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Title: Chapter 19: The Evolution ceremony

Before Arie knew it, it was time. The day had arrived. The day that Arie and her friends would finally 'rank up', finally be considered useful to the castle, to get to do their first jobs, maybe get out of the palace and explore the Kingdom! Meet the King! Despite the previous incident with Evil, Arie hadn't been able to see his majesty's real face or body, she'd only ever read about him, for all she knew, he was a myth. Still, words could not describe the excitement Arie and her friends were feeling as they met outside the ceremony room, the sounds of Freemon activity inside. Near them, Jake was waiting with the dragonair(who Arie still didn't know the name of) for Alex, it looked like, as the Luxio rushed in soon after. It was strange how Arie knew she'd look at those same three jerks next time and they'd be a Charizard, Dragonite, and Luxray. It wasn't the greatest thought, but she wasn't going to let that ruin her day. Arie turned to her friends. "Ya guys ready?" Echo gave an excited wag of her tail. "Yeah! I know what I'm going to evolve into already!" She exclaimed.
Eric looked a little startled, admittedly. "Really? What is it?"
Echo smiled. "Not telling!" She giggled.
Arie shook her head, a little bitter she'd never feel the sensation of evolution as all the other Freemon described it, but she felt happy for her friends all the same. "We'll see soon enough. Let's go inside." Her friends obliged happily to that.

The room, was MASSIVE. Ringing in the ears of all present attendees was the surrounding chatter of excited freemon preparing for evolution. The walls were painted royal blue and gold, with little red jewels everywhere. There was a stage on one end, with a row of seats in front of it, though it looked as if more could easily be added, existed previously, in fact, but were removed for the purpose of the event. All around were different stands for different evolution methods, duplicated in some cases due to the sheer population of freemon for that type. There were places for stone evolution, level up, even places for freemon who would need specific items to evolve, such as Milotic in the prism scale or Steelix and the metal coat, or environments where pokemon evolve like Leafeon in a mossy forest with a stone in the center, covered in moss, or the same situation with ice for Glaceon. Arie looked at her friends again, the two Eevees were looking at the stone stands, clearly wanting a stone evolution(Or, EEVEElution?), they appeared to be looking for the one with the shortest line. Brendan also evolved trough stone, and he soon found a stand with a decent sized line and led them to it. Arie turned to Zuri as they went, who seemed to be following. "Err, Zuri? Don't you want to get in line for your own evolution?" Zuri didn't speak, simply pointed to the long lines from the countless freemon at the rare candy stands. Rare candy, an expensive treat that allows a freemon to level up once upon consumption. Arie understood. "Well in that case, I guess I'm really only here for the actual speech and stuff, so.. I'm going where ever you go." Zuri nodded and they quickly caught up to Brendan, Eric, and Echo.

As they waited in line for a good ten minutes, at least, rough estimate, their time came, Eric, Brendan, and Echo stepped up to the stand at the same time. The stone operator was a Nidoking, a rather cheerful one, with a big friendly smile on his face. "Hello!" Said the worker to the three. "I suppose you've come to choose a stone for your evolutions." At this, he pulled out two fire stones, a thunder stone, and a water stone. He handed one fire stone to Brendan while setting the other three stones in front of the Eevees. He explained. "If you two want to have the same evolution, I can bring out more as needed." Eric nodded and looked at Echo. "I'll choose one of the ones you don't." Echo then nodded as well and placed her paw on the blue water stone. Soon her whole body started to glow, and she began to grow and shift into her new form. The tuft of fur on her head turned into a dorsal fin, and her ears flicked and shifted into matching fins on either side of her head. Her little fluffy tail started to snake out and grow into a fish tail, flopping gracefully on the ground. When the glowing stopped, she had a new body, blue fur with ridged spikes along her back, her purple eyes had deepened into amethyst. She looked beautiful. Eric stared at her admiringly for a few seconds before gazing at his stone selection. Rather shockingly, he reached for the fire stone, just like Brendan's, and started his own evolution. His body instantly grew taller, and his fur became fluffier. His chest fur poofed out into a round floofball around his neck, and his little tail turned into even more warm, fluffy fur. When the glowing stopped, he had a red body with a tuft of fur on his head, as well as a floofy tail and neck fluff. He blinked gorgeous sapphire blue eyes at them. He looked majestic!

Then it was Brendan's turn... he sat off to the side with his fire stone, staring at it....

Title: Chapter 20: Nostalgia

Zuri wandered over to the Vulpix where he was, staring down blankly at the amber, sparkling stone. "Brendan...? Aren't you gonna evolve?" Her voice was soft, as if concerned. Brendan looked up at her, a look in his eyes. He spoke in a whisper.
"It's just...you know...it feels like this day means something. Like more than just us growing up, but like...loosing our childhood." He whispered, just barely audible to Arie and Zuri. Zuri sat next to him. "I know. That's the whole point of this day...right?" Brendan shook his head. "You understand, that after today, once the ceremony is over, and we all evolve, our lives will never be the same? You understand that life is only going to get tougher, right? I'm just...I'm not sure if I'm ready for that."

Arie thought back to the week before the ceremony, when they had all made the decision to stay together. Brendan had been the one to suggest it, and she planned to stick with it. She padded around the two fox Pokemon to sit on Brendan's other side. "We all know this, even if it hasn't sunken in yet. But you know what, Brendan?" She asked, placing her large, fluffy paw on his shoulder. He looked at her. "What?"

"We're all gonna stick together, no matter what. Don't let the past take the excitement from you now. I know you want to evolve, Brendan, to get stronger." She stood up and walked toward Echo and Eric. "Nothing is gonna stop us from moving forward, got it? No one is alone."

With this, Brendan cracked a slight smile, and Zuri nosed his fire stone closer to him. No more hesitation, he placed his little brown paw upon the stone and started to feel the intense energy that came from the it. A great heat, coursing through his body, he loved it, though. He started to glow, and felt his body change. His legs grew taller and more slender and graceful, his red, beautiful tails spit into luxurious nine kitsune tails, his snout grew longer, his eyes sharper, and the glowing stopped. He was a Ninetales now. Zuri and Arie walked with him to Echo and Brendan, who had been playing while Brendan was evolving, and they admired Brendan's golden pelt before stepping into the now much more shrunken level-up line.