The day was young and the sky was clear as a blue bipedal canine made her way to the opening in the gaping cave's mouth. The creature looked up in wonder as a drip of sweat fell from her brow, the opening of the cave was bigger than she had thought it would be. She was expecting something a little more humble, something more of her size. She shrugged the thought off, of course this was to be expected! How would the bigger pokemon make it through if it were small?
The riolu took a deep breath and adjusted the strap of her supplies sack, she had journeyed far to this cave, pokemon rarely came here after all, so she could hone her aura skills. The aura had been acting strange around her lately, she knew little of this meaning, but figured it was time to train herself at last. She would have preferred being an apprentice instead of having to go through the difficulties of teaching herself, but there was not a single pokemon with knowledge of aura in the area.
Kira was on her own.
She shook herself from her thoughts and took one step at a time forward, making her way into the darkness of the cave. She kept a paw to the wall, only keeping to the left so she would know where to run if she was driven out. She had continued down the path for what seemed like hours, twists and turns occurred frequently, and at some point she had tripped and lost her place on which way she was heading.
Hopelessly lost in the cave, the riolu decided it would be best to begin her training. She would be able to use her aura senses to leave easier. The riolu took a deep breath and sat where she was, her dangling appendages began to rise as she attempted to tap into the ability to sense auras. She focused for what seemed like even more hours, until at last a small and faded pulse was unleashed. Her sight began to view things in the form of aura, similar to echolocation. The aura senders bounced back to her, and revealed nothing do to the weak signal, nothing but what was next to her on the wall.
She blinked, though it was useless in the dark, and turned to the wall to her left, there were strange engravings on it. The zorua focused her aura once more, in attempt to use it to read the cracks in the dark. Her attempt failed, and she resorted to having to try to feel out the bends in the cracks one by one. It seemed to be a to do list, with a tally maker to the left of it. The tally marker had many, many tallys, making the riolu hope those were just hours and not days.
The "To Do List" seemed to be more of tips rather than actual instructions, some pokemon must have been training in this spot before she had come here, the markings seemed to be old as well, so they must have been here long ago. The first one seemed to read "Breathe easy"
The canine did not quite understand how it would help, but decided to try it. She sat down on the floor once more, meditating to help her focus. She controlled her breath so it wasn't irregular from her travels. This time it took less time for the weak pulse to come. The riolu was surprised to see the tip had worked. She looked in the direction of the carvings with curiosity, they were training tips, perhaps they would be able to help her in her ability to sense auras.
The riolu spent the entire day on the first tip, another entire day on the second, and another day on the third. When she finally got to the fourth, she found that it was cut off. She blinked, it had said "Stay" and there was signs of another carving being made, but never finished.
She blinked, a bit disappointed that all of her effort and reliance on the list was now crushed. The list had helped her focus clearly, and be able to see things within her field clearer, but distance was something she had not been able to do just yet. The cave was silent except for the sound of the sand being crushed under the weight of the riolu as she sat down once more, bemused by her predicament. What was that last word?
The riolu decided it was time to do different things, instead of sitting and meditating, the riolu tried to stand and sense the aura around her. Her field still did not reach very far, until a few days later. She had experimented, and tried being more relaxed when she tried the pulse. Her sense of urgency with her dwindling supplies having clouded her ability. She was surprised and giddy as the pulse surged forward and beyond the usual few feet. Her aura vision was suddenly snapped off right as she felt something different about herself. She blinked, returning to her eyes, and noticed the room was growing brighter and brighter. She looked at herself, to see that she was glowing.
A blue mist began to surround her and swirl rapidly around her, some of the sand twirled up with the aura as if it were being kicked up by the wind. She felt herself changing, the sense of change only made the female canine grow more excited. She was evolving! She was really evolving! The blue mist swirled faster and faster as she glowed brighter and brighter, she felt herself growing taller, her snout growing longer, the bumps on her hands growing sharper!
As soon as the mist had appeared, it vanished. The mist blew out, as if it were a roach fleeing from the light. The creature blinked, light still filled the room as she was still glowing. She watched the mist carry sand with it as it blew away, and moved a pile of sand to reveal the skull of a pokemon. She did not know what pokemon, but it showed its hand, and it held a sharp rock in its hand. It was the pokemon that had carved the writings in the wall.
Kira looked to her paws, they had thorns on them, and then lifted her paw to her chest to feel a slight prick. The confirmation that she had actually evolved, she was a lucario.
The lucario smiled, looking in the direction of the buried skeleton. She used her newly acquired understanding of aura, to make her way to the partially buried skeleton, and took the rock. She moved over to the to-do list and sat down. She then began to etch something into the rock of the incomplete step until it finally read, "Be Relaxed, and Don't Let Time Be Your Enemy." She had figured that the pokemon that had been working on the list had been working on some kind of important move that required as much focus as sensing Aura did, and the pokemon had run out of supplies, or refused to leave this place until it had figured out what the final step was.
The lucario stood up, looking to the fossil once more through her aura vision, and nodded a thank you. She collected her small bag of supplies, and left. If one was to see the list now, one would notice a "Thank you" etched below it, that had been left by the lucario herself.
It had taken a day of heading in the wrong direction, and two days of returning to the way she had come and going the right way, but the lucario finally managed to break free of the cave's dark hold, and looked up to see a night sky brightly lit with a full moon surrounded by a sea of stars. The lucario smiled, and began the long and slow walk home, taking her time as she returned to Grassviel and her team that awaited her there.
Subject: Evolution's Call 
