The Vagabond.

Chapter 2: Helpful hero.

Riolu ran forward as fast as his legs could carry him, breathing heavily as he desperately tried getting away from the Pokemon chasing him.

A giant Ursaring bolted towards him from behind, roaring loudly and smashing through bushes and dead trees in her pursuit of the little blue furred Pokemon.

"Come back so I can thank you properly!" She yelled and continued to run after the small Pokemon, her sarcastic tone of voice making it obvious to him that she's not at all friendly.

And so he ran, staring up ahead and not at all under his feet, something that he came to regret very soon.

A particularly large root stuck out from the ground and tripped him, making Riolu tumble forward and roll a fair amount of distance.

That helped the mama bear to catch up, and once she did, she stood right behind him. Her large shadow obscured the bright sun, as she stared down at the Emanation Pokemon with a large frown.

In moments, her face changed to a warm and friendly one, as she leaned down and licked his face with her giant tongue, practically giving him a wash.

He tried spitting out the spit that unfortunately got in his mouth, as he stuck out his tongue and scratched it furiously to get it out. Ursaring laughed.

"Thank you for saving my Teddiursa. As a token of my gratitude..." She stood up and reached behind her back, taking out a big fistful of berries and dropping them on his head.

Riolu immediately knelt down to the ground, gathering all the dropped food as Ursaring continued talking. "Have some food. We have plenty, and if not, we can always gather some more." She smiled warmly.

The Emanation Pokemon nodded gently and stood up, having made a basket out of his arms to hold all the berries. The amount that Ursaring gave him easily reached his forehead.

He let out a small and quiet grunt before turning around and walking away with a huge grin on his face. Today, he has hit a jackpot! This food will easily last him for days!

Quite some time passed after Riolu first saw the outside world. He was adventuring, studying and helping others. It was what he deemed as 'the most important things'.

Sometimes it was a Joltik having trouble getting up to its web, sometimes a Tailow stuck in the bushes and crying for help. And sometimes, Pokemon as big as the Ursaring from just a second ago would also come for his help.

He would usually get nothing but a warm 'thank you' and a thankful and relieved smile. But that wasn't the case for everything. There were also rare times where he would get something to eat, or as little as a place to stay for the night.

Due to his quiet behaviour however, Riolu was usually seen as the weird and annoying kid that was trying to get attention and never actually helping in a real way. Of course, that was nothing but a blatant lie.

Throughout the forests that he traversed, the plains he walked through, the "mountains" he passed, never had he seen a Pokemon as helpful as him.

But all his good deeds never drove him away from the real goal- finding his parents, or at least even one of them. That was his ultimate goal, the thing that kept him going forward.

His motivation in its purest and truest form. His hopeful self was unchained and freed from his constraints, with the other one now being held up.

That's how Riolu viewed his mind- as two parts of him that both control different things. Both are never in control, only one remains the ruler.

He kept the black feather he found at his birthplace, reminding himself that he's never truly alone. No one is. There's always someone watching...

The small Pokémon popped one of the berries he got from Ursaring into his mouth, savouring the spicy taste.