Rank Up: Friendship

The sun shone between the parts in his fingers, his eyes looking up at the sun that was before him. The battle they endured was hard, and it seemed to take its toll on Snatcher. He looked over to his pokemon, who appeared to be pouting, probably angry at himself. But Ahimoth could also feel that loss, the pain resonating in his chest and burning his very being. They would need to get stronger if they wanted to overcome other obstacles. Ahimoth sighed and rolled over to look at his pouting pokemon, a small smile starting to grace his features a little. 

“Snatcher, don’t be so down on yourself,” he tried to coo, knowing the battle still bothered him. “We’ll get it next time, you don’t grow unless you lose some too right? This just means that we need to train harder, we need to get stronger, better.” His hands moved behind his head, eyes focusing back on the bright sun. “I sure learned something from that fight.” 

Snatcher huffed finally and turned his golden eyes onto his trainer, he could feel that he was just trying to cheer him up, but it wasn’t worth it. “Oh, and what did you learn then?” The thought didn’t come across, but those curious eyes did gaze upon Ahimoth’s form.

“I need to be a better director, maybe if I had guided you better in the fight, we wouldn’t be like this now,” he stated motioning to his pokemon, his eyes still soft. “Next time we battle, I’ll do a better job at giving you directions. You’re more precious to me than I can imagine, and I don’t want anything to happen to you.” 

It was mushy, but this was their first actual battle together, and Ahimoth couldn’t help but feel like he had let Snatcher down. The wind brushed against their forms, swaying Ahimoth’s free strands of hair and the loose part of his shirt. His eyes closed, and he allowed a breath to leave his lips again. “We’re going to work on training together, getting stronger together, and learning more on our journey going forward.” 

Snatcher didn’t seem surprised by Ahimoth’s words, after their battle he could vaguely remember how worried Ahimoth had been for his well-being. Being tucked inside the Pokeball, he didn’t know what else his trainer was doing, but he could only imagine he was scurrying away from the fight as quickly as possible - something Ahimoth usually wouldn’t do.

Snatcher got up and moved over to his partner, face gently nuzzling against his partner’s cheek a little, and a soft growl-like sound escaping his throat and maw. “Here is to learning to get stronger together. We will protect things we cherish.” 

Ahimoth laughed a little, raising his hand to stroke the beast’s large body, his eyes holding a soft look to them still. “Here is to getting stronger together, my dear friend. We will start training tomorrow, for now, we’ll rest up and heal some more before we try learning more new things.”

(Word Count: 505)