DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokemon, all rights to Nintendo, Game Freak, yada yada yada…
Author's Note: Firstly, apologies to those who had so much faith in me completing my other Pokemon Fanfics 'The League Of Champions' and 'A Smeargle's Tale'. Frankly, I became a little lost with both projects. A change of job left me with much less time. I have attempted to write more chapters for both fics, but I feel now that my train of thought has been derailed from these projects and I am unlikely to restart them in the future. I say UNLIKELY… it might happen someday.
I've decided to go for a completely different writing style that I am normally accustomed to. This is my first take on a Mystery Dungeon style fic, so I welcome any comments, positive or negative (yet constructive) and I would love to see some reviews. So, in typical fashion… Go grab a lemonade or something, kick back and enjoy!
POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEONS: THE DRAGON EXPLORERS
CHAPTER ONE: FRIENDLY FACES
Lush fauna engulfed the landscape. The sanctuary provided from the scaling rocky cliff faces was comforting for all who resided within its walls. Amongst the eerily purple evening sky, the sun had begun its long descent beneath the horizon, the breeze bringing the coldness of the night along with it. Leaves swayed back and forth from various trees, the sounds of various chirping creatures drowned out by the roar of crashing water. The waterfall was not colossal, yet the water fell from a significant enough height to create such a noise. The blades of grass amongst the fields were perfectly grazed to such a length that even the smallest Pokemon could run along it and be seen. Thicker grass grew near the edge of a cluster of trees, forming miniature woodlands. There were enough different articles of scenery here to welcome any Pokemon who wished to live and play here, the variety of species that could currently be counted in this land is proof of such a fact. The stream that flowed from the lake into which the waterfall emptied its irrigated cargo from above was crystal clear. Magikarp could be clearly seen swimming at its bed, savouring small morsels of algae that grew on the rocks beneath the water's surface. The likes of Goldeen and furthermore Finneon also relished themselves in the gentle flow of the stream, one particular Finneon getting too close for comfort to a territorial Krabby which darted away at the sight of its pincers snapping at its scales.
Back on dry land, there was only one small piece of activity that was noteworthy. Two juvenile Pokemon were moving across the grassland, with one moving a lot more enthusiastically than the other, gesturing for its friend to follow with a wave of its paw before running off towards the edge of the lake. Both creatures seemed to have reptilian, somewhat prehistoric appearances. The more energetic of the two was covered in different shades of green scales with two noticeable tusk-like features, one protruding on each side of its mouth. In contrast, its colleague was covered primarily in blue scales, albeit with a creamy coloured belly which matched the colour of its lower jaw, as well as its ears. Its own teeth also poked out from its mouth, yet highly underdeveloped in comparison to the other lizard. Its head also sported an unusual crest, apparently made from thick scales that had gradually grown over the top of its skull and trailed a short way down the back of its neck. Another difference in appearance was that this Pokemon seemed much wearier than its greener counterpart.
The larger-tusked creature stopped at the water's edge, peering cautiously over the side and gazed at its reflection. It pulled a small face, the surface of the water mirroring the infant's actions, causing it to giggle with amusement. Despite the volume of the thundering water of the falls it could somehow hear its friends' exhausted sigh over the top of it, causing it to turn back around to face the source. With another sigh, the blue scaled reptile flopped backwards on its back, closing its eyes and breathing heavily. The rapid expansion of its chest as it tried to catch its breath was totally ignored by the green scaled creature, which in turn prodded its friend's side with its paw.
"Come on, you Slowpoke!" the creature giggled, still jabbing its small clawed finger into the side of its worn out companion. "What are you so worn out for? I've run just as far as you and I haven't even broken a sweat!" The crested individual slowly opened its eyes only to see a toothy, gleeful smile on its face. With a grunt, it sat up, letting out a deep exhalation of breath.
"Never… have I met… an Axew… with so much… energy," it panted, still unable to catch its breath. The Axew tilted its head, slightly bemused by its statement as the fellow Dragon Type propped himself upwards with his arms, the bases of his paws flat against the grassy ground behind him. "Why did you… drag me all the… way out here for?" it enquired, taking a deep intake of air before asking. In response, the Axew merely shrugged its shoulders, before looking back at the lake and moving closer towards it once again. "What do you mean…?" it half-heartedly shrugged directly after the question as if to mock the Axew's motions, although it had already turned its back so was therefore unable to see this gesture. With a second grunt, the blue scaled Dragon slowly pulled itself back up onto its feet, throwing its arms forwards as it to use the momentum to lift itself to a vertical base before taking a couple of steps forward to join its ally. The duo stared at their reflections in the water, seemingly hypnotically entranced. Small ripples of water distorted the mirror images as a result of the cascading water, yet the waterfall was at such a distance that it did not destabilise the images severely. "I see now," the creature nodded, noticing how its reflection spoke along with it, only without the sound coming from its mouth. "It sure is peaceful here, isn't it?"
"Yeah," the Axew squeaked cheerily. "But it's weird…" it frowned ponderingly for a moment. The blue scaled Dragon took notice of this perplexed look and glanced over to show what relatively small interest it had. Raising an eyescale as a gesture for the Axew to continue with regards to what it found strange, it then nudged the Axew with its stubby elbow. "Oh!" it exclaimed, snapping out of its daydream. "I mean it is kind of weird that no matter how hard you try, the Axew in the water always copies what you do!" Its colleague's semi-uninterested glance now changed to a somewhat more flabbergasted stare. A look of disbelief filled its entire face. "I can pull the most difficult of faces," the Axew explained dimly, turning around and leaning back so that its head was dangling just over the side of the lakeside bank, "but it just does it right back to me!" It then opened its mouth and let its tongue roll out of its mouth, wriggling it back and forth whilst crossing its eyes, yet still keeping a careful watch to see if its reflection would fail to mimic its every move. "Look! Leapcliff, watch me!" it giggled joyfully once again, screwing up its face to wrinkle its youthful scales. It seemed to be peering beyond its reflection, as if trying to see what else lay in the water. With a sigh, this time less tiresome, its comrade took a step back and raised its paw to cover its eyes, shaking its head in astonishment at the young Axew's naivety.
"You know something, Tuscany?" he asked with a growly, yet soft voice as he still faced the opposite direction to his Axew counterpart. "Sometimes I wonder how many times you've been dropped on your head as a child." Tuscany let out a wide grin, turning to face Leapcliff despite the fact he had his back turned to her.
"That's rich coming from a Bagon!" she beamed, no venom in her retaliation. There was a temporary stunned silence between the two. As Leapcliff turned his head to face Tuscany, he realised that she had already resumed playing with her reflection on the lake, a secondary set of ripples had appeared just to one side of the image on the surface of the water, the source of which was unknown. Leapcliff opened his mouth as if to speak before pausing a little hesitatingly. He simply let out a small chuckle to himself, before turning his back to Tuscany once more.
"Touché," he smiled, unable to come back from such a comment. Regardless of only days between their ages, Leapcliff seemed to be far more mature than the Axew that his chose to share his company with. Some say that females mature faster than males, although the probability that not enough time had passed to make this theory viable in the case of Leapcliff and Tuscany seemed pretty apparent. In Tuscany's opinion, Leapcliff was like a big brother to her. He enjoyed poking fun at her when only in each others company, yet he was very protective and a loyal friend. On the other hand, Leapcliff could not hide his distaste for Tuscany's girlish traits and constant demand for entertainment and foolery. However, he did admire the fact that she did not take his mockery to heart and the fact that she too could dish out an equal, if not superior amount of light hearted ridicule even more so. Despite the flaws that they both held each other to have, the two had formed a solid foundation upon which their friendship could build. Little do they know just how well their friendship will be formed and then tested. However, that is part of the challenge that we all know as Life. "We should head back soon." Leapcliff softly stated out of the blue, quickly glancing at the sun that had surprisingly stooped further beneath the horizon. "Your parents won't be happy if you are late home again. Especially since you ate all those Oran Berries we found before you had your dinner."
"Aww, but I want to play some more!" Tuscany whined, finally putting a cease to all her face-pulling and turning to face the Bagon. She looked back briefly, a few droplets of water flicking out from the lake and landing on her scales, which she wiped away. With a small level of caution, she stepped closer to Leapcliff and away from the lake's edge. "We've only just got here! And besides, I've spent all day trying to help you fly! I think I deserve to have a bit of fun myself!"
"You think that jumping out of trees and off cliffs is fun, Tuscany?" Leapcliff snorted with a high level of sarcasm in his voice. "You probably had more fun giving me a push-start than I did landing headfirst on the ground twelve times in one day."
"And you thought that I'D had too many drops on the head," Tuscany chuckled sweetly, retorting to Leapcliff's whimsical jest. "I feel sorry for your Mom. She must have the same dreams as you, wanting to fly and all that. But she's way older than us and she's only a Shelgon. The way things are going, your brain will be scrambled by the end of the week, let alone in however-many years time."
"Well, thanks for that," the Bagon snorted, again jokingly. "Fill me with confidence, why don't you?"
"I'm just stating the obvious, Leapcliff," Tuscany beamed sweetly once again, before spinning on her heel and stepping curiously over to the lip of the lake bank. With a small scowl, a little annoyance building due to Tuscany's defiance in returning to the place where they called home, Leapcliff feigned casualness as he took to Tuscany's side once again. To his surprise, she was no longer pulling faces, instead she was now staring more so into the water.
"Can you see something?" Leapcliff asked, moving his face closer to the water in the same way that the Axew had. They both could certainly see something. It was something in the shape of a star. A Staryu, perhaps? No, this Star seemed somewhat 'squattier' than a Staryu. It was then that Leapcliff noticed two strange gleams from beneath the star. It was at that precise moment that his whole body tensed up, a feeling of shock, dread and danger triggering his Ninjask-fast reaction. "Look out!" he called, yanking Tuscany backwards who let out a surprised yelp as they retreated by a few feet in distance. Both Dragon Type Pokemon fell backward, two small thuds of impact vibrated through the ground between them. This was then followed by a third, but the force of this impact was a lot harder, a trail of excess water flittering onto the ground to accompany the ominous creature that had emerged from the lake.
END OF CHAPTER ONE