"Yeah, maybe." Meissa said. "I don't think they would want to come along, but I'll talk to them tomorrow before I head to the meeting spot. There's my burrow, bye Rigel."
"See ya Meissa." Rigel said as his sister walked away. He then continued on in silence towards his home, thinking about what he would do the next day. He thought about all the places he saw in the first dream he had of the stone, and felt great excitement when he imagined himself seeing those places for real, but that excitement quickly passed as he remembered the other dreams. The strange silhouettes, the blazing sun, the creature and the Eevees, the anger and sorrow he felt when the dreams ended, he tried to think of what they might mean, but his thoughts were interrupted as he felt a sense of malice and hatred far more intense than what he felt while fighting the Sableye, then he heard a familiar sound, the sound of something putting weight on branches.
"Dad." Aludra said as she approached her father. "We need to talk. I've decided that tomorrow I'm going with my friends to travel the world and train. I don't know how long I'll be gone, but I promise I'll come back some time."
"So you have your plan?" her father said. "It's good to know I've raised you to be strong enough to make that choice. While I'm not happy that you are going, I understand that you feel like you need to, and I'll be waiting for you when you get back."
"Wow, really?" Aludra said. " I thought you would need more convincing than that. Anyway, my friends and I will meet up and leave in the morning."
"You had better get some training in before you go then." said her father. " You want to be as ready as you possibly can."
Tarazed flew to the edge of the forest, where he saw the tree he was born in, with two Starlys sitting in the branches loudly arguing with each other over who was the tougher of the two.
"I'm way stronger than you, idiot!" one of them said. "You're the weakest one of all of us!"
"Weakest?" the other said back. "I could beat both you and Tarazed in a fight, so shut your beak!"
Tarazed gave out a sigh as he heard them. His brothers were the same age as him, but they always bickered and argued like hatchlings over the smallest things. "Altair, Alshain, I don't really want to get involved in this," Tarazed said as he landed on a large branch. "But I think I could beat both of you."
"What? Tarazed?" Altair said. "You evolved? No fair!"
"How did you do it, huh?" said Alshain. "You must have done something weird like finding one of those rocks. There is no way you could evolve before me!"
"Shut up, I'm not here to participate in your little squabbles." Tarazed said. "I'm here to tell you that I'm leaving this forest. You two don't need me here and I don't want to be here with you, so I'm going with my friends to wherever the road takes us."
"What? First mom and dad, now you're leaving too?" Altair said in disbelief. "Alshain, you're driving away everybody in our family!"
"Me?" said Alshain. "I bet it's you! You're such a pest!"
"Be quiet!" Tarazed yelled. "It's both of you, now goodbye." He then took off back towards his home tree as his brothers continued to argue.
Hearing the sound in the trees, Rigel quickly jumped to the side, dodging several razor sharp leaves that stuck themselves into the ground where he was standing. He looked up into the branches to see the Sceptile he and his friends had defeated, now with an ugly scar on it's face where Aludra's kick had burned it. "I see you've gotten bigger, you little disease" It said as it jumped down. "But it doesn't matter. Without your little friends to save you, I'm gonna make you feel just like I did when that Riolu did this to my face, and then I'll make you stop feeling entirely."
"Y-you're that Sceptile who tried to eat me." Rigel said as he got low to the ground in an aggressive stance. "I don't need my friends to help me now, lizard. I can beat you myself."
"My name is Varanus, not lizard." the Sceptile said. "Although I don't know why I'm telling you, it won't matter in little bit."
Rigel shot a Psycho Cut at Varanus as quickly as he could, but the Sceptile easily jumped out of the blade's path.
"So you've got new tricks too." Varanus said. "All they are gonna do is delay the inevitable." As he was saying this, the leaves on his arms began growing and sharpening again. He then rushed towards Rigel with his arms outstretched.
Rigel threw another blade of energy at his oncoming opponent, but had to roll out of the way as Varanus did a frontward flip over it and and landed leaves-first, causing them to get stuck in the ground. As Varanus tried to free himself, Rigel jumped on his back and focused malevolent energy into his teeth before biting down on the back of his neck. The Sceptile screeched in pain before throwing Rigel off of his back and opening his mouth to fire a volley of small seeds. Several of the seeds struck Rigel as he rolled across the ground, and while they didn't cause much injury, the spots where the seeds hit stung unlike anything he had ever felt. Varanus then gave an ear-splitting screech that made Rigel cover his ears in pain before walking over and cocking back his arm to slash at him.
Rigel looked up into the face of the Sceptile for a second before a wide grin formed on his face, and he began to laugh quietly.
"What are you smiling about, you little peice of trash?" Varanus said. "Finally accepted what's going to happen?" Varanus then felt a tap on his shoulder...
