"Riiiiiolu!"

Orion jolted up and looked around. 

"Wha-"

"Ri… Ri… Ri… “ 

He blearily looked at Riolu standing in the center of the room, punching at the air before him. His eyes were filled with focus and determination while the book on fighting-type auras lay open to the side. 

"Are you practicing?" Orion muttered as he struggled out of the blankets.

He was quickly waking up and noticed it was barely light outside. 

Getting up, he stretched, then walked to the book and looked down.

"Focus punch," he said, smiling sadly. "I'm sorry, buddy, but you can't learn that, even if you were strong enough."

Riolu looked up at him while his shoulders slumped. 

Orion sat down and shook his head. "Don't worry. There are plenty of things you can learn, but first, we need to get stronger."

A wave of joy came from his friend, and Orion padded on the ground beside him.

"Before we practice that, there's something else in the book we need to start doing," he said. 

Riolu cocked his head in question but sat down.

Orion grabbed the book and flipped to the page about meditating. He'd read it the evening before, but he quickly skimmed it again.

"Alright, it says that if we aren't careful, the fighting type's battle lust will start infecting me. To prevent this, we both need to take a moment or two each day to meditate so I don't end up starting to want to fight anything I see," Orion said, looking at Riolu.

"Ri? Riiiiolu," Riolu said, sounding confused.

Orion laughed. "I know it's no problem for you to go running around and fighting other Pokemon, but it's different for me. It will cause endless problems. So, are you ready?"

Riolu snorted, seeming confused about how wanting to fight whenever was a problem, but he nodded.

"Alright, it says to start, we need to sit as still as possible, relax our muscles and focus on one spot on the ground," Ambraz read carefully. "Then we need to count to twenty, very slowly, only counting up when we breath out. When we reach twenty, we are done. If we drift of, and lose the count, we have to start over."

Riolu shrugged and began staring hard at a tiny knot in the wooden floor.

Orion put the book away, folded his hands, and did the same. He felt slightly silly, but the descriptions of raging warmongers made him take a deep breath and start.

A long time later, at least ten minutes, he groaned and dropped on his back.

"This is impossible," he muttered. "Every time it get to six or seven my mind drifts to something I want to do and I lose count!"

Riolu sat beside him, raising a bushy black eyebrow. A sense of hilarity came from him, and Orion groaned again.

"Great, so you counted to thirty? No fair…"

Riolu's smugness made him roll over, and he began tickling his friend.

"Ri- Ri, olu, olu!"

Riolu cried out as he lay laughing and rolling on the ground. 

Orion stopped after a bit and got back up, smiling happily.

"Alright, lets go to the Library. I want to go and check a few things, after that… well I think we should tell Krastin that we will agree."

"Riolu?"

"No, I don't know exactly what we have to do," Orion said with a shrug.

He was about to wash his face, then realized he had no water in his room. Shrugging, he grabbed the book, put on his clothes and headed downstairs.

To his surprise, Nurse Joy was already there, using a small metal appliance to remove the faded and chipped paint from the large desk.

"Orion, good morning!" she said, looking up, her face sweaty but content.

 

"Good morning! I'm going to bring this book back to the Library before talking with Krastin," Orion said, walking up to her. 

His stomach rumbled like the traitor it was, but Nurse Joy just laughed.

"Alright! I'll get us some breakfast when you return, and then you can help me with the final things," she said.

Orion quickly nodded. "Thank you! I'll be back as soon as I can."

"No rush," Nurse Joy said as she waved him away.

Orion smiled, hesitated as he looked at the bathroom, then grumbled as he walked inside. 

A few minutes later, he came out, having marginally cleaned himself but knowing he really needed a bath or shower. Riolu's fur was slightly wet, and he kept shaking to get it off.

There are so many things I need, Orion thought, wishing he had a blanket to help his friend.

The town was as quiet as ever, and as he walked through, he wondered where everyone was going and what they were doing. He knew many people were working on the farms south of town, either on the fields or if they had Pokemon, by guarding against the wild Pokemon.

It took him only a short bit to reach the Library, and he was glad to see the open sign was flipped the right way. As he pulled the door open, he grinned when he noticed it already felt slightly easier than the previous time.

"Ri!"

"Yeah, I think I'm getting stronger already," Orion said with a grin.

He didn't know if it was from moving around heavy things for a few days or because of bonding with Riolu, but if he had to guess, he'd say the latter.

"I'll be right there," a familiar man's voice called from above.

Elena isn't here? Orion thought as he walked to the desk and put the book down. 

There was rumbling from the above floor, and as he waited, he began rifling through the books on the nearby shelf.

Fighting, normal, lightning, water, bug, poison, grass, rock, steel, and ground, he thought as he tapped the spines of the books.

There were many duplicates or older editions of books, but it took him a while to find any of the other types. He found that there were only two books on fire, ice and flying-aura, and a single on ghost, dark and psycic. There was no book on dragon or fairy.

After a few moments, he found a book that said, "The Pros and Cons of the Auras!"

He had just flipped it open to the first page and started reading when a soft cough came from behind. Turning to the counter, he saw Professor Hazelton standing behind him.

"Orion, you are back already? Did you finish the book?" he asked with a wide smile. 

"Yes, and I was just looking for something like this," Orion said as he held up the other book. "Can I borrow this for tonight?"

"Of course you can," Professor Hazelton said. "Do you not have these books where you are from?"

Orion shrugged. "Not exactly. We have some others, though."

The professor's eyes widened with curiosity, and he leaned forward over the counter. "You don't say! Do you have any that we don't have here?" 

Orion looked around at the massive amount of books, not sure how to respond to that. How was he supposed to know what was here?

"Well.." he said slowly. "We did have a book on fairy type…"

"REALLY? That is amazing! All I've been able to find on those are some faint references," Professor Hazelton said excitedly. "Do you remember anything from them?"

Orion shrugged. "I know a few of the names of the Pokemon and their moves," he offered.

"Anything about their aura?" 

"We… didn't really have any books on that," Orion said. "That's why I came here."

The professor pushed himself upright, looking surprised. "No books on Aura?"

"Uh.. not really," Orion said.

"We know a little, of course," he added quickly when Professor Hazelton's eyes widened. He didn't want the others to start asking difficult questions. At least not yet. He wanted to talk with Krastin, who he could tell because as soon as he did, he could just use that as an excuse for his lack of knowledge.

 "Just-" he looked around, waving helplessly. "Nothing like this."

Professor Hazelton sighed, and he began passing behind the desk, searching for something while shaking his head, almost seeming upset. "So little of our ancestor's recent knowledge was still kept in books before the Storm of Shadows hit."

Suddenly, he stopped, bent down, and came back up with a small notebook and a pen. "Here they are," he said. "I knew I had left some here. Now! Which Pokemon do you recall? What moves!"

Orion hesitated as he looked into the earnest eyes, then decided it couldn't do much harm.

"Cleffa, Clefairy, and Clefable," he said, wracking his brain.

"Those are evolutions?" Professor Hazelton asked.

"Yes," Orion said.

He realized just how hard it was to name fairy types. Uncle Basil had only had a specific set of Pokemon on his ranch, and fairy types were few and far between.

"Togetic," he said before hesitating. "But I think that was also flying."

"That's fine," Professor Hazelton said as he scribbled fervently.

"Jigglypuff, Wigglytuff… Mr Mime-"

Professor Hazelton grimaced as he looked up. "Mr. Mime is a Psychic type," he said.

Orion quickly shook his head. "Dual type, actually. Just like Ralts, Kirilia and its two evolutions, Gardevoir and…" he hesitated, trying to recall the other one. "Gawain," he said before shaking his head. "I think, but I'm not sure about that one."

Professor Hazelton had continued writing, and finally looked up. "No more? Okay. Which moves do you recall?"

Orion sighed, scratching his head as he began recalling the moves he knew.

Finally, when he couldn't recall anything, he shook his head. "Sorry, that's about it," he said, his mouth stuffy and his head hurting.

Riolu had been wandering around and finally curled up on a reading chair, yawning every few minutes.

"Its fine, its fine," Professor Hazelton said. "Now, do you recall anything from the other types?"

Orion paled and quickly shook his head. "I do, but I promised to talk with Gym Leader Krastin! I'm afraid I'll be late if I stay any longer."

"Of course! Perhaps you can return and tell me what you remember," Professor Hazelton said. "Or, if you return to your village you can bring me a copy of all the books?"

Orion nodded helplessly. "Sure," he said. He turned and headed back to the door before recalling something important.

"This is information from the old books," he said. "It might be different now."

"That's fine," Professor Hazelton said, looking up absently as he pulled his goatee. 

Orion waved, then almost ran from the Library. As he closed the door, Riolu let out a long sigh.

"Yeah, I hope Elena will be back the next time. She might have talked a lot, but at least all I had to do was listen," Orion said as he headed toward Ferum Town Gym.

--

"Good question," Krastin said, grinning widely. "One of the reasons I have this course is to help fighting type aura trainers deal with their initial hunger problems!"

Orion nodded, sitting on one of the benches in the empty classroom. He heard soft shouts and laughter from the children outside.

"So…" he asked.

"Yes, if you join and follow my orders, I'll make sure you get enough to eat," he said.

Orion let out a relieved sigh. Even if he didn't get anything out of it, at least that would solve one of his problems.

"Ches! Naught," the large armored Pokemon rumbled from where he sat against the wall. 

Looking at him, Orion suddenly thought of something. 

"Isn't he grass and fighting type?" he asked, curiously. "Does that mean you have two auras?"

Krastin sighed sadly. 

"Yes and no," he said. "I've got a level four aura, but I didn't know that Quilor could evolve. It wasn't in the books…"

Orion frowned. So? What did that mean? 

"You don't have this problem where you are from?" Krastin asked, looking somewhat surprised.

Having no idea what to say, Orion decided to just go with the truth. "I have no idea what you are talking about," he said.

Krastin looked at him for a bit, then kicked his feet back on the desk.

"I've got a grass aura, meaning I can only capture and bond with grass-type Pokemon. By the time Quilor, that was my Quilladin, evolved into Chesnaught, I had captured my cap of four Pokemon," he said sadly. "When you gain a Pokemon with another subtype, it will drain twice as much aura. So…" he sighed sadly. "I lost one of my Pokemon. He turned rabid and attacked the people around us. Chesnaught had to-"

"Chesssssss," the large Pokemon rumbled sadly, putting his massive head on his chest and staring at the ground.

"No! It wasn't your fault! Nobody knew you could evolve. Otherwise, I'd never have caught a fourth one!" Krastin said, tossing his legs from the table and moving to his Pokemon. Kneeling beside him, he began rubbing the horns on his backplate.

"Live is hard," he said. 

After a while, he sat back down behind the desk.

"I'm sorry for asking," Orion said pale-faced.

"No. It's fine. Your Riolu. Do you know if he could evolve?" Krastin asked seriously.

"Yes," Orion said.

"Alright, will he get another type?"

Orion had to think for a moment, then nodded. "Steel."

Krastin's eyes widened. "A strong combination. Well, then you need to always keep one free pokemon slot of your aura. Do you know your aura level?"

Orion shook his head, wondering how those even worked.

"Alright, then let's fix that first," Krastin said as he got up. He walked to the door leading to the training area and stuck his head out. 

"Brawl, come here for a moment!"

Orion watched as the large Breloom entered the room, actually having to lower its mushroom-capped head to get in.

"Breeee?" it muttered, seemingly annoyed for having been dragged away from training the young children.

"Orion here doesn't know his aura level yet," Krastin said as he walked to the center of the room. "So we are going to help him with that!"

"Breloom, loom!"

"Yes, yes. I know it would be easier if we had more people here, but we don't. Unless you want to wait for the next caravan?"

"Bre!" Breloom said, sounding perfectly happy.

"Fine, but I don't want to," Krastin said, grinning wickedly. 

"Right, Orion. Come over here so we can hold the ceremony."