Three

She'd known the day was coming for a long time. The meaningless tasks she'd been sent on were mere practices for the mission she would take over.

"This isn't going to be easy, Hikari." Her brunette friend worried as he handed her the newest form of armour specifically made for the only female warrior in the kingdom.

"I shall be fine. I won't..." She paused, steadily regaining her composure, steeling it against the threatening grief she'd endured for long enough. "I won't make the same mistakes as Satoshi, Kengo. He would have wanted that much."

"You don't know what you're facing, this man is said to have strong pokemon allies. More than one! I wish you hadn't have accepted." Her childhood friend, brother in all ways except blood, fretted as he secured her chest plate. He offered her gauntlets, but she refused and instead opted for gloves.

Long lasting foods had been packed tightly away and ready to be attached to her belt, and she tied her mask onto her arm. Whilst moving her armlet back into place, she spotted the pained expression on Kengo, his arms crossed tightly across his stomach.

"I have to go." She insisted, placing a gloved hand onto his shoulder, she could feel him tense under her touch. "This is vital to winning the war. I will return." She offered a weak smile, and bravely, she inhaled; "I'm the youngest warrior in years, and the first female. Of course I'll return."

Though neither of them could truly believe it, both willed themselves to hope it would be enough to complete the task her tutor had failed at. The two reached their right arms out and grasped at one another's forearms in the Solaris Warrior salute. They lingered, both vividly aware that this might be the last time they would see each other, and Hikari had to look away.

"I need my bow."

Kengo nodded, releasing her arm and turning to retrieve her weaponry. Of course, her solar sword was always sheathed at her side, but the rest had been waiting with the blacksmith for collection. A large steel and water type handed a case of bows to it's partner, and Kengo turned to hand it to Hikari. "Empoleon has made some more steel bows for you."

Hikari bowed toward the great water type, and it approved with a deep grumble.

"May the light of Solrock guide you to success." Kengo placed his palm to his chest, lowering his head slightly. She was sure this was to hide any weakness he felt overwhelming him gradually.

She hurried for the door to avoid causing more pain to him. "And may Lunatone keep you safe from the shadows." She replied, turning and leaving her quarters, rushing for the outskirts of the town. Once she'd reached her guardian pokemon she would be able to take hold of her emotions and control herself. She would be able to cast aside her womanly nature and take on her warrior one.

Not many people had chance to notice her pass as she slipped silently through the streets, it was barely light, and most were still merely stirring from their slumber. Those who did notice her began to whisper, but she'd grown accustomed to their conversations, there was rarely anything new.

"It's not right, sending a woman into battle."

"Have you seen her accuracy? She could pin the mighty Suicune to water with one arrow."

"She's so young... A pokemon has clearly blessed her."

She rolled her eyes and continued speeding down the hill, jumping a wall every so often to avoid civilians. She passed through several private gardens, but being a warrior gave her the priveledge and the owner the honour. At least they were giving her a decent distraction.

Her guardian's shelter was grand, more so than her own quarters. A pokemon was to be treated with respect, especially when they guarded a person's life with their own so willingly.

"We have to leave." Hikari called into the shelter, and she waited on one knee as her guardian approached. It sniffed her eagerly, then nudged her to fall backwards. The warrior greeted it quietly, and rubbed a gentle hand through the fiery mane. As it helped her stand, it gently lowered onto one of it's front legs, and she climbed up with ease. The somehow material flames didn't burn as she took ahold of some of it and readied for their journey. With a click of her tongue, they were speeding off into the horizon, away from the safety of the citadel.

Journeys toward a mission had always been boring to her, the anticipation of a fight did not fill her with nerves, but forced herself to mentally prepare. The rhythmic pattern of hooves ripping into the tough dirt track lulled her into a trance, and her mind set out to clear itself, ready for the up and coming battle.

"Remember, the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle." The warrior said evenly as he demonstrated his skill in swordmanship to his pupils. His guardian was acting as his opponant, using it's tail as a blade, as it glowed a magnificent white. Its human continued to teach though the tiny pauses. "Perfection is a moving target, you can never practice enough." A pause in his speech occured as the two collided, being the bigger creature, though not as powerful, the warrior managed to push his guardian away and skid backwards to end the practice. "To stay in top form, you have to work constantly, or else someone will better you. You must not let arrogance deter you from practice."

"Yes Master Satoshi." The gathering of pupils chorused respectfully, all of them sweating anyway, depsite his speech.

"Dismissed." The teacher bowed to them, which they all did in return and dispersed in groups. All except one.

He'd grown to expect it now, the kingdom was set in it's ways, and the young boys were heavily influenced. Hikari was yet to be accepted by her peers, due to the long tradition of male-only warriors. Her once friendly nature had iced over into a hard shell to sheild her from the verbal abuse she'd recieve after lessons. Though none were foolish enough to attack her, they clearly had enough respect for her skill.

"Are you not hungry, Hikari?" Satoshi inquired, his guardian leaping to his shoulder.

The young girl shook her head; "Not quite yet, I wanted to practice a little more. If you don't mind, sir?"

"Not at all." He smiled, gesturing to the training ground; "it's yours to use."

She nodded and then bowed, "Thank you Master Satoshi." She was already running for the targets to practice her archery.

"The Monarch was right." Satoshi mused to his guardian as he eyed her impressive accuracy. "She's going to be a brilliant warrior."

"Pikaa."

"How times have changed." Hikari muttered as her guardian continued to canter through the midday sun. It grunted in response, barely listening to her mutter to herself. Her mind flashed through memories, only a few of them significant to her. She remembered how she'd let arrogance slowly poison her, and bitterness toward her peers only pushed it along. Eventually, her master had stepped in and challenged her, and she was stupid enough to accept.

It had not ended well, he had purposefully slashed at her arm, the one that would eventually bare the warrior's armlet.

"You are not a warrior yet, Hikari. You are equal to your fellow pupils. Never forget that." He had snapped, and she remembered hating him for it. Hating that he'd given her peers something to laugh about, something to bait her with. But in hindsight, she knew he'd done it for her, to stop her from slipping into the fatal error of being too arrogant to defend properly, the flaw that he had seen many men fall with.

"You remind me of myself." He told her after a training session. His finger brushed along the scar that was now forming on her arm. She looked to where he had touched, and then back at him, the burning hatred in her eyes suddenly flickering under to words he spoke. He smiled at the confused expression on her face, and he removed a glove from his right hand. She realised she'd never seen him without a glove, and that moment she understood why. His hand was marred and disfigured to the point where the thin layer of forever-reddened skin barely covered the bones beneath. Every knuckle was heavily defined, and his nails were either mangled or non-existent. It was not a normal burn, no human would be foolish enough to leave a hand in a fire long enough to recieve wounds to that extent.

"Sir..." Her hatred had doused upon the sight of it. "What happened?"

He smiled weakly and sat, his guardian jumping into his lap and patting the disfigured hand gently. "I came face to face with a strong man, a leader of a group of warriors, without a doubt. His guardian was a fire type, it's head bore a crown of flames, and it's body was armoured in white and yellow. I'd never seen one before, I didn't know what to expect. Still, I didn't care, I foolishly went into battle blind, ran in and began fighting with the man. He was good, but younger than me, I knew I had the advantage of experience. I... Became careless. As Pikachu faced the fire guardian, I wasn't watching my back. Just as I had the man pinned to the floor, I heard Pikachu cry. I turned, and the fire guardian was attacking me, if I hadn't put my hand in the way, I probably would have died."

Hikari looked to the hand, wondering how he could have survived if he hadn't taken the attack the way he had. She came up with no answer. The burnt hand was a blessing compared to death.

"You must understand that I've much more experience than you, Hikari. Therefore I've made many more mistakes. I challenged you myself because I controlled how much I hurt you. You learnt the same lesson I did with the fire guardian." He looked down to her, as she had sat and stared at his hand throughout the story. He gloved it again to stop her distraction. She blinked and looked up to her face.

"Learn from the mistakes I made, and you will be a better warrior than I." He smiled.

"Yes sir." She stood and paused; "And thank you."

He merely nodded to her as she shuffled away, the confidence she'd carried for so long had finally started weighing on her. He knew it would be some time before she could balance herself on the fine line between assured skill and arrogance, but at least she was on her way.

Her guardian whinnied at the appearence of a metropolis, it was still a distance off, but she knew she had to be careful now, if they spotted her, they could fire arrows when she was close. She knew it would be difficult to stay inconspicuous with her irregularly coloured guardian, and so she slowed to a halt. Carefully, she slid off the pokemon and patted it gently.

"Thank you, Rapidash. Stay safe until I return."

It bowed its head gently, and hurried off in the other direction to remove itself from the Dynasty's sight. With a sigh, Hikari turned and set off on foot, knowing it would take twice as long this way, but she knew she would have to be cautious. Whatever protection this place had was fierce enough to kill a fellow warrior.

She inhaled slowly, her chest lifting as it filled with air and in turn her shoulders fell back and her spine straightened up. Each step on the crunching, dried up plate of sand more sure than the previous as she aimed for the main gates.

"Be the better warrior." She told herself; "Learn from the mistakes." She raked the vicinity quickly to be sure nothing was stalking her silently, and continued to walk once satisfied that she was alone. "It would help if I knew what the mistakes were, Master." She glanced up at the sky, as if talking to the clouds. "How can you adapt to the unknown?"

"You could start by expecting the unexpected." A voice growled, accompanied by a thud of feet.

She twisted on her heels, her solar blade already in her hand and her other finger twitching toward a throwing knife that she'd hidden safely away in her belt.

The man was rugged looking, and extremely bulky, his strategy in battle clearly being strength over speed, so she tried her best not to panic. It was hard to do so when he was two feet taller and ten times stronger. This was no Solaris warrior, for they were never built to this extreme, their strength lay below the skin, lean and long so as to be lithe and nimble. This man would not outrun her.

But she didn't feel like running.

Before the man could turn and holler to his companions, a knife spun and lodged directly into his windpipe, leaving him to gargle into the dust. She stood over him, his last remaining moments of life lingering just long enough to watch her mask herself and yank the knife back. Blood gushed from the wound, but he was free from the pain by then, his life already left to pass on to the next.

Quietly, she stooped low and scanned the area again. She didn't see him last time. How had she missed this lumbering idiot? He was far too big to be stealthy. She slowly started to walk again, her eyes darting everywhere at once to be ready for the unexpected, as the man had advised.

It was rare to have a cloudy day in this area, she noted, but revelled in the momentary shadows cast over her, relieving her of the sun's relentless heat. The sun was the Solaris warrior inspiration, it was powerful, stealthy and able to silently take lives if one was not cautious enough. Just as she had proven with the man behind her.

How had he managed to sneak up on her? It plagued her mind as she glanced around her once again. She blamed it on paranoia, and forced herself to keep up at her gruelling pace.

This would be so much quicker if I had my guardian. She complained to herself.

Then the realisation hit her with the last word of her complaint. That was no cloud before. Her eyes flashed up as another shadow cast across the sun to silouhette a large pokemon.

Six. At least. She inhaled sharply and took her battle stance, but the pokemon swooped and circled her, dropping low enough for their humans to land safely. The guardians flew off, leaving their humans to fight their own battle. Each of them as bulky as the man she'd killed, all carrying heavy longswords that she wouldn't be able to parry with for long even with her Solar Blade. Still, she tightened her hand around the golden grip and pulled the blade up close to her face. Her other hand feeling for the dagger in her shoulder sheath.

One stepped forward, flicking his sword around like it weight next to nothing. The smirk on his face infuriated her, knowing that they thought she would be an easy fight. They were in for a shock.

He charged toward her, swinging his sword down, but it smashed into the sands as she sprung backwards, then ran up the blade nimbly and kicked at his face. She propelled backwards, landing in a crouch as the man stumbled back, his nose crooked and pouring with blood, as well as a cut in his eyebrow, blinding one of his eyes temporarily.

She knew somebody would step forward to cover him as he recovered from the surprising blow, so she chanced a turn and lifted her blade to collide with an over-head swing. From the angle she'd landed at, she knew her strength would be overpowered very quickly, so she fumbled for the dagger and slashed it across his sword roared with agony and backed off, only to have her solar blade drive through his stomach. She wasn't busy watching him fall off her sword to his death though, as the next was sure to follow his assault. She threw the dagger at the man closest to her, and lifted her blooded blade to collide into one more long sword. Her arm shook from the force he'd swung at, and her body shuddered after it. He backed off quickly, clearly more cautious now she'd proven to be a tough foe. She tilted her head, but did not question why he wasn't attacking again as none of them knew she was female yet. If she got away from them, she could disappear very easily.

Her question was answered as he looked a little over her shoulder, and without a seconds hesitation, she'd spun and froze. The light press of a sharp metal at her throat stopped her in her tracks.

"Drop it." The man holding her at a knife's point looked down at her blade. She chucked it aside, wincing at the thud it made in the sand. "Now take off the mask."

She lifted her hands slowly to her head, watching as the three remaining men walked behind the man threatening her life, and she saw her opportunity.

"Hurry up." The blade pressed closer, and she pretended to fumble with the fabric holding her mask in place. Instead, one hand was reaching for a throwing knife at the top of her shoulder sheath, and, like a Seviper, she struck at his wrist like she had with his team mate, then stepped forward to thrust the throwing knife in his chest. Without letting go of it, she pulled the bloody short-knife from him and threw it to the man reacting the fastest. He dropped instantly. There was only one healthy man left. Taking the longsword from the man who'd held her at knife-point, she spun on her heels to get a momentum going so she could lift the heavy-blade. It dragged a second on the sand, but then lifted aboved her head and cracked down at the last healthy man's sword. He grunted from the sheer force she'd created, and his own sword fell into him.

Leaving the longsword there, she rolled for her own, and pointed it into her first attacker's direction. He wasn't attacking though, his wrist was sliced badly, and his fingers were limp. He wouldn't be lifting his sword any time soon.

She still did not speak, instead she took a step forward and shook her blade threateningly. The man dropped to his knees pathetically, his good hand held up in surrender.

Quickly and quietly, she shuffled around the fallen bodies, checking for any lingering life. The last to have fallen was drawing his last breath, but the rest were long gone. She used a cape from one of the men to wipe her blade, as well as the throwing knife and dagger she knew better than to leave behind. Never once did she lose sight of the man whimpering about his hand, but he was far too distracted to make a move on her.

She stood, looking around quietly, noticing a few scavenger pokemon lingering for the grand meal she had provided for them. More of them were already feasting on the bodies lying further away. She knew better than to linger in a spot so easily spottable, and so she began to wander for the metropolis again.

"They'll catch you." The survivor barked; "nobody escapes. Turn back now."

She snorted, looking over her shoulder and nodding to acknowledge his warning, but she continued to walk anyway. If he didn't do something about his wound soon, he'd bleed out. She didn't voice this thought, and instead scanned the area, his words making her all the more paranoid.

She didn't get far though, the next swarm of flying guardians had spotted her and the trail of death she'd created.

Somebody is appearing! VERY SOON! 8D

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