To Jump

The journey through the forest had been shorter than Marina had initially thought. The forest wasn't very long, only a few miles in length, and now she had arrived at the opposite end of the shore. The place was vacant. Had she been the first to get here?
The area sure seemed dangerous. There was water already, but it was a good 50 feet below her where it met a pleasant looking beach. She thought she spotted a cave under her, but she dare not peer over the edge. The only way to the shore was to either scan the cliff she was on until the shore disappeared entirely, or jump down on the cube-shaped rocks that were dotting the water as well as the shore. There was one a couple of feet in front of her, but to jump and miss would prove fatal. This was something Marina was not ready to do. Because of this, the girl kicked off her sandals and stuck to the side of the canyon, watching the calm ocean waters and the occasional Pokémon rise out for a moment. She kicked her feet back and forth over the shore far below, still filled with curiosity as to what lay down there..

Suddenly, a Pokemon erupted from the water below. Cascades of water surged in all directions, and out of the whirlpool like splash zone, came a red Gyarados. It's face portraying huge irritation. Of course, they all usually look like that, and they can be happy. But this Pokemon's mood was the exact same as it looked. The Pokemon loitered around the shore, as if waiting for something. Her head was tilted up to where the trainer was gazing over the water.

Soon, a few long minutes after the Pokemon had surfaced, a ginger haired girl hurried over to where the trainer was. Not having broken a sweat, the trainer hurried over to the blue haired girl. Her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "Have you seen a red Gyarados? They are usually twenty-one feet tall..." She scratched her check in embarrassment. What kind of trainer loses her Pokemon?

She and Gyarados had been searching for the Magikarp. No such luck so far. Becca had thought that because Akane had been a Magikarp before, that she would be able to find it faster. So, Becca let her Gyarados search around the island and told the Pokemon to met her over by the Crustle Cove. Becca had traced the line of the shore, and no sign of her shiny Pokemon.

"Waaaaaah!? Marina exclaimed as the Red Gyarados surfaced in front of her. She scrambled backwords up from the side of the rocky canyon, seeing the eyes of the sea monster gaze at her. This truly seemed like the time where she was to die. The girl's knees were weak, rendering her unable to stand in her ungodly amount of fright.

At that point the serpent's trainer appeared, and Marina looked up at her, then back at the Gyarados a few times, all the while uttering things such as, "Huuh....Buu.....Wh.....", and finally answered the question with a wide eyed, silent nod at the red haired girl standing beside her. That surely freaked her out, having turned a peaceful scene into a hectic one. She let out a deep, shaky breath, letting the trainer and her freakishly large sea monster friend reunite.

Becca looked over the cliff, her embarrassed face brightened. Cupping her hands around her mouth, she crouched. Yelling at the top of her lungs, down to her Pokemon below. "Hey! Did you find anything?" at first there was no response from Akane. So she was worried that her voice didn't travel that far. Then, the Gyarados shook her head, and a roar of frustration answered her question. Nodding, she yelled down again. "Keep looking! I'll met you at the Northern beach later!" Akane dived back into the water, disappearing into the waves.

Taking her Pokemon's disappearance as an okay, she turned back to the trainer from before. Realizing that she may have freaked the girl out, She apologized quickly. "Heh, Sorry about that, ya' know." As soon as she felt the words 'ya' know' slip out of her mouth, she mentally winced. She had done so good at no saying it, but it just slipped out. "So, uh, what'cha doing over here?" It was kinda cheesy to say that, but considering what just happened before, she didn't want to bother the trainer as much as she already has.

"I don't know..." Marina said, voice trailing off. She began thinking of the question in an effort to formulate a better response. All she was doing was strolling through the park, and ended up at the cove. The girl scooted back to the edge of the cliff, looking down at the beach below. "Have you been down there? Has anyone been down there?" she asked without waiting for an initial answer. What if that Magikarp was in that cave? Would Marina really take a chance and go down there? The girl was still, careful not to make any movement that would make it possible to fall. You could say she had a fear of heights, and riding her Braviary she did seldom.

The red head seated herself on the cliff, so that her legs dangled over the edge. She leaned forward slightly, to get a better look at the waves crashing below. Becca wasn't too worried of falling. With her expertise of swimming, and if she got a good push off the cliff if she fell, she'd be fine. Rocks or not.

Perhaps that was her being over confident.

As her roommate's question reached the trainer's ears, she gave a short shrug. "Would be pretty dangerous, Ya' know." She mentally hit herself. Why did she keep saying that! It was getting annoying. What was it that her father had called it when she was younger? Verbal tick? Yeah, that's it.

"But I don't think any human has done down there. I mean, my Pokemon was just down there." Becca laughed and leaned backwards, positioning her hands behind her so they propped her up.

Marina gulped. "It looks interesting..." she said. However, she got up, taking a long breath. "Not interesting enough."

You could call Marina a coward, and she very well was okay with being one in that instance. The girl glanced at the cube rock that was a jump away from the cliff they were on. She traced the pathway it made, and in a bought of bravery, she inhaled her breath. Not even processing it in her head, the girl contradicted her words, leaping off the cliff and landing on the "island," knees buckling once she did so. After realizing the jump was successful, she was overcome with pride.

"I-I did it!" she told her friend shakily once thinking the same thing. Her adrenaline was high, and there was no way she was going to back down there. Marina hopped from stone to stone, each not too far from each other. By the time they began to drift apart, the girl could tell that she was getting closer to the shore and the water. A fall would be harmless, and therefore her courage went through the roof.

After about a dozen descending leaps, Marina leaped onto the shore, kicking up some sand as she did so. Laughing gleefully at her success, she was overcome by a new spectacle. The shore only trailed inland roughly 30 feet, and it met a cave with a rather massive indent into the canyon. The cave itself didn't seem too big, but the curve of it's outer walls began a good 35 feet from the ground, with a span double that. The girl stood frozen, and called up to her roommate with a voice filled with shock and awe.

"Hey Becca, come down here."

The redhead watched in curiosity as her friend jumped down the rocks. Becca's mouth open slightly, and her head tilted curiously. Was her roommate attempting to get to the bottom? Blinking, she leaned forward, a bit dangerously, but the trainer didn't care. She was too interested on tracing the path that Marina took.

As the blue haired girl reached the bottom, and called up to her, Becca cheered, removing her hands from the rock, to clap for her friend. Doing this, lead her balance to tip forward. Panic flared throughout the girl. Her former confidence gone, along with her balance. Knowing that she was going to go down, Becca fumbled with her belt and bag. Throwing them off, towards Marina.

Then she descended forward. Towards the 'island' Marina had landed on. She didn't want to hit that. Holding back a curse, the trainer slammed her feet to the cliff side, and pushing off towards the churning water below. However, doing this, as she was falling, sent her into a front flip series. Her red hair sprayed out behind her as she flipped. As soon as the water was ten feet away, the swimming enthusiast pulled out of the front flips and into a neat dive. Narrowly missing a  pointy rock while she hit the water, the tips of her fingers first. A well trained and perfect dive.

A loud splash sounded, not as loud as one would think, falling off of a cliff. A few long moments of panic and fear, a familiar red head broke the surface of the water. Her face red, and instead of crying, or anything related to that... Becca laughed. A bright smile lit up her face as she floated towards the shore where Marina was. Her red hair seemed darker, as it was wet, and it floated behind her, like a veil.

"Scared ya, didn't I?"

She sure did. Marina watched her friend fall with a look of genuine horror, and it turned into genuine anger once her friend appeared. She crossed her arms, glaring at her friend. She didn't like being tricked with something as serious as that.

"Stop doing that! That's the second time you scared me half to death. I have the heart of a Spoink, you know!" she exclaimed, the moment retching her away from the vision of the splendid cave indent. She waited for Becca to swim back to the sand, which seemed a little more rough on the shore there. A Krabby scurried by at Marina's feet, which startled her, causing her to jump back in fear of being pinched. Third time... she thought sullenly, realizing how bad her luck had been that afternoon.

Becca made her way onto the shore, laughing sheepishly as she wrung out her shorts and t-shirt. Becca had made sure that she wouldn't scratch herself on the rougher sand.The water fell to the ground below, making a loud pattering sound. Reaching back for her ponytail, She gripped the top of the red bundle and tossed it over her shoulder, so she could easily wring out the water. Starting from the top she worked her way down the the tip of her hairdo. Making sure to get every last drop out of her hair so it could dry easier.

The trainer pulled out the ribbon that held her hair up, the one section that the band had covered was completely dry. Becca shook out her hair, and tied the band around her wrist for later use. She turned to look into the cave, and what she saw made her arms go slack, her mouth open a bit in shock. "Woah, 'ya know!" Her gape turned into an almost blinding smile. Becca snatched Marina's wrist, ignoring the Krabbys as they scampered by, and charged into the cave. To Becca, this place was too awesome to ignore.