Something Beautiful To Say

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It was a peaceful day at the pond, he was curled up on a sunning-rock. This was quite relaxed, the sound of the water was soothing, and the rare beating sun warmed his body as the gap in the dark clouds allowed it to touch the earth with its gentle rays. The charmander was drifting in and out of slumber, too lazy to get up and move. It was peaceful, the first bit of peace he'd had since the events of the crevice. He took a deep breath, signing blissfully.

His tail curled around his body, relaxing as he rested his head on his arm. He could feel his arm going numb from lack of circulation, but he did not seem to care. The charmander was in a light snooze when someone had decided to ruin this blissful day of peace midst the chaos of the current world. He was happily enjoying his time with a soft expression, when something had pushed him off the boulder. He cried out in surprise as something rammed itself into his gut and dragged him out of his peaceful slumber. He had ignored the soft footsteps that had been approaching, figuring it to simply be a passing pokemon.

"Get off of me spot!" he heard as he clung to the rock with his claws to avoid falling off. He blinked, his eyes open wish his arms clinging to the rock as his legs hung over the side. His body slowly slid down as his weight carried him over the edge of the rock. His rump dropped to the ground as his arms still lay on the rock and he stared at the creature. It was almost as if he were using the rock as a table now.

"I was here first?" Garnet spoke, standing up with his hands still on the rock as the other pokemon lifted its front legs on the rock as well. The other pokemon was a female creature with a long neck, dark fur covered the neck and surrounded the face to obscure its vision. The blind creature was short, but it seemed to have a nasty look to it as it growled at Garnet.

"Moy spot!" the creature growled, "Fuck off ye!" the deino growled. Garnet frowned with a disapproving expression before he hopped back onto the rock again.

"This is my spot at the moment, come back later," he tried to speak politely. The charmander stood on the rock to be eye-level with the deino despite its lack of eyes.

The blind one merely growled again before rearing its head back and attempting to head-butt the charmander. The lizard only stood his ground and took the direct headbutt to the skull, "I'm gittin' tired of you lil' shets takin' moy spots! This is moy pawnd, Fuck off!" the creature repeated as it attempted to push the charmander off. Garnet only pushed back, holding his ground as the two struggled with their foreheads together to drive off the other. "Evury damn day it's always sumthin' you shets think you own da place! I'll bet your ass just like da las' ones!"

Garnet knew this type. Well, not the type as in Dragon, but more the type of character. They claimed territory and drove out all within it. This pond was public property, and this deino must have driven out any who drew near. He growled back at the deino, dropping his nice act, "I'd like to see you try to kick my ass you blind hillbilly," he snarled, egging on a fight. The deino was only angered by his words, and shouted as she moved back to headbutt the charmander again. Oooh how he was going to enjoy this.

The deino attempted to smash its own head against Garnet with as much force as it could muster, however the charmander did not meet the dragon type's challenge once more and instead dodged to the side and leaped off the rock. The deino's horn collided with the rock and bounced off of it with a cry of pain. The deino turned to the direction the charmander was standing and growled before raising itself onto two legs and kicking them at the air before slamming them down onto the ground. The ground erupted below the deino and shot towards the charmander.

He had flashbacks to the monster deep within the rift for a brief moment, he was not going to repeat that failure. He jumped to the side, dodging it before taking on a purple glow as he activated his Outrage attack. The charmander smirked as his eyes grew wide and a smile took shape on his face. He shot forward on all four legs, propelling himself into the Deino before standing at the last second and rearing back his claws as they extended and glowed with a purple tint. He raked them across the deino's face before sidestepping as the dragon attempted to smash its head into the Charmander once more.

"Where did ya go you lil shet!?" the deino cried out in rage. The deino looked around wildly, shocked by the burning sensation within the Scratch attack induced by the Outrage. His form took on a white tinge rather than just his claws this time as he scratched at the deino's side before latching onto the deino's neck with his teeth. He quickly released the deino as it bucked, kicked, and cried out in pain. The deino was shaking, blood running from the spots Garnet had marked with his claws.

"What's the matter little bully? Can't hold your own against a "lil shet"?" he spoke to the deino. The deino's head shot towards the charmander as he spoke.

"I'll keeel ya!" the deino declared before charging towards the charmander blindly. Garnet huffed and merely sidestepped as the deino charged straight into the water of the pond behind him. The deino cried out in surprise as the water around it began to grow tinted by red. The deino backed out of the water, panicking at the sudden water. The charmander only watched as the dragon type panicked and flailed blindly, allowing fear to consume its actions.

"All bark and no bite..." he huffed as a bit of smoke escaped his nose.

"Uh, Ok. I'm going to trust you." Lucerne said, feeling like she had made a mistake.

Instincts right. She remembered the first time she used Aqua ring, she focused on the feeling of the rain, the sensation of water. She had a feeling that wasn't going to fly, She was pretty sure Sonic boom wasn't a water type move.

She focused, Dug into the feeling she got every time she used aqua ring. She told the feeling she needed to fight, needed to protect, to explore. She urged to feeling to become a force of attack. She had no Idea what she was doing, but she was doing it anyway.

She shifted, pulling her arm back, and punched. Water started forming around her until they became rings and grew. They slowly settled over the body. 3 rings of water, glowing gently. Aqua ring. At least she couldn't mess up the same way twice right?

The charmander leaned to the side slightly as the fist missed him and instead punched the air next to him. He spoke up, "Ok, that's aqua ring, now try Sonic Boom," he spoke, "And hitting me. Actually hitting me would be a good thing as well.'

The charmander's arms were still crossed as he waited for the buizel's next move. Garnet did not plan on fighting back, seeing as his more powerful moves were likely to knock the buizel out of the park. She may have been able to survive a Fire Blast, but frustration and outrage? She would have been doomed. There was also the move Scratch to take into account, but it was a move he barely even used. He planned to replace it as soon as he could, seeing as Frustration was much stronger than scratch by a long shot.

Ok... Lucerne had no Idea what she was doing, so she wasn't too surpised when her punch missed. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to hit him unless she got creative. She didn't like getting creative, but she'll do it for her promis.

She also needed to try to attack with sonic boom. that too. ok He would see any punch coming from a mile away, and he was fast. Come on lucerne think! maybe she could mislead him... she controlled the rings slightly independently from her body, but he might not know that.

She prepared a punch, started moving forward in that direction, and had the rings follow. At the last second she turned, skimming the edges of the rings, and punched with her other paw at a different angle.

Unknown to lucerne this was pretty sloppy. The aqua rings were the only thing about the feint that was anywhere decent. So unless The charmander was only focusing on the movement of the rings, she would miss again.

The charmander did not focus on the rings, as he already knew the effect of them and found no need to watch them. They were not dangerous to him, so why should he care about them? He leaned out of the way of the punch before stepping and ending up at the buizel's side as she merely flew past him. Garnet watched her fist fly past and spoke up, "Sloppy, but good work trying to distract me. I have no reason to fear your rings, if they were a concern to me then you might have just hit me," he informed the twin-tailed buizel.

He remained calm, though he did not know whether to find the buizel's inability to hit him amusing or embarrassing. He spoke up, "Now stop trying to hit me and hit me," the charmander spoke, his arms uncrossing and holding out to his sides, exposing his underbelly. It was a sign of arrogance, but he was hoping that perhaps she would get angry and actually succeed somehow. If it only made it worse, then he could mold the lesson into not letting the opponent's words affect her actions.

well so much for that. She should have known better than to get her hopes up. Lucerne didn't have any more clever tricks up her sleeve so to speak, so it was time to stop being creative. but one thing made her pause.

"That doesn't make any sense." Lucerne said, confused "How can you do something without trying to do it? Do you want me to hit you on accident? "

Lucerne didn't see any way she was going to Hit the charmander, and now he was just speaking nonsense. She didn't want to stop, He had been so kind to train her. She had avoided her problem enough. She had to see this through. So She just started punching faster, and harder.

"What?" was the charmander's response to the confused buizel's question. The buizel then attempted to simply flail at him with fists, the charmander dodging the easily seen sloppy form before backing away in order to get some space so that he could speak.

"I was telling you to stop failing to hit me and actually hit me, stop trying and start succeeding. Blindly punching at me isn't going to hit me, use your mind. I often follow my instincts when I fight, and combine my moves to give a boost to one's power. If you can't get a single good punch on me i'm going to start striking you back as punishment for failure," Garnet warned the buizel, a bit annoyed by her sudden flailing. It was a waste of energy, blindly throwing oneself at an opponent wasn't going to get anyone anywhere.

"That makes even less sense! It's not my fault I can't hit you, I mean I'm training for a reason. I don't know how to fight. and if i don't know how to fight, how am I going to hit someone as strong as you?" Lucerne said, slightly annoyed.

Lucerne kept trying to call on the power, kept trying to use sonic boom, kept trying to hit the slippery charmander. He was going to start punching back as punishment for what? Not teaching lucerne anything? She twirled her tails in annoyance.

He was dancing around her best efforts, what was she supposed to do about it? dance back? dance back. there's a thought. She remembered a song, and started to dance. She moved to and fro, throwing out what could either be dance moves or punches, It might not be enough to fool him, but it could put him off balance. She twirled around, and suddenly stuck out her leg as the song in head started to crescendo. She moves as fast as she could, trying to catch the charmander off guard, or at least make him stop complaining.

"This is how I was taught," he stated simply, "Just keep trying until you get it right. Figure out the flow of fighting, react to your opponents movements, figure out what they're going to do, match and surpass their speed. It's going to be just like the outside world here, if you get it wrong," he paused as he watched the buizel begin to dance and move. He frowned as she started to attack in more of a dance like fashion. What was she, some kind of ballerina? Her leg kicked out, and his paw raised quick enough to halt the foot and cling to it, he leaned in to the buizel's face as he finished his sentence, "You get hurt."

The charmander grabbed onto the leg before attempting to throw the buizel back into the pond she had come from. His body was illuminated with a white light as he focused on his frustrations with the water type's inability to get it right. It really was not all that bad, but the nature of the attack amplified it and his strength for the brief moment in time.

Lucerne hit the water hard. Mother mew that guy was strong. She had never been thrown like that before. well maybe she had but. no not thinking about that. She stopped to ponder something. Was the Charmander trying something? something definitely felt off, and the way he said that last bit, about getting hurt, it scared her, even though it didn't carry much malice.

She decided to put the thought away as she got out of the water, he could have thrown her into the rock after all. She just had to trust him. Wait what was his name? lucerne facepalmed. She never asked for his name. She had given hers when she thought he was a danger to herself, but he never introduced himself.

"Hey, We were never properly introduced." Lucerne said, walking up to him. "I'm lucerne, Would you mind giving your name? I don't want to keep calling you 'that charmander' In my head"

The buizel crawled out of the water, dragging herself out so that she could return to the water. Garnet watched with crossed arms as he stood tall. She approached him once more, he was still on his guard as she approached, prepared to grab and throw her right back into the water if need be. The charmander listened as she asked for his name. He responded swiftly, "Garnet. Others don't seem to care about my name so I didn't bother telling. I've introduced myself to others in this area many times only to be forgotten five seconds later," he explained. He kept an eye on her movements, she would eventually figure out how to do it. He was prepared to wait even if it took days.

"Nice to meet ya, Garnet! I wish I could afford a garnet, maybe on a silver chain? oh that would be so pretty." Lucerne said, losing focus, before snapping back to reality." I really appreciate this, even If I don't understand how you're trying to help. I'll just have to trust you."

Lucerne steeled herself. She needed to get this right, She didn't want to be stuck in grassveil. She wanted to do her job. She wanted to see the world. She wanted to see them... She didn't have time to get mad, to get sad, she just had to keep going.

Lucerne gave Garnet her best shot. She willed her body to move as fast as it could, she commanded her muscles to give her force. She would be the best she could be for her dream. She put that best into a punch. She loosed her paw at Garnet. The punch was only faster, and more powerful. Lucerne hadn't learned anything, she didn't know how to deliver force effectively, all she could do was try.

And her best try, still was not enough.

The charmander sighed as the female started going on about jewelry, "Focus, if this is supposed to be an attempt to distract me it's failing horribly," he spoke. The charmander side-stepped his way out of the bunch, dancing around her and ending up behind the buizel. He reached for her tails, aiming to grab them and tug on them to send her to the ground. Whether he succeeded or not, he moved away to avoid retaliation.

"Ok, when you punch or scratch or any of that, you have to turn your body with the punch...." if the buizel got up, he would step forward and twist his body to help the blow. He did not put his full strength into the blow, but it would certainly hurt enough to leave a mental mark. "Like that," he would say if she was struck.

Lucerne was not at all surprised when her punch didn't hit. She was surprised however, when there was a sharp pain from her tails, and she was face down in the grass. That wasn't exactly fair, but lucern supposed Garnet did it for a reason. She got up just in time to get knocked down again.

"Ok... Maybe I Just don't understand how teaching works, but It's kind of hard to see what you're doing when you do it to me." Lucerne said, catching her breath.

At least he was explaining things to her. She was getting tired of flailing around. She just wished that he didn't have to hurt her in the process. Luckily for her, she had her aqua ring. The glowing rings were doing their job and slowly but surely easing the pain.

"Teaching through example is the most effective method in my experience. Your body will not only become more resistant to pain, but it will also learn to avoid the attacks in order to avoid the pain. If I were a serious opponent aiming to kill you, then you would be dead by now. I'm not some aerobics class where I hold your hand throughout the entire thing. If you want to become strong, you must struggle," the charmander explained with ease. His tail flame still flickered and glowed as he watched the buizel with a blank expression.

"Don't let your frustration get in the way...unless you have the move Frustration, in that case then use it like hell," Garnet shrugged before allowing his arms to drop limply at his sides. He was completely open, he knew he was completely open. The charmander waited, expecting the buizel to take advantage of it, "If you don't start hitting me soon we're going to switch to teaching you how to dodge, and that's going to hurt significantly more," he warned.

"It's not Like I'm trying to be the very best at fighting. I just want to be able to go into a dungeon and not faint immediately." Lucerne said, annoyed. "Look, like, some Pokemon spend their whole lives going after 'being the strongest' or whatever. I'm looking for the basics here, something that maybe I could learn in the span of an afternoon."

Lucerne had no Idea what Garnet expected her to learn if he kept up what he was doing, unless he wanted to do this every day for the rest of her life. She appreciated what he was trying to do, but she didn't see this going anywhere anytime soon. Maybe she could get a part time job and save up for some tutoring in the dojo by a professional.