Summary

Shelby had an idyllic and carefree childhood, and though she loved her parents, she was eager to go out into the world and find her place in it. Unfortunately, Shelby had trouble joining a pack because her shyness prevented her from reaching out to strangers. She eventually encountered another female bisharp of a similar age who offered her a place in her own group, and Shelby accepted the invitation than risk being adrift forever.

Although Shelby was relieved to no longer live on her own, she felt painfully isolated from the pack’s members because they’d known each other for many moons. Since she didn’t share their social connection, Shelby decided that her worth in the pack would have to come from her physical skills—except she was lacking in those areas, too. Shelby’s loneliness and insecurities led her straight to the claws of a lurking zoroark, who offered to train Shelby in private after hearing of her dilemma. Though she was reluctant to accept a stranger’s help, Shelby agreed because she hoped her confidence would grow with her strength.

The moons that followed were agony for Shelby. Her mentor’s methods were brutal and unrelenting: she would battle Shelby over and over until the bisharp could barely stand, and she would batter Shelby’s mind with criticisms of her body and personality. The zoroark would even transform into pokemon Shelby knew, or Shelby herself, to further the cruelty of her taunts. Shelby refused to admit to her packmates that she was hurting, fearing that they would perceive her as being weak… and because they didn’t seem to any improvements, she kept going back to her mentor for more training.

What had begun with the innocent wish to become stronger had wrecked Shelby physically and mentally until she was nothing but a vessel of frustration, self-loathing, and despair. When she finally snapped and attacked the very same bisharp who had taken her into the pack in a fit of jealousy, she was exiled for being dangerous and unstable. Shelby was immediately plagued with horror by what she had done and who she had become. With nowhere to go, she went to her mentor for advice; and instead received a scathing rebuke for having failed to best her ally.

The zoroark finally revealed that she was a criminal known by many names, but one deceit: preying upon the vulnerabilities of other pokemon in order to steal from them when they were at their lowest. However, she had grown tired of stealing fortunes and affection. Shelby was her test to determine whether absolute obedience was something she could take as well. But she had misjudged her apprentice, for in the end, it was Shelby’s shame in herself that broke her from her loyalty to zoroark—and in a stunning reversal of power, Shelby defeated her mentor in battle.

After fleeing her mentor’s iron grip, Shelby was too ashamed to admit to her family and friends that she had sought guidance from a monster. She spent the next several moons wandering through Unova on her own, searching for a new purpose… which came in the form of Bellatrix’s army. Although Shelby had known of Bellatrix’s army before the tyrant Invictus murdered King Satyr, she had never summoned the courage to approach the group or its leader. But she was aching to redeem herself, so she decided to become a soldier and join the army’s resistance against Invictus. Little did she know, this decision would lead her to two bisharps who would change her life.