I stood up, my head still jumbled from the fall. I was sick to my stomach when I looked over at the Pelipper’s corpse, and I hoped I could just vomit and get over it. But I didn’t vomit, and I certainly didn’t get over it. I took a few steps away from Perry. Maybe if I didn’t see him, I wouldn’t feel so bad.

“Hey,” a voice from the shadows said, “that’sh not very fair, jusht leaving a dead body behind.” Noticing the lisp in their voice, I looked over towards where the speech was coming from just as the figure walked out from the shadows. I tried to stand tall, but I had lost some energy in the adrenaline rush of falling, and either way, I landed on my leg funkily, and I had to limp. Basically, I was screwed.

“Sho they got you, eh?” the person, a male, questioned, walking towards me. Looking him up and down, I could tell that he was a Gligar by his plain, pink clothing; guys usually don’t where pink without a reason. “Hmph. Never thought that the dead body would be Perry; I exshpected it to be a partner of yoursh or shomething.” He approached the body carefully, and once he was right up close, he nudged it in the face with his foot; Perry may have been dead, but that didn’t change the fact that he was still a Gijinka, too.

I blinked at his action. Then, his words registered in my mind. “Wait, partner?” I asked, taking a step forward, though immediately regretting putting weight on my bad foot. “Uxie told me that I had to go alone.”

“Weird. Ushually, she let’sh the whole group go; unless it’sh an incredible big group, then she limitsh it to about three or four. Never thought she’d only allow one. Anywaysh, come on, we better cremate Perry; I don’t want him decaying and shtinking up the place.” Bending down, he set Perry’s arms onto his shoulders and hoisted him up so it seemed like he was giving Perry a Grumpiggyback ride. “Now let’sh get going.”

“Wait, you’re not going to battle me or anything?” I questioned, puzzled.

“No, why would I?” He stared at me as if I had instead asked a Water Type to climb an electric fence, and gestured with his head for me to start moving. We walked in an awkward silence, though I felt that I was the only one feeling awkward.

“How come you don’t try to hide your lisp?” I asked, though I didn’t really care what his answer would be; I was just trying to break the silence.

“I’m a Gligar and proud.” He was about to end there, but I shot him a look that said I didn’t get what he meant. “Mosht Gligarsh and Glishcorsh have lishpsh, and they try to hide it sho they sheem normal. Plush, shome Pokémon tend to make fun of our lishpsh, thush why we’ll hide them. But I don’t care, ‘caushe I’m shpecial. Ushually, we’ll have the ‘th’ one, where we’ll shay ‘shoup’ like ‘thoup’. But not me, I shay ‘shoup’.” And that’s that, I guess. And with the end of the conversation came the awkward silence.

“Toram.” I glanced over at him, confused.

“Terram?” I respond, utterly confused,

“No, that’sh my name, Toram; It’sh a mash of the Latin for ‘Grim Reaper’, which ish Torva Mosser, or shomething.”

“Oh. Elkarez.”

“Nishe to meet you, Elkarez. I would shake your hand, but I’m kinda holding up Perry.” He chuckled a bit at his half joke, and, only because he wasn’t trying to kill me and was actually helping me out, I gave him a half-hearted smile. And then, once again, awkward silence laid its arms around our shoulders as we walked the rest of the way.

Suddenly, Toram stopped and plopped Perry down on the ground. Confused as to why we came all the way here instead of just doing whatever we were going to do back there, I looked around and noticed the scorch marks on the ground; the only reason, it seemed, that we came here instead of stayed where we are was because of tradition. Wow.

“Sooo…. How are we cremating Perry, exactly?” I asked, since I was pretty sure Gligars couldn’t learn any Fire Type moves.

“Eashy, all I have to do ish thish.” Toram pressed his tongue against his teeth, revealing two black dots, and blew, creating a high pitched whistle that echoed through the chasm. Silly me, how did I not realize that, because, yes, everyone has whistles in their tongues.

“Your tongue,” I said, realizing that the dots had actually been holes, “What happened to it?” This time I asked because I actually was curious: it seemed like a pretty hard thing to do.

“Oh, thish?” he asked, sticking his pinkies through the holes. I shuddered. “A while back, Zoarark got bored one day and deshided that he wanted to challenge Uxshie’sh maze. She shaid, sure, why not, and off he went to conquer her maze. But the thing was, he didn’t play fair. He got through the maze by making everyone hurt themshelvesh by using illusionsh, and he only came down here becaushe he was curioush; he manipulated Eurush to bring him down here. Then I came over here, shinshe I heard Eurush shcreaming, and Zoarark got me in hish illusion. He made me think that my tongue wash a two-headed feral Sheviper, and sho I grew my pinshersh and punctured it. The pain was sho exshcruciating that all I could do was lie on the ground in pain. And it never healed.” Again, wow. I was at a loss for words, though thankfully someone else answered for me.

“Oi, Toram! You called?” From further in the direction we were heading in, a Flygon came swooping towards us and landed next to Toram.

“Yeah, we sheem to have another dead body on our handsh,” he replied gesturing to said dead body. The new comer simply laughed.

“So, one of the Aerodynamic Squad finally met their maker, huh? Guess that makes life easier for us, eh, Toram? I thought it would have been a challenger, but I guess I was wrong, right?” HE started laughing, which, annoyingly, started turning into snorts, and he kicked Perry’s body for good measure. I simply scrunched up my face in disgust. “Any way, who’s this guy?” –he gestured to me--“New recruit?”

“Nope, he’sh a challenger; the one who took down Perry by default. Elkarez, thish ish Flit, Flit, Elkarez.” Giving him a mock salute, I looked down at Perry, who’s blood had started to make its way across my boot. Lovely.

“You going to cremate him, or just stand around all day like an over-ripe Oran berry?” I snapped, the annoyingness of the maze really starting to irritate me.

“Who made you boss, Mr. Grumpoudon? You’re the challenger, I should be the one cremating you!” He snarled, and I simply formed a Dragon claw around my unsheathed digging claws. I would have blown him sky high, of not for Toram coming over and smacking us upside the head with his severing claws, causing both me and Flit to hold our heads and wince.

“Enough, foolsh. Flit, pleashe jusht shtart cremating Perry. And Elkarez, shit down.”

“Whoa, no need to swear,” I said with a smirk, causing him to face palm with his regular hand.

“Thank you for making fun of my lishp. Now shit down before you get another severing claw to the head.”

“I’ll do it on one condition.”

“And that is?” Note the eye rolling and voice heavily coated in sarcasm. That, my good Gijinka, is the effect I have on people.

“Say ‘scissors’.”

“…Fine. Shcishorsh.”

I held back a laugh. “Do it again,” I said, before getting clobbered with his severing claw.

“Now shit down like you’re shupposhed to.”

“Fine, I’m shitting, I’m shitting.”

“Now I shee  why Uxshie made you go by yourshelf! I don’t shee how you have a traveling partner shince you’re like thish! Wow, they musht be partying up in Uxshie’sh dome being all like ‘Woo, Elkarez’sh dieing, Elkarez’sh dieing!’”

“Well aren’t you nice.”

“Shut up, I’m jusht giving you a tashte of your own medishine.”

“I’m not stupid, I know--”

“Are you guys going to argue all day, or are we going to roast marshmallows and call it a night?” Flit interrupted.

I recoiled in disgust. “You guys roast marshmallows… over a dead guy? And then eat them?”

“No, you idiot, why would we do that? That’s something you’d probably come up with, you sick wad. It’s supposed to be funny,” Flit snapped back.

“Well. Then you guys need a lesson in humor, which--”

“We would be happy to decline. Now, let’sh let Elkarez shut up, and shtraighten shomething out. Flit, you get to have fun watching Perry burn; and yesh, you can invite Wendy to come watch with you. Elkarez, resht up; I’m coming with you through the resht of the maze.”

“Wh… well you’re pushy. Fine I’ll let you come along, since if I don’t you’ll probably kill me. So, when do we leave?”

“Onshe you have dinner, Mr. I’m-barely-holding-myself-together. Eat up.” He tossed me a few Oran berries, and I wolfed them down quickly.

“So, we’re leaving?”

“Yup. Now get up; you may have gotten through the Ground shection eashily, but next up ish the Rock shection, and letsh jusht shay that they don’t like ush very much. Sho we better shtick together. Though we may be Shuper Effective, they know their own territory, plush they count attack ush in numbersh. Don’t undereshtimate them. Let’sh go.”

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“Are we there yet?”

“Musht you do thish?”

“Are we there yet?”

“Really, Elkarez? Really?”

“Are we there yet?”

“…”

“Are we there yet?”

“Yesh, Elkarez, we’re there yet.”

-_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_- -_-

So, after almost two months, I finally got this done. Well, on the bright side, it’s my first update of the summer! Any ways, sorry for this filler, nothing much happened, but at least I think I got back into the grove of Elkarez’s attitude and stuff, so hopefully the writing will be better than the last few chapters. Either way, what do you guys think of Toram? He’ll be traveling with Elkarez for a little bit, so I want to know your thoughts about him. So, I’ll see you next update!