Substation

Pecha

It was a quiet night. No, morning. The sun just hadn't risen. The female shinx bounded carelessly through the woods while searching for something, unaware of the eyes watching her. What was she searching for? Pecha berries. Soon enough she fell across a grove with quite a few berries. In fact, there was a tree for every kind. Still hurrying, she gathered up three pecha berries and ran as fast as she could back towards the cave she slept in the night before. No sooner had she returned did the sun begin to show through the entrance.

"Aza! Here, take these!"

The shinx instructed her companion, another shinx, she padded towards him and dropped the berries in front of him. The response he gave was nothing more than a low groan while he stuffed one into his throat and swallowed. He felt his stomach jump ever so slightly and sat up, still feeling a little uneasy.

"I'm... okay."

His voice was frail. Softly his body plopped back down into the makeshift nest while he recovered further. The female shinx then followed after him in the second nest they had built.

"Well that was rather rude, taking what doesn't belong to you."

A voice called from the front of the cave.

"I've been working on that orchard for a few months now and then you came along and vandalized it."

Aza began to rise and was stopped by his friend.

"I-I'm sorry, I only needed a few. It was important!"

The female shouted back. Now the figure who the voice belong to became visible. She walked further into the cave and revealed herself to the pair. They were glad to see it were only a meowstic.

"Hi. I'm Maxine. I followed you here after you stole my berries."

Aza interjected with his raspy voice to defend their actions.

"She only did it because I needed them. We were attacked by a group of nidoran and they left a mark."

He prodded at the scratches on his back legs. They didn't necessarily hurt, but the poison was a bit of an issue. Maxine ran to where he lay and examined him. As soon as she did, her demeanor changed.

"Well why didn't you say so? If you needed some help all you had to do was ask. I absolutely love taking care of you little ones. Especially when you're as cute as you are."

Aza drew back with embarrassment. He gave a heavy sigh and stared intently at the meowstic.

"We didn't want to go looking for trouble. You see, this area is new to us. Just recently we left our home to travel the region. There's nobody here we could've trusted."

The female shinx explained. Maxine turned towards her while nodding.

"Can I ask your names?"

"Lydia. This one here is Aza, my brother."