The darkest times

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The thick foilage overhead was blocking the evening sun's fading rays, enshrouding the Shadowhue Forest in an almost palpable darkness. Only very little light actually managed to reach the ground and to sparsely illuminate the surroundings. Between this darkness and the twigs and dried leaves that lay underground one could easily trip over a hidden root or alert a sleeping Pokémon.
Most Pokémon would avoid this place at this time of day as much as possible, much less go there voluntarily because of all these dangers and discomforts.
However Chie was different. She actually enjoyed wandering between the cold tree trunks, not having to worry about making a sound or walking into a tree by accident due to her levitative, visual and generally ghastly powers. And since few other Pokémon were capable of things like these the Shadowhue Forest was pleasantly empty and silent. Noone was around to attack her or to - and this was something Chie believed to be even worse - to try and befriend her. Not because she was mean or didn't want to have friends but rather because it could never end well. With her lifespan she would almost inevitably outlive whoever attempted to be her friend and then she would be alone again. Alone and hurt. And thus the Ghost type preferred to rather just be alone.
Alone where noone could hurt her...


(E 19-10=9)

"Well as my mother told me to everyone has a opinion I guess I just think differently from you might be our types or might just be personality" Noel says as she nods to what chie said she felt like fights were going to happen you should just get them out of the way and you will be stronger for it but if you run or hide when you can't run from the fight again you will be truly screwed but what she said did make Noel think about how she acted she shrugged and started walking farther into the forest at a slow pace

"Hm, maybe type really is the reason. There is pretty much nothing I can not run from, so the issue you mentioned can not really occur to me. Fighting meanwhile - well, most of my moveset is moves inflicting status effects and ailments or moves dealing a fixed amount of damage so getting stronger wouldn't help with those."
How would it feel to actually like fighting? That was something Chie was beginning to wonder.
Was it just like her love for reading or did it feel different?
And which love was stronger? This Riolu's love for fighting or Chie's adoration of books and the written worlds?

"Ya most of mine focus on being right in front of my opponent and bashing them backwards with my power" Noel said in reply as she scans the area for anything she could see that could be a Pokemon or a item anything would be fun she was enjoying the conversation with the duskull and having someone to help explore quite dungeon is a great help even if they didn't like fighting it was still better then being alone talking to yourself.

Rezikun carried out 1 launched of one Shadowhue Forest :

The Riolu certainly was a strange Pokémon. Then again there were quite a few Pokémon Chie considered to be strange, so maybe she was the strange one. But she didn't mind. Just like in her books, the strange ones would end up being the ones needed the most.
And while fighting-focussed Pokémon appeared in there too, she never had managed to understand why exactly they liked combat this much.
Well, at least this strange behaviour led to more places being explored and more information being gathered, making various things quite a lot easier. For example quite a few items would be much more difficult to come by without Pokémon out to collect them.

Noel looks to the ground and spots a item just sitting on the ground as she walks over and picks it up looking at it twas a green spike she had picked up Noel had seen a Spike like this and felt like she wanted to throw it at sometime but as she looked around nothing was around so with a small shrug she put the item into her bag inside of a small pocket within the bag for easy use as she turned to face the duskull deciding to continue in the conversation

she was interested in how this Pokemon thought because where noel came from fighting was pretty much the only thing that kept everyone in motion but that might of been the dangerous atmosphere of the land "so anything else you want to talk about" Noel asked thinking that it would give her a little time to think of what to say because this Pokemon seemed to always be a little of center when she asked the question

After indeed thinking for a while the Duskull resigned.
"Sorry, I can't think of anything. In fact I am so bad at talking that I once spent several years without speaking a single word. I'm much more of a reading Pokémon."
Indeed the Duskull did not converse well. Not only due to a lack of practice thereof but also because of her fear of developing significant bonds with other beings.
Why were they walking through the forest anyway? This place was well-cartographed and it wouldn't be likely to find anything of value in a place so many Pokémon had visited before.

Noel smirks as it took the duskull some time before she spoke happy she read her right as she listens to what she said about talking to others "huh never talked to others eh" Noel said thinking she couldn't be able to do that for that long seemed like way to much time without any normal interactions and she shrugged "well if you need a progress report you are doing great" Noel says sarcastically with a smirk

The Duskull chuckled.
"Thanks I guess. Yesterday I spoke with noone. Today it's one Pokémon. So assuming a linear growth I'll be speaking with 100 Pokémon daily in just three months."
While Chie's sense of humour was something that needed getting used to, at least all that reading had left her with considerable knowledge in many fields, including math.
But would the Riolu even know what she was talking about?
Hopefully or she had just created a horribly awkward situation.
Well, even more awkward.

It took Noel a second to think that through she was taught many things as a kid well taught not saying she was good at all of the stuff Noel decided that this was the way the duskull joked and mentally shrugged at it, "heh ya that's true" Noel says with a small laugh to say she got the fact that it was a joke l, A few thoughts of home went through noels mind as she stopped laughing and continued to walk she had a few topics for conversation on mind but seeing as how she got more out of her when she let the duskull talk Noel decided to keep quiet

However the Riolu's idea would not work as Chie certainly hadn't learned how to keep on a conversation. And thus, not being able to think of anything worth talking about, the Ghost type remained quiet, creating an awkward silence. Well, it probably was awkward for the Riolu at least. The Duskull had grown so accustomed to the sound of silence - or rather the absence of sound that she didn't mind it at all.
So if the Fighting type wanted to keep the conversation going, she would have to come up with a topic on her own.

Noel was sitting thinking about something in her memories as she noticed the duskull had not said anything and looked as if she was not going to, Noel decides to put her arms behind her head and walk on likening the silence of the area it always seemed to calm the fighting type down, she had noticed there was no Pokemon around that was pretty good it had been a while since noel was able to walk this long without having to break someone.

The Fighting type was not responding either. There were two things this could mean.
Either she really didn't mind the silence either, which would be favourable but unlikely, or she simply couldn't think of anything to talk about either, which would mean that this embarrassing silence would quickly grow more and more unbearable as neither of them seemed to be able to break it by coming up with a topic for discussion.
Why wasn't there a book on how to be able to talk with other Pokémon better? The Duskull was sure it would be a smashing success among the shy, reclusive types like her. Maybe it was because everyone who knew how to talk to others cared little about things like books?

Noel was enjoying the silent air of the forest as she walked along but then she noticed the duskull though it was pretty hard for Noel to tell considering she was a ghost type and couldn't give much emotion through expressions Noel thought of something quickly.
'Come on Noel think' the young girl at old herself trying to think of a topic deciding to just use the first one that popped into her head seemed like the easiest to ask "so how many books do you think you've read all this time" Noel asked to break the silence she didn't really see it as a awkward situation more as two Pokemon enjoying the silent trip.

Now this was an unexpected question. How many books she had read?
Well, many. That much was certain. But how many exactly she did not know.
So this would probably be an issue of guesswork.
"Uh, if I had to guess I'd say about 50.000 not counting rereads. Sadly it is quite time-consuming and expensive to get one's hands on new books. After all reading is something that happens much more quickly than writing. That's why that number is so small - there just aren't enough books available. So - what about you? How many books have you read thus far?"

Noel was still smiling but inside her mind was pretty much asking herself how someone could read that much she was great at hiding it though so this was just inside of her own head as she thinks about what she has read.
Her mother had made her head some books while travelling through dungeons and other areas and Noel had grown fond of books a little but all she had read lately was her own journal so this took a bit of thinking.
Noel let out a small laugh as she thought of what she had read her entire life as she turned to the duskull with a smile "if that is small to you this is gonna seem embarrassing. I'm just guessing here but I'd have to say only a hundred many a hundred and fifty" Noel then scratches the back of her head with a smile "man I got to try to read some more" she says with a small chuckle at the end