Chapter 1
A Riolu sat alone in his room atop a bed made from hay and straw, there were tear tracks staining the fur on his face but the crying and stopped. He had a headache now and there was no water left in his body to become tears, so there he was curled on his bed he was alone truly alone his mothers sweet and soft voice would never comfort their cub again and he certainly didn't expect his father to come and comfort him.
But he still tried, the young Riolu focused his aura and tried to find his father amidst all the other Lucario at the funeral, he couldn't see, they were all the same, they all supressed themselves, controlled their emotions and he couldn't see his father, but he reached out anyway.
And nobody came.
His father either did not hear him or simply didn't care, regardless he wouldn't just sit here feeling sorry for himself, The Riolu took a deep breath and then another and another and slowly he recovered himself from his hysterics and when he felt strong enough the Riolu stood from the bed, and with shaky feet he took step after step until he reached the corner of his room.
And in the corner of his room was a loose floorboard, the Riolu collapsed down to his knees so that he could reach it, he reached out with both paws to grab it and tried to pry it upwards Riolu lost his grip and staggered backwards landing on his back his body found the water to let a few more tears fall from his eyes "W-Why did this happen?" the Riolu managed to stand "WHY!" he felt his fists burn with aura as his sorrow turned to rage and with one punch he shattered the wooden floor, the foundation of the wooden shack shook and a crater was left in the rock beneath the floor.
At the bottom of the crater was a bag, similar to in appearance to a Rescue Team bag, Riolu channelled his aura once more, as he stretched his paw forward an ethereal hand stretched forward from his own and grabbed the bag returning it to his grip he then placed the bag around his shoulder, he quickly double checked the bags contents it was filled with all sorts of useful items, berry's, elixir, seeds and most importantly a map.
Riolu removed the map from his bag and unfolded it as he stepped out of the house and into the blizzard, he would go to the big city and find better people then these emotionless husks.
"I'm sorry Sitrus, but you know the rules."
The yellow Swablu looked across the table at the Sylveon a combination of anger and disappointment rising in her chest, yes she knew this was how things were gonna go but she held out hope that things would be different
"But you know I can handle myself, even without a partner." Her voice was hinging on desperation.
"You cannot be an Explorer without a minimum of 1 other Pokémon." The Sylveon told her matter of factly.
"Ok-know-thank-you-for-your-time." Sitrus rushed out of the small meeting room before the Sylveon could respond with tears stinging her eyes, she was foolish an idiot even, she knew what would happen when she flew in there why would it be any different than the last time.
The Swablu flew over the valley as she headed back towards the town, she looked down longingly at the Pokémon below returning from long days of Explorations and Rescue missions, she yearned for it the adventure, fighting outlaws, exploring, the fun of it all.
She felt a tear fall from her face as the realisation hit her, she would never have any of that she was just a freak a yellow Swablu, she had no friends and certainly not a partner and that was the one thing the songbird needed.
But instead she would just have to get on with her miserable life scraping by in the streets of Compass city, there was no wonder no excitement but that was her life, all alone because of her freakish colour, the tears had started coming in all their force and she perched in a nearby tree while she caught her breath.
The Kecleon looked down at the busy evening marketplace from the rooftops 10's of shops bordered the busy street with lights hanging from rope almost creating a ceiling, his scale's ability to change colour gave him very difficult to spot, most were distracted by their shopping regardless and they were spoiled for choice by the street vendors who were serving various foods the aroma made his mouth water but now was the time for focus.
Many teams from the nearby Meteorite Guild often come here after a long day of exploring, in other words they were tired he cracked a smile just thinking about it, pouches full of gold and no-one with enough energy to stop him.
There he was alone on the street a Riolu, an uncommon specie in this city they usually reside in the mountains, but there one was with an Explorers bag bulging with valuable equipment Kecleon could already taste the apples that must be stored within, he watched as the Riolu moved closer and it was thoroughly distracted by the street vendors he was looking everywhere except up and that gave Kecleon the perfect chance, he snuck onto the ropes that hung the lights across the street directly above the Riolu.
Riolu couldn't believe it, even just the smell of the cooked meats from the vendors made him jump with excitement, and the Pokémon oh the Pokémon seeing other Pokémon that weren't just Riolu or Lucario it excited him and looking at their auras, so much emot-
He was so distracted that he didn't sense the Kecleon that had just lunged onto him from behind, his head very quickly hit the gravel street and he felt the straps of his bag quickly being sliced and the bag being pulled away, he quickly stood and turned around but the thief had already scrambled onto a rooftop and was running away.
"GET BACK HERE!" he screamed out in anger and he felt waves of red stained aura rush to his hands, he used the tainted aura to push himself of the ground and into the air, leaping onto the roof and giving chase. The thief had stopped a few rooftops away, he clearly hadn't expected anyone to give chase so quickly.
Riolu stopped for a moment while the Kecleon was still distracted, he let despair wash over him and reinforce his anger, he placed his paws together and squashed the anger into a ball he pulled back one of his arms and threw the aura sphere at the thief his head swung around to face Riolu, his eyes widened in shock before he threw down a ball that made smoke and when it cleared there was five of him.
The orb hit one of the duplicates and all four of the others ran in different directions Riolu closed his eyes and focused on all four Kecleons he noticed only one of them has an aura, he whipped his head around and locked onto its aura and tried to harness his anger once more but he couldn't it wasn't there he wasn't angry it was a hard emotion to describe but he thinks… Excitement he couldn't remember the last time he was exited.
He channelled his excitement and reinforced it with happiness? He believed that was the appropriate emotion to support excitement. He once again created an orb and threw it toward the real Kecleon who had only gotten a single buildings distance between them, Riolu chased the orb as it followed the Thief.
The orb chased ahead and would've struck true if the Kecleon hadn't turned around and destroyed the orb with flurry of fury swipes, Kecleon turned and continued running but Riolu was able to use his aura powers to keep up despite the Kecleons superior speed.
This Riolu was too fast, and the Thief couldn't outpace him but he was able to gauge its strength from that aura sphere, Kecleon turned as the Riolu once again used its aura to jump over an alleyway. Both of them saw his mistake, he had left himself open to attack by pursuing so aggressively, and Kecleon quickly took advantage he jumped forward and sucker punched the Riolu back onto the other roof.
Riolu landed roughly and Kecleon quickly used him to break his own fall, Riolu tried to get up but he lost all his breath when Kecleon landed, Kecleon then put the bag down next to them and used both clawed hands to fury swipe the canine repeatedly.
Kecleon opened hundreds of small cuts on the Riolus body, and he was so quick the Pokémon couldn't concentrate or create any aura attacks. Kecleon only stopped his assault when Riolu stopped trying to fight back. Kecleon had to force himself to stop, he felt a strange thrill feeling the canines blood splattered across his claws and hands, but the Guild could tolerate a petty thief but if he had killed anyone, especially one of their own, he would be hunted on mass.
Instead, the Kecleon simply walked over to the Riolus fallen bag picked it up and jumped down into the alley. The Kecleon shifted from alley to alley using his scales ability to change colour he could very easily stay hidden he made his way back to an alley, he slipped under one of the man hole covers and into the mystery dungeon below.
The Kecleon reached his hideout with ease, he had fought his way through that dungeon hundreds of times, he threw the bag onto the big throne like chair that stood in the centre of the room, he clambered up after it and opened the bag his eyes widened at the contents of the bag, it contained at least 20 sitrus berry's even a single one would be the most money he had ever made in a single sale. These berries could make him a king amongst his fellow thieves.
The Kecleon had a smile on his face that he hadn't felt in years, he continued to rummage through the bag, a few apples some seeds however at the bottom was an item he hadn't seen before. It was a perfectly round stone glowing in a beautiful shade of orange of there was a strange symbol imbedded in the rock, the symbol was red and blue, the rock was attached to a silver chain.
He held up the rock and examined it, it was very pretty but he wasn't sure it was anything more than an antique, he turned it over in his hand before placing it around his neck. It was a good thing he had gotten back to his hideout before checking the bag, with how valuable his treasure was there was likely a mob out looking for him. It was rare to find a single sitrus berry but 20, he wouldn't believe it if they weren't sat Infront of him.
He was a Kecleon so he had a natural sense for fake items, these berries were the real deal, with all the money they would make for him.
He had thousands of ideas.
Sitrus finally returned to the outskirts of the city and began flying toward the marketplace, she looked down on the streets watching the Pokémon go about their day there were benefits to being a Swablu despite her horrific deformity, she could see everything from up here all the Pokémon walking in the streets, children laughing, a dead body.
She quickly flew down toward the figure lying in a pool of blood, as Sitrus approached she couldn't identify any significant injury's instead she saw hundreds of small cuts all over his body.
"Please don't be dead." Sitrus shuddered out in a panic.
However, as she landed nest to him, she could hear a faint breathing still coming from him, Situs very quickly used heal pulse on him and many of the cuts sealed and he began to wake up.
"Oh Arceus, are you alright?" She asked ash he began to sit up "I was flying, and I saw you bleeding are you okay."
Riolu heard a sweet voice calling out to him as he sat up, everything hurt but his cuts were seemingly healed. "Did you hit your head." The voice was still calling out and it clicked in his head that it expected a response.
"Y-yeah I'm alright." He barely managed to get the words out of his throat with how exhausted he was.
"What happened?"
"I-I don't reme- THAT BASTARD!" he immediately climbed to his feet as he remembered that Kecleon thief, and then just as quickly slipped over his own pool of blood and landed right on his butt.
"Calm down you've lost a lot of blood." She told him patiently. "Nothing will be gained by you killing yourself."
Riolu whipped his head around to retort but was transfixed by the Pokémon before him, He had never met another Pokémon before she was a small yellow bird with wings made of clouds, and by the expression on her face she was also very angry.
"Oh, yeah breath it in look at the freak!" Her sudden shift from patience to pissed of took Riolu by surprise "I just saved your life asshole; you could at least be courteous enough to keep your eyes to yourself."
"What are you talking about?" The Riolu replied, he was confused "I'm sorry if I'm being rude."
That was something she didn't hear often, no one ever apologised to the shiny for anything, maybe this guy wasn't that bad. "Alright, I'm sorry for shouting at you." She might as well be amiable to the guy. "Are you gonna tell me what happened then?"
The Riolu took a deep breath before responding "I got robbed and when I chased the thief, they attacked me."
"What Pokémon was it."
"I'm not sure."
"Did you not get a good look at him?"
"I just don't know what Pokémon they were."
This baffled the Swablu "What are you, a cub?"
"I just don't know what they're called." He was starting to get a little annoyed by the bird, but if it was common for Pokémon to know each other's specie he might as well explain.
"I grew up in the mountains, I never met another Pokémon before that wasn't a Lucario."
"Your one of those mountain tribe Riolu?" It explained why he didn't care about her deformity; he likely didn't know what a Swablu is supposed to look like. "Well when did you get here."
"About 20 minutes ago."
"Do you have anywhere to stay tonight?"
The Riolu rubbed his eyes tiredly, his injuries and repeated use of aura had exhausted him and he didn't even have somewhere to lay down for night.
"You didn't think about it did you?" The Swablu asked sympathetically, she took a deep breath before she offered "You can stay at my place if you want."
That once again took the Riolu by surprise "It's a generous offer but I need to find that thief first." The Riolu then once again tried to stand, he successfully managed to get onto two feet but when he took a step forward, he lost his footing and fell down onto one knee.
"You can't even stand." She was impressed by his determination, but he was being foolish "You don't even know what specie you're looking for."
The Riolu forced himself back onto both feet and took a few steps onto the edge of the rooftop and he looked out toward the massive city, he was tired from his trek from the mountains but once he had his bag he would be able to sort that out "I'll know him when I see him."
As Riolu began channelling his aura again to get down from the building a wave of exhaustion hit him, he felt the aura dissipate and he began to sway on his feet the Riolu would've toppled over into the alley if Sitrus hadn't landed on his shoulder and leaned him back the other way.
"Your offer still available?"
Sitrus lead the nearly dead Riolu through the streets towards her house, she got only a few more looks than usual she supposed the red Riolu would gather attention, she was quite surprised no one had tried to stop her.
She saw her house just at the end of the street by now she had landed on his paw and was dragging him forward, they stopped outside of her front door and she focused on the cloud that made up her wing to find the key it fell out of her wing and landed on of her outstretched talons, she flew from the Riolus arm onto the piece of wood jutting out next to the keyhole, she fit the key into the lock and the door swung open.
Her room was light blue and white in colour with a cloud aesthetic similar to what a real Swablu looked like, the Riolu walked into the room and promptly collapsed onto the white cloudlike sofa and the blood that was stained on his fur stained her furniture.
"Typical, I save your life and this is how you repay me."
All she received in response was snores from the sofa, she didn't know why she offered him a place to stay well yes she did, she was lonely and here was someone who wouldn't judge her for being miscoloured.
Sitrus let out a deep sigh and then got to work, she flew over the bathroom and grabbed a big metal bucket that contained a sponge she returned to the main room and exited out of the window. The Swablu carried the bucket to the river that ran through the town.
The river had a lot of boats with the crew consisting primarily of water types, Sitrus flew down and landed on the surface of the water (with her puffy cloud wings acting as floatation devices) and proceeded to dunk the bucket into the surface of the water and fill it to its brim.
She flew back to her house and saw that the Riolu was still unconscious on her sofa, she went back to the bathroom and put down the bucket. She flew back into the main room and landed on the Riolus arm she took a deep breath and began to pull the canine.
It was a struggle, but Sitrus eventually managed to move him from her sofa the carpeted floor and then to the tiled bathroom floor, she hovered above the bucket and fished the sponge out of the water, she began to scrub at the blood that was caked into his fur.
This was going to take a while.
Riolu woke up in a nest, the room was blue with a white accent colour, and there was a lump pressed up against his chest. Riolu blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked down, the lump was the yellow bird he remembered meeting, it all came back to him he was almost killed by that thief and this bird saved him and brought him to her house and judging by his fur she had cleaned him up.
He didn't know why bust she had seemed kind when she spoke to him on the rooftop and since she had saved his life he may as well trust her, he moved her aside gently so that he could stand up, he looked out the window into the plaza, he had vague memories of walking through it during the day. He stretched his tired limbs as he gazed into the moonlight, he was unaware that the Swablu was stirring.
"Where are we?" The Riolu asked as he turned toward the waking Swablu.
"YAWWN, I brought you to my house, remember." The Swablu replied before flying out of the nest and hovering so she was eye level with the Riolu "And since I brought you to my house could you tell me your name?"
"I suppose ill need to get one of those." The Riolu hadn't really thought about a name before he came down from the mountain "Where I used live we all know each other by our auras, since we were all Riolu or Lucario."
"I guess that makes sense, if you already know everyone a name would be pointless."
"I want a name though."
"You have any good ideas?"
"I haven't really thought about it." The Riolu considered the Swablu before him. "While we're on the topic, What's your name?"
"My name is Sitrus, nice to meet you."
"What, like the berry?"
Sitrus felt her cheeks blush a shade of blue "Sh-shut up it's a fitting name."
"Why would your parents give you a name like that?"
"They didn't."
Riolu was new to social interaction but even he could realise that was a bad topic of discussion, his mother was what grounded him and kept him sane in the mountains it was horrible to imagine anyone not having that.
"I'm sor- "
"I don't want to hear it."
The Riolu did as he was told and turned back to look out the window, his talk with the Swablu got him thinking about his mother and most importantly her neckla-
"Did you find my bag?"
"No which brings me to my proposition." The Swablu took a deep breath, this could work she just had to convince him "We are both able to help each other, you need help finding that thief and I want to join the guild."
"You couldn't find anyone else to be your partner?"
"Shut up I'm not finished; we make a team together and in exchange I'll help you find that thief."
The Riolu considered the offer, he had vague ideas from his mother about how a guild worked, he also knew that he would need help if he wanted to find his mother's necklace but was it worth tethering himself indefinitely to this Swablu? He considered her character; she had already saved his life on the rooftop so he supposed he might as well.
"Alright, lets do this then." Riolu raised his arm and stuck out his paw toward the yellow Swablu "Partner."
Sitrus floated closer to the Riolu and bunched one of her feet into a ball with a smile she bumped it against his outstretched paw.
"Now get some rest, your wounds are still healing."
"Should I go to the other room or…?" He could see the cogs in Sitrus head turning as she remembered where she fell asleep, The yellow Swablu then turned a shade of crimson as it clicked.
"Err u-umm your still injured so-ill just-go-into-the-other-room." The Swablu spoke quickly and with equal speed flew past him and opened the door into the living room. "G-goodnight." The door closed behind her almost immediately.
The Riolu let out a light chuckle, he could feel the Swablus embarrassment from the other side of the door. He then walked back over to the nest and lay down things could certainly be worse, yes, he had lost his bag and more importantly mums' necklace but he had a partner now, a roof over his head and was going to have a job tomorrow. He could feel his aura unsettle just at the thought of that Pokémon, he didn't even know what its specie was called but he could still see it clearly in his minds eye.
He was sure that Sitrus would be able to identify it with a detailed enough description she had been shocked he didn't know what is was so it was likely that she would know, in fact he should probably ask her what specie she is it was probably a good thing that he had accepted her offer there was lots of things he didn't know about this strange knew world outside the mountains, the Riolu closed his eyes to get some sleep there was lots to do tomorrow and for the first time in a long time he was excited to experience it all.
The Riolu woke up the next day to only a small crack of the light piercing through the window as the sun rose, he could hear sizzling from the next room and the smell was indescribable, but it smelled delicious it reminded of the smell of the marketplace yesterday. Riolu stood and walked over to the window and looked outside, the sky was still dark with only a hint of the orange sunlight rising over the mountains his thoughts turned to his father who must've realised he was gone by now.
He tried to think of happier things, like the amazing smell in the other room, he wiped the sleep from his eyes and moved toward the door and opened it. In the other room was the Swablu, she seemed to be doing something over on the other side of the room where the smell was coming from.
"Morning, I was about to come wake you." She looked over to the Riolu and now that his cuts had healed she focused instead on his ribs which was poking out from chest "Come and eat something."
"What is that?" The Riolus nose focused on the smell "I've never smelt anything like it."
"You certainly look like it." The Swablu replied, she was still focused on his ribs they looked like he was malnourished, and it was her job to keep her partner alive.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I can see your ribs."
"Is that not normal?"
The Swablu scoffed and turned back to the stove, she turned of the heat and managed to take the bacon and eggs out of the pan. She placed both onto a plate and handed it to him "I don't have any utensils since I can't use them."
"Don't know what those are." The Riolu replied before cutting the food with his claws, upon first tasting the pinkish thing he was amazed by it and began shovelling the food into his mouth.
"Careful, you'll just throw it up."
The Riolu didn't know what she meant, why would eating make him sick? But she was indeed correct he could feel the food getting rejected by his stomach, but he managed to force it to stay down. He turned back towards the unamused shiny, but despite it almost coming back up it was still the best thing he'd ever eaten.
"What was that?"
"Tepig bacon and torchic eggs." She responded but upon seeing the look of horror on his face she felt the need to explain "Don't worry it was just ferals."
The Riolu didn't know what a feral was so these words were of no comfort, despite having fought to keep his food down he now wanted it out his stomach, but maybe it was just his misunderstanding of this world so he may as well ask.
"What's a feral?"
The Swablu let out a sigh, it made sense that he didn't know lots of basic things due to mountain tribe's fierce isolationism, but she knew already that having to explain simple concepts that even cubs understood would quickly get tiring but nevertheless she explained. "A feral is a Pokémon that appears in a mystery dungeon, while not much is known about them lots of wild Pokémon appear there rapidly and most believe the abnormal amounts of them is caused by the dungeon itself."
"So, they aren't real?" The Riolu was still confused but that seemed to be what Sitrus was implying.
"Pretty much." Sitrus replied she then watched Riolu visibly relax, d-did he actually think she had fed him sentient Pokémon? Those mountain tribes were really messed up, still it was probably best to just move on. "Let's get going, the Guild is only a couple miles south of town."
The Swablu flew towards the door and opened it, she flew out into the dark blue morning sky, Riolu followed her out the door and closed it behind him. It was a cold morning but still much warmer than the mountains, he followed the yellow and white blob out of the city to the south and, he assumed, to the guild.
Riolu knew what a guild was because of his mother, she knew a lot about the outside world which he had never really thought about before but all the things she told him which he had previously believed was fiction had turned out to be true. It made him wonder, his mother wasn't like most of the Lucario living in the tribe, she showed her emotion but only when they were alone not even around father.
He felt a small wet stream fall down his face, he wiped away the tears and was very relieved that Sitrus was flying above him and not down here, he took a deep breath and felt the relaxing cold air fill his lungs and stable his trembling legs. Despite his curiosities about his mum and he decided that the memories were still too painful to dwell on, he instead started thinking about the guild.
If the guild was anything like his mother described then he knew what he had agreed to, it would mostly be exploring and completing requests although most prominently being an explorer would involve fighting in mystery dungeons, he thought they weren't real (at least in the way mum described) but what Sitrus had said about feral meat had reinforced things.
He had been walking for a while along the dirt path but he still couldn't see any buildings or structures, so he decided to consult his partner, He cupped his paws around his maw and shouted up to her.
"SITRUS ARE WE GETTING CLO-"
Since he was distracted shouting up to the bird, he hadn't noticed the sudden decline of the pathway and promptly tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face and since he had just called up to Sitrus she was already perched on a nearby tree laughing at him.
"Good job bud." Her voice was smug, she continued chuckling as he stood up and brushed himself off. "You had a question for me, right?"
"I was going to ask if we're almost there." He replied as he continued glaring at her from the ground.
"Just turn around and see."
Riolu turned around and looked, the paths decline was because it moved down and through the valley adjoining the sides of the valley was doorways and a few stands with selling various goods, there were also platforms and bridges further up the walls that many Pokémon were coming out of to begin their days some of the stands had vendors accompanying them and some didn't, the sun had come up a bit more since they had left the Swablus house but the sky was still dark.
It was early, even for the guild, but that didn't stop Sitrus from flying down into the valley. With a deep sigh he followed her down the path, she was perched on top of a stand at the entrance there was no-one at the booth yet, so he just sat down in front of it and wiped the sleep from his eyes again.
"Don't you think we got up a bit early?" He said to his partner before he let out a yawn.
"Get used to it." Sitrus replied before gliding down from the roof and sitting down next to Riolu, She proceeded to point to further in the valley "Look over there."
Down in the valley was what seemed to be an Exploration team consisting of a Dewott and a Charizard, The Fire type was wearing a harness around his upper body and attached to the front of the harness was a Raichu sleeping happily.
"An Exploration team gets up early, they have to because jobs are all over the continent."
"Any chance you could just carry me around like that guy?"
All Riolu got in response was a scoff from the bird, he kept watching a the Dewott grabbed a few pieces of paper from a large pinboard that was imbedded in the wall of the canyon, he turned back to the Charizard who seemed to agree with something the Water type was saying. The Charizard turned around and the Dewott jumped up and grabbed onto the harness that it was wearing, and with that the three were carried by Charizard into the air and flew over them in the direction of the town.
All the booths were staffed by now, they seemed to be selling various adventuring supplies and offering services that would benefit an Explorer, And the Riolu flinched at the very loud yawn coming from the booth he was sat at.
"Ah, finally." The Swablu exclaimed, she quickly jumped from the floor onto the table of the stand, he could hear an audible sigh from the Pokémon working the desk.
"Sitrus I keep telling you, You need a partner, these are the rules."
"I know that."
"Then why are you here?"
"I have a partner."
"I don't see anyone else."
Sitrus scratched the top of Riolus head, He jumped up with a start "What was that for!" The Riolu rubbed the top of his head, he looked across the desk at the Sylveon who had a shocked look on her face.
"You were being an idiot." The Swablu replied.
"You didn't have to scratch me."
"Shush."
"T-That's great Sitrus, I know you've wanted this for a while." As the two bickered the Sylveon managed to regain her composure, she turned to face Riolu and offered one of her ribbons "My names Sylvester, it's a pleasure to meet you."
The Riolu reached out his paw and shook the outstretch ribbon.
"Alright then, just a few questions that I need to ask before I can register you." Sylvester continued "Okay, to start I need your name Riolu."
"Uhhh, that might be an issue." Despite all the time he had to think of something to call himself, he hadn't even started. "I don't yet have one."
Sylvester looked really confused so Sitrus decided to explain "He's a mountain tribe Riolu."
"Where did you find this guy?"
"Bleeding to death on a rooftop."
"Never mind, I don't want to know." The Sylveon replied, explaining that to local authority's would be a headache. "However, I do need a name to put on this document."
"Oran" The Riolu replied, he decided to use the same naming system that Sitrus used, just a berry that matched his fur colour.
"Really, that's the best you could come up with?" The Swablu questioned.
Regardless of the name given, Sylvester wrote it down on the document and continued with her questions.
"Alrighty then, what's your team's name?"
And once again she was met without an answer.
"Sitrus you've been coming to the guild for years, have you not thought of team name?"
"I'll think of something."
"I'll just put down Team Berry, since you're both named after berries."
After that Riolu sat down and leaned against the booth, he watched more Exploration Teams leave the valley either by air or just walking, Sitrus was handling all the questions and slowly filling out the document with the Sylveon, He felt that same sense of awe that he felt when arriving in Compass City the previous day, he felt the ground shake as a massive snake like Pokémon much larger than many of the buildings in town and almost as long as the valley it excited from one of the largest entrances that were in the side of the canyon.
The Riolu jumped to his feet in shock as the massive beast passed by and nodded its head at him, he heard laughter from behind him.
"Don't worry Oran, That's just Onyxia the Steelix." Sylvester chuckled out "And if you look closely on her head is her partner Coral the Slowbro."
Oran sat back down against the booth, it was strange, he had chosen his name because he was put on the spot but he quite liked it. "Oran" it somehow felt fitting "Oran the Riolu" he watched other teams go out on their business, it seemed like a good life from what he had seen so far, exciting at the very least.
"Great, now that we have everything sorted let me show you around." The Riolu took Sylvesters words as his cue to stand up and follow the Sylveon further into the valley as he began to walk after her, Oran felt a lump land on his head.
"Why?"
He didn't get a response from his new hat, so he just continued following Sylvester as she started talking "Most of the shops and other guild services are right down here at the lowest level, most of them are managed by my siblings." Sylvester stopped walking to wave at a Leafeon that sat behind a counter wedged into the side of the valley. "That's my brother Morrison, if you need berries or seeds go see him, he mostly grows stuff."
"But we don't have time to meet everyone, gotta get to Quill before he leaves for the day." The Sylveon continued down the valley towards a Fighting type Decidueye whose stretching his wings, hands? Oran didn't know, but he did see the large bird's eyes light up as Sylvester approached him.
"Got some new recruits for me Syl?" He looked past the Sylveon and at the Riolu who was still wearing Sitrus as a hat. "They look promising."
"Oran, Sitrus, this is Quill he is the head of apprentices." Sylvester said, "He's going to be doing the practical part of your entrance exam."
"Entrance Exam?" Oran asked.
"Sitrus didn't tell ya, did she?" Sylvester replied, the Pokémon in question at least had the decency to get off his head and hover next to him.
"Well thanks for bringing them to me Syl." Quill said as he began walking into one of the nearby caves. "I'll take them from here, follow me please."
Oran and Sitrus both followed Quill into the cave, the cave was more similar to a tunnel after a few moments of walking it opened up into a massive circular room, the room was well lit by a combination of torches adorned to the walls and by flames floating near the ceiling.
"Welcome to your entrance exam." Quill said before turning around to face the partners. "In other words, you have to defeat me."
AN: I've wanted to write a story like this for a while but I was never happy with the quality of writing, so if you could let me know in your reviews what I've down right and wrong I would very much appreciate it