Painted Ghouls

Chapter 23

Placing Brendan's cap onto her head, Athena released a hefty sigh, her vision tracing over the surrounding premises. Lowering her arms, she began to idly fiddle with her claws, bored out of her mind. Lucas had left not long ago to go out to search for berries once more, just so they could leave Fallabor Town with some food in their stomachs. She highly doubted that he would find any, but his efforts would be appreciated nonetheless. If he managed to find food, that'd be amazing. She had been working with an empty stomach for quite a while now.

At the thought of food, her stomach desperately growled, trying to alert her of its emptiness. Emitting yet another sigh, the Combusken would rest her claws against her lap, bunching her shoulders together slightly as a small breeze wafted through the air. She was sitting by a giant hunk of rubble; the material must've been from a house or a smaller building, for the pile was too small to belong to a large complex. Thankfully, the heap seemed to have blocked off the wind that came hurtling toward her, but even then, she could simply heat herself up. It would take energy to do so, although the amount needed is minimal.

For the past few days the sun had shone throughout the land, exposing the world to its beaming rays. Despite this, the world seemed to be getting colder and colder with each passing day, signifying the time of the year proudly. Winter had officially come for the region of Hoenn. The season itself was short, due to the region being mostly tropical, but it had arrived, and it seemed to have plans to make itself a winter to remember. Shifting around, the fire-and-fighting type glanced off toward her left, becoming lost in her own thoughts.

It had been ages since she had last seen Brendan. Not the ghostly image, but the real, physical appearance him. Then again, it had been quite some time since she had seen his ghostly form, too, but nothing when compared to when she had last seen him breathing and fully alive. In fact, the season when he died was early summer. It had just recently turned winter. By now he must've settled well into the realm known as the afterlife.

She couldn't help but wonder where she would be in life if he was still alive. Knowing him, probably not far. After all, he didn't appear to be a huge fan of battling when he was alive. He even ranted about his distaste toward one of the fancier gimmicks of it- something about mega evolution, a skill she will never be able to acquire. Not only that, but in the most recent dream of him, he seemed afraid of her.

At first she had been angry by such a thing, but now, by looking over at the ruins of Fallabor Town, all of her anger toward him vanished. Actually, those feelings did not vanish. Instead, the anger found a new organism to stick itself to: whoever caused this mess. Whoever created such mass destruction surely had their motives, but they ruined a bunch of lives in the process, and even ended quite a bit as well. How could she not be angry at them?

A rather quiet of a pair of wings ripped her away from her thoughts. Turning her cranium, Athena would blink at the familiar stature of Lucas, perking up as he made his way toward her. His claws held a few deflated, circular shapes. Upon further inspection, she realized that those strange objects were withering berries. As the eon Pokémon paused in front of her, she would hesitate, unsure if she wanted to taste the wrinkly food.

"Eat," the dragon-and-psychic type grumbled, shoving a single berry at her claws. The female grabbed hold of the brown-blue treat, her appetite slowly fading away as she did so. Suddenly she didn't feel so hungry as she had earlier. However, she didn't want to regret not eating later, so she simply plopped the treat into her mouth.

Glancing back toward the male's direction, she expected to be handed another berry, but to no avail. He only seemed to have found two of them. That, or all of the other berries he found had all been dead by the time he saw them. That wouldn't be too surprising, considering how when they had arrived, there were almost no berries to pick. How unfortunate.