Maple's POV

The sun woke me up early in the morning. I didn't want to get up just yet, so I rolled onto my left side to fall asleep again. I yelped and jumped from the painful soreness in my left shoulder where I rested my weight on, which woke me up for sure. Looking down at my shoulder, I saw that the bruise from impacting the tree yesterday had gotten larger. I gently placed my right paw at my left shoulder and applied some pressure. I winced slightly, but it was manageable. Hopefully Spruce won't see it, I thought. I don't want to worry him. He might think I was attacked by Raiders again. I guess I can hide it from him today, since he'll come home tired and will want to sleep. I don't know how I'll hide it tomorrow though; his night guard shift would be over so we would be spending time together. Hopefully the bruise will heal up by then.

Luckily Spruce approached our home from the right so I was able to keep my left shoulder away from him. "Ugh, I'm exhausted," he yawned, heading towards the bed.

"Sleep tight," I said. "Today's your last daytime sleep."

" Only one more night watch. Tomorrow we can spend all day together," he promised. "Won't that be great?"

"Of course," I said. Although I'll have to explain where I got this bruise… I noted in my head.

I headed out towards the field, glad that Spruce didn't see the bruise. I had to walk a little slower than usual because of it.

When I got to the field, I saw that it was a beautifully bright and sunny day. Hickory wasn't here yet, so I walked over to my garden to take care of the plants. I plucked some weeds here and there. Some Figy berries weren't getting as much sunlight so I closed my eyes, energy came to me, and I directed the energy into the Figy plants to grow them myself. I've been doing that to help the plants grow ever since I started my garden. I headed to the Custap bush in the middle of my garden to check on it. It was growing fine, but Custap bushes always grew very, very slowly. None of its flowers had bloomed yet. I started growing it with my powers. When I was done, I saw that the bush had barely grown.

I headed back to the outer row of my garden, about to grow that side, when I saw Hickory coming my way.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized. "I slept in a little."

"Since when were you a such a sleepyhead?" I teased.

"It's a habit I developed while living with humans," he said with a shrug. "Taking care of your garden?"

"Yeah, but I can finish later. What'll you be teaching me today?" I asked eagerly.

"Hmm… So far I've taught you how to dodge and tackle. Dodging is very important, but tackling isn't really that important. I rarely tackle in battles because there are better, much cooler things to do."

"Like what?" I asked. I couldn't wait to hear what awesome thing I would be learning today.

"Like this!" he said, as he pointed his muzzle towards the air and released a stream of fire. I shrieked in surprise and jumped away; despite shooting in a direction away from me, I could feel the intense heat of the attack on my fur. The fire was also very bright.

"Don't scare me like that!" I exclaimed.

Hickory grinned and said, "That move is called Flamethrower. It's a very reliable ranged attack, my favorite move. Most Pokémon train themselves physically and get really strong that way, but I prefer using special attacks. Now, I make Flamethrower look easy and really powerful, but it takes just as much strength and practice as physical tackle training takes. Instead of practicing tackling heavily, I focused on making the best Flamethrower. I intend to teach you a ranged attack which will probably be the move you use the most. Let's get started."

I waited for him to elaborate on what he would teach me but he didn't. "Uh… what exactly are you going to teach me?" I asked.

He turned so that he wasn't facing me, said, "Follow me," then used flamethrower.

"Wait, what? How am I supposed to do that?" I asked, really confused.

"Just like this," said Hickory, then he used flamethrower again.

"Hickory, There's no way I can breathe fire!" I protested.

"Sure you can!" he said matter-of-factly. I frowned, walked up to his side, and saw that he was silently laughing with a big smile on his face.

"Just kidding!" he joked happily.

"Aw, you were getting my hopes up…" I complained.

"Well, I have the awesome ability to create fire from inside of me, which I use to create fire for my fire attacks. But believe it or not, you have an ability that's just a cool," he revealed.

"I do? What kind of special things can I do? I don't think I've ever done anything like your flamethrower," I said.

"I bet you used your special power just a few minutes ago," he said.

What special power do I have? I've never done any kind of special attack before. I thought about it more and the answer came to me. "Is it about how I can grow the plants?" I asked.

"Correct."

"But… that's nothing like an attack," I pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure the process you use to grow plants is the same as the process you would use to create attacks. How about I watch you grow a plant? Then maybe I can identify the process and try to explain it to you," he requested.

"Sure." Facing the Figy plant I wanted to grow, I relaxed and focused on the sunlight falling on my tail and the leaves on my head. I started to feel this special kind of energy rise within me. I channeled the energy into the plant to grow it. Once I was done, I opened my eyes, watching the plant visibly grow slowly, with it glowing a bright green. Soon the plant stopped growing and the light faded away.

"That's basically what I expected was happening," Hickory said. "In order to grow the plants you are using natural energy coming from the nature around and the sun. I can tell because when you grew the plants, your leaves were glowing green. That natural energy can be used to do many cool things, one of which creating attacks. It's basically the grass type equivalent of my ability to create fire. Humans call your kind of natural energy powers 'grass powers' and called the moves that originate from these powers 'grass moves.' Since leafeons have access to grass powers, humans consider leafeons 'grass types.' As a flareon, I'm considered a fire type with fire powers and fire moves."

Wow, I didn't think I could do special things similar to the way he can create fire.

"Sorry, that was probably really confusing," he said.

"No, I think I get it. So what'll you teach me to do first?" I asked.

"The first thing I want you to try is to heal that bruise from yesterday," he instructed, pointing at my shoulder.

"How do I do that?"

"When you focus on growing the plants, the energy just comes to you and you direct it into the plants, right?"

"That's about right," I agreed.

"Well, if you focus on healing your bruise, the energy should come to you and you can direct it into your bruise. Try it out. The strong sunlight right now will probably help."

I closed my eyes, relaxed, and focused. My tail and the leaves on my head started to feel more sensitive to the sunlight. I felt energy rise within me. The energy made me feel warm and comfortable. I tried moving the energy to my bruise. Soon I felt the soreness in the bruised spot on my right shoulder start to go away.

I opened my eyes and looked at my bruised spot. It was glowing a faint green. The energy started to disappear along with the glowing light. Once the glow was completely gone, I could see that the bruise looked a lot less bad and it felt less sore when I moved my shoulder. I was amazed by what I had just done.

"Wow, I have the power to heal myself! That's so cool!" I remarked.

"You can still continue healing the bruise even more, until it's completely gone," Hickory informed. "Now, I want you to try to do it without closing your eyes," he instructed. "If you just imagine that same feeling the energy gave you, and imagine healing your bruise with that energy, the energy will come."

"Okay, I'll try," I said. I tried to create the feeling that came from the energy again. A little bit of energy came to me, then more and more. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see a green glow emanating from my leaves. Moving my tail to my side, I could see it was glowing brightly as well. I glanced over at Hickory and saw him smiling at me. Now that I felt a lot of energy within me, I directed it towards my shoulder. My shoulder glowed even brighter than my leaves at the bruise. The pain faded away and was replaced by warmth. As my shoulder was healing, the energy was fading away, being used up. I felt a little tired from the healing though.

"How are you feeling now?" asked Hickory.

"I feel great! Thanks!" I said happily.

"The move I just taught you how to do is called Synthesis, in which you use your grass powers to heal yourself. The move is most effective while the sun is shining strong like today. However, with lots of practice, it's possible to heal yourself even at night. There's always grass energy available for you, it's just harder to use without sunlight, but definitely possible with hard work. Do you feel a little tired now?" he asked.

"Uh, a little," I said. "Should I be feeling tired?"

"Yes, that's perfectly normal. Using your powers does take effort. With practice, you'll get worn out less and less."

"Alright, I'll be sure to practice a lot then!" I said.

He smiled. "You're really into this training, aren't you!" he said.

"Definitely!" I answered excitedly. "Now, what about attacks? What else can I do with my grass powers?" I asked eagerly.

He chuckled and said, "The next thing I'll teach you is Energy Ball. This is where the fun truly begins. Energy Ball is basically the grass version of flamethrower. You'll use your grass powers to form a destructive ball of grass energy and fire it at a target. Doesn't that sound amazing?"

"Yeah, it does. Actually, it sounds so cool I don't really think it's possible… Hopefully you're not tricking me again!"

"You've never seen grass powers in action?" he asked.

I shook my head. "I don't know anyone else who can do what I can do," I said.

"Hmm… yeah, I guess there aren't many other grass types around here now that I think about it," he reasoned.

"I've seen fire and water powers before. I didn't know I have special powers equivalent to those though, besides growing plants."

"Yeah, I guess grass powers aren't as recognizable as fire or water powers," he said.

"And I've seen some Pokémon make lightning, like the bright things that rainstorms create. What's that called?"

"That's would be an electric type," he said.

"I've seen Spruce do some special things. What would you call Spruce's powers?" I asked.

"Those would be dark powers," he said.

"How many different types of powers are there?" I asked.

"Eighteen," he said casually.

Eighteen! That's a lot! I thought. "Wow, and you know them all?" I asked, very interested now.

"Yup, I know them all because it helps to know what your opponents can do to you in battle. Some types are great against others and some are bad against others. For example, water types have an advantage against me, a fire type. I know what every type is strong and weak against. But it gets even more complicated. Some Pokémon can even have more than one type!" he said.

Seems really complicated… I didn't think fighting was this complicated, I thought. "Are you going to teach me all of that?" I asked, less enthusiastic as before.

"Nah, listening to me list all the type matchups would be very boring. They're pretty intuitive so you can figure them out yourself. For know, let's just focus on your own grass powers."

"Yeah, I want to get to learning my grass attacks!" I said cheerfully.

"So you know what that grass energy feels like now, right? You're getting used to it?"

"Yup."

"Good because you'll need that energy for all your strongest moves. For energy ball, take that energy and use it to form a ball in front of your mouth. All you should have to do is imagine that energy, your grass powers, and it'll come to you for you to use. The more you use your grass powers the easier it will naturally come to you and the more energy you'll build up over time. Get some energy and try using energy ball now."

I remembered what my grass powers felt like and tried to get it again. The energy slowly came to me. I concentrated on getting more energy. Soon the leaves on my head and my tail were glowing a faint green, then brighter and brighter.

"Great job, doing good so far," said Hickory.

"What do I do now?" I asked. While I spoke, I lost my concentration and I felt some of the energy go away.

"Try to direct it in front of your mouth," he said.

I nodded and tried to do that. I could feel the energy slowly travel towards my head. It felt weird having all this energy build up inside me. When growing plants, I always released the energy into the plants immediately so I never felt like this before. The amount of energy around my head started to feel uncomfortable, making me feel a little disoriented. I instinctively opened my mouth to breathe in some air.

To my shock and surprise, a tiny ball of bright green energy formed in front of my mouth! I could feel some energy travel into the ball. I tried directing the energy right into the ball, the same way I did with plants, and the ball grew bigger! It was about the size of half my head now. Since it was right next to my mouth, I could feel the power that the floating ball was containing. I couldn't believe I was making this happen!

"Alright Maple, shoot it!" Hickory commanded.

Quickly jerking my head in his direction, I said, "Wha-

Boom! I cried out as the energy ball exploded, and I was knocked to the ground from the force of my own attack. Wow, I created that much power all by myself! I thought.

Hickory was quickly by my side. "Are you alright, Maple?" he asked, helping me up.

"I'm so excited! That was so cool! I can't believe I can create a ball of energy like that!"

Hickory grinned. "Glad you like your powers. I can't believe you've never got to use energy ball before. I can't imagine living without my flamethrower."

"So how do I get it to not explode in my face?" I asked.

"The energy ball started forming when you breathed in, right?" he asked.

"That's right," I confirmed.

"I think you can fire the energy ball by exhaling really quickly. Any quick breaths or jerks of your head might make the attack blow up while still in your control."

"Alright, I'll try that," I said. I imagined the feel of that grass energy and it came back to me. I breathed in to create the energy ball in front of my mouth. I poured my grass energy into the energy ball.

Once the ball was as big as I could get it, I exhaled as hard as I could. The energy ball when flying forward really fast… except it went whizzing straight into the ground a few feet in front of me and exploded. I felt the blast of energy ruffle my fur.

"Okay, so good job in firing the energy ball. Now we need to work on your aim," he said casually. After several tries I was able to hit a tree, creating an indent in the bark. I felt really proud of myself and amazed at what I could do. I created a ball of energy out of thin air and wrecked a tree with it!

I continued making energy balls and attempting to hit targets with them. It was a lot harder than it looked. As I continued performing the attack, I felt the grass energy that I was creating become less and less, until I couldn't create enough power for an energy ball. "Man, I'm really tired now!" I huffed.

"Your powers aren't limit limitless! Once you use it all up you have to rest, just like with muscles and physical attacks," Hickory explained. "Let's take a break now, you deserve it. You've been working so hard that it's making me hungry!"

We headed to my garden for some food. "Your energy ball seems pretty weak now, but it'll get stronger as you practice," Hickory explained while we ate. "When I first evolved into a flareon, my flamethrowers started out as tiny embers. The more you use your grass powers, the stronger they grow. Kinda like how using your muscles will make them stronger. Since you've been using your powers to grow plants all this time, your energy ball is already way bigger than any other grass type who's just starting out."

"Is it really? I'm sure I'm no better than any normal Pokémon learning to do the same thing," I said modestly. "There's nothing special about me."

"I think you're very special," he said immediately. "I mean, you can grow plants! I don't think I've met anyone who's been using their grass powers to grow plants before. How did you first discover that you could grow plants?" he asked.

"Hmm, let me think… When I was first planting these berry bushes, I was taking a break and lying down on the grass relaxing. While I was relaxing, I was imagining the little Figy saplings next to me growing into big strong plants, that was just what was on my mind at the time. When I opened my eyes to continue gardening, I realized that the Figy saplings next to me looked just a tiny bit bigger than before. I was sure they had grown though. How come my grass powers magically showed up at that point?" I asked.

"Your powers will come to you whenever you need them," he explained. "Whenever you want to grow a plant or heal yourself or make an energy ball, your grass energy will come, as long as you're not exhausted. Just like whenever I want to create some fire it'll create itself and I just need to release it. It's just something awesome and special you can do."

"But… where does the energy come from?" I asked.

"It comes from nature. No one knows how and why, it just does. Humans haven't figured it out either."

"I see… so I guess I've had these powers coming from nature ever since I've evolved. Thank you so much for helping me discover them!" I said. "These powers are so awesome!"

After the break was over, Hickory had me try hitting a moving target - him. Needless to say, I couldn't hit him at all. "C'mon Maple, I thought for sure you would be able to hit me!" he teased.

"Aiming is so hard… why don't you try?" I said, frustrated.

"Okay!" he said with a mischievous grin forming. "Your turn to dodge, and I'll try to hit you with my flamethrower."

"Uh, no thanks! I take that back!" I said, panicking.

Suddenly a streak of fire came towards me, whizzing past my right.

"Hickory, please don't!" I cried desperately.

"I wasn't actually going to hit you," he said calmly.

"B-but… what if you accidentally hit me…" I said fearfully. "Your flamethrower looks so dangerous…"

"My aim is too good for me to actually hit you," he remarked cockily.

"Please don't ever do that again though, that was very scary!" I begged.

There was a pause, then he said, "You're right, I shouldn't have. I'm sorry. I didn't realize how scary it would be for you, since you're weak towards fire type moves. I sometimes feel the same way when up against water attacks. Please forgive me?" he said.

"I forgive you," I said. "As long as you don't do it again."

"Thanks," he said. He sat down next to me. "How about I show you my fire moves? It'll probably help you feel less scared if you see them up close."

"Sure, go for it," I said. "As long as you're using your perfect aim to keep it away from me."

He chuckled and nodded. Then he started gathering up fire in his muzzle and released it in the shape of a star. The fire was very bright and magnificently beautiful - when it was going away from me, that is.

The rest of the day went by with me practicing energy ball and taking breaks to regain my grass energy while we relaxed and talked. Before I knew it, the sun was beginning to set. By that time, my energy balls were slightly larger than when I first started, although Hickory said normal energy balls were still a little bigger.

"Tomorrow I have a really unique and special move to teach you!" said Hickory. "See ya tomorrow!"

"Uh, actually, I can't train with you tomorrow, " I said quietly.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Spruce's night guard duty is ending tonight for now. Tomorrow he'll be available during the day, so I'll be hanging out with him," I explained.

"Oh… I see," Hickory muttered, looking very saddened all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry, but he is my mate, and we haven't really been together for while due to his night Guard duty…"

"Right… I understand…"

I didn't think Hickory would be this sad about not meeting tomorrow… I thought, feeling a little guilty. "Maybe we can continue the next day? I can't guarantee it though," I said.

"Well, when we meet again, we can continue where we left off. Try practicing your energy ball whenever you have a spare moment," he said, more optimistically. "Try to strengthen your grass powers as much as you can."

"I definitely will," I promised. "Again, thank you so much for teaching me all of this the past couple days. I'm so glad you came back home after so long! Even after all those years, you're still my best friend!" I said sincerely with a big smile.

"I'm so glad to be with you again too! I never forgot about you, Maple. In fact, you're the main reason I searched far and wide for the place I grew up!"

"Was I really?" I asked.

"Yeah! I mean, there were others I wanted to see, and I was also tired of humans and wanted to get back to the forest, but you were the main reason!"

Wow, I didn't think I meant that much to Hickory! I thought, making me smile.

It was dark by now; this was the longest time I've stayed at the field. "I better get going," I said. "See ya some time soon!"

"See ya! And work on those grass powers!" he said, waving good-bye.

As I walked back to my den, I felt like I would miss him for the next few days, but I shrugged it off. As I entered the forest, it got even darker compared to the already darkening field. Maybe I should've headed home earlier… I thought regrettably. Then I had an idea. I tried gathering some grass energy to make my leaves glow. Unfortunately, they didn't glow very bright so I stopped. Gathering the energy felt harder in the dark. I'll have the practice it, like Hickory said.

When I arrived at my den, I saw that Spruce was still asleep. Not wanting to wake him, I sat down next to our leaf bed. Tonight would be his last night watch for now so I wanted him to have a good day's sleep. He wouldn't be sleeping tomorrow during the day so he could spend time with me. Usually the first day when switching his sleep schedule was very rough for him.

I decided to practice energy ball since Hickory said the more I use my grass powers, the stronger they'll get. As I started creating grass energy for the energy ball, I realized that less energy was coming to me. It was probably because I was in our darkened den as instead of the bright and sunny field. My leaves weren't glowing as brightly in here.

I breathed in to make the energy ball form in front of my muzzle. I couldn't get the ball to grow very big compared to at the field. I breathed out to fit the energy ball. The small attack shot away from me towards the entrance, but it ended up hitting the stone side of our den. I winced as my attack exploded against the wall. Maybe I shouldn't be practicing in here… I thought.

Spruce suddenly sprang out of the bed, wide awake. His sudden movement made me jump in alarm. When I turned to look at him, he was looking around frantically.

"Who's there?!" he yelled, assuming a hostile stance.

"Uh… it's just me, Spruce. Sorry I woke you up," I apologized sheepishly.

"Maple? I just heard a loud bang which woke me up," he said, checking the area behind me. "I have a feeling someone's trying to attack us!"

"Don't worry, no one's here," I assured him. "I was the one who made the loud bang."

"What did you do?" he asked.

"I may have made a big dent to our wall…" I said quietly, pointing at the spot where my energy ball exploded. There was a visible indent there with some small chunks of rock littering the floor below the spot.

He spotted the dent in the wall and frowned. "How did you do that?" he asked, skeptical.

"Uh, using energy ball," I said, not sure if he would understand.

"What do you mean?"

"Using grass powers," I tried to clarify.

"Show me," he requested.

I nodded and started to gather grass energy. It was definitely more difficult here than at the field during daylight. I felt kinda nervous doing this in front of Spruce, which didn't help. Soon my leaves started glowing to indicate the arrival of the grass energy. I glanced over at Spruce and saw that he looked perplexed. Soon I created the energy ball and fired it. This time I aimed much better. It excited our den and hit the ground outside, exploding.

I grinned at Spruce, but he looked more shocked than amazed, which got me to drop my grin. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"Using my grass powers!" I said cheerfully. "I had powers that I didn't know about all this time, and now I know how to use them!"

"How'd you learn?" he asked.

"My friend Hickory taught me!" I said.

Spruce looked at me weirdly. "When did he do that?" Spruce asked.

"Earlier today he taught me energy ball. I've been meeting with him for the past few days, and he's been teaching me how to protect myself so that I'll be safe from the Raiders! Isn't that great?"

"Yeah, it is…" he muttered.

He doesn't seem very happy about me learning how to fight… I thought sadly.

"You would rather hang out with him than me?" Spruce asked, somewhat accusingly.

"Well, you've been asleep," I pointed out. "I would hang out with you if you were awake."

Spruce cheered up after I said that. "I just have this last night, then we can hang out all we want tomorrow," he said happily.

"Awesome, I've been waiting," I said. "I still wish you didn't have to sleep through the day you know, even if it's only half the time."

"I'm sorry. I'll make sure the time we do spend together is very worthwhile. Every moment I have we can spend together."

"Sounds good enough for me," I said.

"I guess I better start my night watch," he said. "Good night, love," he said, nuzzling me as he passed by.

"Stay safe," I said.

I walked over to our leaf bed and curled up. I was drifting off quickly since using learning how to use my grass powers all day was exhausting, but before I did, a thought came to me. I doubt I'll be training with Hickory for a while. Probably not until Spruce is back on night guard duty. I felt a little guilty, and a little disappointed.