A bang on the bars woke me from the darkness that was my dreams. I saw the female lucario staring back at me. She was holding chains and looked tired, as if she had worked hard for something. She had to be emotionally drained. I know I was. She opened the cell door and wrapped the chain around my cuffs and arms, further restricting my movements. I didn't think of running I felt guilty and wanted to be punished for what I had done.

She pulled me along and I followed compliantly. She lead the way out of the town. I didn't really look upon from the ground as we left. I didn't want to look and see the rage in the other's eyes. I could feel them anyways. We spent a good amount of time saying good-bye to the Pokémon of the village.

We were finally off when the lucario said good-bye to Meria. I looked up to try and say something, but my heart only broke further when I looked into her eyes and I felt the tears begin to flow again.

I watched as my tears began to leave a trail of where we had been in the dirt road. I looked up occasionally to see where we were heading or sneak a small look at the female lucario. Most of my time was spent looking at the ground. We would take small breaks in the shade of the forest.

"You need to eat or you will lose your strength." The lucario said to me.

I just looked away as she tried to offer me some berries of sorts. She brought the berries closer to my mouth to almost force feed me the berries.

"Stop it!" I yelled

My face was in the dirt so quickly that I couldn't breath in air before I was eating a fist full of dirt. I moved my face to slowly breathe in enough air to live. We were stuck in the same position for a while. I don't know how long we were there, but I could see the orange of the sunset on the grass near the path.

What was she waiting for? Was she waiting for the beast to come out? Night rolled in and still nothing happened. My face was growing sore from the being stuck in the dirt.

Night fell upon us and still she had my face in the dirt. I began to worry for her. I could hear howling in the distance from wild Pokémon forming to hunt.

"You worry finally, but not for yourself." She spoke, sorrow followi

ng in every word.

I didn't notice it before, but the fur on my back was wet from her tears. She had been crying all day.

"I felt your aura since the beginning and it never matched that vile creature that killed my beloved friend. I tried to draw it out, but your guilt kept it down. One should not feel as the value of the dirt you walk on. I am sorry for trying to get the creature out."

She slowly rose off of me and I sat up. She grabbed a rag from her satchel and wet it. She came close to clean the dirt off of my face, but I turned my face away.

"Still did it. I have that beast inside me and I wasn't strong enough to keep it in. I am sorry." I said.

"I know you are." She said while cleaning my face of the dirt that was smothered onto it.

The female lucario set up camp and lit a fire to begin cooking a berry brew.

"What is your name lucario? Mine is Katrina." She asked

"I-I don't know." I replied.

She looked confused for a second. "Alright then, where do you come from?"

"I-um.."

She looked even more confused and folded her arms in frustration.

"I don't even remember being a riolu. My last memories were in the forest where Patricia, the gardevoir found me. I don't even know how to read aura." I said.

Katrina just stared at me. I felt her cold stare of confusion penetrating my soul. I didn't know how to react.

"Tomorrow we reach the guild and they will decide with their council, your fate. I cannot promise any fate to you. You are a very rare case." Sabeera said while preparing herself for bed.

I laid down, but my mind was too active to really rest. I had so many questions. I hoped that maybe they could be answered tomorrow. I doubted that they would. Although, I did feel better then I did compared to early in the day. Sabeera definitely helped. She spared me even though she knew what was inside me. Lucarios can see the aura of all creatures if they train hard enough. She saw mine I bet and there was something there that kept me alive. She saw potential for good from me. I hope I don't let her down. She is the first one that I feel really believes in me.

We woke early, just as the sun was rising over the mountain range in the distance. We walked along and Sabeera asked me more about things that I didn't know like how to use my powers, the villages, or even the guild. Surprising her even more with my loss for knowledge. She thought it was weird that I knew as much as the basics of speech and common knowledge to be civilized, but not more than a young child.

"You are still better than the wild Pokémon that roam the forests and kill, but if you were out there again by yourself then you would probably be as useful as a magikarp out of water. Katrina continuing our long trek towards what I guessed was another village.

"What is the difference between wild Pokémon and normal Pokémon?" I asked.

Katrina stopped and stared at me with a fire that stopped me in my own tracks. I must have struck some sort of chord.

"They still feel pain and anger, but they do not control their actions. A darkness resided within all of us and if we let it take us then we fall to the wild. That is what they are. WIld Pokémon. Lost Pokémon." She turned away rubbing her nose.

I felt like apologizing, but I didn't want to make her think more about the subject so I just let it drop as we walked into the afternoon. In the distance I could see smoke rising into the sky. Someone was close. The sun was leaving nice orange rays as it was saying goodbye for the day.

Katrina looked relaxed, but it quickly changed into caution as her ears were spinning in almost all directions. Her nose began to twitch. She was smelling something new. Something was nearby by. I began to sniff and I felt some familiar about the smell, but it smelled dirty.

"Wild Pokémon." Katrina said as she readied a bone rush.

They are all around us. Why are they out so early? They usually hunt late at night?" She said as figures began to imerge from the treeline onto the path we were on. Mightyenas. I turned and saw that we were surrounded by the pack from every angle. No way getting out without a few scratches.

"I remember this smell. They attacked me when I woke in the forest before Patricia grabbed me." I said.

Katrina looked at me with worry and anger. She blamed me for what was happening right now and she had every right to. These things wanted to finish the kill and get their reward.

I stood in fear of what to do. I didn't know how to fight and in chains I can't do that much anyways. A thought crept into my head. I could let the monster out and that could take-NO. I can't give into that thing. IT could kill more random people and I don't want that on my hands. How could I even consider that?!

They charged forward and I swung my cuffed paws at them, hitting them them with hard metal. Katrina began to gracefully fight off as many wild mightyenas as she could, but I could see she was getting tired in her fighting. She began to leave more and more openings for the pack animals to attack and slowly tear down her defense. I tried my best to fight them off of her, but she was right. I wasn't that useful out here.

They slowly surrounded again, both Katrina and I panting from our fighting. I felt my own blood seeping threw the wounds that these creatures gave me. Sabrina was shaking or shivering, I couldn't tell. She collapsed to the ground, her body surging and convulsing. What was wrong with her?

The mightyenas saw this as an opportunity and lunged forward onto their prey, but water splashed forward and knocked the mightyenas back. I turned to see where it came from and saw an otter like creature with a yellow tube around its neck. A buizel

"Quickly! Grab Katrina and come before they surround you again." The Buizel yelled with a feminine voice.

I did my best to hold Katrina while she surged in my arms. I was surprised at my own strength and I began to run toward the buizel. She spat streams of high powered water at any mightyenas that lunged at me.

The mightyenas began to be frustrated with how things were going and one howled to signal a retreat. It was over for now.

"Come. We must hurry to bring down the fever before she goes into the coma" the buizel said.

I was confused and raised a paw to Katrina's forehead. You could have cooked a meal on it for how hot it was. She seemed paler than usual. What was going on with her? One second she was a calm collected lucario and then she was crippled, in my arms sick looking.

"Hurry to my home." The Buizel urged.

Looks like we aren't going to make it to the council before nightfall. I quickly ran after the Buizel, holding Katrina as best as I. The shackles rattled on my wrists reminding me every second that this was really happening.

Eventually we emerged onto a small hut that stood not far from the road. The Buizel burst into the hut and signaled for me to hurry in. I quickly followed into the room and she showed me to room with a bed.

"Put her down there. She will need to rest for a while." The Buizel said.

I set Katrina down on the bed and the chains rang one more time and I could see in the corner of my eyes the Buizel standing close by.

"I see those chains, but if you were truly a criminal you would've ran away instead of helping me. Thank you. Names Nora." She patted me on the shoulder and led me out of the room. I took one last look at Katrina before I left. What was this feeling? Caring? Hoping?