Wow, uh... sorry, guys. Lemme start with the good stuff! Thanks for the favorites/follows; that made my day seeing that! The other bit of news is somewhat of an apology. I'm gonna start uploading this more frequently [like I said I would], though I had a good reason for waiting so long to do so. The reason was I had been waiting for a certain friend of mine to begin posting a...
-drum roll...-
OST!
Heck yeah! Hauntershadow [if the name sounds familiar, he makes a lot of remixes of Pokémon, Metroid, Kingdom Hearts, and other kinds of video game music], a very good friend of mine, has taken my request to create for me a whole soundtrack for this story! Here's the link: sound cloud dot c, o, then m hauntershadow/erioris-theme [you're gonna have to manually type most of the link, sorry; apparently didn't like me posting links in my story]. The link'll be in on my profile as well for convenience sake.
I cannot thank him enough for how amazing he is to make this for me, and he deserves so much for it. The picture was also made by my lovely beta reader, who has also been a huge help in this process of making the soundtrack.
The theme there is for a character we won't meet for a few chapters [oops], but I still felt the need to wait until now to continue posting. Now with my hindsight I realized it would have been smarter to post up to where that character was introduced and THEN link the OST... but whatever.
Damn I've been going on for super long, sorry. Here's the chapter!
edit: I added the ages of the characters at the bottom. Now your eyes can stop bleeding from looking at bold text for 5 minutes straight.
As they reached the edge of the forest and out towards clear land, it was already starting to get dark outside.
How did we spend all day in that forest...? I could have sworn it was day time a few minutes ago... Cendre thought, looking around nervously.
Lamperé wasn't confused by this, however. Cendre assumed that she just didn't take note of it.
The Squirtle then lifted her head up towards the sky and gasped. "Whoa! How's it already nighttime?"
Cendre stayed silent for a moment, not sure on whether or not to reply with a comment about how Lamperé just noticed that it was dark, or agree with her about where in the heck the day had gone.
"Yeah, I didn't realize we took so long in the forest," he replied, opting out of taking the chance of accidentally insulting her.
"Hm...That's weird," she said, putting her hand up to her chin and contemplating. "I guess we should try to find a place to stay tonight. We're not that far from Miza Town now, so if we hustle, we can get there before it gets any later."
Cendre nodded. It'll be nice to finally rest without worrying about some crazy person trying to attack you.
The two then headed towards the town, with Lamperé chiming in after a moment "I can't wait till we're finally indoors! Hopefully the inn here is nice."
Cendre casually replied "Well, I'd imagine it's nice. I mean, with the way you've talked about this place, you've obviously been there before. I don't think we have anything to worry about."
She stopped dead in her tracks and turned back towards Cendre. As she looked at him, her expression grew to look more and more guilty.
Did I say something? he panicked, feeling awful.
"...Can I tell you something?" she asked softly.
"O-Of course." I've certainly done it now. Cendre sighed inaudibly, making sure that she wouldn't hear it.
She poked her index fingers together and looked away from him, softly mumbling "I've never actually been to Miza Town."
Cendre shot her a bewildered expression. "You haven't...?"
Lamperé covered her face and exclaimed "A-And I don't have any money either!"
He quickly went over to her and moved her arms down, and she looked at him with eyes full of tears.
"Hey..." he said softly, trying to comfort her. "It's alright..." N-Now what are we supposed to do, though!? Internally, the Cyndaquil was in panic mode, but on the outside, he presented himself as surprisingly calm about everything.
"No, it's not. I should have been honest with you," she sat on the ground and continued to cry. She tried to wipe her face, but tears were streaming down so much that she couldn't wipe them away fast enough.
Cendre watched her for a moment, and he felt an odd mix of emotions that he had never felt before. Seeing her cry made him deeply upset; he wanted to do anything and everything that was in his power to stop it. Though, at the same time, he couldn't help but find it strangely adorable, in the sense that he just wanted to coddle her and never let her go.
He then went over and slowly wrapped his arms around her, much to her surprise.
"Listen..." he said calmly. "We'll find a place to stay tonight, I know we will. Even if we don't, as long as we're together, everything's going to be okay. I promise."
Lamperé sniveled, then hugged Cendre back. "A-Alright..."
The two hugged for a while, Lamperé slowly starting to calm down the longer they held each other.
"Thank you, Cendre...You're a great friend."
"I try."
The Squirtle then stood up, still holding Cendre. "You try? Well you must try really really hard, because you're the bestest friend in the whole entire universe!" She swung him from side to side, squeezing him happily.
Agh...Feeling ill...from the swinging... Cendre thought as he was swung back and forth. Well, at least she's happy again. He truly didn't mind this, however. Seeing her happy was more than worth it to him.
Putting him on the ground, Lamperé exclaimed in her usual cheery voice "Now c'mon, you modest little thing, you! Let's find us a place to stay!"
I-I'm honestly not that much shorter than her, am I? He thought before quickly nodding, and the two then headed towards Miza Town.
About 10 minutes later...
As they approached the outskirts of town, they found a relatively small cottage that was seemingly empty. The two friends assumed this, as it seemed to be in need of a few repairs, but otherwise it could have had inhabitants previously.
"Ooo!" Lamperé exclaimed, being the first to see it.
Cendre turned towards where she was looking and observed the house himself. That's...odd. The house doesn't seem that run-down, but I suppose that it could possibly be someone's home.
"What do you think, Cendre? Should we go in?" she looked over at him.
"Well, to be honest-" he started, before getting cut off by an excited "I thought the same thing! C'mon!" Lamperé rushed off towards the house.
W-Wait! Lamperé! He quickly followed in suit.
Lamperé, completely sure that no one did in fact live in the house, promptly opened the door and invited herself in. Cendre, not wanting to argue with her, also entered and closed the door behind them.
He took close note of the inside of the building. There wasn't much in there, but was in the house looked relatively clean and well-kept. Cendre took this as a warning. Lamperé, on the other hand, did not. A table was pushed against the east wall, a small bed was located against the northwest wall and a fireplace was in the west wall.
"Wow! It's so nice in here. I think we picked a great place to stay for the night," she said, admiring the house. "What do you think, Cendre?"
"I think we should get out of here..." he mumbled, nervously standing in one place, as if taking a step would make their intrusion any worse.
"Huh, why?" she tilted her head.
"Someone probably lives here and if they get back to find us in their house, well..."
"Aw...It's ok, Cendre! You worry too much."
"I guess but-" Suddenly, the two hear someone trying to open the door. Panicking, they scrambled under a table and hid there.
"I'm so sorry... You were right, Cendre... I should have listened," Lamperé quickly whispered.
Cendre nodded softly, not daring to utter a single syllable for fear of getting caught.
"Ugh! Stupid door!" a young but loud female voice shouted as she entered the house and closed the door behind her.
Cendre, as he was facing towards Lamperé and away from the door, was all too petrified to see who had entered the house. Even though the voice had suggested it wasn't something too large, he knew that it wasn't a good idea to judge someone's size just based on their voice.
Lamperé was facing towards Cendre, but she was covering her face out of fear.
I don't think the rule 'If I can't see them, they can't see me' applies here, Lamperé... Cendre thought.
The Pokémon took a few steps into their house, then seemingly tripped on something and fell over, the sounds of light-weight objects hitting the floor along with her could be heard.
Lamperé's eyes widened as the homeowner turned and saw the Squirtle's tail sticking out from under the table.
"What the-!?" the Pokémon's eyes widened.
Lamperé dashed out from under the table. "C'MONCENDREWEGOTTAGO!" she screamed as she booked it towards the door.
Cendre took a moment to process what was going on, then quickly followed in suit, not even looking at the other Pokémon in the room.
"Wait! You get back here!" she shouted, chasing after them.
Lamperé was already outside as Cendre reached the door.
"I-I'm sorry!" he exclaimed as he slammed the door behind him, in which their pursuer ran into.
Cendre then quickly went over to Lamperé, who was panting and trying to catch her breath.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
She nodded then answered "Yeah. I'm okay. You?" in between breaths.
"Could be better, but overall I'd say I'm alright."
Lamperé nodded again. "That's good."
Suddenly the door swung open, to which the duo turned back towards the house.
"You know what? All I really want to know is what doofus thought it was a good idea to sneak into someone's house! And you better have a good reason, too!" As she stepped into the moonlight, they noticed that the Pokémon was in fact a Cubone. She was about two inches shorter than both Cendre and Lamperé. She was holding a Thick Club and instead of the normal Cubone skull-helmet, she had an Exploud skull-helmet, which was smaller than usual and fit on her head rather well. Because of the shape of the helmet, you could fully see her mouth, which was in an angry frown.
IS THAT A SKULL ON HER HEAD WHAT? "I-I'm sorry, miss," Cendre said delicately, trying not to anger her more. "You see, my friend and I mistook this house to be abandoned, and well-"
The Cubone sighed exasperatedly. "Well, nice job, idiots. Now if you'll excuse me..." she turned back towards her house.
Lamperé suddenly, out of nowhere, chimed in with a "But we don't have anywhere to go!"
What is she doing? Cendre asked himself. There's no way she's going to convince that person to let us stay in her house, not after what just happened.
Surprised, the Cubone turned back around again and asked "Well, why should I care?"
"We don't have any money, so we can't go to an inn...so we need a place to stay...or else we're stuck out here," Lamperé explained.
The homeowner squinted, then repeated her question. "Why should I care?"
Lamperé sighed sadly. She then, with no warning, picked up Cendre and held him up towards the Cubone.
Wh-What is she doing!? Cendre asked himself again.
"Look at this little guy," she said with a pathetic tone. "He has no memories to his name and you're going to leave him out in the cold."
I-I'm not that much smaller than you! I think I'm actually the same height as you! I'm just really light, apparently... Cendre thought.
"First of all," the Cubone started. "It's not the wintertime, you idiot. Second, no memories, you say?" she sounded genuinely intrigued.
Completely ignoring her insult, Cendre not being able to tell if it was on purpose or by accident, Lamperé replied "Yup, he only remembers his name. Isn't that right, Cendre?"
Before he got the chance to reply, the Cubone chimed in "Well? Is she telling the truth?"
"Y-Yeah. All I know is that my name is Cendre. I don't know how I got here or how I ended up in Winding Woodland. All I know is that I met up with Lamperé and now I'm here being held up by her and trying to prove to you that I'm not a liar."
"So... Are you lying or not?"
Didn't I just-? Cendre quickly shook his head.
"Hm... Well, if that's the case. Maybe you lost your memory while chasing someone down in the forest... Or maybe you got hit on the head really hard by some innocent Pokémon you were trying to rob..."
Both Lamperé and Cendre were insulted, though for partially different reasons.
I was chasing someone down in the forest? Lamperé and I almost got blown to bits there! Plus, with these stubby legs of mine, I doubt I could keep up with most people.
"Now you're just being silly!" Lamperé frowned, putting her friend down. "Cendre's an amazing person. He'd never do anything like that, ever. I just know it."
You've only known me for a day and you already know that? Cendre shot her a side glance for only a second. I have more reason to distrust myself than you to distrust me, I guess...
The Cubone smirked. "We'll just have to find out, then," she then headed back into her house and left the door open behind her.
The two friends turned to each other and gave one another completely confused glances.
"That means you can come in now, you idiots!" the Cubone shouted from inside her house.
Both friends jumped at the sudden shouting, but then hurried into the house with Lamperé closing the door behind them.
Cendre (Sahn-druh) the Cyndaquil - Male (15)
Ability: Flash Fire
Timid nature, often lost in thought
Lamperé (Lam-pier-ay) the Squirtle* - Female (14)
Ability: Torrent
Quirky nature, somewhat of a clown
? the Cubone - Female (?)
Ability: ?
? nature
