An Adventure in the Woods [Script & Lirio]

        Lirio was out in Ilex Forest being his carefree usual self. At this point in time, Lirio was often left to his own devices by his busy parents. Though he often wished they would spend time with him, he didn’t mind the freedom he had all that much. He’d often wander through Ilex Forest until sunset most days, playing with the forest Pokemon.

He hadn’t been playing with them for too long this day when one of them Butterfree tapped his shoulder to get his attention. “Yes, what is it Mrs. Butterfree?” He asked curiously.

Of course, the Butterfree couldn’t talk back to him, but she communicated as best she could by gesturing for Lirio to follow her. He understood her easily though and followed her through the woods. After a short walk, the Butterfree stopped and pointed towards a path just through the bushes. Lirio poked his head through the bushes to see a lone kid about his age walking along the path alone. Lirio didn’t recognize this kid, so he must not have been one of the locals. Lirio thought he may be a new friend, so he jumped out of the bush in front of the kid and yelled to greet him, “Hi! My name is Lirio! What is your name?”

The kid made a startled shriek and jumped back into the tree behind him. It didn't occur to Lirio at first that hopping out of the bush could possibly have been a bad idea as he was young and naive and not fully aware of how this could scare someone. In fact, Lirio was rather surprised by the kid’s reaction to his greeting, though his Butterfree companion seemed startled as well by the shriek.

The boy was quick to calm himself though and introduced himself as Ringo Scripture. Lirio could tell he wasn’t from around Azalea Town with a name like that. “Maybe it is some sort of big city name,” Lirio thought to himself.

Lirio realized he should have probably introduced himself with his full name and was about to before Ringo began to ask questions to him, like if he was from around the area and then, this second one with a sense of wonder, if the Butterfree behind him was his partner Pokemon. “Oh, no, this here is Mrs. Butterfree! She is one of my friends here in the forest. Many of the Pokemon here are my friends! They watch over me and play games with me sometimes. I am from Azalea Town, but my parents are really busy, so I spend a lot of my time here in Ilex Forest,” Lirio paused then reintroduced himself, seemingly forgetting he already shouted his name to Ringo a moment ago, “Oh, by the way, I am Lirio Mushikaze, if I didn’t say that already.”

Lirio took a closer look at Ringo and only gathered more evidence from his observations that Ringo was not from around there. Lirio found this odd to find another kid alone in the forest. Most children weren’t allowed to enter Ilex Forest alone, let alone travelers not from the area. He tried not to dwell on this too much though as this now meant that he would have someone else to play with. “Hey, do you want to play a game?” Lirio began to ask before Mrs. Butterfree nudged his shoulder as if to say that he should focus on other things first, “Oh, you are right Mrs. Butterfree. Uh, are you lost or something?”

Ringo smiled at Mrs. Butterfree and Lirio until Lirio asked if he was lost. At this point, Ringo began to awkwardly stammer on his words and didn’t really explain much when he said he wasn’t lost but had instead run away. Lirio thought the boy was acting strangely after he had asked if Ringo was lost. He meant to ask more about this until he was distracted by Ringo’s acceptance to play a game with Lirio.

Lirio was elated and quickly forgot the previous awkward moment. Lirio’s voice became excitable and he spoke quickly, unable to contain himself, “Great! I would say we could play hide-and-seek, but I know all the good hiding spots, so you’d probably never find me. Instead, why don’t we play a game where we look for treasure? We both try to find the most special object we can find in the woods. I’ll let Mrs. Butterfree help you out since you don’t know this place very well. She is quite good at this game! I’ll search on my own, but that doesn’t mean I won’t ask the forest Pokemon for help!”

With that, Lirio quickly bolted into the undergrowth of the forest and out of sight of Ringo before he could even respond. Lirio wasn’t used to playing very much with other kids, so this was still a new experience for him, albeit quite fun for him. Mrs. Butterfree appeared to sigh at Lirio’s lack of restraint before she decided to fly slowly in a random direction, hoping that Ringo would follow so they could play the game.

Lirio was determined to find some treasure to win the game. He scurried his way to a nearby clearing where trainers passing through often camped and rested. Once there, he found a couple of the resident Paras and asked them for help, “Paras friends, have either of you seen something shiny or special nearby lately? I am on the hunt for treasure!”

The two Pokemon convened for a moment to discuss if they had seen anything that fit Lirio’s description. They then called out to Lirio and began to crawl towards a spot near the center of the field with a few rocks jutting out of the ground. Lirio followed them enthusiastically, eager to find something special.

Once there, the two Paras stopped at the base of one of the taller rocks. Lirio looked around but was disappointed at first when he only saw plain rocks. Then, one of the Paras dug into the ground with its claws. Lirio looked on in wonder, “Oh! This is a buried treasure! That makes sense.”

After a moment of digging, the other Paras reached into the small hole and pulled out a green-colored stone. It was mossy and had a leaf imprint on the front. Lirio's eyes grew wide when he saw it, “A leaf stone! While it isn’t shiny, it is quite special! Thanks, you two!”

Lirio then reached down and grabbed the leaf stone before running off as he waved goodbye to the Paras. The pair waved back to him as he disappeared back into the forest. Once in the forest, Lirio called out, “Hey, Beedrill!”

Suddenly, an intense buzzing noise filled the air and several black and yellow Pokemon with red eyes flew down from the above trees. They were Beedrill, but Lirio knew they wouldn’t hurt him. In fact, he had come to learn during his time in the forest that they were quite friendly, as long as you weren’t trying to hurt their young or steal food from them. “I need you all to help me find Mrs. Butterfree and my friend Ringo. He is a kid about my age and is with her. Could you all help me out?”

One of the Beedrill in front of the small group nodded before flying off in the direction Lirio could only assume would lead him to his friends. The Beedrill were fast, though, and soon became a bit ahead of Lirio. Though he had a hard time keeping up through the wooded thickets, he managed to keep them within vision.

Once Lirio got close to the Beedrill, who seemed to have stopped a ways ahead of him, he noticed Mrs. Butterfree flitting her wings just above the undergrowth. “Ah, that must be where Ringo is too!” He thought to himself.

Ringo was out of sight at first because of a large shrub, but Lirio crawled through it and jumped out of the other end, pleased to see Ringo there with the Pokemon. “Ringo!” He yelled out, “I see my Beedrill friends found you! Did you find some treasure with Mrs. Butterfree? I found something quite special that I am sure will make me the winner!”

Lirio stood up proudly as he held out the Leaf Stone in his hand, waiting for the awe on Ringo’s face.

Ringo seemed happy that Lirio said he won the game. He also said that they both won in that case. The two boys were having lots of fun, but then, something felt amiss. Mrs. Butterfree and the Beedrill turned to see something behind Ringo before an intimidating Pokemon roughly Lirio’s height with poisonous claws landed right behind Ringo. Ringo’s face grew pale as he stumbled away from the Toxicroak.

The Toxicroak seemed ready to fight and slashed one of its claws at Ringo and Lirio unexpectedly, nearly getting one of them. Mrs. Butterfree panicked and flew towards Lirio to try to protect him while the Beedrill’s calm demeanor quickly changed, becoming angry and now looking to fight the Toxicroak. The three Beedrill flew towards the Toxicroak and tried to attack it with their long stingers, however, the Pokemon was fast and moved out of the way in time to not be injured. This did put some space between Lirio, Ringo, and the Toxicroak though. “Hey, we were just trying to play a game! You don’t have to ruin all the fun!” Lirio called out, flustered by the sudden assault by the Pokemon.

“Ringo, looks like it is time to play another game,” Lirio said, seemingly not seeing the Toxicroak as a major threat, “It is called Tag, but we don’t want to get tagged by this grumpy Pokemon!”

Lirio had a serious look on his face and nodded at Mrs. Butterfree. She then sent out a puff of reddish powder in the Toxicroak’s face, infuriating it and causing it to chase her through the trees. “Mrs. Butterfree bought us some time with her Rage Powder move, so we should hurry before its effects wear off, Ringo.”

Lirio grabbed Ringo’s arm and pulled him through the tangled forest floor. The Beedrill followed behind them to keep guard.

Lirio and Ringo were running together through the woods when Ringo tried to protest that Lirio run with him. “No, I won’t let that mean Pokemon take you! You are my friend, besides. We have a few tricks up our sleeve too to get away!” Lirio replied, winking as he continued to pull Ringo along with him.

After a bit of running, Lirio brought Ringo to a different part of the woods and stopped. He knew that Mrs. Butterfree couldn’t keep the Toxicroak distracted for very long, but he felt that it would be enough to give them a little bit of time. Out of breath, Lirio paused and stopped. Despite the loud buzzing of the Beedrill, he could still sense that the Toxicroak must be nearby at this point. He was about to let out a loud whistle when something in the trees caught his eye.

It had to be the Toxicroak. Without thinking, Lirio pushed Ringo out of the way, causing both of them to fall to the ground but out of the way of the oncoming attack. Before getting up, Lirio whistled as loud as he could. The Toxicroak was about to examine his work when the forest began to move with activity. Lirio sat up and waved at the Toxicroak, taunting him to try to get him to attack again. It was time that the Toxicroak learn to not mess with his friends.

The Toxicroak used Earthquake as it slammed down from the upper branches of the forest to a few paces away from Lirio and Ringo. Once Lirio stopped whistling, he noticed the Toxicroak seemed more annoyed than anything. Rather than run, Lirio got up and pointed at the Toxicroak, “If you would have just played nicely!”

This seemed to aggravate the Toxicroak, making him aim his next move right at Lirio. Just as it shot out another Sludge Bomb attack, a powerful blade of wind came from somewhere behind Lirio and blocked the attack. The Toxicroak peered around to see where the wind came from and who sent the attack only to see another one coming right at it, which it narrowly dodged.

Several bird Pokemon seemed to be the first to arrive in response to Lirio’s call for aid, a Pidgeot and several Pidgey and Pidgeotto. A few of them divebombed the Toxicroak in an attempt to distract it and make some space for Lirio and Ringo to get farther back. Lirio led Ringo away a bit, but the Toxicroak was relentless, trying its best to keep up with the children despite the oncoming attacks. Lirio nodded at the Beedrill that were still following them and they dispersed, aiding the bird Pokemon in their attacks on the Toxicroak.

Only after this was Lirio able to put some space between Ringo and the Toxicroak. Lirio soon came to a spot of the forest with an abnormally large red mushroom. He patted it gently before sitting on top of it and telling Ringo to hide behind it.

The Toxicroak tried its best to fend off the wild Pokemon, but their numbers made it difficult for it to make any advance towards the children. Despite being stronger individually, it eventually gave up on it quest and disappeared into the canopy of the forest. “Well, I guess we didn’t need your help after all, Parasect,” Lirio said patting the red mushroom smiling, seemingly unfazed by the potentially dangerous encounter with the Toxicroak.

He then turned to Ringo, who had apologized for getting Lirio involved with the Toxicroak. “Oh, it is okay. I know being out here in the forest isn’t the safest thing for kids like us, but that is why you have friends to help and protect you,” Lirio replied grinning and giving a thumbs up to Ringo.

“Well, it is getting a bit late now and I am unsure if that Toxicroak will try to attack us again. I should probably get home. You’re not from here, right Ringo? Well, wherever you are staying, one of the forest Pokemon could help take us both back to town.”