"So don't wear panties." Naomi comments dryly, the hint of a teasing tone in her voice. "If jellyfish can get nosebleeds, that would do it."<br/><br/>The thudding of the ground announced the presense of the Rhyhorn. It seemed smaller than the thudding footsteps would have it, and it seemed pretty amiable as well. Right up until it figured out that its lunch had been stolen out from under it.<br/><br/>Naomi knew they were difficult to distract. It had been hungry but now it was angry and looking for a fight. Not that she had a berry bush's worth of food on her anyway.<br/><br/>She struggled to get to the edge of the boulder field and set down the burden on her back. The hillside in this area was oddly bowed in but she found a relatively flat space nearby. After Eleyna passes the lead to her, she calls out, "'Tai! Get his attention and make him run to you!" Rhyhorns were notably single-minded, and sometimes when they started running they'd forget why, proceeding on sheer momentum. Assuming that 'Tai could taunt him effectively enough to do that, they could lead it around until it got tired or forgot it was supposed to be fighting. If there was one berry bush in this area, maybe there's another... She popped out Loon's pokeball. "Loon, I need you to find a nearby berry bush and come back. Don't eat any of the berries." She gave it the order. The duck pokemon looked blank for a moment, working through what she wanted. Then it blurted out "Farf!" and flew off, circling the area.<br/><br/>The Dragonair reared up and called out a challenge to the Rhyhorn, cracking his tail down on a nearby rock. The Rhyhorn responded, rearing up and coming down on another small boulder which fractured under his weight impressively, crunching into a spray of smaller pebbles. They stared at each other for a long moment, and then the Rhyhorn charged!<br/><br/>'Tai lunged forward too, the two of them seemingly on a collision course. At the last moment, 'Tai dodged aside, barely missed by the Rhyhorn's swipe of its horn as it charged past him. A spray of rock and dirt followed as the compact creature 'put on the brakes'. It turned around suddenly, batting one of the larger rocks into the air with its horn and then hurling it with a twist of its neck at the Dragonair!<br/><br/>In response, 'Tai blasted it with the blue-white icy spray of an Ice Beam, slowing it and coating it in a layer of ice. He slammed it back towards the Rhyhorn with a flip of his body! The rock pokemon charged, hunching his shoulders and lowering his head, the impact breaking the flying boulder into a spray of icy, rocky shards! Unimpeded, he barreled straight for 'Tai who, again, just barely dodged!<br/><br/>Back and forth they went, 'Tai dancing aside at the last moment of Rhyhorn's charges, but the stalemate couldn't last!<br/><br/>"Tai! Ice the ground where he isn't!" Naomi called out. The wild charges of the rock pokemon had already gotten too close for comfort and she had her hands on the carrying straps of the healing unit, ready to haul it away and run if she needed to.<br/><br/>'Tai was briefly distracted by Naomi's shout, trying to figure out what she meant, and that slowed him just enough for the Ryhorn to barrel into him! The thudding impact threw the elegant but much lighter serpentine 'Tai clear, but it was a solid blow.<br/><br/>'Tai blasted a random patch of ground with the ice beam, just as Rhyhorn charged. Again, and again, one of the blasts coming awfully close to Naomi, another blasting past Eleyna and leaving little icicles standing up from the rock.<br/><br/>Naomi yelped! "Hey, that was too close! Watch your aim!"<br/><br/>"'Aaiiir!" came the called out apology, as the Dragonair paused next to Naomi and kissed her cheek before dashing off again. The Rhyhorn was in full charge, but the sudden change of direction wasn't something the rock pokemon could cope with. Naomi shrieked and threw herself and the pack out of the way, showered in a cloud of dirt while the Rhyhorn barreled past! He lost his footing and tumbled, clods of dirt flying, dust and rock and ice spraying into the air!<br/><br/>And the hillside collapsed, obscuring the scene further!<br/><br/>When the dust settled, Naomi sat up, coughing heavily and trying to wipe the dirt from her face. The Rhyhorn was shakily getting up again, looking around in the mouth of the, the tunnel? fissure? that it had just revealed. Curiously, he just sat there and looked into the opening. The rock pokemon seemed confused and nuzzled into the dirt, then sniffed the air and started slowly sauntering into the newly opened cave. He didn't react when 'Tai came gliding up to curl protectively around Naomi, instead just grunting softly as it stopped to look around.<br/><br/>"ow. Huh. I guess I won't need that plan." She mutters to herself as she takes in the change in the local landscape. She raises her voice, not immediately seeing her partner, "Uh, Eleyna? I guess you were right, there is a cave here."<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>