He had been visited a couple of times when he was staying at the pokemon center, mostly by the human girl and Eevee. Eevee always brightened his day, as she was constantly infectiously happy. So it was a surprise when she came in to visit in an uncharacteristically low mood.

"Hi Braviary. How was your day?"

"The same as every other day I've been here. There are times when I wish I was a Rufllet again. I healed so much faster when I was little."

Eevee seemed to think about that for a bit, and then looked even sadder, if that was even possible.

"Aww man, growing up sounds like it sucks then!"

Valiant tried to suppress his laughter, as he didn't want to laugh at Eevee, considering she was clearly upset.

"No no, I'm bigger now, so my bones are also bigger. A big bone takes longer to heal than a smaller one. Besides, I'm not that old yet!"

Eevee's ears perked up at that.

"Ohhhh.", her face scrunched up in confusion for a bit, "So how old are you then. You always talk like an old man."

"Really, I'm not even an Elder's age. Not even close…", Valient trailed off, unpleasant memories threatening to surface and ruin a perfectly nice conversation. Eevee reminded him of some of the chicks he used to nest-sit. Some of them were annoying like that riolu, but some of them were sweetness incarnate.

His heart ached with homesickness, and he wanted to steer his conversation away from his personal life. However, Eevee clearly didn't want to talk about her day either, so he forged onwards.

"Well, I've lived for about 44 years now-"

"What do you mean you're not old?! That's really old, Braviary! Not even my dad's that old!", she gasped.

He didn't mean to, but he frowned at that. He had no mate or chicks of his own. No one to miss him. No one to care that he was gone. No one to welcome him back.

No one who wants him back as much as he wanted to be back.

No one-

"Oh Braviary, don't cry! You're not that old, I promise!", Eevee said, in a desperate attempt to comfort the distraught Braviary.

Valiant struggled to collect himself, to even breathe. He could hardly hear what Eevee was going on about. No one cares about you. No one has, and no one ever will.

"Are you ok? Did I say something wrong? I'm sorry if I did…"

Valient drew in a shaky breath. "N-no, no, you did nothing wrong Eevee. It's just… memories. That's all. Do- do you want to talk about your day?"

Eevee tilted her head, her frown not disappearing. She seemed concerned, but didn;t press the matter.

"Um, well, we lost to the gym leader… so not great."

Valiant frowned. "Gym leader? Did you battle them?"

"Oh right! You don't really know about human stuff, do you?"

Valiant shook his head. "No, it seems… nevermind. Tell me about this 'gym leader'".

Eevee grinned. She loved feeling like an expert.

"Well, a gym leader is a really strong trainer, and they train pokemon of only one type. There are 8 of them, and if a trainer beats all 8, they can challenge the Elite 4, and then the Champion! Altogether, it's called the Pokemon League Challenge, and most human kids go on it!"

He smiled. Well, that certainly explains why the human whelps are always fighting…

"So you're probably wondering what the Elite 4 are, right? Well, they're like the gym leaders, except stronger. And the champion is the strongest trainer in Unova! That means that if Rosa becomes the champion, we're all the strongest pokemon in all of Unova!"

Valiant had to stop himself from scoffing at that. Strongest pokemon in all of Unova? That seems a bit presumptuous. It's not like the Swords of Justice would ever challenge this "Pokemon League".

"So, I guess you want to be a champion, then?", he asked. He kind of guessed that she did.

"Oh yhea! Mom said it was her dream to be a champion, but then she got really sick. She got so sick in fact, that her psychic powers went away!"

Well, he heard that eevee could evolve into psychic types, but he didn't personally see any.

"So her and dad decided to settle down and have kits, cause they were planning on doing that at some point. Mom and Dad always told us stories about her league challenge, so I've always wanted to have a cool adventure with a cool trainer just like mom and dad did."

A cool adventure, huh. Valiant didn't really see the coolness in this, but Eevee was clearly excited.

Eevee abruptly became annoyed again. "Well, that's why it's so annoying that we lost to this town gym leader! Now we can't continue on our journey! Stupid annoying emolga!"

Valiant shuddered. The annoying electric rodents were the bane of his clan's existence. Well, them and the Mandibuzz. Though, the Mandibuzz were more "sworn enemies".

"Oh man, you're a flying-type! You would hate this gym! It's full of electric-types!"

Valiant laughed. He definitely would hate that place, and he's very glad he didn't have to fight any himself. Indeed, he pitied poor Eevee, who it seems would have to fight the demon-squirrels.

"Well, considering how the brat and Snivy fared against me, I don't suppose they won against these Emolga either."

Eevee frowned petulantly. "I didn't even get a chance to fight because Riley jumped in, even though he knew he was weak against the Emolga's Aerial Ace!"

"Hmm… Why couldn't you fight?", he asked.

"Well, it has to be a fair fight, you see! The gym leader Elesa has three pokemon, ao Rosa can only use three as well. She has two Emolga and one Zebstrika.", she explained.

Valiant's first instinct was to scoff, but then he realized that he had done a very similar thing. It's like a duel, he realized, it's about honour and prestige, not just victory. Valiant had participated in a number of ill-thought out duels when he was younger, and had gotten a number of scars from them as well. He now knew that it was terribly irresponsible of him, but he couldn't deny that he knew what it felt like to fight purely to prove one's strength and superiority, not just for necessity or survival.

But…

"Wouldn't you, snivy and riolu make three?", he asked.

"Oh, you didn't meet him yet, did you? There's a Growlithe traveling with us too! Though, he likes to stay in his pokeball most of the time. He's very… um… relaxed.", Eevee answered, excited to talk about her teammates.

"Growlithe knows Dig, so Rosa thought he'd be strong against Elesa's electric types, but he's only good against zebstrika. Boy, was she surprised when she saw the Emolga."

Valiant nodded. "Hmmm. But why was snivy fighting? Surely you'd be better than them against flying-types?"

Eevee pulled a face. "Well, Aster resists electric-type attacks, so Rosa thought she'd be good against Zebstrika, but they knew Flame Charge and 1-hit-KO'd Aster!"

Valiant winced in sympathy. When he was a Rufflet, just leaving the nest, he thought it was a good idea to pick a fight against a Throh, and had the unfortunate experience of being 1-hit-KO'd by a Stone Edge to the face. It was thoroughly unpleasant.

"But you know what the worst part of it was? All of them knew Volt Switch, so they were constantly switching in and out, so we never got to knock a single one of them out!", Eevee said, annoyance written on her face.

Valiant considered her situation. He was familiar with the frustration of losing despite never being given a chance to do anything. Being pinned to the ground under a veritable mountain of rocks, helpless and useless.

But before he could lose himself in his old memories, he decided to try and cheer Eevee up.

"Well, now that your human knows the opponent's pokemon and moves, perhaps you'll have a chance to battle too?", he suggested.

Eevee frowned. "Yhea, but the twin terrors and Zebstrika are both so powerful. Even without Riley jumping in, I don't think we would have won."

"Hmmm. So are you going to train to beat them, then?", he asked.

"I guess, but it just seems so impossible,", she said, "They're just so much better than us, and they have much better teamwork!"

Valiant smiled, remembering his days as an apprentice rufflet.

"Eevee, we all start somewhere. When I… when I was an apprentice, I thought I would never be as strong and capable as my mentor. Or even just my fellow apprentices. It did seem impossible.", he said, trying not to get swallowed up in his own nostalgia for the time.

"Soooo, we need a mentor then? Could you be ours?!", she asked, excitement shining on her face. Her eyes went all wide and watery, and…

The easy smile he had on his face froze.

What?

"Y-yes? Of course I'll help you, Eevee…"

Well, he certainly couldn't say no…

"Oh thank you Braviary! With your help, we'll definitely beat Elesa, that's for sure!", she said, with the biggest smile ever.

He really, really can't say no now…