[Graceful_Suicune]

Graceful_Suicune: Lacher

Route 8

Crouched on the roof of a human-made building, a small treecko calculated the view beyond. Trees scattered the area bordered by cliffs, and a singular path weaved between frequent vegetation that populated the ground. It travelled straight for a time before bending in several ways, and made a final curve into the human settlement at the end. However, most of the path was unseen and blocked by more natural obstacles. Hedges grew in patterns and branches bent overhead, guarding parts of the stony path from anything threatening that may rain down from the sky.

Amid the serenity and usually peaceful atmosphere, pokemon of different kinds scuttled between the grass and hid in trees or scurried through tunnels in the cliffs. Pidgey and spearow fluttered from the trees and disappeared overhead. The ones that soared in a flock toward the end of the route either wheeled around and rode the wind in another direction as they neared and caught sight of whatever alarmed them, or sunk to the ground and erupted in a plume of feathers. Shrill squawks reached the ears of prey and predator alike at distances a regular scream wouldn't dare to venture, and although it was silently expected, it caught the wary treecko by surprise every time.

He had called the route home for an entire week, and for no longer than that had there been a fuss over an occurrence in the town nearby which he usually ensured he steered clear from. Too many times had he heard tales of mysterious happenings in that place, and as well as that, he was aware that it housed a graveyard--or, rather, a tower which was dedicated to the memorial of pokemon whose souls had departed their bodies. He found it rather typical that a disturbance began in such a cursed place, but he could not let it disrupt the peace he had created for himself any longer. It was a pain to sleep when squeals pierced his ears and pokemon and humans fled through his area of living. Careless pokemon would scare away his meals of crickets and cicadas, and no longer could he continue without knowing what in the name of the great grass protector Shaymin was happening.

The treecko kept his body low and steady as he breathed with a shallow consistency. The spearow whose body he saw no longer had startled him merely seconds ago, but that was not the first time one had done so.

"Nuts," a vulpix had muttered earlier, her styled head fur bouncing in place as her legs stilled. She peered over her shoulder and surveyed the ground she had just covered. "It's getting worse." She inclined her head to the treecko she had met days before. "They say there's some sort of outbreak or something. A desperate-lookin' bellsprout blurted a bunch of stuff about zombies or somethin' before he wobbled away. I don't know if it's tauros-crap or as true as a mew, but it would explain the kerfuffle from that freaky death town." Midway through her speech she had returned her gaze to the expanse of the route. She gave the treecko another look, as if for reassurance or an opinion.

Lacher narrowed his eyes but said nothing as he bounced up a tree trunk and rested against a branch. The fire type below grumbled something about a need to relocate and hurried away, scrambling up a steep slope in the low cliff and bounding away.

The grass type shook his head as he focused on the current minute. 'Zombies... What kind of ridiculous nonsense is that?' Scepticism filled his thoughts as he stayed in place a second before extending an arm and resting his rounded finger against the roof of the building. He repeated the movement and mimicked it with his legs and came to the edge of the tin. He scanned the skies above and ground below before his shoulders pulled his hands from the solid surface and drew his body upright. Even standing up didn't provide the height required to see over the trees and catch a glimpse of what was happening in the distance, but he was not about to give up. He needed to find the source of the problem, and, if possible (which he doubted), put a stop to it.

Filling his lungs with much-needed oxygen, the treecko leaped from the roof and settled on a nearby treetop, steadying himself with able arms and legs. From there he continued his bounding, clearing trees in no time and coming closer to what the humans called "Lavender Town."

~GS.