A Guiding Wind

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Energy: 16 - 5 = 11
Now being a part of Grassveil’s Guild, Trucy flew confidently into Pecha Forest, without any fear. Donning her violet ribbon around her left leg, she flew from tree branch to tree branch with grace.

Along with her was Julie, a zangoose who she met at Grassveil Town, the two have become fast friends, all due to some drama that happened with a couple of others. Since then they joined Grassveil’s guild and founded Team Sacred Scribes. Julie was Trucy’s first friend, so saying she was important to her would be an understatement.

Trucy finally settled on a fairly thick tree branch, and decided to look around for any sort of threats, holding her right wing above her eyes to block the little amount of sunlight leaking through the leaves and branches. Too bad that she didn’t even notice that she kinda left Julie in the dust...

She huffs and puffs, watching the remaining Eggsecute run off. She growls slowly, but is clearly exhausted and taking a breather.
Trucy is rightfully frustrated, but at least they got some training in like they had wanted. "Hey... good job, Trucy!" Julie turns back to face her friend, before getting back on all fours. Trucy seems to be pretty hurt...
"Yeah, we should probably head back - no telling what else is out here." Julie begins before she steps over to Trucy, inspecting her, "Hey, do you need help? I could maybe carry you on my back. Can you walk?" The concern in her voice was apparent.

When Trucy asked her question, Julie did feel a little on edge. She pouts softly, looking away. "[color:1057=87ceeb]Uh... it's no big deal. I just learned a while ago what the difference between a 'dad' and a 'father' was, and didn't want to get the words mixed up. Get what I mean?"
It's more a matter of self respect. Julie's pout melts away to a neutral expression as she sighs to herself. Clearly something happened between her and her father before she joined the Guild. What could she possibly mean by "difference between a dad and a father"?

Trucy disheartened look quickly saw itself out when Julie praised her for her all-out attack, she couldn’t help but feel proud that her partner who she saw as more powerful than her was giving her her stamp of approval. “Heh, I guess I did do a good job, didn’t I?” She struck a proud position with a smug smile to boot, to say she was feeling herself would be an understatement. However, her holding that pose would end up sending her a jolt of pain... quickly sending her out of her pompous pose and back to a weak-willed stance “O-ow...” she said in a pathetic tone.

Even through the light pain, Trucy perked up when she heard Julie’s suggestion of carrying her on her back, “R-really?” She said with a bit of childish excitement “That would be-!“ she caught herself, and realized how silly she was making herself out to be for being so excited over something as simple as helping her travel while wounded. She blushed, before further saying “...I-I mean, yeah, that would uh, be appreciated.”

Through her blushing, Trucy listened to her Zangoose comrades’ reply to her question, which confused her to no end, there was a difference between a “dad” and a “father”? Didn’t those two words mean the same thing? The young Fletchling was obviously confused... “I-I’m, uh, not sure I follow...” she said, sounding exceedingly confused... what could Julie mean by that? Was there really a difference between a father and a dad...?

The zangoose looks to Trucy and with a head motion, she gives her bird companion the go ahead to get on her back. After they began moving again, Julie thinks of how to explain it to her...

"Y- you see," she begins, clearly still thinking as she spoke, "basically, uh- the difference is more in connotation. It's the difference between house and home - one word is impersonal and means very little, the other is comforting. The same is with these other two words, dad and father. A dad loves you, is there for you whenever they can be, cares about you, makes sure you have food on your plate... even at the cost of their own. A father just helps create the Egg you hatch from - you can't deny your paternal, biological parent of being your father..."

Julie audibly got a little intense with those last words, and had to calm herself down before continuing. "I use to see him so highly, he was at least better than Danielle, but that only goes so far... Heh... He pretended to care about me - he only loved who he thought I was, not who I am, I-"
She stops herself. Her voice got deeper, more growly. She decides to drop it, there was no need to yell or get so mad. "I- I'm sorry... you didn't need to hear that..."
She then continues walking, internally beating herself up for letting herself get so emotional.

Trucy wasted no time getting in the Zangoose’s back. Once she settled, they were back on the road back to Grassveil. Trucy listened to the Zangoose go on about what was different from the words “dad” and “father” It was fairly obvious that this was a topic that brought about... strong emotions from the Zangoose. It was fairly evident to Trucy that whatever Julie went through back home, she definitely could not relate to it, in any way. It made the tiny robin guilty that she brought this upon Julie... 

Julie went on with her rant, her anger and resentment toward her father showing itself clearer with every word. However, it was cut short, but not before she said something that caught her attention. “He only loved who he thought I was, not who I am... What could that mean?” Trucy thought. She wanted to press her for more information, she was on the cusp of asking what she had meant by that, before she decided against it entirely, she almost let her curiosity get the better of her again, which would in turn make Julie shovel up even more of her unwanted memories... 

Julie, after she abruptly stopped talking, decided to once again talk once more, with a much more calm voice, at least, compared to what she had just sounded like. She apologized to the Fletchling, it was pushed the Fletchling to finally break her silence, “N-no! It wasn’t your fault, it was mine... I was the one who asked, even though I should’ve know that I shouldn’t of...” Trucy said, “I-I’m sorry... I should’ve just kept quiet...”

The Zangoose chuckles lightly as Trucy apologizes for poking and prodding at her feelings. She normally wasn't one to... well, at least sound emotional. She had a kinda deep, monotone voice, it doesn't carry a lot of emotion aside from boredom and tire. But she could get emotional, Trucy saw a lot of it, and Julie could clearly sound hysterical and mad. She just didn't like showing it.

Julie sighs and looks back at Trucy.
"Hey, it's okay. We're friends, we're a team! We kinda need to get to know each other." Of course, that came off rather silly. They're only a team because they met recently and decided it'd be better to stay together since they had similar goals of joining the Guild.
Of course, Trucy seemed to do it out of the goodness of her heart.
Julie just needed a job.
The lack of Guild quests they could go on recently was super frustrating.
Still, it was clear that maybe specifying there was a limit would be better. Julie just didn't feel right letting Trucy take the blame for her outburst.
"M- maybe not so fast, but we do need to get to know each other." Julie continues in a sheepish tone.

Trucy definitely felt a bit better knowing that Julie was okay with what just happened between the two of them. “Y-yeah, I guess you’re right, what friends would we be if we knew next to nothing about each other?” Trucy said, she wanted to be energetic to try and cheer her friend up, but all of her energy had already been used up, thanks to their previous encounter. “B-but yeah, we shouldn’t charge right into it all at once, true friendships are built over time...right?” Trucy continued, “We should... uh... start small and slowly make our way to... bigger... thi...” Trucy trailed off, tiredness hitting her harder than a raging Bouffalant.

Trucy yawned before unconsciously sitting down and making herself comfortable. Not even bothering to ask Julie if it was alright to rest, she didn’t mean any disrespect of course, she was just that tired. It didn’t take long for the tiny robin to make herself comfortable, and to subsequently fall asleep...

Julie was listening intently at first as they kept moving, but she did notice something was a little off with Trucy. She really didn't have much to add to Trucy's words, but the more Trucy spoke the longer it took for her to finish a sentence, then they'd begin slurring their words a tiny bit, and then...

"Hey, uh... Trucy? You okay?" She asks, slowing down and turning to face Trucy.
"Oh shi-" Julie almost went into a panic, especially after she remembered the previous fight poisoned the poor bird. With determination to help her friend out, Julie continues carrying them back into town as they slept on her back.