\/

As far as my eyes could see, there was sand contrasting a black sky. It was dark but I could still see. I start to march through, trudging through the sands. It was desolate and devoid of any type of life. I spent what seemed like an eternity walking, then I heard a voice.

"Over here dummy!"

I turned in the direction of the voice. No one in sight. Who was that? I started heading in the direction of the voice. What did this all mean? I froze. There was a hooded figure that appeared on the top of a sandy hill.

"So, what are you doing here?"

I paused for a bit carefully choosing my words, before responding,"I could ask you the same thing. What is this place?"

They started laughing,"You don't get it, do you? You should be asking when is this place."

I was left speechless. When?

"Dont play games with me! What happened?!"

I could swear I saw them smiling at me under the robe.

"Magic exists here. But its still tied to the fundamentals of science discovered long ago. Remember, the second law of thermodynamics?"

"Entropy?"

"Bingo! We have a winner!" They started cackling louder than before.

"You have a choice to make. The sands of time always fall. Don't be late. Or you'll regret what comes morrow. I guess Ill throw the dog a bone." They said chuckling to themselves.

He threw a necklace at me. Quick to react I caught it.

"Rise and shine everyone!"

/\

I woke up feeling dazed. None of that was real, thank god. I take in my surroundings. Rin was up, doing her usual routine. I start rubbing my eyes when I feel something in my hand bump into me. The necklace.

I chucked it across the room almost immediately. I started sweating. How? Why? My mind was racing with questions.

"What was that you just threw?"

"I uh.. I don't.. You see it too?" I was shaking.

"Yea? You just threw it. Whats wrong?"

"Someone or something is messing with me! With my mind! Im having horrible dreams. And.. and that necklace shouldn't exist!" I pointed across the room at it.

She got up and walked over to it picking it up, then she brought it back to me.

"So your saying this shouldn't exist? Maybe you just forgot you had it or abra gave it to you."

I shook my head in response." It was in my dream. Someone gave it to me in a dream."

She looked puzzled. "Do we need to get nurse chancy? Maybe wigglytuff?"

"No, I don't want to bother them. But im serious, someone is fucking with me!"

She sighed and dropped the necklace next to me. "Ok, if you say so I guess."

I could tell she didn't believe me. I scooped up the necklace and got up. I started for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I just need to get some air, Ill meet you in a bit."

The door closed behind me and I marched through the halls right out the front entrance. I walked out up to the cliff overlooking the ocean. Knowing what I wanted to do I cocked my arm back, but I froze. Something was compelling me not to throw it out.

I decided to get a good look at the necklace. It had a black band with black and white beads surrounding what looked to be a silver arrowhead. I closed my eyes. It was emanating an familiar calm, glowing with an immense amount of emotion and energy. I decided then, I would trust it.

I slipped it on over my scarf, and I didn't feel any difference. But I couldn't help but wonder if it was important somehow. Why would they give me this? Entropy? Is something about to happen?

I shook my head. Burying my thoughts, I turned around and went back inside. I walked through the hallway a ways before I spotted Rin, and she spotted me.

"You put it on! It looks good on you."

"Thanks, I was going to chuck it into the ocean but I decided not too."

"What stopped you?"

"Its aura is intense, it's intriguing."

We both walked into the courtyard. We were early, not too many people were around. I went to the job board and rin went to go grab breakfast. I was eyeing all of the missions when I heard a voice.

"Take the one on the bottom right."

I look around. Nobody was close to me. I noticed people were coming in through the doors but nobody was close enough to talk. I grabbed the paper.

"Abra was that you?"

No response. I looked down at the page. Wanted vaporeon, 10000 reward. Last seen headed into the mines. Rank B.

The mines. Maybe Ill find something useful. I turned around scanning for Rin. I spotted her at a table in the corner munching on a morning apple. I walked over and sat down.

"Whaths the ob oday?" Her mouth was still full.

"We are going to do a bounty mission."

I slid the paper over to her to read it. She nodded, she then gasped and almost choked on her food coughing.

"*cough ehem* Rank B?! We will get in trouble, we aren't strong enough."

"Abra told me to pick this one I think."

"No, we are putting it back!"

Fraya and terra sat down across from us with their food. Seeing them gave me an idea.

"Hey, do you two want to join us with this mission? We can split it twenty five percent each." I pass fraya the paper.

"I don't know. Nobody has combined two teams on a mission before."

"Come on, please? Whats the harm?"

"Well I do have a type advantage, though we are used to d and c missions sometimes. What do you think tera?"

She shrugged, silently munching her apple.

"Since were friends I guess we'll do it then. Two hundred fifty is not a bad payout, and they aren't in a dungeon. Alright."

I smiled. "Thank you." I was secretly stoked about going there. Might be alot of different mineral deposits. Hopefully they have silver. If not other minerals would be cool.

"Hey Sky? Did you eat yet? I never see you with an apple."

"Sky doesn't eat breakfast. It's strange." Rin interjected. I nodded. I saw she had finished her apple.

"What?! Don't you get hungry in the dungeons?"

I shook my head. "No I don't."

"How are you able to manage?! You know that we get hungrier and fatigued faster in the dungeons right? Sometimes I even get hungry on a small trip!"

"I guess I'm just built different. I have amnesia so I don't know why im like this, but its just how Ive been going."

"Im actually kind of jealous." Tera said throwing her apple core on the table. "Not about the amnesia part, but we could save a lot of poke doing this. But it's impossible for us."

"I don't complain, he's usually the first pokemon at the job board." Rin stated.

I noticed fraya hadnt taken a single bite of her apple yet, she was just holding it. I expected her to start eating but she was just staring at it for a bit.

"You know what? I think Ill try it out. Ill see how I fair without eating." She then slipped the apple into teras bag.

"Hey don't be pressed by me, I don't know if it's healthy or not."

"Im not pressed, Im just open to new experiences is all… and what does pressed mean?"

"Oh, it means stressed, upset or annoyed with something. In my context I meant stressed out."

"Oh ok. Well we should head off now then."

OooOooO

We were walking up along the river bank towards a ravine. We were in the forest south of town. Tera was leading the way followed by Fraya and Rin. I was in the caboose. Eventually we got in through the ravine. It was cool seeing the results of hundreds of years of erosion. I was worried about Fraya though. I felt kinda bad because she was going to get hungry sooner or later. Hunger hurts.

We eventually landed at the entrance of the mine. There was a minecart track in the centre of the passage and it would branch off to multiple different passages. Tera didn't even hesitate and continued deeper, we had to follow. It made sense anyway. If your hiding out you would want to go very deep.

We trudged on, all of us maintaining a silence. We passed by alot of rocks and ore and I was careful to study as we walked past them all. I decided to break the silence with a question.

"Wouldn't there be people in here working? Its almost noon."

Fraya responds, slowing down to get beside me, "Im pretty sure they mine at night. Dark and ground types work here, sometimes fighting types like yourself. They are pretty much nocturnal."

"Oh. Im a fighting type? What abilities does that give me? Martial arts?"

She turned her head at me, with a face painted with confusion. "How does someone forget what type they are?!"

"Amnesia remember!?" Tera shouted from the front.

"Oh yea sorry. Yea you should be good at martial arts, and you have a huge amount of strength too. You would be the one we would get to lift something heavy."

"Thats cool. I have like super strength then."

Just then I spotted something along the sides of the mine. A huge boulder. It was thrice my size. It was mostly white and greyish, with shiny streaks and bumps in it sparkling in the dim light. Seeing it sparked up my memory a bit.

"YESSSS, WOOOOOO!!" I screamed with joy. I ran and jumped bellyflopping onto it. Everyone had stopped moving and were just staring at me.

"Uhhh, what are you doing?" Tera asked.

"Appreciating my luck! Theres silver ore down here, and its huge! The mine doesn't want it either cuz Its on the side with the other rocks!"

"How are you even going to carry that thing, let alone take it with us back to the guild?"

Rin and Fraya just nodded in agreement.

I hopped off the boulder. "I dunno, ive got super strength right?"

"Don't be unreasonable. Its three times your-"

I began to lift it. It was extremely heavy but I managed to lift it right off the ground!

"See?"

Tera facepalmed and the other two watched in awe.

"No, don't be an idiot. We have a mission to do. It'll slow you down."

"I agree." Fraya responded. Rin nodded as well.

"Comon, please? I need it."

"No."

"I can still keep up."

"DROP THE ROCK!" All three of them yelled in unison.

Defeated but still hesitant, I set it back down. Then we all continued walking on through the mineshaft. We went down deeper, eventually we reached a clearing. There was a wide circular shaft ahead, being held up by support beams of wood. But as we entered, so did vaporeon.

"There they are!" Fraya shouted. We all ran up and started to surrounded them.

All the sudden a thin circular wave of water emanated from them. Tera and Fraya both jumped over it and Rin ducked under but I didn't have time to react. I was hit in the chest and thrown back, pain shooting through my body.

I got back up, as I did Fraya shot a bolt of lightning at vaporeon, but it was able to dodge. It started charging a beam from its mouth.

"Over here dumbass." Tera yelled.

That caused them to shoot at tera instead, but she managed to dodge it. I started running up re entering the fight. Rin then came behind and tackled them, and while they were pushed back I landed a vacuum punch on them. They were dazed a moment, when a bolt of lightning connected to their side. They flew back, not quite out, but no longer moving.

"Damn you. Damn you all!" He said, laying on the ground defeated.

"Tera get the rope out!" Fraya shouted.

"I wouldn't do that. We gotta knock them out." Rin responded.

"Why? They're out! We got em."

"They can turn into water you know!"

With that Fraya hit them with another bolt. This time he was really knocked out. They didn't bother with the rope now, tera putting it back in her bag.

"Ok, we did it. Everyone ready to leave?" Fraya asked, touching her badge to the knocked out vaporeon.

"Yes." All three of said in unison.

We all motioned to touch our badges, but I stopped before I did watching them teleport away. I snickered to myself. I turned around back the way we came, sprinting through the mineshaft. I stopped at the boulder. It took me about thirty seconds to reach it. I hope this works.

I lifted up the boulder again and shifted it on my shoulder. Then Gripping it as hard as I could, I touched my badge. With a flash of light I was back at the guild. I was ecstatic! I still had the boulder!

Everyone who happened to be at the entrance started chattering and looking in awe. Tera was cringing as Fraya and Rin were laughing. Vaporeon was on the ground next to them.

I ignored them and started walking back to our room. They were right, I was definitely encumbered by the boulder. At a snail's pace I inched up to the door and It just barely fit, but I got it in there. I placed it in the unoccupied corner of the room. Looking at the size of the boulder I thought maybe being a pokemon instead of a human aint so bad after all. No human could've carried that. I turned around and I started walking back.

I come out of the hallway to see vaporeon being carried out by a bipedal black fox with a blood coloured ponytail. I walk over to the trio.

"Yo, how are they going to keep him in jail? He can turn into water right?"

Rin turned to me,"Itl be fine, they have a fish tank."

I couldn't imagine that, a fishtank as a jail cell? Damn that's weird.

"Alrighty, im off to see Lucario." I waved the three of them goodbye.

"What about your poke?" Fraya shouted.

"Split it with each other, I don't want it!" I shouted back.

"Whaaaa?!" I heard as I left the front door.

I made my way along the path towards the beach. I felt good. I was another step closer to getting some answers. Though, I was still far from achieving my goal. I got to the beach and looked around. In the distance I could see Lucario, he was shadowboxing.

I walked up to him. "Hello!"

He paused for a couple seconds then he turned to me. He looked puzzled at the sight of me. I didn't know why.

"Ummm, nice necklace?" He looked like he was deep in thought.

"Thanks, I got it this morning. Whats wrong though? I know something is bothering you."

He just stood there saying nothing. It was a long and very awkward pause, at least for me.

"Anyone home?"

"Sorry. Yea, its just that I cant feel your presence and…" he caught himself. "yea it's just that."

I canted my head. How could he not feel me here? Isn't he a lot better than me at reading aura? Because we get 360 degrees of view with it. Then I had an idea. I grabbed my necklace and took it off.

He nearly stumbled back, then he grabbed his jaws sitting down. It was odd. It was like his own equivalent of a human cupping a hand over their mouth.

I felt for my bag, realizing I didn't have it I threw the necklace back on. After a while he pulled his paw away from his face. "Where exactly did you get that necklace?"

"Uhhhh, you wouldn't believe me if I told you." I responded, sitting down across from him. I remembered how Rin reacted.

"Your aura disappears completely when you put it on, and that only happens when you die. Ive never seen anything like it before ever. You could tell me you got it from arceus and id believe you."

I sighed. Here goes I guess. "I got it from inside a dream."

I grimaced expecting him to say something along the lines of thats crazy, tell me the truth, but he only nodded.

"Do you think Im crazy?"

He shook his head. "No, not at all. The only thing that's crazy is that it happened. You think you know everything then life throws something like this at you."

I sighed. "I feel that, man."

"At least its you that got something like this. You know, your the only one I trust enough to be around me."

I smiled,"Does that mean we're friends?"

"No, Im your teacher. You literally look like your ten."

"Ill have you know that your off by nine years."

"Your one? That explains a lot."

"No! Im nineteen! I didn't come here to be insulted!"

"You have an everstone? Most of us evolve around when we're fourteen. Sometimes sooner depending on how much time they spend fighting in dungeons."

"Whats an everstone?"

He facepalmed,"How, what?! Your nineteen yet you were born yesterday! How are you still alive, let alone a part of the guild?!"

I paused for a moment, pondering if I should tell him. "Uhh.. yea I uhh.. used to be human."

He shook his head,"I take back what I said earlier, you are crazy."

"What? Im telling the truth, I only lied like once in my life."

He pointed at his neck,"Take off your necklace." His voice much lower now. He seemed really pissed.

"Why?" I pulled it off without hesitation dropping it next to me.

He was silently staring at me. He was kinda scaring me, he looked like he could kill me with just his eyes. Does he really think Im lying? Its just too crazy to make up. At least Rin knows. She's probably the only person that believe's me.

"So you are telling the truth. Huh." He seemed to have calmed down.

I canted my head at him. How did he know? Can he smell lies? No he would have known from the start. My aura? That seemed likely. He can only tell if im truthful when Im not wearing the necklace.

"Ok enough talk for now, ready to learn?"

I nodded.

"Alright, keep the necklace off for now. It will help me help you. Anyway… actually I'm not even going to ask of course you don't. So, the move force palm."

Hearing this I felt my ears twinge.

"Basically you need to focus your aura into the palm of your hand. Then all at once you quickly expel it from your palm. Focus on your palm."

I closed my eyes. I was about to make an attempt when I was interrupted.

"You don't need to close your eyes to see aura by the way. It can help when focusing on aura from a long distance but you don't need too. If you keep yourself open to aura constantly it will become automatic. You wont be able to unsee it."

I open my eyes to try it out. I looked at him. It was like he was outlined in aura yet I could see the aura burning within him, but him at the same time. Like I was looking at him with two sets of eyes. He felt comfortable but still had a lot of sadness emanating from him. I wish he didn't feel like that, that he could just feel happy.

I look back down at my palm clearing those thoughts out. I tried focusing. I was trying to move the aura in my palm, I tried tensing up my hand, didn't do anything. I tried imagining it moving, nada. I got frustrated and gave up throwing my hand down.

"No no no, use that! What are you not getting?!" He sighed.

"Think of it as emotional energy, don't you exert a lot of energy when you get mad? The more strongly your feeling, the more powerful your attack will be. Your just not feeling it through enough."

I think I got his message. I tried letting myself feel more. I was staring intently at my hand. After a while I felt more and more frustrated again, but I let it pass through me feeling it out. I felt it shifting to my head as I got more frustrated. I felt it.. no wounder. My head felt angry but I wasn't letting my body feel it, suppressing it.

I felt it move down through my arm, my anger as if it were a limb. I slowly got the hang of moving it around. I could finally see it building up in my palm! Hell yea I got this in the- DWOOM! I was knocked down into the grass, my face searing with pain.

"Owwwe, Fuck me." I was on the ground clutching my head. This made Lucario die of laughter. He even started rolling around. At least it made him happy for a moment. I started smiling too even though my head really hurt. It took him a minute to recuperate. Me, I had a bit longer.

"Aww man, that was priceless. Anyway, good job. That was a really strong one too. Your palm was pretty much on your lap and it still connected."

"You think so? I wasn't really trying to make it strong, I was just trying to do it."

"Yea, if your hand was any closer to your face you would be out like a light. Alright try it again, and keep practicing. Ill see you tomorrow." He left smiling. This is the happiest ive felt him in a while. I guess getting hit in the face was worth it then. I wouldn't do it again though.

I sat back up. Focusing on my hand I tried again, this time using the pain I felt through my head. I made sure to point my palm away from me though. It was alot easier this time. It only took me a couple seconds to charge up this time. Dwoom! It traveled about an arms length away. I nodded to myself. My head was still spinning though.

I grabbed my necklace and I stood up. I started stumbling towards the guild but I felt my knees buckle. I fell over and face planted. Then I rolled over onto my back. "Owwe." I tapped on my badge.

"What is it? Didn't I.. oh yea your face! Hold on." In a flash of light I was dropped into Chancy's office.

"Oh? Oh! Your face, what happened? Its all scorched!"

A familiar feeling enveloped me with a purple light surrounding me.

"I was training, and had an accident. I hit myself in the face."

"Well be careful next time. What do you think will happen if your unconscious?"

"Lucario was supervising me."

"Lucario? I haven't seen them in a looong time. He's very reclusive. Im surprised hes even talking to you let alone training you!"

"You knew him?" I sat up feeling refreshed.

"Yea, he used to work here." She didn't say anything further.

"Alright, don't let me catch you in here again. Ok? I don't want you getting hurt."

"Ill do my best not to." I got up, waving goodbye to her on my way out. I started walking over to the courtyard. I was famished. I poked my head through the door. Nobody in sight. Damn, I missed dinner. I started walking back to my dorm. As I got inside Rin turned to me.

"I saved you some dinner. What took you so long?"

I charged up a force palm. Dwoom!

"Oh cool!"

"Yea, now I can help out more. Also thank you for saving me some. Im starving right now!"

"No problem. Its on your bed."

I looked over, It was a big jelly, filled with meat. Jello? No, gelatine. Wait. What do they hunt? Gelatine is made from bone marrow, and theres meat in there. I decided to not think about it. I grabbed it and pretty much swallowed it whole. It was good.

After I finished eating there was a long silence. She was reading a book about something. She was feeling happy with her book so I didn't bother her. I decided I was going to sleep early, as the sun was still out. I could see it casting on the clouds turning them pink when I looked out Rins window. I turned off my aura vision and I closed my eyes.

I spent a while with my eyes closed. It seemed like an eternity. Occasionally thoughts about people here crossed my mind but they passed through. I opened my eyes again.

Rin was staring out of her window again. The stars were out. I checked on her aura again. She felt sad again. I couldn't stand seeing that.

"Whats wrong Rin?"

She made eye contact with me, then she turned back to the window. She took a minute.

"Why can't I be as special as the stars are. Their alway's so beautiful, but Ill never shine like they do. Im 17 and I still haven't evolved yet. And I might never get to. Everyone else just has it together, and I don't. Im a failure."

I was speechless. I was looking for the words to say, but I was coming up blank. Special as the stars? Then I remembered something.

"Don't think your a failure because you've come this far, and you have your dream job. And don't say you aren't as special as the stars. Because let me tell you that a star died for you. Millions of years ago a star blew up, ejecting all the carbon and other elements it made in its lifetime of a billion years. That eventually formed into this planet and everything else here. And the energy and matter eventually passed down from generations of people to get to you. We are all literally made of stardust. And that makes you special."

She turned towards me,"Is that true?"

"Of course it is. Humanity used to observe the stars just like you. They did research and figured out that the planets weren't always here. We searched and found remnants of supernovae, when a star dies. We were able to calculate that nuclear fusion made new elements over a stars life. And its all the elements you see around you. And its within you."

She started crying. At first I was worried I had said something wrong, but I felt her aura. She was rejoicing, happy to be here in the moment.

"Im glad I met you. You don't know how many nights Ive spent disappointed and sad. Like im just a big screw up. But now I feel like im worthy of being here. Thank you."

"Thats what friends are for. Helping each other. Especially when we feel down and hopeless. Sometimes all you need is someone you can trust to talk to."

There was a small pause.

"Goodnight Sky."

"Goodnight Rin."

~If your ever feeling down like Rin, Just read to yourself what sky says out of context. Because the same thing is true for all of humanity. We are all made of stardust, and as far as we know we are the only ones here in this universe. We are very precious. Savour every moment like it's your last. Momento mori.