The school was a natural cavity carved at the base of a moutain, formed by long-gone streams from above and smoothed over by ages and generations of the young who came to learn. Echoes of aged laughter rang through the tunnels, and the cool colour of blue-grey stone reflected all the new, younger smiles. Despite it's situation, plenty of light filled the space through openings, chisled with utter care in perfect place. The halls branched out in occasional wide-open rooms, although these were pounded out by tooth and claw by teachers long before our time. This place was sacred to those who knew it. An ancient, endless cave filled with archaic stone as well as years of everyone who wandered these halls. They housed the aspirations, the fantasies, the vast dreams of every little pokémon as they grew up.

Another curious thing the school held was a certain blue mud-fish with a peculiar stone hanging around its neck, who became utterly lost trying to find a particular classroom that happened to just be within the first few metres of the second floor. The little quadreped mostly spent time bumping into corners and occasionally into other peers trying to map out the direction. But somehow, the little starter managed to find the way to the huge room in the process of stumbling and hopping around the entire cavern, not sure what to expect.

Mudkip peeked around the corner into the room, blinking with wide eyes into the marble place. A Kangaskhan was standing towards the front, facing the other direction, and various other little pokémon Mudkip didn't recognise sat in scattered places around the floor, chatting and comparing papers and giggling like little Pidgey's. Mudkip's lower jaw slowly fell open, finding the scene fascinating, but swallowed thickly when a couple of them glanced up. Taking a big breath, she stepped into the room, padding quietly over to a quiet spot near the Kangaskhan.

"...And like yesterday we will be taking notes over Dragon types and studying what kind of moves Dragon types tend to learn. We will begin in a little while." the teacher finished talking in her gruffly gentle voice, linking her claws behind her back and glancing towards the young pokémon, who listened to her intently now, except for one bright orange pokémon who appeared in the room with a flourish and a flame. "Continue studying."

Mudkip blinked. "Uh." she said, unintentionally loudly, and jumped when the newer Fire type sat behind her. She didn't quite understand what was going on, and thought about turning around to ask the orange pokémon. But right when she'd decided to, he turned and started chatting with a Wrumple nearest to the left. Instead she decided to listen.

"So did you see the team that was here last night? Team Flourescent?" he asked, sounding really happy about it.

"Team Flourescent? You mean the Gardevoir, the Alakazam, and the Charizard?" Wrumple cocked his head to the side and turned towards his friend. "Those guys were awesome! They Mega Evolved for a little while and showed us their moves, I felt like I was losing health just by looking at them. No wonder they're the most powerful team in the region, huh?" he joked.

"No kidding," the Fire type laughed. "That'll be me one day, you know. I'll be the strongest Charizard to ever have existed! To ever exist! I'll have the outlaws running for cover." he added proudly, turning his head heroically to the side.

Wrumple scoffed. "Yeah, right. Sure, Charmander, I'll believe it when you actually start working towards it. Speaking of which..." he trailed off when Kangaskhan turned towards the class again.

She looked briefly at Mudkip, who drew a defensive blank face, and then directly behind her at everyone. "I will be collecting the homework now. If you would please have your papers ready?" the teacher approached the pokemon. "Wrumple? Yes, Starly, good...Mudkip, I'll talk to you about the homework, Charmander...Charmander?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you do your homework?"

"Yep. I mean nope."

Kangaskhan rolled her eyes and sighed, smiling a little wryly at Mudkip before moving on to see the others. "Of course not." she shook her head in amusement.

Charmander found this funny and laughed quite happily. "I don't think I've ever done my homework." he said pointedly, and Wrumple started laughing too. "It would probably be a good idea to start, but then again I'm probably never going to. Oh, well."

Mudkip stared at the floor, blinking occasionally "Hey, Charmander, since you never do your homework but you still seem to know everything, what pokémon is that?" Wrumple asked. He sounded like he was trying to be quiet, but at the same time he knew the answer.

Charmander rubbed his chin in thought. He flicked his tail, staring at the blue Water type before him. "Easy," he said, grinning quite proudly at Wrumple. He even crossed his arms and closed his eyes knowingly. "It's a native of the Hoenn region; Magikarp."

Mudkip's tail fin twitched.

To his dismay, Wrumple burst out laughing. "Charmander, you Cubone-head!" he giggled, rolling over on the floor and half-wriggling around in his mirth. "Not Magikarp, that's a starter from the Hoenn region; Mudkip! What, did you think it'd start splashing around until it evolves?" he only laughed harder when Charmander half-swung his tail at him.

"I was just joking," he defended, but couldn't take himself seriously and started laughing too. "H-hey. you, Mudkip," he said in between chuckles.

Mudkip turned her head slightly.

"For the record, I don't think you're a Magikarp." Charmander said seriously. "Although I was right about the Hoenn part, right?" he grinned brightly, but was met with a very blank stare by the Water type. "Uh, hello?"

Mudkip blinked. She shook her head and then looked back up at the Fire type. "What?" she asked.

"N-nevermind," Charmander stifled another fit of laughter with his little claws.

Mudkip simply blinked at him.

"~*~O~o~O~*~"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARIZARD~! :DDD Okay so this is your gift from me, I figured you might like something like this :D The reason it took so much time was because of the planning, but I left it unspecific so I could put in stuff that happens in real life XD And of course we can write this together, a kind of virtual Mystery Dungeon Adventure, yea? :D

On another note, to any other readers who might happen to stumble upon this story, please wish Charles happy belated birthday :D He is literally the most bodacious dude I know and I'm super excited about writing this adventure and seeing how it goes ^^

~Fezzes64(Mudkip)