Painted Ghouls

Chapter 8

"These are for you!" Damien said, his voice muffled by the green stems. Depositing them at the torchic's feet, he proudly smiled.

He must have slipped off when May was petting me, Athena hypothesized, her attention fixated onto the vibrant foliage. Why does he always bring me that stuff?

She kept her gaze down on the plants, unsure of how to react. "Thanks," she responded, tilting her head slightly. She didn't know what to do with them. She didn't want to hurt Damien's feelings, but at the same time, she really didn't see the significance of the flowers. They were just plants there were doomed to die, after all.

In an effort to avoid any further talk of the gifts, she brought her attention over to the two humans. They were in some form of a small conversation, with May trying to persuade Brendan to do something he clearly did not want to do.

"I think May wanted us to train today!" Damien piped up, his paws kneading against the grass.

"Train?" The torchic looked over at him. "As in, prepare for battles?"

"Of course!" Damien answered, his excitement growing. "Don't worry, training with May is fun!"

Athena was ready to retort with her own opinion of training, but she quickly managed to stop herself. I guess it won't be as bad as Dad's method, she mentally sighed, looking back at the humans. Brendan's too nice to be like him, but as for May... She wasn't sure what the female human had in store.

With a small sigh, she tried to listen in on the conversation. Damien, too, fell silent, for he was apparently interested in what was going on. Athena knew that it would only be a matter of time before he bursted out once more.

"May, there's really no point," Brendan moaned, his shoulders limping at his sides. "Athena doesn't need to evolve or anything."

May had her arms crossed in indignation. "Brendan, what happens if you're challenged to a pokémon battle?" she questioned. "Don't you wanna have fun?"

"We can have fun in other ways."

"Okay, and what if there's some bad guy, and you need to defend yourself?"

Brendan hesitated. A quizzical look flashed on his face, and his irises quickly darted down toward Athena. For a few moments he stood there, before looking back up at May.

"Well, I can probably fight them myself.." he mumbled, his shoes scraping the dirt beneath him.

"Uh-huh. So you plan on taking on an armed person?" May retorted back, a frown tugging at her lips. "Brendan, seriously, think about it. It would be good if you trained Athena up a bit." The human then smiled down at Damien. "Damien here has begun his training a while back, and we're seeing improvements!"

Brendan stiffened, his attention darting to the tiny mudkip. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he nodded his head. "Fine. Whatever."

Athena looked at Damien. He seemed about ready to burst from the excitement of receiving a compliment from his own trainer. That, or he was just excited to continue training.

I really hope this goes well, Athena thought, her feet awkwardly shifting around. Training with Dad and Zachary wasn't fun at all..