Dawn of the Shadows (Drakonnas / Grey) [M]

Rated M for possible romance, violence, and other adult scenarios.


Zoey sat up, watching the stars on her front porch. The night was quiet and peaceful, she could hear Krikitunes singing in the background. Zoey had always loved the night, it was the most peaceful time of the day, the quietest, and the time when she didn't have to be bothered by her elder sister, Kayla. Kayla was twenty seven, and overly protective. She promised to be, and for seven long years, Kayla had looked after her. Zoey was now seventeen, it had been ten years since the day her parents had died in that horrible accident.

She sat, curled in a ball, knees hugged to her chest on her beanbag chair, her Vulpix resting calmly beside her. It was the only time of day in which Kayla wasn't bugging her about something. Personal appearance, schoolwork, social connections, just things in general. Zoey liked time alone, it gave her time to recuperate from all the daily activities she participated in. It had been seven years since that fatal accident. It had been seven years since her sister had sworn to protect her. She did a good job, Zoey had to admit, to support them both. She loved her sister with all her heart, and even though they squabbled at times, they got along really well.

Zoey was only bothered by the fact that Kayla was overly protective, and oftentimes wouldn't let her do things. Zoey was, admittedly, a very innocent girl, yet she was smart, very smart. She was socially adept, full of good morals, and a joy to be around. She was always optimistic, even though some things were rather difficult to be optimistic about.

Part of the reason that her sister was so overly protective was that Zoey wasn't as well as it might seem. She had contracted a really bad disease when she was about twelve or so, and had been confined to the hospital for over two months. She had nearly died, but miraculously, with a Blissey's care, she had survived, though with a handicap. Every so often, she would have "attacks", where she endured a tremendous amount of pain, incapacitating her for awhile. Kayla hated to see her go through these attacks, and tried to protect her sister as best as she could, by being as protective as she could...

Anyone who met her would say that she had a pure and beautiful heart, even if she did tend to dress a little oddly sometimes. It was just one of her quirks, she enjoyed dressing differently than most other people. She didn't know why, she just did.

Zoey stroked her vulpix gently, he was purring. There wasn't much she loved more than to curl up with her vulpix, perhaps a video game, and just listen to the cries of the pokemon at night. It was peaceful, and she loved listening to it. She knew that her parents had as well, it was a trait she picked up from both them and Kayla. When she was young, and had a bedtime, Zoey would watch Kayla sit outside with a little bit of jealousy, not knowing that that was when her sister, always stalwart and strong, would cry. Zoey never saw her sister cry, or even falter. She was the strongest person she knew.

Zoey was dozing off a little bit, unaware of the shadow that was waiting in the dark... A ghostly pokemon glared at her, eyes full of hatred and malice. The banette had come to seek revenge... It glared at the girl that it thought had thrown it away... Banette were born when a child threw away a doll, and the doll's feelings of abandonment and hatred brought it back to life, with the sole purpose of getting revenge against child whom had thrown it out. It had sought revenge so much, that it had went to see Jirachi, and made a wish, made a wish that its former owner would suffer a miserable and painful fate... It had come to see that wish come true.

Zoey got up, to stretch out and head back inside, when one of her attacks hit. They didn't come often, usually about once every few weeks or so... There was nothing that the doctors could do, as far as she knew. It wouldn't kill her, it never would, but it just caused a lot of pain. She cried out as her body writhed about uncontrollably, this particular attack was pretty bad... Back in the shadows, the Banette laughed evilly. It enjoyed seeing her in pain.

Kayla came running, and picked her sister up, and carried her to the bed, her eyes were full of pity, not sure how to help her sister, other than wait it out. Zoey eventually lost consciousness, and fell into the deep dark abyss of sleep.

---

When Zoey woke, she shook her head a little bit, something felt very, very wrong. Her entire body felt weird and unusual... She was laying in the middle of a forest, the sound of water lapping gently by her. She looked... and saw something that made no sense. Instead of having her normal arms, she saw black paws... Furry black paws. "What the hell is going on?" she asked herself, getting up, she was somehow a quadruped now... She stumbled, not used to this strange body... She looked in the water, and saw the reflection of a Zorua looking back at her.

"What...? I must be dreaming..." She told herself, the zorua's mouth moving in the reflection. "What the heck? Why am I a zorua?" she asked, turning around, but no one was there to hear her. Except for a lone Rattata, who was watching her warily.

"Excuse me..." She spoke, knowing it was odd to talk to a pokemon, but if she was one, maybe it could understand her. "Where am I?"

The ratata spoke to her. "You're finally awake... good, I was worried, you've been unconscious for several days... I thought you were dead... But you were breathing..." It said, head tilted to one side, as if trying to get a better look at her. It was rather cute, she thought. But why was she here? And why was she a Zorua? "You're in the Hailaway Forest..." the Ratata said with a smile. "It's a quiet and mellow forest, its a good thing you're here, and not in some big scary place with big and powerful pokemon! They can be mean..." He said, tail wagging happily. "But... uh... strange things have been happening, miss... The past few days... pokemon have been pretty mean, as if... they've lost their heads or something..."

"...As if they've lost their heads? I'm sorry, but I just... woke up... I have no idea where I am, or who I am..." She just realized that she had no memory of who she was, or how she had gotten here. She was completely lost, and didn't know what was going on..."

"Well... be careful, missy, because there are lots of strange things going on... Pokemon that were nice, but are now being really big meanies..." The young pokemon said, worried. "I've been attacked by my friend tailow yesterday, something was wrong... I don't know what it was, but she was really scary, and didn't seem to know who I was..."

Zoey frowned a little bit. "I... don't know what to say, I've... I don't know who I am, or how I came to be here..." she couldn't just ask for help, that would be imposing on someone else, and she couldn't do that.

"You better get home..." the Ratata said, scurrying off into the shadows. "I think I hear some meanies coming..." Sure enough, two pokemon stomped out of the bush, and Zoey immediately saw what he was talking about. The machop's eyes were glowing red, and it had an evil aura about it.

"What've we got here? A new pokemon? You're in our turf, missy, and we don't allow such nonesense..." A Marill waddled out behind the Machop, and laughed. It had the same glowing red eyes, but they were less intense, they seemed to sort of fade in and out, and the Marill seemed to be a little bit off guard...

Zoey watched in anticipation, trying to decide if she needed to flee... "Please, I don't know who I am, or how I came to be here...I have no memory at all, I just woke up here... Don't hurt me, please..." She said softly, if she had to defend herself, she had no knowledge of how to do so...

"Haha... seems like you got the short end of the stick..." The marill said with a laugh. "We'll teach you some manners then... Haha..."

Zoey had no choice but to flee as the Marill shot a jet of water at her. She dashed past the bushes, thorns scraping against her fur as she ran, burrs getting stuck as well. It was annoying, and a little painful. Behind her, she could hear the steps of the two pokemon chasing her. What was going on? What had she done to deserve this? Why couldn't she remember anything of her past?

As hard as she tried, Zoey just couldn't remember. And even if she could, she had to focus on escaping these two pokemon first... She dived into a little fox-den, and cowered there, hoping she could make a hideaway in here for the time being. Luckily for her, the two pokemon lost her, and went rambling about in the woods in search of their prey.

Zoey waited there for a little while, not sure what to do, or if it was even safe to come out yet... Would they still be looking for her? Or did they just want to give her a scare? She knew she had to get more information, she couldn't just stay here and cower away, she had to find someone to talk to, someone who wasn't influenced by this weird aura of darkness or whatever... Poking her head out of the little den, she noticed that the two pokemon were gone. She hesitantly looked around, the coast was clear.

"Joka, come battle with me?"
"Not right now, Tobi, I'm busy."
"But Joka, you're not doing anything."
"I'm training."
"Training for what? You won't evolve."
The Charmander looked at his little brother with piercing eyes. "I've no reason to," he spat back. "Besides, I don't like battling with you."
"Why not?" The Gible looked at his brother with a questioning look.
"Because you're a ground type."
"So?"
"I'm a fire type. That's not fair."
"You're just a party pooper," Tobi whined. "If you weren't such a baby and actually evolved you'd be a flying type and would resist my moves."
"I'm not a baby, thank you." Joka turned away from his brother. "Why don't you go play with your other friends?"
"Because I wanted to spend time with my family," Tobi replied.
"Then go battle with your parents. Leave me alone."

Joka watched the Gible head off. He let out a sigh and turned to the grass, enjoying the breeze that touched his skin. He did appreciate his family, but he appreciated being alone even more.
He didn't like being in other Pokemon's company. Joka was a loner, and according to his mother, always had been. He was different, and often was the butt of a lot of jokes. For one, he didn't want to evolve. He was still a Charmander, and didn't find the need in becoming a Charmeleon. He liked the way he was, and didn't understand why everyone thought he should change.
For another thing, he was adopted. His mother was a Garchomp and his father a Hydreigon, which meant he had to have been. His family didn't address it much, unless he was alone with Tobi.
Tobias was his brother, only older by a few weeks. He was a Gible, anxiously awaiting his evolution. The two got along, but only just.
Tobi couldn't understand why Joka didn't want to evolve. It didn't make sense to him, and he constantly questioned him about the matter. Joka was tired of all the questions, and often found ways to avoid his brother.
It wasn't an easy task, but Joka managed.

This was his life, in a nutshell. He was often training himself, or exploring new areas, always alone. He felt like the outcast of the family, being the one that was real. That bothered him, but he couldn't tell his parents that.
His mother had found him ages ago, in a dark cave, all alone. He had had horrible amnesia and didn't remember a thing. His mother had said he was crying, and decided to take him in and raise him with her own son. Joka became a part of the family then.
Partially.
Joka didn't consider himself part of the family, really. He was just living under their roof, eating their food, and sharing their sympathies. They were more friends than blood.
He wanted to consider them family. He really did.
But he just couldn't.

After a few hours of walking around, Joka started the long walk home. When he arrived, he went straight to his room.
He shared a room with Tobi, naturally. Their room was small and packed with a bunch of Tobi's things. All of Joka's prized possessions were intangible. They were memories he had collections, feelings he wouldn't let show, things no one knew about.
Except one small trinket that he liked to keep around his neck.
Joka always had a rope around his neck, a thin one, with a Sharpedo tooth hanging from it. Joka had had it for as long as he could remember; his mother said it was around his neck when she found him. He liked to say it held some clues about his life before he was found, but he didn't know how to uncover them.

"Joka, Tobi, come and eat!"
Joka made his way to the main room of the house where the rest of the family was ready for supper. He silently took a bowl of what they were having, a colorful array of different berries. Joka offered a half-smile as thanks and took his bowl to his room. His mother stopped him before he could enter.
"Why don't you eat with us today, dear?" she suggested.
Joka reluctantly sat down beside his mother. He didn't mutter a word.
"Why don't you open up a little, Joka?" his father suggested, nudging him slightly.
"I am open," Joka said.
"Yeah right," Tobi muttered.
Joka glanced over at him but said nothing. "Really guys, I'm fine. Thank you." He took his bowl back to his room and ate in total solitude.

That night, Joka sat on his bed and gazed out of his window, reflecting. Tobi was asleep on the other side of the room, snoring lightly.
Joka wanted a change.
He wanted to go on some kind of adventure. He wanted something new. As long as he had remembered he hadn't done anything exciting in his life.
He wanted excitement.
Joka just wished that something would happen.

--

Joka had never wished for this.
It had been days since the darkness started eating away at the world. Mere days since this chaos had started. But it needed to end. It had to.
The darkness was consuming the innocent, turning them vile. It didn't seem contagious; no, the darkness seemed to attack at random. It was never like this.
And Joka couldn't help but think it was his fault.
You wished for this.

The darkness, as Pokemon had called it, was just that. It was a strange darkness that seemed to manipulate Pokemon. Once it found a victim, it took them over, completely. The nicest Pokemon had turned evil with this strange disease, and no onw knew where it came from. No one knew how to stop it. They just knew that eventually, it would take over the world.
Eventually, they'd all be consumed, or get killed by the ones who were.

If he wasn't before, Joka had become a ghost in his own home.
Tobi had been affected by the darkness, and his parents kept watch on him twenty-four/seven. At times, Tobi seemed to be in quite a bit of pain. His eyes grew a glowing red and grew distant. They flashed between different hues of red, the darkest just when he was about to lash out.
His parents were scared. Tobi had evolved the day before the darkness overcame him, making his episodes even more painful. It was harder to restrain him, a job that had been given to his parents. Tobi had lashed out at Joka while the darkness plagued him, and Joka had nearly died.
Everyone was terrified of Tobi now, but no one knew what to do. They kept him locked in his room, waiting for the darkness to fade.
Joka wondered if it ever would.

His parents had been neglecting him, but he didn't blame them. Tobi needed the watch. He just felt lonlier than ever, now.
Joka had even evolved, to make himself stronger in case he did have to face a victim of the darkness. He told no one, just came home one day in a new skin. His parents had glanced over him, with a simple, "Oh."
But Joka wouldn't let that bother him. He couldn't.
So he left.
He would be back, of course. But there was no use staying in such a house, where his own brother could kill him.
This was an adventure, wasn't it? And that's what he had been praying for.

With nothing but the trinket around his neck, Joka found himself in the outskirts of his hometown. He didn't know where he was going. It probably wasn't the smartest idea, heading out alone with so many infected, but that was how Joka lived. Alone.
And he had no one to go with.
Maybe that would change, though. Maybe he would meet someone.
Joka laughed out loud at his own silly thoughts. He didn't need anyone.

As Zoey tried to find her way around, her stomach growled in hunger, she needed to find something to eat. Something, anything. But what was edible here? She didn't know where she was, nor what kinds of food there was available. But if she did, how would she reach some? She couldn't climb trees, and she was a pretty small pokemon. How would she get up into the trees to get possible fruits that were there? She hadn't eaten in who knows how long? She was pretty thirsty too, and a little bit bloodied from the thorns, her fur was gnarled and messy, and she just felt nasty. She wished she could clean herself, but how? She should have known how by now, right? But what had happened to her? How come she had no memory?

Zoey heard a rustling noise, her head jerked over to where the bushes were rustling. It was a mankey, its eyes were glowing red. "You dare use my nest? How dare you... I'll kill you... Kill... Augh!" the pokemon cried. They were on the edge of the forest apparently, near what looked like a town of some sort. Zoey panicked, not knowing what to do. The mankey was trying to Karate Chop her, and instinctively, she knew that wasn't a good thing to get hit by. Still, the mankey was fast, and rather powerful too. One karate chop weakened her so much that she wasn't sure she was going to be able to get up. Why were these pokemon so hostile? They were usually kind and friendly...

Wait. That was a memory. She remembered not fearing pokemon, like she did now. Everyone she had met had tried to attack her. With the exception of that Ratata... Why? Why did pokemon hate her so much? What did she do to them? "You filthy Zorua... you're a dark pokemon... you've gotta be behind this Darkness.... that's... taking... over... my mind... and... greeeaahahh...." The mankey kept attacking. Zoey wasn't sure how much more abuse she could take, she was already hurting like hell, and was close to losing consciousness. She didn't know how to fight back... The only thing she knew how to do was swipe at the Mankey, and she got in a few hits, but he was too enraged to care, going berserk.

It was then she saw a pokemon standing not too far away. "H...help... help me..." She begged the Charmeleon, she didn't want to die here, and the Mankey was hell bent on achieving that goal, it seemed. "Please..."

Joka was enjoying some Leppa berries that he had stumbled upon when he heard something in the distance. Allowing his curiosity to lead him, he ventured to a clearing behind some bushes. There he saw a Mankey, obviously infected. It looked so angered, so pained, that Joka felt bad for it.
It was chasing a Zorua, who obviously didn't know what she was doing.
Amateur, Joka thought. He turned his attention back to the Mankey. "Hey," he called to it. "Why pick on her? Don't you want a challenge?"
He turned around and showed the Mankey his tail, which was swaying slightly. He didn't know what he was doing, taunting one of the infected, when his intent was so obviously to kill.
But at this point, did it really matter if Joka died?

Joka was trying to think of a strategy to attack the Mankey. The darkness seemed to make Pokemon more aggressive, more difficult to stop. He had watched it in his own brother.
So he needed to be careful.
He knew that a Mankey wouldn't be able to attack him if he stayed far enough, which was fine with him. His flamethrower had quite the range, after he had spent so long perfecting it. Also, fighting-types were defenseless against aeriel attacks. Maybe if he could get some elevation...
He slowly approached the Zorua, not daring to look away from the Mankey. "We can work as a team here," he said. "I can distract him. You can swoop down on him. He won't be able to hit you if you're in the air. Climb that tree. You'd do that better than I could. I'll keep him distracted." Joka nodded, more to himself than to the Pokemon beside him. He could give orders like a lieutenant.
He walked away from the Zorua, still maintaining eye contact with the Mankey.

"I'm real sorry," Joka said. "For what you're going through. I've seen what it does to a Pokemon. It's not pretty. I hope they can find a cure for this soon."
He kept a safe distance while he spoke. He was trying to keep his cool, which wasn't a huge problem for him. It was hard to excite him.
"I'm real sorry I have to do this," he continued. "But you're a real danger, and we can't have you attacking innocent Pokemon just because you feel like it." He offered a sympathetic smile and sent a flamethrower his way. "It's a real shame, all of it," Joka mumbled, ranting more to distract the Mankey than anything else. "And sad to say, this is probably how the world is going to end."
Joka stopped and tried another flamethrower, this one stronger than the first. He kept an eye on the Zorua, watching what she would do.

Zoey looked around as the Charmeleon took the Mankey's attention away from her for a split second. He was telling her to climb the trees? And attack from above? But how would she do that? She hurt almost too much to move. But still, that was better than the alternative, sitting here, and taking the blows. Silently, she nodded. As the Charmeleon worked on distracting the Mankey, she got up, and limped over to one of the bushes nearby. Looking around analytically, she thought she saw a path... It was dangerous, and she certainly could fall, but maybe that was the best thing. She climbed up the bushes somehow, and jumped to the lowest branch of the pine, slowly making her way up inside the tree, watching her positioning, and the battle below.

"You...have no... CLUE!" The Mankey roared, rushing the Charmeleon, but taking a flamethrower straight to the face. That was a deterrent, and it looked more wary now, was it worth the pain of fighting to simply vent his anger out on these pokemon? He turned to look for the Zorua, but she was gone. Dammit. He wanted to kill her, maybe that would have gotten rid of the darkness infecting him. The Charmeleon would have to die instead.

Dodging the second flamethrower, but getting a little bit scorched in the process, the Mankey ran at Charmeleon, weakened significantly by the burn, and by the flamethrower before, he tried to fury swipes the Charmeleon. Zoey watched this fight, not sure what to do, but something inside her told her that now was the time to attack. The two had been fighting for awhile, and the Mankey looked weakened. Something inside her just told her what to do. She launched herself from the tree, at a supersonic speed, and slashed at the Mankey as she jumped from the tree, an Aerial Ace.

The Mankey fell to the ground, stunned and defeated. "Fine..." It whimpered, some of the red in its eyes had vanished. "I'll go.... but please... don't use my nest without asking me... Owowow...." It got up, and scurried off. Zoey collapsed with the effort it took to keep herself up at this point. She didn't complain, she had never been one to complain. By this point, pain wasn't something that she wasn't used to, she experienced it often enough that it was never enough to complain about. But she was too weak to get up. Hoping the Charmeleon would at least offer some sort of help, she looked up at him. "There... how was that?" Her voice was pained, but she tried to hide that part, she didn't like others seeing her injured. "Thank you... you saved me..."

Joka saw the Mankey looking for the Zorua, but he couldn't have him attack her. She looked weak enough, and was at a disadvantage for type already. He shot an ember at the Mankey, keeping it focused on him instead.
The Mankey was sure focused on him, and started attacking Joka with a fury swipe. He didn't find any difficulty in enduring the attack, but it might leave a mark later. The darkness made it so much stronger than it should have been, but that's what had been scaring everyone all along. The strength of the infected.

The Charmeleon looked for the Zorua, scanning the clearing until he spotted her ready to land on the Mankey. She did, less than gracefully, but her move was effective nonetheless.
The rapid primate fell, weakened too much to continue. He admitted defeat before running away.
Joka looked back to the small dark type. She asked him how she did, and Joka had to snicker. "You did fine," he said, turning to leave. But as the little Zorua thanked him, he stopped, his back turned.
"You saved me."
He had, hadn't he? But he just did what anyone would have done. The darkness might have been turning a lot of Pokemon sour, but it was also bringing the healthy ones together, fortified by a need to protect each other.
Joka turned to face the Zorua. "Kid, you look a mess," he pointed, not knowing what else there was to do. "You can't be running around alone. Especially not a Pokemon with such low defenses by default." He turned his eyes to the sky, where a Fearow was flying overhead. "The darkness is taking over the world. Unless you want to be infected, you'd better scram."

Joka turned away from the Zorua once more, but the values his mother had taught him drummed at him. He couldn't just leave her there, could he? What kind of Pokemon would that make him?
"You know," he said softly, talking to the Pokemon behind him without looking at her. "There are some Oran bushes not too far from here. I saw them while walking. They could probably strengthen you a little."
There. His kind deed of the day.
Joka started away then, going straight to the Oran bushes. The Zorua could follow him, or she could go get killed. He didn't care.

As the Charmeleon spoke, he seemed to be quite cold, but he had helped her, hadn't he? Zoey wasn't sure what to say. If she didn't want to be infected. What was the infected? Was it those pokemon who seemed to be corrupted by something? Was that it? Zoey didn't know what to think. She had never heard of anything like this before. But then again, there was a ton that she didn't remember.

As he said she shouldn't be running around alone, Zoey looked a little afraid. "I don't know who I am, I don't know where I am, I don't know how I got here..." She said quietly, not wanting to make excuses for herself, but then again, not wanting to seem like a fool, she told the truth. "I don't have any memories, I just... kinda woke up, and here I was... the first thing I know, I was being attacked by a Machop and a Marill, so I found a hiding spot, but then that Mankey got furious with me... Can you at least give me some information?"

She felt really vulnerable, and as he pointed out were the Oran berries were, she tried to get up to follow him. She limped along, without complaints, occasionally her front right paw gave way, and she collapsed, but she made no noise, and got up and continued behind the Charmeleon. "I... I think my name is Zoey, but I'm not sure..." She said, at an attempt to create a conversation with the pokemon who had saved her, who seemed not to really care about her other than the fact that she had needed the help. She didn't expect him to care. They were strangers after all... "What's yours?"

She followed him to where the Oran berries were, and she picked one, and hesitantly ate it, slightly nervous. To her surprise, her hunger abated somewhat, and she felt a little stronger. Eating a few more, she no longer hurt, and no longer felt tired. She was feeling more normal. "Thank you for your help. I do appreciate it. Where are we?" She asked him, turning to look at him.

Joka took a seat on a rock beside the bush and watched the new Pokemon. She was going on about having no memory of who she was, where she was, or how she got here. She asked him for information.
He turned away from her. "Amnesia, huh?" he said. "Usually that just ups your defenses, should wear off soon." He didn't laugh at his own joke, just gave an imperceptible smirk. He had remembered reading about a move called amnesia. In the faraway land, where the humans were, amnesia was used in competitve battles to raise the special defense stat by a level or two.
Whatever that meant.
Joka didn't like humans, the ones who put Pokemon together to battle for those little shining badges. The Pokemon did all the work, after all. Why did the human get the reward?
Battling seemed to be different with the humans. The people considered stats and things, and used their manmade items to up certain stats, but it was all just too much. Training was supposed to be all natural. If you wanted stronger endurance, you worked on it. You didn't eat some weird vitamin to raise your hit points. You trained yourself to up your attack, and defense, and speed. You didn't take steroids.

Joka had always had ill feelings towards humans. From how he saw it, they used Pokemon as battling machines, shoveling in steroids and vitamins and using them to get what they wanted. Pokemon shouldn't live like that.
That's why he was grateful he lived in a land with no humans. The people were far from him, and as far as he knew, he never did and never would have any connections to one of those homo sapiens.

The reptile was jerked out of his thoughts as the Zorua started talking again. She was limping around, mumbling her uncertainty about her own name.
How did you forget your own name?
Your name was your identity-what had happened to this Pokemon to make her forget?
As she asked of his name, he picked an Oran berry and held it between his claws. Should he tell her? What was she trying to do, make friends? Joka didn't need partners. He didn't want to befriend this thing.
"Joka," he answered, surprising himself. He glanced up at her for a brief second before returning his gaze to the berry in his claws. He downed it in one gulp. He then turned his attention back to the Zorua, making sure she couldn't see he was looking at him.
She tested the Oran berry as if she had never had one before, even if it was one of the most common berries. She ate a few more, which should have given her the health she had lost. When she looked back at him Joka immediately looked away, pretending to be interested in the texture of the rock he was sitting on.
"Don't mention it," he replied, serious. There was nothing worse than being thanked, Joka thought. He was just doing what any normal Pokemon would do, after all. Why did she have to keep thanking him? He hadn't done anything.
"Where are we?" Joka repeated, looking up. "Beats me," he answered with a shrug, pushing away from his rock and picking another berry before starting away. As he walked, he grilled his berry with a fiery breath. He didn't know what the Zorua would do.
But a very small part of him was hoping she would follow.

As the Charmeleon spoke to her again, Zoey could sense that he really didn't want her around. His cold attitude, his anger or whatever it was, prevented her from asking any more questions. When he told he he didn't know where they were, that kinda was the hint, that she should probably leave him alone, and go on her own way. But she had no one to turn to. She'd just have to find a way, find someone who could explain to her what was going on. She had no idea what to expect, and that was dangerous. How did one become "infected"? How did one make a living here? She had no home, no place to stay.

A clap of thunder echoed overhead, and Zoey felt a few raindrops start to fall. She could tell it was gonna downpour pretty soon. Joka had shelter, but she'd have to find something. "Alright... If you don't want me around, I'll leave." She said, turning her back on the pokemon, and looking for an adequate shelter from the rain. "Thank you for your help." She wandered off, looking for anything that could help shelter her. The best she found was a large tree. Zoey sat down under it, and watched the rain begin to pour harder and harder.

How had she come to be here? Why couldn't she remember anything? As the rain poured down, Zoey shivered a little bit. She was soaking, but at the least, she was probably safe from any infected pokemon. Why were these things happening? At this rate, she'd probably die within a few days. She had to train and grow stronger, but that wouldn't help her memory. If she was stronger, that would be good. But what would happen if she never got her memory back? Then she'd just have to make new memories, probably.

She wondered where Joka went, but tried to shake him from her mind, he clearly didn't want a strange pokemon around. He had helped, sure, but any good pokemon would have. She couldn't go back to him. No, she had to find some way to make her way in the world, and to find out why she lost her memory. But first she'd have to wait out the storm. Thunder roared, and lightning flashed, illuminating the forest around her. No pokemon were to be found, they were all in shelters of some sort. Except her.

Zoey's words made Joka perk up and follow after her. Being a fire type, he had a natural hatred for the rain. It slowed him, but the Zorua wasn't moving fast.
He observed her as she walked, seemingly unsure on her own four feet. It was almost amusing to watch her approach a tree that was gigantic in comparison to the little Pokemon.
"Hey now," Joka said curtly, walking up to Zoey. "Don't you put words in my mouth. I never said I didn't want you around."
What was he doing?
Joka enjoyed the solitude. He had spent his entire life living in it. So why was he seeking this Pokemon out?

Joka leaned himself against the tree, making sure his flaming tail dodged the raindrops. "And quit thanking me," he continued. "It's bad enough I had to save you. I don't need to hear about it." He let out a light yawn. "No, I don't know where we are. That's honest. But I do know that if you keep walking that way-" he pointed with a sharp claw-"you'll wind up in Limbre Falls."
The Charmeleon's thoughts were beating at him, questing his motives. What are you doing? You don't want to be around her. You can't just invite yourself to the presence of others.
He shrugged his thoughts off. "So you don't remember anything?" he asked her, doing something he hadn't done in years.
He was trying to start a conversation.

Joka didn't know why he was still by the Zorua. He had helped her enough. She would be fine on her own.
Or not. It didn't matter. It wasn't his problem.
But maybe, just maybe, Joka really wanted social interaction. Maybe he often avoided it because everyone before had judged him. Had made him feel uncomfortable.
Maybe Joka sought Zoey out because she was helpless. Because she wouldn't run away from him, knowing that would mean instant death.
Maybe Joka was really looking forward to making a friend in the little Zorua.
The Charmeleon stopped, and he laughed out loud. He was being ridiculous.