The temperature was blistering, but Mary did not mind. Her feet were a blur as she scurried ahead, her vision trained on the land ahead of her. The song of taillows in the branches above made their way into her ear slits, but they were drowned away by a combusken rushing after her.
"Come back here!" he called, almost tripping over his own feet as he chased after the significantly younger torchic.
Instead of following his commands, the chick pokémon swerved to the right, narrowly missing an ember fired by her brother. Without a clear target to hit, the flames collided with a bush, consequently setting it on fire.
"Hey, you know Dad's going to yell at us for that!" she said, ceasing to a stop as she stared at her brother, panting for breath.
The flames were pitifully small and weak, but she knew not to test their father's anger. She had seen him angry before, and it was not a pleasant sight. The combusken skidded to a halt, looked at the blazing bush, then back to the torchic.
"I doubt he'd get that mad, Mary," he casually responded, kicking a pile of dirt toward the bush. The flames instantly died out.
Mary snorted. Her brother, Zachary, was such an arrogant yet nonchalant pokémon, despite how much their father pushed them around. Zachary explained to her that before she hatched out of her egg, their mother and father were both used by humans for unexplained reasons. Ever since their escape, their father, Zeke, had been persistent on pushing them into training sessions and constant spars.
Despite how much the two men of the family were battle-ready and energized, Mary had never found interest in battles. If anything, she found them frightening, and scary. Pokémon could easily get killed in battles, so what was the point of them? Surely there was a way to live life without battling every single moment?
Blinking her beady eyes, Mary was about to open her beak to speak, but the sound of approaching footsteps crunching against twigs and leaves alike interrupted her abruptly. Turning around, she gulped at the sight of her cross father, glaring at the bush.
"Who did that?" he spat, motioning toward the plant.
The fires on the bush had already been extinguished, and managed to not spread to other plants, yet he still seemed to be in a rage. Backing away from her father, Mary glanced at Zachary, her eyes widened as he crossed his lengthy arms. Zeke groaned, flames dissipating out of his nostrils.
"Zachary," he mumbled, rubbing his feathery cranium with his talons. "That fire could've easily attract pokémon, or worse, humans."
The combusken stepped forward. "We can easily fight both of those things off," he coolly responded, shrugging his shoulders idly. Mary watched, deciding not to say a word. She didn't like the way the conversation was going. "We're strong enough."
Zeke blinked, dropping his glare onto Mary. Instinctively, she flinched, taking a small step back from her father. "Mary isn't," the blaziken spat, heaving a disappointed sigh. She blinked, lowering her head just a bit. He wasn't wrong.
The combusken only casted a sideways glance down at her, before perking up. "Doesn't she have speed boost?" he rhetorically asked, looking back up at his father. "She can just run or hide or something while we drive the-"
"Speed boost doesn't do anything!" Zeke snapped, clenching his gray fists tightly as he glared daggers at his son. "Your mother had Speed Boost, and she got captured!"
Zachary flinched, dropping his vision to the ground in an instant. Mary, too, flinched. She backed away tentatively as a silence stretched between the three. To break the silence, Zeke released a frustrated growl. Stalking away from the two siblings, he grouchily spat out, "Train."
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.
"Mary," she said, eyes narrowed just a tad as Damien halted, a smile plastered on his lips. What's up with his appearance?
Not only was he a peculiar shade of blue, but he had a fin on his head, and also a fin for a tail. Three orange spikes protruded out of each cheek, which seemed a little odd to her. He stuck out too easily for such a place to live in. Then again, her colors also clashed with the foliage of the forest.
It didn't take long for Damien to continue his rambling, for in an instant was he bouncing around her once more. "I think you're a torchic!" he squeaked happily. Mary struggled to keep her vision placed on him the entire time- he was a hopping mess. "I'm what humans call a mudkip! I've heard that torchics are rare! Do you have a family? I have a trainer! Do you have a trainer?"
Mary stumbled away from the mudkip as soon as she could, fluffing out her feathers. She could have sworn that pokémon of his kind were water types. Not only did the appearance give it away, but the species name did as well. Drowning out Damien's rambling, which amazingly continued despite her obviously not paying attention to it, she tried to process the information he spat out in her head.
He has a trainer? she mentally repeated, shocked. She nervously took a quick scan of the surrounding vicinity, but no human was around.
"W-Where's your trainer?" she questioned, causing him to stop his rambling fit. He began to hop up and down, as if he was excited to share his trainer's whereabouts. Please don't tell me they're-
"May is doing something right now," he explained, continuing his bouncy behaviors as he interrupted her thoughts. "Usually when she does stuff like that she lets me wander around! Of course, I don't mind, because I get to make more friends!" The mudkip then launched himself at Mary, pinning her to the forest floor. "Like you!"
The torchic let out a high-pitched squeal in surprise, struggling under his grasp. The mud fish pokémon seemed to have gotten the message, for he hopped off of her swiftly, a slightly saddened look on his features. Bounding onto her feet, Mary dashed away from Damien, leaving him behind as she made a beeline straight for her nest.
"Come back tomorrow!" he called, sounding a bit hurt.
With the final sentence lodged in her mind, the fire type hopped out of the forest and toward her home, sagging slightly when she noticed both her father and brother already at their nests. Slowing to a stop, she desperately panted for breath as she glanced up at her relatives, who didn't even bother to acknowledge her, for they appeared to be in the middle of a conversation.
"So you mean to tell me," Zeke said, his arms crossed as he stared down at his son, "you saw two water types? And they were talking about murdering nearby pokémon?"
Mary gulped. Were one of the water types Damien? That couldn't be possible, though. Damien didn't mention anything about murder. Plus, he was with her. Expectantly, she brought her attention onto her brother.
Zachary nodded frantically, his lightly-colored eyes widened. "Y-yeah!" he said, almost looking as if he was about to explode. "They want this land! I don't know why, though.. Something about ghouls.. I-I ran away before they could notice me.."
Zeke heaved a hefty sigh, rubbing his cranium silently. He didn't seem too convinced of his son's exclamation. "Tell me, were they swimming in a lake?"
"No, but-"
"Then how are they alive?"
Zachary blinked, growing annoyed. "They live on land!" he exclaimed, flapping his arms wildly. "So many water types already do!" Mary blinked. Her brother was right- Damien could walk on land, after all.
"What pokémon were they?" the blaziken asked, his tone a little more hardened and less tired. Zachary lowered his gaze, trying to recollect what he saw.
"A.. sharpedo and a milotic."
Sudden weariness took over Mary. She didn't bother to stick around, for she sauntered away from the ongoing conversation, and straight toward her nest. Damien's last sentence, and the new threat of a murderous duo of water types, whirled around in her brain, causing her to grow even more tired.
Entering the bush that her nest was hidden inside, she perched onto the stack of leaves and twigs that she slept on every night. Should the two water types come over, Zeke and Zachary could be capable of defeating them easily. They were strong, after all. Nodding to herself for reassurance, the fire type released a yawn.
Damien was still in her mind, however. Despite him being rather quirky and awkward, she figured that she would soon grow to enjoy his company. It wasn't every day she got to meet a friendly pokémon outside of her family.
A new friendship does sound promising, she silently concluded. I just can't tell Dad about him, that's all...
With yet another yawn, Mary soon fell asleep, eager to go and greet the mudkip later.