As I sit in a comfortable recliner in the living room, I post Chapter 12 of Temple of the Fox. I'd like to thank everyone who has been enjoying this story thus far, particularly those who have reviewed.

Also, the poll is still on my profile page. I've gotten three votes for Yes for the Discord server, and once we reach ten, I will create it.

Enjoy this chapter!

BRADLEY CLARION

Should I really be telling Jenna this? It will probably sound pretty crazy to her.

Even though I'd already decided that I had to let her know about my dream, I was now having second thoughts. I only had a few seconds to decide whether I was going to spill the beans or not.

Jenna looked at me in an expectant manner, and I knew that there was no getting out of this one. She expected answers, and she would not rest until she got them. I had already let the Meowth out of the bag, as the saying goes. I couldn't un-ring the bell.

"What is it?" she asked me. "What do you want to tell me. Is it that you have a -".

I shook my head, feeling my white facial fur turn a rosy pink color. "That's not it at all, Jenna!"

She chuckled. "It's pretty funny when you're embarrassed like that, but anyway, go on".

After rolling my eyes, I said, "What I'm about to tell you is no laughing matter. Last night, I had a dream that chilled me to the bone, and I think you should know about it".

I couldn't explain why I thought this. Most people would probably think that I should keep quiet and not say anything, but that wasn't the type of person I was. I was really bad at keeping secrets, so I'm not the best person to trust with, say, intimate details about someone's love life. Buyer beware with things like that.

In any case, Jenna stopped laughing. "What happened in the dream?" she said, now looking very worried indeed.

"Well", I replied, "I saw a dragon named Matamoros. I know, it's kind of a weird name for a dragon, but…".

I paused. How could I possibly explain this to Jenna without freaking her out? Telling her the whole dream would be a very painful thing to do, much like ripping off a bandage that takes a chunk of hair with it.

Almost immediately as I was saying the dragon's name, the memory of my dream came rushing back to me. I saw the multicolored scales that were both beautiful and deadly. I smelled the putrid ice blue fire breath. And, most of all, I experienced the same fear I'd felt when I was in that room.

I was staring straight into those pure black eyes. If looks could kill, I would have been dead a hundred times over, even though I wasn't looking directly at Matamoros at present.

Trying not to let my voice break, I described the dragon's appearance to Jenna in great detail. Somehow, though, she didn't look nearly as frightened as me.

"So that's Matamoros, huh?" she said once I had finished my description.

I nodded. "But Jenna, you have to realize that he looks completely different in person, far more intimidating. Those pure black eyes...they're the scariest thing I've ever seen. Unless you've seen them before, nothing can prepare you for that level of fear".

I went on to tell her what the dragon had said about the four Elemental Deities: Moltres, Articuno, Ho-oh, and Mewtwo. They were keeping Matamoros locked in his prison for now, and the last thing we wanted was for him to escape. And according to the dragon calling himself the Conqueror, his prison was weakening. He was going to escape and consume the world in darkness and flames.

"...and that's the last thing I remember before you woke me up in the basement of the clock tower" I finished. "The rest is history".

Jenna nodded. "That really does sound rather terrifying. But I don't know...you can't know that Matamoros is real. It was just a dream".

I shook my head. "Jenna, it wasn't just a dream. It isn't just a dream, because how else can you explain me turning up in this world as a Braixen?"

The waves were getting more and more intense; fortunately, we were on the beach and safe from being carried out to sea, but my feet kept getting splashed by some of the coldest water I had ever felt. It was almost as cold as Matamoros' eyes.

How could I explain that I knew it was real, the same way you know that water is wet or that the sun will rise the next morning? I would have sounded ridiculous, and yet I had rarely ever been more sure of anything in my life.

"I know it's real, Jenna. I've seen it for myself".

It probably sounded childish to insist that I was sure, but I didn't really care. If she was going to ditch me because of it, then so be it. At least I'd gotten to make my case.

"Bradley...I think I might believe you," the Zoroark girl replied, sobbing slightly.

"You do?" My heart leaped; I hadn't been expecting that. I hadn't thought that she would believe me.

Jenna nodded. "I've never seen anyone speak about something with that much conviction. Even if it's ultimately not true...".

"I've seen it," I insisted. "It is true".

"...you still sound as though you believe it wholeheartedly. And that frightens me, because of the implications, but I still think you're telling the truth".

I felt a wave of relief. She believes me. She doesn't think I'm lying or going crazy.

However, my relief faded almost immediately once I saw the tears forming in her eyes. "I just wish you were wrong. From the way you describe him, Matamoros seems really frightening".

Words could not do it justice. Just the thought of the dragon, just the mental image of what he looked like, sent more chills down my spine and made it hard to focus on anything else.

I nodded. "He sure as hell is".

For the next few minutes, there was a silence between us, broken only by the sounds made by waves as they crashed against the beach and our legs. Neither of us had anything more to say.

The day was starting to fog up again; the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and probably would not return until tomorrow. I was peering into the fog, trying to see something, anything in the void, but I had no luck.

"There's no land for hundreds of miles around Ilion" the Zoroark girl told me. "This place is well and truly alone, not that that's a bad thing".

It is, though. I'd hate to live in a land that's so isolated.

Of course, I didn't tell Jenna that out loud. The city of Skylock was her home, so I wouldn't insult it. She had, after all, rescued me.

"Let's head back to my place," she said eventually. "I've had enough excitement for one day".

I reluctantly stood up off the sand and followed her up the nearby stairs, which were very slippery. They almost gave me flashbacks to the spiral staircase back in the caverns underneath Skylock.

Fortunately, these stairs had a railing, so we used that to steady ourselves as we climbed back onto the esplanade and began making our way back to Jenna's house.

JENNA IZOLA

Even under normal circumstances, I found the beach we had just left to be an ominous location. It wasn't that anything particularly bad had happened there; it's just that it was so close to a door that led underground, eventually to the dark market.

As I led Bradley back to my house through the streets and alleyways of Skylock, I had two regrets.

The first of these was showing the Braixen boy the dark market. There were so many sketchy things going on there, some of which were hard to make out from the vantage point 50 feet above it, that it could easily traumatize someone who hadn't seen it before. Hell, it even freaked me out sometimes, even though I'd lived in Skylock my whole life.

The other regret was that I'd allowed Bradley to tell me about Matamoros. Even though I'd never even seen so much as a picture of the Conqueror, it was still a pretty unsettling mental image, one that I feared I'd see in my dreams that night.

And yet...I believed Bradley. I believed him wholeheartedly, because, much like with the tale about how he'd ended up in Ilion, it was too crazy to make up. Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Being that I believed the Braixen boy, I supposed that it was a good thing he'd told me about Matamoros. It might not seem like a blessing right now (let alone that night, when I figured that, owing to my usual bad luck, I was likely to have a nightmare about the dragon), but it would certainly be a good thing to be prepared.

Although...I didn't know what to prepare for. However, I supposed that we'd cross that bridge when we came to it.

It was a long walk back to my house, and I spent most of it absorbed in my own thoughts. Eventually, it started raining again, and I saw Bradley start shivering; the fur coat of a Braixen isn't as thick as that of a Zoroark.

I made a mental note to buy Bradley a jacket in the marketplace tomorrow. The wind chill made it seem colder than it really was, and I knew he was probably suffering right now.

We finally reached my house, and the door was locked. I waited for my mother to open the door, at which time it started raining even more heavily than it had been before.

Most homes in Skylock, including ours, lacked doorbells, so the only way to alert someone inside the house to your presence is to knock. Which both of us did, hoping that my mother or Nick would let us in.

Eventually, my mother did come to the door. Seeing how soaked both of us had gotten, she said, "Welcome back. You two need to be careful not to track any water through the house".

How are we going to do this? Look at us; we're drenched!

Fortunately, my mother had a plan for that already. Even though my family wasn't wealthy by any means, we did have a lot of one thing, and that was towels. My mother placed a couple towels on the ground leading up to the stairs.

Bradley allowed me to take the first shower. I told him that he could shower before me, but he insisted that I go first. What a gentleman!

I went into the bathroom and turned on the shower, then stood outside it until the water got warm enough to be comfortable.

Oh wow...this is heavenly.

It felt pretty amazing to be warming up after such a chilly day. In addition, I felt as though I were washing off the grime from the caverns underneath Skylock. Even though we hadn't gotten that dirty down there, there was something about being in the presence of so many dealers of illicit items that made you feel positively filthy.

As I stood underneath the streams of hot water, I couldn't help but wonder why exactly Bradley had been turned into a Braixen. Is there something about ending up in Ilion that makes you a Pokemon if you weren't already?

But that can't be right...if that was the case, then shouldn't there be no humans in Ilion at all? There are plenty of humans in Skylock alone!

I spent a long time underneath the shower, feeling the water warm me right to my bones and thinking about Bradley, Matamoros, and if and how the two were intertwined. I was only shaken from my thoughts by a knock on the shower door.

By this time, there was so much steam that I could barely see anything. "Yes?"

"This is Bradley. You've been in there for thirty minutes; shouldn't it be my turn now?"

Oh.

"Yeah, I'll get out. Just give me a minute".

I turned off the shower, and used a special technique to get the water out of my fur. It's kind of like how a dog shakes water out of its fur, but it's less of a physical task and more of a mental one; it's very hard to explain to someone who's never done it before.

After I was dry, I left the bathroom and told Bradley that it was his turn now.

I headed back into my room and decided to read one of my novels. Reading was one of my favorite ways to kill time, and I had nothing better to do right now.

This particular novel was about...well, it's not important. It was a very complicated plot, with many twists and turns, and I felt my head start to spin from the sheer number of things readers had to keep track of.

Eventually, after a couple of hours, I heard a knock on my door. "Dinner time!" Nick announced from the other side.

Already?, I wondered. Looking out the window, I saw that the sun had gone down, and that it was getting dark rather quickly. The sky was now a navy blue color; the sun was well below the horizon.

Huh. Well, I guess time flies when you're having fun.

I stood up off my bed. Unlike the guest room, my room did not have a sloped ceiling, so I didn't have to be too careful.

"I'm coming" I told Nick. "Just...give me a moment".

Even though I hadn't been asleep, I had been in a sort of haze as I'd been reading the book. It wasn't exactly easy to juggle everything from the book in my head, and now I was not only thinking about that, but everything Bradley had told me came right back.

My younger brother opened the door. He was wearing an expression that he rarely had on his face: Concern. "Are you okay, Jenna?" he asked me. "You sound really worried".

I nodded. "I'm fine. Just thinking about some stuff, that's all".

"Okay" Nick replied. "Just join us when you're ready".

After a few minutes of burying my head in my hands, wondering what the hell I was going to do about Matamoros, I headed down the stairs to find that Bradley, Nick, and my mother were already around the table. My father was evidently still at work, as today was a Friday.

We ate our meals in near-total silence. It wasn't for lack of effort from Nick to get us to talk, though; neither Bradley or myself could talk about his story in front of him (at least, that's what we'd agreed to on the walk back here), and my mother seemed to respect our wishes.

Beyond that, there wasn't really much to talk about. For my mother, it had been a very uneventful day, and Nick was only willing to give vague answers when asked how his video games had been.

Once we had both cleared our plates, I asked Bradley if he wanted to play a board game, but he declined. It was then that I realized just how preoccupied he was.

He's definitely telling the truth. If he wasn't, he wouldn't seem so stressed about it.

Just because he was telling the truth didn't mean that there really was a Conqueror Dragon named Matamoros who was going to destroy the world; it only meant that he thought there was.

"I'm going to bed," Bradley told me. I felt slightly hurt by this, but I didn't think it was anything personal. He was probably just tired from the stress of the day.

"Sleep well, Bradley" I told the Braixen boy as he turned around to head back to the guest bedroom. "I'll see you in the morning".

BRADLEY CLARION

It hadn't been out of rudeness that I'd turned down the offer to play a board game with Jenna. I hoped she wouldn't hold it against me, and I doubted that she would. That just didn't seem like her.

After all, she had believed my story and taken me under her wing with seemingly no hesitation. She could have easily just left me in the bottom of that tower, left to starve to death, or worse, get eaten by a pack of cannibal Rattatas. (Yes, those do exist, and they eat other Pokemon as well). She was very loyal to me for having only known me for less than a day.

You could say that she saved my life. For that I will be eternally grateful.

The reason I went up to bed right after dinner was very simple: I was exhausted. Even during the height of the fever in the jungle, I couldn't remember ever feeling this sluggish or fatigued. I'd barely even felt hungry during dinner; I had just wanted to get some sleep.

I supposed that this was because of everything I'd been through that day. I'd fallen down a hole many miles deep, and discovered a whole new world afterwards. Based on those events, it shouldn't have been surprising just how tired I was.

I was so bushed that I almost forgot to get into bed carefully so as not to crush my tail. I bumped my head painfully on the sloped ceiling, but let me tell you, that's still a lot less painful than sitting on your tail.

After my head hit the pillow, I spent two minutes staring at the closed door separating my guest room from the hallway. That was all it took for me to fall asleep.

I'd been hoping for a dreamless slumber, but that was not to be.

(Insert a horizontal line here)

In the middle of a hot, steamy jungle on the continent of Alola, seven men walk through the inappropriately named Mud Flats, struggling to keep their footing the whole time. There are several audible swear words let out as the men slip and slide.

Other than that, however, it is a subdued group. None of them are happy. It should only take a few moments to realize why.

They are grieving.

There has been no appetite for jokes about "more food for the rest of us" or "he decided he loves the jungle after all". How could there be?

Since none of the men know which of them had seen Bradley Clarion last, the guides, Matthew and Michael Chelan, make one thing perfectly clear.

"We're not going to consider anyone at fault here" Mike had told the group. "Someone abandoned him at some point, but it was his responsibility to find his way back to the start of the temple".

As stated above, none of the seven men are in a good mood, but one of them was particularly distraught. He is the middle-aged man who is constantly at the back of the pack, his glasses so foggy with tears that it's a wonder that he can even see the trail. He resembles his disappeared son in a big way.

Brendan Clarion, though he is mourning the loss of his son, doesn't let that affect his determination to make it back alive. He knows that he needs to get back to Sinnoh so that he can tell his wife everything that has happened.

My wife. It was a horrifying thought to Brendan, because he had promised, he'd sworn on so many things, that he would do everything to ensure that Bradley was safe. He'd make sure that when he returned home from Alola, his son would also be there.

And yet...he'd failed. Failed at the most basic duty any father has to his child.

Brendan isn't looking at the ground when his toe hits a tree root. He reaches his arm out to steady himself against the nearby tree, but it's too late. He crashes painfully into the tree.

The sound of the crash alerts the other six men to his fall. "Brendan!" Chris Ruby shouts, running back up the hill in order to assist his fallen comrade.

Matt Chelan also turns around to face Brendan. "You all right?"

"Yeah…" Brendan groans, trying to put on a brave face even though tears are forming in his eyes once more. "I'm fine. My son's not, though!"

Chris reaches out a hand to assist in pulling Brendan off the ground. Brendan, once back on his feet, wipes his hands on his pants, something he would never do in a more professional setting. Out here in the jungle, though, anything goes.

"I know" Chris replies, pulling his friend into a hug. "I can only imagine how horrible you are feeling right now. But I'm sure Bradley doesn't blame you for what happened, so don't blame yourself, okay?"

Brendan shakes his head. "The only reason Bradley doesn't blame me is because he's dead, or close to it. If he were still alive, he would be very angry indeed. I know," he chokes up at the next word, "knew my son better than any of you!"

Chris continues to embrace Brendan. "Like I said, I'm not a father, so I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to lose your child. But know that we are here for you".

Brendan continues to sob. "You don't understand," he replies. "You can't understand, for the love a parent feels towards their own child is something you have never experienced. It's unlike any other form of love. And...I'll never be the same again".

The other five men watch the scene from below. They've already given Brendan their condolences back when his son had first vanished, but Terrence and Matt, who are only slightly down the hill from Brendan and Chris, climb part of the way back up.

"What Chris said," Matt tells Brendan, "applies to the rest of us as well. We are all in this together, and we're all here for you".

Brendan shakes his head. "You guys still have no idea. I'm supposed to be my son's keeper, you know? And I failed. Outliving a child is bad enough, but knowing that it's your fault he's gone…". He sobs again, and he loses focus on keeping his balance in the mud, almost to the point that he falls again.

Reaching his arms out like the wings of an airplane, he manages to avoid another embarrassing tumble into the mud. Wiping the remnants of tears off of his glasses, he continues by saying, "...s-sorry about that. It's just so hard to lose your own son, especially when you were s-supposed to help and didn't".

"Remember what Mike said?" Chris asks Brendan. "It's nobody's fault. We're not going to play the blame game here while we still have to get back home safely".

After that, the group continues walking through the seemingly endless rainforest.

...I, Bradley Clarion, son of Brendan Clarion, sat bolt upright in bed after that.

I had just dreamed about my father and how his expedition was going! And they were heading through the Mud Flats, meaning that in the real world, it had been a day or two since my disappearance.

That's not the only real world, though, I corrected myself. This world is just as real.

I saw that it was still dark outside, still pitch-black. According to the digital clock on top of the bedside cabinet, it was almost midnight. I had only been asleep for a couple of hours.

My father.

Ever since I'd fallen down the Shaft and entered this brave new world, I'd felt a lot of emotions, fear and wonder chief among them. But there was yet another that I was now experiencing for the first time since then.

Guilt.

My dad was still on the expedition with the IRAA. He had no idea that I was still alive; he was under the impression that I had died in the middle of that temple, and that he would never see me again. Although, of course, he might have been right about that last one.

I thought about what Chris Ruby had told my dad in my dream. I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to lose your child.

My. Father. Thought. He. Had. Lost. Me.

Much like Chris, I wasn't a parent myself. But I'd always been taught that the love of a parent is one of the strongest forces there is in this world, or any world. A mother's love could move mountains; it could work a miracle.

I felt tears welling up in my eyes, and, even though I must have been infinitely far away from him right now, I joined my father in bawling my eyes out.

No. It was worse than that. My father believed that he was responsible for my death. That was a thought that, no matter what, I just wouldn't be able to live with.

Well, if I got chucked into this world just like that, the least I can do is to make it worth it. I have to figure out how to stop Matamoros.

It was then that I heard a knock on my door. "Go back to bed, Jenna, it's still night" I said groggily, yawning with each word.

"I'm not Jenna".

That voice...it was unmistakably male. It was unmistakably from a young male. And it certainly sounded as though it came from a...was it a Vulpix on the other end of the door?

Jacob! It's Jacob!

I wanted to strangle Jacob for what he had done to me. He'd gotten himself in trouble so that I'd had to rescue him, which had resulted in me getting an infected wound, which had resulted in me having to enter this new world, which had resulted in my father being beside himself with grief and guilt.

All of the anguish I had felt in the last few minutes was because of him.

I don't want to talk to you right now, Jacob. Just go away.

For someone so young, he had been responsible for so much pain and suffering, both for me and my father. I had no desire to face him again.

"Please leave me alone" I said through the door, quietly enough that I didn't think it would wake anyone else up. "I'm just trying to sleep here".

"No, you have to come with me" Jacob replied. "If you want to be in any state to save the world, all worlds in fact, then you'll come with me".

I was still a little skeptical, but I decided that there was probably no harm in following him. If he led me somewhere that I didn't like, I could always set him on fire with one of my new moves...except that I did not know how to use them yet.

"Okay" I said reluctantly. "I'll come with you".

I opened the door and saw Jacob right outside. He led me down the stairs and out of the Izola house, into the streets of Skylock.

If it had been chilly during the day, it was even colder at night. There was, however, one good thing about the cold weather: It was invigorating. I'd been feeling groggy when I'd first woken up a few minutes ago, but I wasn't feeling groggy anymore.

Jacob ran down the street fast enough that I was afraid I'd lose my target. Fortunately, I was getting used to walking or running as a Braixen, so keeping up wasn't as hard as I might have expected.

It wasn't too long before we entered a part of town that I hadn't seen before. And it was soon clear to me why I hadn't seen it: Because Jenna had never bothered to show me this part of Skylock, and there was a reason for that.

This was clearly the bad part of town. I didn't see any sketchy characters outside, but I was feeling more than a little on edge as I followed Jacob through the back alleys. Many of the walls all around had a large amount of colorful graffiti on them.

At any moment, someone could jump out and attack me. That's not exactly a comforting thought.

Fortunately, this didn't happen. I heard no strange noises in the cold night air, meaning that any would-be assailants were probably asleep. I mean, it IS midnight.

Jacob was light on his feet, and very quiet as a result. This was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because it would make it less likely that I was detected. It was a curse because if I lost sight of him, then I'd be lost and alone in the sketchy neighborhood at night.

Eventually, Jacob led me into a wider alley than the others had been. He climbed a set of stairs that was built into the side of one of the buildings of nondescript color, and I did the same. "Here we are," he told me, pointing to a sign next to a door that labelled this building as the KORU DOJO.

I opened the door and saw that the interior of this building was well-lit and a great deal larger than I had expected. There were punching bags, trophies, large mats to practice on, and plenty of other things that you would expect to see in a dojo.

I'd never really been one for martial arts, but it was an impressive display nonetheless. And it was then that I realized why Jacob had brought me here.

I think he wants me to learn some moves. If there's someone here who can teach me, that would be a big help.

Turning around to thank Jacob, I saw something unexpected.

He was gone.

Where the hell did that kid go? I don't even see him on the streets below us.

It had only been a few seconds, so even though the Alolan Vulpix could move quickly, I didn't think he could have moved that quickly.

At first, I had the inkling that maybe I should head back to Jenna's house. I didn't know why I thought that; maybe I feared what might happen inside the dojo for some reason.

But then I laughed that thought out of my head. It was almost as though it wasn't my own idea; it made no sense to try to go back, not least because I hadn't bothered to memorize the route Jacob had taken me.

Since I can't go out, I'll have to go in.

I entered the Koru Dojo. The place was mostly deserted, and I wondered why Jacob had bothered to bring me here. Wouldn't I need somebody to teach me the moves?

As I entered, I tried to stay light on my feet. There were a lot of fragile things in here, and the last thing I wanted to do was to create unnecessary property damage. As I pondered this, I heard a voice come from one of the far corners of the room.

"Ah. You are here, Bradley Clarion".

I flinched at the sound of a voice I didn't recognize, and, for a moment, I wondered if I was about to get tackled.

The voice was clearly male, but, unlike that of Jacob the Vulpix, it was not youthful at all. In fact, this voice sounded very old indeed, even older than my grandfather's (who was the oldest person I knew back in my own world).]

I'll never see my grandfather again, most likely, I realized. This time, however, I was somehow able to avoid tearing up. I realized something else a few seconds later.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, looking into the corner to find an elderly Braixen there. He was clearly ancient, and he was also about half my height. He shouldn't have been intimidating at all, but his red eyes seemed to pierce both your physical heart and your metaphorical one.

"I have been expecting you," the old Braixen said. "The name's Bray, and some call me the master of this dojo".

I narrowed my eyes slightly. "Are you the master of this dojo?" I asked him. "Or do they just call you that for some reason?"

The one who called himself Bray shrugged. "Well, I am the person who runs the Koru Dojo, so you could say that I am the master. However, we don't have much of a hierarchy here; we like to treat everyone as equals".

"That's good," I replied, still unsure as to how Bray knew that I was going to come. Could he somehow see into the future?

Who knows? I'm sure there are a lot of crazy things in this world.

"Indeed it is. We're all in this together, you know? In any case, Jacob informed me that you needed to learn some self-defense in order to survive.

"As you know, Skylock, and this world in general, is a dangerous place for newcomers, but especially right now. Matamoros is threatening to rise, and if that should happen, everything that we hold dear will be in great jeopardy".

"So I've heard," I replied. I briefly told Bray about the nightmare I'd had about the Conqueror Dragon. I left out the vision about my father and his trekking buddies mourning my seeming demise, feeling that it wasn't very relevant, and also because it wasn't a pleasant thought in general.

"Ah, yes, so you are aware of the threat that the Conqueror Dragon poses to all worlds. It's not just this world that is affected, but your own as well".

I felt a metallic taste form in my mouth as I tried to think of what Matamoros probably wanted. Even though I wasn't in a dream with him, I could still picture his eyes very vividly.

Those eyes...when you looked into the black holes that were his eyes, you became aware that nothing would be beneath Matamoros. He would do anything and everything it took in order to get his way.

"What happens if Matamoros succeeds?" I asked Bray, gulping as the words came out of my mouth.

"You truly do not want to know" the old Braixen replied gravely. "And I'm serious. If you knew, it would traumatize you to no small degree".

"I'm eighteen years old," I told him. "I can handle it. Please tell me".

Bray shook his head. "Eventually, you will know. Right now, you don't want to. I fear that it would distract you if you wish to succeed".

There was a long silence, during which we stared down each other as though we were in the middle of an argument. (Which, I suppose, we were). Bray didn't say anything, and neither did I.

Then Bray sighed and said, "Look, Bradley. You need to learn how to defend yourself in any given situation. If you don't, you'll be a sitting Psyduck".

I didn't know too much about martial arts, nor did I even know that much about fighting techniques. Could you call me a pacifist? I suppose so, and I'm not ashamed to admit that.

I got into the standard boxer's stance, with my feet spread out and my arms held out so that I'd be ready to throw punches. "Not that way, Bradley. That's not how you fight as a Braixen; you have to learn Fire moves, not physical attacks".

It was then that I realized something very important. The dojo appeared to be highly flammable, and it would clearly not be safe to use Fire attacks inside of it. Indeed, a non-negligible proportion of the buildings in Skylock were made of wood. The point was, this might not be a very good place to practice.

"I suppose that you already know Scratch and Tail Whip. If you don't, then it's pretty intuitive to learn them. All you need is a little bit of common sense, and you'll pick those up in no time".

Moving on to the question that I had in my mind, Bray continued by saying, "You're probably wondering how you're going to be able to practice safely in this dojo. Well, there's something I'd like to show you".

I watched as Bray walked over to one of the cabinets. He opened the top drawer, saying, "Yes, here they are", and took something out of it.

It was a small object roughly the shape and size of an egg, black in color. For a moment, I wondered if it was a smaller version of one of Matamoros' eyes, and that thought made me shiver.

"This is a Fireshield Stone," Bray told me. "It creates a force field around you so that fire cannot pass through and harm anyone else. It's great for practicing, but you have to be very careful, because the oxygen in one runs out fast".

I realized that he was right; the process of combustion, of setting something on fire, consumed a great deal of oxygen, and if I blacked out while inside the Fireshield Stone's barrier, that would not be good.

"Another thing to be wary of is that the force field, if hit by too much force, will break. If it breaks, you will be momentarily stunned, but that could be long enough to be catastrophic if this happens when you're surrounded by enemies".

"Enemies?"

"Yes, yes, Matamoros and his minions are causing a lot of trouble in this world. Even though the Conqueror Dragon himself remains imprisoned, at least for now, his minions are still wrecking havoc upon the world. Just look at the Windborn-".

"Hold on", I said, "what are the Windborn?"

Even though Bray was probably "only" about a hundred years old, he sounded as though he were a hundred squared, ten thousand, years old as he responded to my question.

"They are essentially storm spirits" the old Braixen replied. "Very dangerous - they look like angels, but they most certainly aren't. They're a hell of a lot closer to devils if you know what I mean, causing a whole bunch of storms".

I chuckled, causing Bray to punch the wall with his paw. "It is no laughing matter, Bradley Marcus Clarion! You do realize that they want to kill you, destroy everything we care about, and replace it with a hellscape? Those storms in Snowbound Province are just a sampling of what is to come".

Putting my head down in mild shame, I knew he was right. The Windborn were nothing to joke about, that was for sure.

"In any case", Bray said, "we've burned enough time already. We have until morning to train, and then you'll have to head back to Jenna Izola's house. The last thing we need is for them to notice you have gone.

"Take this" he said, and then he threw the Fireshield Stone to me. Even though my new paws weren't the best at fine motor skills, I was barely able to catch it.

"How do I use it?" I asked Bray. "It looks so...weak, in a way".

"Hmph" the old Braixen said. "You scoff at the Fireshield Stone when it might well keep you alive. How typical of your generation. In any case, throw it on the ground. It won't break; it's a lot more durable than that. Throw it on the ground, and see what happens".

I did as I was told, as though I were smashing an egg on the ground. It was easy enough to convince myself that that's all this was, just a weird black egg I was throwing to the ground, only one with special powers.

As soon as the Fireshield Stone hit the ground, it glowed a strange purple color and then created a small dome around me with a five-foot radius or so.

I smiled. It wasn't a huge space, but I wasn't going to complain now that I could actually practice to some degree.

"Okay" I told Bray. "Show me the ways of the Braixen".

The old Braixen smiled. "We'll practice until the dust turns to gold. That is to say, until the morning light".

I silently groaned at the thought of staying up all night, something I couldn't remember ever doing before. But if it helped to keep me alive when fighting off the Conqueror Dragon's minions, then so be it.

This is going to suck.

I suppose that I COULD have made this chapter longer, but I figured that I was at a good stopping point already, being that it was already 7,000 words long or so. I had a great time writing it, particularly the dream sequence with Bradley's father and his friends at the IRAA.

I've rarely ever written in the present tense before, so it was definitely a challenge. Let me know in that review box if you think I rose to this challenge well, or if I did not. Thanks to everyone who does.

I hope you guys have a great day, and I'll see y'all next time!