You wait in the depths of the den. You can't be sure how long, but it feels like hours. After closer inspection, the light within the den that your eyes can pick up seems to be actually coming from the soil itself, and not making its way miraculously down from the mouth of the dug-in cave. You shudder, and decide to make your way up, to try and minimize how much you become irradiated, and perhaps see if Michael is alright.
You make your way up the tunnel to the surface. After having been at the bottom for so long, the trip up doesn't feel like much time. You come up into night, the air surprisingly clear, the stench and haze gone, the waxing gibbous moon shining brightly. You have to shield your eyes at first from its intensity.
You look around again at the environment. It isn't so dead as it had seemed earlier. The trees are certainly unsalvageable, but squat bushes and thin grasses grow in tentative patches across the landscape.
A movement catches your eye, scurrying from one bush to another. A Rattata. It reminds you of your rather empty stomach, and Michael's incomplete mission. When he returned - if he returned... he would be pleased to find more food.
You look around for anyone else who might be watching, then you hop from the den, and run for the Rattata. Your feelers flop around at your ungraceful gait, but surprisingly, the Rattata doesn't flee, only peeking out of the bush at you before darting back in. You dive into the bush, and grab hold of something fluffy, but it feels fluffier than expected, based on the appearance of the Rattata.
You try to pull your catch out, but instead, the catch pulls you in, swiftly bringing you face to face with two bright, yellow eyes.
"Oh, hello~"
You feel a sharp pain through your head, like a sudden intense migraine, and everything goes black.
--
You come to in an awkward position. You are strapped to a tree by your torso, your legs bound tightly together, foreleg to foreleg, hind to hind, which are then strapped again to the tree as well. Before you is an enormous Umbreon, shiny, fluffy, and, if the sight of her had not sent bolts of terror through your body, she could have been described as cute.
Oh dear, this is one of the Buri... I'm going to die...
"Right on the first point, the second? I'm not so sure yet," the Umbreon says quietly, looking carefully into your eyes. "And yes, I can read your mind, 'Tess.' That's not your real name, but of course you knew that, didn't you?"
Then... what is my name...? you think. But the Buri just grins.
"Oh, why would I tell you that? I can't tell you that."
You don't get time to wonder why.
A movement catches your eye to your right. It catches the Buri's eye as well, and she sniffs the air a moment, before padding away. Michael pads into view.
"Oh my goodness... I thought I lost you..."
Me too, you think, but seeing as you're still tied up, and he cannot read your mind as the Buri apparently could, he doesn't respond, simply cutting the vines binding you to the tree and heaving you onto his back. You note, with some concern, that he has not unbound your legs from each other, but you try not to get antsy. He did just save your life, after all.
