Stalking? I Wouldn't Call It That... [Ashie]

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

Growlithe looked up as Akhor came into view and while he usually would have backed away from Jolteon at the sight of him, this time he was adamant about getting their help. Shame he couldn't speak human, however. He turned and pointed his front right paw towards the mountains where they had been looking for Pokemon and then turned back and made his fur stand on edge, stuck his tongue out and snarled, as his impression of a Mightyena. Doing this was frustrating however, but he was not going to give up.

Figuring that might not be enough, the Growlithe forced itself up on his hind legs, and held his head high, making sounds as if he were talking, and then one which sounded like a laugh - it sounded amazingly like Cid, as things go. The pokemon got back down onto his paws and then headed up the hill a bit before turning and barking for them to follow.

[AKHOR DRYZEIRAN]

((Lmao! Imagining all of that was really funny XD))

Both Akhor and Jolteon watched the short performance that Growlithe put on for them, finding the pokemon to be rather odd as it imitated the MIghtyena, and beyond ridiculous when it did its impression of Cid. In the very least it got its point across, but had Akhor been anyone else, he would have busted out laughing by this point in an uncontrollable fit, no doubt about it. As it was, he just thought that the fire type looked stupid, though he realized what he was trying to say.

Sighing quietly, he started up the hill after Growlithe, hoping that Ash wasn't too far off, "I told her Cid would find her." He said, speaking to the Growlithe of course, although he doubted that the pokemon cared.

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

(( haha! yeah Growlithe can be a bit weird ... ))

Growlithe felt a little proud of himself as Akhor started up the hill after him. As the human spoke he turned to look over his shoulder and tilted his head with a whimper. Yes, indeed Akhor had told her that, but it was the pup's opinion that Akhor shouldn't have left her there on her own when he knew how Cid felt about this. Really Ash was lucky that the man hadn't wanted to hurt her this time, but had simply had her breakdown instead. Still that wasn't a very good thing either, and Growlithe had had to leave her there with just Eevee, crying her eyes out.

The pokemon reached the top, and then cur;led around into a thick forested area, and walked a little more before he came the Mightyena and Ash, who was clearly having a hard time of things curled up against the tree with her head in her hands. She was shaking violently. Growlithe whimpered at the sight of her, but dared not get too close because of the Mightyena who stood and snarled at the oncoming group.

[AKHOR DRYZEIRAN]

((XD))

Akhor was surprised to see Mightyena there, and even more so to see that the pokemon seemed to be defending Ash. Jolteon was immediately on edge as they appeared, a snarl reverberating in his throat.

"Ash?" The male called, not missing the fact that the female was crying extremely hard. Cid didn't seem to have physically hurt her, so it must have been something he'd said. He couldn't help but feel justified for all he'd done with making her battle the Makuhita at this point, but he didn't see now as a good time to point that out to her, "Are you alright?"

Obviously she wasn't, but he was just trying to get her to talk to him.

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

Mightyena would never attack Ash, even if Cid ordered him to. He was probably Cid's most prized pokemon, but he didn't like taking too many orders, though he had yet to disobey a demand. Still, he liked Ash, and while the pokemon didn't care about the rest of the family, he wouldn't like to see Ash hurt. His staying behind to protect her was somewhat genuine - though the plan had been to get Ash to not trust Akhor any more and to trust Cid instead. She had been vulnerable any way, and it was just a matter of manipulation.

Mightyena snarled back at Jolteon as he lowered his head, standing between Ash and Akhor, as if to not let the male and his pokemon any closer. Or Growlithe for the matter who retreated to hide behind Akhor.

Ash could heard Akhor, but she was too distressed to reply straight away. She was crying so much however that she was finding it somewhat difficult ot breathe. All of the things that Cid had said, she believed. She didn't suddeny like him or anything, and he'd not apologised, but he was right when he said Akhor didn't care about her and it was pointless hanging around with him. She already knew that. He'd said other things though - like how it was her fault her family were dead. He said that she should have tried to persuade her father not to get on Cid's bad side. She believed him as well.

"I can't do this any more." She sobbed. There were so many things she could'nt do ... Like being with Akhor when he made it clear he didn't like her.

[AKHOR DRYZEIRAN]

Akhor's gaze flickered downward toward the MIghtyena, his eyes narrowing, before his attention returned to Ash. He didn't see the pokemon as a danger, as he was sure that if it tried anything that Jolteon would interfere. He wasn't looking for a battle though, and as such hoped that it didn't come down to that.

He waited for a response from the female, hoping that it wouldn't take too much prompting. He wasn't good at dealing with crying people. Not only was he not sympathetic, but he was absolutely horrible at comforting people on any matter. His brow furrowed slightly as she spoke, "Do what?" He asked, not sure what she could mean. Battling pokemon? Fine, whatever. He was done trying to get her to do that anyways.

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

Mightyena wasn't loking for a fight either - he was just here to make sure that nobody interfered with his master's plans. He was not an overly evil pokemon, he just took his orders and did what he thought of as fun. He much preferred to lay around and do nothing but eat, rather than do any battling.

"I wanted you to like me." The female answered, feeling rather stupid the moment she said it, "But what's the point? You can barely stand me! And I don't have anyone else ... And it's my fault." She was blaming herself for Cid killing her family, but the moment she said it Growlithe barked in disagreement, watching her carefully. He didn't like the mood she was in and hated seeing her crying. He would be comforting her if not for the Mightyena, but at least Eevee was there for her, sitting in her lap.

[AKHOR DRYZEIRAN]

Slight surprise showed in Akhor's expression at Ash's words. He'd known the female was attached to him, but he'd assumed that was because she trusted him and felt safe with him, not for any other reason. Of course he'd realized that she was being friendly with him and such, but he wasn't very good at making friends, and as such had done nothing to return the offer. In fact, he'd been rather rude to her, he supposed. He'd told her to leave him alone though.

The male's eyes narrowed as she claimed that it was her fault. She didn't seem to be speaking about the fact that he apparently couldn't stand her, but rather that she had no one else. Was she blaming herself for her family's death? "How in the world can that be your fault?" He asked, not seeing how she could possibly think that. She'd done nothing.

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

Ash actually liked Akhor more in a wanting to be his friend way. She found him to be attractive, and she could tell there was a nice side to him to, he just wasn't very good at showing it. Currently however Cid had managed to persuade her that the boy didn't like her, didn't care about her and would always hate her and find her annoying so there was no point being any where near him. He'd also tried to make out that the red head was weak, but Ash wasn't buying any of that, not that she would care if he was.

"I could have done something." The female argued, working herself up into a worse state. This was the worse episode she'd had where crying for her family was concerned. She'd tried to not think about it before as it upset her. "I knew my dad was a rebel ... I could have persuaded him to stop, then he wouldn't be dead." Cid had drilled all of this into her head, and she really believed it.

[AKHOR DRYZEIRAN]

Akhor really hadn't expected any of this from Ash. As she spoke, he couldn't quite believe what she was saying. She could have persuaded her father? He seriously doubted it. People like that were typically very committed to what they were doing. They knew the risks involved, and had already accepted that their safety was at risk in order to do what they considered to be right. He seriously doubted that Ash would have ever been able to convince her father otherwise.

This had to all be coming from Cid. In fact, he was willing to bet on it. He sighed quietly, and shook his head, "I doubt that would have done anything Ash." He responded, "He was committed to his cause." He wasn't sure what else to say, aside from that.

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

Ash had never thought that on that day she would be visited by Cid. Sh ehadn't blamed herself for this before, but Cid was very cunning and he used his resources well - he also enjoyed watching people suffer and Ash clearly was. He'd told her that if she wanted to be stronger and able to protect people in the future that she should go to him. First though he needed her to completely break down in order for his plan to work. He wasn't watching right now, but Mightyena would go back to him soon and communicate what had happened. That or Ash would pay a visit.

"You don't know that." Ash said between tears. She was barely able to keep herself upright at this point she was crying so much and quickly wearing herself out. "Why are you even here? You don't care." Really though, why was Akhor there? To rub it in her face or something?

[AKHOR DRYZEIRAN]

Akhor's eyes narrowed as she spoke. True, he didn't know that, but it was extremely likely, that was for sure. Plus, Ash didn't know if she could have changed anything, so it wasn't fair for her to blame herself. He frowned slightly as she asked why he was there, and glanced over at the fire type pokemon cowering behind him, "Growlithe came for me." He replied, turning his attention back over to Ash as he spoke.

"He did some horrible imitation of Cid and ran off in this direction, so I followed him." He shrugged slightly, "I thought he might have been hurting you." A normal person might have said something more comforting like, 'because you were in trouble and I wanted to help,' or whatever, but Akhor simply reported what happened.

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

That sounded just like Growlithe to do something like that. He was such a sweet little guy really, although doing an imitation of Cid sounded a little bit freaky and somewhat scary as well. The female glanced over at the pokemon, barely able to see because she was crying so much. If she was going to be honest, the way Akhor said his last comment made it sound as if he would have stopped Cid if he was hurting her, which was almosy nice, but again in the same breath it just sounded like a statement rather than anything remotely emotional.

"Would you have cared if he was?" She asked, "Because I don't think you would have, really. You just don't like him. I like you Akhor, I don't know why ... But I'm wasting my time trying to be your friend when you don't even care, remotely, about me. I just want to go home." But she didn't have a home, which was the sad part.

[AKHOR DRYZEIRAN]

Akhor's eyes narrowed at Ash's question. He really didn't know how to respond. Would he care? He really didn't know. He didn't think he would, simply because he didn't think he cared about Ash. Why should he? He hardly knew her, and he had no connection to her, nor was he interested in making one. At least, he told himself that. But he always told himself that, when for whatever reason he was actually somewhat interested in a girl.

Akhor shook the thoughts from his head, afraid of where they'd go if he kept thinking about them, "This is home, Ash. Until you can find somewhere else, and I don't think that will ever happen." She'd sealed her fate when she'd walked in on the meeting with the Emperor. He'd assigned her to Cid, and now she was stuck. He didn't recommend running either.

[ASHAH-RAINE WOLFE !]

It was really quite sad because although they didn't know each other, really, Ash cared about Akhor, and she had a crush on him and wanted to be his friend. She was beginning to think that the problem was herself, because she had no other friends either, but ofcourse this all worked to Cid's benefit, for if Ash and Akhor were close then he would have had an impossible job of making Ash believe that this was all completely pointless and that Akhor wasn't really helping her - he was just trying to get her out of his way.

"This isn't home." The female said rather adamantly, "For me or for Jackson. A home is where people love you and take care of you and they don't make you do things you don't want to." She was related to people who lived there, but that didn't mean it was her home, even if she was in line for Cid's position if something happened to Jackson. She didn't want it any way.