Rufflet and Braviary

One of the first Pokemon he encountered down the trail was a Braviary, a fierce-looking bird with bright plumage and dark scars. He'd seen them before, usually from a distance as they circled in the sky searching for prey. As it was down here, perched on a fallen tree, it seemed like a good one to start with. "Hello," he said.

"Whaddya want, weirdo?" the Braviary asked, stretching up with his head held high. The golden sunlight dappled across his red feathers made him seem quite majestic, despite the rough attitude and scars. "Don't meet many of you who just come up and say 'hello'."

"Probably because most of them don't expect to understand the response," he said, bowing his head. "My name is N; would you mind talking with me?"

The Braviary brought up his wings and opened his beak without a sound for a moment. As it was a gesture of intimidation, N stayed still where he was. Predatory Pokemon liked to assert themselves; backing down in submission would cause the Braviary to dismiss him, while other motions could be interpreted as aggression. He hadn't figured out which moves on his part were seen as aggressive, so not moving was a good neutral stand.

Feeling satisfied that he'd made his power known, the Braviary relaxed. "Fine, it's not like I have anything important going on. What is it?"

"I'm planning on a revolution for the world, to protect innocent Pokemon," N said, about to go on when the Braviary interrupted him.

"You mean a war?" the bird said, leaning over towards him. "That's great news! I've been waiting on another one to start my whole life."

Feeling horrified that that was the initial impression, N held his hands up and shook his head. "No, not a war. At least I hope it doesn't devolve into war."

"How're you going to have a revolution without a war? I was under the impression that the two things were always linked."

"There doesn't need to be violence," he said. Violence only ever made problems worse. "I was going to present the truth to everyone, pointing out how their ideals are flawed, and convince them through such reasoning to change."

The Braviary looked at him, then shook himself. "Sounds silly to me. Even Pokemon don't like being told that they're wrong. The other humans will probably get mad at you and start a war anyone. And that would be great because you humans make war a thousand times more intense."

"Surely that's not all you think we're good at," N said. Because if it was that way, things might be a thousand times worse than he had prepared for.

"Well it's the best part to me," the Braviary said. "I remember back when I was a Rufflet chick, my father told me about a war that he had been a part of. And it was such a glorious thing: prevailing over all odds, humiliating your enemies, and defending the honor of your side."

How long did this kind of Pokemon live? N wasn't sure. "There was a war not that long ago? But it must have had a lot of bloodshed and death." So terrible, and such a waste of life.

The Braviary was of a different opinion, holding himself proudly in memory of his father. "Yeah, that's one of the exciting bits: the fact that every time you go out on the battlefield, you have no idea if you're going to leave it. The risk of death makes the challenge of the fight real. Battles in the wild, nobody cares or puts that much effort into it save for hunting situations. And those Trainer battles, pfft, you know that they can just heal you whenever. I guess if I was really bored, I might join one. But I'd rather join a war."

"Why would you want to get hurt?"

"Because that's proof that you're tough. Like all my scars prove how brave and powerful I am. Like this one over my eye, I got it when I was only a Rufflet!"

"I thought such scars could heal up better on evolution," N said, having seen it happen on a few Pokemon that he knew. But most of his friends were reluctant to battle so never got to a position to evolve further.

"Why would I want it to heal fully?" The Braviary edged himself along the log, allowing a second to land. This one looked a lot cleaner than the other, although she was missing a toe on one foot. "It was the mark of an amazing series of battles. There was the dragon that moved into my territory, which I'd recently got old enough to claim. It was a great big armored thing, with sharp tusks, and ten times the size of me as a Rufflet."

"That sounds like it could be a Haxorus, except I don't think they're quite that big," N said.

The scarred Braviary shook himself. "Don't make my stories look weak. It's a great pride to me what happened."

"Oh, sorry." It probably was just a regular Haxorus, although a Rufflet taking on one of them still seemed a major challenge.

The Pokemon continued with his story, acting like he was strutting even though he was perched on one spot. "I had been hearing my father's story about the war, and I wanted to get really powerful really fast so that I could fight in a war too and be a part of the glory. I challenged this dragon thing to a fight and it thought that I was dumb. Can you believe it? I needed to fight powerful enemies to get powerful myself, and he was the biggest baddest Pokemon around. He beat me the first few times around, not taking it too seriously. But I was serious. I kept training and practicing, and working my tail feathers off. And then one day, I was doing really great against the dragon, enough that it stopped being lazy and lashed out to give me this gash across my eye and forehead. The blood in my eye blinded me a bit, but it sent me into a berserk fury that was a gorgeous blood-drenched spectacle, I'm sure. I ended up blacking out, but when I returned, the dragon thing admitted that I had defeated him and that he would move on. That was my first huge victory, so I want to keep this scar nice and visible as my personal trophy."

Hearing it, N wondered if the Haxorus had won and lied about it to keep the violent little Rufflet from continuing to harass him. He'd been taught that Pokemon minds weren't of the same level as humans (which he could see, but felt was exaggerated too much), and that they were innocent creatures. This didn't sound that innocent; maybe the Braviary didn't realize the harm he caused. "I guess so. But shouldn't everyone try not to cause needless harm?"

The scarred Braviary looked at him for a moment. "I don't know what you mean, human. You really are weird." Then he spread his wings and took off for the sky.

N watched him leave, then turned to the second Braviary that had landed there. "He seems too proud of his scars."

"Well why shouldn't he be?" she asked. "He's got so many of them that he's the most amazing warrior around here I'm sure that if you did start a war, he'd be the first one you ought to call on to join your side. I wish I had that many scars, but all I've got is this dinky missing toe. Hardly means anything without other trophies, but I can't seem to get struck hard enough to get properly scarred. I heard one of my neighbors actually bit her own wing to fake a good scar; so pitiful."

"I guess there's too many Pokemon out there for me to know about all of them," N said, mostly to himself. He moved on down the trail, thinking that he wouldn't be recruiting a Braviary for his efforts.

…

Rufflet White entry: They will challenge anything, even strong opponents, without fear. Their frequent fights help them become stronger.

Braviary White entry: The more scars they have, the more respect these brave soldiers of the sky get from their peers.

N's a fun character to write about, especially when you put him in a scene with a Pokemon that goes against his views.