I woke up to the disappearance of the dark curtain and stretched. "Morning Maxy, do you remember what today is?"

  I bnked, trying to think of what the little bird was talking about. "If I do recall correctly, we left 3 days after your gym battle, then spent 2 days traveling, another 2 here. I believe that is a week is it not? I have leniently let you have an extra day but your hair awaits grooming!"

  Not the first thing I wanted to do in the morning but the blue puffball jumped me and attached herself to my head as I got out our dwindling food reserves. The sharp pulls were even more painful with how beaten up I was from st night but I took it like a man. A man who feels pain and mixed my voiced reactions with the happy tune she hummed.

  When she was finished Fly did this chortling sound and Ian started ughing at my new curls that she had twisted into my hair. The mirror was coming in handy so I stopped her early when she was trying to figure out braids(I cimed my hair wasn't long enough yet and that she could try when it was longer, something that I hope is set off indefinitely with hair cuts) that she saw on some of the girls back in Blossom.

  Starting to miss the small mohawk that had faded a bit near the end of its trial period, I had to suck it up for the sake of my safety from other possibly worse hairdos. Sin was confused but didn't say anything to anyone, preferring to practice his dark and fighting type experimental move. I figured out that he was trying to copy wicked blow, the show of mastery in his martial art. I hoped we would be able to figure something out about the move that always hit an opponent's weak spot, otherwise his condition for his final evolution would go unmet. Becoming a master of a martial art.

  Some did judo, karate, wrestling but they all became masters before becoming a Machamp. The little show Urshifu put on yesterday left a lot to the imagination on how the move's main crutch occurred. But future Max would have to figure that out. Present Max had his own problems.

  I was kicked off my sleeping area by a group of Throh practicing sumo so we just set off. The road to Darkuf awaited which I started off on a light jog and a peppy country song(My Church). Being in that fighting arena dulled any pain and filled me with vigor, which allowed me to get very far by lunch. We were unlucky in our berry search so we ran out of fresh food, having to finally rely on the prepacked food my mom had prepared for me. I was, for ck of a better word, insanely miraculous how my mom's food escaped any harm at the base of my old bag.

  The sandwiches were a bit stale but I could taste the infused energy my mom packed into it by having Skitty use helping hand. Simply delicious. We continued traveling, facing grass and flying types mostly. By the time we needed to start looking for food we had run away from 6 attackers and only beaten 2. A stronger crop of wilds was starting to show themselves to us with our growing numbers drawing attention but cking the benefits of a truly rge group.

  I didn't have enough left for everyone to have some more of my mom's sandwiches so we had to hunt. An interesting experience for sure. Ian was the best at it by cheating with his shadow sneak. Going unnoticed by most prey and bagging 2 Bidoof and a Starly(Pokemon who almost always cked protective parents because of the sheer number of them) while the rest of us found a couple of berries. Those efforts stalled us for a good 2 hours but it was worth it. Using fire punch as a lighter we were able to roast the bird and beavers using skinny Ian as a skewer while Puff enjoyed the berries.

  I joked with Sin about his hunting technique and he just pointed his thumb at Fly. I gave an understanding nod, she...was enthusiastic about letting our prey know about her. Thankfully Ian did better than us after I let him go solo and was willing to train his fire resistance on top of the fire. Puff was resting on my head again, being softer in keeping the curls curly than she was when making them. During the day I had started having Fly try and deactivate her ability and she was able to make them less forceful such that I didn't get bad shocks. I found out from giving her belly rubs that extended exposure led to fuller paralysis than the small shocks and cramps that normally happened. My hands barely able to move and unable to feel I rolled her out from my p and her cozy nap spot.

  She jolted awake and looked around everywhere until she focused in one direction and howled before sprinting away in very wasteful bounds enhanced with electricity. Confused about whether there was something attacking us for the meat that was still cooking on Ian I reached for my knife. A couple seconds ter there was a sharp chirp and a bark before Fly dragged a partially paralyzed Spritzee into our camp.

  My eyes narrowed and I was ready to add another bird to the menu. Fly dropped it and barked at it while it shook off the slobber and flinched every now and then. It wasn't making any aggressive movements but annoyance burned inside me. I imagined other Spritzee and its evolved form, Aromatisse, spreading fairy wind like storms through Forestree's main street, destroying whatever wasn't protected behind a barrier.

  I got closer with my knife and when it noticed it hurriedly brought its wings up, rotating the tips quickly as if asking me to stop with a terrified look in its eyes. Sin was looking on with boredom, Ian was just turning himself over the fire, Fly was barking at the Spritzee, but Puff was giving me a appalled look.

  "It's just one of those pink birdies from the forest, and you already have dinner."

  The Spritzee twittered something "Oh, he wants you to stop obviously. He says he can expin." I try to get over my annoyance, breathing in and out, trying NOT to imagine my neighbor's house getting blown to bits by a moonbst or someone dying to a draining kiss as their life gets sucked out of them. The adults always fought back but there were always too many attackers and they were always too strong for the fighters defending us to handle.

  I recall the sweet scent they always had about them made my skin crawl. Old memories were coming back to me, three times they came to Forestree in force for various reasons, and many more when they were just another fairy in a very chaotic battlefield. I walked away, focusing on Puff. Maybe I could convince her to let me kill it? No one else has a problem with it. Why even bother, I'M the trainer.

  I start pacing as the annoyance started feeling like a rash underneath my skin. The flinching Spritzee tries to plead his case looking around the fire for anyone who would help him. He kept gncing back toward Fly as if thinking about whether he could escape her or not.

  "He says he only wanted to travel, to check out other areas but was too weak to protect himself."

  "So it has been following us for days?" I gre at him and he flinches. The scent had been following us, and why us in particur? Even if he wanted to travel, there were plenty of trainers to clear the way for him. Did he think because I went alone and was weaker that he'd have an easier time escaping notice?

  "Yes, ever since you left the 'human vilge'. He says that he didn't mean any harm" Puff flew up to try to stroke and my head with her wings and it feels nice, the gesture was not enough to ease off from making him into dinner though. Free food is free food after all.

  "Since the vilge? Was it part of the raids too?" I ask, trying to further justify my urgings. He shakes his head rapidly side to side.

  "Max are you going to be ok? What is up with you?" Puff jumped off my head and is now floating in front of my face and in between me and the Spritzee.

  "That thing could have attacked my vilge and it has been following me for days, waiting for us to let our guards down" I started rambling, this is a weak argument, even to me but I try. Now I am not even thinking about dinner, I only want to get rid of him somehow with how he is making me feel. I can't let him go unfortunately, he would only keep following us and I don't think I could handle knowing that. The dark energy spins a bit through me, overtaking my brain unlike when I got attacked. Focusing on a smaller part for some reason. Last time, I had my grandmother's mental prototype fighting the energy back, but it keeps spreading from its current stronghold of anger and annoyance without resistance.

  "Back in the hospital you breezed over getting hit with that bck thing like it was nothing. Are you ok Max?" she repeated. Thinking back I did brush it off, didn't even occur to me that it would be strange with all that I'd been through. Taking, surviving, and healing from strong attacks were par for the course where I come from. It was a new experience given that a human attacked me this time. I've had days to think about why I was targeted but I didn't even care. Still don't in fact. Just another reason to get strong like Aubree and grandmother and get back to Forestree when I am.

  "I for one don't care, more fire training for me" Ian calls over to us.

  "Shut up skewer, it isn't ok to just go randomly killing the living just because. I don't even understand why we couldn't have just looked around for more berries or gotten some food at the Colosseum thingy instead of hunting" Puff floated down to the Spritzee, waving Fly away. "It will be ok there, no one is going to kill you" she assured the pink fuzzball.

  Fly whines, making me chuckle when I think about how slow Spritzee must have been if she was able to catch. I feel Puff reaching out to me, not physically but through our connection. Like a soft breeze I feel worry through it. A real breeze fills the air, something that washes over me and I can hear a faint melody in Puff’s voice. For a full minute the breeze is passing by me, the melody putting off a calming wave of normal TE that makes me tired.

  My hand, finally let go of my death grip on the knife and held it normally. The amplified annoyance turned anger had settled down. The darkness withdrawing from the majority of my mind. "Everything will be ok" Puff said. I'm unsure if she meant it for me or the Spritzee.

  I was disappointed, mostly in myself for not being able to control the strange injury I'd been dealt without help like my grandmother's invincible image or Puff's calming song. In this short time together I had gotten close to Puff and Ian. Like a band of brothers in the army we ate together, fought together, and slept together. Anything we did, we did together since I caught them. The constant togetherness made our time together seem a lot longer than it really had been. Like my family, they were becoming people I didn't want to let down. Still, they weren't family yet. They hadn't earned that right in my eyes.

  Fly was let down from the result of this conversation. Her drool was still dripping and I was faced with a very sad and cute puppy eyes.