The party travels to Silvertree...hopefully

"Not NOW, zandrophin!" Marcus waited for the frog pokemon to return to the earth, and then started running again. "What kind of higher ground? UGH!" Marcus shoulder checked a tree and went spinning off before regaining his stride. "Think! What can we do...We don't really have much to work with here...We'll figure it out once we get to the higher ground! We can see better from there."

With this, Marcus picked up speed and kept pace with Sofa as their almost assured death grew closer, giant clouds of snow and dust could be seen towering over the trees to the left of them, the rumbling and tearing now clearly to their side and not in front of them.

Wall...wall...wall. Marcus' brain was frying trying to fit every variable and solution into his head at once, he was looking at the wall with a stupid look on his face as the stampede was getting closer and closer, they could hear the grunts from the Mamoswine clearly now. Wall, tremors, Mamoswine, people, pokemon, moves, trees, tremors, perpendicular, height, strength, tremors, grip, tools, tremors, tremors...tremors.........

Marcus was spinning around and stopping constantly looking for something, anything to focus his mind. He kept looking up at the cliff face and then back in the direction of the stampede as everyone started to climb while he tried to figure out a way they could-
we're gonna die.

Marcus stopped spinning as that thought sunk in. We're gonna die. Gonna die.

Die.

"And there's nothing I can do about it." Marcus let out the end of his thought in a small whimper.
Marcus stared straight into the wall as he felt his ears start to get hot and red, his eyebrows curled up into a depressed curve as his breaths became shorter and sharper. He could feel himself breaking down, falling apart. Giving up. If they were looking off in the direction of the stampede, the could have seen the trees at the far back of their view falling down as the Mamoswine moved closer and closer.
die. die. die. All of us. Maya and zandrophin and Mentus and Bo and...

Marcus looked up to find Sofa, and while Maya was already up 5 or 6 feet, Sofa was still at the bottom, frantically scratching at the wall with his claws trying to climb. No. No, he can't die. No. Marcus' face tightened into a determined look somewhere between grief and rage as he walked towards the Vigoroth. "You can't climb. You weren't built for it. You have to go into your ball." Sofa stopped clawing and turned abruptly to Marcus. He looked at him with a terrified face, tears in his eyes. He nodded and waited for the red light to consume him and pull him in. Once his friend was inside, Marcus turned towards the direction of the stampede and looked for a second, he could barely stand straight, the ground was shaking so much. Finally, he took off his backpack, knelt down and started rifling through it.

"Are you guys going to climb or what?" Maya shouted, getting hold of a petrified tree root to pull herself to another foothold. Dororo croaked in agreement, looking down at the others. She hadn't realized that some of the rocks were icy... which made things even more difficult. It was pretty high up...

Now that she thought about why didn't Zandrophin use Mentus? Hell, why couldn't he teleport all of them away? She didn't think of that. Maya glanced down to see what the others were doing and panicked. She could climb but looking down was always a bad idea. She gulped and tried to not think of falling and instead focusing on the top and not dying. She did not come here to die.

Maya didn't realize her mistake until the shaking began. The rock under her hand suddenly felt exceedingly unstable as everything began to shudder. She stopped climbing, and flattened herself to the wall, trying to cling to it but it was no good. The closer the stampede got the more Maya felt like the cliff was trying to shake her off.

"Froaaaak!" Dororo croaked, as he hoped on to the rocks, his webbed, sticky feet clinging well to the rocks. He grabbed her hand, as if to pull her up, but Maya didn't dare move her hand.

"It's fine, Oro!" She shouted over the trembling, eyes squeezed shut. She wished she could reach his Pokeball so to save him from this. "Ju-"

Her hand slipped and her eyes flew open, dread dropped in her stomach almost as fast as the sensation of falling. She flailed to find purchase again on the rocks but lost her grip with the other hand and fell backward off the cliff. She didn't even have time to scream properly.

"Frooaaaaak!" Dororo screecheed, almost like it was pained, as it threw itself off the cliff after Maya. As he fell his body began to glow...

Zandrophin ran towards the cliff, just to get out of the stampede's immediate vicinity, quickly scaling its face up to where Marcus was. He glanced up and saw Maya fall. He looked over at Marcus, who he knew couldn't grab her without slipping off himself.

She's going to die, isn't she?

Then, Oro flew past after her, glowing slightly.

Perhaps not, Sir. If what I think is happening is indeed happening, she may be alright.

Zandrophin looked over at Marcus. He knew he couldn't be heard over the noise, so he spoke through Mentus.

"Marcus! I need you to focus! I can have Mentus take us both up to the top, to safety....or you can be a hero and try to make it up your way. By the way...you won't make it. It's still your choice."

Marcus stretched out his arms as far out to reach Maya as he could, but he didn't even get close. As she fell past, Marcus' heart sank. He felt one of his spikes start to shake and he leaned forward again slowly and grabbed onto the wall just as he felt a burst of wind shoot past him. Marcus looked up and saw Maya fly up past him in a newly evolved Dororo's arms. Marcus breathed a sigh of relief as he rested his head against the wall, closing his eyes. Oh thank goodness...oh wait, that's right. Marcus opened his eyes to zandrophin looking at him still with a smug look on his face.

Won't make it my butt... Marcus held on to the wall until the stampede had passed, trying to get his heartbeat to slow down.