Painted Ghouls

Chapter 1

Once he had left the scene, Mary looked up at Zachary, puffing out of her feathers slightly. It was true that her mother had speed boost; how else would it have been passed down to the torchic? The only problem with the ability was that she hardly battled, so it wasn't like she could put it into good use. For all she knew, it was completely useless.

"C'mon," Zachary muttered, turning to face her. The outburst from his father seemed to place him in a sour mood. "We have to train, like Dad said." The chick pokémon turned to face her brother, her orange and yellow feathers still fluffed out. Such a statement did not seem appealing to her.

"Dad's just being grumpy, as always," she protested, cocking her head at an acute angle. "I don't want to train." The young fowl pokémon in front of her groaned, his shoulders sagging as he did so.

"Honestly, I swear you're the reason why he always yells at us," he moaned, scratching his cream head with his long talons. Glancing toward the direction where Zeke had left, he rolled his eyes, before dragging his attention back onto his younger sister. Mary leaned forward expectantly. "I'm going to go fight some real pokémon. I guess you can just train here or something."

After that, the combusken left, heading off toward the opposite direction their father had went. The tiny fire type huffed flapping her useless wings as she looked around. As expected of her, she didn't feel like training, but she also didn't want to just stand there. Heading off in the opposite direction of both her brother and father, she gazed off toward the forest that bordered her family's territory.

Zeke had always warned her not to enter there, for many trainers lurked around in the forest. She had also been warned that her species was extremely rare, so any trainer would be eager to get their hands on a torchic or the evolved forms. Due to that, she had always held a strong dislike toward the human race. She never wanted to be near one of them.

However, she had never been into the forest. Zeke and even Zachary had been in there several times, and every time they returned from their trip, they brought back delicious berries to eat. Not only that, but Zachary also explained that their father over-exaggerated the forest and the dangerous situations it may or may not contain. Plus, Mary had never heard of any human encounters from them, so she guessed that it must be safer than what the blaziken had described.

Making sure the two males weren't around her, she eyed the surrounding vicinity, before taking off toward the woods, tripping a bit on the way. Once she got past the first few trees, she slowed down to a mere walk, cautiously strolling deeper and deeper into the forest. It was certainly darker than she figured it would be, but there were gaps and holes in the canopy of leaves that loomed high above her. They provided just enough light for her to see, however the scenery was daunting nonetheless.

Eyeing a berry bush, Mary eagerly dashed toward it, tripping to a halt as she roughly landed in front of it. Scrambling onto her feet, she stood on her tip-toes, studying the contents of the plant.

I would rather have cheri berries, she thought, eyeing the array of oran berries.

Standing on her tip-toes, she craned her neck as far as she could, reaching for a plump treat. The rustling of leaves nearby had caused her to hesitate slightly, but the berry was too succulent to ignore. Opening her beak, she was about to grab hold of the bottom of the berry, but more shuffling leaves could be heard.

"Hello!" a partially squeaky, masculine voice greeted, causing Mary to squeak and fall backwards, thus landing on her back. "Sorry!" the voice squeaked, and soon enough, a blue pokémon she had never seen before loomed over her, its face beaming with nothing but joy.

"Hello, I'm Damien!" the pokémon spoke, hopping up and down repeatedly. "I've never seen a fire type around here! Oh boy, oh boy! What's your name?" When Mary was back on her feet, she froze, watching him bounce around her, his tail happily wagging.