Obvious exits:
Northeast <NE> leads to Commerce Road - Route 7: Trader Way.
Southwest <SW> leads to Celadon City: Eastern Entrance.

Naiad arrives from Commerce Road - Route 7: Trader Way.
Naiad has arrived.

Jameka has connected.

It's not raining. This is a very good thing. Sure, the air is very humid, it's uncomfortably warm, and the entire route 7 is completely submerged under mud, but it's not raining, and that's really all that matters when you're a fire-type Growlithe. One particular Growlithe is downright ecstatic that it's not raining today - or is it that, or something else? Whatever the case, Peppy strolls through the area, nose down to the ground, sniffing around for something - almost definitely food. He doesn't seem to be doing a very good job of it, however - he only seems to be giving a half-interested sniff at seemingly random intervals, and he seems to only be marching blankly in a straight line. Something else is on his mind.

It's not raining. This is not a very good thing. At least when it's raining, the mud gets washed off of you as you go, at least when you have smooth, flawless skin like Naiad, but now it's just sticking to her white belly and blue coils as if never planning to let go. The limbless dragon sighs heavily and continues to slither, not close to the ground, hiding, as she usually does when she's near the road, but with her head up off the ground so she doesn't get a snoutful of the sticky substance.

Wai! It's not raining! Ladies and gentlemen, it is not, I reapeat, it is /not/ raining! Praised be the gods! Praised be... yeah. Well. It's not raining. Obviously enough. But surprisingly, Jameka's not out enjoying this lovely change of weather. Rather, the Pikachu is sleeping. Again. Hey, afternoon naps are good! Even if they really do last all afternoon. And so the little electric rodent snoozes on inside her usual favorite hideaway, a bush. It's too hot to be doing anything active anyway. So there.

Peppy continues on his one way path like a zombie, seemingly unconcious of the fact that yes, he is walking, and yes, he is supposed to be looking for food, and yes, he is supposed to be more aware of the world around him, just in case a Katerwaul is lurking right around the corner. Step step. Step step. Step - bonk! ... It appears that the spaced out Peppy has just crashed right into a tree. It takes him three or four seconds, but eventually the pup blinks, and woofs a sharp "Grow!" of an '<Ow!>' from his now-smushed muzzle. The Growlithe now blinks, glancing at the tree. Then up at the top of the tree. Then at the mud on the ground. Then left and right. Welcome back to reality, Peppy.

At the cry of pain, Naiad practically leaps for the nearest bush, quite a feat for a limbless creature, trying to hide before whatever it is sees her. The bush is rather too small for her however, and has another occupant that her nose ends up just a few inches away from before the Dragonair realizes that the noise didn't come from a human, but another pokemon. Not just any pokemon, but one she knows, an unusual thing. <Peppy?> she cries out, heedless of the sleeping Pikachu right in front of her. She pulls her head out of the bush, not even pausing to see if she disturbed the occupant, and calls out again, <Growlithe? Peppy? Is that you?> Her wing-like ears twitch as she tries to hear anymore sounds from the smushed puppy.

Somewhere, out there... stuff is happening. Things are dying, things are being born, lovestruck Growlithes are smashing into trees... yeah. Stuff. And Jameka, the runty, insignificant little Pikachu, is oblivious to it all. She could care less. As long as it doesn't concern her, right? The typical attitude of youth. The typical attitude of sleeping youth. The typical attitude of sleeping, exhausted after several consecutive days of rain and mud and very little food, youth. If there are others up and about Jameka, she isn't about to notice. Something drastic will have to happen get this rodent awake. Dangerous? Maybe. Does she care? No.

Peppy only has one small question - where in the world is he? Indeed, the pup seems absolutely perplexed to his location, his eyebrows furrowing and his nose stinging like heck. Peppy seems very accident prone these days, doesn't he? Anyway, it takes his cloudy, fuzzy mind a few moments to register the fact that someone is indeed calling his name! His immediate reply is a rather cheerful, <Aurora?> Yes, Peppy for a split second thinks that a pokemon who says "Dragonair" is Aurora. Don't ask me, I just pose him. Reason (hee, Peppy and logic!) sinks in a moment later, and he woofs a somewhat confused, <You're not Aurora.> ... Well, it is reason, yes...

Naiad cranes her long body upwards as far as she can without toppling, her head swinging to and fro as she tries to spot her friend. <Aurora? No, I'm not Aurora,> she says, sounding puzzled. Her tail twitches, trying to help her keep balance and goes under the bush briefly, swinging past the sleeping occupant. <It's Naiad,> the dragon pokemon manages to say before her long body collapses back to the ground. It's very hard to keep four or five feet of body held straight up without any limbs or anything to brace against.

Snore. Snore. Sniffle. Snore. Yup, the Pikachu is still fast asleep. And dreaming, too. What's she dreaming about? Well, at the moment she's dreaming about being in a nice big, grassy, sunny field. It's not too hot, not too cold and most of all: it's not raining! And then something happens. Something slithers past her. It doesn't actually touch, but she can just sort of feel it go by. Something long, sort of like an... Ekans? <An Ekans?!> Jameka awakes with a start, brown eyes wide as she sits up suddenly, getting her ears tangled in the bush around her. <Ekans! Aie! Help me!> she shrieks, still only half awake. <I'm gonna diiiiie!> Oh no, here we go again...

A Meowth kitten starts to chew on the database -- better save, quick! (Saving)

Naiad. Naiad sounds familiar, smells familiar, and has a familiar name, but Peppy really can't place the Dragonair anywhere in his thought. One could say his cluelessness is justified because he's distracted by his thoughts, but he'd probably still not be able to remember exactly who the dragon pokemon is even if he wasn't occupied. So Peppy does the smart thing - he takes a look in Naiad's direction. One glance at the limbless pokemon is all it takes to send Peppy's tail into wild excited wagging, though his face remains somewhat calm. His voice is cheerful as he woofs as gentle, <Oh, I remember you.> ... How flattering. The pup parts his jaws to say something else... and apparently mades a loud squealing noise. Peppy's eyes widen. <Oh, no,> he woofs quietly, apparently very, very scared, his voice barely audible over the shrieking Pikachu. <Not again.> And with that, the pup collapses to the ground, writhing in pain as his eardrums threaten to explode. Um, ow.

Naiad's primary sense isn't that of hearing, but nevertheless, the Pikachu's shrieking is enough to even make a visual creature wince. And wince she does, her tail whipping back and forth, the jewels on it clattering a bit. <You're not going to die!> the dragon manages to yelp. <I won't let the Ekans eat you, wherever it is,> she continues, peering around to try to see where the purple snake might be. She's met an Ekans before, and despite the vague similarity between their forms, she's certainly not about to let one eat someone right by her, especially not when that someone is threatening to kill everyone with sound alone.

The sky is grey and cloudy, and nothing casts a shadow. It's hot, humid, and still. High overhead, a pair of Butterfree can be seen flying in the direction of the ocean.

<I'm... gonna... diiiiiee!> the Pikachu continues to wail, oblivious to the fact she might be committing eatdrum genocide at the moment. Poor, stupid little Jameka. She just sits there, flat on her rump, tail curled up beside her, ears pressed flat against her head, eyes squeezed shut and tiny nose pointed into the air as she shrieks away. <I'm too young to--> she begins again, only to have someone else's voice click. Another voice. A voice telling her she won't be eaten... and the Pikachu opens her eyes, looking in the general direction of where the voice came. She blinks, stares at the long snaky-looking thing that just happens to be Naiad... and promply starts up again, louder than before. <Aiiieeeee!>

Peppy is meanwhile in quite a bit of pain. There's actually a good side to this, and that's that it's giving him a break from whatever the heck is on his mind. ... Of course, those thoughts are being replaced with thoughts of tearing little Pikachus to shreds. But... then it stops. And life just seems -that- much better.... Until Jameka starts it up again. Popping to all four paws, the pup barks a rather loud, <Will you stop that?!> ... She probably won't hear him.

Naiad squeezes her eyelids shut for just a moment as her eyes water with pain and she tries to find some patience for the strange yellow shrieking pokemon. Finally, however, she draws her head back like a snake striking and roars out <Be quiet!> She's closer to Jameka as well as louder than Peppy, so the Pikachu probably won't be able but help to hear it. <Or I will eat you,> she adds, leaving her mouth open long enough to show off her sharp, cylindrical teeth and long pink tongue.

In most cases all the yelling the Pikachu suddenly receives would only send her into more fits. Probably louder than before. Is that possible? Quite. It would probably break the sound barrior, probably shatter windows for miles around, make anything within a radious of twenty miles go deaf. But it's quite possible. Luckily for all involved, though, today's circumstances are a bit different. Today there's a large snaky-thingy threatening to eat her. Poor Jameka's wails stop short, and the Pikachu simply sits there, wide-eyed, in complete and totally silent terror as she gapes at Naiad. <Eep...>

Growlithes have pretty sensitive hearing, so one can only possibly imagine how much worse the pain Peppy's feeling is. And it only gets worse. Whimpering in pain, the pup collapses right back onto the ground, digging his muzzle into the mud in an attempt to just make it stop. Doesn't that mouse need to take -breaths- once in a while? Thankfully, she finally shuts up. The clouds part, holy light shines down, and lo - it is good. Peppy just sort of exhales, sinking deeper into the mud. He looks more like a rag doll than anything else.

<Thank you,> Naiad says in a more normal tone of voice, her tones silvery and musical as they normally are when she speaks. <No one is going to eat you so there is absolutely no reason to scream. In fact,> she continues, glancing about, <I don't see an Ekans anywhere. So there's no reason to be frightened. Even if there were, I would protect you,> she finishes matter-of-factly.

Jameka doesn't reply. At all. The poor Pikachu is frozen stiff, staring wide-eyed at the Dragonair before her. But then the hyperactive little rodent's energy gets the best of her and she raises one trembling paw, points a trembling finger at Naiad and replies in a trembling voice, <Ekans!> It's rather obvious what she means. Naiad is apparently this "Ekans" the Pikachu is so terrified of. Hey, can she help it? She's young. She's stupid. She's... yeah.

Peppy's ear flickers as Naiad mentions the phrase '<... I would protect you>' Jameka. Suddenly, Naiad and Jameka are just sort of forgotten. Peppy sinks deeper into the mud - but this time he's wearing a cheesy, content little grin on his face as his eyes just sort of blank out, peering at nothing in particular. Indeed, the pup seems to go even more limp as his thoughts take over reality. Granted, all this spacing out is taking place while Jameka's just sort of gawking at confused Naiad, but hey. Peppy bought a ticket for Cloud Nine, and it's just blasted off.

<Where?> Naiad immediately responds, puffing up her body a bit and whipping her head to and fro, trying once more to spot the reptile. This time she's certain to check behind her from both the right and the left, even though with her sinuous body, she's able to turn completely around from one way. With a very confused look on her face, the Dragonair turns back to the Pikachu. <There's no Ekans there,> she says gently in a voice one uses when trying to calm an insane creature.

A Meowth kitten starts to chew on the database -- better save, quick! (Saving)

The Dragonair's puffing up doesn't help the poor Pikachu's fear any. The rodent just shrinks back further, whimpering softly as she does so. This is it. She's gonna be eaten. Naiad's just gathering herself to eat Jameka in one giant gulp. Here goes. Any minutet now... The electric mouse squeezes her eyes shut again, waiting. For something that never comes. Hesitantly the Pikachu cracks an eyelid, to see Naiad turned and looking around. <She... she can't see me?> the rat mutters to herself, disbelieving. It's about this time, though, that the Dragonair turns around again. <Aie!> And the Pikachu's frozen once more with fear.

It's difficult to make an entire paragraph of posing nothing but 'Peppy lies there', but let's see what I can do. Completely motionless, Peppy is getting muddier and muddier by the second, sinking deeper into the mud. It barely goes above his chin, so not even his tail is submerged, but it still almost looks like he's slipping into quicksand. Really dark and awfully wet quicksand, but quicksand nonetheless. Whatever the case, Jameka and Naiad fail to snap him out of his funk. One would have thought that Peppy would be the first one to perk up and listen when scary things that are definitely going to kill something are in the area.

Naiad, though she normally doesn't have an extremely short attention span, has completely forgotten about Peppy due to all the screaming and shrieking and threatening and Pikachu-sicles. Each second that she looks at Jameka, in fact, her expression becomes more and more disbelieving, sympathetic, and yet at the same time, irritated. After all, it's sad when such a cute little thing is so obviously insane, but that doesn't stop it from being irritating. <Of course I can see you,> Naiad sighs, then turns to undulate off in the direction she came.

Naiad has disconnected.

Pikachu-sickle is right. This time Jameka's eternal energy-rush doesn't succeeding in overriding her terror-stricken body. All the while Naiad's eyes on her, the electric rat doesn't move a muscle, simply staring at the snake-like pokemon with wide eyes. That is, until the Dragonair turns away and begins to leave. Then Jammie exhales in a rush of air, slumps over, and yawns. Oh geez, she's not going to go back to sleep again, is she?

Okay. Another pose of just lying there. Or perhaps not - in the farthest depths of Peppy's mind (well, given Peppy, you probably don't have to travel too far to reach the farthest depths), something just clicks - Naiad's turning to go. If one turns to go, one is likely planning to leave (brilliant deducations!)... but there's so much Peppy has to tell the Dragonair! Blinking and shaking his head for a moment, the pup woofs a somewhat tired, <Are you already leaving?> Maybe he was planning to bum food off of her or something. Hey, he's the pup that walks into trees, after all. He's already too late, however - Naiad's gone, leaving Peppy to just sort of blink at... where she was. ... Uh, hm.

Hi, ho, the Ekans is gone! Or... something to that extent. There never really was an Ekans to begin with, so of course it's gone. Er. Sorta. Whatever. In any case, the Dragonair is gone as well, and the Pikachu apparently couldn't be more relieved. Sighing heavily, Jameka's shoulders slump and her eyelids droop. Boy, screaming at the top of your tiny little lungs can sure take a lot out of a person. Or Pikachu. As can being scared stiff. <Sleepy...> the electric rodent mumbles, suddenly collapsing where she stands. And promptly falling asleep again. Hello.

Half of Peppy wants to wake Jameka up - hey, he's got to tell *somebody*, right? - but the other half realizes that the best idea would be to get while the gettin' is good, or he'll wake her up and be met with another insanely loud psychotic shriek that will further deafen the pup. In the end, Peppy realizes that having an even bigger headache doesn't sound all too nice right now, so the Growlithe just snorts a bit of a laugh and turns away, now deciding whether to head back to the den or continue to search for food. He peers left. Right. Left. Right. Then, with a little exhale and a grin, travels left - the direction he came from. Let's just hope that on the way back, he doesn't walk into any more trees.