"Well, we're here."

I blinked, looking around. We were no longer in the Twilight Forest. In fact, I saw no signs of it anywhere. Behind us were the grass plains and the islands of poison. In front of us, looming over us, were the Central Mountains. The grassy terrain gave way to a rocky one, a path leading upwards.

"When did we..." I scratched my blonde hair, then winced in pain as I tried to move my hand away. My hair was getting longer and more tangled.

"I don't know exactly how the forest works," Luna said, looking back at me. "But it's both there and not there at the same time. Probably how it's always twilight there. Now come on. We have a lot to climb here."

"Not actual climbing, right?" I asked hopefully as Yanmega buzzed around my head.

Luna shook her head. "Nope. The elevation is going to go up by a lot however. Make sure not to fall."

"That's not very reassuring," I whined, trudging along after Luna and Xera. Leavanny walked behind me, making something out of leaves and string. The sun beat down on us, the humidity not as bad as it used to be in the jungle. However, not that far into the climb, I was already sweating buckets.

When we stopped for a breather, Dewpider hopped off Xera's shoulder and climbed up me. She began blowing into the bubble surrounding her head, enlarging it. Soon, it was big enough to envelop my head. I found I could still breathe in it, the cool air refreshing.

After a minute, I pulled my head out. "Thanks, Dewpider. That felt good."

Dewpider scuttled happily back over to Xera, climbing onto her shoulder. Smiling, I found I had more energy to spare. Suddenly, a shadow fell over my head and something was fitted over my hair. Leavanny smiled at me and I shifted my eyes up to see the brim of a leaf-woven hat, matching well with me clothes made of the same stuff.

"I don't know what you guys see in me to do all this for me," I rubbed the back of my head, grinning.

"I know, right," Eric said, sitting atop the rock I was leaning on. To my credit, I didn't give a reaction.

"Why is it that they've taken a liking to an Outsider like you," Eric leaned over me, the lack of his shadow further proving that this was all just in my head. "Perhaps they're as hopeless as you are."

I felt my face tighten as I ignored him, rubbing Yanmega's head. To further distract myself, I gazed at the view we had. We weren't as high as we were supposed to get according to Luna, but we were pretty high. The rocky trail was littered with loose pebbles, but it was wide enough so that even if we tripped, we were less likely to fall to our death. 

At this point on the climb, we were on the outer, smaller mountain. Across from where I leaned against the side of the rock wall, I could see another mountain. Past it I could scattered jungle, the marshland, what looked to be a wasteland. I figured the ocean would be in view once we got to a higher point.

To my left, towering over the rest, was the central mountain of the Central Mountains. I think I could see a path on it, but it was too far to tell. Below us was just rocky ground and a small river snaking its way through. The path we were on kept going up at a steady pace, and according to Luna, there would be a point where we would have to 'jump' to continue the path, and I was afraid of what that meant.

Occasionally I would see some Flying types soaring high above us or a quadrupedal Pokemon I was pretty sure were Mudbray. Aside from that, if there were anymore Pokemon living here, they were hiding from us.

A small scrabbling noise, then a couple loose pebbles fell on me from above. I glanced up, shielding my eyes from the sun. Vines hung down the rock wall and small shrubs and plants grew from the cracks. Whatever made the pebbles fall wasn't to be seen.

"Or maybe I'm overthinking this," I shook my head, drinking some water from my flask.

"Break time's over," Luna announced, already on her feet, Zoroark stretching beside her.

"Time to go," I nudged Yanmega and he fluttered his wings, lifting himself into the air.

I grabbed onto the rocks to help myself up, my legs somewhat sore. We continued on though and after about ten more minutes, we came to a point where the path turned sharply to the left while ahead of us it ended in a sheer fall, stone pillars jutting up from the ground, all different sizes. Some were larger, able to hold maybe two people, but some looked narrow enough to only hold a nimble Pokemon, such as Leavanny. Across from here was another path where a single tree with few leaves grew on the edge, vines hanging from it.

"Okay," I nodded, turning my feet to the left. "Off we go. We shouldn't stop while we're still able to mo-urk!"

"Hold it," Xera snagged the back of my shirt, pushing the front roughly against my neck. "Luna?"

"Yeah," Luna nodded. "We have to cross here."

Xera let go and I nearly stumbled, catching myself, and looked at Luna. "Seriously? You want us to cross that? Are you sure our destination doesn't lie down this path here?"

Luna's golden eyes held some amusement when they settled on me. "Nope. That will only lead down towards the Southern part of the island. That's wild territory and definitely no Mountain Tribe."

Xera shrugged, gaze fixed on the tree on the opposite end of the chasm. "Figured as much."

She took a step forwards, then sprinted, pushing herself off the ground with one foot. She landed on a sturdy looking pillar on one foot, but didn't stop. She continued to hop from one pillar to the next with no breathers. In no time, she had crossed the what had to be a 20 foot chasm.

Luna slapped me across the back. "C'mon, Liam. Don't chicken out at this point."

Yanmega flew down in front of me, head tilted. Leavanny then knocked him on the head and said something to him. He appeared to sigh and shook his head at me. I took that as a sign that he couldn't give me a ride. I understood since I didn't want my weight to damage his wings, as they were fragile enough as it was, but I was still disappointed. 

"Fine," I groaned and looked at the closest pillar. It was close enough for me to jump to easily and wide enough to support me. The trick would be to keep my balance.

Not letting myself anymore time to think, I let myself run and jump. For a moment, I feared I had over jumped, but my feet caught the last space on the pillar and I felt it rock slightly. Amazingly, I managed to keep my balance far easier than I had expected. 

"Hey," I laughed nervously. "This isn't so bad. It's quite similar to the rocking of a boat."

Granted, it did take me days to get used to the rocking of the boat my brother and I sailed on to here. But I had managed to get accustomed to both gentle and rough waves rocking the ship. So this, this was nothing.

Gathering up my courage, I leaped onto the next pillar, thinner than the last. It rocked quite a bit more, but I gritted my teeth and stayed firm, holding my arms out to keep steady. Taking a deep breath in, I decided to try and do it like Xera. I jumped, landed, then jumped again, barely giving myself time to judge how far I would need to jump. I didn't even think about how big or thin the pillars were, which actually turned out to be a bad thing.

"Woah!" I shouted, the pillar beneath me cracking slightly. It was a small one, just enough room for me to put both feet down on it. It had a very thin support, swaying dangerously. I gulped and tried not to look down, but it was unavoidable. We were far up now and the fall would surely leave me a bloody mess on the rocks below.

"Jump!" I heard Luna yell and Xera grimaced from about 7 feet away, nearly ready to leap after me. 

A buzzing noise, then several legs held onto my head. They helped my stay steady as Yanmega helped support some of my weight. Gradually, I was able to balance myself and the pillar's shaking lessened, but I feared it would break soon.

"Thanks, Yanmega," I said, wishing I could smile, but the thought of smiling wiped that away. Taking another deep breath, I leaped, hearing the pillar crack from the force of my jump. I heard multiple crashed when I landed on the next pillar. I looked back and saw the falling pillar hit several other pillars, causing them to start to fall.

"Oh crap," I thought, taking another leap just as the pillar I was one was hit. In just a few moments, I had leaped to safety next to Xera.

"Good freakin' job," she said with disdain as I could hear crashing sounds. "You just ruined the natural landscape and made it harder for Luna, Z, and Leavanny to cross."

I was on both knees, sweating hard, and looked back. A dust cloud was rising into the air, many of the pillars having fallen. Luna had her hand on her face, probably groaning, as I surveyed the damage. There were still a ton of pillars left, but most of the ones that were usable for crossing were now destroyed.

Xera slapped me in the back of the head. "Outsider."

Luna, however, had jumped. There were now larger distances between the still standing pillars, but she managed to leap across to our side with incredible ease.

"How-!?" I was shocked.

Two Yanmegas buzzed down near us, one of them turning into Zoroark. Leavanny got off the real Yanmega, checking me over to see if I was hurt.

"That's nothing," Luna said, then hit me on the head like Xera did. "Next time though, just try not to mess things up to the point where we die."

I sighed. At least she was safe. 

Luna gazed at the destruction I had caused. "With the amount of noise that made, we probably attracted attention from the Tribe and native Pokemon. I don't know how kindly they'll take to you destroying their ho-!"

She was cut off as she was suddenly yanked off the cliff. Zoroark lunged for her, but was driven back by a sudden eruption of a sandstorm. I shielded my eyes, but I was still blinded, the pain intense. A roar filled my ears as the mountain began to shake from a fierce pounding that started a rockfall from above. Through the sandstorm, I could see a large shape moving towards us slowly, raising a huge boulder. 

I blinked rapidly, rubbing my eyes as I bumped into Xera. Slowly, the large thing became clearer and I would've widened my eyes if not for the sandstorm. Covering my mouth, I breathed its name.

"Regirock."

So I might end up not being able to go back to school until Fall... So basically online school until then. Fun times. I hope you all are managing to stay busy during this coronavirus business and are being safe. Until next update. Oh, I'm also very tired, so this message from me is lacking, if you couldn't tell. So, yeah. Toodles