

"You're kidding..."

"No really, it's a smooth stone. Maybe it's the reason why the sandstorm started up around here?"

"I don't think that's it..." Strike said. While Ichabod was looking down at the ground, she was looking up at the silhouette of a very large Pokémon, most likely a Tryanitar, if she had to guess.

[Wild Pet Found]