In spite of her anger, Kiara could no longer feel jealous of Artemis as she sat down to finish her breakfast in spite of her loss of appetite. In spite of Artemis’s tough exterior, it was easy to see that she was an emotional trainwreck underneath. The Aron accused her living in the past and not moving forward, but in the very same breath accused people like her of destroying her family’s farm. Clearly, Artemis herself was still stuck in the past if she felt the need to blame a petty criminal for whatever happened back then.<br/><br/>Some of the things that Artemis said to Kiara offended her. One of them being that while Artemis preached about blame and letting the past go, the Aron not only dwelt on the past herself but actively tried to keep Kiara from moving forward, blaming her for things entirely unrelated to her and far beyond her ability. That blame was the next thing that offended her. After destroying a road without remorse, the Aron had the audacity to compare Kiara to people she claimed destroyed her family farm. While Kiara may have broken a few mailboxes, dinged a few cars, and scorched some grass and leaves, it was far less damage than the Aron caused with very little effort. The very idea that the short-fused and violent-tempered monster who destroyed a road would blame<i>her</i>for destroying something on the scale of a family farm was ludicrous in every conceivable way, especially when the accuser herself smashed a glass on the table as she made the accusation, and even cut herself in the process. She was still pissed off at Artemis, but the last traces of jealousy she had felt towards her shattered with the glass on the table only to be replaced with an unfamiliar and equally unpleasant feeling. Did she actually feel sorry for the ill-tempered brat?<br/><br/>Next, she started thinking about the prospect of evolving and about her own self-doubt in that area. Where did her self-doubt come from? If that bundle of bitterness could talk about evolving as if she were an expert on the subject, why couldn’t she? The idea of Artemis evolving into something more powerful was a terrifying prospect. She shuddered at the thought of a pissed off Aggron razing an entire city without even flinching then blaming some small-time petty criminal for the destruction. But now her imagination was running wild.<br/><br/>For the first time, she started feeling apprehensive about entering the haunted forest ahead of them. She wasn’t afraid of ghosts. Most of them were harmless. They usually just liked to pull pranks and scare people and just basically cause mischief, and even if they encountered any that were hostile, they would be weak to her dark-type magic. It also helped that to her knowledge, most of the Nightfires feared ghosts and usually avoided the haunted forest, so they could safely get a good distance away from her former home turf and no longer have to worry about anyone recognizing her. The sudden cause for her concern was the thought of having the emotionally unstable Aron with them. She knew that many ghost-types could pick up on and exploit things like fear, anger, bitterness, and jealousy. Some ghost-types even fed off of those very things. She would definitely have to keep an eye on Artemis while they traveled in the haunted forest.<br/><br/>Although she felt bad for lashing out, she still felt that she was justified in doing so. She took a breath to calm herself before responding to what Thomas told her.<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(251, 160, 38)">“I’m sorry for my outburst,”</span>she said softly,<span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(251, 160, 38)">“but no, what Artemis said was wrong, and she had no right to say it. She was wrong to say I don’t know about hard work and dedication. Laziness was a luxury I never had. Every day of my life I’ve worked myself to the bones just to survive, but I never once complained. We didn’t have the luxury of self-pity either. We didn’t have the option of running away every time our feelings got hurt. We had to face it head-on, and that’s one thing about me that won’t change. She was very wrong to say I’m stuck in the past. That’s another luxury I never had, and my friends are still out there right now waking up cold and hungry. That ain’t in the past, and I couldn't help thinking of them when I saw all that food go to waste. Still, I wouldn't have said anything if she hadn’t spoken first. And she put words in my mouth, claiming that I said things I never said. She talks about me casting blame, but I never blamed anyone for anything. All I said was that I know more about hard work and dedication than she thinks. Worst of all, she blamed ‘people like me’ for destroying her family farm. I don’t know what happened back then, but she had no right to blame me. We may have stolen food from farms, but we never would’ve destroyed one. Even if we could, we needed the food. People like me may be street trash, but we would never destroy someone’s livelihood. That’s the one thing everybody in that gang wants more than anything, and I can’t forgive Artemis for accusing me like that. If she continues to judge me, don’t I have the right to judge her by the same measure? From what I’ve seen of her, she’s the most destructive person I’ve ever met with all that raw power and no self-control. As much as I hate Nightfire, I did learn some good lessons from them like patience, self-control, and teamwork, and I won’t forget them. That’s one thing you just mentioned. Teamwork. And that’s one thing I could never have survived without. I’ve never complained about my life, and I’m not complaining about it now, I’m just saying that what Artemis accuses me of being is impossible and that she has no right to judge me the way she does.”</span>She felt herself flaring up again as she spoke, but something about Thomas’s calm and cool nature kept her in check. She hoped she hadn’t crossed any lines by speaking her mind, but she felt it needed to be said.<br/><br/>After breakfast, Kiara followed Thomas to the shops and immediately started looking for new clothes. She picked out a black faux fur coat similar to what she had but was actually her size, along with new jeans, tee-shirts, underwear, and socks. She liked the boots and gloves she already had, so she didn’t want to replace them. She picked out some hair ties and a brush, as her frazzled and tangled twin-tails held in place with brittle rubber bands must have been quite a sight. She had never before worried too much about her appearance, but now she suddenly felt the need to try to look more presentable. She found some necklaces that would have gone nicely with the skull pendant her father had given to her just before she lost him, but a necklace was not a necessity, so she quickly moved on. She picked out a small bag of pelletized pet food that was formulated for a feral Vulpix thinking it would be good for her to snack on. It was cheap, well-preserved, nutrient-dense, and high in carbs to help her fire-type body maintain its high temperature, and it didn’t taste too bad either.<br/><br/>Lastly, she found a display stand with some books on it, and she couldn't help being entranced by them. She had never owned a book before, but they were her secret pleasure. She never could’ve let her gang know that she liked to read, or she would’ve never lived it down, but she could occasionally sneak into the local library when she was alone. She sometimes had to flirt with the librarians to convince them to let her stay, but fortunately for her, the brainy types almost always fell for her charms. But being able to sneak into the library to read their books was not the same as having books of her own. She browsed through the novels on the display rack, reading the synopsis of each one on its back cover, relishing the feel of the paper between her fingers as she let their rhetoric sink into her mind. She didn’t expect to get one since it wasn’t a necessity, but it was the one treasure she found truly hard to resist.