Part One:
The Rota province
Chapter One:
Many Years Later
The humans of Rota Village were all outside in the peaceful, perfect weather of the late-summer afternoon.
Nobody, young or old, could fail to enjoy sun's hot rays combined with the gentle, cooling breeze to ensure that no-one was too hot.
The people were busying themselves with the construction of the upcoming night's events and talking in cheery, loud voices.
Wagons pulled by Ponyta and Rapidash crisscrossed the village, bringing in decorations and lumber from the northern forests.
The villagers were so occupied with the preparations, so cheerful with the day's weather, that nobody noticed a solitary creature lurking under the shade of two close-together houses. As a wagon rolled by, and light from the steed's fiery mane filled the darkened space, the creature was briefly revealed:
A Pokémon; A Lucario, though quite young in age, it looked tough and battle-worn; with its body built strong, and a scar slashed down the right of its glowing, flame-red eyes.
It stood completely still and utterly silent, its gaze flicking from villager to villager.
The people were quite oblivious to Lucario's presence, but he much preferred it this way. The last time a 'monster' had unwittingly entered the village, there had been absolute pandemonium. Many of the weaker villagers had run wild, screaming about the village being under attack whilst the stronger, more capable villagers had taken up arms and tried to drive out the Igglybuff by force. It had taken much of Lucario's cunning and stealth to repel them whilst the Igglybuff had fled into the forest on the outskirts of the village, crying for its mother.
The villagers had tried, of course, to drive all of the Pokémon in the forest away in the hopes of taking it for their own, but mysteriously, when they had entered the forest, armed to the teeth, it had been completely deserted.
Until they had proceeded even further into its depths, when a deep, dangerous, frightening voice barely more than a growl had seeped its way into their minds.
"Turn back…
Leave this forest…
You humans have no place here…
If you dare to trespass any farther, I WILL strike you down..!"
That had been too much for the majority of them. Without hesitation, they had dropped their pitchforks and pot lids and gone back the way they came, half running, half striding, and glancing nervously for any signs of an ambush on their retreat.
Those who had remained behind and ignored the warnings of punishment had returned to the village much later on, also without their weapons, but with a very noticeable difference.
In fact, they had not returned to the village, they had been found the next morning, collapsed and unconscious in the middle of the market square.
The memory of their conditions still haunted those who had seen them that day.
No-one in Rota Village had ever seen anyone look so savaged. Their clothes had been covered in filth, sweat and blood; almost every exposed bit of skin looked as though it had been beaten or slashed, and it was clear that every one of them had sustained at least two broken limbs.
But to the villages intense relief, none of the damage had been permanent, and in time, all of them had made a full recovery (although they had been too afraid to leave their homes for weeks).
Naturally they had been pestered with questions: both on what had happened, and most of all, who the attacker had been. But none of them had been able to remember. "It'd all just started happening so fast," they had said.
One thing had been made clear, however: before the attack, the voice in their minds had spoken to them one last time.
"This is your final warning…" it had apparently said,
"Before this day has ended, you will be gone from this place. The only decision to be made is whether you will leave unscathed, or whether I shall have to drag your broken bodies out myself…"
One of the villagers - a hotheaded man named Garber - had apparently shouted back,
"COWARD!" at the top of his voice, "Who do you think you are, hiding and threatening from the shadows?! If you're so tough, SHOW YOURSELF!"
At these words there had been a sudden burst of light and an explosion directly behind the group which nearly knocked them over.
"Be careful what you wish for, human," the voice had said calmly, "I do not want this to come to violence, despite what your kind has done to mine, so I will ask you again:
Cast aside your weapons and return to your homes."
"You don't scare us!" another man had shouted.
"Just TRY to drive us out!" said a third.
"SHOW YOURSELF!" Garber had bellowed one last time.
Then there had been complete silence, a rustling in the trees above, a blinding flash of light-
and then the victims had absolutely refused to say anything about what had happened next.
The identity of the attacker and that mysterious voice were still unknown. Not one of the victims could remember who or what the creature had looked like, though one of them had been sure they'd seen a pair of glowing red eyes through his own intensely swollen eyes.
Ever since that memorable event, the villagers themselves had not dared to re-enter the forest, but had hired bounty hunter after bounty hunter to try and find the red-eyed creature and silence it, all of whom had suffered the exact same fate as the villagers, who had again questioned them on what the creature had looked like, but to their great distress, the bounty hunters' memories had been so muddled by fear and confusion that they too, could not remember – and those who could remember had given detailed descriptions that completely contradicted all of their predecessors.
In the end, Rota Village had given up any hope of trying to claim the forest, but had at least taken the liberty of placing a sign just outside of it saying:
'BEWARE THE DEMON OF THE FOREST!
EXTREME, LIFE-THREATENING DANGER
LIES DIRECTLY AHEAD!
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!'
"Oh, come on, you expect me to believe a word of that?"
said a woman's voice from just out of sight.
"No, it's true!" said a man's voice in response, "You've seen the sign, haven't you? Of course it's true. Ask anyone here and they'll tell you all about what happened that day."
"Assuming, of course, you haven't already told them what to say to me when I ask them," said the woman as she and her companion in a wagon rolled past Lucario's line of sight; just a little farther away from where he was hiding.
"No, no, no…" said the man whose face he could not see, "I swear it's true. There's this one guy here - I think his name's Garber - he can tell you all about the-"
The rest of his sentence was drowned out in a skidding, scraping sound of wood on stone. The man's attention had been so focused on the woman sitting beside him that he had unwittingly steered their wagon straight into a large rock.
"YOU STUPID CREATURE!" he bellowed at the Rapidash who had been pulling them,
"YOU DISGUSTING MONSTER! YOU WORTHLESS VERMIN! How… HOW DARE YOU!?"
He then leaped down from his seat, stormed round to the back of the wagon, and procured a whip.
"Your kind should know your place by now, BEAST!" he snarled, all the pleasantness in his voice switching to pure malice.
Lucario's paws clenched as the man drew close to the Rapidash, which was squealing in pain on the ground. He had promised he wouldn't give himself away, he had promised that no matter what he saw, he wouldn't do anything that would put him in danger, but he couldn't just stand by and watch an innocent Pokémon suffer.
The man was bearing down on it, raising the whip high, and Lucario was a second away from dashing into the very centre of the village to stop him, when,
"Stop! STOP! What are you doing?!"- a hooded figure sped towards the scene and knelt down next to the Rapidash before the man could bring the whip down.
"It's HURT, you moron!" shouted the hooded figure in a male voice, "It's hurt because YOU steered it into THAT rock!"
"What the-?! Who're you?!"
The first man demanded, backing away and nearly falling over the wheels of his own wagon.
But the hooded man didn't answer him. His head was bent down and examining the injured Pokémon's leg.
In the midst of all the commotion, Lucario had just managed to slip back into the shadows before anyone could notice him.
"What's going on?-"
"-What's up with that wagon?-"
"-Who's that guy?-"
Lucario heard the voices, but did not risk peering out to see just who was speaking.
Then he heard the men's voices again,
"I asked you who you were, stranger!" said the voice of the man who had been holding the whip.
"I know, I heard you, and it's none of your business who I am!" said the other vehemently.
Lucario heard the Rapidash being pulled to its feet, and heard surprised, hushed voices talking to one another.
"What're you doing?" said the woman who had been sitting by the first man.
"It's hurt," the hooded man repeated curtly, and by the sound of it, he was unclipping the Rapidash's chains from the wagon.
"It needs to be treated."
"A wounded monster's no good to anyone!" said the first man contemptuously.
"Fine," said the second, "then I'll treat the wound and set it free."
"You will NOT!" said the first man indignantly, "Who do you think you are, kid?! You can't just stroll in here and try to take what's rightfully ours!"
"I thought 'a wounded monster was no good to anyone'," the hooded man quoted back impatiently.
"It's not," retorted the other, "but selling the thing will bring this village some fine cash! 'Treat it' if you want, but when you're done, you bring it back here, got it?!"
"Whatever you say, boss," said the second man, and he made a soft clicking noise with his tongue. "C'mon. C'mon now," he said, and Lucario heard the Rapidash begin to trot after him.
He caught a glimpse of them both. The man was wearing a large, earth-brown cloak, but as his hood was pulled up, he couldn't see his face. He was looking determinedly ahead and holding the chains around the Rapidash's neck, before they moved from beyond his line of view, and then he heard other voices again.
"Somebody get that wagon off the road! Come on, people, we've still got work to do! Let's move!"
Lucario peered out and saw a small number of villagers hurry forwards and begin to steer the wagon by hand. But he wasn't interested in that. He was far more interested in the hooded stranger.
Could it be?
Had he been right after all?
Was it possible?
He had to know.
So, making sure that no-one could see him, he scrambled up onto the straw-thatched roof and hurried along it in the same direction as the man had been going, crouching low to avoid detection.
Once he'd reached the end of the roof of the building he was on, he leapt swiftly and silently onto the next, and raised his head a little to see over the top.
He could still see the man, and there were a few villagers who were still watching him curiously, but at an order from a booming voice that seemed to be in charge of the preparations, they scurried away.
The man and the Rapidash headed out through the village gate and into the meadow beyond, and Lucario jumped lightly down from the rooftop and followed them stealthily.
Trying to remain hidden and keeping the man in view was becoming more and more difficult. Lucario had to keep his distance, for there was next to nothing close by for him to hide behind, and although this man intrigued him greatly, he didn't think it wise to let himself be seen just yet.
Suddenly the man stopped and turned sharply around.
But Lucario had been expecting this to happen at any moment now, and had already hidden himself by standing just out the man's line of sight beyond a tree.
After a moment's pause, he heard the sound of hooves again, and moved in closer to the tree to get a better view.
The man was heading away from the village in a direction which Lucario knew nothing of, as he himself had never been there.
After they had moved a little further ahead, he pursued them as quickly as he could, but then, out of nowhere, he heard the sound of more wagons approaching and ducked behind a dip in the ground just in time. The sounds of numerous voices and the contents of the wagons crashing against one another reverberated through his ears as they rolled slowly past.
Finally, when he was sure he was out of sight, he stood up from his hiding place and saw, to his great disappointment, that both the man and the Rapidash had vanished.
Where could they have gone?
He looked around hopelessly, but they were nowhere to be seen.
He knew that this was unwise, even dangerous, but he was profoundly curious about that man, and he wanted to see what he would do next, and if he really would return the wounded Pokémon to the village where it would continue to suffer.
He nodded to himself.
He had to know.
And so, closing his eyes, he began to search the Aura in the surrounding area.
The grass, the trees, and everything around him was cloaked in the deep, transparent, silver-ish Aura of nature. He directed his senses to the areas closest to him, but saw nothing conspicuous - no brightly coloured light.
The Aura was a spiritual essence inside of every living creature, whether they were a human or a Pokémon, as long as there was a conscious mind, and a quality that could be described as 'heart', then there was Aura.
A sudden thought came to him:
What would the man's Aura be like?
No matter how similar some of them may seem, all Aura's were completely unique. The colour and consistency of a being's Aura was, in fact, a reflection of their soul.
This ability to sense and determine Aura that Lucario possessed had been an incredible asset to him for a long time.
He could not think of a single moment when this gift had not been useful to him, and he treasured it greatly.
And then he had found him; he now knew exactly where the man was, and hastened across the meadow towards him, excitement and curiosity flooding him once more.
Of course he hadn't known from the start what the man's Aura had been like; he had only recognised the human shape it was enveloping. But he knew, without a doubt, that this was the man he was looking for.
For his Aura was a bright, clear, sky-blue.
Lucario slowed to a halt when he heard the sound of running water, and then after about a minute of heading in the same direction, he saw them - the man kneeling by a stream and scooping handfuls of water onto the Rapidash's wounded leg.
Lucario watched them silently for a moment. The Rapidash seemed to be recovering quite well, but after the third splash, it gave a squeal of discomfort and tugged at its chains which the man had tied to a tree.
Perhaps he didn't realise that Fire-Pokémon found water of mostly cool temperatures to be bone-chilling.
"It's okay…" the man said, "I'm almost done, hold still…"
And he fashioned out a cloth and wrapped it tightly around the wound.
"There you go…" he said quietly, standing up, "and now…"
Lucario couldn't believe his eyes.
The human was removing the chains and collar from around the Rapidash's neck, and was throwing them aside.
"You can go wherever you like," he said, "nobody's in charge of you anymore. You're free."
And he turned on the spot and began to walk away, but then he caught sight of Lucario watching him, and froze.
For perhaps a full minute, Lucario and the man stared at each other, and now Lucario saw his face:
The man was young, very young; only a few short years above adolescence, with neck-length black hair and dark-green eyes which had widened as they fell upon him.
Lucario's heart was racing, but he was not at all afraid of this human; he could overpower him in an instant if he wanted to, but he still felt strangely curious.
The young man held up his hands and started to back slowly away.
"I'm… I'm sorry," he said, and there was a noticeable tremor in his voice, "I'm in your territory, aren't I? I didn't mean to trespass, really!
Look, here are my hands, I'm not armed, and I'm going to leave right now.
So… please just let me go… okay?"
Lucario watched him unblinkingly until the young man had turned his back on him, then, at last, he spoke to him through telepathy,
"You are different from the others of your kind I've seen, human."
The young man froze on the spot.
"What was…? Who's there?!" he asked, looking around.
Lucario continued,
"You show compassion, and you seem to care about the lives of creatures besides yourself. I never imagined I'd see a human like that in Rota Village."
The young man finally looked back at the Pokémon, whose face remained blank and impassive, and said uncertainly,
"Did… Did you just…?
Was that you…?
Did you just…"
"Speak?" Lucario finished his sentence calmly.
The young man yelled out and staggered backwards in shock, and so great was this stagger that he tripped on the rim of his cloak and fell hard to the ground.
The Rapidash let out a great frightened cry and shook its head to left and right before turning and fleeing across the stream, splattering large clumps of water and mud onto the young man, who had flung out a hand and began to call,
"Wait!" But the fleeing Pokémon gave no sign that it had heard him, and before long, it was nothing more than a mere speck in the distance.
The young man looked back at Lucario, whose eyes had not left him. He seemed, if anything, even more afraid of him now that he had heard him speak.
Lucario began to approach him slowly.
"Please…" said the young man, backing away on his hands as the Pokémon drew close,
"Please just let me go. You won't ever see me here again. I promise I won't tell anybody about you. Please don't-"
"Calm yourself," said Lucario, in his deep, gravelly voice, coming to a halt directly beside his legs,
"I have no reason to harm you."
"You…" said the young man, his voice unsteady from shock,
"You can…?" His mouth moved soundlessly over the word 'talk'.
Lucario nodded, and offered his paw to the young man, who had at last stopped trying to get as far away as he could from him.
"What… You… You understand me?" he asked breathlessly, "You… understand what I'm saying?"
"I do," Lucario answered simply, still holding out his paw.
"But…" said the young man, "But you're a monster! How can you understand me?"
Anger flashed in Lucario's eyes.
"Monster…?" he repeated, his voice so low it seemed to shake the earth,
"I'm a 'monster', am I…?"
"I… What, y-you're not…?" the man stuttered, clearly aware he had said something to offend the creature.
The two of them were silent for a moment, then Lucario's outstretched paw returned to his side, and he grunted disgustedly.
"Typical. Arrogant. How very 'human' of you," he said,
"It must be so comforting for you to refer to us as monsters, even though you humans came to our world, oppressed and enslaved our kind, and forced us to do all your dirty work.
No. We are monsters. We are 'savage and dangerous beasts'. So that makes it all alright."
"I - What? - But-"
The young man was genuinely speechless. Twice he made an inaudible stutter that might have been an attempt at saying something, but Lucario had had enough. He was finished talking to this human. He was wasting his time.
He turned away and was about to leave, but the young man said desperately,
"W-Wait! Please, wait just a second!"
Lucario stopped and looked round.
The human was getting cautiously to his feet and looking puzzled.
"Have I offended you?" he asked, "You creatures aren't called monsters?"
"No, fool. No, we're not." Lucario replied.
"I-I'm sorry," said the human, "I don't know you by any other name - I didn't mean to offend you. And come to think of it, I guess it was kind of rude of me to call you a 'monster' of all things…
But what are you creatures called? If not monsters, what do you call yourselves?"
Lucario was silent for a moment. All of the sudden anger he had felt was beginning to cool.
"We… are called Pokémon," he said at last, "The creatures you humans refer to as monsters are called Pokémon."
"Pokémon…" the man repeated, closing his eyes as though making a mental note, "Pokémon. Not monsters. Pokémon…" Then he nodded and looked up.
"All right… Pokémon, I'm sorry if I offended you. I didn't realise you wouldn't like being called a monster, and from now on I won't call you - or any other Pokémon - by that name again. I'm truly sorry to have offended you, and it won't happen again," he said, giving a small, apologetic bow.
Lucario gazed intently at the young man.
"All right then. Apology accepted."
"Thank you," said the young human, and finally, he reached up and lowered his hood.
"I'm Rowan. Rowan Jovani. I'm from the human land - but then, you already knew that. I've come here to see this land, to see what kinds of creatures there are here.
I'd heard that an entirely different race from us humans lived here, and I wanted to see if it was true…
Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you." He smiled politely then, and held out his hand.
Lucario hesitated for only a second, then took they young man's hand and shook it slowly.
"A human traveller?" said the Pokémon interestedly,
"Well… that's new.
I was starting to think that the human race consisted only of hotheaded farmers and self-centred villagers.
Pleased to meet you, Rowan."
"Is that what you meant when you said I was different from other humans?"
Rowan asked, letting go of Lucario's paw,
"That I'm not a self-centred villager?"
"Not entirely, no," Lucario replied, "I was referring to the way you helped that Pokémon pulling the wagon.
You may not have realised it, but she was very grateful to you. And when you set her free, she was thanking you almost profusely."
"It… She was?" said Rowan skeptically, brushing away the last remains of mud off his tunic.
"Yes, indeed she was.
In fact… why did you help her?"
"Why? ...Oh, I don't know, I just... I thought I should."
"You thought you should? Or you don't know?" Lucario persisted.
"I… Ah-" Rowan sighed and shrugged hopelessly, "It just looked like she could do with some help. That guy was going to… y'know… and it wasn't even her fault. I couldn't just let that happen…"
"Is that so? How kind of you.
But then, why did you set her free afterwards?"
Rowan sighed again, and almost laughed in his discomfort.
"Why are you asking me this?"
"Because I'd like to know."
"Yes, but why?"
"Because I've never seen a human do anything like this before."
Rowan opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it again.
They were silent for a moment, then Rowan said at last,
"I… I set her free because I didn't want her to suffer any longer. She hadn't done anything to deserve what she got…
When I'd first heard of the discovery of an entirely different breed of being, along with a whole new continent, I… I thought that this was incredible news… I thought that these beings and humans would… maybe live together, or something. But when I came here and saw the way they were being treated, I…
I could barely comprehend what I was seeing."
Rowan's gaze fell to the ground. Lucario was watching him closely, listening to his every word.
He continued,
"It's just like you say… This isn't our world, it's yours. And even though humans are the aggressors here, we still call your species 'monsters'.
But that one - that Pokémon - wasn't a monster. I wanted to save her from all that… I wanted to save her from a lifetime of being treated like she was just some... thing."
A long silence followed these words. Lucario could hardly believe what he was hearing. Surely he had to be dreaming.
A human who cared for Pokémon as equals?
One who actually saw the injustice behind how they were treated in places like Rota Village?
The idea felt so outlandish and unreal, and yet it also felt so incredible.
Lucario couldn't help but smile. He had been right.
Rowan looked up at last and said,
"There. Now you know why I did it."
Lucario blinked as though coming out of a trance, and, still smiling, said,
"Thank you for telling me that, Rowan. It seems not all humans are like the ones I've seen before.
Perhaps even…" But he stopped there, for he'd just noticed something.
"Perhaps even… what?" Rowan asked curiously.
"Nothing…" said Lucario. He looked up over his shoulder and saw, as he had thought, that the sun was beginning to set.
"Well, Rowan," he said, turning back to him,
"it's been a pleasure to speak with you, but I have to leave now. Perhaps we'll see each other again someday, but until then, good-bye."
He had only taken a few steps, and had only just prepared to break into a run when Rowan had called him back again,
"Hey, wait!"
Lucario sighed and turned back around.
"What?"
Rowan hurried towards him.
"Where are you going?" he asked, slightly breathless, "Isn't this your home?"
"No," Lucario replied, "my home is… somewhere else."
"Is it nearby? Is it close to Rota Village?"
Lucario eyed him warily.
"Maybe," he said, "Why do you want to know?"
"Well…" said Rowan awkwardly, hesitating, glancing here and there, scratching the back of his head,
"I was just wondering if…"
He paused again, then shrugged, and went on a little slowly,
"I've never really… well, spoken to a Pokémon before. I mean, I have tried to communicate with them a few times, but the closest thing to an understanding I've gotten is them looking at me weirdly, and that's not really much progress."
He paused again, and Lucario waited silently for him to continue.
He got the impression that Rowan wanted to ask him something, but was too nervous or embarrassed to do so, and meanwhile the day was drawing to an end. Lucario needed to hurry.
"You see…" said Rowan, trailing off again, until Lucario could not bear it any longer.
"What is it?" he asked, with a note of impatience in his voice, "I don't have time to waste right now. If you've got something to say, just say it."
Rowan looked surprised, but noted what had been said, and went recklessly on,
"Okay, see, there's a friend of mine who lives nearby - she owns this tavern - and I was planning on visiting her tonight, and I'm sure she'd love to meet you.
And… And I don't suppose you're… well, hungry, are you?"
Lucario's eyes widened slightly.
"Are you inviting me to dinner?" he asked sceptically.
"Well… yeah, I suppose. I am."
Lucario's mouth opened slightly, revealing four long, pointed fangs.
"Just hear me out!" said Rowan in response to the Pokémon's look of stunned disbelief,
"You don't have to come if you don't want to; it's your choice, of course.
It's just… Well, like I said, I've never spoken to a Pokémon with the impression that they know what I'm saying to them, and I know you understand me.
This is a rare opportunity for me to talk, and ask questions, and of course, for you to as well.
But if you're uncomfortable with that, then I understand. It's your choice."
Lucario's expression shifted from disbelief into a thoughtful frown.
"Hmm…"
He looked back into the sunset, which was creeping behind the distant mountains, and pondered.
"So…" said Rowan after a minute, "what do you say?"
"It is an… interesting offer," said Lucario vaguely.
"You don't have to decide right now," Rowan continued, "I'm planning on heading there tonight.
How about this; I'll come back here when I'm ready to go, and if you'd like to join me, we'll meet up here and go together.
How's that sound? You go do whatever it is you need to do, and if you're still interested, you can come back here."
Lucario nodded, not entirely aware of what he was doing, and said, even more distantly, "All right… that sounds… agreeable."
"Great," said Rowan brightly, "Well, 'bye then."
"Right…" said Lucario, and giving the human one final look of great perplexity,
he began to sprint away, not looking back or responding as the young man called,
"See you later! Maybe!"
Lucario's mind raced as he ran across the meadow. What had just happened? What was he doing? Was he just being foolish? Naïve?
He slowed down a little so that he could gather his racing thoughts and contemplate them.
Was he doing the right thing? His head spun.
For nearly four years he had been protecting his friends from the brutality of Rota Village and from humans in general, and now he was being invited to dinner by one of the very same creatures? Ridiculous.
He slowed to a walk as familiar shade spread across the ground at his feet,
and looked up. There, directly ahead, was The Forest, its great large trees motionless in the sunset.
Lucario stopped, only to briefly read the sign at its entrance.
'BEWARE THE DEMON OF THE FOREST!
EXTREME, LIFE-THREATENING DANGER
LIES DIRECTLY AHEAD!
ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!'
He chuckled, and wondered just what everyone would think if they knew that the Demon of The Forest had been invited to dinner with a human.