Broken Souls

Deal With The Dark Types

We wake up in the morning on opposite sides of the tree. I know she's there at once because I can hear her, and as I push the willow leaves aside she bounds ahead, her gait more confident this morning. She looks back with a hint of some pity I don't need or want, and I try to straighten myself up so I look half as confident as she does.

"Foraging?" she asks. We don't need many words, but now there's no want for the flowery extras either.

"I'll handle it."

"What about plans?"

"Food first."

"Sounds about right. What do you need me to do?"

She speaks like I spoke to Ashley, the way Shruikan spoke to me when we were managing grinding for the day. I've been given my reins after all. I had only imagined we'd be holding them together.

My fire is still cold in my stomach. "Start with some diagnostics. Ask everyone what they're capable of, find somewhere you can practice without burning the forest down. For the sake of avoiding criticals, finding some other target would be nice, but I don't want to upset the locals either, so..."
"Non-living targets. Got it." She walks one way and I walk another, towards the generally herbivorous and consistently disappointed looking denizens of the tree slightly to the right of the main one. Dusty, Shell, Shika, Millie, Chompers, and Ferro are playing some game with a variety of sticks with engraved lines.

As I approach, Shika smirks and takes a Sitrus berry from Ferro's pile, which has become the gambling pot at the center of their game. "Told you so," she says.

"You asked for it. Now, do you want to forage or not?" I ask, and the circle opens up into a semicircle or some sort of interpretive ellipse. Regardless, they're in agreement, so we'd best be going.

I point at Dusty, Shell, and Shika, and declare, "I'll come with you three and head one way," and then gesture to the rest, "and you can take the other. Fair?"

"Fair enough. Let's get going, team." Ferro says. "We've got what, fifteen Pokemon to feed?"

"Fourteen." Shika says, her tone bitter as an Enigma berry.

"I feel like I've counted fifteen," I reply, but as I tally up the number in my head, I stop at fourteen and can't think of who I'd be missing.

"You counted wrong," she replies, but another furious glance lets me know who I nearly left out of the count.

Peckers is still out with Ashley.

"Right," I say, and we head into the forest together. Despite how incredible the situation is, we once again find ourselves feeling slightly annoyed rather than ecstatic as we walk in circles through the foliage.

I look up, noticing several nuts overhead on some nearby trees. Lifting a paw but finding I'm a little too short, I look to my teammates for back up. "Shell... Can I still call you Shell?" I ask.

We're still working on new names, Shell mentions, shuffling his wings against his side. It reminds me faintly of Pich, but the comparison makes me feel guilty and I know he can tell.

"I respect that." I say, pointing to the tree. "Do you think you could fly up and get some of those?"

Shell's eyes glow a bright pink and the nuts, now encased in energy, fall to the ground before us. He hasn't budged an inch.

Telekinesis. Right.

I walk to a nearby tree and run my claws straight through the bark, ignoring the bits of wood that have found themselves lodged deep into my pawpads. I end up with a sizeable shaft of wood, which I place the nuts on. "I'll carry this," I tell them.