"Welcome to Stormvale Square, the center of Stormvale Island!" Puddle exclaimed. Climbing over one final sandy ridge, I saw what he was speaking about. It wasn't exactly the town I'd been expecting. It was more like several dozen tents along a few roads, with a square-shaped clearing in the middle. Behind the tents, a large waterfall splattered down from a stone cliff.
As we walked closer to the settlement, Puddle pointed out several important places.
"That's Kangaskhan Storage, and that's Duskull Bank." Puddle said, pointing at a kangaskhan-shaped building and a duskull-shaped tent. He then pointed at a green tent that looked like a kecleon head, and continued. "That's Kecleon Market, and next to it is Electivire Links, where you can link two of your moves together so that you can use them both in a row!"
I nodded, somewhat confused about the whole move-using thing.
"Now, the brown tent across the road is Bouffalant's Box Opening, and next to it is Miltank's Cafe. And over there is the Central Square, with the Rescue Billboard." Puddle explained as we neared the central clearing. Though the land was still mostly sand and rocks with the occasional spot of grass, palm trees had begun to appear more frequently as the clearing came closer.
"What's the Rescue Billboard?" I asked.
"If someone needs help with something mystery dungeon related, they pin requests to the board for rescue teams to take." Puddle replied. I cocked my head, confused.
"What's a mystery dungeon, and what's a rescue team?"I asked.
"A mystery dungeon is any place where the layout changes every time you enter, and where there are several floors that you must use stairs to get to. They're usually filled with hostile pokemon. The purpose of a rescue team is to explore these places and to help pokemon with concerns related to them. For example, a rescue team might rescue a pokemon trapped inside of a mystery dungeon, or capture an outlaw that's there." Puddle explained. "One day, I'm gonna be the best rescue team member ever!"
"You're part of a rescue team?"
"Well, no. I have to get some teammates first. But then, I can be in the best rescue team ever!"
"Are there any rescue teams here?"
"Of course! There's a lot!"
"Is there a Team Rocket?"
Puddle gave me a confused look. "There's no Team Rocket around here. I don't even know what a rocket is. Did you remember something?'
"No," I said, shrugging. "It just seemed like a familiar name."
"Well, when we see Lugia, we can ask him about it. Lugia is very wise."
All of a sudden, my stomach growled.
"Can we get some lunch?" I inquired.
"Of course!" Puddle replied, pointing at Miltank's Cafe. Nodding to him, I walked in. Puddle followed.
Inside of the tent, I saw several tables and chairs, most of them full of pokemon. Good smells wafted from the counter, where two miltank stood.
"What would you like?" a miltank asked, handing Puddle and me menus. Immediately, I could tell what foods I had eaten (because I could remember what they tasted like) and what food I didn't like. I liked tomato soup, but the only tomato soup on the menu had chilli flakes in it. There was pizza, but I was pretty sure that I'd had pizza too many times in a row. Most of the food options were made of berries or pokeblocks, which I'd never had before. Well, today was as good a day to try some as any other day.
"I think I'll have the berry kabab." I replied.
"And I'll have the jalapeno spaghetti." Puddle said.
"What berries would you like on your kabab? We have oran berries, pecha berries, rawst berries, lum berries, nanab berries, magost berries, and passho berries." the miltank asked.
"Umm...I'll have lum berries." I murmured, picking a random berry.
"That'll be twenty-five poke."
Puddle dug around in his pouch, pulling out twenty-five yellow coins with a capital P on each after a few seconds. After giving them to the miltank, he guided me to a table by the edge of the tent. After a few minutes, our food arrived. I bit my kabab, and sweet juicyness ran down my tongue. Just then, a gardevoir, a froslass, and a flygon sat down at the table next to us.
"That's Team Arcane!" he whispered excitedly. "They're the best rescue team in Stormvale Island! Act normal!"
"What, are you seriously thinking that they'll invite you into their team?" snorted a noctowl sitting at a table on the other side of us. Beside him were a steelix and an ariados.
"Eat fire, Noctowl!" Puddle yelled, throwing a jalapeno pepper into the offender's mouth. Unscathed, Noctowl swallowed the pepper.
"Now, I don't want to have some immature food fight. Your patheticness has inspired me to sell you this attack-raising seed for fifty poke." Noctowl offered, holding out a blue seed with purple flecks.
"Thirty poke."
"Fifty."
"Thirty-five."
"Fifty."
"Forty, and that is my final offer!"
"Fifty, or the deal's off."
"Fine." Puddle pulled out fifty coins and handed them to Noctowl. Noctowl then popped the seed into his mouth, croaked out two words: "Warp seed!" - and vanished.
"You crooks!" I shrieked, as Noctowl's companions fled from the cafe. I chased them through the bustling streets, until smooth roads gave way to bare sand and the two swindlers ducked into a cave. I was about to follow them, but then Puddle's voice rang out from behind me.
"That's a mystery dungeon! You can't go in alone!"
I spun around to see Puddle standing behind me.
"You're right," I said. "There are too many of them to fight. But I know who can fight them for us."
…
With our request securely pinned to the Rescue Board, Puddle and I set out toward the waterfall to speak to Lugia.
"Aside from being our mayor, Lugia also runs a training program for new rescue teams, though he recently required the senior rescue teams to rejoin for a while, so Lugia could reassess their skills." Puddle explained. "After Politoed left, Lugia chose Honchkrow as his deputy, so the two of them basically run Stormvale Island." As he spoke, we reached the waterfall. The bright, clear water trickled down into a huge pit, where it pooled into a lake. A spiraling set of stairs led down into the cavern.
"Here we are! Welcome to Luminous Lake, where Lugia resides!" Puddle exclaimed. Nervously, I followed him down the stairs. As we reached the bottom, I saw the large, white shape of Lugia beneath the water.
"Lugia!" Puddle cried. I gasped as Lugia rose from the lake. He was so huge, much larger than I had ever pictured him.
"Who is that cyndaquil?" Lugia asked, his voice echoing across the cavern.
"I-I'm Skye." I stammered.
"And where do you come from?"
"I d-don't remember anything but being pulled out of the ocean. Then, Puddle found me."
"You say you cannot remember anything, but you somehow know your name?"
"W-well, I re-remember my name, and the fact that I was a human, and what food I'd t-tasted…"
Somehow, the way Lugia spoke and looked gave the impression that I could tell him anything. When I spoke about being a human, Lugia's eyes glinted in delight.
"You were a human? Skye, that is wonderful news! Wonderful news for the whole pokemon world!" Lugia exclaimed.
"WHAT?" I shouted. I was just a cyndaquil that knew barely anything. How could that be wonderful?
"Over the years, there have been several pokemon that were once humans, and several that claimed to have once been humans. Of this matter we know very little, but I can tell you of several humans that turned into pokemon and went on to save the world."
My heart hammered in my chest. Was I really going to save the world? I thought of all the pokemon that saved the world. Surely, for every pokemon that saved the world, there was one that failed to save it. I shuddered, thinking of what it would be like to die a failure, being remembered as nothing but The Pokemon That Failed.
"So," Lugia murmured, leaning closer. "Do you know anything about your purpose here? Have you seen any signs?"
"Signs?" I said confusedly.
"Signs. Visions, omens, prophecies, strange dreams."
"Well, I had a dream that there were shadows everywhere, and I couldn't move. The shadows were kind of...possessing a bunch of pokemon. And then I looked up and saw Darkrai."
Lugia's eyes widened. "Darkrai! Of course! He was known for doing many terrible things before being defeated by a human-turned-pokemon. He must be up to no good again…we will just have to wait and see."
Something about Lugia's logic seemed off to me, but I kept my mouth shut.
"Um...so anyway, do you know anything that could bring Skye's memories back?" Puddle asked.
"I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do." Lugia replied sadly.
"Also, do you know of a Team Rocket?" I inquired.
"Alas, I do not even know what a rocket is." Lugia said, shaking his head.
"Well, I hope we learn something soon. Thanks for your help!"
"You are welcome. I hope to see you again soon."
And with that said, Puddle and I walked back up the stairs to Stormvale Square.
Though I'd thought that visiting Lugia would make everything clearer, it seemed like what I had learned only made things worse.
