As it turned out, Kingdra was a great source of information. She left after we had all finished eating, diving back below the sea, and was gone for 15 minutes or so before returning with another Magikarp. She killed it quickly, skewering it to roast over the fire, which she maintained with what I assumed was a use of ember.
I asked her offhand how many different moves she knew, and she told me she had never bothered to count; moves themselves were apparently more of a trainer thing. It was interesting to find out how much a wild Pokémon knew of human culture. She explained that one did not get to grow as strong as she was without learning about humans.
That wasnt to say she knew where we were, she didnt care for regions or global politics, instead that pokemon could bond to human trainers, that thoses that did on average grew up to be stronger or older, the world was not a kind place for a weak pokemon and while she wanted what was best for her children, eventually they had to go face the world to grow. One of her current fry was eager to get out and grow. She had constantly been scolding him for wandering off when she had gone out to hunt, the same one who saw a big ball of water aura and decided to take it for himself. The aura a Pokémon could take from its trainer helped bolster a Pokémon in a fight, but the use of external aura would leave the Pokémon exhausted, as well as draining the trainer. Apparently, it was a higher-level technique that would be used sparingly in pivotal moments, not everything at once.
Kingdra had verbally scolded the Horsey after she had found me passed out again on the beach before. She had told him that draining all of a person's aura like that could kill them, which wasn't great to hear.
I went on to ask Kingdra if there was a way that I could stop a random Pokémon from draining my aura, resulting in a quick second death.
She took a long time to reply. I guess my aura was getting low again. Instead of answering my previous question, she told me that my aura was working wrong.
“What do you mean it's wrong?” I asked.
“My aura exists as a projection of myself. Aura control is easier for some types of Pokémon than others. Dragons, for example, tend to be more true to their nature. Not to say each dragon type is the same, but there was generally a more varied behaviour between the water type Pokémon than dragons or ghosts.
I use it by literally putting my being into it; it's not something that recovers quickly. Not only are you producing a large amount of water aura, but the speed at which you recover from being drawn to nearly dry is outstanding.”
“I don’t really understand what you're saying. I'm sorry, Kingdra. As nice as you've been to me, this is all very different to what I'm used to. I'm pretty sure I've been having a panic attack this entire time.”
“What I'm saying is that if I burned through the aura at the rate you are speaking with me, I would be wiped out for hours.”
“So I'm producing a lot of aura, we knew that already, it's why you saved me in the first place, wasn’t it?” I asked, unsure what she was getting at.
“I wasn’t originally drawn to your aura, but the ursaring firing of hyper beams near my territory I was hunting in, I allowed her to hunt for her cub in these oceans, a right I could easily revoke if I wanted, which is why she backed down.”
“You, having been a treasure I could use to grow stronger, happened to be lying there. It was a happy coincidence.”
“I see, for what it's worth, I think the ursaring was probably spooked by me standing there. Would she be able to detect an aura?” I asked
“She would,” Kingdra responded.
“So think of things from her perspective, she rocks up to the shoreline with her cub, I assume he would sit there while she tried to catch fish, how a bear catches fish in an ocean, a point I would like to be explained.”
“Stay on topic, you have a limited aura, idiot.”
“Right, sorry, so she's got this safe space where she leaves her baby, and suddenly I am. A random human, pouring off water aura and a weird egg, I think it was a shoot first, ask questions later situation.” I went on.
“Yes, I know that, which is why I let her live,” Kingdra responded.
It was at that moment that things truly clicked for me in how different we were. While Kingdra was a sentient being, being able to speak with me, she didn’t think as I did. She lived in a way that a random attack within her territory may be worth death was a little extreme compared to how I would have dealt with the situation. Granted, she calmed down when she learned of the reasoning, but the initial response didn't sit well with me.
Kingdra, seemingly reading my mind, cut me off.
“We Pokémon are different from humans, our type that your kind is so fond of categorising is a real thing, I am a Water and Dragon type Pokémon. That in itself means something Dragon types grow to have to embrace that need to own everything under your gaze; it's why Dragon type attacks did more damage to other Dragons, who else but to fight than another who thinks they are the strongest than another Dragon.”
“When something like that makes up your intrinsic being, it changes you.”
“I guess that makes sense, and look, I'm sorry I didn’t mean to be judging you, as I said, I'm freaking out a little still.”
“Have you noticed, young one who is old, that you grow more anxious the longer we talk?”
“I do?” I asked.
“You do.”
I was acting more nervously, feeling like I had to apologise to Kingdra. I realised she probably had a point. How did I not notice this before? I thought.
“It is your aura, child. You keep allowing it to drop to dangerous levels. Once you get better control of it, you will be able to numb the pain of psychic communication out completely for a mere fraction of what you're using now. You just keep burning through everything you have constantly, it’s how Horsey was able to take all of your aura so easily, you just let him, but up the slightest bit of resistance and things would have gotten much harder.”
“So I really gotta learn how to control aura before I do anything, is what you're saying,” I asked nervously.
“A basic understanding, yes.”
“I get that, but is there really not any time we can spare to work out how to get me some clothes?” I deadpanned.
Kingdra actually let out a god dam laugh.
“Sure, I can protect you and escort you into human civilization, crossing thousands of pokemon on the way, which is any of them so much as to touch you then theres a good chance you will just die because your spouting off more aura than they have ever seen and they would like some and your to nice not to say take everything all so you don’t have to learn how to say no, naked, from a teacher who also doesn’t wear clothes.”
“You may have a point somewhere in there”, I muttered. “How long do you think it will take you to teach me that?”
“That entirely depends on you. Aura control is something very intrinsic to the individual, developed over their lifetime as their aura grew in tandem. You have the aura generation of a grand master, but so little control over it, I'm not sure how to even go about tackling the problem.”
I could feel a grin forming on my face, “Well, on the bright side, if I'm producing it at the rate you say I am, we have a lot to practice with.”
“Indeed, now let's find out if your talent in aura control lives up to your aura production.
