(D-don't l-look at me.)

    “ You would think they’d learn better over time, dontcha’? ” She mused more to herself, after waving the Farfetch’d owners a farewell. Getting a call from Bugsy about a rematch, ended up with her traveling back to Azalea, which ended up with a minor detour for new pokeball’s from Kurt, which then led her to corralling the wood cutter’s pesky Farfetch’d in Ilex Forest.

     You could say it was an eventful day for her. Maybe afterwards she’ll stop by and see if Whitney wants to compete with her at the Pokeathlon. A little training wouldn’t hurt her and she is positive someone on her team would want to compete. “ Come on Leif we should get goin’ before it gets late. ”

     Yet, she didn’t get to go far. Her Meganium, trusted companion, halted to a stop. Gaze fixated to a certain spot ahead of them. Curious on what the floral pokemon was gazing at, she peered over him just to spot the smaller girl ahead. And despite being covered in dirt and the occasional bird feathers, Lyra still managed to smile over at the small girl. 

  “ oh !  hey there – ”  she doesn’t get to say much more for her voice is lost at the sight of the girl taking off further into the woods in a hurry. Her initial reaction is to shout an, “ Whoa. Hey! Wait up, ” but it falls on deaf ears when she witnesses the girl take a fall a little bit up ahead..

   She winced at the fall. A low whistle escapes her mouth. That surely had to hurt. “ Geeze. That was a nasty fall ya’ took there. Illex’s got some pretty nasty roots. It’s like a no runnin’ zone in this place with the occasional bees.” It didn’t take her long to catch up, and she’s already hunched down, head tipped to the side with a hand out to help the girl up if she needed it.  “ Ya’ okay there? Do you need some help gettin’ up?”

...Well, This had gone well.

Truth be told, it wasn’t a root that had toppled the girl - just her inability to put any kind of serious weight on her leg at the moment. But she was very embarrassed admitting that. You didn’t just go up to random strangers, telling them you were hurt, no? That... that wasted people’s time, and Who didn’t want to waste anybody’s time, absolutely not.

She scooted back a little, staring up somewhat nervously at the bigger girl and her massive Pokémon. She’d... never seen anything like it before, but it was big, that’s for sure.

“N-no thank you, I can, g-get up b-by m-myself, I,” she stammered, attempting to push herself up, and... Well, while your mask may have hidden your wince, I think we all heard that little whine that just came out.

Even after a few years, Who was still not the best at living alone. She’d been faring... okay, by herself. It was hard to find food sometimes, and harder still to find a place to eat where she wouldn’t hurt anybody by removing her mask, but no matter how hungry she got, she never got seriously sick from it, so that was a small blessing. She couldn’t remember actually getting, well, any kind of sickness, since... then. Of course, that didn’t mean she was beyond getting hurt. And when you’re an, admittedly rather small and weak, girl alone in a forest, injury is going to happen. It was a small accident, honestly. She’d been walking around in Ilex Forest, by herself, as usual, when she’d accidentally stumbled down a hill she hadn’t known was there. The fall unfortunately ended with her leg getting caught between a rock and a branch, and although she had managed to free herself, it now hurt whenever she put any weight on it.

...Which made walking kind of difficult. It was hard to go anywhere with her leg stinging like it was, but she was sure that it would have to get better eventually, yes? She’d just have to stay out of the way, because she was limping, and her leg looked kind of red and sore, and she wouldn’t want anybody to worry about her and ask too many questions.

...A good plan, at least, until someone saw her one day, and tried to talk to her, and she’d taken off into the forest in a panic, trying to get away, except she couldn’t run at the moment, and each step pained her, and... she’d fallen.

Who’s time spent in the forest was usually spent alone - she was rather afraid of the company of others, and often fled at the sight of wanderers, but today she happened to chance upon something... unusual. It certainly wasn’t a person - in fact, she had no idea what the strange spiky ball atop a pile of cables actually was, but she still immediately hid from it upon spotting it, because you never know, it could be dangerous. ...And a little masked head had occasionally peeked out from the brush at the strange being, before ducking back in in terror - repeatedly, for the better part of an hour. Someone was awfully, awfully curious about what exactly the odd forest-creature was, but apparently very, very timid as well, and afraid of even being noticed by it.

Eventually, though, the someone worked up the courage to emerge. The someone was a very small someone - short even by the standards of human children, and stepping forward with nervous caution. Her body was dirty, and her clothes were tattered - evidently, she had been in the wilderness a while.

And something felt rather strange about her.

cursed--child → coveredcorruption