Taking a deep breath and slowly pulling his conscious brain from his slumber, Ben tightly shut his eyes in an attempt to stave off the light that he could detect even through his closed eyes. It was obviously morning—well, it was daylight at the very least. It could have been three in the afternoon for all he knew. It wasn't like he had any way that he could quickly check the time; he would have to gauge an approximation based on the position of the sun.

The male pulled his arm toward him to draw his companion nearer to him so he could squeeze every second out of their embrace that he could, only to find that he had already lost that opportunity. His eyes opened, blinking in the daytime sun to see that the bunny girl had already gotten up, and she had even tucked him into her own sleeping bag after she had done so. Had he really been sleeping that deeply that he hadn't even woken up when she got up?

He resolved to sit up, rubbing at his right eye with the back of his right hand, another deep breath entering him and being released in a sigh. He looked out through the open tent flap to see that the fire was out, the spit was gone, and their bags were neatly packed and piled together just inside of his field of view from inside the tent. Evidently Delaney had been up long before him, and was eager to get back on the road and get on with their journey.

Now almost fully awake, Ben decided that his desires were obviously not possible. He couldn't just sit around in the forest with Delaney and pretend that he didn't have any responsibilities… could he? A frown set into his face, and he adjusted his posture slightly, staring at the ground. What actually would happen if he just decided that No, he didn't want to take any part in any of this Prophecy bullshit and he just wanted to relax in this new world? Was saying screw it and settling down somewhere a possibility, or would there be some kind of repercussion if he were to try?

"Oh, you're awake! Good morning," came a voice that brought him back from his thoughts. He looked up to see that Delaney was indeed fully dressed and appeared to have been awake for quite some time, considering that she didn't have the same grogginess about her that Ben did about him. In fact, she was instead presenting herself in the same bubbly and upbeat manner that he had grown not only accustomed to but also rather fond of. It made him think about the previous night, and the uncomfortable exchange that they had shared. He wondered if she would bring it up, or if she was just going to pretend like nothing had ever even happened.

"Yeah, I just got up as a matter of fact." He looked at her briefly before crawling out of the tent and stretching his arms and legs. The first stretch of the morning always felt heavenly. "I didn't even wake up when you got up, I must have been so tired. Either that or you're just a much better morning person than I am," he said with a smile, turning his head in either direction and receiving a satisfying crack each time. He looked back to her then, noticing that she was wearing essentially the same that that she had been the previous day except the color scheme had changed to black and a light blue. She looked good. "You look good," he repeated the thought aloud to her, smiling sheepishly.

She smiled somewhat pridefully and ran her hand down her left ear quickly. "Thanks! You look…" she trailed off, and then giggled quietly and gestured to him with one hand. "You look underdressed. Put some clothes on, I want to do some more training with you before we get going. I wanted to let you sleep, but we're actually a little behind the schedule that I had planned for today."

Ben nodded. He had sort of figured that the whole training thing wasn't just going to be a one time occurrence, and that he would have to endure whatever physical challenge she put him through once more. He was a little upset that he was forced to do so multiple days in a row, and he assumed that it was going to become a daily activity for them.

"Why do you get to make the schedules? I'm the fulfillment of the Prophecy, remember?" He drenched his words in sarcasm to make sure that she knew that he wasn't just getting full of himself. He went over to his bag and began rifling through it, pulling out another pair of shorts and a tee shirt. "I don't know, I just figure the least that you could do is run it by me," he said in a somewhat quieter, somewhat muttering voice as he stripped his shorts off and began putting on the next day's clothes. He left his underwear on, because…well, frankly, he didn't feel comfortable changing them in the middle of the woods where anyone could just walk by and see him on full display.

Delaney's hands had found her hips, and she cocked her head to the side as she listened to him, watching him dress. "Is that so, Mister Big-Shot?" Obviously she hadn't taken too well to his comments. "Well maybe I just figure that because it's my people who know a lot more about how grand and great the chosen hero would be, and oh I don't know, maybe what exactly you need to do to actually fulfill the prophecy, that I should be the one making the plan to get to that end goal. Maybe I just figured that the least that you could do is say 'thank you' for saving your ass."

Ben blinked, letting his shirt fall down along his body after having finished putting it on. "Look, Delaney, I didn't mean it like that." He frowned, walking over to where he was within a foot from her. She was still visibly upset and essentially glaring at him. Ben wanted to step into her and hug her, but he didn't think that it would be received too well. The timing just didn't seem right for him to embrace her quite like that. Instead, he just reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't want you to think that I don't appreciate you or what you've done for me, because I really do, honestly. I just…" He paused, searching for words. "I don't know. I've been feeling really small lately, like I'm just some pawn in a game of chess so big that I can't even see it going on. I've pretty much just been pushed along this whole conquest without much of a say in what's happening. It feels like everything is out of my control." Delaney's expression seemed to soften. Her posture relaxed, and she took her hands off of her hips.

A second or two passed and then she sighed and stepped toward him, her arms encircling him and pulling him into a loose hug. He gratefully returned the gesture, hugging her back a little tighter than she was. "I'm sorry. I guess I overreacted a bit," she said thoughtfully, mulling over what he had said. "I know that you don't feel like you're important now, but I promise you're not just some pawn." She pulled back to look at him. He somewhat disappointedly loosened his grp on her to do the same. "You're a queen," she said earnestly, squeezing his arms softly to emphasize what she had said. Ben frowned. Delaney looked at his expression then also frowned as she realized what she had just said. "That didn't come out right. I just meant to say that you're-"

"The most powerful piece on the board, yeah. I got it," Ben cut into her sentence, laughing and moving away from her in the direction of the tent. "That was not the most well thought out analogy, but I know what you mean," he said, looking back at her with a grin as he began breaking down the tent. She smiled and followed him over, beginning to roll up the sleeping bags. Ben paused in his deconstruction of the tent, turning his attention back to the Lopunny Anthro.

"In all seriousness though, Delaney," he said, getting her attention and causing her to pause in her own task. "Thanks for believing in me so much. It really means a lot to me, knowing that you have faith in me. Maybe even more faith than I have in myself." She looked him over, searching his eyes for a second before smiling and returning to rolling up the sleeping bags.

They finished packing up the camp site in cooperative silence, each left to their own thoughts. Once everything was ready to go, Delaney announced that it was then time for them to begin their next training session. From the position of the sun, Ben estimated that it was somewhere after noon by that point, but not too far past; maybe one or two at the very latest.

"I was hoping that I wouldn't have to actually teach you myself," Delaney admitted as she adopted a fighting stance a few feet away from Ben, who had already readied himself up. He had no intentions of getting his ass beat again. He had to be strong. There would certainly be dangers along the way, and he had to be able to face them head-on.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you obviously have some kind of encyclopedia in your head that's been telling you about all of the different Pokemon that the world has to offer. I was hoping that your fighting instincts would be similarly latent knowledge." Ben thought this over. It did make sense; he had the information that he needed to be successful on his quest, so why not the skills as well? "But, based on the way that I kicked your sorry ass across the ground last time," Delaney continued with a grin, bouncing from foot to foot athletically, "I figure I'm going to have to teach you how to access some of that power."

Ben's eyebrows raised. "Power? What do you mean?" Delaney looked at him in confusion, and slowly began to bring herself to a stop, no longer shifting her weight between her feet in preparation for a strike. She began to wish that she had gone over this with him while they were walking the previous day, when they had ample time to do so and it wouldn't delay their training.

"Well, as I'm sure that you're aware, Pokemon have certain special powers unique to their type, their species, or both." A nod of confirmation. "Well, it is said that the chosen one is supposed to bridge the gap between the two species." A blank stare. "You're supposed to be able to do the same thing," she painstakingly explained, to the surprise of her companion.

"Wait, what? Really? Like I'm supposed to be able to fly and breathe fire?" Ben grinned in excitement. Visions of him as a superhero flashed through his head. It probably would have made six year old him have a heart attack if he had found out that one day he was going to have superpowers, which is essentially what Ben heard when Delaney just explained it to him.

"What? No. Well. Not exactly." Delaney frowned. "Probably not yet, anyway." That took the wind out of Ben's sails, which Delaney noticed and tried to cheer him up. "I said 'not yet,' not 'never,' Ben. I'm guessing that you're going to have to have someone teach you everything that you have the capability of doing. As a normal type, and a Lopunny at that, I'm not really the one to teach you about the things that you just mentioned. I can't do either of those myself. I can, however, teach you some moves of my own."

Ben, admittedly a little disappointed that he was only going to get to learn normal type abilities, which seemed pretty basic and unimpressive comparatively, nodded his understanding. He supposed that it would be better than nothing, and beggars can't be choosers. "Alright, so what do you got for me, then?" he asked curiously, a bit of the enthusiasm returning to his voice. If he was going to learn from someone, he supposed that the girl that he might possibly be in love with wasn't a bad place to start.

Delaney thought about this for a second. "Well, considering it's your first time learning any ability at all, we should start with the basics." She took another pause to decide what 'the basics' actually were, and then began naming them off and raising a finger to indicate each. "Pound, Tackle, and if you can get a hold on those two, then Quick Attack." The bunny girl nodded to herself in satisfaction.

"Pound, Tackle, and Quick Attack, huh?" Ben repeated, committing those terms to memory. "Seems pretty self-explanatory, doesn't it? I mean, I've tackled you before. Was I doing it right then? Why don't I just repeat that?"

Delaney laughed, shaking her head. "Well, considering not only you didn't know what you were doing but also you didn't even manage to move me, I'd have to say that no, you probably weren't doing it right, Ben." She seemed amused by the look of slightly irritated embarrassment that was making. "Don't worry, Killer, we'll get there. It's going to take some time, though, and it's probably going to be difficult for you. Can you promise me that you won't give up?" Ben nodded. "Alright. Get in a defensive stance, and I'll show you my Pound attack, and then you can try to mirror it."

Ben did as he was told, bracing himself for what he assumed was going to be a punch that hurt like hell. Delaney drew close to him, looking up to him for a second to make sure that he was still okay with trying this, and then she pulled her arm back for what looked like a haymaker. Then she paused, and looked back up at him. "By the way," she said casually, "where did that map come from?" Ben froze. He had forgotten all about the Zoroark that he had met. What had happened to them? They had said that they would be watching him. Were they watching right now?

Unaware of how distracted and unfocused Ben was, Delaney unleashed Pound into his chest.