The wind did not blow. The trees did not shake. The grass didn't even seem to grow.

Then, the two figures leapt at each other. The smaller of the two figures sent blow after blow at the other, only to have each parried. This was to be expected; after all, she was fighting her sensei in a training bout.

When the two figures split apart, they could be fully recognized. The smaller was a Riolu, a bipedal dog-like Pokemon that appeared to be wearing a mask with a drooping growth on either side. While most Riolu were blue with black on their torsos, legs, and "masks," as well as a bit of yellow fur around their necks and a small silver blade on the back of each hand, this one had yellow as its main color instead, with blue replacing the yellow of her neck fur. Despite all these differences caused by the fact that she bore the "shiny" gene, she still had those same fiery eyes that showed the true passion of her race.

She looked up into the eyes of her sensei. Being a Lucario, he looked pretty much like a larger version of the Riolu he had once been. The main differences were the yellow fur on his torso, as well as the black stripe below that fur and the two black rings on his shoulders, the black marks on his paws, and the third spike jutting out from his chest. His "mask" also bore one more of the "growths" on each side of it.

The Lucario spoke softly.

"You did well…but once more you let your emotions control you."

The Riolu looked taken aback. "W-what do you mean," was all she could say.

"I mean, you tried to draw strength from anger alone. You have made this mistake in the past, and as long as you do, it will prevent you from reaching your full potential." He knew he was trying the young one's patience, but there was no kinder way of putting it.

True to his thoughts, the Riolu was obviously annoyed at his words. "And how would you know?"

The Lucario chose this point to raise his voice. "Do not ask questions you can answer yourself! Riolu have very high levels of aura, I can read you like a book. You train only for revenge. I agreed to help you but I can only do so much as long as you so foolishly hold on to these feelings!"

The Riolu was past the point of no return. Her personality was quite an unstable one and hearing her teacher speak so negatively about her and yet be so right was too much for her. "Shut up! You don't know what I've been through! You wouldn't be so quick to judge if you had seen it!"

"And what makes you think that? Those humans are hard on all wild Pokemon, especially the more coveted ones, such as us Lucario and Riolu!"

"But I'm just a kid, and look at what I've been through, all for my rarity! A female Riolu is rare enough, but having to be shiny too makes it like all the Mew in the world and Arceus got together and cursed me personally!" The unstable emotions she was channeling were causing her to lose control of her proper judgment, and a sphere of blue energy had formed in her left palm. It was a manifestation of her life energy, her aura.

"Don't bring those who had no power over this into it, you should consider yourself blessed. There are many who would kill to be you."

"Well I would kill not to be me! Stop trying to make it seem like it's not as bad as I think, because it is! You don't know what my life is like!" With those words, she loosed the sphere at her teacher, letting go of any tiny spark of judgment she had had before, then turned tail and ran.

The Lucario made no move to follow her, he didn't even bother to dodge or block the attack. It didn't hurt much anyways. She would never be able to inflict major pain on him, because he was one of her few friends. And besides, she was wrong. He did know what it was like. He could read it in her aura, and in her attacks. In every step, in every strike, and in every dodge, he could read a bit more into what had happened, and his ability to read her aura only opened up further to him the story, conveying it to him better than any great storyteller could even remotely hope to.