A Brand New Journey: When it All Fades to Black

▪︎Through The Woods Together ▪︎

Malerie took a few steps into the woods. Audino following closely behind her.
It was oddly silent, she thought she would at least see some wild pokemon out there. "... I wonder where all the pokemon are." She thought aloud, moving a tree branch out of the way. But luck was on her side when she saw a deerling and a sawsbuck in a clearing.
She smiled widely and sent Audino out to talk to them first. She thought it would be best to let her pokemon approach first before she would.

Audino walked towards the two, catching the attention of Sawsbuck first who stepped in front of the deerling. Sawsbuck seemed to be the parent.
The pink and yellow pokemon waved slightly and did her best to show them she was friendly.
It took a little bit but it seemed that sawsbuck started to trust Audino.
Malerie smiled at the sight, she noticed Audino motion in her direction. Sawsbuck glanced over at her spot it, she waved softly a smile forming on her face. The sawsbuck nodded in her direction looking back at it's child.
She assumed it was the deerling's mom, seeing how protective it was but she wasn't sure it could always be the pre-evolution's father.

She slowly approached the two. Deerling skipped up to her giving her a look like it wanted to be petted. She kneeled down and did as the little pokemon wanted, smiling as she petted it.
"You're really cute you know that?" She mumbled, Audino audibly huffed giving her trainer a playful glare.
"Okay you're both cute." She chuckled. She hummed softly as deerling snuggled up beside her. A few minutes later Sawsbuck called for it's child which caused the smaller pokemon to hop up and follow.

"Bye." Malerie said waving as the two left.
She stuck out her tongue playfully, "I was hoping they would stay longer... oh well." She hopped up from her spot Audino moving to stand beside her.
She heard a rustling behind her, she figured it was just a wild pokemon so she didn't acknowledge it. While she was expecting to hear a pokemon's cry, instead she heard a human's voice.
"You know they really liked you..." a voice behind her said. It sounded familiar so she turned around.

"N...?" She mumbled.
"I didn't expect someone like you to be out here." He said quietly, a small smile on his face.
She didn't respond at first, trying to think of something to say.
It had been... a month or two since they had met, bumping into each other, but only having brief conversations, she didn't know that much about him. But they were on a friendly basis, a small friendship was there.
She didn't want to say she didn't think she would see him again because for some odd reason she felt she would especially if the last few weeks were anything to go by.

She stayed quiet, it was Audino who seemed to speak up first. Malerie looked over at her pokemon who seemed to be starting a conversation with him.
N looked at the pokemon with intent. His smile growing as the pokemon continued talking. Although Malerie couldn't understand her it seemed to be positive.
Audino quit talking for a moment and took her trainers hand, a bright smile on her face.

"I'm not sure what it is but everytime I speak to Audino she only says positive things." N said, looking back up at Malerie.
"...yeah I guess." She replied.
The two were quiet for a few minutes. "So... what brings you here?" N, spoke up looking her in the eyes.
"I was just walking through I guess... Bianca, Cheren, and Hilda all went off to get their badges. I think they're on their second or third one by now. I just figured I'd go look through the forest for a bit." Malerie replied scratching her cheek.
She didn't really know what to say to him.

They stayed quiet for a little longer, but suddenly she got an idea.
"Hey... so I was going to head to Nimbassa city... would you like to come with me?"
N looked surprised, his head tilting slightly as he thought about it.
"...why not." He replied simply, smiling softly.
Malerie returned the smile and turned towards the forest's exit. She heard the taller Male's footsteps behind her as they walked through the rest of the forest.
Audino let go of her hand and fell behind a little bit and started walking at a similar pace as N. The two seemed to strike up a conversation again.

"Y'know I'm pretty sure she likes you more than me. And I've been with her longer." Malerie chuckled.
"She only seems to talk about you. I still haven't heard anything negative..." he trailed off, clearly thinking about something.
"Something on your mind?" She asked, walking backwards so she could look at him.
He waved a nonchalant hand and shook his head softly.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." He stated.

Malerie raised an eyebrow, but continued walking at the front of the group.
Although she couldn't help but listen to the two talking behind her. She was awful curious about what they could be talking about.
The only information she got was N responding to Audino and his responses were vague for the most part.
Slowly she started to match their pace. Till she was walking next to N.
"So, whatcha guys talking about?" She questioned, tilting her head childishly.

"Nothing much... honestly shes mostly been talking about the other members on your team." N replied smiling.
"Ah... that it?" The blonde asked, now playing around with her hair.
N stayed quiet, as if he didn't really want to say anything.
"If she was talking trash about me you can say so, I won't mind it." Malerie chuckled.
Audino let out an annoyed 'Audi!'as she glared at her trainer.
"... No, she hasn't really said anything about you this time..." he replied quickly, as if he was telling a lie or something.
"Well alright..." she mumbled, the walk grew quiet for a while, neither one really being able to think of anything to say to the other.

Malerie started humming softly to herself out of boredom. Until she eventually felt something poke the top of her head. She figured it might have been a low hanging branch, but she turned her head anyway. She met N's eyes, and he gave her an embarrassed look before moving his hand swiftly away from her head.
"Uh... whatcha doin?" She mumbled, pausing her walking.
"Sorry... I just... I was curious about your hair..." he muttered in response, scratching his cheek.
"What about it? I think it's pretty normal besides the dyed part... but even then that's pretty normal," she stuck her tounge out.
He poked at the tuft of hair on her head. "That... I was curious about that." He replied.

"Oh...uh..." She poked the little tuft. "That's my ahoge, my symbol of being the protagonist." She chuckled.
"What...?" N replied confused.
"Just kidding," she chuckled "Its just a little tuft of hair that I didn't bother to remove." She reached up and flicked it.

He responded with a curt 'Ah' and looked at her for a little longer before the two decided to continue walking again.
"I think we're close to the next city." Malerie hummed, taking a glance at her map. "It'll be sunset by the time we reach there, so we'll have to rent a room at the pokemon center or camp." She added, brushing her bangs out of her eyes.
N nodded quietly, and took a peek over her shoulder to take a look at her map.
"Nacrene city... I've been there before several times actually." Malerie thought aloud.
"When I started my journey... and a few times after that."
Audino nodded her head, smiling softly.
"Let me guess Servine told you." Malerie responded to her pokemon.
The pastel pokemon nodded once again.
"Still hard to believe it's been about...what 4 years or less?" She guessed, twirling her hair.
"You've been on a journey that long?" N questioned, looking at her curiously.
"That was just a guess if I'm being honest. I started when I was like... 14." She replied, remembering when she got her starter.
"It would've been more near 5 or 6 depending on how old you were and your age now... you're 19 right?" N mumbled.

"Yeah, nearly twenty."
He nodded and didn't say anything after that.
"...that was unexpected, I didn't think you would do the math for that." She responded with a short chuckle.
"Hmm- oh yes um... I find math interesting. I just put that together for fun, it just seemed like something you would want to know.

Malerie smiled at this, maybe she was becoming friends with...
He was different and she liked that. She didn't agree with everything he had said before, but he truly was an Interesting person.

Maybe they would become closer...

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Peace out and stay safe fam ~ 💜