FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The next few days I was woken by the sound of loud banging on my door, usually followed by, "Hey wake up! Time to get started." Usually, it would be at the crack of dawn like usual times, but on the forth day the sky out the window was still dark.

"It's not even light out..." I grumbled out to the voice, which I did recognize as Pangoro's voice.

He had been waking me up the last few days personally, then taking me just outside the school for rigorous training in the backyard of the school. He had his own setup of training equipment there. A trio of punching bags were strung by the branch of a nearby tree, two wooden dummies that looked like Sudowoodos, and several heavy looking logs that looked like the one Timburr had carried for lifting exercises. I had found out though, that this body I was now in charge of was physically fit, and I had no trouble punching and kicking, and I could lift the logs at least one at a time. Thankfully, while Ruli had seemed to be a trouble maker, he did take care of himself.

"As much time as possible is needed to get you and Axel prepared." Pangoro grumbled, his face remaining in the same grumbled look while he had that shoot leaf in his mouth, but I had learned he was rather calm.

I perked up at that, waking up almost instantly, "What? Axel's out of the care center?"

"Yes he is, he wanted to see you as well but we should complete your training for the day first before we discuss more. Meet me out back once you wake up enough."

I nodded and yawned out loudly as the adrenaline rush faded, eyes closing tight. Pangoro chuckled and I heard him turn away walk back out the room and down the hall.

I stretched out my arms and groaned. Waking up early gives you a feeling of accomplishment somehow in my eyes.

__________________

"Come at me!" Pangoro growled out at me while raising his fists.

"Yah!" I shouted as I jumped in the air and kicked, the big guy blocked with his wrist, grabbed my foot and tossed me in the air. I angled my legs back to the ground and landed, kneeling to stop myself as I slid a bit along the ground.

"You're learning quick." Pangoro grunted while keeping his fists up in front of himself. "Natural talents of fighting types still within you I see."

I stood up as he commented me, I couldn't help the blush I felt each time he would give me such compliments. For the last few days, after training on the dummies, he would spar with me. I could tell he was going easy on me. All he would do was defend he never actually threw a punch or kick.

"I said it before I'll say it again, whoever you are, at least the talents of a Riolu are still evident." Pangoro continued and now I felt awkward. This wasn't the first time he said this, but each time would remind me that once again, I wasn't a pokemon. I was a human, and I still hadn't found out anything about that. A few days ago I had decided that, if this was going to be my fate for awhile, I might as well accept it, perhaps I would find out more information as I went, or I would spend the rest of my life as a pokemon.

I found that I rather liked being a Riolu though. Like Pangoro said, as a fighting type, fighting came naturally, and while my body may get tired, I never ached from all the exercise. Punches and kicks were like a second nature, like breathing. It was training in where to place those punches and kicks that came into play. It was much different from when I was a human, where I had been more fit mentally than physically.

"Thanks Pangoro." I said again and I wiped my forehead a moment, "I really think I'm learning a lot now, I wasn't this good at fighting before."

"More than you ever did in Infernape's class huh?"

I chuckled and shook my head, "I guess? I mean...you know."

"Ah right." He sighed and shook his own head, "Forgive me again, I just forgot. There really isn't much of a difference between the two of you, asides personality, you are both the same age."

"Well...I've also been trying to get folks to like me a bit more."

"Well, Treeko certainly seems to appreciate you more, and Milotic came to talk to me about you to. She seems to have noticed the change in your personality. I only told her that you and Axel had ran into some trouble, and Axel saved you." He made a mock shrug with his shoulders, his fists still up. "She came to the conclusion that perhaps such a moment had caused you to change your attitude."

"Maybe..." I thought as well and looked at the ground. Pangoro lowered his fists and he watched me a moment.

"Perhaps that's enough training for today." He stated, seeing that he had made things a little awkward. "Did you want to go see Axel?"

I nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I do...but um...first can I ask you some things?"

"Sure, you can ask them while we get going."

I looked up and tilted my head at that, "What? Going where?"

"We're going to a special place today, I can't tell you about it yet, but Axel will be meeting us there." He walked up to me and I yipped as he gently grabbed my paws in just one of his hands. He lifted me up to his shoulder and placed me there. I blushed lightly as I saw the world from a new height, putting my arm around his neck to hold myself steady. He had done this a few times before this week when I had been too tired to really move.

Pangoro started walking into town and made towards the forest. As we entered he grunted out to me, "So, what questions did you have?"

"Oh!" I started as I remembered, "I wanted to ask you...I don't remember anything...about well...anything. So uh, I guess I wanted to know, what is this world called and things like that?"

"This world is called H'trae, the H is fairly silent, most of us just call our plant Tra."

I nodded and repeated the name to make sure I had it right, "Tra, okay. Hypno told me earlier that this world reacts to things...what did he mean?"

"He probably meant the balance of forces. I'm sure Axel told you some about his family right?"

"He said that his family protects this one from humans." I nodded again, trying not to show how that worried me, and tried to ignore how my paw slightly gripped Pangoro's neck tighter, I wasn't sure if he noticed or not but he continued.

"That's right, the Eeveelutions family, as they're called, defend our world in many different ways. They are very secretive on how, or if we really are in any danger."

I blinked, "So, we never know if we're in any danger anyway? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?"

"Pretty much, but they seem to have been doing a fine job of it so far, we've lived on this world for generations without issue."

We were starting to get fairly deep into the forest now, the sun shining through the canopy of trees leaving up partially shaded.

"What about the balance of forces?" I asked, "What exactly is that?"

"The one thing the Eeveelutions tell us is that this world depends on a balance of certain forces to keep stable. They have camps set up around this continent, for each evolution, so there's eight camps. They tell us that they are watching over the sources of these 'forces', making sure that neither of them are going out of balance of the others. That is as much as they tell us though." Pangoro grunted again, "I wish I did know more. As far as I'm concerned though, we live in peace, and that's the important thing."

I nodded again and I thought a moment as Pangoro continued into the forest. Hypno had told me, after confronting me that he knew I was human, that this world reacted to things much differently than mine did. What exactly did he fully mean by that?

_______________________

"Here we are." Pangoro grunted. In the distance I could see a small wooden hut in the distance. Axel was standing in front of Infernape, who was sitting on the stairs leading to the door of the hut, and next to him, was a small figure that I couldn't quite make out as he was covered in a cloak, but there was a long yellow tail poking out of the cloak and laying next to him along the porch, the tip occasionally flapping up and down on the wood.

"Axel!" I yowled out and the Eevee looked over to my voice and began bounding up to us as Pangoro continued forward. He still had wrapping around his head, covering one eye and ear as he was still healing.

"Hey, Ruli! How are you?" Axel looked up at me and smiled, and I smiled back down to him.

"I'm doing great. How about you though? Is your head okay?"

"Bundled up in wrappings, but otherwise I feel fine. Milotic says it'll be a few more weeks before I can take them off."

"You look kind of cool with them." I chuckled.

Axel walked next to Pangoro until we reached the small hut and Infernape stood up.

"All right, we're here..." He grumbled bitterly and stared at me a moment, before addressing Pangoro. "I can guess why too. You know I don't agree with this."

"Yes yes yes, thank you for bringing Axel here Infernape." Pangoro said back, completely ignoring the ape's comment, which made the fire type's flames momentarily flare up.

Pangoro kneeled and I hopped off his shoulder to the ground, landing with a small grunt as it was still quite a drop and I stood up to dust off the fur on my knee.

"So this is our Riolu friend." the cloaked figure spoke then, and I then saw him up close now as I looked. The hood hung over his body and head, but I could clearly see him. It was an Abra. Great, more psychic types. I narrowed my eyes slightly at the thought, but then noticed, there was a blindfold around his head, covering his eyes.

I tilted my head, something eating at me suddenly. He had his head turned right at me, as if he was looking at me.

"Can he see me?" I asked to Axel who chuckled.

"He sees me just fine, he made a comment about my bandages earlier. I don't think the blindfold means a thing for him, it's just for show." Axel grinned at the Abra then.

"Not just for show." The Abra sighed but I could tell he was amused by Axel's comment. "It helps me to attune my inner eye."

"Is that like the kind of thing Hypno uses to see things happening?" I asked him and he shook his head, smiling slightly.

"No. That's just a general ability of the inner eye. I am attuning my inner eye to work as my general sight, so that I may see all at any time, anywhere, in real time."

"Abra used to venture with me." Pangoro told me and Axel then, "Used to ride on my shoulders and use his powers to protect me." The big panda looked at the smaller hooded Abra then and chuckled, "Though most of the time, you were just sleeping."

"Hey hey hey, sleep is important." Abra chided back and his tail slapped the wood, "Back to topic though please, what did you come here about?"

"This boy here." Infernape snarled out and he tapped me forward with his foot, making me yip. I glared back at him a moment as the Abra looked at me.

"This Riolu? What about him? Is this Ruli? I've heard tales of his...escapades." The Abra chuckled and I grimaced.

"He says his name isn't Ruli." Infernape continued, crossing his arms, "I found him about a week ago napping in the woods. Acts like he has no idea where he came from, who he was or is. No memory of family, past schooling anything."

"He seems to be able to fight properly though." Pangoro added himself, throwing a look at the Infernape, who huffed and closed his eyes, "His personality is way off from Ruli's. He's kinder, cleaner."

"I'll admit, he certainly seemed off put being in the back of the class that day." Infernape grumbled.

The two big pokemon started debating with each other, but I was more focused on how the Abra just looked at me, his head tilted down at me. I stared right back up at him, already familiar with this moment with Hypno. I tried to think about everything, to show him everything I could, everything I had gone through this past week. I even showed that I had once been a human, that I had this nagging feeling that, I was meant to find him. I hoped he would be smart enough to not say anything like Hypno had been.

He made no sign that he was seeing any of it though. I replayed it all several times in my head as the two pokemon behind me bickered. I was beginning to get irritated when suddenly he spoke again and interrupted Pangoro and Infernape, his head suddenly snapping up to them both.

"And the Eevee boy?" His voice easily rose above the arguing.

"I asked to come! Pangoro told me that he was going to bring Ruli to you to find out more if possible. I asked him to wait until I was better so I could come as well." Axel spoke instead as Pangoro and Infernape became silent. I blinked slightly and looked at Axel, who realized what he said and he looked at me a moment.

"Ruli is my friend." He said softly, "He told me his tale already too. I believe him. I mean...it's kind of a pretty tall tale to come up with, and to continue up the act, just for skipping out on school, yeah?"

I smiled slightly and chuckled a moment. So he only believed me because he thought no one would really go through the trouble of thinking up such a story. I should have figured it wasn't cause he really believed me.

"Hmmm..." The Abra hummed softly, while I closed my eyes a bit and sighed inwardly. So much for getting a first friend. I thought he had really believed me.

Don't sell it so short. He did say he was your friend. A sudden voice sounded in my head and I recognized it as the Abra. I opened my eyes and looked at him, but he made no sign he had even spoken to me in my head.

I thought a moment and nodded silently to him, which he then spoke aloud once more.

"I think I would like you to leave these two in my care for a time Pangoro. They can stay here with me. I will need more time with this Riolu to find out more information."

"You can call me Ruli." I said softly and sighed, "I've gotten used to it."

"All right then." Pangoro nodded and he looked down at me and Axel, "But, why do you need Axel?"

"Axel is his training partner is he not? It is only fair that they share their experiences and grow from that bond, like we did." The Abra pointed out and slapped his tail again.

"I only put Axel as his training partner because his other one had moved out of town! His parents moved cause they didn't like their kid being associated with him!" Infernape snarled, "We don't need to taint a member of the Eeveelutions family with this nonsense!" Apparently he had been building a huge rage that he had been keeping silent until now throughout this whole moment.

"I can't believe you are actually believing this ridiculousness." Infernape scoffed to the Abra, whose tail slapped the wood again, rather calmly I noticed.

"Hypno has already told you he can't see any of Ruli's memories hasn't he?" Abra asked, and Pangoro and Infernape both jumped and they stared at each other.

"N-no...he only said he believed that this Riolu wasn't the Ruli we know, but he never stated he couldn't see any memories." Pangoro stated.

"He didn't?" Abra hummed and he explained, "I've attempted to pear into Ruli's mind here...and I see everything he has described this last week, but before his encounter with Infernape in the woods I see...nothing..." I was relieved that he had actually been able to see what I had been trying to show him, and that he hadn't mentioned anything about being a human. I grinned brightly and Infernape saw it.

"You little...smirking like that..." Infernape growled at me and I yipped as I looked at him, the flames on his body were getting intense. His head snapped to look at Abra, "What do you mean you see nothing..." His voice was hushed, in a growl.

"I mean what I mean." The Abra said softly, "I see nothing more in his memories beyond when you encountered him the woods."

"It's a trick..." The Infernape growled, "It's another of his dirty little tricks..."

"It is not a trick." Abra stated again, "He told you the truth."

Pangoro seemed just as astonished, his mouth hanging open with the shoot leaf barely hanging onto his lips. I looked down at the ground in silence, I could feel Axel staring at the back of my head.

"RRRRAAAAA!!" Suddenly Infernape's flames blasted so large they nearly scorched the canopy of the trees, I jumped back in surprise, but then I saw the foot already coming straight at my face. Reflexively, I brought up my paws to defend against the blow, but it never came. I opened my eyes, seeing Axel in front of me, hackles raised and teeth bared, with Infernape's footpaw just inches from hitting him in the head. I thought Infernape had stopped his kick because Axel had gotten in the way, but then I saw the purple glow surrounding the fire type's body.

"You will not...be harming this Riolu, Infernape." The Abra said, voice suddenly low and dark, beneath his blindfold, his eyes glowed purple. He didn't even move an inch, his tail lightly slapping the wood again. "He is not responsible for your student's disappearance, they brought their fate upon themselves."

"NO!" Infernape screeched, and I shuddered as he glared at me, and suddenly, I saw all the anger and desperation in his eyes, which I noticed were starting to change to a look of sadness. "Those students...were my responsibility, the parents won't stop asking where they are! What do I tell them!?" His teeth bared a moment as he hissed out the last words, tears starting to fall from his eyes and down his cheeks. "But not just them...his father was fine until he came along! None of this would have happened if he'd never been born!"

My eyes went wide. "My...father?"

"That's right." Infernape sneered, breathing heavily, "You-"

"Enough!" Pangoro shouted out and he grabbed Infernape by the scruff of his neck, pulling him close even as he was frozen in the air. "We swore we would never speak about that again...we swore we would keep that out of his past, it wasn't his fault..."

Infernape avoided Pangoro's glare, eyes looking to the side as tears continued to flow, his body going limp as the Abra released him. Infernape took hold of Pangoro's paw and pulled it off his neck. He stood there silently a moment before he marched around Pangoro avoided everyone's looks.

I stood still as the Infernape walked by, feeling the sadness radiating off of him. It wasn't until he was out of sight that Abra made a whistling noise to all of us. "Hmmm...there seems to be lots of story hidden here huh? Would you mind to elaborate Pangoro?"

Pangoro gulped, "I was actually hoping you would do that...It's...more a personal story..."

"Hmm, I suppose I can do that for you old friend. It's understandable you don't want to revisit old wounds, but you could at least give him a go over of what it means, you are his guardian after all."

Pangoro looked down at me and he sighed, "Ruli...even though you aren't him...you need to know, we told you before, that we had also found Ruli in the woods when he was really young, and we took him into our school and gave him a home." Pangoro stopped a moment, closing his eyes and he rubbed his temples with his paw.

"Yeah?" I prodded and waited patiently.

Pangoro sighed and he started again, "That is a lie...I knew Ruli's father...but..."

"He's dead...isn't he?" Axel asked softly beside me, and Pangoro sighed again, nodding.

"Yes..." Pangoro fell silent again and Abra asked once more, "Would you like me to tell it from here?"

"No no..." Pangoro waved his paw and sighed, "I started I might as well finish." the panda kneeled in front of me and Axel as he continued.

"It was a rainy night, very stormy, one of the worst storms we had. Sounds corny I know." He chuckled softly and shook his head. "It was normal though really, everyone was safe at home, we've had storms before. Ruli had actually just been born earlier that week. Now...you can't tell now cause its been repaired, but a house had actually been at the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean. During the storm, it had weakened the foundation of the cliff enough that the house began to fall. It was a surprise, who know the cliff had been so weak? It held the house just fine before that I mean..." He had began to ramble and he stopped, catching up to himself.

"Was that house...Ruli's?" I asked softly and Pangoro nodded.

"You wouldn't think it when you look at all of us Ruli, but me, Infernape, Hypno, Abra, and your father all used to adventure together. We had settled down and founded our town and school, your father found a mate, had you..." Pangoro sighed, "It's really a big freaking mess...long story short? The house fell...you were the only survivor. Your parents were found dead later in the debris, the crash had crushed them both completely. Even the metal of their bones could not save them from that fall to the cliffs below."

"Why does that make Infernape hate Ruli so much though?" Axel asked, tilting his head, "I mean, that doesn't make much sense to blame Ruli for that."

"It doesn't." Pangoro nodded, "And that's where the bigger mess comes into play you see. Infernape actually...isn't straight, he had a crush on Ruli's father, but Ruli's dad wasn't the same as him, at least as far as any of us could tell he wasn't. Infernape never had the guts to come out to him, he let his chances slide by again and again, and he gave up when he took a female mate in town and had Ruli." Pangoro stared at me, "Infernape doesn't hate you because of you, he hates you because you remind him that he didn't have the courage to tell his feelings. He's just looking for something to blame..."

"What happened...on the night of the storm?" I asked softly while trying to understand.

"Well, when the house started to fall of course your father and mother reacted instantly, they tried to escape in time. At that time, my house had been next to theirs, I heard the cliff giving way before they did. I got outside just in time for your father to open the door, but that was when it happened. He had only enough time to throw you to me...that was all fourteen years ago. No one in the town knows about this. Everyone there thinks you were just some random Riolu we found in the woods."

Pangoro sighed and he wiped his eyes a moment, his eyes had actually gotten pretty wet with tears. "Your father meant a lot to all of us Ruli, he saved our skins lots of times in the wilds. He was brave and true to his friends, I hoped you'd turn out the same. "

"But I didn't huh?" I whined out and looked at the ground, "I became a brat..."

"It wasn't you." Abra pointed out, interrupting the story. "It was Ruli, you are someone else, but you seem to be in the same body."

A moment of silence followed as we stood there, until Abra started again, "Well...that's enough for now I think...the past is the past..."

"Yeah..." I mumbled softly as I felt a little numb. Ruli had such a horrible beginning to life, but what brought him about to being a brat as he had been? Was it Infernape's constant regret? Was it bullies in school like Machop? _____________________

Pangoro left us in the charge of the Abra then after giving a good-bye and confirming with Abra we would be okay with him. He gave his assurance he would protect us and introduced himself after Pangoro had left. We sat together on his porch then, just staring out into the trees beyond his little yard and introducing ourselves to him more personally.

"I have noticed you two have specific names. That is a common thing for pokemon that are part of families of the same species. I also have one, so you can call me Psy if you'd like."

I nodded and tilted my head, "How big was your family?"

"Several hundred." He responded simply and me and Axel both stared. "Out of the hundreds he could have choose, Pangoro choose me to take on his adventures."

"Did you ask to be taken along?" Axel asked curiously.

"Oh, no." Psy answered. "Members of my species, for the first parts of our lives, feed off of knowledge, if we don't get enough, we may die. So, our families get others to take us around the world, in exchange, we pledge our lives to them."

I balked and blinked, "What? I didn't know that about Abra..."

His head turned to me, "and what do you know about Abra Ruli?"

I realized my mistake instantly as he spoke and stared at me pointedly, and Axel tilted his head. Of course Psy already knew I was once human, but Axel didn't and keeping that a secret from him for now was top priority. I fumbled my words a bit as I tried to think of an excuse. "I just meant, I didn't know that at all, I mean, my memories being gone and all."

"Heh, right." Psy returned and he looked away again. "Would you two like to get yourselves settled inside?"

"Oh yeah, sure." I nodded, thankful he worked with me.

"Head on in." He stated and I looked at the door, and then to him. I slowly stood up walked over with Axel, opening the door with my paw.

I opened the door to a normal looking hut like room, a few chairs, a table, and some comfortable enough looking rugs for sleeping on the ground. A window on the far side of the hut let in light. in the corner was a small box filled with fresh apples. Perhaps Psy had deliveries from Treeko?

I looked behind myself as I started to ask, "You don't need much do-" I stopped as I realized that Psy was no longer on the porch, and his voice answered me from inside the hut.

"Nope, I don't eat actual food often." I turned to find him sitting on top of the table, his tail lightly tapping against the wood. "WHOA!" Axel shouted as he had clearly seen what had happened, "You can teleport!"

Psy chuckled as he nodded, "Yes I've outgrown my guardian Pangoro and have gotten enough knowledge to live. Until I evolve however, my life is still bound to him, so I cannot stray too far away."

"You seem powerful enough when you had stopped Infernape's kick." Axel stated.

"Psychics are generally very powerful." Psy answered, "It's when we have to handle many opponents at once that we may become over run, we aren't very strong physically."

I nodded at that and sat down at one of the two chairs along the table. "So...what exactly do you need me to stay for."

"Well..." Psy started carefully, "There's bits and pieces I'd like to speak with you about, but for those..." The small pokemon turned his head to Axel, who tilted his head, having just taking the other seat.

"Axel, I'm afraid I must ask you to go out and gather us more apples, since you two are going to be staying here. There is a tree in the forest just down the trail past the house that has many apples, it's close enough that wild pokemon won't try to attack you, please go and get us some while I speak with Ruli?"

"Oh uh...sure...I get it, private bit." He chuckled and shrugged and he hopped down from his chair he walked out the door and started down the trail.

The door glowed a moment and swung shut after Axel left, and now that we were alone I said, "If you only wanted me alone, why did you ask for Axel to stay as well?"

"Well two reasons. One, because he is the partner chosen for you, and it really is important that he share all the experiences you do. Given that, considering what you told me earlier, and that Axel is a member of the family whose duty is to protect this world from you, it's probably not a good idea to have him know this about you. Yet, anyway." Psy paused a moment as his tail slapped the wood of the table, "What I'm curious about, is how did you cross the barrier between our world and the human world."

I shrugged and shook my head, "Your guess is as good as mine." I sighed and grimaced, "For all we could know, I really am Ruli and I'm just being crazy."

"Being crazy usually has different effects than erasing all memories prior to what you remember being as "you". I've done lots of studying about our world, and I know secrets that the Eeveelutions usually keep hidden. I don't know a lot, but I know what they protect is some kind of barrier between the human world and ours. That is what brings me to the second reason that I wanted to have Axel with us. I am hoping, though doubtful, that if I bring him with me, they might listen to me and allow me to bring you closer to the barrier to see if there is any strange effect to it, or, that perhaps they can shed some light on this situation of their own."

"But...does that mean telling them that I'm...?"

"It may, but I swear I won't allow them to bring you harm without just cause. You show no ill content, and as I've felt from you, you actually enjoy being a pokemon." Psy chuckled softly. "If worst comes to worst, you will be stuck in your new body." His tail twitched slightly. "Axel is already almost back. I'll just say one last thing." Psy's head turned to me and he said softly, "Don't tell Axel what you are, until you know the time is right..."

"The time is right?" I asked, tilting my head.

"You'll understand." He returned. Just then, the door opened again and Axel stood there with a basket beside him, half filled with apples.

"Hey, sorry I can't drag a whole basket back, is this okay for now?"

"Yes that's fine." Psy nodded and I saw him smile a moment, a few of the apples floating out of the basket, surrounded by a purple glow. One floated to me and I reached out and took it, the purple glow stopping. The other apple floated up to the table in front of Axel's chair, landed gently in front of it.

"Eat up, both of you, we have a bit of a journey tomorrow to find out answers to our mystery." Psy nodded to Axel, who understood and jumped up to his chair, leaning to take a big bite from the apple on the table.

I started eating as I pondered what Psy had meant, until my distracted eating seemed to catch Axel's attention.

"Hey, you okay Ruli?" The Eevee asked to me and I looked over to him, feeling yet another pang of guilt as I saw those bandages, his one eye looking at me in worry for me. I blushed slightly and shook my head.

"N-nothing's wrong, sorry, just things on my mind, ya know..."

He stared at me a moment and he hummed, "Well, I'll be here to help you figure out your past and who you are."

I blushed harder, but at the same time I felt worried again. What would happen, once he did find out what I was...? "Sure Axel...Thanks..."

"No problem, its been a really interesting start to my adventure!" He smiled and I nodded lightly, taking another bite of my apple and looking away once more, getting lost in thought once more, but this time, about Axel.

He was so caring, his entire life was meant to revolve around trying to decide what evolution he wanted to become, but instead, he was trying to help me solve my own issues. Perhaps he was trying to delay his fate? He didn't seem very excited about trying to make the decision. He had stated that once he made the choice, he would be stuck forever more spending his life doing something to defend the world. Perhaps he knew it would be boring?

I sighed softly and rolled the now completely eaten apple core around in my paw absently. Either way, I really did appreciate his help and trust, and hopefully, I wouldn't have to reveal my secret and break his trust too soon.