I felt terrible for what happened and looked at the dark colored rings that were around my wrists. 'May they be a reminder to your dedication' I heard Nora's voice in my head. I needed to do better.
I tried to stand, but fell back to the ground. I was exhausted. My mind was sluggish and my body was slow to respond. I fell on my face in the dirt.
"What's the matter?" Katrina asked, coming to my side.
"I don't think I have slept in two days. I think my body is finally giving out." I said as she lifted me up from the ground.
"Then now is a perfect time for your next step of training." Sir Lance said as he emerged from the hole. The sunset gave a new color to his gray fur.
"Sir, I don't think he can train anymore. He is exhausted." Katrina said.
Sir Lance gave a stern look and Katrina slowly propped me up to have me stand on my own.
"Follow." He commanded and we both followed him along a dirt path out of the clearing.
We ended up in a shaded part of the woods. The moon was beginning to light the land just like the night before, but in the shade of the trees it was hard to see the path, but Sir Lance didn't seem to have any trouble moving through the trees.
"Have you been training in sensing aura?" He asked.
"Yes sir."
"Good. We are going to further your sensing to the point where you won't even need to open your eyes to see. Katrina, would you like to demonstrate?" Sir Lance stated.
Katrina stepped forward into the center of the small clearing. I saw Sir Lance pull a rope and giant logs swung down towards Katrina. They were heading right for Katrina and she stood there with her eyes closed.
She calmly moved out of the way from each log that fell. It looked easy at first with only a few logs, but more and more fell. To where it was too hard to count how many there were. Yet not one log hit her. Gracefully moved through the logs and stepped out of the clearing.
"Very good Katrina. You have improved. Now you Koro."
I felt my heart drop and felt nervous as I slowly stepped forward. Sir Lance jumped from tree to tree resetting all of the logs.
I stood in the center and waited for the logs to start. Sir Lance came up behind me and wrapped a piece of cloth around my eyes. I was completely blind.
"Now trust in your aura." Sir Lance said and I heard something flying through the air. The air whistling around it. I tried to calm my heart to feel the aura, but my heart wouldn't allow any peace within. I side stepped to quickly get out of the first log by just using my hearing, but more were coming. I could hear more whooshing through the air. There were too many to read their movements with only my hearing. I took a deep breath and began to feel something. I saw Sir Lance and Katrina standing on the tree line. Then the trees surrounding me and then there was the log. It was only inches away when I saw it with aura. I tried to move, but my body was exhausted and I felt the full force of the large log.
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I saw what I think was Sir Lance on a weird mirror box. It wasn't me. I was sitting on some sort of leather covered chair. There was mumbling from someone next to me, but I couldn't hear them. They were too quiet. I looked back to the mirror object. Sir Lance was doing the log drill with something else. It wasn't a pokemon though. It was a tall creature. What was it?
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"Koro, Koro?"
I opened my eyes to see Katrina standing next to me. She had a concerned look on her face.
I looked around and saw that I was on a stone table in the middle of a room. Torches gave the room an eerie feeling. I tried to move my head and that's when the headache came. It felt like someone grabbed a rock and began to smash my head in. I laid back down and grabbed my head, expecting the pain to leave, but it only made it worse.
"The log hit you square in the head. You were knocked out from the impact and we brought you to the infirmary. We had to request a private room to make sure no 'incident' would occur." Katrina said.
I looked at her with a spike of fear. "Nothing happened. You need to rest." Katrina answered.
"I had a strange dream. I saw Sir Lance doing the drill on this…..pane of glass. It was a moving picture. I don't know what to make of it." I said.
I laid on the cold stone, reflecting on what the dream could be. Maybe it's my imagination. I tried to get rid of the dream. It wasn't anything more than my imagination.
I heard a door open and close with the sound of footsteps following. Katrina greeted him and he came up to the table.
"How is your head?" Sir Lance asked.
"It feels like someone is hitting my head with rocks, sir." I answered.
"The injuries you sustained were only a minor concussion along with a few fracture bones in your ribs and arm. A regular Pokémon would have suffered more. I believe the monster in you helped you a little, but due to your exhausted state you still received a decent amount of damage to your body. You will need to rest before you continue your training." Sir Lance said as he walked towards the door.
He said something to Katrina and he stepped out, leaving us alone in the room together. I laid on the cold stone table and pondered what had happened to me. I slowly began to notice the bandages and sling. Then the pain began to slowly creep through my limbs. All I wanted to do was sleep to leave the pain that was pulsing through my limbs with each heartbeat
"How do you feel?" Katrina asked me.
"I feel pointless. What am I even training for? I am a monster! A literal freak of nature! I shouldn't be allowed to live. Training to control myself seems pointless." I began to tear up from my own words.
Katrina walked up to my stone bed and looked me straight in the eyes. Her intense stare resembling Sir Lance.
"Why do you think Sir Lance has done so much to keep you alive? Why stick out his neck for a murderous monster that is clearly guilty of it's crimes? Why do you think I took you to the council and not just let Luke give him the chance to kill the thing that had ruined the safety of his village?" Katrina asked, still holding that intense stare.
I didn't know the answer. I felt the power of her words. She wanted an answer from me and I couldn't give one. I never really thought about the reasons why they had helped me. Every step of the way, I have had someone to help me and save me from danger.
"Why? Why help me?" I asked.
She stood up straight and started, "You being a monster and being a freak of nature, I thought the same thing when I was growing up. You have only begun to feel the depression and pain of being a monster. I saw you transform back into a normal lucario, I looked at your aura. You were scared and innocent, like a young child. "
That innocence that I saw was what kept you alive from Luke. I think Sir Lance saw you in me and believes that you can be an instrument for good in the guild. That is your sentence. To work in an exploration for as many years equal to how many you have killed. Return the lives that you have taken. That is your reason for living, to fight. " Katrina said.
She believed in me. So did Sir Lance. I had other's that believed in me. That want me to fight. I began to feel hope again for something. A goal in mind for me to work forward to. I had to pay my debt.