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It had come to the off-color wurmple that, despite the amount of complete and utter blind faith he put on himself, there was no hiding the fact that... living things needed nourishment to thrive, and he wasn't the best at making such proceeds appear out of thin air. He wasn't much of a scavenger for the tidbits that made up the basis for the wild, for feral pokémon to acquire, and he didn't know the first things about where to even start. For one of so much power when it came to his lands, he was pretty much at the mercy of whatever had any to spare.

This would not do, Kenley decided, but there wasn't much time to dilly-dally. After all, he needed the knowledge to sustain himself, but he also needed a quick source in the meantime. He was starving, and the longer he went without any food, the longer Kenley realized that his thoughts became less and less coherent and logical. He couldn't learn anything on an empty stomach!

So he decided to scour the area for any passersby that may have food, or anything that may have been dropped, or that even looked slightly edible. Sure, he hadn't yet thought of how he would acquire said goods if it was the first option, but he had been winging it thus far and hadn't done too badly, right?

It seemed like Kenley had been scrambling around the brush on the ground floor for hours now, but it had probably been no more than half an hour tops. Truly this was the worst kind of punishment. However, instead of going to the normally darker parts of his mind to mope about how unfair this all was, he decided to take a completely different route that was probably just as destructive: he got angry about it. The fact that it was blind anger didn't help matters, and he used his irritation to fuel a thrash at a small branch of a berry-less bush. It was late spring, why in the blazes couldn't he find anything that offered--!

Wait a minute, he knew that smell! Peeking his head upward, he sniffed at the air, much unlike a wurmple tends to do. What did it matter if he acted differently, though? Everyone in this area would learn to take their ruler how he came, and there would be no complaints on the matter. He did what he wanted, and that's how things were going to stay!

However, he also had more honor than that normally, but at this moment, the only way he could think of getting that tasty-smelling food from the two... rather strange girls that happened to wander into his thicket was to swipe it from them. But he was much too brilliant of a pokémon to just ignore, wouldn't that be a futile attempt? Despite the conceit, it was a rather founded argument -- purple against the green of the scenery didn't make for very adequate camouflage. He couldn't very well ask politely for some, either, as that would be lowering himself to the likes of them, supposed Gaians who had abandoned him in the first place. That only left one other course of action that he could see...

Climbing up the side of a tree, he clambered onto the branch that stuck the farthest into the clearing, making sure his footing was stable. When he was confident that he wouldn't fall off, he inhaled deeply and stated with as much force as he could muster, <<What is your reason for stepping foot into my territory? What business do you have here? This isn't an invasion, is it?>> Clearly, he had a shortage of humility on-hand.

Ooooh, the nerve these two had, to stand up to the invisible force of power like this and demand for him to surrender what he so rightfully overtook for himself. Of course the expanse of woods were his! One might even consider that he took it over by force, and didn't even need a cavalry to do so! Why, it should have been a point of awe, of uncontested mastery and amazing skills! Yet, these two children had the audacity to take a stand and say that it wasn't true, instead calling him a liar in not so many words!

Okay, true, only one of them had done that... the blonde girl with the glasses had the right idea to tremble under his coercion. Alas, she was beginning to rethink things. The pale-skinned princess seemed to have a bit of a silver tongue, didn't she?

Well, if words wouldn't work, Kenley had a few tricks up his metaphorical sleeves. He could attempt the threats again after, if all else failed. He was, after all, the ruler of these lands, and he wasn't going to take this mutiny sitting down! In frustration, he aimed his head at Lilly and fired a string shot at her from his hiding place amongst the leaves. Maybe tying them up would work better, and they could see he wasn't just playing games!

Kenley had just been readying a second string shot, aimed at the quieter of the two girls to keep them both in place, but was much too slow on the uptake. Sure, Kenley may have been irritated with this turn of events, but he was lacking the rage-fueled adrenaline that kick-started Honey into an offense. It didn't help that, since they were both girls, he hadn't exactly truly considered them much of a threat in the first place; he was just hungry and unreasonable, and apparently wanted to exercise his self-appointed status because of it.

Because of this, he was in the middle of inhaling for his second shot when he finally noticed the little dust devil of an attack whip up towards him. He attempted to side-step it, but only managed to slip in his grip on the branch and tumble into the side of the gust attack, pulling him toward the ground. Well, that not only took away his ability to frighten with the unknown -- something he hadn't actually planned but worked in his favor -- but it also took away his advantage of height -- the main reason he had climbed up there in the first place.

He hit the ground with a coughed, <<Oof!>> Dazed, he stared up at the branch he had been perched on only a second before. He glared at it, for it had failed to be much of a temporary throne for the regal insect, before he remembered that he was still under attack. Wiggling to right himself, he caught his breath before he failed an attempt at puffing up, flailing little nubby forelegs as though they could hit his attackers... who were still a number of steps away. <<Foul beasts! I knew it, the mutiny! The intrusion! You're here to take it away, aren't you!? You're just asking for trouble now!>> Not that he had any such back-up plan, but he wasn't about to step down now!

While still flailing segmented legs about in a frenzied cross between offense and defense, Kenley was still mentally trying to right himself. The drop from the branch succeeded in winding him, and his short breaths conveyed this fact. He almost got the dizziness under control when he saw Honey near him. Lowering his waggling nubs, he smacked them to the grassy floor and stood rigid, ready for any other attack she might throw at him. He even attempted to inhale for a second round of String Shot, oblivious to the concern written all over her face until she spoke up.

And he deflated.

<<Scared? ME?>> Kenley sputtered, trying to sound offended through the use of only half his lung capacity, <<I don't have to be big to be scary! How dare you insult me like that!>> Actions spoke otherwise, as he immediately shirked from the combee's arms and tried to scramble a few more steps away once he realized what she was trying to do. When his legs stopped moving, he was back to acting the superior, but he sounded less than, <<I am as threatening as you'll ever see! I don't need your pity, it has no use here! Trespassers!>> It didn't matter that he was there mainly for the pity, as it was practically the only way he was going to get any food at this rate, nor did it apparently matter that he was only digging himself a deeper grave with the insults he, in turn, flung. He nearly screeched, <<I AM intimidating!>> Because all scholars knew that the louder one was, the more intelligent they sounded. It was a fact.

Kenley huffed in aggravation at the laughter produced by his actions from the one who flung the assault on him in the first place. What was so funny? Was this how she dealt with fear, to laugh at it in uncertainty? Was she just trying to demean him that much more? What was her deal, anyway? Kenley probably would have pouted had he the capability to.

Although he really hadn't minded Lilly all that much up until this point, her blunt accusations definitely rubbed him the wrong way. He puffed up, <<Well, I had to get through your thick skulls somehow, didn't I? You really don't listen! And you still don't!>> He wasn't about to denounce her statement of self-centric actions, for it was obvious that that was the correct course to take. He wasn't going to think about the feelings of two individuals who pranced into a secured area without any thought on the matter. Hmph, they were being just as self-centered!

However confident Kenley was in himself, he certainly was rather confused as to what to make of the two girls. True, he was still angry at them, and he wasn't about to let that go yet. However, their bickering had him befuddled, and it seemed like Honey was trying to defend him somehow? They were just... really weird. He couldn't come up with a better descriptor. If he wasn't starving, he probably would have laughed at the scene. They weren't actually too bad, but since they were arguing with everything that the wurmple currently stood for, they were seen primarily as intruders and must be eliminated. With a cloudy head, he didn't even think to realize that he could just as easily come to the same conclusion he was looking for had he broke down and befriended them. But then again, that would also go against pride.

<<If you must insist that I am being the rude one,>> Kenley hissed, in a hurt pout sort of way, <<keep in mind that I'm not the only one being rude here!>> He wasn't going to deny being 'rude,' there was no point to doing so and even the wurmple could see that himself. However, these two certainly weren't boosting how well they looked at the moment, either. This argument had dwindled into little more than a test of how well one could diss the other, and it was enough to annoy even Kenley. He wasn't so low that he'd just toss out name-calling like candy on Halloween, not without reason. See, he was the more mature one!

They really hadn't any foundation to stand on! Kenley was determined to show them this, even if it was a lost cause, <<Even homes have front and back yards! Who's to say that very tree wasn't my home, huh?>> he explained. Granted... even he knew that wasn't true, but it was all a matter of 'what if' anyway. He hesitated and gave Lilly a confused look, unsure of what she meant by her terminology. He hadn't been in contact with many people, but he'd heard the term 'friend' before. Not that he really knew what that meant, other than someone who liked to stop by quite often with his previous trainer-- He shuddered at the thought; he wasn't suppose to ever consider that person again!

Scrambling back again, his thoughts were enough to get him entirely too agitated on the matter. At this point in time, friends were on par with being as evil as an abandoned previous life. <<You hurt me plenty,>> he growled under his breath before he turned back to face them, <<You have your picnic here, and I'm warning you, it'll be the worst one you ever have!>> He was feeling quite vindictive at the moment, even though his target wasn't the bane of his rage.

Kenley bristled at the two girls' actions as they got busy setting up their little picnic in the middle of his domain. <<You dare incur the wrath? Do you get some high out of breaking and entering?>> he hissed from the sanctuary of the trunk of the tree behind him. In fact, he was ready to rain vengeance down on the two of them during the most inopportune time, spitting silken string on anything they may pull out so they couldn't touch it, but there was something more important that arose from opportunity.

However, it was momentarily obscured by the sour filter that Kenley was currently using to see the world. What, were they trying to rub it in that they had so much food? They didn't seem to realize how much the wurmple was starving, and such insolence was sure to get them a more fiery rage-fit!

Kenley hadn't yet tuned them out, and although it took the insect a moment or two, a hidden layer of meaning behind their words was starting to sink in. While he was still glowering like the world depended on it, the intensity of the expression began to wane. They didn't seriously mean to share with him, did they? After all that? They hated him! It was all an act, to get him to lower his defenses!

...Wasn't it?

The only problem with his astute problem solving skills on the matter was that he was still incredibly hungry. He hadn't eaten in two days, and his stomach felt like it was caving in and eating itself the more he thought about what they had brought to the picnic to taunt him with. Things were getting skewed, and after a moment he realized a crucial detail: it was about survival at the moment, not about protecting his property. He had to make sacrifices where necessary, at least in dire situations like this. That also meant he had to cut the pride.

Inching closer with careful and slow steps as the two of them went on about possibly sharing with someone that wasn't like the wurmple, his rage all but fizzled out. His head was lowered like an apologetic dog might after it knocked a vase over, leaning forward in an attempt to sniff out what they had hiding in the basket. This sort of thing wasn't his strong point, something made painfully clear as he spun a stubby foot in the grass, thinking of how to rectify this problem. He could be diplomatic enough! At least, hopefully. He almost let pride guide his words again, but realized before it was too late that that would probably only cause more problems. This was going to be harder than he thought... <<You'd... actually share?>> he asked cautiously. He didn't want to apologize if they were only pulling his leg... but he would if he had to.