"Come on, come on... There surely has to be something that'll work!"
Somebody, most likely a female, was thinking aloud, sounding like she was in a state of panic. "Why didn't I bring some reviver seeds!?"
My hearing barely picked up her words. This was the first thing my senses reacted to for an undefined amount of time. My breathing was slowly getting better, but making any sort of sound to tell her I wasn't gone yet was impossible for me. I tried to move my arms, my legs, anything, instead, to show her I was still alive. To stop her from worrying so much. Why was she worried, anyway?
She seemed to notice me trying to budge. I think that was one of my legs, but I wasn't sure. I couldn't feel anything at all. It was like my body was floating in mid-air, getting no responses that I was standing, sitting, or laying down. The third one felt most plausible. Yes, laying somewhere on the ground. She gasped in surprise not long after my attempts of moving.
"Oh my Arceus, it worked! I… don't know what I did, but it worked!"
I thought I heard her wrong. What did she say? What was that 'Arceus'?
My hearing was back again, for good. I could hear the wind whistling past me, the grass all around me and the leaves of a nearby tree. In that same tree I heard something chirping, quite possibly a bird.
...hold on. Wind? Grass? A tree right next to me? If my hearing wasn't fooling me, I must be outside somewhere. How did I get here? I could've sworn I went to bed in my room. I definitely did!
"Hey, are you alright?"
I tried to tell her that my entire body was numb, but I still couldn't speak. Instead, I attempted to slowly open my eyes. I saw a green and blurry image, behind it was most likely the brown tree with the leaves I was hearing, with it the grass everywhere, accompanied with the sound of rustling. As I thought, I was nowhere inside. My eyes instantly closed shut again before I could get a clear vision. It felt like they were burning, and they were starting to wet.
The identity of my "rescuer" was still unknown to me; she blended in very well with her surroundings, to my surprise. Maybe she had some green-brownish clothes. It seemed like we were in a meadow, whose grass was too tall. Next to me was a tree large enough for me not to see the leaves of it... I had the strangest feeling I had shrunk, or everything had gotten five times bigger than normal.
"Oh, no... don't cry now, you'll be fine."
Oh wow. She thought I was crying now. How absolutely funny... not. She assumed I was a crybaby.
I couldn't reason with her, as my voice had frustratingly still not recovered yet. For now I had to complain to her from my mind, not caring about the fact she couldn't hear my thoughts.
I'm not crying! My eyes are burning!
"Oh, I have an idea. Hold on."
She suddenly jumped over me and tried to lift me up, successfully. I laid limp over what felt like her back, carrying me to wherever she wanted to bring me. My body still protested against moving; at least the numbness was fading away, albeit at snail speed.
"I'll bring you with me to Inisio. They might be able to help you."
Inisio...? What? Ok, now I knew with certainty I was anywhere but my home. I had never heard anything about a place called 'Inisio'. And yes, she was worried about me, but we had never met before.
"It's gonna take a bit until we arrive, so hold on."
At least she was helpful. Was I lucky she, of all people, found me? Maybe; any other person would've just abandoned me, let me be. Would've seen me as somebody sleeping under a tree, without knowing I had been unconscious until just now. For whatever reason. How long were I out cold, anyway? Must've been a while: I was starting to get a little peckish.
...I know I was somewhere different just now, why am I in the middle of nowhere all of a sudden? Is this a… yeah, this has to be a dream. A lucid one. Now, don't get excited, or else you will wake up. Let's wait for things to calm down. ...also let me have control over my body again, please.
...can you get hungry while dreaming?
After a while, just laying on her back doing nothing felt boring, so I tried to open my eyes again to look around while waiting.
It took me a bit of time to gain a sharp picture of everything around me, and some blinking later I realized something.
I could see far better than normally. I was sure I could've easily identified the text of a book from a hundred meters away. Everything was much more saturated and clean. That was another piece of evidence that I was dreaming all this. Why it started with me getting conscious in the middle of nowhere was beyond me, but that meant the awesome lucid-dreaming-time was beginning.
I couldn't see much with my head hanging at a low angle, so the next things in my point of view were my hands. The lack of those, actually. Instead of what I was used to see, there was something else. At first I told myself that I was hallucinating, but after blinking a few times and unsuccessfully trying to move them, something was made clear to me.
Those weren't hands.
They were paws.
Blue ones, to be precise, with a yellow ring-like shape around the wrist of said body part. What kind of creature was I? I had never seen anything having blue fur, let alone those weird yellow rings! A fantasy creature, yes, that must've been it.
Slowly but surely my nerves started doing their job—registering all the fur I had, the body I was on top of, and… something behind my back?
Wait. The body of my carrier felt bizarre, like it had hard and wrinkly skin like a lizard. And sure enough, as I was looking down at her skin, this theory had been confirmed. The thing that carried me was also definitely not human. She had green scales all over her body. Around her neck were green dots, the size of a pea. Looked almost like a necklace. Apart from the fact she was quadrupedal, around her neck was some kind of bag. It was made out of leather, it seemed. What purpose it had was beyond me.
...ok, calm down. This is not real. This cannot be real. It's just too bizarre to be real.
Yet, I was receiving every single detail of my senses very clearly by now. My vision had been upgraded tremendously (had my field of vision improved, too?). My nose—not a human nose anymore, I had a small snout on my face now, resembling a cat's snout—was now picking up the smell of everything in the nearby area: the grass, my carrier, the gravel from beneath, myself, and even some aromas I couldn't place where they came from or to whom they belonged. My hearing, too, as I'd noticed, was better than before. I was able to hear her footsteps on the gravel very clearly, as if I would've held my ear right next to her feet. The two ears on the side of my head were bigger than I anticipated, almost as big as my head, even, with a bit of yellow fur coming out in the mid-section of them. My taste buds hadn't reported anything unusual yet, but I found out my tongue was much rougher than it used to be, and my teeth were sharper, too, especially those up front.
Can a dream be… this real? What if I'm not dreaming any of this? What if, by the most microscopic chances, this is all real?
"Hey, you alright there?" The female suddenly asked, "I noticed you shifting around a little bit, are you feeling better now?"
All of this was distracting me from the most hideous feature of this creature: it was able to talk. Even better, I was able to understand it. The microscopic chance of this being real was just made even smaller. No way in hell could this be real—a talking, sentient green lizard, wearing a bag around her neck, carrying me to a place I had never heard of after I found myself in the middle of nowhere, with no recollection of my-
...no… recollection…? ...of my past life?
My heartbeat increased.
It was true—I couldn't remember a single thing about my past: not my home, not my parents, not anyone I knew, not where I lived, not even my… own name.
I forgot my own name!
The only detail of myself I knew right then was that I used to be a human. Used to.
This was bizarre—even for a lucid dream. Wasn't I supposed to notice I was dreaming while peacefully sleeping in my bed, and not lose almost all of my memories of my past? No, this wasn't right! Something was definitely wrong!
"Hello? Earth to sleepyhead, wake uuup. I know you aren't asleep, just tell me how you are, or if you're feeling better."
I panicked. Partly from her words, and partly from the fact I didn't remember my identity anymore. Normally this would be the time for me to wake up, I'm well beyond the 'don't get too excited, or else you'll wake up' line, so why won't the dream end?
Wait. The ultimate test to see if I was really dreaming. I seemed to remember generic details I learned from everywhere, the only things missing was to recall myself. The test was simple: if I feel pain, I'm not dreaming. If I don't feel any pain, I'm dreaming. Simple enough. Now, how could I have done this experiment the most efficient way…? Ah!
I lifted up my right… front leg? And bit down harder than I had intended to. To my shock, my front teeth went through my patch of fur, skin, and flesh with ease, resulting in me tasting my own blood.
To my misfortune, everything I'd seen so far—not really a lot, but weird stuff, nonetheless—was real. It was as real as it could get. I wasn't dreaming.
The pain followed not long afterwards. I jumped. Not literally, but still with enough force that almost knocked my carrier to the ground. The shock from the unexpected spike of pain, plus the realization this was, in fact, not a dream, made me fall off of her back.
She noticed me toppling off, but was too slow. She tried to catch me with her… oh god, what was that? Two green tentacle-like appendages just... grew out of two of her green dots on her neck. They attempted to grab me, but it was no use: they only managed to brush me on my sides. Before I could process what I had witnessed, I already crashed on the ground. Unfortunately, my landing wasn't as graceful as I would've liked; the center of my back fell directly on a bigger stone in the gravel pavement, making me yelp, though more in surprise than in pain.
My back was pounding as it hit the hard ground. Ironically, I wouldn't have minded the numbness I had felt before, but at least my senses had fully returned to me at last. This also proved once more I wasn't dreaming any of this.
Rolling to the side, I managed to open my eyes again, and finally saw the finer details of my rescuer from the edge of my vision.
The big, dark reddish eyes, looking directly at me with a bit of worry. The big and pointed leaf growing out of the top of her head, waving into the direction of the light wind blowing around us. Her scales shimmering in the afternoon sun, her quadrupedal stand, and the single, wide claw on each foot. Her two long, green tentacles slowly getting shorter by the second, until they completely disappeared into those pea-like things, and her neck still occupied in carrying a leather bag.
I wasn't sure how to process everything that happened thus far; these were without any doubt the strangest events I had witnessed in my life. All the while my breathing became increasingly more rapid.
"Oh my gosh, are you alright?" the creature before me asked with a shocked expression, making its way to me while apologizing. "I'm so sorry! I didn't notice you falling off… ...what happened to your leg?"
I was still ignoring her, my only intention now was to get out of here. I didn't know where I wanted to go, but the most important thing for me right now was to just get away from this alien before worse things happened.
Completely forgetting what she had wanted to do with me, my fear took over, bringing me to my feet. My hind feet. That was what my instinct told me, to get on my feet and just flee.
To my misfortune I couldn't seem to get a good stand on them. Because of the whole thing of me being a quadrupedal creature now, apparently. I lost my balance and tumbled to the ground again.
"Hey, hey... what are you doing? What's up with you...?" Now, it started to look annoyed by my actions. I couldn't blame it. It was pretty stupid and really embarrassing to look at. "Calm down... It's not like I will eat you or something..."
My thoughts were screaming at me. What. Are. You. Doing?! She was trying to help you and you just run away from her as she was making her way to you?
Slowly but surely, my panic and hyperventilation subsided and my rational thinking got a turn. I looked at her eyes. She wasn't happy, though she didn't appear angry. It was more on the line of a 'what the actual fuck are you trying to accomplish?' stare.
I had to do something. Hopefully, my voice was back. It should be, from the yelp I gave from me just now.
"...what are you?" I bluntly managed to say to the creature, deep down hoping she could understand me. The result of having shrunk made my voice sound higher than I thought it should have been. The higher, but still belonging to a male, pitch of my voice made me jump back a little. I put one of my paws before my mouth out of surprise.
At that point she looked rather confused to say the least, not really expecting any of those sorts of questions.
"Did you hit your head after crashing?" she asked me. She raised one eyebrow (at least it looked like she did) and looked at me funny.
"... No…?"
"Are you sure?"
"Look. I know what I did just then, ok? That was just my panic taking over me for a second. I couldn't really counter-react to that. I'm sorry for overreacting." I hoped apologizing to it would ease the tension between us.
"Ok, I know what my instincts tell me to do when I'm in a phase of fear and panic. But to get on my hind legs and make a run for it isn't one of-"
"Alright, alright! I get it! ...it was stupid, yes. Now please, just... answer my question, please." I stood up, taking care to get on all four of my feet simultaneously and to not look like a complete idiot. My facial expression told her I wanted a real explanation to what was going on here.
It seemed to work, as the plant lizard sighed.
"Alright, to me it seems you got yourself a case of severe brain damage with a sprinkle of confusion," it teased anyway, apparently trying to be funny and lighten the mood, obviously not working on me. "But I think you haven't seen one of my species yet, because we normally aren't common in this particular area of Ferom."
Ha. You and me both, apparently. Wait, Ferom?
"But," she continued, ripping me out of my thoughts and holding one of her legs in front of her, "my name is Kori. I'm a Chikorita. You know, a Pokémon." She chuckled. "Nice to meet you."
"Um…" almost immediately noticing the familiar way of greeting another, I naturally returned the gesture, setting my left paw on top of hers—I didn't know any other way of doing said gesture, I had to think quickly while making sure I wouldn't use my leg where I bit myself—trying to recover from the horrible first impression I gave her. "Nice to meet you... too?" I lost my balance again, but set my leg back just in time. "No, I have never heard of a Pokémon before. I mean where I came from, animals normally don't speak to each other; like this, I mean. They don't have-"
"Wait wait wait, hold on." She held her other paw up. "You're confusing me now. What do you mean by... never heard of Pokémon before?"
I didn't want to go full out on her too quickly, telling her I was some other creature—quite possibly alien to her—who turned into one of theirs. But I couldn't find any other way of telling her why I wasn't familiar with what seemed like the most trivial thing in this world.
"I should have said this earlier, but I'm a human."
She started to open her mouth to respond to my for her illogical nonsense again, but I stopped her before she could say anything with the same gesture she did a couple seconds ago.
"Before you tell me that I haven't been making any sense yet, I know that. But hear me out first," I told her, while she still had her mouth partially open, slowly closing it and putting her paw back on the ground again. "Yes, you heard me right. I really am a human. Well, I was one, as you can see. Now I'm some sort of blue lynx creature talking to you. Like, we are doing a real conversation together, which I thought was impossible with animals back where I came from. You see, back there, animals like you, no offense, couldn't talk. They just make these incomprehensible noises, but don't speak like we do right now. They don't have their own language to communicate with each other, for the most part.
"When they feel threatened, for example, they growl at their threat. They don't talk it out like we do. That's what fascinated me just now. Communication doesn't exist there. Only humans are able to communicate with each other, because we are able to understand one another, and could come up with various languages we can use to verbally communicate."
It seemed like that explanation didn't seem to work on her, but at least the confused look on her face toned down a bit.
"...what do you mean by 'animal'? If it means wild creature then I get it, we have these, too."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. Any 'mon unable to communicate is a 'wild'. The Starly and Pidgey you hear chirping in the trees? Wild."
"Starly and Pidgey?"
"The birds. You know? Flying creatures with feathers and wings?"
"Oooh, those are their species' name, right?"
"Yes, absolutely correct."
She must be feeling like she is talking to a toddler.
"Also, uh," I added, "sorry for asking this, but do you know what species I am? I... can't figure it out, hehe."
I looked at my body again, surprised I could turn my head almost 180 degrees to the side as I was investigating my back. While doing so, I noticed my fifth limb: a tail (was this the reason I felt like I was dragging something?). At the end of it was some sort of star-shaped appendage.
"So, you are saying you are a human turned Pokémon, is that right?" she asked me, ignoring my question and making my head turn back to her again. "That's a lot to take in at once. It's not everyday that you see someone saying that they were a human once. Especially when they don't exist anymore."
Wait, what? Humans are extinct? And... she believes me? Just like that? ...would it be a good idea to say that? I'd rather not risk it.
"They don't exist here? Can you elaborate on that, please?"
"Sorry, I don't know much else. Just that they are ancient beings that once roamed the world several millennia ago. The reason they are gone? Unknown. At least that's what I had been told." I guessed she shrugged her shoulders, because it looked a bit strange since she didn't really have shoulders like I used to have. "But enough of that, let's get going. I heard there is a village nearby, just a few kilometres from here. That's where I wanted to go before I found you."
I really had nowhere to go, so I just nodded and tried to walk next to her. It was strange to be mobile on four legs; it was a completely different method of walking. It took me a bit to figure out how not to slander like an idiot, but it worked out in just a few minutes.
"Hey," I turned my head to the Chikorita while walking on the gravel path, "can you now tell me what exactly I am? You know, because I don't really know anything about Pokémon in general, so you have to be my guide for now."
"Of course." She inspected me a bit, walking around me while I made sure I stopped, so I wouldn't interrupt her. "Looks like you're a Shinx."
"Shinx, you say?"
"Yeah, a Shinx," came the answer from her. After a bit, she added, "Do you have a name? I don't want to call you by your species' name. Nobody does that nowadays."
Yeah, my name. That was easy. I should be able to say that. That was, if I hadn't forgotten every single detail about me. Can I just say I don't remember?
"...about that, uh..."
"What? You're not gonna tell me you don't know, right?" she said, "...right?"
"Well, that's… exactly what I had wanted to do. I don't know. I don't remember my name."
"...you're joking."
"I wish I was."
She looked at me in disbelief. I couldn't blame her, I would've done the same if I were her.
"I see," Kori answered and turned her head back where she was able to see in the direction we were going. I did the same, I didn't want to fall again for the hundredth time. She thought for a bit, and had an idea. "Do you mind if I think of a name for you? Until you can remember your true name, that is."
"I don't see why you shouldn't. Sure, go ahead, I'm open for suggestions."
While Kori was thinking of a name for me, I was in my own thoughts, processing what had happened until now.
So... this is where I am now? In an unknown world, being one of those strange and mysterious beings known as Pokémon. where another one of those is luckily my guide, helping me find at least some answers to my sudden appearance. How long have I been laying back there, anyway? And more importantly: how did I get here? There's just no way this is without reason. Come on, think! Did I happen to notice something after going to sleep? Anything? ...nope, nothing. Looks like my personal memories have been replaced with an empty void. Am I possibly here for a reason, then? If this is the case, then the reason better be a good one.
And... why me, exactly? Why choose me, in particular? Literally anyone would have been better suited than I will ever be. I mean, why not choose somebody already existing in this world to solve their problems, and not 'kidnap' someone from an entirely different world, if not universe? That would be much more convenient. But no, for some particular reason, my sorry ass was chosen to fix these issues they can't fix themselves. And my amnesia isn't helping, either. I'm kinda lucky having Kori taking me with her to wherever she's heading. I don't know what I would've done if we hadn't crossed paths... maybe I still would've laid back there while-
"Xunie." She said, interrupting my train of thoughts.
"Xunie?" I repeated, raising one eyebrow at her.
"Yeah, Xunie. That'll be your name until we find out otherwise."
"Xunie..." I tried to understand what that name meant, or where it came from, because I noticed that Kori was a part of her species' name, Chikorita. But failing to do so, I also realized that name wasn't exactly perfect for a boy. "Isn't that a bit... um... girly?"
"What do you mean? No one would care if a name sounds girly or not. You could have a name like Shiny and nobody would even look at you funny, even if they'd know you're a boy. It's perfect for you."
"How are you so certain it's the perfect name for me?"
"Trust me, I just know." She smirked at me, winking with one eye.
I'm not so sure about that, I have a feeling you didn't know any better names to give me. I could've just picked one myself, but that wouldn't feel right. It'll remind me of my loss of memories.
"I hear no objections from you, so from now on your name shall be Xunie." She turned her head to look at me, confirming her decision with a smile on her face. "Temporarily, of course."
"Fine... call me that, then." Defeated, I rolled my eyes, still not sure if I should've trusted her with the whole name thing.
Continuing on our way, I took the time to properly analyze my new body. Starting at those yellow rings on my forelegs, I saw no practical use as to why they would be there in the first place. They seem to just be some sort of decoration? The blue fur everywhere was still kinda putting me off a bit, I'd have to cope with that for the time being. Sometimes I had those urges to stand up on my hind legs again, probably because of obvious reasons—I just ignored it and tried not to do it again. The fact I had to walk on four legs now meant I wasn't able to do anything anyone could do with arms (I hoped I would be accustomed to that relatively quickly).
From earlier I noticed something strange from the second half of my torso: my fur color drastically changed from an almost sky blue to a simple black, as if the color was like a light turned off. The black fur reached every bit of my second half until the tip of my, uh, tail. On it was something yellow and star shaped, seemingly just there to exist with no real purpose, like the stripes. Just decoration. My neck fur, if I focused on a particular angle with my head and my eyes, had the shape of a tight scarf, also the same black as the rest of my torso. My ears were still the same: almost as big as my head and with some yellow fur in the middle.
"Hey, do you know-" I wanted to ask Kori about some details of the sudden black fur, but I quickly noticed she stopped in her tracks a few meters behind me after I've turned my head to the spot she normally would have been. "Why did you stop? Is everything alright?"
It was then that I noticed; something wasn't right. The Chikorita just stared into the distance, completely ignoring my question. I didn't know what she was staring at, exactly, the only thing I could see was the gravel pavement before us, leading into a denser part of the forest-
The reason why she stopped was simple: in the distance, where the forest really started, were little, purple lightning bolts, randomly popping in and out of view, their movements unpredictable. Some went down, others up, and every other bolt was in between. That area seemed to be electrically charged, for whatever reason. But they didn't damage the trees around them at all, which made no sense. And why they were purple was beyond me, too.
An "Uh oh..." came from Kori, who was a bit hesitant from continuing any further. It seemed as if she knew what was waiting for us.
"Hey, what's wrong? Why did you stop?" I said while I made my way back to Kori.
"It seems we have quite the obstacle in our way." Not wanting me to not know what she was thinking, she told me what was going on: "Some distance away from us is a Mystery Dungeon."
"Explanations, please." I just stoically looked at her, as if that would be the most redundant reason to make such a fuss out of this situation. But… those sparks in the air should've made me feel at least a little bit worried...
"Oh, yeah. Sorry." she immediately replied, snapping out of her petrified stare into the distance and turned to me. "Do you see these floating purple sparks there?"
"...Yeah, I did see them."
"That's a pretty clear sign of a Mystery Dungeon being there. Normally you wouldn't notice them until it's too late, but this here is a lucky exception."
"A… lucky exception? What do you mean by that?"
"As I said, you won't notice a Dungeon until the very last second, but this one here has something special to it, as seen on those swarms of lightning. Some others have a similar trait, like: sudden heavy rain with no clouds above you, showing a different season, or even distorting the area around them. We'll see which speciality this one has when we enter."
"Uh huh. And… is it always a forest, or…?"
"Not really, sometimes it's a cave, other times it's a mountain, it can be a meadow, too. Just to name a few."
"Can't we go around it?"
"...yes, we could, but there are instances where you kinda have to go through one. Have fun walking around a cave. Sometimes you don't have a choice but to go through. I've always loved to explore the unknown, especially the Dungeons, that's why I have this bag here with me. You see, I'm part of an exploration team!" she said, proud of herself. "I got the mission to carry something important to Inisio Village."
"Exploration team? What's that?"
"As the name implies, a team of explorers. We explore the region. Together, the continent. Our base is in Amber Village, there are many more like it scattered across the continent."
"And you were tasked to transport something?"
"Yes. Sometimes we help others, too. Like I'm helping a Linoone to deliver a letter."
"Linoone?"
"Yup."
"No, I mean, what is that? How does it look like?"
"Oh, right. Uh, it has a long body with mostly light brown fur, with some occasional darker brown fur on its sides and along the back, where it ends up in an arrow shape on its head. You'll know when you see one from that."
I nodded and looked back at the Dungeon. Oh! With all these annoying questions she forgot to explain the Dungeons to me… I quickly reminded her about that.
Once she had thought for a moment, she began to talk.
"So, first of all," she began to explain, while occasionally glancing at the path in front of her, "the most important thing about Mystery Dungeons is that no matter how many times you visit the same one, it's always a different pattern for how the dungeon's 'floors', let's say, are laid out.
"For the sake of simplicity, let's imagine this scenario: you go into one of them and you find a path that branches into two directions. Say you choose the left path, and luckily for you, it leads you to the exit—the next time you enter the same dungeon, there's no guarantee that the left path will lead you to the exit again—or that the branching path will be there at all. No two visits are the same. It means that making maps of the layout of the dungeon's 'floors' is impossible.
"I know that sounds illogical, but that's how they are. Hence the name 'Mystery' Dungeon."
It sounded like a thing she made up just now, but she looked like she was serious. But... how did they end up like that? How could they shift their floors like that, creating entirely new passages in them, while the environment wasn't being damaged at all? Or was there some damage done, but just not visible... underneath them, maybe? ...And how had the Dungeons been created?
Well, looks like I'll have to see it with my own eyes to believe it. They're kinda interesting, and at the same time scary, to be honest, how they defy the laws of... like, everything. Don't they create earthquakes nearby while they change? They should, shouldn't they?
"That's definitely interesting," I answered, interested in those dungeons and relayed my thoughts to Kori, "By the way, how do these Dungeons form?"
"That's also something nobody knows. They kinda popped into existence one day, I can't remember when exactly, but it has been some time since."
Like how I just appeared out of nowhere?
"Well, good news is they don't spread. Imagine that: someday the whole world would've become a giant Dungeon, infinitely long, with no exit." She looked at the dungeon again.
"Oh, t-that would indeed be horrifying." I said. Just imagining a town getting swallowed by one of these Dungeons sounded scary enough. No one could do anything to prevent that. Only watch as your home is slowly converted into a Dungeon by an invisible and unstoppable force.
"So, are you ready to continue?"
"Yes. I'm excited to go through the Mystery Dungeon, too."
"Oh, feeling a little adventurous?"
"I guess, yeah."
Remembering what I had initially wanted to ask Kori, I now had the chance.
She told me I was an electric type Pokémon, and she herself was a grass type. She continued to explain what those types meant, saying they represented the powers of the individual Pokémon and what they could do with their respective element. Kori was able to throw razor sharp leaves from her giant leaf on her head for example. They span rapidly and got stuck in trees, even—I realized that it replaced the part of the leaf from where the dangerous ones came from, but I didn't press it any further.
Wow, those are really dangerous. One false angle or gust of wind and someone will get seriously injured.
Along with that, she also could throw some seeds that grew two little green leaves. She explained to me that when these seeds hit another Pokémon, they latch onto it, suck out their energy and transfer it into the body of the thrower.
Wow, that's kind of morbid... sucking out the life force of another one. That's just straight out of a sci-fi horror movie.
Before she could continue her show and tell, I interrupted her with a question of my own about those seeds.
"Hold on, wait. What the hell are those for?" I practically almost yelled in shock, realizing she has some sort of an extraterrestrial way of draining one's energy with only some seeds, "I can understand the leaves, they can be practical on some occasions, I guess. But where would you see these seeds as useful? That's just for torturing someone."
She just quizzically stared at me for a second. It was as if that was the most trivial thing she could do. But she quickly put two and two together.
"Oh, so… yeah, uhm, most of the time—nowadays, at least—we don't really have that much use for them in our daily lives. Except for when you're being threatened, then these can and will save you."
"Uh-huh. And that would be…?"
"For example, the Dungeon before us. Did you happen to notice any wild 'mon near you, by chance?"
"Not… really? Birds, yeah, but nothing more."
"The thing is: wilds are scared of us. They keep their distance from us, hide from us, run away from us. They know we are more intelligent and stronger than them. So they aren't an issue most of the time. But…" she looked at the purple anomaly for a moment, "in a Dungeon, doesn't matter which one, the wilds in there are a million times more territorial and aggressive than in any other place. And I mean it: they won't stop attacking until either you, or them are dead. So you need to be extra careful in there, who knows what's waiting for you."
"...oh, wow. A... battle to the... death? Uh..."
"Don't worry, they use more brawn than brain. So with strategy you can overcome any situation."
It was pretty clear why she—or anyone, really—would be able to do all that, after her telling me not all Pokémon were as tame and talkative as she was. It's just like survival of the fittest in there.
Continuing from where we left off, she added that the seeds weren't permanent. When the victim faints, the leaves decay, and are no longer stealing the energy out of it. The same will happen with the thrower itself—when it is no longer able to battle, the leaves decay too.
Lastly, she showed her two vines to me. She explained she could use them as makeshift arms for holding stuff, and for attacking. They were used like whips, making a sharp snapping sound every time.
Oh my- ...those are vines. Not tentacles…
I asked Kori if she knew what my own attacks were, trying to distract myself from my thoughts. She answered that I had to discover it myself, I would know best what sorts of attacks I was able to do.
"But what do I have to do to... trigger them?"
"Just... concentrate on your inner electricity and try to let some of it escape, I guess? I dunno, that's what I do with my attacks, and after a while it just goes subconsciously; I don't know how to explain it better, sorry. It could be something entirely different for your species. We'll have to ask some other electric type Pokémon, they should know best.
"But when the concentration method fails, just remember that you have your claws and teeth, too. If you somehow get into a situation where you can't attack with your electricity for whatever reason, use those. They are like your backup plan. But for now, try to let some of your electricity flow through you."
So I could generate my own electricity, she claimed. That didn't make any sense, but I rolled with it for now, given she could just grow two more appendages at will.
"Alright, I'll try. Here goes nothing."
We halted again for my trial and errors in trying to control my type of element. I didn't know what I exactly was supposed to focus on, or what to search for, but I tried everything that would seem plausible for me. If I would be the electric energy, where would I be... 'stored'? Where would it make the most sense?
I first searched at the front part of my chest, but only found my usual inner organs, keeping me alive (on second thought, this would've been the worst possible place for it). Next was the back part of my body, where the belly was; there was also neither anything noteworthy, nor anything like an electric storage. Remembering that there was something at the end of my tail, I tried there, but wasn't able to locate anything either, even with my utmost focus. All of my efforts were futile. It would've made no sense if it was stored anywhere else.
"Ah, I can't find anything...", I eventually sighed. "I've concentrated on everything I can think of, but I can't seem to find it..."
"Oh, really? Sorry that I couldn't help very much. It seems you have to rely on your physical abilities for now. ...you do know how to, right?"
"I'm sure I'll get the hang of it."
Finally arriving at the Dungeon, Kori asked me one more time if I was truly ready to enter the Mystery Dungeon. I nodded, of course—I was really eager to see the inside of one of those, after what she had told me. The feature I wanted to see most was the shifting of their interior floors.
Now that I was practically next to those purple lightning bolts, I noticed those weren't lightning, they looked more like ripples. Plus, their unpredictable movement began to charm me. Was this its 'speciality', as Kori called it? A feeling of satisfaction slowly came over me, as they seemed to form into shapes. Their movement had been random until now, but as I kept watching they slowly performed a lightshow of some sort—was it getting brighter?
"Woah, Xunie, stop looking at it!"
I first didn't hear her, only after she blocked my vision from them I managed to, after blinking a few times.
"Wha-? Kori? What happened?" My vision was still partially filled with those purple lights whenever I blinked, but they didn't do any harm.
"That must be the Dungeon's special trait, charming unsuspecting 'mon into it with their sparks."
"Ah. Thanks for warning me." I was right, that was indeed its speciality, a pretty dangerous one at that. "Kori?" I initially had one more question before we entered the Dungeon, but had been distracted.
"Hm?" She looked back at me.
"How big do you think this dungeon is?"
"Oh, uhh... I have actually no idea, three or four floors, maybe. Well, sections, to be exact. Forests have no 'floors'." I snickered at the thought of forests having multiple levels, and she smirked. "That would look really stupid. But we have wasted more than enough time chit-chatting, let's enter the Dungeon already."
She was right about both things.
"Yeah." I nodded in approval. "Let's go."