[Open]Treasure Hunting (Or, Junk-Seeking)

[kitsune]

The darkness never bothered her.

The overcast sky hung above the sandshrew as she dug through a pile of rubble, trying to free a chunk of red from the grass and dirt. Her sand-colored hide made her stand out like a gold coin among the fallen Human city, but no one ever bothered her. Few roamed the Ruins.
Sometimes, Zil was unnerved by the silence, rarely broken by a Spearow’s call, but it didn’t bother her much anymore… after all, she never ventured into the Catacombs – few ghost pokemon wandered from there. Occasionally, at night, the timid rodent could hear the faint wailing of the banshee-creatures, but they didn’t bother her and her treasures.

Finally, the rodent freed the broken tile from the brush, holding the muddy chip in her mouth as she scurried towards the outskirts of the city. The clouds above trembled, as if they were about to let the floods of heaven loose, but Zil paid them no heed and soon disappeared, reappearing from a carefully-hidden burrow moments later without the broken piece of pottery. She tilted her muzzle to the sky and sniffed the air, trying to decide if it really was going to rain. It was hard to tell, sometimes...
"I hope it doesn't bury anything." She muttered under her breath, black eyes flitting around the landscape. Would it be worth trying to start another 'dig' today, or would the rain chase her away...?

[Omega]

From the direction of the fortress walked a luxio. On his back, he carried a seemingly dead shinx. He walked by the sandshrew, scanning the area.

[kitsune]

What was that?
Zil watched a blue-black form several yards away navigating the Ruins. The rodent immediately rolled inside her den, curling into a tight ball and trying to slow her breathing. It wasn't easy; the little sandshrew was trembling.
It wasn't just the luxio that had scared her -- it was the limp form it had carried. A dead body? She called to mind the memory of a mightyena carrying her dead offspring and leaving it in the Ruins. The ghosts from the Catacombs had come at night... their wailing was still in her mind. The next day, there had been parts of the poochyena strewn everywhere, as well as a shuppet who'd stayed aboveground.... or at least, she thought it was a shuppet...
Plus, it had come from the Fortress, although that wasn't what Zil called it. The strange human fort was just wrong. Something about its very nature. Nothing from the Fortress ever did anything good. Why was this thing here? Did it smell tainted, like the raiding parties that occasionally came through on their way to somewhere else?
Zil crawled out of her burrow and scurried past the carnivore, cutting around through the brush until she was about two yards from the Luxio. "Y-you can't bring that h-h-ere. If you want to bury it, take it straight to the C-c-c-catac-c-c-ombs. But you c-can't leave it up here."

This luxio was almost a foot taller than her. Why was she stupid enough to come up? Why hadn't she just stayed belowground?

[Omega]

The luxio just barely heard the smaller sandshrew's trembling voice, "Hm? Oh, I'm not going to bury him here. This is my brother. He died at the hands of the Horde. I'm taking him to his birthplace to bury him."

[kitsune]

With those words, Zil relaxed, but only slightly. This was a predator after all. She scuttled closer until only a yard was between them. "The Horde? You mean, the Tainteds from Darkplace?" She nodded in the direction of the castle, a dark blot of plague on an otherwise serene landscape. "What did they do...?" The small sandshrew stared at the limp shinx with morbid curiosity.
Nothing involved with the Tainted is good, She reminded herself, but she continued staring at the luxio, waiting for a response. Under her breath, Zil muttered a prayer fervently to her homeland. Only bits and pieces were audible.
"Arrida, desert of my soul... endless rays enlighten my heart, embrace my form, guide me from night... Arrida, desert of my soul, my heart aches for your warmth and love... Guide me now, Arrida, Arrida..." The rest was unintelligable words.

Zil usually didn't say words of protection about the Arrida, but she couldn't help it. She was looking at a carnivore, and instead of running away, she was asking about its dead sibling.

[Omega]

"They captured us and imprisoned us for nearly a month," replied the luxio, "My brother died of starvation."

[kitsune]

Zil felt her eyes getting wider with disbelief and surprise until they were two perfect orbs of obsidian. "They...?" Cruelcruelcruelcruelcruelcruelcruel, Her mind hummed, but the instinct still sang Runhidefleeliverunhidefleefleehiderunlive... She crept even closer, studying the shinx's lax features. "Why did they c-catch you? How did you escape?" The sandshrew thought a moment, and then, more to herself: "Raiding parties c-come through sometimes. I didn't know that this is what they did..."

[Omega]

"We escaped thanks to some brave Pokemon," replied the luxio, "By the way, my name's Verrou."

[kitsune]

"Zil." The sandshrew replied, offering her own name. "How far is your journey?" Verrou. She felt another unreasonable stab of pity for the creature. "And your brother, his name was...?" Rude. Shut up and get something. Her mood shifted immediately from sorrow to busy, heart rate increasing as she gave the electric a look that said, 'Stay right here.'
"Better not be hungry," Zil muttured as she scurried into her den, claw eventually hooking around the loop she was looking for. Within two minutes she was back in front of Verrou, a mangled necklace around her paw: she'd dug up some interesting things over the last few months... the links were cracked, several were broken, and the gold was dull, but the shrew offered it to the luxio calmly.
" 'Might as well take something..."
I can't give life to the dead, but hey, take this freakish necklace!
"...You aren't hungry, o-or need anything else, do you...? "

[Omega]

"His name was Spark," replied Verrou, "Thank you for the gift. A snack would be nice, but I've really got to get going before he begins to decay."

[kitsune]

Zil nodded and began walking towards the outskirts of the Crumbled Ruins, taking a path that would avoid the majority of the ruins. She spoke as she walked, occasionally glancing back at Verrou every so often... she knew that the luxio had to be on his way, but she wasn't ready to let go of one of the first conversations she'd had that month. "Where're you from...? Occasionally, the Tainteds come through here to cut over the mountains, but I never knew that they caught pokemon like you. Why'd they put you in the dungeons? I thought they only went to get live food--"she shivered a moment,"--and recruits." The sandshrew cut past a pile of rubble and switched topics. "I'm from the desert, you know. I've been living here for three or four months, I lost track. Not a lot of creatures come through here, 'cept for them, and there isn't really a lot of news to be heard... but I did hear that there's a group trying to fight them. I bet it's just a rumor..."

[Omega]

"I'm from the plains," replied Verrou, "They interrogated me. They needed information. I knew nothing, so they locked us up."

[kitsune]

They were at the edge of the Crumbled Ruins, and Zil glanced up at the luxio anxiously. He was so... thin. He looked like a skeleton covered in a lackluster, secondhand pelt. This was wrong, even for a predator to endure. "If they try to catch you again," Zil said fervently, "Come here. They don't go into the Ruins much, and I can hide you." The sandshrew nodded again, standing up on her hind legs to look Verrou in the eyes.
"Be careful," she muttered anxiously. "Are you sure you're up to the journey?"

[Omega]

"I'll be fine," said Verrou before walking off.

[kitsune]

A light rain began to fall, but Zil continued to watch him disappear and continued standing in her sentry-position. The rain cast up a tiny bit of mist up, and soon she could only see his sillhouette, but she continued watching. Finally, the rain got too heavy; she could feel it trickling inbetween the cracks in her hide. She watched his shadow trickle out of view, and the sandshrew left for her den.