The images in front of him were getting blurry as they zoomed in and out of focus to the unsteadiness of his breath. Exhaustion was catching up to the boy sooner than he had anticipated and that was not a good thing. His legs felt like spaghetti and he could feel them collapsing under the weight of his fatigue.
He eventually spotted a tall tree to his left and hurriedly limped towards the shelter under its canopy. Once there, he plopped down to his butt and allowed himself to relax as he propped himself against the support of the tree bark. He reached a hand over and covered the wound gaping in his left shoulder.
Like last time, they attacked him out of nowhere. And just like last time, he survived the encounter by the skins of his teeth.
In the silence of the night, he could almost hear his heart pound under the bones of his ribs. His eyelids were getting heavy and threatened to shut his eyes away from the world.
He felt like he was tasting death.
What a bitter, putrid taste it was…
Yet, it felt strangely empty. Like there was supposed to be something more.
With a self-inflicted slap to the face, he purged himself of the bizarre sentiments. He was nowhere near the age to start thinking about dying yet.
Brown eyes traveled the distance that the boy's body couldn't, and landed on the light brown Iki Town soil. He figured that he could restfor a while, perhaps get a little bit of shut-eye before he started moving again. Once he reached Iki Town, he would find a place to spend the night and figure out where to go from there.
Who he was and how he ended up in this situation, he'd honestly forgotten. His memories had become a tad bit messed up ever since he injured his head. All he knew was that in order to survive, he needed to keep moving.
With those thoughts in mind, he allowed his eyes to close.
The rufflings of grass woke him from his light slumber. As his weary eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he immediately understood the predicament he had landed himself into.
A group of yungoos had surrounded him. From the looks of it, their intentions weren't friendly.
In the center of the circular entrapment, was a commanding gumshoos, who stood there, its sleek body straightened with arcane nobility. With eyes that commanded a level of authority and intimidation, the gumshoos sized him up, down, then up again. Through it all, his reinforcements, an eight-men squadron of yungoos, remained by the sides of their leader and waited on their hands and legs for a command.
The boy was quickly reminded of a mob boss and its henchmen.
He quickly tried to move away, his hands scraping against the grass underneath as he pulled his fatigued body along. The creatures, however, followed him and kept him in the center of their formation.
It didn't seem like they were going to let him leave so easily. At least not with some form of toll fee.
The wounded traveler laughed at the familiarity of this situation. Being extorted by wild Pokémon and wild human alike had become a regular part of his life . But he didn't have much to offer. No money and definitely no food. The last piece of valuables was a trinket he gave away to a gun-wielding hobo.
Slowly the approached him, their methodical drawn-out pace flirting with his rising anxiety. Globs of saliva slid down from the mouths of the ravenous felines and perched themselves upon the meadows of the moonlit route.
From their salivation, he had a feeling they wouldn't mind taking something more personal from him. Perhaps the sack of meat between his legs or his body in its entirety.
Getting eaten was definitely something that he wanted to avoid. Not only did the process sound painful, but slow as well.
The traveler forced a hand up and summoned wisps of ribbon-like energy towards the center of his palm.
For a moment, the group of felines stopped in their tracks and watched in jaw-opening awe as a small luminous sphere took form in his hands. Even the gumshoos seemed to be somewhat in shock — a small victory that was significant enough for the traveler to grin in satisfaction.
This was an ability he was always able to use. It was how he was able to survive thus far in the wild by himself. He didn't have enough energy to make a more potent product, but with this he hoped to at least spook them enough to leave him alone.
Then, the sphere bursted into a thousand of tiny sparkles. When the last piece of energy died in the air, his hopes of survival did as well. Like what he feared and suspected, he had reached his limits.
When fighting was no longer an option, he had to turn towards pleading.
"Okay fellas. Calm down a bit. Aren't you supposed to be asleep by now?" He laughed, holding out a pair of shielding hands as he scooted further away from the approaching mass. It was some time past midnight, so it was normal to assume that others would be sleeping
They took a step forward regardless.
"Eep! How about an apology? I will give one to you! Free of charge of course!"
They took another step forward.
"Oh! I know!" He said, faking a sudden epiphany, "how about I treat you to breakfast when the sun rises? Oh my, those teeth are sharp. Stop showing them to me please, it is making me uncomfortable. How about you all go grind them off somewhere?"
When he saw that his words had fallen on deaf ears, he resigned himself to his fate and closed his eyes. He hoped that he would at least pass out from the pain of the first bite and enjoy a relatively comfortable departure.
"Now, just wait a minute!"
The voice that ripped through the evening air didn't come from him. Even he wasn't pathetic enough to continue begging at this junction.
The boy looked around, his eyes finally landing on the girl standing a mere couple feet away.
With a right combination of hyper and annoying, she bellowed, both hands on her waist in an imposing posturing.
"Leave the poor boy alone!"