Ch 12: Way of the dragon
Circe and Cole were ridding alongside Leo on Rapidashs down a rocky path through the Hoenn countryside.
"I still don't see why I have to be here. I contacted one of the most skilled guardians in the brotherhood. He's waiting for us near the destination." Cole said.
"You're here because I want you to be." Circe said.
Normally she wouldn't have dragged another guardian like this around, but she didn't like the idea of a guardian who did nothing but paperwork and administrative duties when he could do more. She understood the importance of all of that, but a guardian had to do more at some point, and she would make sure Cole did his part.
"I can't believe I get the honor of working directly with you guardians." Leo said.
"You're awfully young to be a Hecatontarch. How old are you?" Circe asked.
"27."
"What are you connected?" Circe asked.
"Prince Adrian's mother is my father's sister. So in a way."
"Well that explains it."
"I am a worthy commander, just because I'm related to the prince doesn't mean I don't deserve my position."
The 3 kept riding with Sceptile and Blaziken close behind.
Finally they stopped to let their horses rest and eat some oats.
As their horses rested, Circe began to scale up a tree before syncing her aura to the area around them. She noticed something seemed off with the aura around them.
She climbed down and saw Cole writing something in a book.
"Dam out of ink." He said as his Blaziken reached into his bag and took out another jar of ink.
"Thank you Blaziken." He said as he continued writing.
Circe also saw Cole take something out of his bag as well as some tools.
The object was slightly shorter than a forearm and made of wood. It was shaped cylindrical with a curved handle at the end that was part of the entire object. On the sides were patches of metal and a metal cylindrical center.
Cole took off his helmet and his armor pieces before he started working on the the object.
Circe and her Sceptile walked over to him and sat down in front of him.
"What is that?" She asked.
"Just a little project I've been working on, for quite some time."
"Project."
"This is a weapon, one like the world has never seen before. It can kill at a distance with the pull of a finger, spouting fire and metal."
"It sounds like a cannon."
"It is, a cannon that can be held in one's hand and reloaded faster."
"You made this?"
He gave a sheepish look.
"You noted my age for being a Hecatontarch. The thing was, I never wanted to be an officer or a soldier. I wanted to be an engineer, a crafter, but my father told me that's no life for someone of our family. So he had me put into the cavalry."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not all bad, my soldiers are like family to me. I'd die for any one of my men. But still any free time I get, I try to make this weapon a reality. It could change the face of warfare forever, no more massive bloodbaths of hand to hand combat, men screaming in agony over cut off limbs. A quick painless death, over in a moment."
"This weapon sounds fascinating, why isn't it standard issue for the empire?"
Leo frowned.
"Because it's not reliable. I've spent 10 years trying to make this thing work right, and it still doesn't. The powder doesn't ignite, the round falls out, I tried showing it to the emperor, and it took me 10 tries before it fired. He said he couldn't risk the lives of soldiers with such an unreliable weapon."
"He doesn't know what he's talking about."
"I don't blame him, if I were in his position I'd say the same. I couldn't ask legionaries to put their lives in the hands of a weapon that doesn't work." Leo said as he sighed.
Circe felt bad for Leo, she wished there was something she could do to help him.
"Well, that's all the log information we needed to get done." She heard behind her.
She turned to see Cole looking through his bags.
"There must be something else we can do."
Circe got up and walked over to him.
"How about a little sparing."
Cole and his Blaziken gave nervous expressions.
"Oh , well uh no thank you." He said.
"Come on, sparing keeps your skills sharp."
"I've already completed my trials. I have all the skills I need." He said sweat dropping.
Circe took his hand.
"I may need you in combat soon, I want you to be prepared." Circe said as she pulled him up.
Blaziken nervously got up as well as.
Leo turned and smiled as he saw the two about to spar.
"Show me your legendary martial arts skills guardians." He said.
"Come at me." Circe said.
"Tile." Sceptile said saying the same thing.
"We'd rather not." Cole said.
Circe gave him an evil looking smile before coming forward and slamming her foot into Cole's face , hurling him onto his back. At the same time Sceptile came forward and slammed his tail across Blaizken's chest, hurling him back.
The sparring went on for an hour or so before Circe decided Cole couldn't go on without getting seriously hurt.
"Ouch." Cole said as he and his Blaziken limped over covered in welts and bruises.
"You clearly haven't sparred in a while."
"Would it have mattered, you're a champion among the guardians and the leader of the Draconid aura guardians." Cole said as he took a deep breath and his eyes glowed blue as he tried to use his aura to heal Blaziken's wounds.
Circe walked over to him and knelt down.
"Here, let me help you." She said as she took a deep breath and used her own aura to heal his bruises. Her eyes didn't glow blue but more of a greenish blue as did her hand.
"I must ask to not take part in any non administrative duties. If my skills weren't a sign."
"You're skills are fine, you're just out of practice and I'm a master. You need to have more confidence in yourself."
Sceptile nodded.
Blaziken and Cole gave nervous and shamed looks.
"We'd rather not." Cole said as Circe and Sceptile gave concerned looks.
As night fell, Circe used her skills to scale one of the trees in a matter of seconds before using her aura vision.
Her aura vision seemed more greenish blue rather than classic blue.
She looked around surrounding area as her Sceptile did the same using quick acrobatic movements around the trees and glowing greenish blue eyes.
Finally they both saw something moving towards their camp below.
Cole and his Blaziken were asleep when someone grabbed his throat and Blaziken's.
Their eyes shot open as another aura guardian and a Gallade stood over them with a hidden blade held to his throat.
"Falling asleep, what kind of fool are you. If I were your enemy I could have slit your throat." He said in a very serious tone as Cole gave a terrified expression.
The man's blade arm was snatched and locked back by Circe.
"I was standing guard." Circe said.
The man pulled his arm free.
"Are you Master Circe of the Draconid clan?"
"I am."
"I am Malik, I was summoned to support you in the assassination of the Ottoman/templar general. You're late."
"We had to give our Rapidash's time to rest."
"Well while they rest, the Ottomans move closer to Constantinople, and the destruction of the Byzantine empire. They can rest later, we need to move now." He said in a serious tone.
Jason's eyes opened as he saw he was back in the pokemon center.
He lifted his head and rubbed the back of his hair.
"More of Circe's memories. Well, it was interesting." Jason said before he got up.
Later that day after doing some more training with his pokemon, he was on the beach with the others.
"Wow , the beach is beautiful." Emelia said.
"It is." Finn said as he took a picture of the horizon.
"I'm so glad we get to stay here a while, with your gym battle and my first contest."
"How did your training go this morning?"
"Pretty good, though I'm starting realize Silcoon can't so as much since he became a large cacoon."
"Yeah but look on the bright side, it won't be long before she's a Beautifly." Emelia said.
"I hope" Autumn said.
"Hey guys, I was wondering. Since you're done training, could we take a look at the Granite caves." Finn said.
"Ohh I've heard they're amazing." Emelia said.
"I'd like to see them." Autumn said.
"Alright where are they?" Jason asked.
"This way." Finn said.
As they walked towards the caves, Jason couldn't help but think about the vision he had last night. In fact he had noticed this about Circe since she first started seeing her. She didn't seem like a normal guardian. The way she fought, the way she moved, even the way she used her aura just seemed different. It was similar to the ways set forth by Altair, but it looked like it was modified in some ways. It was hard for him to explain, even to himself.
Eventually they reached a large set of caves near the beach.
"Here we are." Autumn said.
"I hear if you go deep enough there's steel types inside. I hope we can see one." Finn said.
They walked inside the cave and saw part of it was filled with water.
The cave was partly lit up by holes in the sides and ceiling.
"This place is beautiful." Emelia said as they kept moving further in. They noticed a few pokemon like Zubat, Aron, and Mawile.
Finn occasionally took a picture or two before they reached a pair of separate tunnels.
"Huh it splits off." Jason said.
"Maybe we should split up."
"I'll go with Jason!" Autumn nearly shouted.
"Ok, we'll see you guys when you get back." Jason said as he and Autumn walked down the left tunnel.
Unknown to the group, there was another person lurking in the shadows watching them.
She smiled as she watched Jason walk into the tunnel.
"Who do we have here?"
As Jason and Autumn walked down the tunnel as Jason let Charmander out to look around too.
"This place is amazing." Autumn said.
As they got deeper, Jason and Autumn began to notice markings and paintings on the walls. They seemed to be very detailed dragon images. Flygon, Salamence, and others.
"Woah why are these here?" Jason asked.
"I hope they're in the other cave too, Finn would love this." Autumn said.
As they got deeper and deeper Jason felt the aura grow stronger.
Jason used his aura vision when he realized it was slightly green.
"Woah." He said.
"What's up?"
"The aura here, it's different. But I've seen it in an ancestor memory." Jason said.
"You should be here"
Jason heard.
He now gave a freaked out expression.
Autumn gave a concerned look.
"Jason are you ok?"
"I don't really know."
They continued walking when Jason thought he heard something move around them.
Jason and Charmander kept their guard up before Autumn saw something, up ahead.
"Jason, look at this."
Jason turned to see a large man made room with a large statue of a massive serpent dragon looking over them.
"What is that?" Autumn asked.
"He looks like the dragon image from the tomb." Jason said.
"He is amazing isn't he." They heard behind them.
Jason turned to see a young woman standing less than an inch away from him.
"Hello." She said with a smile on her face.
Jason nearly jumped backwards as the girl stayed where she was with the smile on her face.
The young woman had tan skin with brown eyes and short flat black hair. She wore a black tank top with 2 red crescents on the chest. She wore dark grey short shorts with a red rope belt and grey leggings that went just past her knees. Lastly she wore a slightly torn up cloak coming over just her back and shoulders with black fake scales on the neck and shoulders.
She also hair a pair of black bracers on her forearms and looked about 17 years old.
"Who are you?" Autumn asked.
"I'm Zinnia of the Draconid clan. What are you doing in our sacred home?"
Jason's eyes widened.
"Draconid clan!"
"Draconid clan?" Autumn asked.
"That's right, and this is one of our sacred places. What are you people doing here?"
"We were uh just looking through the caves and we found this place." Autumn said.
Zinnia kept smiling as she looked at Jason.
"You've heard of us haven't you?"
"I uh."
"I can feel your aura handsome. I know what you are." She said.
Autumn felt a big angry upon hearing her say that.
"I, I don't know what you're talking about."
Zinnia kept smiling as she raised her bracer.
"You mean you've never seen one of these." She said as she let out a black hidden blade.
Jason sweat dropped.
"Well I,"
"Look you can keep quibbling all day. I can feel your aura, and I like it." She said as she took his hand and Jason's face turned red.
Autumn's face turned red with anger and grabbed Jason before pulling him away from her.
"Ok we're leaving."
"Oh no, you're not even going to tell me you're names."
"Autumn." Autumn said in a forceful manner.
"I'm Jason."
"Well Jason, I'm good at reading people by their aura. I can tell something's bothering you. It's been bothering you for years."
Jason's expression changed.
"You, you don't know anything."
"I know you haven't made an aura connection with your Charmander yet, and I could probably knock you out in less than minute." She said.
Jason sweat dropped with his Charmander.
"If you're just going to insult him." Autumn started.
"I can't do anything right." Jason said.
Autumn turned to him.
"No matter how hard I train, I just can't get anything down." Jason said sounding depressed.
Zinnia kept smiling.
"Well, maybe I can help you." She said.
"I've had the best guardians in Kanto try to help me." Jason said.
"Have you ever considered changing the style of your guardian training."
"Style?" Jason said.
"You mainstreamers follow Altair's example, a great example but not the only one."
"What do you mean?" Jason asked.
"Altair created the way guardians followed based on Lucario and aura wielding fighting types. We in the Draconid clan's brotherhood, follow not Lucario, but dragon types."
"Dragon types?" Jason asked.
"That's right, the founder of our brotherhood, the ancient Byzantine guardian Circe set the example."
"Circe!" Jason said to himself.
"The way we right, the way we move, the way we use aura, and connect with our pokemon are based more on that of dragons. If the way of Altair isn't working, maybe Circe's ways would suit you better."
"How would I learn them?" Jason asked.
"I could teach you."
"What!?" Jason and Autumn said in very different tones.
"I can't stay here, I'm traveling around Hoenn."
"Yeah with me, and we're already traveling with 2 other people. So our group is pretty full." Autumn said.
"Oh that won't be necessary. We in the Draconid clan don't live here, our new home is in Blackthorn city Jhoto after the Byzantine empire finally dissolved. I'm just here visiting my ancestral home, I could just pop in now and again to do some training with you when you need it. Besides if you're this far into traditional training, shifting to dragon type should make thing go a lot faster since you've go the basics down."
"I don't know" Jason said.
"Well he made up his mind." Autumn said.
"Why don't you have one lesson here with me and then make your decision." Zinnia said.
"Jason I don't think this is a good idea." Autumn said.
Jason took a deep breath.
"I don't know Autumn, at this point I feel like I should try something." Jason said.
Zinnia smiled.
"Good let's get started." She said.
"Hmp."
"Let me get changed." Jason said.
Zinnia turned to Autumn.
"You can head out to your other friends if you want. This will take some time."
Autumn reluctantly walked off as Jason got into his sparring attire.
Zinnia turned to him.
"You can keep your shirt off."
"Ok. I guess I've done that before." Jason said as he got in a fighting stance.
"Let's begin, the way of the dragon." Zinnia said.
As soon as she started teaching him the dragon techniques, Jason felt something strange, like Circe's aura was coming out and synching with his own.
As they went through the begging stages of the dragon techniques, for the first time in his life, Jason felt like the techniques were actually coming to him.
He was in synch with the dragon martial arts style, and was able to keep pace with Zinnia.
"Yes! You're doing it!"
"I'm doing it!" Jason shouted in excitement.
"Charmander!"
A few hours passed and Jason was covered in sweat.
Charmander was also covered in sweat as he finished training with Salamence.
"I gotta say Jason, you did very well. The way of the dragon seems to work well with you." Zinnia said.
"This is incredible, I've always been so bad with training. Now it's finally coming to me. If you really wanted to meet me every now and then to train, I'd really appreciate it."
"I'd be willing to do that, so long as you're willing to train hard."
"Always." Jason said.
Zinnia smiled.
"Good, you'll see me the next time I'm ready to train you." Zinnia said before she came forward and gave Jason a quick kiss on the cheek.
Jason's face shot red as Zinnia pulled away and kept smiling.
"See you later" She said as she walked further into the ruins with her Salamence.
"Char." Charmander said.
"Yeah, you think she has a thing for me?"
Charmander sweat dropped and gave a disappointed expression as he shook his head.
Jason left the cave and met the others outside.
"There you are Jason." Emelia said.
"Autumn told us what happened. So you're really training with some random girl?" Finn said.
"Her methods are working better for me than my dad's ever did. She can help me becomes a true guardian. She's occasionally going to meet up and train with me." Jason said as Autumn gave a frustrated look.
The group went back to the pokemon center that night.
Author's note
So yeah Zinnia is in this story, she will not directly travel with the group, just pop in now and again like Felix did in book 1
Also Autumn has a romantic rival now, hope that doesn't bother you guys.
But Jason is going to become a Dragon class guardian like Circe, giving him a different direction than Ash, Altiar, and Vaeron
So until next time, please review, comment, suggest, or ask(via PM)
