Rigel fired off a second Psycho Cut, which sliced another rock in half just as easily as the first one. "Wow, this is a lot easier than Psychic." he said. "I guess I just need to practice with it more."
"Does that mean you'll be throwing things again?" asked Tarazed.
"Yeah, of course" Rigel replied. "How else could I get better at it?"
"Alright, in that case I'll be over here." said Tarazed as he walked behind a nearby boulder.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Tarazed." Rigel said before picking up another rock. "Alright you stupid thing, go where I want you." This time the rock stayed in the air for not even one second before crumbling into dust. "How is it that I can do things like that to these rocks, but I can't even throw them?"
"Who knows?" said Tarazed. "Maybe you just need to avoid using Psychic."
"No, I am going to get this down if it's the last thing I do." Rigel said. He held the next rock off the ground for a few seconds, but quickly dropped it when a small orange creature emerged from a hole in it's side. "For the love of Arceus, stay away!" Rigel said as he quickly backed away from the creature, which had an angry look on it's face.
"Rigel, it's just a Dwebble. Calm down." Tarazed said as he walked toward the creature. "Why are you so freaked out by bugs anyway?"
The creature turned it's attention towards Tarazed, still looking quite angry, and threw a small rock which barely missed him.
"What the?" he said. "I didn't do anything, why are you attacking me?"
The Dwebble didn't seem to be paying any attention to what Tarazed was saying, and tossed another rock, which struck him in the chest.
"Ow, darn it! Fine then you little pest, let's go." Tarazed flew off the ground and circled in the air above the Dwebble, which nearly hit him again with one of it's stones. "Hey Rigel, could you help me out here?"
"You can do this yourself can't you?" Rigel said, trying and failing to hide his fear. "As you said, it's just a Dwebble, you don't need me."
"Seriously Rigel? Ok, I guess I'm on my own, but let's see you hit me now." Tarazed then began to fly faster, leaving illusory copies of himself in his wake. The Dwebble quickly looked around in confusion, before throwing more rocks at what it thought was Tarazed, which simply passed through their targets.
"Alright, I need to get rid of that armor if I want to do anything." said the Tarazeds as their wings began to gleam like metal. "This should do just that." Suddenly they all made a dive towards the Dwebble, which braced itself for for the hit, but upon reaching it the copies faded, while the real Tarazed was nowhere in sight. The Dwebble frantically tried to see where the Starly had gone, but was then struck from behind by his Steel Wing, which shattered it's stone shell. Tarazed then flew back and hit the Dwebble again, making it roll end over end until it hit a boulder.
The Dwebble, now completely enraged by the loss of it's shell, began quickly throwing rocks into the air, but Tarazed was easily able to dodge them due to the fact that the Dwebble didn't even bother to aim.
"Ok, it's just a little bug." Rigel was thinking to himself. "Tarazed needs my help, so I need to stop cowering over here and do something. Maybe I should..."
The Dwebble was still throwing rocks and not allowing Tarazed to get close, when a look of shock appeared on it's face as it began rising off the ground.
Tarazed saw that the Dwebble was now flailing about in the air trying to get free of Rigel's hold, and used this distraction to dive down and strike it as hard as he could with his outstretched wings, knocking it out cold. "And that is why you don't mess with me." said Tarazed as he landed back on the ground. "Thanks Rigel."
"No problem." Rigel said. "I just wanted to get that thing away as quick as possib-ah!" Rigel had to close his eyes as he was interrupted by a blinding light coming from Tarazed. When the light faded, the small bird had doubled in size, and gained a curled crest. "Tarazed?" Rigel said. "You evolved too? Wow."
"I guess so." Tarazed said as he looked down at himself. "Man, Aludra is going to be mad now that we've both evolved before her."
"Um, yeah." said Rigel. He knew that it was still Tarazed he was talking to, but he couldn't help but feel unnerved when looking at him. "Maybe we should go tell her."
"Wait a minute." said Tarazed. "I'm a bit hungry again." He then walked over to the still unconcious Dwebble, and delivered a killing blow with his beak.
"Ah! Why did you do that?" Rigel said as he suddenly felt a mixture of anger, sadness, fear, and searing pain.
"I just said that I'm hungry." Tarazed said. "What's wrong with you?"
"I don't know." said Rigel, still feeling the pain. "I just... Darn it that hurts. Never mind, I'm going to tell Aludra, you just do what you were going to do, I don't want to see it."
The pain Rigel felt slowly began to fade before he found Aludra training among the stones, breaking them using focused aura energy. "Hey Aludra, I've got something to tell you about Tarazed."
"I'm busy Rigel, not now." said Aludra, trying to concentrate. "I'm pretty sure there's not much I need to know about Tarazed that I don't already."
"Alright." Rigel said. "I'll tell you how he beat up a Dwebble, evolved, and killed it later."
"What?" Aludra said in surprise. "Where is he? How could you both evolve before me? I'm going to talk to my dad, be back in a second." She then quickly walked back to her home where her father was sitting in meditation. "Dad, when will it be time for me to evolve?"
"Be patient Aludra." her father said without even opening his eyes. " You will be ready soon. "
"How do you know I'm not ready now?" she said. "You've never even told me how I would evolve."
"Fine, if you want to know, I'll tell you." her father said as he opened his eyes. "Some Riolu live with strange creatures called humans. These creatures sometimes befriend pokemon and help them grow stronger, and when the bond between a Riolu and it's human is strong enough, the Riolu evolves."
"Are there any humans around here?" asked Aludra. "What if I don't find one? Where did you find a human to evolve you?"
"There are no humans around here as far as as I know, and I have never met one. I used a different method to evolve, which you would probably have to use." said her father. "Wild Riolu have to find Aura Stones, strange gems contain large amounts of concentrated aura energy."
"Really? Where could I find one?" Aludra asked. "I'm ready to evolve, I know it. Please tell me."
"They can be found in the nearby mountains." said her father. "If you truly think you are ready, then you have to go and find one."
"I'm ready." said Aludra. "Tomorrow I will get one of those stones."
