From Duo to Trio

...You wake up steadily to find your head still on a soaked moss bed, and thankfully not against some stomach wall within a duck that could've taken advantage of the situation. If anything, you discover that the Golduck isn't on his bedding with you, but instead off in the corner rummaging through something. Rubbing at your eyes, you can at least tell that he was going through his belongings; not that there were many. Most of it was likely items he scavenged off of others, like random accessories, satchel bags that were empty, or the occasional portion of food like berries or kelp wraps.

Glancing to the side, you're thankful to see Jackal in a peaceful and alive state too, lounging on his back, belly-up and snoring to flood the room with the echoing noise. It blankets your inevitable haul of your body to lean up before you casually saunter over towards the duck. "...Mornin', or at least I hope it is considering the lack of daylight-"

"Qhwuahgh?!" Gold releases a startled quack, fumbling a big shell in his hands as he practically hacky-sacks it about until catching it with both palms before it could hit the rock floor. He twists a violent look at you with a huff. "Jeez, watch yourself, mutt! I give you a pillow and you give me a heartattack?!"

You try to quell his stress with hands up, simply settling on your rear with a bit of a strain due to your leg, sitting criss-cross right next to him to examine his pile of goods. It certainly gives you a better look to confirm your suspicions; these were definitely stolen. "My bad. Didn't mean to interrupt with...what, are you doing inventory of your knick-knacks?"

Gold snorts and simply fishes for one of the satchel bags, "Hands off! These ain't knick-knacks, they're clearly my treasures! And for your information, I'm just figurin' out how to make all this shit fit in a bag...!" Sure enough, a few select items were set off to the side; the seashell in specific being kept in his hands rather possessively.

You can't help but grin, knowing what this means. "...Tagging along after all? Didn't think you'd like our company so much already."

"I don't!" The duck huffs rather quickly in a retort, squeezing the shell a bit as he glares at you. "...But if what you said's true, then, y'know, maybe I'll finally settle down with a woman who can't help but be enamored by my heroism; or maybe like eleven women. I don't think heroes should have a limit to the number of fans, right?"

Rolling your eyes, you doubt there's any women running to suck the dick of any person on the road saying they'll make the world a better place. But you knew for sure Gold could put up a fight, and having more numbers would make travel less dangerous. Besides, your earlier conversation revealed the duck was suffering from serious cabin fever. Getting out in the world would do him good. You prod him with an elbow to state, "...Is that really it, or are you hoping for maybe more than just some one-night stands?"

"Well..." He mulls it over as he inspects the seashell. "...Guess it'd be neat to see what other lakes or rivers there are, maybe a bigger cave, or places with more neat stuff like this. I wanna know where this thing came from."

"...It probably came from someone you attacked or stole it from." You remind him.

He just gives another leer before explaining, "I'm talking about where they got it from then. And I didn't steal all this shit! Sometimes...folks drop things when they run away from a guy blasting at 'em from underwater." He seems to pout a bit by your suggestion, even if it was mostly true. But that was in the past. Last night convinced you enough that you could trust Gold. At least...not to betray you when given an easy chance.

"Well, I can at least tell you that came from the sea. The ocean's got a lot of shells like that in it." You explain to him.

Gold's head seems to perk up wildly as he mutters, "W-Wait, you're tellin' me...the ocean's real?!"

That perplexes you at first, considering your upbringing like most others, but the notion of this duck being stuck at this lake alone for so long returns to your memory. His disbelief was too genuine. You decide not to pull his leg. "Yeah, this whole continent we live on is just one big island. All around it is the ocean. I take it you've at least heard of it, right?"

"Kinda...just stuff I've heard from some passerby's. They talked about tryin' to make it to some 'beach' and build a raft to sail out to some other land in hopes to avoid the infection. Pff. Sounded like the cowards just didn't wanna swim..." The Golduck answers, clearly not understanding the sheer width of the ocean's entirety. You chuckle some, which irks the duck a bit. "What's so funny, huh?"

"Sorry, it's just...not everyone can just swim an entire ocean. You need to realize Gold, the sea is like...the opposite of your lake here. You know how there's land surrounding it entirely, as far as you can see on the horizon in every direction? Well...the ocean's like that. Vast, blue waters surround all of the land, even wider than what you can see. A beach is just the coastal edge of the land before it ventures off into near infinite sapphire where it meets the edge of the sky."

The water-type's eyes seem to light up; even that cracked ruby of his forehead gives a flicker. "You're...you're lyin'! Ain't no fuckin' way that much water exists out there! Tch, I try to open up and this is how ya treat me, like I'm a joke? Oh haw-haw, yeah, I'm the dumb ol' birdbrain-"

"Heheh, nope, I'm being genuine here man." You get over any instance of laughter and explain, "I've been to a couple beaches before. Soft sand that bakes in the sun when it's a cloudless day. The water constantly wafts and splashes against the land, so the entire area is just filled with the muffled roars of waves idly crashing about for miles. The wind carrying against the water and wading the salty air over the coast. They say if you put a shell like that up to your ear, you can even hear the ocean."

"B-Bullshit..." Gold huffs, still thinking he was getting his leg pulled...but he does eventually put the shell up to his ear and listens in. You smirk at the gesture, watching him just kind of dart his eyes about, leaning extremely hard into it before tucking it off from the side of his head. "Tch, enough fuckin' around with me. I'll just have to see this 'beach' so I can rub it in your face when I called you out on your fuckin' dumb joke."

"Fine by me." You answer, content with being proven wrong. "I'll be sure any of our travels can swing by a coast if we can."

"Fine then...!" Gold grunts...before tucking the seashell into his satchel for later. You could only wonder if he'd try again to listen to it, or if he ended up hearing whatever he could imagine and enjoyed it. "I don't need a lot, so just go get your hot-head when you're ready to buzz off outta here. I guess I'm...I guess I'll just follow behind ya or something."

"With us. You're traveling with us, not behind us, Gold." You assure him. You even go to pat his shoulder, but the blushing duck just swats your hand away. His face was red, and there was a brief second of embarrassment...but also probably appreciation there too. But Gold's pride returns as he just huffs and tries to shoo you away.

"Beat it, pooch! Your fat badger's drivin' me nuts with that snorin'! I'd rather pretend to listen to your 'ocean shell' bullshit than this." The duck growls as he goes back to figuring out what exactly to pack.

It was a sure-sign to get your own things and get Jackal up. Putting faith in Gold's internal clock, you'd want to be up during morning light where all of you could see where you were going. It did make you curious on how Hex would catch up, or if you'd meet him on the road eventually. You did have a bad leg, and you were travelling in a trio now. A solo and capable person that frog seemed to be could probably make better ground than your group; not that you'd tell the others such.

You ease yourself up, and for a moment, Gold seems to flinch and offer his arm as a brace for you to ease up, only to back down from the offer and just busy himself in his own thoughts.

Instead, you just do it all on your own and go to wake the hard sleeper up with a nudge of your hindpaw against his side, tap-tapping him to mutter out, "Ey. Jack. We're goin' now."

The grumbling Typhlosion just rolls a bit over with flinching pinched eyes, snarling his teeth a bit to murmur, "...izz...Jhackel...ya cocky pup...zzhh..."

You sigh out, having hoped that would've worked as it looks as though Jackal was going in for another ten winks of sleep. Looking around, you eventually settle on the idea to announce, "...Gold woke up and beat me to a pulp. Apparently he's better than us Jack, we're out of our league against him. We should just give up and give him what he wants."

"Z-Zzh...yeah that tracks...just gimme five more...wait, what?!" The Typhlosion snorts loudly as his pores spit a few embers from his mane; the fire-type sulking himself a bit up with angry eyes, "Wh-What the fuck?! Ain't no way in hell am I ever gonna-" He blinks and angrily glares around, rubbing his eyes, only to see you standing over him a bit and Gold off in his corner. The Typhlosion scratches his head before giving a confused yawn. "Hhrrhaaaahhhgh, gnh...huh? What were you sayin'?"

"Huh. Good to know that works as an alarm." You reply and just nudge him again. "C'mon. We're gonna be going for a swim again and heading out."

Jackal blinks a bit, still waking up, but he groans, "Ughhh...fuck. I should've just stayed asleep..." The idea of submerging himself in cold water again and having to hold his breath didn't appeal to him, especially for a second time.

"Fine. Wanna stay here in this rock forever?" You suggest.

"As if...!" Jackal huffs in a grin as he rolls himself up to a stand before giving a big flex to stretch, curing himself of morning drowsiness. "Leaving here means we get to leave the squirt behind! That's all ya had to say to get me up dude! Let's blow this place and leave the runt in the dirt, yeah~?"

You flick an ear. Oh boy. How do you even explain this.

Jackal notices your lack of response, slowly losing the confident flex of his big figure and mutters, "...yeah?"

"Weeeeeell..." You trail off with a look on your face as though you just tasted something really sour, but didn't want admit it...