The next morning, the torchic woke from the sounds of the taillow outside chirping their hearty songs. Beady eyes slowly opening, she looked around tiredly, yawning as her eyes scanned the room. Brendan was not in the area, and on his bed laid a neon green backpack. His shoes were placed beside the accessory, tagged along with the cap he wore on his head.
Looking at her feet, she soon realized that she had fallen asleep on his desk. Vivid memories came back to her, flooding through her mind: she was named Athena, after some goddess or whatever.
That'll take a while to get used to, she thought, jumping off the desk with a grunt. Strolling across the carpet, she released a sigh. But I'm sure I'll get used to it sooner or later.
Deciding to be a bit nosy, Athena hopped onto Brendan's soft, warm bed, and peered inside his backpack. Inside of it were a few utilities, such as a toolkit and a small bag of food. She was about to investigate the brown paper bag, but soon Brendan walked inside the room, scaring her. Jumping away from the backpack, therefore falling off the bed, she looked up at him, expecting a scolding. Brendan paid little to no attention to her; instead, he walked over to his desk and grabbed a small journal, then tossed it on his backpack. Athena watched with curiosity as he went through his desk, grabbing a few extra wooden utensils.
What is he doing? she thought, cocking her head at an acute angle.
Padding over to his left foot, she attempted to get a view of the contents inside the bottom drawer of the desk, but to no prevail. Letting out a caw, she gazed up at her trainer, who greeted her with a quick glance of his blue-gray irises. After a few moments or so, Brendan stopped going through his drawers, and headed toward his bed as he began to stuff the items near the backpack inside, except for a few such as his cap and shoes. Athena quickly followed after him, hopping onto the bed with a big leap.
Zipping up his backpack, Brendan stretched out his arms. "I'd say we are about ready," he stated, looking around to make sure he didn't miss anything. The fire type simply chirped in response, flapping her useless wings as she tried to assume whatever he was talking about.
"Mom and Dad left late last night," he informed her, nodding his head in approval. "That means I get to go out and about more frequently." Athena released another chirp, half-heartedly paying attention to the blathering male. "Since it's the summertime, Mom and Dad will be working at the gym a lot. They said they won't be back for a while, so they left some money so I can get groceries."
Grabbing onto the strap of his backpack, he slung it over his shoulder, before tugging on his shoes. After that, he scooped up his cap and placed it atop his brown hair, messing with it slightly to get it in the right position before lowering his arms.
"I say we're about ready," he softly repeated, reaching forward to grab the torchic. Fluffing out her feathers, she bounced off his bed, only to hop next to his feet. Brendan hesitated, then simply shrugged in response.
Walking toward his room door, he opened it, then head toward the staircase. Bending down, he carried Athena down the stairs, and out the front door. After locking the door behind him, he gently placed her back down on the ground.
It was a nice, sunny day, and the small population of Littleroot Town was bustling about. Brendan professionally avoided bumping into others, heading straight toward the back of the town, where a path of shrubbery lay. Stepping over the bushes, he shoved his hands in his pockets, glancing back at Athena to make sure she was still following. Of course, she had no other choice but to follow.
I don't wanna get lost here, she mentally noted, shuddering at the mere thought as she gazed back at the sea of humans.
Every now and then the two took a break, and relaxed under the cool shade the trees provided. Brendan brought quite a bit of food for this event, and even fed some to Athena. The most delicious kind of food for her was this yellow substance the trainer called corn. The corn was smaller than the berries she was used to eating, but it certainly did taste good, perhaps even better.
It didn't take long for the morning to make way for the afternoon, and once it did, Brendan sat down by a tree, taking his cap off as she did so. Athena followed suit, her legs giving way as she positioned herself by him. The clouds above the canopy of leaves drifted as lazily as they could, as if they were competing with one another.
It's so peaceful here, she thought, releasing a yawn. Hopefully he'd let me take a nap.
She could feel her consciousness fading away slowly. Every few moments she found herself leaning toward the human's leg, until she caught herself and straightened back up. However, right when she was about to doze off, Brendan spoke.
"Are you hungry?" he softly asked, his vision placed onto her. Drowsily nodding her head, Athena strained her vision to stare up at him expectantly. After a few short moments, he stood up, looking around. "There might be some berries around here," he stated, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Want to go look for some?"
Berries? The fire type lifted her cranium to look up at him. I'm too tired, though.. With a quiet chirp, she stood up, and followed her trainer as they once again trekked through the forest. She was growing more and more tired with every step she took; never before had she walked for this long.
Brendan seemed to have more energy than her, and he walked quickly ahead, pausing every now and then to let the torchic to catch up.
How does he manage to walk for so long? she thought, letting out a meek chirp as she flopped onto her stomach. Her legs ached with exhaustion as Brendan bent down to scoop her up. She had little energy left to refuse, so she reluctantly accepted the offer.
Brendan continued to walk through the clearing where the two first met, keeping silent as he looked around for either berry bushes or trees. Every time he found one, he plucked a few berries, and promptly dropped them into a plastic bag. The chick pokémon was beginning to grow rather comfortable in the grasp of the human, and she soon found herself drifting off to sleep.
Halting by a berry tree, Brendan began to pick off one of the berries, but a foul smell wafted through the area. He hesitated. Athena, too, couldn't help but smell the scent, and she looked up to her trainer worriedly. The area was awfully familiar.
A little too familiar.
Setting Athena down, Brendan creeped his way over toward the area where the odor seemed to be pouring from, and gasped at the sight. Athena tiredly scurried after him, confused at what he was so shocked about, until she saw the scene.
No..
There, in front of the two, were the rotting corpses of a combusken and a blaziken. "Oh God," Brendan gagged, quickly turning away. "Let's go, Athena." But she stood still, paralyzed almost, as hot tears began to leak out of her eyes. She just couldn't rip her vision from the horrific scene.
"Athena?" Brendan called out, gazing back at her. Noticing how she was standing still, he bit his lip, before strolling over. Crouching down behind the chick pokémon, he tried his best to keep his gaze off of the bloody scene as he scooped her up. She didn't protest- her attention was locked on the scene in front of them. "C'mon, Athena," Brendan desperately urged, "we need to go."
With small whimpers, she dropped her vision to the forest floor, the graphic image of her dead relatives still present in her mind.
Why? her mind questioned. Why did we have to run into that? The scene of her family being mutilated by the water types repeated menacingly in her head, taunting her to the point where she broke out into a heaving fit of sobs. I miss them.
Brendan stopped dead in his tracks, sympathetically gazing down at the chick pokémon. "Athena," he murmured, awkwardly shuffling his feet around. She ignored him, only to feel his arms move around in an attempt to hug her.
"It'll be okay," the trainer soothed, his tone calm and quiet. Athena didn't respond. Instinctively, she buried her face into his shirt, wanting more comfort than what she had at the moment. "Sshh, it'll be alright," the human gently continued, beginning to slowly walk forward.
Once the two had managed to reach the tree where they had stopped earlier, the chick Pokémon had stopped crying. Brendan didn't talk much, and he decided not to eat the berries he had gathered, either. Setting Athena down, he placed a handful of berries in front of her, before sitting down himself and leaning his back against the bark of the tree.
"We're gonna head home soon," he mumbled, fiddling with his red and black shirt. Looking up at the fire type, he sighed, watching her eat the berries slowly. "I'm sorry about that." She didn't respond, giving him more time to speak. "I shouldn't of just went over to that. I probably should've just used my brain, and walked away from it. You didn't need to see that."
Athena blinked up at her trainer, before glancing down at the rest of the berries. "Y'know," Brendan continued, his voice a tad softer, "that was awfully close to where we met. And those pokémon- combusken and blaziken, I mean- are rare." He paused, as if he wasn't sure of himself. He took a shaky breath. "Was that your family?" The fire type met the male's gaze, hesitating slightly, before nodding her head. For a few moments, he remained silent, a look of guilt evident on his face. "Sorry."
Don't apologize, Athena thought, blinking her eyes in slight guilt. It's not your fault. Letting out a few chirps, she made her way toward the male, resting beside him. Fluffing out her feathers, she nuzzled against Brendan's shirt, accepting the few pats he gave in return.