After Zeraora stopped laughing, I quickly went on to check the conditions of my two other Pokémon.
While Archen showed no minor signs of injury thanks to its almost rock-hard body, Shinx, on the other hand, did sustain some injuries. However, they were minor injuries that would heal on their own within a short time.
After finishing up with the check-up, I slowly turned to the mother Zeraora's lifeless body. Just watching her made my body grow cold.
As I asked the little Zeraora to help me carry her towards the shaft, he agreed steadily, which for some reason seemed weird to me. Usually, whenever I asked Zeraora to do something, it would question me back, or look at me with a curious gaze, as if asking, 'Why?'.
However, this time he did nothing of this sort.
'Huh? Does this mean he recognizes me as his trainer or something like that??' I thought in my mind, but did not voice it out loud.
"It is going to be night soon, and I don't want to risk any other powerful coming here."
"Zeraa"
He replied quickly while looking at his mother, who was being carried by both of us.
"I want to give her a funeral. Are you okay with it?"
He turned his gaze from his mother to me, and after looking at me for a while with a blank expression, he again replied,
"Zeraa!"
"Ok, then. Let's bury her near the shaft."
"Zeraa!"
He followed quickly.
We then carried the mother to a place near the shaft and had the Bunnelby nearby dig a grave in the ground in exchange for some berries.
After digging up the grave, we gently placed Mother Zeraora's body there. And, after offering her some prayers, we slowly started covering the grave. After completely covering up the grave, I piled up a bunch of stones to mark it.
After I was finished, I glanced back at Zeraora.
He stayed there, motionless, staring at the grave with a complicated expression.
I knew it was hard, but I wasn't sure what to do.
Should I let him be?.
Because he needs to figure things out on his own.
Or should I help him?
But that would undermine his own growth.
I was in a dilemma: leave a Pokémon to grow, or help a friend.
After struggling for a bit, I started moving towards Zeraora. There must be other ways to train, but for now, I needed to be beside my brother.
I kept on walking and stopped once I reached Zeraora.
I also kept my glance at the tomb, and said,
"You know, you count on me, right?"
"Zeraaaa"
"You are not alone, Zeraora."
"Zeraora."
After that, I became silent. I was silently contemplating what I should say next. These types of situations are very sensitive. I had never faced such a situation in my previous life. The only time I came close to such a situation was when my grandfather died when I was six or seven. I didn't understand the gravity of the situation, and just kept on blabbering on about how my grandfather had gone on a trip and would return once he finished.
As I was contemplating, Zeraora suddenly placed his hand on my shoulder,
"Zeraa Zeraora."
"Huh?! Sorry about that."
"Zeraora"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I also got you."
"Zera Zera!"
"Come on. Let's go inside. Tomorrow we need to go out to get some food. And, also check out Hunter's camp. There could be some Poke Balls, or important information."
A few hours ago, while returning from the battleground, Zeraora and I spotted a camp in the direction of the first explosion. We decided to check that camp out the next day, as it was getting quite late.
"Zeraora!"
Said Zeraora, It was determined, for what exactly I wasn't sure. But I liked the enthusiasm; it was much better than the blank or the complicated expression.
That night, neither Zeraora nor I could get any sleep.
Meanwhile, Shinx had woken up in the middle of the night, and the majority of its injuries had recovered, and only a few injuries remained. Although it looked like its battery had been completely recharged. It started jumping up and down, and went on to disturb the sleeping Archen beside it.
The already sleep-deprived Zeraora and I had no energy to keep up with it.
And then, after a few seconds of jumping, it remembered what had happened in the morning, and then it started going towards Zeraora, who was sitting next to me. After reaching Zeraora, it started licking his face with a sad face. It must have remembered the mother's sacrifice.
Archen, who also looked grief-stricken, flew slowly between me and Zeraora and quietly covered the little Shinx.
That night, none of us slept, yet it was one of the most relaxing nights any of us had ever had.
At the crack of dawn, all of us got up; we had two missions to accomplish.
One was to gather food, which the mother used to do until yesterday.
And the other was to gather any evidence or technology of the modern outside world.
It would have been better to split into two teams, but I decided against it. It would be too risky to split our forces.
So, first we went towards the hunter's camp, which was quite far, despite how close it looked. Shinx did the most work, as it was constantly scanning the area with its X-Ray vision.
We didn't want any easily avoidable problems. Although I had already theorized that most of the strong and unique Pokémon should already have been captured or repelled by Zeraora and the Hunters.
As expected, we didn't run into any unexpected Pokémon.
We soon came near the hunter's camp.
The camp was a rough clearing carved out of the forest, and the ground was trampled down by multiple footsteps. A low-burning fire crackled in a shallow pit, its smoke mingling with the metallic smell of blood and a faint, bitter scent of burnt fur. The fire was probably made for cooking, but they met Zeraora before their breakfast.
There were three big tents built around the fire in the middle.
One of them is bigger than the other two.
"Shi Shinx."
"So, the captured Pokémon are in there. Huh?!!"