It had happened a couple years ago.

The purging.

Ayla hadn't taken part, had avoided the nights they purged, hiding inside her shelter. No electricity ran through here anymore, and water was hard to come by, especially warm water. The nearby stream sometimes went dry in the harsh sun.

But still, Ayla stayed here.

She had nowhere else to go, after all.

The house was old, but it held strong. The windows were intact, though spinarak now lingered in the empty space. Ayla wasn't particularly fond of them, but she refused to kick them out. Especially the one in the corner, with more fear than the others.

It wasn't green, more of a blue. And whenever the purging nights came, she made certain it was inside, safe from the riotous people.

Each month when the marched past searching for the oddly colored pokemon, Ayla made sure to stand in front of that spinarak, to keep any flickering light from reaching it, and alerting the suspicious villagers of its presence.

"It's okay," she murmured to it each time. "You're safe here."

The spinarak often showed its gratitude with a berry left by her bed, a cushion of leaves and two blankets she'd had for some time, and were worn more than she liked.

But it was something. It was something, and she was safe.

Ayla didn't like the world outside much anymore. It was dangerous when people let their fear take over.

And they had. When the purging began, they had been afraid of nothing more than a silly superstition.

'Shiny' pokemon as they were called, were of different colors than the majority population. For a while, shiny pokemon made up as much as 10% of species. They were easy enough to find if you were paying attention. Sometimes the differences were so subtle, you had trouble noticing even if you were looking straight at them.

But Ayla remembered when the purging of shinies began. She remembered when the fires were lit and the adults started hunting down the pokemon that were different from the norm.

The sights from those first weeks of the purging still haunted her.

The pecha berry by her bed made her stomach growl. She had to eat, and a single berry wasn't going to cut it.

So she stood, and walked down the stairs past that blue spinarak that made noise as she passed. Ayla noticed the clouds overhead, but she had no choice. "It's okay," she whispered. "I'll be back soon." And she walked out of the old house, heading into the forest behind, avoiding the town that sprawled into the distance.

As she walked, Ayla looked for the berry trees that usually provided the best crop. Oran berries, pecha berries, razz berries . . . Ayla saw all of them, but they didn't look quite ready to be picked. Again, her stomach growled, reminding her that she needed to eat soon.

Biting her lip, she supposed a few bitter berries would have to do for now. Climbing up a tree, she reached for a bluk berry. It was riper than others, so she would trade it for the stains that would coat her mouth for a day or two.

When her hand grazed scales instead of a branch, her heart stopped, made worse when it tightened at her touch. Ayla pulled her hand away quickly. Stupid, so, so stupid. Between the growing clouds and her own inattentiveness from hunger, she hadn't noticed the arbok above her.

But the glowing eyes staring back at her now . . . That she noticed.

In her panic, Ayla fell out of the tree, dropping a few feet to the ground below. The drop was nearly as far as she was tall, and pain shot through her back.

Gasping, she rolled out of the way before the arbok followed her, hissing.

At the sight of the poison snake before her, Ayla's scar ached across her brow. The pain shot through her just like it had years ago, forcing her eye shut. Too close, too close and the venom pushed against her skin again.

"I don't mean you any harm," Ayla tried, hoping it would comprehend and listen to her, if only a little.

But after the purging had begun, wild pokemon became less trusting, even those that weren't shiny.

Again, the arbok hissed at her, and Ayla jumped out of the way as it shot its poison sting, striking the tree behind her, bark eroding at the impact.

"I don't mean you any harm!" Ayla repeated. "I just wanted something to eat!"

Arbok didn't listen. It merely readied its attack, and Ayla prepared herself to spring out of the way.

As its mouth opened, she sprung for the ground, but the answering thud took her by surprise.

When she looked over, she saw an eevee fighting the arbok, both getting up from where they'd been sprawled on the ground.

Now, the snake's attention was turned on the furry pokemon that stood between the arbok and herself.

"Eevee, run!" Ayla shouted. "It's already aggravated, get out of here!"

But the eevee didn't move, merely planted itself closer to the ground, baring its teeth to its larger foe. As arbok readied its poison sting, eevee shot a shadow ball.

Eevee hit first, and the arbok fell back, hissing.

"Eevee get out of here!" Ayla hissed. It was so close to the village, too close.

Far too close for an eevee that wasn't brown, but silver.

If the villagers saw it . . . Oh Arceus, Ayla wasn't sure how she could get it away from them if they saw. "You have to run!" She insisted, but eevee stayed. "Please!"

Again, arbok rose, and its tail shot for eevee, wrapping it tightly. As quickly as eevee tried to dodge, it was caught by the arbok.

"Let go of it!" Ayla shouted, rushing toward the snake, fear pounding through her veins but overridden by her concern for the silver furred creature. "Let go!" Ayla shouted as she struck arbok, hating the sound of eevee's pain. The traces of venom in her scar surged in pain at the proximity of this arbok, but Ayla didn't leave.

Even as arbok bit down on her arm, Ayla refused to give up on eevee. "Let go," Ayla muttered. "Leave it alone." Eevee's answering bite was the only thing that got arbok to release its grip on Ayla, but the poison sting was so immediate that eevee hadn't even had a chance to protect itself. "Eevee!" Ayla shouted for it, but she could already tell that it was poisoned, a bit of purple appearing beneath its eyes. "Eevee no!" If eevee kept moving with poison in its system, it wouldn't take long for it to faint. It needed medical care.

Ayla jumped back in surprise as a string shot wrapped itself around arbok,constricting the larger pokemon, but not touching eevee.

Glancing back, Ayla saw her ally in the form of that shiny spinarak. Without wasting another moment, she grabbed eevee from arbok's grasp, and ran back to the house she'd lived in for years.

Dashing up the stairs, Ayla rushed for the pecha berry, attempting to feed it to eevee. "Come on, eevee," she whispered. "Come on. This will help you." Weakly, it took a bite, then two, of the pink berry. The purple tint in its face lessened, but it still wasn't enough. Eevee was still weak.

Grabbing one of the blankets she kept, Ayla wrapped it around eevee. As she rushed back out of the house, she saw spinarak in the doorway. "Thank you," she whispered before continuing on her way, closing the door. Ayla ran down the road that took her to town.

Her heart was pounding, not just from the fact that she was sprinting, but because she was rushing into town with a shiny pokemon into what was essentially a pyroar's den.

If they saw her, attempting to save this eevee, she would be forced to find a home elsewhere.