Something weird happened...

Mission 7 Prologue (3)
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News of the day: I can't colour! asdffsas this looked better in greyscale, you have no idea how sad this makes me

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“What?” Zooka squirmed in her grip. “What’s bad?! What’s going on?”

“Calm down, Zooka! You’re not going to be able to help if you make yourself sick again!”

She stared at the ground absently for a moment, reminded again that it had been her who had caused his recent illness. Whether it’d been an accident or not, she had trouble letting go of her guilt. Ever since what had happened when she’d returned to Prismatic Jungle, she had been over-analysing her own actions, and antagonising over anything that she did which, with hindsight, she might’ve changed. Like coming to this awful forest and letting Nye get trapped in an illusion, for instance.

She shook her head, breaking the fruitless line of thought and focussing again on the situation. “We’re going to form a search party, okay?”

“What is going on?” he repeated indignantly, spitting wads of her mane out along with the words. “Where is Nye?”

“I don’t know, Zooka!” she snapped. He recoiled a little, continuing to shiver, and another shot of guilt hit her. “I- I’m sorry, Zooka, I didn’t mean to bite your head off. But I don’t know what’s going on either. I’m worried too.”

“What on earth happened?” he sulked, lowering his head. Why couldn’t anything ever just happen normally around this place anymore?

“We got close to the Zoroark, and nearly had Jasmine, but then something weird happened and half of us were gone. PK and Mike included. I can’t find Kyuvi, either...”

“But... Nye was sick... he can’t be...” Zooka’s dismay was contagious. She involutarily scanned the area again, with some subconscious and fruitless hope that Nye was just hiding nearby still compelling her. But once again, nothing.

“We have to hope that wherever he is, he’s safe. If Kyuvi’s with him, he’ll be fine.” She sighed. Even that could be a total lie. They barely knew the Dewott, and the circumstances around her turning up were still rather odd to Syrren. But she had to reassure the panicked Whimsicott. And she had to hope, as well... “We’ll find them.”

“Okay.” He relaxed a little, the rather feeble shuddering still jolting him, and resigned himself to his own uselessness. “Where do we start, then?”

“We get back to the village and regroup. Who knows, maybe he’s back at the tenements, anyway...” She pushed him onto her back and started heading toward the village.