Ran dove to the side once more, a long groan escaping her throat as her battered body rolled along the hard ground for the umpteenth time. The mamoswine that raged past her shifted its attention to Outrider and charged forward. When the lucario hopped clean over the rampaging mammoth, it bellowed, sending forth a gale of whipping snow that piled onto Outrider and left him covered in lumps of powder.
The mamoswine charged again, but right as Outrider bent his legs to jump once more, the mammoth shifted its weight and turned hard, raising its right legs up and slamming them down into the ground with tremendous force. Outrider toppled over as he lost his footing on the soil crumbling apart beneath his feet. With a shout, he lobbed a ball of aura energy at the tree beside him, snapping it in two and sending it crashing down between him and the mamoswine.
He had only just managed to shake the heavy snow from his limbs when the mamoswine crashed tusk-first into the fallen trunk and launched it at Outrider. It slammed directly into him and sent him flying into the woods.
With a shout of fear and fury, Ran got on all fours and searched frantically for the wand she'd dropped in the middle of her evasive rolls. Had it been crushed as the mammoth charged past her time and time again?
Another bellow of fury met her ears and she shifted her attention just in time to see the mamoswine rushing her. Again she rolled out of the way and found herself flat on her back on a tree root. She grit her teeth and stood up, aching, then looked down at her feet. It wasn't a tree root. She seized the wand and faced the charging pokemon once more. She focused on the bloodshot, wild eyes of the mamoswine and took a deep breath, then leveled the wand on the mammoth.
The edges of her vision faded away into white this time, not black, and with a low exhale, a sound like a sonic boom exploded out of the end of the wand and sent the mamoswine sailing up into the air. It flipped over and over, bellowing and flailing as its trajectory decayed and then began to plummet back down to the ground. A cacophony of crashes, cracks and a loud thump rang out of the forest in front of Ran, and the bellows of the mamoswine were no more.
But Outrider was still missing and probably unconscious somewhere out in the woods.
Ran slipped the wand through one of the loops on the belt she wore around her hips - a new gift from Plow and Planter - and took off into the forest. Fortunately, Outrider was easy enough to find, as the tree that had knocked him unconscious had also destroyed several much younger trees in the process of flying through the woods. Splintered stumps and leaves littered the jagged clearing the fallen oak had produced, and crumpled against a thick maple tree was Outrider.
"At least you're breathing," mumbled Ran, kneeling down and looking closely at the lucario. She felt along his back for punctures and splinters - a worrying number of both, but when she pulled her claws away they were marked with an acceptable amount of blood. The bleeding was not bad, at least. Still, it meant she could not roll Outrider onto his back. She frowned and shook his shoulder. "Outrider. Wake up. Outrider!"
Nothing.
She carefully laid her hands onto Outrider's stomach so that the pads on her digits would run along him and not her claws. She carefully felt along his stomach and chest, hoping she would not find more splinters, punctures, abrasions, cuts and potentially broken ribs. Instead, she found that Outrider was exceptionally toned. The muscles in his abdomen and chest felt like bundles of steel wire. And then there were the scars. None of them were large enough to be visible even this close, but they were there. And they were numerous.
"He's been doing this for a very long time…" she muttered. Something in the back of her head crackled like electricity running along a wire. It ran through her spinal cord like a bolt of lightning and terminated… somewhere. She heard someone breathe in sharply right by her ear, but when she turned to look, there was no one. A flash of red filled her vision and she smelled something smoky. It was mixed with sweat and heat.
Ran came crashing back down to reality when she saw Outrider stir and open his eyes a fraction. "R-Ran?" he rasped.
"You alright? You took… Well, 'quite a hit' seems like an understatement." The weavile gestured over at the tree that had knocked him through the forest and shook her head. "Don't lay on your back, by the way. It's covered in pretty big splinters that I haven't gotten out yet."
Outrider winced. Clearly, he'd failed to process just how injured he was, and Ran's comment had violently reminded him. "Can I roll on my stomach?" he asked.
"I didn't find any broken ribs or splinters there but-" She thought of the flash of red and shook her head. "You should be fine. You'd be feeling it. Go ahead."
"Pull the splinters slowly and evenly. If they break it's going to cause problems," he muttered, rolling onto his stomach.
"Infection?" asked Ran, starting to pull the largest splinters free.
"Yes. I'd rather not strain Planter's resources. She'd have me soaking in pecha berry juice if the winds demanded it."
"That's a bit excessive," said Ran, struggling not to laugh. "But it sounds like her." She pulled a long splinter free and tossed it aside. She felt Outrider wince beneath her when he caught sight of it. "Why's she like that?" she asked, trying to distract him.
"She cares," said Outrider, half-shrugging and then letting out a very small whine. "Why did I shrug?"
"Do it again, that was adorable," said Ran, letting go of the splinter she was preparing to pull free to chuckle properly.
"Just keep pulling the splinters free, please."
"You didn't answer my question."
"She cares. Or did you want the reason as to why?" asked Outrider.
"Yeah, why?"
The lucario made an indistinct noise in his throat and then closed his eyes. "She doesn't speak of this to newcomers, like the little one, or Stone. You would be no different. So I expect you to keep this quiet. As far as anyone in Nomad is concerned, you do not know this."
"Alright. I understand," said Ran, nodding. She pulled a small splinter free and continued combing for more. With the large ones dealt with, finding the smaller ones was becoming progressively more difficult. She'd have to switch to her pads soon. She thought of the lightning that had struck her earlier and cleared her throat.
"Planter came to us with a little one of her own in tow some time ago."
"How long ago was 'some time ago'?" asked Ran.
"More than two dozen seasons, I'd say," replied Outrider. "That poor little one did not survive her first."
"That's… awful." Ran pulled her hands away from Outrider and stared down at him, her expression sorrowful. "What happened?"
"The little one was injured when we suffered an attack. We were not so well prepared as we are now and everyone was pitching in. A gang of honchkrow and murkrow had shown up hoping to extort us for our berry stock. We refused, naturally. We fought, as you might expect."
"And they-"
"They did not kill the little one, but they did grievously injure her. Planter poured her spirit into saving her." Outrider closed his eyes. "To this day, no one mentions Planter's daughter."
Ran drummed her claws on her thighs, unsure what to do or say. As the silence stretched on, she figured she'd better say something, but right when she opened her mouth to speak, Outrider cut her off.
"I understand it is difficult to say anything about that revelation. You were not here. You do not know her well. She has been kind and good to you, but it is clear she is that way with everyone." He opened his eyes again and focused on Ran. "Keep things that way, and do not mention it to her. Planter cannot forget the daughter that cruel fate took from her, but there is no need to dig her back up. She is, as you might have seen, very happy with Plow. He was perhaps the best thing to happen to her after that ordeal."
Ran took to removing the rest of the splinters from Outrider's back largely in silence. Whatever had given her those strange flashes and shocked her spinal cord was gone, replaced entirely with a quiet sadness. As she fished the final splinter from Outrider's back, she mumbled, "Anything to keep it from happening again, huh?"
Outrider ran his hands along his back as best as he could, then got up onto his knees and stretched, wincing as he did so. "It never seems enough, even when you've done all you can."
As Planter fretted over the state Outrider was in, Ran returned the wand she'd been given to Oracle. The xatu squawked and shook her head. "No, no. That is yours to keep until it has given what it can. You don't have to return it," she explained.
Ran looked down at the stick and then back at Oracle. "Are you sure? These have to be expensive, right?" she asked.
"Well, I suppose given the quality of the wands that Planter and I can produce, yes, but you have earned it four times over by stopping that rampaging mamoswine," explained Oracle. "Imagine the nerve of asking you to pay for it."
"Well, you are letting me stay in your house…" mumbled Ran, looking around the room for added effect.
"And you're earning your keep, same as the rest. Not everyone here is able to put their lives on the line like that."
"Are things-" Ran cut herself off and bit her lip. The xatu gave her an appraising look, but did not speak. "Are things really that simple?" she asked, finally. She refused to meet Oracle's eyes.
"Yes. They are. We all earn our room and board. Whether it is grown, defended, maintained or otherwise. That is what it means to be part of Nomad." The xatu's expression became tender. "Understand?"
Ran nodded and gave her a swift smile, and then made her way towards Planter's house. Perhaps watching the lurantis fret over the many tiny wounds the lucario had suffered would fill the rest of the afternoon. She meandered over to their home and peered inside. Sitting on a stool, and looking on at Planter with an incredibly patient expression was Outrider. He had been wrapped several times on his arms and around his torso with strips of cloth. Some of them had been stained gentle greens and yellows, and as the wind picked up and rushed through the stone home, the scent of different herbs and berries met Ran's nose.
"Feeling better, Outrider?" she called over to him, giggling.
The lucario looked over at her and rolled his eyes. Planter took notice of Ran as well and waved cheerily at the weavile. "Ran! Ran, come in, I'm just about done here with Outrider. Do you have anything-"
"No, no. I'm fine, really," said Ran, hopping down from the windowsill and entering the home. She looked around and scratched her chest. The interior of the home was not the dull stone color she expected. Various rocks had been painted a rainbow of colors, and baskets filled with berries, vegetables, leafy greens, and gravel were scattered around, stacked up and laid out side by side. Off in the corner was Plow and Planter's bed - an extremely thick pile of hay with a neatly folded bright red blanket atop it. "Where's Plow?"
"Oh, he's out back probably. Said he was getting a section of field ready for the next crop." She bustled over to a covered basket and revealed it was filled with an assortment of berries. "Can I offer you some?" She held the basket towards Ran.
The weavile gave her a small grin and pulled two berries from it at random. Bluk. "Thank you."
Outrider, on the other hand, was forcibly handed two particularly large sitrus berries and told to eat them. As he did so, Planter continued to inspect his wounds and added aloud, "Sentry is concerned."
"Why?" asked Outrider thickly.
"That rampaging mamoswine knocked quite a few trees down. Between that and the fights you got into in your attempt to bring it down - well, she's worried."
"Do the runes need replacement?" asked Outrider.
Planter tapped the tips of her mantid arms together nervously. "Yes. But… They were not my doing. Nor were they Oracle's."
Outrider frowned and looked down at the floor of the shack.
"What happened?" asked Ran.
The lucario looked at her, frowning. "The runes on the trees are more than just markers of our furthest 'borders'. They are eyes of sorts. They sense movement and heat. Sentry uses them to give us all advance warning of an attack. But the one responsible for etching the trees with them…"
"Died?" said Ran, finishing his sentence.
"No. He departed from here. He called himself 'The Runewright'. Stone was able to find our rune-anchor because of him. And earned the right to stay because of it." He paused and took another bite of his sitrus berry and chewed it slowly before continuing. "You see, Stone had been traveling with him for a while. She has never said exactly how long, but long enough. And he wasn't too keen on letting her go. Not against it, but not keen. He told her, if she could use the teachings she'd absorbed thus far to find a rune-anchor and properly begin the inscription process and return it to Nomad, she would be allowed to stay."
"Was Stone some kind of apprentice?" asked Ran, confused.
"We can only guess. Something of the sort, but Stone does not show a particular aptitude for nor interest in rune magics. She can find anchors, start them, but nothing more. Stone is- well you've seen how she is."
"And the runes on the trees-" began Ran.
"Ah, yes. We paid him a considerable sum for his services inscribing trees to create a sort of perimeter for us. Materials - feathers, berries, seeds, a few old teeth of mine, bundles of fur from Forge. Material components, basically. He got to work, and less than a day later he had finished. He collected his things, handed us a small cut stone that looked like an eye and then loaded his payment into a wagon and marched off. We have never seen him again."
Ran looked outside towards where Sentry roosted. "So the reason that Sentry covers her eye-"
"Yes, she has a false eye. A very obvious false eye. Sentry already had been missing an eye from an old encounter with a wildling, so we were all rather relieved that we would not be drawing straws to see who would have one of theirs gouged out."
Ran looked at Outrider in alarm. "Were you seriously going to do that?"
The lucario gave her a long, serious look. "Wouldn't you want to defend your home?"
"But an eye-"
"You'll still have both. One sees what is here. The other sees what is out there."
Ran shivered and shook her head. "I guess I don't know what I'd do in that situation."
"It is always worth knowing what you'd do when pushed against the wall," mumbled Outrider. "We can survey the damages tomorrow, see if perhaps we can work out a different kind of solution? More conventional defense and early warning, perhaps?" He looked at Planter.
The lurantis sighed and shrugged. "I suppose. Take it up with Oracle, she'd know, I think."
Outrider nodded. "For now, I think it's best we have some dinner and recover. What do you think, Ran?"
The weavile nodded, and looked over at Planter. "Thanks for the berries. And for everything really." She gave her a small smile.
"Any time, dear, any time. I'm just glad you didn't end up too banged up. Much better than last time. You on the other hand…" She looked over at Outrider.
"I'll try not to get hit by a tree next time," he replied, chuckling. At this, he exited the shack, Ran close behind, and the two made their way back to Oracle's home.
Ran pulled herself out of the brush and rubbed her eyes. The light of the moon and stars was just enough to ease getting out of Oracle's home and back behind it to take care of business. She walked completely around the house towards the front door - it seemed Oracle had no need of back doors - and came face to face with three figures.
A scrafty, a gengar, and a gastly.
Their eyes shifted from staring at Oracle's door to Ran and a peculiar silence fell between them. Somewhere far behind them, she saw a shadowy figure kick the door to Bastion's home off its hinges and storm inside.
Her eyes widened and focused on the trio in front of her again.
"SENTRY-"
She'd managed to say it at least. The punch that connected with her stomach sent her flying backwards and the sounds of a cursing gengar and screeching gastly filled her ears alongside the rapid footfalls of the scrafty catching up to her and the door to Oracle's home being destroyed.
With some difficulty she managed to orient herself in mid-air and landed on her feet, ready to receive the scrafty, though it slid towards her, and sent her into a stumble. She could do nothing as it followed up immediately with an uppercut that filled her vision with stars. Ran staggered back several feet, trying to get her bearings as a swift roundhouse kick connected with her side and launched her into a nearby tree.
She rolled along the tree in time to avoid a follow up punch from the scrafty that left their fist embedded in the bark. It tugged once and then looked over at Ran, eyes wide with fear. She hit them across the face with a spinning backhand, dislodging the scrafty and sending it staggering back, then followed a low lunge that left vicious scratches along the lizard's legs.
These didn't seem to bother it nearly as much as she'd hoped, and the scrafty met her arm thrust with a swift parry and two jabs in the gut. As Ran doubled over, the scrafty hopped backwards and then delivered a spin kick to her head that launched her back towards Oracle's home. Her vision swam and blurred and she spun towards the house, but still she noticed the array of lights exploding from the doorway and windows, as well as the slits in the thatched straw roof.
In fact, there were lights everywhere. Every home was filled with them. She crashed through the ceiling of Oracle's home to the sounds of screams. One in particular was strained and fearful.
"RAN!"
It was Outrider.
And then the lights went out.
Something splashed itself on Ran's face and she woke, gasping and frantic. She seized the blurry figure in front of her, her claws raised.
"RAN." It was Outrider.
Her vision cleared and the lucario's face came into focus in front of her. She looked around. They were in a forest. She focused on him again. His face was bloody - one eye was swollen shut and he had cuts and hastily wrapped bits of stained cloth over his arms and legs, and one around his torso.
She seized his head and ran her paws along him. He was real. She wasn't dreaming. "What-"
"Nomad was attacked. I got you out of there. Just barely. But-" He looked over his shoulder at something in the distance and then back at her. "But that was it." He bowed his head and coughed. "J-just-" He fell forward onto Ran's chest and wrapped his arms around the weavile's torso and began to sob.
"Just me…" She looked down at Outrider and held his head tenderly and closed her eyes as they filled with tears. "It can't have been just me. It can't… What happened to everyone else? They had to have made it… they-" She pulled his head up to look him in the eyes. "It can't be just me. It can't be."
Outrider shook his head and turned away from Ran as he let go of her. "Watch, Tower and Trench managed to fend off whoever attacked their home. They figured with you and I in Oracle's home they could deal with who was attacking Plow and Planter." He held his head in his hands and sniffled. "None of them told me what had happened to them when they ran over to help me fend off those wildlings." He wiped his nose. "There were so many. Like an organized raiding party. Wildlings don't have that kind of organization."
"What happened? Can we go back and help them, can we…" began Ran.
Outrider cut across her. "We can go back if you wish to bid farewell," he muttered.
"How did-"
"We were the first line of defense, Ran. With you out of commission-" Ran felt a stone, white-hot with guilt, slip into her stomach. "It was just Watch, Tower, Trench and myself."
"But Forge and-"
Outrider shook his head. "By the time we had made it to their home, it had caught fire and partially burned down. And the wildlings did not seem to have slowed their assault. There were still far more of them than us and…" He bowed his head. "Oracle was doing her best to ferry you around with her abilities. I told her to take you and disappear somewhere else but she refused to leave us behind."
"And Sentry?"
"We lost Sentry almost immediately," whispered Outrider. "And I lost sight of the little one right after. I wanted to try and find him but it was impossible in the midst of all that fighting."
"What then? Why did you bring me here? Where's-"
"Oracle did something peculiar in a bid to help us… it did, but not as much as she would have hoped." Outrider turned to look at Ran and got to his feet, then held his paw out to help her to her own. "The wildlings should be gone, we can go and see-" He trailed off and swallowed hard then wiped his eyes again. "W-what is left. Unless you would rather-"
"Go elsewhere?" asked Ran. Outrider nodded. She rushed forward and threw her arms around Outrider's midsection and wept. "I don't have an 'elsewhere'. This was supposed to be it." She looked up at him. "This is all I had. Everyone there gave it to me and-"
"Then you should pay your respects to it. As should I. You'll… understand the fates of Oracle, Bastion and his comrades better, if you do." Ran nodded, her expression miserable and her fur tear-streaked, and gestured for Outrider to lead the way. He bent down to pick his leather pouch up off the ground and sling it around his shoulder and then pointed towards the northwest. "That way."
The journey was silent. As the ruins of Plow and Planter's home became clearer and drew closer, Ran felt her eyes well up again. She had hoped the entire time this was a nightmare, a joke, a cruel prank - anything. When it became clear the home was nearly blown entirely apart, she felt her last hope for someone to shout, "Surprise!" drain away.
Three figures came into view as they walked out of the surrounding forest and brush. They were small and round, and lined up side by side. She felt sick. Her stomach churned. As they drew with a few paces of them she looked tearfully down at the broken bodies and battered shields of Watch, Tower and Trench. Scattered before the fallen falinks were a dozen equally lifeless wildlings.
Outrider inclined his head and let out a strangled sort of half-cough, half-sob. "Th-they said… They told me to go. They would hold them back. No one crosses the line." He knelt down and ran a digit along a deep line in the dirt a single step away from Watch's corpse. Several prints in the dirt snaked past the bodies and out into the woods.
"Do- what… what do we do?" she asked, walking up beside Outrider. "Is-"
"They did not wish to be buried." He swallowed hard. "No one in Nomad wanted to be. It was decided upon back when it was first founded."
"Why?"
"I believe Oracle said it best - 'We should be true to our namesake, you know.' It was as good an argument for it as any." He continued to look down at the fallen falinks and then knelt down to rest their shields atop their bodies.
"Do you think, given what's happened, we should do that?" asked Ran.
"Yes. They have nothing but their wishes now. Wouldn't you agree?" he asked. However, he did not wait for an answer, and beckoned Ran forward. "Oracle is up ahead. We should see her. Thank her. See if we can find the others. Even if they're-" He stopped and let out a deep breath. "Dead. Even if they're dead. We should try to find them before we leave."
"Where are we even going?" asked Ran, looking around the destroyed village. "What do we have left to turn to? I don't-"
"Please, Ran. When we are done here, we can fret about what comes." He led the weavile towards the center of the village, but stopped to peer into Planter and Plow's home. It was empty. Outrider walked through the shack and out the broken backdoor and froze in the frame. Ran tried to peer around the lucario, but he did an about face and pushed her back towards the front door.
"What happened?" she asked, looking fearful.
Outrider glanced over his shoulder once and then looked back at Ran. "Remember them as they were."
In the center of the town there was nearly a score of dead wildlings scattered. In the center of it all, laying face down in the dirt, was Oracle.
"What happened?" asked Ran, as she drew closer. She reached out and gently touched the back of Oracle's head. Hot tears burned her eyes. "What did she do?"
"Told us to plug our ears. Then she sang an elegy." He knelt down and rolled Oracle over and then cradled the xatu in his arms. The green eyes on her chest stared up into the sky, though Ran noticed they had changed from a brilliant emerald to a dull olive. "And then she was gone." He gestured around at the bodies around them. "And so were they. She bought us time. But not enough. You already saw who paid for the rest."
Ran reached out and grabbed hold of one of Oracle's primaries and yanked it out. Outrider watched as the weavile pulled the bandana from around her neck free and tied it around her arm, then tucked the feather through it. She looked at Outrider and nodded. "You wanted to look for the others?" she asked.
Outrider laid Oracle back down and stood up, nodding. The two made their way to the late xatu's home and peered inside. Sentry's lifeless body still sat in the center of the room beside two dead wildlings. Outrider shook his head. "I have no idea what happened to the little one… Alive he doesn't stand a chance alone. Dead, well, he's not suffering but he's still dead." He gestured for them to move towards Forge, Hammer and Stone's home, but as they drew closer, Outrider faltered and stared at it.
It was completely burned out. What weren't blacked pylons of broken wood was crumbled stone and ash. He took a deep breath and moved forward once again, and began to rummage through the stone. Ran joined him, and after nearly ten minutes of work, they uncovered the bodies of Forge and Hammer. They were beaten, and bore clear signs of attack from the ghosts that had raided Nomad.
"I don't know if their roof caving in is what did it or not," said Outrider.
"I don't think it matters," said Ran, staring down at the lifeless quilava. "Where's Stone?"
They continued to search, but after moving nearly all of the rubble out of the way could not find the lycanroc. Ran felt a glimmer of hope rise in her chest. "Maybe she lived?" asked Ran.
"It is not an easy life out there. She could potentially hold her own but…" Outrider looked around and walked out behind the smithy and peered into the trees. "STONE!" Ran watched as Outrider paced back and forth, trying to look between the gaps of the trees. "STONE! COME OUT!"
The hope in her chest was rapidly deflating. Perhaps the lycanroc hadn't lived after all.
The bushes rustled, and a battered looking Stone limped out of the forest, clutching a chespin to her chest. She came within two steps of Outrider and stopped, staring at him, her gait uneasy. "Outrider. Ran. You're both alive," she said in a hoarse whisper. Tears formed in her eyes.
Outrider nodded and then pointed at the chespin she held. "Is he-"
"He is too. Brave, I'll give him that. Really gave it his all... Might have a good name in him - Valor. Whatcha think?" she said, smiling. Silence fell between the two of them. She looked back down at the chespin in her arms.
Her smile faltered and she broke down into tears. "They killed them all, Outrider," she sobbed. "They killed them all. Why? Why us? What did we even do?" Ran walked over towards Stone and wrapped her arms around her. "Th-thank you, R-Ran." The weavile nodded.
"I'm not sure. Wildlings are illogical. Perhaps it was simply… cruel fate." Outrider joined Ran in comforting Stone, and put an arm around her.
The three stood there in silence, the chespin in Stone's arms still asleep, and stared at the ruins of Stone's home. Finally, Stone said, "Where do we go?"
"I don't know. We could follow the path to Treasure Town," replied Outrider.
Ran remained silent. She would be of no help in this conversation - everything about the forests around Nomad was unknown.
"We could. Might find something worthwhile there. Or…" began Stone, before she shook her head. "No, I don't think I remember."
"Remember what?" asked Ran.
"How to get to Crag."
"Crag?" asked Outrider.
"Proper town with proper defenses. Walls. The Runewright talked about it a few times, he said it was to the south of here. Bit of a walk. Few days at least," explained Stone.
"Could you lead us there?"
Stone shook her head. "I haven't ever seen it. If it's on a well-worn path though, I can at least lead us in its general direction. So… that or go to Treasure Town."
"Treasure Town is a considerable distance away. I'd rather take our chances with Crag. I can keep us living off the land if the terrain doesn't change too much," explained Outrider. "And I can see if all of Planter's supplies were raided or not to give us a boost."
"If we don't find Crag, we can simply work our way back to…" said Ran, gesturing to the ruins of Nomad. "Here. And then onward to Treasure Town. Right?"
Outrider nodded. "I'm going to check Planter's home for supplies one more time." He gestured to the two of them. "Finish paying your respects to Nomad and her inhabitants. If we have to pass through again…" He inclined his head. "They won't be here anymore."
Ran nodded and looked up at Stone. The lycanroc shook her head and said in a bare whisper, "I- I can't. I already peeked in a few times and just seeing Sentry…" She sniffled. "I can't."
The weavile nodded again and walked once more through Nomad, her stomach churning as the sights of the destroyed buildings and scattered bodies clashed with her idyllic, short-lived memories. She paused in front of Bastion's home and stared at the colors of the town. They still flapped in the gentle breeze.
She tugged one of the banners down and began to roll it up, and as she did, Outrider walked up to her, stuffing a handful of bruised looking berries into his satchel. He shook his head as he did, "Almost nothing left, as I expect- what are you doing?" he asked.
Ran looked down at the rolled up banner and then up at Outrider. "It's Nomad's banner. We should take it with us. It makes sense, don't you think?"
The lucario gave her a long, searching look and then turned to look at the rest of the town. "I suppose so," he whispered at last. He gestured towards the forest where Stone waited. "We should leave."
Ran followed him to the edge of what was left of Nomad and then paused to turn one last time to face the town. In her heart of hearts, she had always feared it could not last. But this had not been her idea of the end.
The rubble had left them to determine who remained, and now that they were accounted for, they could depart. Finally, their home's namesake would ring true.