Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

The tome was, as expected, very old and had tons of yellow pages. Apparently it held all the Pokémon's history, even before the exodus. I sighed. "This could take a while." Eoniai turned to the front, and it had a table of contents. I facepalmed and found a page labeled 'Exodus' that was near the back of the book. I looked at the others, took another deep breath, and began to read out loud.

"After the great unification of Pokémon, the humans and Pokémon lived together in peace for many generations. However, as it is with all great causes, there were doubters that the peace could last. They tried to proclaim their beliefs and said that the Pokémon should be killed or captured before this could happen. Peace had lasted so long between the two species, though, that few believed them. The group became increasingly desperate and vehement about their beliefs, but no one would listen to them. Enraged, the group leader proclaimed, 'We shall prove this! We shall prove that the Pokémon are not to be trusted! Just wait and see!' And with that, the group left the civilized world as it was known.

"Peace continued to last, and it seemed the group's prediction would never come true, but in a cruel twist of history, a group of children were playing in the woods near their homes when a large group of Pokémon came upon them and attacked them. The children were saved, but the doubt was sown among the humans. Except for one, whose name was Red. He thought that all Pokémon were good creatures, so he set out to find the truth. After months of searching, he found a training ground of the group that had separated from civilization. He saw them practicing using Pokémon as mere weapons and teaching them to be cold and uncaring. Shocked by what he saw, Red ran back to civilization and told all of what he had seen. Horrified, the humans and Pokémon who had not been captured came together to liberate the Pokémon under the group's control.

"After reaching the group's stronghold, Red looked upon the training ground where the group was still training Pokémon. From all sides of the stronghold, humans with weapons and Pokémon burst from the wilderness, attacking the stronghold with such fervor that the group was paralyzed with shock. Needless to say, the group was defeated, and their leader was brought before Red. Red looked at the man and asked, 'Why?' The man simply smiled and replied, 'Why not?' With that, he broke his captor's grip and fled deeper into the wilderness, along with several of his followers. The Pokémon had been saved, but still Red worried. He turned to the humans and Pokémon and said, 'These men may come back to take the Pokémon again. To prevent this from happening, I suggest that the Pokémon leave and not come back until it has been deemed safe in the future.' The humans hung their heads and nodded, while the Pokémon, even though they didn't quite understand, understood the general gist of Red's suggestion.

"Before the Great Exodus, though, a Pokémon known as Mew came up to Red and separated part of its energy. This energy separated even further into eighteen pieces, to be placed in items so that the energy would be preserved for the future. Red gave the energy to a forger named Hudoro, who, using the energy, created several items of power, the greatest of which was a set of rings, each with an energy of its own. For this, Hudoro was blessed by Arceus and Mew with immortality, and he left to do what he wished. Once all of this had been done, the Pokémon had all gotten together, and with one last look, left for parts unknown, as did this other group, which had deemed to call itself Nevermore."

I closed the tome gently, my mind whirling with this new information. The first one I locked onto? "The creator's still alive?"

Eoniai shrugged. "Guess so. Maybe we can find him among the way?"

I also shrugged. "Not our biggest priority right now. We still have to find the Steel Ring."

"Try Iron Island."

I turned around, and it was the same guy who had shown us the volume. "Sorry?"

"Iron Island. Way back when, the Gym Leader here used to go there for training."

I looked at the other, than back at the guy. "Thanks, uh…"

"Oh, me? I'm Ottum. Nice to meet you." We shook hands, and his grip was rock-hard. I tried to pull away, but he held on a little longer, staring at me. "What's your name?"

"Redoni."

"Hm." He let go of my hand and left.

I looked at the others. "Weird."

They nodded, and we took our leave. We found a guy who said he'd take us to Iron Island, and about ten minutes later, we were there. I looked around the place, and it looked like an old mine. Before I could really think more, we heard a large boom from a pile of rubble a couple feet away. I transformed, being cautious, and I approached it. Before I turned to the other side of the pile, though, I changed into the Rock form, just in case. I jumped to the other side and shouted "Rock Blast!" Instantly, several rocks started shooting at the figure that was near the pile. The figure dodged some of them, but obviously they weren't expecting a sneak attack. They took some of the rocks head on and hit another pile. It groaned, and from the groan I could tell it was a female (don't ask how I knew, I just did). She shook her head and looked at me, and I could tell that she was definitely the guardian. She was in the Steel form, which was just plain shiny.

She got up and dusted herself off, then looked at me and said, "Hello to you, too."

I chuckled. "Sorry, I've never used a sneak attack on a guardian before, so I figured I'd have to do it eventually. You taking it personally?"

She shook her head. "Nah, I was transformed already, so I'm good. You already got me hurt a nice chunk, too."

I shouted "Rock Wrecker!" Instantly, a large rock started to form between my spread hands, and as it got bigger and bigger, I could see she was readying an attack as well. The rock stopped getting larger, and I threw it. She shouted, "Flash Cannon!" A beam of light went through the rock-literally-and it came toward me. The rock was still formed, though, so the attacks hit us at about the same time. We both hit rubble piles, and I coughed dust, getting up slowly. I saw that she hadn't, though, so I went over to her. She shook her head and said, "Nice job, kid. You win. Take the Ring."

She took off the Steel Ring and gave it to me. She got up, and I saw that she was kinda short, but muscular, too. She had glasses, and as she shook my hand, she said, "I'm Jane. Nice to meetcha, kid."

I took it, we shook, and she offered us a ride back to the mainland. We took her up on it, and within ten minutes, we were back in Canalave. We were about to leave the city, but I turned to Jane and asked, "Have you read that huge tome in the library?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

"Do you happen to know where Hudoro is?"

"Yes. All the guardians know his location. But he will only reveal himself at a time of his choosing. Don't go looking for him."

I sighed. "Fine. See ya, Jane."

"See ya." And with that, we left, heading for Jublife City.

Jane had said we should go east, but as Canalave was on the west coast, she gave us a hint in the form of "Volkner's friend". Eoniai said that Volkner was a Gym Leader of Sunyshore City, so we decided to head that way.

We got to Jublife, and the place was huge and vibrant. As we walked through it, we were gawking at all the sights. So into the gawking, in fact, that I ran into someone. Again. Both of us fell, and I got up first. "Sorry, man. Didn't mean to-wait…Ottum?"

He got up slowly, still wearing that same green coat and pants like in the library. He dusted himself off and said, "Hey."

"What are you doing here, man?"

"Well, waiting for you, actually."

"Why?"

"Well…" He gave an unnerving look. "I had time to kill, so…why not kill time and you?"