closed starter for @iideals
N stretched, sore muscles protesting too much lifting and too many cramped spaces. It had been a long day. They all seemed like long days, despite the shortening daylight hours. Not that there was much daylight where he'd been working, buried in the depths of the castle's ruins. There was always so much to do ...
He wanted a shower: a hot shower, preferably, long and steaming. That would be bliss--but also impossible, since he still hadn't found time to repair the barebones plumbing that brought water to the makeshift shower stall. That left washing in the river--which would be frigid--or heating water by the bucketful and washing in stages. Maybe he could find a pokémon who knew Scald and would be willing to help, but that was unlikely.
He could travel down to Opelucid and use the Pokemon Center's showers, of course. But that required making the trip, and he was too exhausted to entertain that option. Besides, that would mean dealing with humans ... and he was certainly too tired to do that.
Maybe tomorrow. Maybe it wasn't even worth bothering at all tonight: just get some food, get some sleep, and deal with washing up in the morning. Or the afternoon. Or tomorrow night. It wasn't as though he wouldn't just get dirty again, fixing up this place.
Why did he even bother? --No, no, he knew why he bothered. The pokémon. He had to. They lived here now, and he had to keep it as safe as he could. He'd destroyed their habitat here once; he couldn't let them lose it again.
... Fresh air. He'd just get some fresh air. Then food, then sleep, then whatever might happen tomorrow. N headed upward, angling for the main hallway and exit that lead to the external stairs.
A Deino bounded across the hallway in front of him and collided energetically with the wall, sending a shower of dust and shattered plaster raining from the ceiling. "Be careful!" N chastised, the words coming out far more harshly than he'd intended. Tired. Tired of this and too tired in general. "Be careful, little one," he said again, more gently, and reached down to guide the blind dragon to face parallel to the wall. "These walls aren't stone. You know that."
The little dragon bleated a short apology, though it was clear to N that it was more sorry to have hit its head than to have damaged the wall. Well. At least it hadn’t picked a fight with a Durant. Those altercations never ended well for anyone or anything, N and the castle included.