My eyes fluttered open as a hint of orange sunlight shifted through the canopy. I clearly hadn’t gotten enough sleep since the excitement last night, my body barely able to move. Even shifting or tensing my sore muscles hurt a bit. With my cursory medical knowledge I could tell I’d used up all my aura reserves in the fight, if I’d taken even one more hit the protection of my aura wouldn’t have helped and I would have feinted and likely died.

  Aura is essentially life blood for Pokemon, being both their armor and weapon. Aura shields a Pokemon’s body while it can also be turned into type energy to attack. Those two curses I got off are probably what let me survive, if I didn’t strengthen the aura around my body I couldn’t have taken such a beating. Of course it’s much more complicated, and there are other times when aura can’t protect a Pokemon. Like with that Lairon and Piloswine, aura protects from impacts and type energy but for the most part, and with some exceptions, does not help with internal injuries. For example crushing armor with overwhelming force or snapping a neck with leverage…

  That is to say, even if my actual injuries were minimal the exhaustion was still there in full force. As I tried to push through it and move anyways I realized I was still lodged tightly in place by mothers sleeping body laying around me. Either way I couldn’t move, giving up I relaxed, sighing. I was sure if I was physically tired mother must be emotionally, seeing her kid almost die and all.

  Thinking about Sneasle even for a second brought up a terrible bubbling anger from my core. The type that makes me want to stomp around and scream about how weak I am. Those feelings would need working on… It wouldn’t optimal if I was too angry to avoid a Weavile pack in the future. Though a lone Sneasle… I recognized that I’d probably attack on sight even if I could get control over the anger.

  Anger like that was unfamiliar, in the past I never felt angry, maybe a tad annoyed but that was about it. Negative emotions in general were always kinda hard for me, other than big ones like guilt. So maybe I wasn’t prepared at all to deal with these feelings. How do I go about this? Pokemon therapy?

  I snorted, laughing a bit at myself before quickly quieting down so I didn’t wake up mother. A therapist? Out here? Laughable at best. Maybe if I wanted to go to civilization and find a trainer, but I needed to stay with mother. Logically and emotionally the best option I had, I already loved her too much and I doubt I’d survive on my own. She stirred as I thought, looking up at mother I caught her eye as her head rose a bit, smelling the air.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked, a bit scared of something happening so soon after last night.

  “Nothing sweetie, just one of those human things on the edge of the forest. I don’t know why some of them have such a sickening smell…” She sounded like she was thinking that last part aloud rather than giving information. Repel maybe? Probably. I stuck my nose up and sniffed, I caught maybe barely almost a hint of something icky, but it was much too far away. In fact I could hardly smell anything other than the nest and mother. Maybe one day I’d have a nose as crazy as hers, I didn’t really know if I looked forward to it or not.

  “Human?” I asked curiously, I knew what they were obviously but maybe I’d get a tidbit of something new.

  “Mhm, they’re kind of like… Well I guess you haven’t seen anything similar, they can’t speak like us and are weak. They don’t taste right either.” She scowled a bit like she was having a bad memory, and I decided I’d ignore that last part. Eating humans wasn’t a super abnormal practice among Pokemon. I did wonder how knowing human language and speaking as a Pokemon would work though. Would I understand the intentions alone or would I still be able to decipher what people were actually saying? Experiment for the far future maybe. “Anyways, would you be up for some more practice sweetie?”

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  “Ehhhh… I’m tired…” I moaned at her for having the gall to suggest something strenuous right now.

  “That’d exactly why I asked sweetie.” She said, coddling tone easing my emotions a bit. “Exhausting yourself and pushing your limits is how you grow strong. How do you think I got this big hmm?”

  That actually made some sense, expending as much aura as a Pokemon could over and over was a good way to train and increase reserves… Still exhausting but I was sated a bit with the explanation, nodding hesitantly at her. Mother stood slowly, careful not to knock me around too much while I was still tired.

  “Why don’t we work on something simple, instead of having you eat up more tree bark.” She said, tone immediately springing back to being blunt again as she thought out loud. I grunted in return.

  “I think I have curse down after last night” I said clearly earning some praise as she looked down at me proudly.

  “I’m surprised you thought to put it to use so fast, most hatchlings would rush into a fight or hide for dear life at first sight of a Sneasle.” I shook my head at her though.

  “I heard the thing coming, scratching each rock. So I waited till it had its back turned to me and got a curse off before attacking.” I said, slowly letting ghost type energy flow through me as I practiced using curse again. It was tense, hard to move the energy throughout my body with so little left, but I kept tugging on it till I was able to use the move.

  “Impressive.” Mother said, looking down at me eyes gleaming. “I knew I nested a smart little one after you learned to speak so fast.” I preened a bit, slightly awkward under the praise as I tried to pull more type energy out, struggling to get any even an ounce at a time.

  Mother watched me intently as I worked, I was only able to pull off one more curse before any pulling type energy started to feel like thousands of tiny needles embedding themselves into my core. That weird new muscle to use aura exhausted, it felt like if I worked it any more I’d die.

  “Have you hit your limit sweetie?” She asked, she was being sweet but something about it felt mocking, an ugly new feeling rearing its head, I started fighting the needly feeling off, pulling out any fragment or tiny piece of energy I could.

  “As if-” I barely spat out as a third curse washed over me. The bare minimum amount of type energy that I could use for the move. It was practically half of what the move should be in power. I collapsed to the ground immediately, feeling the curses ware off slowly as I lost hold over them. Breath caught in my lungs, heaving in exhaustion.

  “That’s enough for today, rest child.” Mother said, a bit more demanding after I’d almost talked back to her. I curled up again, still panting, trying to reign in my burning lungs. It was kind of interesting that using too much aura was akin to physical exhaustion. Not that I had much time to think about that, lungs burning and all.

  Suddenly mother put her teeth around the scruff of my neck, picking me up gently. A drawn out yelp and a second later I was still wheezing, just now in the shade of the rock wall and with mother wrapped around me protectively. It wasn’t the first time she’d done it, just not often, I got the feeling I probably listened better than the average hatchling.

  Eventually calming down from the exertion, I tried to feel for any aura left in my body. I wasn’t going to try for another curse but it’d be good to know how fast it came back. There was a tiny bit there, maybe enough for the smallest tackle I could muster.

  “Are you feeling better now sweetie?”

  “Mhm, it felt like my core was on fire.” I answered.

  “That’s normal, usually how you can tell you’ve got nothing left to give.”

  I nodded at her, drifting back into my thoughts. Curse was an amazing move to have so early on, mother had said she inherited it from her father, so an egg move probably. I wondered what my move pool would look like later on. Rock slide and earthquake are common for rock types, I doubt I can learn dragon claw or any elemental punches with these arms… Curse is amazing but maybe I could mix it up with a dragon dance in-between for extra speed? I’ve seen Pokemon use multiple buffing moves at the same time before so I could try that. Maybe stomping tantrum? Seems on theme, not as strong as earthquake so maybe I can learn it earlier.

  Mother nudged me a bit, dragging me out of my thoughts, I looked up at her quickly.

  “Rest child. Sleep.” Ah right, that’d probably bring my energy back faster. I wonder if I can learn the move rest? It’s a psychic type move right? I’d try right now but I doubt it’d work with me running on fumes. I sighed, closing my weird lizard eyelids as I tried for sleep. Eventually letting it take me.