I always liked the silence of the guild in the earliest part of the morning, despite my energetic nature. There was something so nice about it, so nice about being able to wake up to the sight of the rounded, wooden ceiling, and to hear nothing but the wind flowing into the grated window in our room. Well, that and the stupid bird type pokemon outside, whose chirping gradually grew more noisy as the morning played itself out.

Usually my partner, Klein, would already be out of bed by now. It would be at this time that the grovyle would be checking out the job requests that came in, and considered picking ones that interested him. Even though we were a rather strong exploration team, I tried to keep us out of doing jobs that required us to fight outlaws. It was REALLY hard for me to see the point of putting ourselves in harm's way just to get a little reward from the client.

But, this morning started out a bit differently. Our job from yesterday seemed to wear my partner out completely, as he went to bed well before I did. When I sat up and looked over, I saw that the leafy gecko was still curled up on his straw bed. Couldn't help but think that he looked so cute when he was asleep… so with that in mind, I decided to let him get his well earned rest and rose up to my feet, ready to get on with the day ahead.

The rest of the morning, though, seemed to play itself out like I expected; not much really happened around here anyway. The morning briefing wasn't really a thing anymore, since the new head of the guild decided to do away with anything that he considered to be "Pointless" or "A waste of time". That new guild-master was to-the-point, much harsher than old Wigglytuff. I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about him, since he'd only been here for a year or so. Maybe sooner or later I'd decide, but for now, I was determined to continue on following my dreams. When WigglyTuff went off to do Arceus knows what, Chatot decided to stay and continue to direct both new and older explorer teams toward their goals. That was nice, I guess; Chatot could be rather peculiar at times, but he was generally alright. When I exited from the crew rooms, the small parrot pokemon spread out his right wing as if to greet me.

"Hm! Good morning, I see you are well rested and ready to take on yet another day of work!~" He chirped, causing me to rub the back of my head and nod slowly. "Mhhh... Yup…" I yawned, "I think so, at least. Not really looking forward to working with a tired, grumpy grovyle."

Chatot would tilt his head, giving me a strange look. Of course, he then shook the expression clear from his face, and it was soon replaced with a grin. "Oh, but I'm sure he will be his old self after the morning passes! Where is he, still asleep?" The parrot pokemon squawked curiously. When I nodded, Chatot continued; "I see. Well, go find something to do! I expect a productive day, like usual!" And with that, the small flying type flew to the other side of the room, to confront another explorer.

So with all of that over with, I headed to the floor above so I could pick out a job that would meet the standards of both me and Klein. Wouldn't want him getting onto me about not thinking before I act, since that's gotten me in more trouble than I can take on my own.

The job boards, whether you picked the side that had you doing more supportive and helpful tasks, or picked the side that had you beating the life out of the world's baddies, were usually overflowing with missions that many ignored. That was something that agitated me- who cared about the reward when you're helping another living, breathing pokemon? I liked to see the smiles of those we helped, it was just something that grew onto me. I didn't need the money anyway and besides; if I were to run out, I'd just go rob Klein's bank account!

Today I walked over to the left side of the room, to look upon the board that held the supportive job requests. Everything seemed rather simple, and easy to accomplish. A pachirisu needing a hand on Mt. Horn, A slowpoke wanting an escort to the top-most floor of crystal cave, a nuzleaf who got his head stuck in a tree near apple woods… yeah, today held a pretty laid back selection.

As I reached forward, I had the weirdest feeling. That one odd sense where one feels they are being watched- But nobody was awake, besides chatot and two other teams. Those teams headed out minutes ago though, and I was next. Even then, I could feel two curious eyes burning into the back of my skull. When I turned around, I expected some kind of Goliath just staring down at me- but that's not what it was at all. I was surprised when my eyes landed upon a small purple figure hovering on the ground in front of me.

What exactly was it? A small, purple, clothed being, with some kind of small horn extending out from its head. Or, at least I think that was its head. Those eyes though- as soon as we made eye contact, it was hard to look away. Its dark blue irises seemed to glow, and while sort of creepy, they had an odd beauty to them.

"U-uh…" I stammered, backing up against the wall slowly, "Well...Uhm… Hiya! Eheh.." The small pokemon in front of me blinked, and continued to stare at me. It was almost like it was trying to figure me out, or trying to search for something in my expression. With the way the little blob gazed at me, it was hard to tell.

"You lost or something…?" I chuckled nervously, trying to at least establish some form of communication with the small being. Once again though, my small talk was met with silence, another blink and no further movement. Did the pokemon even understand my language?

Then, I suddenly remembered; one time a few years ago I happened to pick up a book on ghost type pokemon. I knew I saw this pokemon somewhere, but at first glance I wasn't able to immediately put my finger onto where that might have been. One of the pages I had come across held two pictures- this pokemon, and it's evolved form. The hovering being in front of me was a shuppet, no doubt about it. It's evolved form was harder to remember- what was it, Banertee? Banshee? (Referring to Banette) Not really a pokemon I would want to meet in a dark alleyway, maybe it was best that I hadn't looked into that pokemon's descriptions and common traits.

"Okay then…" I mumbled. Well, I would have turned away and was certainly about to, there wasn't much point in trying to communicate if the pokemon didn't understand. But, before I could do anything, I heard someone's voice. That couldn't have been...

"He likes you. Can you not see it, in his eyes?" A rather smooth, deep voice. Like Klein's, but not quite.

Well, I was right about one thing- this wasn't the shuppet speaking.

I spun around to see an outline in the darker parts of the room. A figure as large as me, maybe just a tad shorter, stood with crossed arms. If I remembered correctly, Klein had said in the past that this pokemon was called sableye. But I hadn't seen the shuppet or this other pokemon around here before. Or maybe I had, but just didn't notice it sooner.

"And you are…?" I spoke up, crossing my arms. "You don't sound familiar…"

There was a moment before the sableye responded, stepping forward enough so that the light of my tail flame illuminated his dark purple form. "I am a new explorer here. Very new, in fact. But this one…" His voice trailed off as he turned his head to the smaller ghost type pokemon beside me, but he eventually continued on. "He is only a visitor. He wishes to see what goes on in the daily life of an exploration team."

I took a moment to turn my head back to the shuppet, who was still gazing at me with wide eyes. The sableye slowly padded forward, and held his hand out to me. "Excuse me for not introducing ourselves sooner.~" He chuckled. "I am Zephyr. The little shuppet is Niko."

"Yeah, Hi there." I said, reaching forward and shaking his hand with my own. "My name is-"

"Dusk." Niko interrupted, and blinked. The first word out of his damn mouth, and it's enough to take my breath away. He knew my name, somehow.

Still holding hands, both me and Zephyr turned our heads to the smaller ghost type. "H-how did...you…" I mumbled, trying to connect dots that seemed to not exist. My eyes had stretched wide with surprise, but Zephyr could only smile. "Lucky guess?~", hissed the sableye.

As I let go of the other's palm, that little shuppet flashed me a grin. Those eyes met mine, and I couldn't help but wonder what was running through his mind at this very moment. Zephyr seemed like a pretty straight forward guy, he said what he needed to and that was fine with me. I still hadn't figured out a single thing about Niko, though. Something in my mind told me that he was a kid full of mysteries.

Niko closed his eyes and nodded slowly. "Yes. Lucky guess.~"

Well, they didn't seem like bad pokemon, that's for sure. Maybe a little strange around the edges, but not SUSPICIOUSLY strange.

Rubbing the back of my head, I let out a chuckle and allowed my tail to wave slowly around me. "Well it was nice to meet you two, yup!" I'd nod swiftly, regaining my usual silly composure. "Can't say it wasn't a weird meet n' greet, but I guess sometimes that's just how it goes."

Zephyr dipped his head briefly, before lightly pushing Niko towards the wooden ladder that would lead up and out of the guild. Before he began climbing upward, he looked towards me and I could have sworn those ruby gemstones he calls eyes had just flashed dimly. "We have to get going, I wish you luck on your assignments." He murmured, and waved his arm around his side as if to say farewell.

I placed one arm at my side, and proceeded to wave back to Zephyr using my other arm. "Same to you guys!" I'd chime.

After a rather curt nod from the sableye, he went up first, while Niko stopped at the foot of the ladder and turned to me with the same stare that we met with. That crap still creeped me the hell out, but at least I know he wasn't exactly plotting to kill me in my sleep or something. That's always nice to know.

A few seconds went by, before a shout rang out from the entrance above. "Come on, Niko! It's not polite to keep me waiting!"

The shuppet huffed, shutting his eyes and grinning. "I'll be seeing you again sometime, Mr. Dusk.~" He'd mumble, earning a shiver of discomfort from me and a quick nod. I swear, ghost types said normal things in such weird ways. The sentence itself wasn't bad, but Niko's tone was all but normal. Normal to them, weird to me. That was probably not going to change anytime soon. "Yeah. You too…" I blinked. "I guess…"

And they were gone. Just like that, I met two (questionably) friendly ghost type pokemon, and found out they were members here just like me.

I suddenly looked up and around, just incase anybody had been listening in on my little meet and greet session. Nobody else was in the room though, and as if nothing had occurred, the previous silence of the 2nd floor slowly crept back in, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Man oh man, something in my mind told me that today was going to be quite interesting.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

So some of you (having read the story) may be wondering what the point of this short story was- It didn't have substance, there really wasn't a conflict or defined plot; no suspense that grabbed onto your interests. For me, this story was a test of description and tone, something that I sometimes struggle with. After not writing for so long, I wanted to see if I still could do what I was able to back in 2013, when I started posting stories on here. Looking at them now, it put me to shame... so much that I deleted many of the unfinished ones and refuse to continue them. I based progress on how many words in a chapter there were, trying to write for the sake of attention. While I still admire attention, I'm trying not to be ridiculous about it. Writing is more about the ideas of the writer, not the reactions of the reader. Even if both are important, you always have to realize that if I didn't choose to write this, there would be nothing for the reader to see. This goes with every piece of writing I've made, and for all to come. Thanks for your time, Enjoy my future reads!