Painted Ghouls

Chapter 18

WARNING: graphic violence

"That storm last night was huge!" Damien exclaimed, wiggling his hindquarters before hopping onto the smooth stone in front of him. The water beneath him babbled eagerly against the rocks, as if it wanted him to fall right in. Looking over to Athena, he would flash a beaming smile at her, his two tail fins wagging excitedly.

Athena nodded in agreement to his exclamation, her legs kicking out from the log she sat on top of. He wasn't lying- the thunderstorm the night prior was ginormous. Large bolts of lightning flashed across the sky, and just moments after the show, ground-shaking thunder rolled through the air. Never before had she witnessed such a large storm; she was lucky to have taken shelter inside of her cave, otherwise she would've been pelted by heavy raindrops and even some hail. Few remnants of the storm were left, such as a few gray clouds that were sauntering lazily through the sky. Allowing her claws to thrum against the wood beneath her, she felt them scrape against Brendan's cap. Using her claws, she would drag it onto her lap, before bringing her attention back toward the water-and-ground type.

He was now on the final rock of the stream and, with a mighty leap, he threw himself onto the silky grass. Blades of the green grass clung onto his skin, and when he lifted himself onto his feet, he looked as if he was a victim to a grass tornado. Shaking the blades off of him, he would release a gleeful giggle as he trampled toward the water, splashing droplets around him. The Combusken had to use her claws to block the water droplets from hitting her.

Lowering her hand, she continued to watch the male hop about the rocks, as if this was the most fun activity he had ever done. A cold wind shifted through the area, causing her to ruffle her feathers. She had a pinch that moving about would be a good attempt to heat herself up. Naturally, she could manually warm herself up, but that was a big waste of energy. Hopping onto her feet, she placed Brendan's cap onto her head, her vision fixated onto Damien.

"Wanna do something else?" she suggested, her voice level slightly raised so the male could hear her above his consistent splashing.

Pausing, the water-and-ground type turned his cranium to look back at her, a smile on his maw as he heaved himself out of the water. "Sure!" he squeaked, coming up to stand in front of her. His entire stature was soaking wet, causing the Combusken to take a step back. "Whatcha wanna do?"

The fire-and-fighting type hesitated, before shrugging in response. She hadn't thought of much ideas- she just wanted to do something instead of sitting around. Lucas would want her to train right about now, but she had a feeling that Damien wouldn't want to do something like that. After all, he was a pacifist of sorts, so he wouldn't want to intentionally harm another Pokémon.

The male would blink, his two tail fins wagging as he hopped once into the air. "Let's play tag!" he suggested, his squeaky voice slightly cracking once he landed back onto the earth.

"Sounds good."

Thankfully, she didn't need a tutorial on how to play such a game. After all, when she and Damien were younger, they had played this game before. The game was pretty simple, anyways, and was hardly even close to complex. It was hard to forget a game as simple as tag. Thus, she was able to play without asking for any rules or directions.

"Tag!" Damien squeaked, poking the Combusken with his paw. With that, he gave one more bounce to the air, before lumbering away. He headed further into the woods and away from the stream as he giggled with excitement. Racing after him, the young fowl Pokémon blinked, noticing how quickly she was catching up to him. It seemed as if his evolution made him slower when compared to his Mudkip form.