*Woohoo! 250 reads! I love you guys! We're one fourth of the way to a thousand reads!*
Everyone decided to stick together while observing the fort. They started by following the perimeter of the wall, which seemed to have just as many vines growing all over it as the forest did. The walls had some sort of damage to it, but it was negligible for anything but war. There also seemed to be an array of cannons on the side facing the ocean, but they were too old and rusted to be of any use. The turrets provided a beautiful view of the ocean, however. Otherwise, it seemed as if the outer wall protected the multitude of structures inside, many with a curious look to them.
As the party explored the inner perimeter of the fort in a spiral pattern, they found a multitude of abandoned military supplies and rooms, free from wild Pokemon. There was a plethora of old rations, both salvageable and spoiled, that could support a group like Eros' for years to come. Hank managed to find a few recoverable rifles, although he didn't take any along with him for now, considering his inexperience using them. The rooms they found included those for humans and all kinds of Pokemon, varying in shape, size and internal climate. There were also old maps and what seemed to be a mess hall, both decrepit from age. As they got closer to the center, what seemed to be abandoned training grounds all surrounded a mysterious stairwell in the middle of the ground.
As the party moved down this shaft, they found themselves in a dark room. Only because Cerci could conjure a light (it's a simple spell for anyone to learn), the room illuminated to show ten holes in the ground, all seeming like they'd fit an object shaped like a teardrop, what must be for the humanity stones. "This is it." Cerci retold the party the intended use of this device. "Of course, right now it's meant to harm ships and Pokemon in the sea and work for other war-like purposes; However, a quick rewire can fix that."
The party had taken an entire day to attempt to explore this place, using the older spring mattresses(which had the unpleasant scent of mildew on them) for the humans, and specialized dorms for the Pokemon, to sleep in between search times. Everyone was afraid that the rations wouldn't sit well if they ate them, but after Hank tried it out everyone agreed they were safe. After finding the Equilibrium and resting again, Cerci gathered everyone so they could hear what she had to say.
"This might be disappointing to whoever here likes the exploration part of our little adventure, but I need some time to rewire this device. This may take a day or two, so this might be a good time to do some training. Or something. Whatever you muggles do for fun."
Everyone looked a bit shifty at the ambiguity of this and leaving Cerci alone with the device, until she said, "I'd also like to train Eros a bit, too. We'll need all the power we have to get ten humanity stones." Everyone silently agreed to this, and everyone left except for Eros.
Eros suffered a few moments of awkward silence before asking, "What kind of training do you have in mind this time?"
Cerci looked around the room a bit, then extinguished her magical light, leaving the room in complete darkness. Then a voice came from Cerci's direction, "I need a light. Please make one."
"Okay then." Eros thought about this for a second, then released a shower of sparked, illuminating the room in the area which he directed the sparks.
"Great! Think you can hold that for a day or two?" Eros definitely couldn't pull off maintaining a constant stream of sparkles for even an hour, never less a day. He stopped emitting the stream, bringing the room back into the darkened state. What was that spell Cerci cast? It reminded him a lot of his magic missile. Maybe he just had to change the purpose of the bolt, one that means to create light. He focused on the energy on his body and formed another magic missile in front of him, levitating in the air.
Cerci spoke, "Oh, you can already make a magic missile. I forgot about that. Now, can you make it make light?"
Eros concentrated on the orb. It gave off a dim light, but not enough to see. Hey, maybe he could make it release a bit of energy? After all, light is energy. Eros concentrated on this orb, commanding it to release its energy. Suddenly, a bright flash blinded him and Cerci, in a fashion similar to the move flash, although it was more of a spell than a move.
"Alright, let's try NOT blinding us this time."
Eros tried again, making another magic missile, but rather than just making it release its energy, he made the bolt slowly release a stream of light, illuminating the room to some extent.
Cerci spoke again, "It's a little rough around the edges, but you'll get a better sense on how the spell works."
Meanwhile, the rest of the party was messing around on the ground level. Xerxes and Dusk were practicing attacking a dummy alongside Surge while Hank took the time to try and teach Sicily Dragon Breath.
"You want me to learn WHAT?"
"Remember, I don't understand Pokemon. Now, I need you to start by-"
"But shouldn't I start with something easier?"
"Ahem. I need you to start by watching this short video. I picked the TM up while I was in Ashport. Neat, right?"
Sicily was upset by the fact Hank couldn't understand her, but she decided to take this lesson anyways. Hank pulled out a miniature disk placer with its own screen, which he popped a purple disk into. The video started off with a title screen, beginning with the words "TM 24: Dragon Breath. Training video with closed captioning. Trainer and Pokemon video. Forty-five minutes, sixteen seconds."
The video consisted of various segments on how to practice the move, as well as how to actually perform it (which didn't make any sense to Hank but was almost self-evident to Sicily). After watching the lengthy video, Hank set out some rocks (as there was a little rubble around) and let out Surge. "Alright, Sicily, show that rock what you got. Surge, I bought you the TM for Thunder!"
Sicily didn't completely understand the video, so she had to make a few useless attempts at using the skill before managing to get a puff of draconic energy to form. An earshot away, she heard the sound of a familiar training device play, "...Trainer and Pokemon video. Two hours, seventeen minutes and forty-six seconds." Following this was a moan from Hank, as he had just discovered what he got himself in to.
Back to Eros and Cerci, Eros was focusing on the bolt of light he created, having to cast another after just an hour of its existence. Every hour he would have to cast another ball of light, slowly letting it release its energy until it ran out and disappeared, repeating the cycle until the fifth hour. Eros never used his powers more than once or twice per day, even when he's had a good distance in between spell castings.
"Eros, where's the light?"
"I'm exhausted, Cerci." The feeling was like having a hole in one's spirit and a pain in one's mind, as if you tried to stare at a flashing light after taking an hour-long test, five times in a row. The total exhaustion of magic also felt slightly painful physically, although he's not sure how.
"Oh, you're tired? Tell me more about your plan to keep off Keldeo, you hard working student."
"No, I mean I might not actually have the energy."
"Fine, take a break. See you in... Is it about two o'clock? That should be enough for today. Why don't you come back tomorrow, same time?"
Eros nodded and made his way back up the stairs, relieved that this was the end of practice for the day. He made his way up to the training grounds to see how everyone else was doing. By this point, Sicily could manage to scrape together enough energy to form some kind of breath attack, but its reach was mediocre and it was far from combat-ready. Surge didn't have much luck, either. His thunder kept on turning into Electro-balls, a weaker move he already knew. Hank was sitting on the side, watching the two and replacing the rocks every so often. Both Pokemon were exhausted and resting when they saw Eros walk up. "How's training going?"
Sicily responded with a newfound vigor at the sight of her trainer, eagerly responding, "Oh, Eros, watch this!" Gathering all the draconic power she could muster, Sicily shot out a deadly stream of purple energy that scorched and deformed the rock she was using to practice, using Dragon Breath for the first time in her life.
"A-amazing Sicily! But I also learned something new!" Eros felt the same vigor that Sicily had and managed to conjure up a ball of light, illuminating the evening grounds just a little more than it already was.
Sicily was underwhelmed at the power of this as a move, but was still impressed that a human knew such a skill. "Cool, Eros! Becoming a real magician, aren't you?"
"Haha, I guess I am." Eros felt a bit... Inferior to Sicily, especially after she just used Dragon Breath and destroyed a rock. "Well, I'm out of energy for the day. I'm going back to my room to rest, how about you?"
"Oh, uh, I'll rest two. I mean, too." As it turned out, everyone was already exhausted at this point, practicing whatever they were doing to the point where they could barely make it back to their rooms. Everyone slept peacefully that night, not a worry in the world. That is, until Sicily awoke in her sleep.
Sicily slept in the middle of a large room designed especially for dragon types. Mysterious writing crawled up every one of the walls, eventually reaching the ceiling, where a massive hole opened up to the midnight sky, a less than humble abode for any dragon. While the other rooms didn't seem to appeal to Sicily, she almost felt entitled to this one and kept it as her own. The room was meant for much bigger dragons, but Sicily felt as if the large size meant she owned an even greater territory. After all, she is a dragon type. As she slept peacefully, she heard some sort of fighting in the distance, although it sounded to be inside the fort. 'What could be making that noise...?' Sicily decided to fly up out through the hole and see what was going on.
Sicily enjoyed the view from above, seeing the fort as it would on a map. In the training yard she saw a small set of glowing lights and a small pink dot. What was this? As she decided to fly down to the training ground, she found the small dot would enlarge itself to become a Cleffa, one she instantly recognized as Eros. The Cleffa was slamming its body into some rocks, as if he were practicing the move slam. Eros was definitely hurt from this more than the rocks, showing signs of bruising all over his body. After a few seconds of this, he would stand back and appear to be concentrating intently, where a few glowing leaves would phase into existence near his body. After Eros would struggle a bit, the leaves would fade out again.
Sicily flew over next to Eros and spoke, "How are you, night walker?"
Eros was panting heavily, unable to speak.
"Trying to use magic leaf?"
A nod. After a second, he managed to choke out, "It's like... Using... Druid... Energy... For magic miss... iles..." Eros fell to his back after saying this.
Sicily walked over to Eros and helped him back up, supporting him with one of her arms. "How are you trying to do it?"
Eros was still exhausted at this point, but he managed to say, "I just try and tell my Pokemon side that I need energy... Then I make leaves... Then I tell them to attack, but they won't listen..."
"Huh. You have two sides, don't you... Try 'telling' the Pokemon side what you're doing. Like, when you get the energy, tell yourself that you need it to do magical leaf."
Eros though for a second and tried again, this time specifying to himself that he needed to use his energy to made magical leaves to attack the rock. Slowly, the magical leaves phased into existence once more, but this time they grew brighter and pointed at the rock. Eros was almost laughing at his sudden success; He then pointed his finger at a rock, sending the leaves flying and cutting the edges of the rock.
"I-I can't believe I did it!"
"Yep, you must've trained hard for that, Eros."
"Yeah, it took me like four hours!" That was about average, although the practice wasn't normally non-stop.
"Alright, you should get some rest for the night."
Eros nodded with a smile and turned back into human form, thanking Sicily before walking back to his dorm. His bruises seemed to carry over, leaving him to appear less than pretty compared to before.
'I wonder what it'd be like to be a Druid...'