A Simple Excursion

Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon. Pokémon is a media franchise published and owned by the video game company 'Nintendo'.

Author's Note(s):: I made the text for the speech italic, I think it makes it stands out a little more. I've brushed up on my grammar and my sentence structure, so this story should be much easier to read. Enjoy.

Frosty Forest

4F

All was quiet on the fourth floor of Frosty Forest. The landscape was painted with icy trees of a silvery-white colour. It seems that time has little-to-no meaning here.

Atop the fourth floor entrance stood Sambas, a male luxio. He stood no higher than 2'11" and his midnight-black furred mane had seen better days. His rough exterior betrays him as he is a kind, albeit dim, soul at heart. His slow, gentle nature is considered relaxing…for some at least. He formed an exploration team a couple of months ago in the hopes of achieving evolution. In his struggle to evolve he helped countless pokémon on rescue missions and was rewarded for his effort a mere month after his début.

"Come on, Kisara! Haven't you found it yet?" Sambas shouted into the shadowy depths of the stairs, his voice echoing down the long tunnel. At first, there was no reply. Sambas' question was met with an almost unnerving silence. He peered down the frosted steps and saw only blackness before a faint red blur seemed to materialize from within the darkness. It slowly began to grow, or perhaps it was creeping closer, Sambas couldn't tell. It seemed to be a bubbling sphere of pure...red, with a somewhat orange tint and a warm aura about it. It grew bigger and clearer as it seemed to be getting nearer and nearer. There was a sudden...smoky stench in the air and the mysterious orb was so close that it almost looked like a ball of pure...fire, fire that was on a crash course heading directly for Sambas! The sudden realization set alarms off in his head as he barely managed to dive to the side, the fire scraping his mane slightly but altogether missing the brunt of the encounter with the "flamey burst" of death. Sambas looked on in part-amazement, part-terror, as the fire tore a hole in the thick mist that enveloped the area, disappearing as mere smouldering speck into the sky.

"Missed." Complained a quiet, unseen voice. A vulpix stepped out of the shadows as the not-so-still silence was suddenly pierced by the quiet, modulated speech.

Sambas looked up at the fiery-fox pokémon as it stood over him, admiring the scent of smoke in the air. It was Kisara, Sambas' partner. She stood 2'05" tall with bangs of red fur across her forehead. Six bright, orange tails that complemented her reddish-brown pelt swayed gently behind her with every step. She also possessed serene blue eyes that would glitter occasionally, sadly only few people had the pleasure of seeing them since she would avert her gaze when talking to most pokémon; Sambas however, was a rare exception. She's a shy, short-fused fox and the main source of Sambas' confidence but some say he relies on her a little too much.

Kisara's past is partly unknown to Sambas. They met when Chatot, the assistant of Wigglytuff at Wigglytuff's Guild, assigned him to work with her during a rescue mission, she too was fascinated by the thought of evolution so Sambas ultimately decided to help Kisara in her ambitions to evolve by working with her on a daily basis. However, back then, Sambas had no idea how vulpix evolution worked. Only two months later did he find out that some pokémon needed special items to evolve and that Kisara was one of these cases. The only problem was that these items were very rare and commanded absurd amounts of poké on the market. So with that goal in mind they decided to save up by accepting and completing jobs with as little preparation as possible, this brings us to where they are today, on a special retrieval mission in Frosty Forest, a whole region away from the guild.

"Well hey, Sambas!" Kisara exclaimed in a forced, playful demeanour, extending a paw and pinching out a small ember on Sambas' mane, "Break time already?" she added as she dropped back into a reclining position atop a small mound of snow. It soon melted beneath her insanely hot body temperature, resulting in a mildly damp back and a less than amused vulpix.

Sambas, still getting over what had happened, frowned over the tragic loss of two percent of his mane and stood up. Kisara eyed his every move, waiting for some form of counter-attack. A paralysis-inducing thunder-wave maybe, or perhaps an electrically charged tackle? Whatever it could have been...it never came since Sambas just nervously laughed the remnants of the event off, not even questioning why she would do such a thing, much to Kisara's displeasure. No matter what she did, she could never provoke him into doing anything. He would just laugh it off like it was nothing.

"Finally managed to get up here, then?" Sambas exclaimed. The sudden sound caused Kisara's ears to ring somewhat.

"I am here, no thanks to you." Kisara grunted, looking rather annoyed, "Are you aware that I had to fight my way through three rooms full of enemies just to get here?"

"Well, it was no easier for-" Sambas tried to protest but was cut off when the now-infuriated vulpix launched a small ember at his feet, effectively warning him not to finish his sentence.

"You lying... Here! Look at the map for the last floor." Kisara commanded, producing a hastily folded map from her pouch and pointing out the long winding path that formed to the west that she took and the tiny journey Sambas had to take. "You could at least have given me a shout before you high-tailed it up the stairs."

"Sorry about that. I didn't think you'd take too long," Sambas explained,"you've been pretty quick the last few floors," he added.

Kisara sighed at the remark, "Sambas, Frosty Forest is full of ice-type pokémon. I'm a fire-type remember?" she stated, feeling rather proud of her abilities, "But of course you wouldn't notice that, since you just dash off and leave me behind to do the searching." Sambas simply smiled at her, completely oblivious of what she had just said.

"So did you find the…err -" Sambas glanced around with uncertainty. "- wait… What were we looking for again?" Kisara glared at him.

"You've forgotten again!?" she exclaimed, "This is the third and last time I tell you, OK?!" Sambas nodded gently as a weak smile played on his lips. Kisara took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. "We're looking for a 'Poké doll', Sambas." Kisara stated, "You got that? A Poké-doll. Please try not to forget this time."

"Ah…yeah." he beamed, "Now I remember." Sambas glanced at the surrounding trees, admiring the way they stood still and appeared completely frozen. As Sambas was thinking where this doll could be, another question came into his mind. "Kisara!" Sambas called.

"Oh for crying out loud, what now?!" Kisara scowled at him awaiting yet another, no doubt idiotic, question. Her fiery gaze tore into his soul and instilled fear into his mind. She looked intimidating at the best of times but now she just appeared downright scary. Sambas simply stared at her, "Well?!" Kisara added. Sambas decided it wasn't important and gave a nervous chuckle to try to hide any signs of fear, he slowly backed away and pretended to look around to avoid eye-contact. Kisara gritted her teeth and bared her fangs before it dawned on her that becoming angry would only further the amount of time they spent looking for this doll. She sighed and regained her composure. "I'm sorry, okay?" Kisara's voice trailed off. Sambas glimpsed at her from the corner of his eye and patiently waited for a response, he could see she was clearly uncomfortable in the position she found herself to be in. "Look. Just… What did you want?" She added as she forced an uneasy smile. Sambas gulped, glanced around one more time and sighed.

"What does this doll even look like?" Sambas asked as his face lightened up. To his surprise, Kisara did not, or rather could not, answer his question, she gave a brief pause before thinking up a response. In truth, she also had no idea what this doll looked like.

"We don't need to know what it looks like." She suddenly blurted out, "I doubt there is a huge abundance of dolls around here!" She added, gesturing with her paw at the surrounding emptiness.

Sambas turned his head and smirked before casually replying. "But what if there is?" he pointed out."What would happen if we come across an entire cache of these…these 'boké dolls'?"

"Poké dolls!" Kisara screamed, she couldn't see that Sambas deliberately said that just to annoy her. Although you'd think she would be used to it now.

He giggled in response to her reaction before nonchalantly stating, "I know, I just like to mess with you." Kisara's face burned a bright maroon in colour.

"Why?!" Kisara asked in vain, "Why do you persist with this constant onslaught of idiocy?!" She had asked him this question many times but Sambas would never give her a straight answer. She couldn't understand why...

"Dunno." Sambas chuckled at her, "Suits you, I guess." The one thing he enjoyed more than adventuring was messing with Kisara like this. Sometimes he wouldn't know when to stop. She tightly closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as her face turned an even darker crimson in colour, much to Sambas' amusement. She was far too sensitive to other statements and especially his own, even when she knew there was no meaning behind them.

"Don't push it." Kisara whispered through gritted teeth, clearly annoyed by the statement. It's clear that this wasn't the first time Sambas had done this. Sambas' idiotic nature combined with the bitter cold winds were really starting to get to Kisara.

"Yeah...I know," Sambas replied, feeling a little sorry for the poor vulpix. "I'll tell you what, I won't ever do it again, I promise." After that statement Kisara suddenly snapped.

"You always say that!" Kisara barked, "Then the next day arrives and you just do it again! Sometimes in front of other pokémon!" Sambas suddenly took a step back as he knew what was going to happen next. No sooner than Sambas had covered his eyes, Kisara swung her head high and unleashed a huge, blazing stream of fire from her maw towards the sky. This always happened when she was angry. Sambas had to shield his eyes or he would have been blinded by the white-hot pillar of light aimed at the heavens. Several embers sparked off the fire and slowly scattered over the canopy in erratic patterns before eventually resting beside Kisara and somewhat melting the snow around her before they flickered and faded away. Thankfully, the embers didn't cause any fires but the area surrounding her and Kisara herself was in pretty bad shape due to the flamethrower.

Several seconds later, Kisara calmed down, the torrential stream of fire had faded away from sight, leaving her gasping for breath on the floor, exhausted. Sambas unshielded his eyes and gazed upon Kisara in her exhausted state. He felt terrible, putting her through this just for his own amusement. He glanced at his surroundings once more, the very trees he was gazing at no more than five minutes ago now stood charred by Kisara's outburst, he wanted to blame her for it...but he knew that it was his own actions that destroyed the timeless scenery around him, not Kisara's. He sighed at the partial loss of the landscape and returned his gaze to his partner, who, much to his dismay, was still lying on the floor in a heap of her own ashes, barely conscious. A large circle of grass once covered by the snow surrounded her. Sambas quickly advanced towards his incapacitated partner, the feeling of guilt intensifying within him every step closer. Mere seconds later, Sambas was standing before her, secretly hoping she would suddenly spring up, slap him and forget all about it.

…

…

…

Sambas' eyes clouded with growing concern for Kisara's well-being as he gently nudged her with his paw, trying to elicit some kind of response from her. "You OK there, buddy?" He asked, trying to retain his calm, lest she be attempting some kind of joke... Sambas blinked and noted that she wouldn't joke about this kind of thing. An overwhelming wave of relief hit Sambas when Kisara twitched and slowly opened an eye, she was completely drained.

"You were…worried…weren't you?" Kisara quietly uttered, almost chuckling beneath her words, trying to regain her breath.

"Of course!" Sambas stated flatly, excellently hiding the sheer relief he felt, "Without you, the pokémon in this dungeon would tear me to shreds!" he added mockingly as he offered a paw to help. Kisara cocked an eyebrow, specks of doubt filling her eyes.

Sambas reassured her. She was only young but he had to admit to himself that he was extremely grateful for her help, although he wouldn't tell her that. Sambas didn't want her to feel over-confident. "How about we travel together from now on, eh? It'll be a lot quicker than setting off in different directions to see who can find the stairs first."

Kisara opened her eyes, nodded and gave the barest hint of a smile. "Just shut up and let's...heh.. get this stupid doll f-found." Kisara replied breathlessly, before picking herself up with Sambas' assistance.

An oran berry and a few minutes of wonderful exploration later...

Kisara, now increasingly annoyed by the lack of progress, turned to Sambas and asked, "Are you sure we're even in the right dungeon?" She looked around, nothing but white trees and wonder tiles filled the distance, there was no sign of a doll...or anything for that matter. Sambas answered with a firm nod, and produced a hastily written job request from a satchel fastened tightly around his waist. He pointed out that the last known place of this doll was indeed, Frosty Forest, however the floor was not included. When asked about it, Sambas knew nothing.

"Huh? I thought..." Sambas muttered to himself, only to have noticed that the request lacked a destination floor. He repeatedly switched between the request and Kisara, turning the paper this way and that, looking dumbfounded until his eyes shot open in sudden realization. "I thought something was missing," Sambas replied at last. Kisara didn't reply, only glared at him, giving him an "I'll burn your face off" kind of look before finally walking away, searching for the next set of stairs. Sambas took her departure as a hint to simply continue and hope for the best, or progress normally in other words.

The two explorers made their way to the exit, unaware of the actual amount of time they had spent on this floor. A light wind howled in the distance as Team Luminosity climbed the stairs to the fifth floor.

Something's stirring...

Frosty Forest

5F

…

Someone has intruded upon the forest...

The enfeebled flow of icy winds...

Is the intrusion to blame?

It must be stopped.

For it is to protect the forest...

After what seemed like an eternity of stair-climbing, the fifth floor came into view. Other than the gradual rise in temperature, this floor seemed no different from the previous four floors, that is...until one looked closer.

"Do you hear something, Sambas?" Kisara asked in a concerned tone as she patiently awaited a response. Sambas did not answer back, instead he picked up the pace and quickly reached the opening, leaving a confused vulpix behind him.

Sambas only took few steps into the fifth floor before he realized the full extent of the damage caused by Kisara's flamethrower. Trees that seemingly stood untouched by time were now reduced to little more than mere shadows of their former self. "Did...I... do this?" Kisara uttered in a somewhat shocked tone. Sambas sighed, he could not bear to look her in the eye and answer, instead his gaze was fixated on a small, charred object on the ground. It vaguely resembled the shape of an egg; that too had felt the effects of Kisara's…his actions it seems. He looked down before gesturing to the object, he didn't investigate further—he didn't need to. He already knew what it was and why it was in that condition.

There was no denying it, this egg-shaped enigma was, without a doubt, the very thing they came here for. This was their client's poke doll.

"S-Sorry…" Sambas stammered. For the first time, he realized the full extent of what his little hobby of teasing Kisara could do. He felt tremendously guilty but also a little thankful that no-one was hurt.

It took a moment to seep in before it finally dawned on Kisara that this was entirely Sambas' fault. With no-one else around to unleash her anger upon, she turned slowly towards him and sharply glared into his bright, golden eyes.

"YOU IDIOT!" Kisara yelled, "This is entirely YOUR fault! If-if you hadn't have…n-none of this would have…would have…" She trailed off as her anger turned her words into a quiet whimper, filled only with sadness and regret. Her eyes began to tear up as she buried her head in her paws, babbling incessantly to herself. It was a pathetic sight to behold. There was nothing Sambas could say or do that would help, he had no choice but to sit and watch as the display tore his insides up.

Several long minutes went by…

"Kisara." Sambas called, there was no reply, only more tears came as she was brought back to reality from her own personal world of sadness, "It's really... y'know, no big deal..." he added, still awaiting some form of acknowledgement. "We really can't stay here too long, we have to go back soon..." Sambas muttered. As much as Kisara despised him now, she couldn't disagree. Any more time wasted out in this biting cold would be stupid and she really didn't fancy the idea of snuggling up to Sambas to keep warm. She dismissed the thought as quickly as it came and stared Sambas directly in the eyes.

"It is a big deal!" she spat, spitefully, "What are we going to say to...them?" she asked, thinking back to the time when she first accepted the job and the hope-filled eyes of the zorua child whose doll they set out for... She could never forget his face, all happy and smiling...

Kisara's Reminiscence – Three days earlier.

The sunrise over the horizon bathed Treasure Town in an ominous warm glow that day, it was very early in the morning and half of Team Luminosity was still asleep. Kisara, the only conscious member of the team, was gazing over at the warm sun-rays from her room's window. Wigglytuff Guild was locked up at this time, so she couldn't go out...well, not without permission from Chatot, the guild assistant, and she really didn't want to wake him up... She shuddered at the mere thought of his piercing voice this early in the morning.

There was nothing to do except go back to sleep. Kisara glanced over her shoulder at her partner. Sambas was fast asleep and showed no signs of waking up any time soon, he almost seemed to resonate an aura of pure tranquillity as he slept so peacefully. To think that someone as annoying as him could ever sleep so quietly made her rethink her opinion of him somewhat. As she was on the edge of her thoughts she noticed that the room's door was ajar, they must have forgotten to lock it last night, she thought to herself. Without hesitation she crept out of the room, treading carefully so to not awake Sambas from his catnap.

Kisara crept out of the room with superb skill and gently closed the door behind her. She cautiously surveyed the area, looking for any other guild members before making her way through the corridors. Surprisingly, most of the doors were unlocked, even the main gate was left wide-open. Her curiosity wouldn't allow her to pass up a chance to get out early.

As she ventured outside, the bright, vivid sun shone in her eyes, causing her to recoil and shade herself with her paw. As her eyes readjusted she caught a glimpse of a small, black pokémon wandering around on the guild campus. Kisara couldn't even contemplate on going over before the small pokémon, now revealed to be a zorua, bounded up to her, clutching tightly to a small piece of paper in its mouth. Before Kisara could get over the adorable factor of the whole scene, the zorua dropped the paper at her feet, gave a big grin and bounced away.

The paper turned out to be a job request, a special one to be delivered by hand to the guild master. Kisara was intrigued and decided, against her better judgement, to pry open the letter and read it herself. The request must have been written by the zorua's parents as it stated that a precious doll that they had crafted for their daughter had gone missing during an outing in Frosty Forest. Kisara held the note to her chest, becoming quite taken with the idea of going off and finding it by herself. Besides, she couldn't refuse a special request delivered right to her(?) Sambas wouldn't want to be gotten up anyway, the more she thought about it, the more appealing it sounded to her, she read the paper once more, only to notice a little memo at the bottom.

*This figurine is very special to my daughter and cannot be replaced, should you accept this job and complete it successfully, I would be most grateful and would happily hand over a generous sum of 3000 poké as a heartfelt donation to the guild.*

Kisara's heart almost skipped a beat as she read it, she couldn't believe it, no matter how many times she read it, with this amount of poké she could get a fire stone and finally...evolve. In a moment of pure greed, she tore off the memo section of the letter and ran back inside to inform Sambas of the news...well, most of it anyway.

Reminiscence – End.

Kisara reluctantly produced the memo slip from her pouch and passed it to her partner, staring at the floor the entire time. Sambas read the memo with focused intent, looking quite surprised at the reward for success. He gave a quiet chuckle before reassuring her that it's still no big deal, with or without the reward. Kisara looked at him, completely confused by his words, she couldn't understand how losing 3000 poké could be anything but a big deal."Don't worry about it." Sambas instructed confidently, trying to comfort her, "Think of it like this, you haven't gained anything... But you haven't lost anything either." he added with a smile. Kisara found some wisdom in her partner's words and apologised for keeping the memo a secret from him. Kisara threw her arms around him and gave him a light hug effectively saying 'thank you' for settling my mind.

"Besides, you're in this as bad as I am," she admitted glancing over to the fried doll, "what are we going to tell them?" They couldn't just leave it there and forget about the job, neither could they lie and risk a penalty. Sambas simply grinned again.

"Leave it to me!" Sambas shouted with his paw raised high, giving off the aura of a true leader. Kisara giggled at his sudden outburst, and mimicked his movement somewhat mockingly.

"Team Luminosity!" they shouted in unison. They shared a hearty laugh and began to make their way back to Treasure Town. It would be a long hike, almost one day of solid walking, before they arrived but that was fine. They weren't in any rush to get there, not now after knowing what would be awaiting them when they got back. It won't be easy to explain this one off...

One day later – Treasure Town

Night had descended upon the town, the streets were barren and without sound, save for the occasional rustle of a nearby bush or a quiet whisper amongst the shadows. The team made their way through the seemingly desolate town, passing the now silent stores that were teeming with life a good two or three hours ago. Neither Sambas or Kisara made any attempt to initiate conversation, with surroundings like these, who knows what could be listening. They pressed forward, eventually arriving at the guild stairs.

After a particularly exhausting stair-climb, they had finally arrived. Wigglytuff guild— Home. Perched high above the town upon a grassy plateau, it seemed to stand sentinel over the town, casting its gaze over the many facilities, constantly watching. Several braziers lined the path up to the entrance, each lit with a dying flame that would flicker occasionally but would never extinguish. Perhaps it contained some hidden message, a message about hope...or maybe stingy use of charcoal. Either way, Sambas never cared enough to delve deeper into the subject. Putting chatot's tight wallet out of his mind, he turned his attention towards the hideous-looking tent that lied at the end of the path.

The tent, moulded in Wigglytuff's visage, marked the entrance of his guild. It appeared small but that was only an illusion, because if one curious soul cared to step inside they would discover a sprawling network of caves that housed several groups of subterranean do-gooders...or rescue teams as they preferred to be called.

Sambas paused before entering the tent, he turned to Kisara, who had been oddly quiet the entire journey home, and noticed that her gaze was fixated on the floor, engrossed in it like it was a piece of fine art. Sambas, to some degree, knew why but he already told her it would be fine. Was there something else?

He proceeded to eject the thought from his mind and assured himself that she would be fine after a good night's sleep. The gates closed behind them as they carefully descended the ladders into the depths of the guild, making their way to their room. Sambas hastily pushed open the door, the inside of the room was exactly as he left it, not like there was much in it to begin with. It was a simple room furnished only with two cushioned beds, two chests and a table, upon which a small, unlit candle was placed. Kisara slid around him without a word and routinely set alight to the candle before curling up on her bed. Sambas, tired as he was, thought she had the right idea. They were both exhausted and they needed to be up alert for their job, lest they doze off during morning cheers again...ugh. Sambas reclined on his cushion and shut his eyes, however, all the while, he couldn't put the thought out of his mind that something was awry...

Chapters will be uploaded as they are finished.