In Spikemuth

Rise

The minute Marnie was allowed out, she began training. She trained them up as much as she could until she fell asleep passed out under a tree. This routine carried on for three days until her back got stiff and her neck began to ache. 

She blinked her eyes open one day and found herself lying on a park bench just outside Turffield. She groaned and sat up straight, rubbing her tired eyes awake. She released her Morpeko and clapped her hands, 

"Okay, time to train," she snapped with a yawn. Morpeko squeaked. They'd be training all day with no break for the past three days and Marnie hadn't eaten for a day. She'd been so obsessed with training recently. Marnie stood up and slowly found her balance before slowly walking toward the tall grass where most pokemon lived to grind with Morpeko. Marnie rubbed the side of her head and frowned, feeling the absence of hair and the giant, smooth lump.

Marnie felt tears well up in her eyes and slumped against a tree to the ground. Not just because she was tired. Her head his the trunk of the tree and rustled the leaves above her. Morpeko squeaked as if to ask what was wrong. Marnie didn't say anything. She slowly raised her head to look up at the treetop and almost screamed, but was too tired to. 

Instead, she shuffled away from the tree and ushered Morpeko toward her. There were two, large yellow eyes looking down on her. A pokemon perhaps? Marnie whispered to Morpeko, 

"Use thunderbolt on that tree," she hissed and pointed to the treetops. Morpeko squeaked and rubbed his cheeks. He began to vibrate and sent a powerful thunderbolt into the top of the tree with a high-pitched screech. The green leaves immediately withered and a Croagunk fell onto the dirt hill with a clap. Marnie slowly stood up and found her balance. She shakily walked up to the Croagunk and pressed and saw that it had half-fainted. She pressed a Pokeball to it and it quickly accepted its place. Marnie didn't smile. 

A small part of her was happy, but not enough to smile. Morpeko, on the other hand, was thrilled and was squeaking and smiling in happiness. Marnie just buckled the pokemon to her belt, as she did- her sleeve rubbed the sharpie off of Morpeko and Lion's pokeballs. A cold breeze picked up, and Marnie started to shiver. 

"We have a new pokemon, Morpeko," she said and slowly began walking toward Morpeko back toward Turffield. Morpeko blinked. What happened to calling him Peko? Why was Marnie acting so strange? He just scampered along next to Marnie as dark clouds started to gather above their heads. 

"Peko?" Morpeko squeaked. Marnie didn't look at him. 

"You're right, I can't keep passing out on a Park bench just to do it again tomorrow. I've been procrastination, like an idiot. I'm sorry for disappointing you," she paused to find her balance as her head was weary. Morpeko squeaked in confusion but Marnie still couldn't look at him, "we're going back to Spikemuth."

"Peko?" 

~

Marnie didn't let herself sleep. She nodded off once for five minutes but quickly snapped awake again. Her stomach attacked her, she hadn't eaten since yesterday morning. All she had to keep herself awake was a bottle of half-empty water. As the train beeped and announced that they had arrived outside of Spikemuth, Marnie forced herself up, and she stumbled toward the train doors, almost tripping on the train-gap. 

"Excuse me, are you alright?" a very old looking lady asked her as she had to lean on the station walls to regain balance. Marnie nodded her head. The lady didn't look convinced, 

"Are you drunk? Perhaps you need to sit down," she suggested and led Marnie to the benches near the platform. She was too weak to object. The old lady and her Reuniclus stayed with Marnie, no matter how many times she insisted she was okay.