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"Stay close, kit. Only monsters play beyond the walls." The typhlosion leading Thea turned to regard her with a single red eye before holding the lantern aloft and scanning the narrow pier they were crossing. His name was Vanguard.
Vanguard was not kind.
Despite this, he had been extremely protective of Thea once they had left the relative safety of the village, which contrasted sharply with his abrasive, demanding attitude when within the walls. Perhaps, reasoned Thea, he really did care about her.
The braixen held her lit stick aloft in much the same manner as Vanguard and glanced about. "You think we'll run into any?" The typhlosion's ears drew flat against his skull and he turned to face forward again without replying. With a sigh that masked her stomach turning, Thea added, "Okay, thanks for the response I guess."
The creaking of the pier beneath their feet was punctuated now and again with sharp cracks that made her think the planks would give way. After several more minutes of agonizing silence with only the creaking pier to occupy her thoughts, she piped up again. "Vanguard? Why are we coming out here anyway?"
Again he gave her a single red eye before facing forward. "The elders, in their infinite wisdom, believe that you are of age. And so they sent you with me to recover Scout." He scoffed. "But I know that you are but a kit."
"I think I can take care of myself well enough," shot back Thea, her voice carrying a bit of defiance.
Vanguard's booming laugh seemed to shake what few leaves clung to the dying trees around the lake they crossed. "Yes, every kit tends to think the same way. I can become heavy with child, how can I not be ready for the horrors of life on the wall? Beyond it?" Vanguard came to a stop and turned sideways before gesturing Thea forward. "So be it. Lead on, Thea. Show me that you can take care of yourself."
With a scowl, the braixen brushed past the typhlosion and began her march across the pier at a much brisker pace. As Thea reached near the end of the pier and the shores of the lake came into sharper view through the light fog, her paw went straight through a rotted board and she fell forward with a yelp.
Vanguard roared above her with laughter and helped to tug her free. "Excellent leading there kit, I should have you do this more often." With a smug smile, he gestured for her to continue. Thea threw him another scowl and knelt down once they'd found dry land to both inspect her paw and scout the area for tracks.
"This way," she mumbled. "I think? There are several sets of tracks here, actually."
"They belong to the same pokemon," noted Vanguard. "Try to find the freshest-"
"I know, I know," said Thea, cutting across him. "What bothers me is…" She gestured to the tracks as they crossed over each other and back again. "Nothing seems to be chasing them."
"And how do you know Scout was being chased?" asked Vanguard.
"How do you know it was Scout?" shot back Thea.
The typhlosion crossed his arms and smirked. "Fair enough, Thea." His eyes followed the tracks on the ground and then he pointed at a set of partially crushed bushes that led into the forest of dead trees. "We go."
Thea felt she had just stepped into the wood when she came to a stop, her jaw slack and her eyes wide. Slumped against a tree in a pile of scrolls and rotten berries was scout. The lucario smelled atrocious, and Thea wrinkled her nose and turned away.
Vanguard, however, walked over and crouched before the pokemon before sighing. "He's gone." He tugged the scarf free from the fallen pokemon and rubbed the silver badge affixed to it. He collected the scrolls and the satchel still hanging across the lucario's body and tossed it to Thea. "Keep those safe. We'll need them."
"What was he even doing all the way out here?"
"Living up to his name," mumbled Vanguard, standing and looking about.
"Alone? Is there even any reason to head this far out? Look at this place. It's dead."
At that, a howl snaked through the trees and swirled around them like a foul wind. Thea shivered and held her stick aloft, its tip still ablaze and let out a low growl. "Who's out there?"
"The spirits aren't in the business of answering questions, kit."
A crackling ball of purple energy flew out from behind a tree and met with a jet of flame from Vanguard's mouth in midair. It exploded, and through the haze it created Thea saw a pair of gleaming red eyes. She spun the stick in a large circle through the air once and then shot a volley of fireballs directly at the eyes. Though they succeeded in lighting several trees on fire, they failed to cause any damage to the figure in the haze.
The haze cleared and the wood was silent but for the sound of the newly crackling fires. "We need to get out of here and back to the shore. Too cramped."
"Can't say I'm too fond of getting stuck in a burning forest either," said Thea. She followed Vanguard's retreating back, still scanning around for movement.
They were almost clear when she heard Vanguard growl to her, "We've got company."
Thea craned her head around the typhlosion and found a gengar staring back at her, accompanied by two gastlys. The three bore wicked grins, and the gengar stepped forward. "? ﾸﾎ□︎❒︎ ︎ ︎□︎ ︎ ︎ ︎⬧︎ ︎□︎❒︎ ⧫︎ ︎ ︎ ◻︎⍓︎❒︎ ︎? ﾸﾎ."
Vanguard snarled and sprinted out of the wood on all fours to leap at the gengar. The grin on its face changed to a scowl immediately as it dodged out of the way. All the while, the two gastlys began to form balls of swirling dark energy before their faces, and Thea responded with gouts of fire for each of them.
One turned in time to see the stream coming and flew out of the way, but the other caught the brunt of it and erupted. A sound like heavily compressed screams filled the air and the surviving gastly launched several motes of brilliant purple at the braixen, while screaming, "✡︎□︎◆︎? ﾸﾎ●︎●︎ ◻︎ ︎⍓︎ ︎□︎❒︎ ⧫︎ ︎ ︎⧫︎✏︎"
Thea launched several balls of fire at the motes and ducked behind a small boulder to avoid what few she did not burn away, then peered around the rock to fire off several more streams of fire haphazardly at the gastly. An otherworldly screech confirmed she'd hit her mark, and so she peered around the rock and saw Vanguard knock a ball of energy aside and respond with a huge gout of flame in kind.
Struck by an idea, Thea clambered atop the boulder and waved her hands at the gengar, shouting all the while, "Hey! Your gastlys are dead! Give up!" The gengar spared her a single glare and a volley of energy bolts before turning its attention back to Vanguard. Thea knocked several of them away and then shouted, "Alright, fine, I warned you!" She crouched low and then sprung high into the air and began to pelt the area around the gengar with a nonstop hail of fire. Several embers hit their mark and with a screech, the gengar turned to regard her once more, though this time its eyes flashed an array of colors and Thea felt her entire body lock up.
This is going to hurt.
She plummeted straight to the ground and crumpled, though as she fell she heard another loud howl and Vanguard's concerned voice screaming, "Thea!"
The world went black.
Thea woke with a start and felt as if she was going to fall almost immediately.
"Stop squirming, Thea, I'll drop you and let you sort yourself out if you keep wriggling like that."
The braixen rubbed her eyes and looked up at Vanguard's face. "Have you been carrying me?"
"No, I've been dragging you. Figured you were about to wake up and decided I'd make myself look nice," he replied, stone-faced.
"Thanks."
His facade cracked and he gave her a small smile. "Excellent work Thea. That stupid move of yours gave me enough time to rip most of whatever is in a gengar's stomach out."
She grimaced. "That sounds...pleasant?"
"Smells terrible. Can you walk?"
"I think so." She got to her feet gingerly as he set her down and put weight onto her paws with a wince. "I think I might have sprained something but otherwise I'm ok. Just go slow on the way back, yeah?"
Vanguard chuckled. "We're already almost to the wall, Thea."
At this, she turned and looked out at the trail ahead of them. In the distance she could see one of the many parapets that lined the tops of the watchtowers built into the walls. "Guess so." She paused and frowned.
"Something wrong?"
"You called me Thea."
"That is your name."
"Without any hints of irony or sarcasm or anything. Just… just Thea. Like a name."
"That is your name." Vanguard smirked. "Besides, I think you've done a good enough job proving you weren't sent along to burden me." He crossed his arms and let out a booming laugh once again. "Though I suppose you did do that in the end."
"I'm not heavy!"
Vanguard brushed past her and beckoned for her to follow. "Let's get back within the walls. I'm sure there will be plenty of kits eager to hear your tale."