FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was days like these that had my heart racing. New location, new people, new smells, new sights and colors. I liked seeing the new places, but I did not enjoy all the moving around as much, it was scary and odd, continuously being examined by even more strange humans. But then it changed after I grew up a bit, I was given to another human, but this one was way more friendly, and she didn't poke me with odd objects or make me stick out my tongue for check ups. She was nice and I enjoyed traveling with her, but she had so many other pokemon around attention was always a struggle to get.

Oh yeah, I'm a pokemon by the way, a Riolu to be exact. I've seen myself in a mirror, short and lean, blue with red eyes and well...cute. I'm a lot like the others here with me right now, I'm not sure what their names are though.

We're all newborns. We've been taken from place to place for awhile now, and lined up and presented in front of one or two younger people. They pick one of us and then that one lucky pokemon gets to leave with them, to who knows where I don't know. This all seems so important I wish I knew. I can understand humans, I was told before that it was an ability my species could have, but none of them really spoke to me much.

Right now, we're doing that same thing, standing on a counter waiting for the young person or persons who will come. The rest are all chattering amongst each other noisily, excited for another chance to be chosen. I'm content to just sit on the edge, my feet dangling over it and tapping against the body of the counter, humming a song I remember as one of my first memories, which I believe my mother once sang to me as a lullaby. I'm so focused on it that I barely even realize when the young humans and our handler leaves to met them.

When the human walks in, there's such a loud commotion that it breaks me from my focus and forces me to pay attention. I look over at the human and smile a bit, as I always do, but this time it feels a little more warming. The last few places the young humans have been nothing but stern, and examine us with intent like they were searching for something invisible. This young boy in front of us smiles back, his eyes seem full of excitement and anticipation, like he's just as nervous as we are.

I stand up and come to my spot in the line as my handler introduces us each in turn. When she reaches me I can't help but put my paws behind my back and shuffle a bit.

"And this is our last fighting type starter, Riolu." She says and she pats my head lightly, making me blush a bit and look away. The younger human gets down face to face with me and I meet his gaze a moment, keeping my muzzle pointed away though. He's wearing a red striped black shirt and pants, an opposite contrast to my own colors, and he seems to realize this too while he smiles at me still. His eyes are green, and his hair is a russet red color, set in a wavy style over the top side of his head to his right side, a cowlick making his bangs split apart above his left eye and slide over his forehead to his right.

"Hey there Riolu...you're a cute little guy." He says to me, and I close my eyes and feel my blush burn even brighter through my blue fur. I hear the other pokemon grumble at me lightly, I was the only one of us he chose to talk to so far.

"Heh, you're really shy too..." I suddenly feel his hands tuck up under my arms, and I open my eyes in surprise a moment as he picks me up off the table gently and smiles at me while holding me in the air, still smiling at me while I blush and look down at him. He was more than twice my size, but he held me so easily.

"He's never spoken since we started, sometimes we think he might even be mute, but his throat seems fine. Trainers have skipped him over because of his shyness. But sometimes, the shiest pokemon can be the most powerful, they always have hidden potential that a careful hand can bring out."

"Hmmm well..." The young trainer said; I think that's what he was now it seemed, and he brought me down to hold me to his chest and I put my paws on his shoulders, trying to lean back away from him as he was putting my muzzle just inches away from his face, forcing me to keep staring into his eyes. My heart was racing again, way way too fast, I could hear it pounding in my ears. I didn't know what to expect.

Suddenly, he started tickling me! I yelped when one of his hands under my arms poked at my sides lightly and he began wiggling his fingers against my body. I squirmed and tilted my head back, a bright smile on my face. I couldn't help myself as I giggled and laughed, trying to kick away from him and pleaded for him to stop, the first time I had ever spoken. Of course I knew that all they heard was me repeating "Riolu! Riolu!" over and over, but well, that was besides the point, it was the first time I had spoken to a human since being born.

When he finally stopped, I was left panting and I looked at him with a silly and exhausted grin on my muzzle. I realized my tail was wagging after a bit and I forced it to stop and I blushed once more and looked away, pointing my muzzle to the ground and staring at the floor, but I kept the smile on my muzzle, I couldn't make that stop no matter how much I tried now.

"Hehe, seems you can speak fine Riolu. I think you and I would make a good team, once you get to know me more. What do you think?"

A team? I looked over at him and I tilted my head, was that what all this was about, to pair us up with a human? For what purpose?

He seemed to pick up my question as I tilted my head, "I want you to be my partner Riolu, I'm gonna travel the world and collect badges through battles, and catch other pokemon to be friends with. You're a strong pokemon right Riolu? Do you want to come with me?"

I didn't fully understand it all, but it seemed really important, and if he was choosing me out of all the others, to be his friend...it made me feel even more embarrassed, so all I could do was to bury my head in his shirt and wag my tail.

"Well, I'll take that as a yes!" he chuckled and patted my back with his hand, "I'm Zane by the way, your new trainer and friend."

Zane. I smiled and a low murr came from my throat as I squeezed his shoulders lightly with my paws, I was already liking this arrangement.

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"Come on Riolu, focus the energy." Zane encouraged me a few days after, a target dummy in front of me that I was striking repeatedly. We had been trying this for the last two hours, I was starting to get a little tired, and I had little idea what we were trying to do except something he was calling "Force Palm."

I guess I just wasn't understanding it, and it made me frustrated. I liked my new home, the bed I slept in last night was so comfortable and warm, and it was nice and quiet here, just how I liked it. Zane was the friendliest human I'd ever known, and to think I was letting him down somehow was making my chest ache.

I struck the target dummy with my paw as hard as I could, and it wobbled a bit for once and I felt proud for a moment, but it didn't seem to be what he was expecting, as he was staring at me with a thoughtful look.

"Ahhhh maybe we should have started with something easier...you're still too young to use that much power." He rubbed the back of his head a bit before snapping his fingers, and then he picked me up and sat me on his shoulder, "Come on Riolu, I have a different idea."

He carried me across town to his neighbor, a grizzled looking old man with a beard wearing a old military uniform. He was sitting in front of his house with he big furry eyebrows arched down.

"Hey Herb?" Zane said softly as he approached, but the old man didn't move, and Zane reached out and touched him.

I jumped a bit when the old man suddenly snapped up into attention, the big eyebrows raising up to reveal his blue eyes and he grunted, "Ah Zane, you just woke me."

"Sorry Herb." Zane chuckled lightly.

Herb looked at me from where I was sitting on Zane's shoulder, on of my arms wrapped around my trainer's neck. "You have a pokemon!"

Zane smiled and he looked over at me a moment, "Yeah, I start my journey soon. This is Riolu."

"Hmm I bet I know why you picked him." Herb grinned at Zane, and he slowly rose up, digging behind himself a moment with his hand before he produced a small ball in the palm of his hand. He clicked the little button and the ball grew bigger, surprisingly to me, and then it opened, and a flash of light flew out. Even more surprisingly, this white formed into a shape, and suddenly, another pokemon was standing in front of us.

He was bigger than me for sure, but just slightly shorter than Herb and Zane, but he looked like me too. The other pokemon blinked a bit, looking over at Herb before over at Zane, and then it saw me and it smiled. I smiled back, not sure what else to do really.

"You don't recognize your own species?" It asked me while folding its arms across its chest, under the big spike it had there, a pair of similar smaller spikes were on the top of his hands. He was aged, like Herb.

I blushed slightly and shook my head, and then Zane picked me up and sat me on the ground before the other pokemon, "Riolu, this is Herb's Lucario. Lucario is your evolved form, someday, you'll be like him. Herb," Zane looked back over to the old man, "I was wondering, you started with a Riolu too, I'm not sure what moves Riolu can start with."

I blinked, the words completely escaping me and the Lucario chuckled at my confusion. "Your parents didn't teach you anything did they?" he slowly stepped down the stairs, despite his age, I could see muscle in his limps, strong and reliant. The only one of my parents I had known was my mom, and my earliest memory of her was of the song she sang to me as I slept.

Looking up at him, I shook my head and then looked away, I was too shy to speak. Cursing myself for my shyness, I sighed softly and looked down.

"Hey it's all right young one." He knelt down onto one knee in front of me and picked up my chin with his firm paw, making me look up at him as he smiled at me. For a moment, the older pokemon looked over at Herb, and they stayed staring at one another for a moment, before Herb eventually nodded.

The old man opened the door to his house and he spoke to Zane, "Come Zane, speak with me a bit, let Lucario help your Riolu some."

I watched Zane enter the house with a small pang in my chest, but I stayed still as the Lucario patted my shoulder and he stood up, and he guided me away from the house and back over to the target dummy.

"I'll start with the basics." He said as we walked, me having to take about two or three steps for each of his, "Zane and you are partners now, he is your trainer. As such, you battle for him."

"B...battle?" I managed to stammer, still feeling really shy.

"Yes, it is the way things are, but there are lots of other things involved with it, the companionship and friendship. Pokemon need things like that. Most humans are nice and caring, like Zane." He smiled as we reached the target dummy, and we stopped and sat down in the grass a moment.

"There are competitions, and 'Leagues', that test the bond between pokemon and their trainer. Most young people about Zane's age go on this coming of age journey, traveling the world with their first pokemon they choose, and fighting other trainers and their own pokemon."

"Did you do this? With Herb?" I asked as I trailed my paw through the grass beside me, watching the older pokemon as he seemed lost in distant memories.

"Hmm yes, lots of battles, lots of victories, some losses. You'll always lose some, but they make you stronger in the end. All pokemon have different abilities, moves, powers. Some affect others more than they affect another, you'll learn that eventually. For now, we'll focus on just learning simple things. Watch this."

I sat up to watch as Lucario moved to stand in front of the dummy, before he pulled back his palm, keeping his paw spread wide before he jabbed the dummy. "Ra-ha!" As his paw made contact, a fierce blast of energy exploded from the palm and I had to cover my eyes with my arms as the wind from the blast washed over me, before I was able to lower my arms and look again, gasping at the result.

The dummy had a sizable dent made in it, and it was bouncing back and forth on its support for a few moments before it came to a still again in front of us again, the dent pushing back out slowly and Lucario stood back up straight, wincing a bit.

"Oof...too old for that stuff now..." He mumbled as he walked back over to me and sat down.

"What was that?!" I asked him in awe, my eyes wide as I excitedly pounded the ground in front of me a few times. "That was amazing!"

He chuckled and smiled, "That was what Zane was trying to teach you. Force Palm. It uses your inner strength in a blast focused on the palm of your hand. It's a little too advanced for you though, it seems you haven't had any teaching on how to use your power from your parents."

I felt bad again, and looked down at the ground, "I'm useless..."

"Naw you're not, you just haven't had any teaching in how to use your power. Go, hit the target as hard as you can with your palm, show me how much power you have."

I nodded, eager yet nervous, as I stood up in front of the dummy. I felt my cheeks burning as I tried to focus my energy into my paw. I attacked the dummy with a small shout like Lucario had done before, but all I merely did was slap the rubber of its body. There was no explosion, and the dummy barely moved. I stepped back in disappointment, looking down at the ground and I felt my eyes water a bit. The pain in my chest returned again.

"I'm so weak...I'm just gonna end up letting Zane down..."

"Hey hey hey..." Lucario chimed as he kneeled behind me and he wiped the tears out of my eyes with his paw lightly, the spike on the back brushing softly through my fur, "If you were powerful when you were born that would defeat the purpose of growing." He turned me too him and he stood back up, taking a few steps away from me.

"Attack me instead." He held out his arms from side to side and stood straight, staring at me.

"I couldn't!" I cried and shook my head rapidly.

"Relax, you won't seriously hurt me I'm sure. You have good strength to even get it to move a bit. The dummy is made of rubber, and it is strong and resilient for the purpose of being the target of training. Attacking another pokemon is much different. Try to focus on me. Our species has the ability to feel another pokemon's presence and movement. That is the first step to unlocking your inner abilities, you have to first learn how to feel 'Aura'. Come at me like you mean to defeat me."

I nodded reluctantly, and focused again a moment before I charged, jumping into the air to punch at Lucario's muzzle. As I came close in the air, he phased and then seemed to vanish! I crashed to the ground, and he phased back into view, standing the exactly same way as he had been. Keeping his back to me, he spoke.

"You have to read my movements, I'm using Extreme Speed now, moving so fast your eyes can't follow. You have to use Aura to read where I'm going to move, and strike there instead of where you see me being. Try again, focus on my body with your mind, not seeing it with your eyes."

I tried again and again a few times over the next hour, each time I would do as he said, trying to focus until I thought maybe I had it, but each time he would phase out of sight and I'd come crashing to the ground. I was starting to get bruised and scratched, my confidence failing me with each failure.

"Now you're just guessing and punching where you want." Lucario shook his head and sighed.

I whined out as I heard him, eyes closed tight as I panted and sweat trickled down my face. I wasn't going to be able to do this, I wasn't strong enough.

"You can do it Riolu."

I yipped a bit and I looked over to the side, seeing Zane standing there and I wondered just how long he had been there, I had been so focused on getting in my punch I hadn't noticed that the two humans had come out and joined us.

Zane smiled to me and he nodded, "You can do this, this isn't about strength, it's about heart, and you have heart."

We both stared at each other a moment, and I felt my cheeks burn with a light blush. My trainer believed in me...maybe I could do it.

I nodded and I rose back up onto my feet, turning back to Lucario, who was still standing with his arms spread out wide, looking intently in my eyes. I glared back up at him with as much intensity I could muster, and he grinned, "Ah...the bond a pokemon shares with its trainer...I remember when I first felt it...use that emotion, feel the aura Riolu, use it."

I decided to try something different, Lucario told me to not rely on my sight, so I closed my eyes. Focusing as hard as I could, I pictured my opponent in front of me, standing as he was, pictured my attack as I jumped at him, then there, I saw my opponent move, too fast for eyes to see, as he dodged my attack at the last moment to the right, and I opened my eyes.

I was in mid flight already, even as I had been imagining my attack, I had been doing it, flying toward Lucario once more with my paw reaching out to tag him. Time slowed for me, as I could see Lucario duck his head to the right just as I had saw in my mind, and his eyes grew wide when he saw me staring at him, he knew I could see him now, even as fast as he was moving. As I flew past his head, barely missing my punch, I kicked out with my leg, and made a direct hit. My footpaw smashed into his muzzle, and time picked back up as soon as we made contact.

Lucario stumbled a few steps, his paw taking hold of his muzzle, as I yelped, my kick making me spin through the air and crashing to the ground again. I groaned with my face in the dirt as the older pokemon laughed a bit, "Good! Good! You did it! Landing could of been better but you used Aura to read my movement!"

Herb and Zane were both also excited, my trainer clapping for me as he smiled, "Yes, good job Riolu I knew you could do it!"

I was absolutely beaming, hearing Zane praise me made my heart feel warm, a much better feeling than the pangs of disappointment I had been feeling for most of the day. I quickly rose from my rough landing with a feeling of pride.

Lucario didn't allow me any time to relish in it though, as he clapped his paws together to get my attention, "All right, now, lets work on some simple attacks."

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The rest of the day I spent with Lucario, as he taught me some simple beginner moves that he said most other pokemon would know at my age. He taught me a downgraded version of his Extreme Speed first, calling it a Quick Attack, also some simple tackles and basic defense, using the dummy instead this time as a target though. During the defense training he struck at me with increasing speed, until I became unable to dodge the blow. He also taught me something special for fighting types, using the innate power I had now unlocked, he taught me how to use it to take a hit, but then rebound it in a counter move.

I knew this was all helpful to me, and would probably be lessons I would remember forever, but by as the day wore on, I became more bruised and battered, my body burned and ached and I felt my belly getting emptier and emptier. I fell to my knees after taking the last hit Lucario planted on me to test my Counter, even though he was holding back almost all his strength, I wasn't able to counter it. My body was finished, I couldn't keep going anymore.

"Good...you lasted long today." Lucario said as I panted on my paws and knees in front of him, sweat matted my fur and dripped down my face in rapid droplets. He groaned himself as he rolled his arm in a small circle, but not of exhaustion, he wasn't even panting. He was just old and not used to moving around as much as he had today. "You have spirit, a lot of energy, and the heart of a true fighting type pokemon. You just needed that lift and boost in confidence to get going." Lucario looked over at Zane, who had stayed nearby sitting in the grass, watching us all day without making any comment.

"Remember Riolu, Zane is your friend first, and your trainer second. He is a good boy, you can depend on him to be there for you, don't always try to rely on yourself or the aura. Zane can help you too." Lucario patted my head as he walked by me, "I'll see you again, by then, perhaps you may have surpassed me even. heh." Lucario walked up to Herb, who took out the ball from before and offered it to his pokemon. Lucario tapped the button with his paw, and it opened up with a flash of red light, it swallowed up his form and he vanished from sight as the ball closed again.

Zane approached me as I quivered on the ground, and he wrapped his arms around my body. I relaxed completely as he picked me up from the scuffed up ground and held me against his chest. I looked up, my eyes barely open and I smiled, seeing him smile down at me as I soon passed out, exhaustion claiming me.

When I came to, I was back in Zane's home, curled up on his bed. Zane was sitting beside me, his hand slowly rubbing over my back. My belly still felt terribly empty, and when my nose picked up the smell of food, I stirred eagerly.

"Whoa hey Riolu, you're awake. Easy there." He chuckled as I stirred a little too quickly, and I winced as my body ached. "You trained hard for a first day, you're amazing really, you went way longer than I thought you would."

I smiled, but I nudged his hand with my muzzle pointedly and he got the picture, reaching around the other side of himself with both hands, and he pulled back a plate covered with a pile of cylinder shaped pokemon food. "You want these I take it." He laughed as I nodded eagerly.

Zane brought of them close to my mouth, and I blushed as I laid back on his legs and ate it. My blush grew brighter as I relaxed with my trainer, while he feed me one at a time until the entire plate was empty and my belly full. I held my arms up in the air at him and murred, smiling up to him as I did.

"Thanks Zane...I feel so tired-" I started to say more but stopped because of course I forgot again, he couldn't understand me, the only thing he heard was me saying my name.

That didn't seem to matter though, as he smiled back down to me and said "You're welcome Riolu." He pointed at what he had been watching on the TV, "Look, it's a pokemon battle."

I turned my head to watch, there were two pokemon on the screen, exchanging blows at a rapid pace, streaks of yellow and red stretching across the screen as one fired bolts of lightning and other jetted streams of fire from its mouth. I watched in awe at the apparent power they both held, as their trainers made frantic motions and gave directions and orders from either side of the arena. This was a pokemon battle? It looked intense and it made me shiver against him as I wondered how I would even survive them.

He squeezed me softly with one of his hands on my side, "Relax Riolu," He chuckled, "Those are battles of the trainers fighting the Elite Four in the Pokemon League. We'll be starting in much much much more simpler battles than those."

I sighed softly and chuckled in my own, cute way, watching the battle with more interest now until it was over and the outside world had turned dark. I guess it was time to sleep. I yawned lightly and managed to move a bit, but Zane's hand stopped me from hopping down to sleep in my own bed on the floor and he pulled me closer to him. "Sleep with me tonight Riolu, we're gonna be together for a very long time now, so we should get used to each other, yeah? Besides, you aren't my pet, don't know why my mom got that for you."

I blushed heavily, thinking about it for a long moment, but nodded, and Zane changed into a smaller pair of red striped shorts. He was nude for just a moment as he changed, and I looked away shyly. I was naked all the time, but it felt intrusive to see a human like that since they always seemed to be wearing clothes. When he turned off the TV and crawled up beside me on the bed, he grabbed me and pulled me close to him under the covers with little warning.

I struggled a bit for a moment, blushing furiously as I pushed away from him with my paws on his bare chest before he chuckled and poked my nose with his finger, "Relax Riolu, it's fine, really." I settled down and he got comfortable on the other side of the bed across from me, both of us looking at each other across the pillow.

"Goodnight Riolu, in a few days we'll start our adventure. I'm so excited heh." I nodded back at him and smiled, closing my eyes halfway tiredly as I relaxed. I was excited too, to start seeing the world, and I wanted to make Zane proud. The activities of today were still on me though, and I was exhausted, I was pretty sure I fell asleep first, and I dreamed full of pokemon battles and exotic worlds.