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"Sorry, I don't think Hema liked that trap move...any of the traps, but that one was awful." It had nearly gotten them impaled by branches and made them get separated. She hadn't even gotten to the roots thanks to the move stalling them. "She's fine now, I'm guessing she's still mad at who did that." [break][break]

Looked like? Kaida's face, already tightly wound up, only got more so as she rubbed at her face, shaking her head, "...It's crazy, but no." She continued on, averting her eyes in what was clearly an embarrassing or humiliating subject for her, "I don't remember things like that...in a day, I won't be able to say how you look." An unfortunate side effect of living without human contact for an unknown amount of her youth, and one she loathed she explain until necessary, "If they talked, I would have remembered how they sounded, but they didn't. One had a Braivery, a big one, I remember that...and my side burns, must have been a fire-type that attacked me. Sorry." She nonchalantly brought up the phantom pain, considering it in depth. It was amazing what her mind chose to remember. Legend has it Houndoom's fire burns forever. What nonsense.



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Lars. Kaida tested the name softly under her breath, and decided it was easy enough to use and, more importantly, remember. [break][break]

She leaned forward, eyes flicking to the notes briefly before looking back, "He was there. I didn't see him often, but he tried to help, I think." Some help it was. Unbidden, the thought darkened her eyes before she wrenched herself away. The enemy was already there, she doubted there was too much they could do about the tree. [break][break]

The disgust on Lars face was mirrored by Kaida's own taut face as she let out an unintelligible groan, "People were heading down the moment the guards tried to stop us, whatever they were there for, it didn't work." The guards had made her own journey slower while allowing the enemies to pass on. "I didn't even reach the tree roots, and it was destroyed." If she had stopped for the guards, it would have been destroyed too, she was certain. She didn't doubt Fernando was a leader for a reason, but she didn't think he understood. What beast would follow rules when the prey was right in front of them? Clearly not the destroyers. [break][break]

Her mood threatened to drop with those quickly spiralling thoughts, only to suddenly perk up upon a simple word. Eyes wide and cautious, she pointed towards herself, hoping she hadn't misunderstood. The little spark of happiness in her chest couldn't be wrong, could it? "Do you mean me?" Her voice was low, avoiding a mistake, a misheard remark. "Because...because I understand." She really hoped she wasn't wrong, "And if I'm family," Her smile was genuine, if restrained like most of her words, "I won't let injustice get to you either. Can't let someone hurt you, if you're protecting me. Didn't even know we're family." The words were both light and heavy on her. As gleeful the word "family" was to her, it only meant one thing to her. Family had protected her from injustice from another leader, and she expected herself tok return the favour.

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Hadn't noticed you'd have passed. Kaida supposed that it was good, panic while escaping might have harmed her saviors or family. If her death happened as they were escaping, then it wouldn't have done anything to notice it anyway. [break][break]

"If I am being uptight, would you like me to call you, um, Laurence? Or something?" She stumbled, trying to find the appropriate wording for a situation she was sure nobody had ever discussed. Luckily, the subject turned to something she knew how to speak about. What happened until the death. [break][break]

"I never did get to see the tree roots, in the end," She admitted, lips briefly curling before she continued, "But I can say that whatever enemy that was there...was already there. On the first floor, me and my family-my Pokemon were sliced up and stuck with traps. We also got trapped on a floor by a barrier that kept out other Pokemon." Her eyes flashed with an anger, unbelieving that she couldn't have kept her family from being hurt, couldn't have gotten there faster. "...I might have made things worse...I tried to use my Pokemon's Sludge Wave to attack an enemy, there was something going down under where I was trapped, and then the place exploded, very badly." [break][break]

Now was the point she paused, holding her breath until the burn made itself known, forcing her hand to rub at her side in the phantom pain, "Somebody escaped from the explosion, so I tried to grab on, to escape, and failed. Then, I was saved, and then," She traced along the burning, as if to try and help point out what happened, "Flaming jaws came from under us, and bit me." She considered where she was tracing, and spoke up as if to try and ease any sort of guilt, "I must have died nearly instantly...no suffering." She tried to smile, as if to support the claim, but it showed with teeth, more a snarl than a smile, "I've started talking with my Pokemon, they're still rather scared with this happening."

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When Alexei mentioned Fairy Lock, Hema let out a terrifying snarl, baring her fangs momentarily. Given she didn't have a chance to answer yet, that was as good as an answer that Alexei was getting right this moment. They had noticed, and they had hated it. [break][break]

Kaida thought herself a patient person, at least when it was important. Yes, this was an important conversation, she felt, but there was only so much dancing around an issue she could take. "Alexei, just speak and say it." She finally piped up, eyes falling to Hema, who still avoided her gaze, "I feel I did something terrible and I don't even know what I did." Had her heartbeat faltered? Perhaps the wounds or blood were simply obscene to view? Even with her memories, with her unease, she was still not jumping to the conclusion of what had happened. It was just too insane.



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She stood stock still as Lars opened the door, attempting to keep herself calm, polite, unshaken. It was only natural, she tried to convince herself. Only natural that everyone around you is this shocked. It would only be for a little while longer. "Yes, I'm here, sir." She nodded her head respectfully, doing everything she could to keep this a normal meeting, as normal as she could make it. [break][break]

She paused a moment before entering, calling over her shoulder at her Charizard, "Muspel, I'll be back out in a second." And stepped inwards as the draconian promptly curled up. [break][break]

"The tree fell." She grumbled miserably once inside, "And I didn't even get one of the enemies." She talked as if the whole disaster didn't include her death, talked like she wasn't another aspect of a mystery. How could she? It was miserable to know you were killed and didn't even get anything out of the situation.

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Briefly, Kaida thought the agreement would lead to helpful conversation or, barring that, silence. That wasn't the case. She wanted to snarl out her answers, but in the wilderness, kept her voice low. It might help, even if her partner wasn't doing the same. "Not afraid, my Pokemon are fine in the dark, but I want to be able to see any dangers...you don't see anything when you die." She greatly regretted providing more ammunition for her partner, but felt the need to correct it. Death had felt like being unconscious to her, waking up with no knowledge of being dead. She hoped her partner didn't expect something exciting, because she had no memory of anything else. [break][break]

She perked up as he claimed to smell something, prompting Ormr to raise up his head, tongue flicking frantically, "I don't know. Ormr, is it coming?" An island as wild as this, it was completely possible some territorial Pokemon decided to deal with them right now.

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Showing up uninvited had to be one of the worst social acts one could take. It was a good thing Kaida didn't care about that right now. [break][break]

It was enough of an emergency that Kaida didn't mind intruding in another home. Muspel rumbled worryingly, and it took all Kaida had to mumble under her breath, "It's just fine, Muspel. We're just meeting the leader." That's all they were doing, sure. Still, it was going to be fine. There was just the little issue of her own death. The word hung over her like a cloud. Perhaps she was sent to verify her own state of living, or to confirm to the leader she was alive. It didn't really matter, except she was certain this was not going to be a short incident. [break][break]

Muspel thudded onto the ground nearby, rumbling and shaking her wings as Kaida slid off. The flying was getting better. Whether or not their landing was heard, Kaida boldly stepped forward and raised a fist to knock at the door. "Sir? It is Kaida." Her voice rung out, dull and normal and unmistakably Kaida.

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To protect one's reputation was an understandable enough concept to Kaida, though she had to wonder why a reputation would drop after trying to help a situation...no, never mind, she didn't have to wonder why. If she was concluded to be simple by her manner of speaking, then it didn't seem strange that Alexei would be concluded as evil if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. "I see why...people can be very..." A more polite word didn't come to mind as she stared at her hands, so she spat out the original idea, "Stupid. I won't let you be in trouble." Alexei didn't have to be afraid of her revealing anything, she didn't make a habit of spouting her allies' personal subjects. [break][break]

She stared for a moment as Alexei asked another question, skipping over her own, but sighed and allowed it. Maybe this was really important for her to answer things first. [break][break]

She had not seen her attacker, nor had she really seen the attack in its entirety, but Kaida could guess. "Freya used Sludge Wave down to where the attack came from, so maybe I hurt them or an ally." On the subject of allies, another inspiration came to mind, "Or they thought I was attacking their ally when I jumped for the Braviary...maybe?" It was a little bit of a jump to conclude the other was an enemy, but it was the only things she could think of. "They seemed good at aiming, to hurt me like that. Maybe they hurt others like that before." She shook her head, frowning at the memory, "It's my fault, leaving myself open like that...I must have been a tempting target to spill blood with."



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Maybe she overestimated how serious someone would be about a week-long survival. [break][break]

Kaida frowned as she looked over her partner, dressed only in trunks. Sunburn galore unless she kept him in a cave, she supposed. Fine. This could still work, if he knew well enough to listen, "Hello Jonathan, I-" and he beat her to the punch, her jaws clenching as he brought up her death. "Yes. I am Kaida." Her speech only more stilted, she tried to cut off that particular subject quickly. Wasn't a rest supposed to be when you didn't have to worry about things? That probably wasn't happening with this particular partner. [break][break]

Regardless, the sun beat down relentlessly, and they couldn't chat forever. If anything, they needed to find shelter. Water and food could come naturally after. "We have to go. I don't want to have to fight a Pokemon for a place to rest, least of all in the dark. Don't talk loud." She added the end part hurriedly, not knowing if that was common sense or not. As she walked, she released Ormr, the Ekans wrapping around her neck, "Tell me if a smell is too strong." She whispered, heading towards the shade of the island, aware that dangers lurked in the more comfortable of areas.

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In all honesty, the little ones weren't stupid, least of all Bragi. [break][break]

Hema smelled different these days, and definitely looked different. She jumped to defend and attack for others just a little too quickly, and didn't have the natural happiness over those she Attracted anymore. Bragi didn't doubt she would eat less if that didn't make her weaker. Bragi noticed, but shrunk away. She could leave it to the big ones to comfort Hema, right? Way easier to pretend to be happy about a cancel into an uppercut anyway.

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When Alexei stood up and disappeared, Kaida ended up seated on the ground in the short time frame she was alone in, staring at the ground before she risked a look up at Hema. Still nervous. Her scales had changed color too. Kaida heard that some creatures lose certain pigments in grief, maybe that hit had scared Hema so much, she was striken with such a change? Before she could try and address this to the serpent, Kaida found herself rising to meet the savior, just the way she remembered them! [break][break]

Her fist met her hand, as if solving a mystery, face lighting up as recognition finally sparked, "Thank goodness! It's you...yes, this is how I remembered you!" The glee and recognition suddenly dissolved, replaced by confusion, "Were you trying to hide your face?...Ah, wasn't there easier ways? It is effective but...strange?" Whatever answer she got, it would be received with the typical stoicness and want to understand that Kaida took all of her information in with. A disguise was a disguise, she thought. [break][break]

Drawing closer, clearly more comfortable, if suddenly so, Kaida found herself leap onto another thought her mind raced to. Perhaps it was the unease that constantly plagued her life, she didn't want more of a void in her memories, and questioned confusingly, "Then, were you hurt too? You were there, why are you asking how it went? I was the one unconscious, right?"



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Inside was a comfy space, and Kaida relaxed as Alexei sat down. Hema looked at the man in disbelief, but slithered closer at the familiar smell. She didn't doubt her own senses, but currently, with a ghost still lingering near, she doubted what she concluded using those senses. Kaida found a wall to lean on, coming to terms that this was, indeed, her savior. Hema would not draw close like that for anybody. "Yes...look. Hema stares at me like she thinks she's seeing things." So was Hel and Freya, so the only Pokemon that were freaking out around her were those present during the tree incident. That couldn't be a coincidence. [break][break]

"What happened?" Perhaps he was knocked out too in the chaos? A little strange to ask her then. "They were fangs made of flames. Two were saving me...Selena and you, I think, I don't remember you, sorry." She remembered out loud, grimacing as the burning sensation seemed to respond to her thoughts, flaring and sending her stomach churning, "It bit me." The burning made a convienent way to trace where she was hit, at least, "It hit me pretty bad on the left," An understatement, but she could barely recall the pain, just that it had been the worst she ever felt, "It must have hit important parts, because I don't remember anything else." [break][break]

Something uneasy settled in the back of her mind, a question that she didn't know how to word, "I woke up at the hospital, and they were very shocked, but I was healed." Abruptly, she blurted out the strangest part of her awakening, barely wanting to mention it...but she did say she would say as much as she knew, right? "...It was on a table, not surgery, I don't think. H-how was I saved?" She wavered at the end, barely able to consider where she had waken up, and what it meant. Cruel of her to ask such a question to a stranger, though.



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Did he look like someone who would attack her? Kaida stared a moment longer, narrowing her eyes as it seemed she was seriously considering those words, and barked out a short, "You don't look capable of it." Besides, he was letting her bring her companions. She securely doubted anybody would try anything when a Charizard was looming over them. [break][break]

She followed with perhaps a little less urgency that was appropriate, finding herself lingering behind as she spotted a familiar face. Something about one of the Pelipper caught her eye and, spotted or not, she stopped briefly and bowed her head in a quick thanks, lips pulling up in a smile at the Pokemon. Behind her, Muspel finally caught up, stomping on the ground instead of flying like her fellows. She would also be a guard, if one that was a little unskilled. [break][break]

Kaida hesitated only a moment at the actual quarters, leaving Muspel at the door, she'd find some space and release Hema, sighing as she cringed at the sight of her. "I seem to be scaring many people today." She mumbled at a volume barely audible, raising it towards Alexei, "...You had questions, correct? Er...I'll try and answer.


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