Hello everybody and welcome to my story, 'Reign of Darkness.' as you can see, this is a rated M fanfiction and it's raged M because of the use of language, alcohol, and drugs, along with a lot of gore including torture, lemons (including rape), and possible self-harm and suicide. I understand some of those can be a touchy subject, of you don't like that, then I encourage you not to read.

I realized I forgot to mention that this is a rewrite of a story I originally worked on, but because I didn't like the ideas incorporated in it I decided to rewrite it with a slight reimagination of it.

Lastly, as a disclaimer, I do not own anything related to Pokémon, this is just a fictional story a fan decided to write.


Chapter 1

New Bounty

Flint sat bored in the back of a wagon overlooking the horizon. The wagon was carrying four pokemon in total and was being pulled by two tauros. Inside the wagon was Flint, an eevee sitting near him on the same side, a butterfree sitting across from the two, and a meowth sitting in the front guiding the tauros. The wagon was pushing through a meadow of tall, yellow, grass. Occasionally a tree would be spotted, as well as a short stone bridge that crossed over thin rivers. There wasn't much for the passengers to do on their trip except talk, eat, and sleep. So, Flint spent most of his time watching the horizon as the wind made the illusion of an ocean of grass.

Flint wasn't alone on his trip, he was traveling with a younge eevee known as Rose. Flint found Rose after stumbling upon her unconscious body in the wilderness. The strange thing about it was she had no idea where she was or how she got there, it only seemed she knew her name and a vocabulary of words, yet nothing of her past. The same day, Flint also discovered she had a sizable bump on her head. He came to the conclusion that Rose was suffering from some sort of brain damage or memory loss and decided to watch over her. Ever since Flint was a younge cub, he had always wanted to help others out, and it was no different when he found Rose.

Flint has known rose for nearly a month now, he's tried to teach her to defend herself throgh combat, but she's too timid to fight. Either way, he still let's the little eevee travel with him, though it was dangerous at times. Flint is what many would call a bounty hunter, he does jobs of various tasks for something of value in return. As of now, Rose and Flint are traveling to a small town, known as Grassroot, for their next bounty. Grassroot is one of the many locations found within the country of Mardol, and this will be their first time traveling there.

"Fliiiint," Rose whined, "I'm boooored," she said while slumping against Flint's backpack full of supplies.

"I am too, Rose," Flint replied in a calm tone, "however, I don't think I can solve your boredom."

"Is there anything fun we could do?"

"Hmm, we could play a game," he suggested.

Rose's mood brightened quickly, "A game? What kind of game?"

"Umm, we could..." Flint struggled to actually find an idea after proposing an idea.

"How about I spy?" The female butterfree sitting across the two suggested.

"What's that?" Rose questioned curiously.

"It's simple, I'll say, 'I spy with my eye, something...' and then I'll say a color, then you have to guess what it is I'm looking at."

"That sounds too easy though..." rose said slightly disappointed.

"Oh it can be challenging at times," the butterfree laughed.

"How so?"

"Here, I'll show you. I spy with my eye, something...hmm, yellow."

"It's the grass..." Rose said in an unsatisfied tone.

"Nope, guess again," the butterfree said with a more cheerful tone.

"What? But the grass is the only thing yellow here," Rose complained.

"Well, that's because it's too noticeable and distracts you from other objects that are yellow as well. See, this game can help with attention to detail. So, try again, and think outside the box a little."

Rose was suddenly more invested into the game and Flint watched curiously to see what she would choose next. Rose looked all around in the wagon, but found nothing. She then liked over the horizon, and then she had a better idea for what the answer was, "I think I've got it now, it's the sun!" She said confidently.

The butterfree was silent and smiled at the younge eevee, Rose was sure she was right this time, "Wrong again."

Suddenly the eevee felt a wave of disappointment, since she was still younge, it felt more devastating for her to fail again after feeling so sure of herself. "What's the answer then?"

"Well, I see your disappointment, so I'll tell you, it's the golden coin on Idwon's head." Idwon was the meowth sitting at the front of the wagon. After hearing the answer, both Flint and Rose were surprised to hear the answer.

Rose was instantly hooked on the game while her and the butterfree played for the next hour or so, while Flint decided to take a nap. Some hours had passed and the sun was now setting over the horizon. Idwon had informed everyone it would likely be two more days until they arrived at Grassroot and that they should be setting up camp for the night. Everyone got out of the wagon and stretched while Idwon took the harnesses off of the two tauros. Everyone then grabbed their gear and started setting up their camp. Flint and Rose had been sharing a tent throughout their small journey, it was comprised of a tarp supported by a stick along with two cushions for them to sleep in; it was simple, yet effective. The butterfree, who's name was Emalra, had a bare bone like tent as well. Idwon and the tauros decided on sleeping outside to watch the sky. After everyone was settled in, Flint helped Idwon make a campfire. Everyone sat around it ready to eat their dinner. The tauros helped themselves to the plentiful amount of grass around them while rose and Emalra chose to eat fresh fruits from nearby bushes. Idwon and Flint decided on eating meat related items, Idwon cooked himself a magikarp fillet while Flint enjoyed cooked machop meat.

Everyone had finished their meals and relaxed by the campfire watching the stars. Rose admired the sight of the thousands of white dots that speckled in the black sky, she felt fascinated by their presence and wished to join them. Throgh the silence of the night, Idwon decided to grab a stringed instrument from his wagon and began to play a tune, "Do you guys have any requests for tonight?" Idwon asked.

"Do you know 'Her Majesty?'" Emalra suggested.

"Ah, yes, a common favorite played in Mardol. That and 'The Sound of Light.'" The meowth cleared his throat as he prepared to sing the song. He started by playing his instrument at a slightly slow temple which gave the mood for the tone of the song.

"Come forth- with thy darkness,

come bring us- your rage,

our light shines- through our soul

Slowly- they egress,

the beast is- freed from its cage,

but you shall- pay the toll,

We will bring you or light

for her majesty- her majesty,

We have come prepared for this fight

For her majesty- her majesty

We have seen the darkest of days,

Now a thousand eyes shall gaze,

The darkness shall fall to their knees,

In the presence of-

Her majesty

Consumed with anger- their eyes are red,

they bring chaos- as well as fear,

They're only goal- is to kill

In our land- they ensure bloodshed,

These are the times- if the darkest year,

But they can't- break our will

We will bring you or light

for her majesty- her majesty,

We have come prepared for this fight

For her majesty- her majesty

We have seem the darkest of days,

Now a thousand eyes shall gaze,

The darkness shall fall to their knees,

In the presence of-

Her majesty"

The group applauded the talented meowth's song as he gave a bow. "That was really good," Rose compliment.

"Heh, I appreciate your words, but I can't compete with the natives of Mardol, those bards are flawless with their singing."

"Have you ever considered becoming a bard?" Flint inquired.

"I have, but I'm too busy with this wagon business, but I do enjoy it, whenever I have freetime I enjoy visiting many taverns just to see the diversity of bards and how unique they are in different locations."

"Well, at least you could do it as back up if things don't go to well with your wagon business."

"Ha, right you are. Well, it's getting pretty late, I'm going to get some sleep. See you all tomorrow."

With that everyone was off to bed, Flint ensured he said goodnight to everyone as he made his way towards his tent. He and Rose made their way inside to their designated cushions: Rose on the right while Flint was on the left side of the tent. Rose was able to see out of the entrance of the tent and was gazing up at the stars, her restless body full of questions and imagination. She began humming the chorus to 'Her Majesty' in an attempt to put herself to sleep.

"Take a liking to that song?" Flint asked on the other side of the tent.

"Yes indeed. It was a lovely melody. Yet, I don't know what it was about..."

"Hmm' it kept talking about the darkness, it sounded like some type of battle. Maybe it's a song that reflects on the history of Mardol. I'm not too sure."

"It was still a great song. I wonder what the other song sounds like, the one Idwon called 'The Sound of Light.' It sounds lovely."

"I'm sure it is, perhaps we could have mister Idwon play it for you tomorrow."

"That would be great," Rose said with excitement yet still trying to stay quiet as not to wake the others who were still sleeping.

"Well, we need to get some rest now little one. Goodnight," Flint said while kissing Rose on her forehead.

"Goodnight, Flint," and with that, the two fell asleep only to wake up the next day.

The sound of kricketune playing music hummed through the morning's sunrise. A thin fog covered the seemingly endless open plain of grass leaving behind fresh dew drops on the blades of grass. Flint had woke up with a silent yawn and stretched his hind legs. Though he was still a little groggy, he knew it was time to wake up and get ready for the mornings trip. Before that though, everyone needed some breakfast. Flint nudged Rose awake explaining to her it was time to wake up and get some food. Everyone met by the campfire and ate their respected food which was the same thing they had for dinner, only this time Flint decided to enjoy eggs instead of some machop meat. After everyone had enjoyed their meals, everyone packed their belongings and hopped on the wagon for another long days trip.

"Did everyone sleep good?" Idwon asked the group. Everyone gave a simple reply that confirmed they had all slept well, "From the looks of it, we may experience a slight storm today, it will stall the trip a bit, but you can expect to be in Grassroot tomorrow around sundown."

"Thank you for the heads up." Flint said, "How bad do you think the storm will be?"

"It's hard to say, I can only see the dark clouds past the horizon, but I don't know much more than that."

"I'm sure it won't be too bad," Emalra said.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

"Mister Idwon, I had a couple of questions," Rose spoke up.

"Oh? What might they be?"

"Their about your music."

"Do ask, I'll be glad to answer them for you," Idwon said with a smile.

"Well, first, I wanted to know what 'Her Majesty' was about," Rose asked.

"Haha, I could tell you one thing little eevee, but the thing is is that I learned the song when I was visiting a small tavern somewhere in Mardol. There were three bards who I remember singing it, there was a teddiursa, a magby, and a skitty. I had them teach the song to me and afterwards, I asked the meaning behind the song. The teddiursa said it was a story to remember a great battle that happened many years ago in which Mardol was outnumbered but succeeded in battle. It seemed likely, but then the magby insisted the teddiursa was wrong and argued the song was actually a symbolism that there is a light inside everything dark. However, then the skitty argued that both were wrong and that the song was actually a gospel song dedicated to praising Xerneas blessing her land and protecting her followers from anything bad. So, what I'm trying to say is, we don't really know what the song truly is about, many people have their own ideas, they could all be wrong, but the way I like to view it is everyone is right. The song is about whatever you think it's about." The younge eevee was amazed with the flood of information she was trying to soak up that she didn't know how to react to Idwon's response, "What do you think it means?" Idwon asked.

"What do I think?" She said confused, "I haven't thought much on what it might mean..."

"Oh that's quite alright. If you do want to try and find a meaning to the song, I have the lyrics written down on a paper in my bag."

Rose gasped with happiness, "I would greatly appreciate that!"

"Here let me find it for you," Idwon began rummaging throgh his bag until he found a journal. He opened to a certain page a presented it to Rose. She was amazed and also confused at what she was looking at, so Idwon decided to explain, "I take it you're confused with these lines across the page with the circles and dots on the line, aren't you?" Rose nodded, "Well, the dots and circles tell me how long I need to sing a specific note while the lines that they are on or between tell me what pitch I song them at. So, basically it helps me know how to sing it."

"Whoa, that's amazing. Could you teach me how to sing this?"

"I'd love to, but I need to steer this wagon. Why don't you try and find your meaning for the song in the meantime."

"Alright, thank you!" And thus, Rose began to dissect the song and try to decipher her own meaning for it. She began with the first line, 'come forth with thy darkness,' Rose read to herself, 'hmm, what does that mean? I don't know what come forth means, but from how this sentence looks, it's like the writer is saying come forward with your darkness. But who's darkness is it and where are they going to?' Rose's imagination was flowing wildly as she kept on reading and asking numbers of questions trying her hardest to find a hidden meaning.

"So, Flint," Emalra spoke, "why don't you tell me about yourself?"

"Huh?" Flint said snapping himself out of his thoughts as he looked away from the horizon, "um, what do you want to know?"

"I don't know, just tell me about yourself, where you're from, about your family, anything really."

"I don't mean this in a rude way, but why do you want to know?"

"Just trying to pass the time," Emalra shrugged.

"Fair enough, I was born in the village of Ashmond from the land of Rakail. I was raised in a growlithe tribe and my father happened to be the alpha male of the tribe, how great that caused some slight confusion early in my childhood."

"How so?"

"Well, my dad took me the day I was born and he was the type to, well, 'share the wealth' if you know what I mean," Flint hinted since he didn't want Rose to hear vulgar language, luckily Emalra understood his point, "so, for a long time I was unsure who my true biological mother was."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Emalra said with sincerity.

"No, it's fine, I eventually found my real mother and spent a lot of time with her as well as my father since he was preparing me to be the next alpha male."

"So what happened? Why are you here now?"

"Ehh, I don't want to talk too much about it, but in the simplest way of explaining stuff, I didn't follow a good lifestyle at a younge age, so I eventually was taken away from the tribe in which case I eventually became a bounty hunter for a living."

"That's an interesting little story you have."

"What about you?"

"Well, I too am from Rakail, but I was born in the city of Ironfrost. Are you familiar with it?"

"Yes, very, I did a lot of business there."

"I was part of a small family; a mother, a father, and two brothers. Took my mandatory four years of school and then took advanced schooling in which I learned about government and geography. My plans now are to head to the Forgotten Island."

"The Forgotten Island?" Flint questioned.

"Yes, it's a not so well known geographical location, but it holds even more knowledge about government for me to learn. It's a long process to get there though since I'll need to take a boat from the shore side of Mardol to travel to another landmass known as Zerith. From there, there's a dock up north that can take me there."

"Interesting," the conversion seemed to have stopped there as the two had nothing much more to say. Occasionally Emalra would ask a question and Flint would reply which sometimes would lead to him starting up a new conversation.

Meanwhile, Rose was still reading the lyrics to the song, 'We have seen the darkest of days. I can't quite make out what that could possibly mean. Is the darkest day referring to what's happening right now in the story or a statement that they've seen worse?' Suddenly Rose was startled by a crackling noise erupting throughout the sky, "W-what was that," she said shaking.

"It's okay, Rose, it's just thunder," Flint said trying to comfort her.

"It was scary though," Rose said while curling up under the bench like seats in the wagon.

"Well folks," Idwon began, "looks like it's time to brace for the storm," with that said, he dug throgh his bag and grabbed his blanket to wrap around in. Emalra did the same while Flint gave Rose the blanket to stay warm in.

The dark clouds began hanging over everyone with visible flashes of yellow followed by roaring thunder. Following the cloud were harsh winds along with chilling drops of rain. For a brief second, Flint regretted not taking the blanket, but knew Rose would need it more than himself. The tauros trudged on, going against the wind. The storm wasn't showering mercy, within the next few minutes the rain had picked up and the winds picked up in speed. The dirt tail had now turned to mud as the tauros stomped throgh the mushy surface.

"Idwon," Flint had to yell due to the howling wind and the booming thunder, "are you sure this is safe?"

"Hah! This is nothing my friend, I faced far worse when I one time got caught in a blizzard and had to replace on of my wheels. I assure you, we should be fine."

"Should?" As if on que, lightning struck not too far away startling everyone in the wagon as well as causing Rose to scream and shake in fear. Flint felt bad not knowing how to deal with such a situation, in the past he could usually do something to raise the little eevee's spirits, but the weather was out of his control leaving him only to comfort her. Flint hopped off his bench and peeked under the blanket Rose was balled up in, "Hey, Rose, are you okay?"

"No! I'm scared!" Flint could tell it was true by the way she was shaking. He wasn't too sure how to comfort her, but he decided to give her company. Flint crawled under the blanket next to Rose in which she curled up against him. Flint then did everything in his power to try and keep Rose warm with his body heat, her safety was his priority.

The storm was relentless against the nature around it, blades of grass were uprooted and smacked the others in the face as it was dragged along with the wind. Idwon and the tauros had already lost their blankets to the wind. Emalra was struggling to keep her blanket around her and Flint tryed everything he could to prevent his blanket from drifting away. The wind then ripped their blankets away from them and they dangled onto the ground and continued flying away. Flint looked around the wagon, but was unable to find Rose. He was alarmed and then looked in the direction the blankets blew. Sure enough lying in the mud was Rose, who was struggling to run through the clumpy mess. Flint did the only thing he could think of and jumped off the wagon and ran to save her.

"Flint!" She exclaimed.

"Don't worry Rose, I'm here to save you," Flint grabbed Rose and flung her on to his back. The wagon was slowly growing further away so Flint had to race back to it. He ran and he struggled against the thick squishy mud. Every step pushing his exhaustion further. Suddenly, in a blink of an eye, a bolt of lighting struck near the wagon, shattering the rear left wheel into hundreds of pieces. Idwon and Emalra were alarmed, as were the tauros. Flint had finally reached the wagon and observed the damage; the wagon was now immobile, too much had been removed for the spare wheel to replace the damage.

"What are we going to do now?" Rose asked worried.

"I didn't think it would come to this," Idwon began, "but we're going to have to use our alternative idea."

"What would that be?" Asked Flint.

"Grab the items you need, and meet with the tauros. Since we don't have a wagon holding them back, they should be much faster now."

Everyone grabbed their belongings, Emalra had some sort of bag she carried that only had one strap, Flint had his bag that had shoulder straps and a waist strap, while Idwon had to make a choice between three large sacks since he could only take two. Idwon made his decision and used a blanket in a way it hung the sacks from the sides of one of the tauros and made a comfortable area to sit. The tauros sat low in the grass for everyone to climb aboard. Flint helped Rose onto their tauros as he then jumped up onto its back. Idwon took the other tauros while Emalra flew to join him.

Idwon let out an audible whistle and the tauros were off, they were incredibly fast, so much so that Flint and Rose nearly lost their balance. The tauros raced head to head with each other at a blinding speed to their next destination, Flint now wondered how long it would take for the group to reach Grassroot. Idwon said the would arrive at Grassroot tomorrow night at their previous pace, but this was much faster.

"Idwon," Flint yelled to get his attention, "how long will it take us to get to Grassroot now that we're traveling at a greater speed?"

"It's hard to say," Idwon admitted, "if I were to guess though, I would assume possibly tonight." Flint was delighted to hear that, knowing he would arrive earlier than expected. Now he could get a start on his next bounty sooner.

Then another thing bugged Flint, it was the tauros. He didn't know much about the two, he didn't know their names, he hasn't even heard them speak now that he thought of it. He wasn't sure how to ask about it without it sounding weird, then he decided on an idea, "Hey Idwon, how'd you met these tauros?"

Idwon didn't answer immediately, Flint noticed he had a look of concern, "That's a question for another time..." Flint felt a little guilty though he was unsure what was wrong. He decided to leave it at that though.

No one else spoke throgh the rest of the trip. The group had been traveling for hours now and had long passed the storm. It felt good to see and feel the sun again, thogh it was already beginning to set. A new view had been added to the landscaping, Flint had noticed a large mountain range that spread from east to west. It was good news for Flint since he's been told Grassroot was located next to a mountain.

Then, before they knew it they were there, they had finally reached Grassroot. It was a fairly small town, as they approached it from the outskirts they noticed a farm that was growing various produce and was being tended by a chikorita. The city was circled by a short stone wall. The city was notably split into sections. One area was for housing, there was a market place, a town square as well as a town hall. The tauros had stopped just outside of the city.

"So," Idwon began, "here you are Flint, take care of yourself, as well as Rose."

"I will, thank you Idwon. This is goodbye I take it?"

"It undoubtedly seems so, but not all goodbyes are forever. Instead, I shall say see you around friend."

"What are you guys going to do now?" Flint asked curiously, "Now that your wagon is gone and all?"

"Heh, bit of a bummer I suppose. I don't have the means of acquiring a new one yet, so I might take your advice and try out the bard life for a little."

Rose instantly remembered she had forgot to ask a question a while ago, "Idwon, I almost forgot, you never showed us the song 'The Sound of Light.'"

"I would of loved to of sang it to you Rose, but the thing is is that I don't know the lyrics nor the language for the song."

"The language?"

"Yes, the song is not sung in the pokemon language but is instead sung in Avarian western, which is the western modification of Avarian."

"As if learning regular Avarian was hard enough," Flint said, "I tried learning Avarian, but the conjugation rules began to annoy me. I do need to ask though, what is the difference of Avarian and Avarian western?"

"Well the main difference is they removed the Avarian letter 'yan' which made the long and short 'u' sounds which lead to the rewriting of the Avarian dictionary, but for the western regions only."

"Yeah, that's just too confusing." Rose was even more lost than Flint, she was unaware there was different ways of speaking and was oblivious that there where languages of words she was incapable of comprehending. "Anyway, where shall you be going, Emalra?"

"Well, from here, Idwon is going to be taking me to Whitestone so I can continue my journey to the Forgotten Island that I told you about."

"Well, best of luck on your travels, to the both of you."

"Thank you Flint, good luck on your bounty, may Arceus protect your soul."

"Hopefully our paths meet again," Flint said with a nod of his head.

The group said their goodbyes and then the tauros left carrying Emalra and Idwon with them. Rose and Flint were now alone in a town they were unknown to. First thing first, Flint wanted to clean them of the mud that clumped in their fur. Flint found a water spout, he first helped Rose clean herself and then he cleansed his fur. Flint then died them off with a rag he had in his backpack.

Flint rummaged throgh his bag in search of a specific item, there he found a paper. Not just any paper, the paper happened to be the bounty Flint picked up. He began reading it, in it there were specific instructions that there was a tavern in the town hall they were to meet at. Flint stuffed the bounty in his bag and escorted him and Rose to the town square. Though it was fairly late at night, the town was still pretty busy, then again Flint remembered it was the weekend, so pokemon would usually stay up later. There were lots of places to go to, there was a blacksmith forge that was closed for the night, an alchemy shop that was drawing attention, a triangular shaped chapel that was closed, and lastly there was a large tavern.

"That's the place," Flint said to himself, "the Rusty Bucket," Flint and Rose walked up to the busy tavern, laughter and music could easily be heard outside and Rose gave a questionable look to Flint. "Stay close Rose, I already don't like this place," he didn't need to tell her twice, Rose stayed as close as possible to Flint, and because of her small size, she was practically unnoticeable.

Flint walked throgh the entrance and found himself in a rowdy place, there was way too many pokemon for Flint to count. There was a band playing on the stage while various pokemon were dancing around. Some were busy drinking various liquids and laughing with friends. His instructions were to go to the back room and find the large round table. Flint pushed his way through the crowd and somehow managed to make it to the next room. The other room had poker tables and smoke booths as well as the large table that was mention in the bounty. There were two pokemon at the table, there was a pansear who looked like he had possibly too many drinks. The pansear was talking to a nervous looking amaura who had a fake smile. Flint looked over his letter again, he was instructed to go to the table and say 'the moonlight carries the fight.'

Flint walked over to the table unsure who to talk to, but decided to just say the phrase since he was already there and was being stared at by the occupants of the table, "Umm, the moonlight..." He searched his head to remember the phrase, "...carries the fight."

Suddenly, the amaura switched to a serious face and shoved the drunken pansear away who was too drunk to get up afterwards, "You're her for the bounty?" She said with a whisper.

"Yes, me and my partner," Flint said nodding to Rose it was okay to come out now.

"My partner and I-" the amaura corrected, but then stopped after seeing Rose, "Is that an eevee?" She said with surprise.

"Umm, yeah, so it appears," Flint said with sarcasm, "is that a problem?"

"It's just, over never seen an eevee before, and I thought no more eevee existed. Anyway, this is your partner? She's just a kid."

"I'm protecting her."

"By taking bounties and talking her across the world to dangerous areas?"

"Look, it doesn't matter right now."

"Fine. I hope there's more than just you two..."

"Yes, I'm sure somone else had to of noticed the bounty."

"I hope more people noticed, we're going to need plenty more for this mission. Oh, by the way, I'm your client, Aurora."

"Hello, I'm Flint, and this is Rose."

"Please, take a seat," Rose and Flint took their seats, "we'll wait until midday tomorrow."

"I take it we'll be staying here?"

"Yes, this tavern also serves as an inn."

Emerging from the crowd and into the room were two pokemon heading to the large table. There was a mareep wearing a backpack who was walking next to a fennekin who seemed overjoyed and also smelt like cinnamo for some reason. The two arrived at the table, the mareep cleared his throat preparing to speak, but the fennekin interrupted, "The moonlight carries the fight," she said very fast to the point it almost sounded like gibberish.

"You two are here for the bounty?"

The mareep was ready to answer, but the fennekin interrupted again, "Yes! That's exactly why we're here," the mareep gave her a stern look.

"Well, welcome, I'm your client, Aurora."

The mareep was ready to talk, but was once again interrupted by the fennekin, "Hello! I'm Kindle, and the mareep is my friend, Tesla."

"So, where is everyone from?" Aurora asked.

Tesla was expecting Kindle to interrupt and used his paw to shut her up by forcing it in front of her mouth, "We're from Rakail," he says with the most calm voice anyone had heard.

"Oh?" Flint began, "What part? I'm from Rakail as well."

"More of the southern area, Arenth to be exact. Who are you by the way?"

"My apologies, this here is Rose, and I'm Flint. I'm from Ashmond."

"Ah, I see. So," Tesla then directed towards aurora, "as our client, what is it that needs to be done?"

"Well, your mission is simple, you four shall be escorting me to Whitestone."

"Wait," Flint said, "that's it?"

"Yes."

"Why do you need this many pokemon to escort you?"

"Two reasons. The first reason is that on my travels over here, my team was ambushed by a group of bandits, and I'm the soul survivor. I wanted bounty hunters to escort me to ensure the safest of travels. As for the second reason, due to how off schedule I am, we'll be making a shortcut through one of the mountain's cave."

"Off schedule for what exactly?" Tesla asked.

"Follow me real quick, it's best to not say this with other ears around," with that, Aurora hopped from her chair and headed towards the previous room while everyone followed behind. She headed up a set of stairs that brought the group in a hallway that contained many doorways. Aurora turned left and headed to the end of the hallway and approached the doorway to her right. Pulling out a key, she unlocked the door and opened it welcoming the others inside.

The room was quaint, there was a small bed with a chest underneath it and a nightstand on the side with a candle atop it. There was also a window that was lined with white curtains, as well as a brown rug. Flint, being the last one in the room, shut the door behind him while Aurora pulled the chest out from under the bed and used a key to unlock and open it. She first pulled out a rectangular object that was wrapped in a dark brown paper and had a red candle wax seal on it, the seal containing an image of some sort of fox like pokemon head.

"This is what I'm off schedual for," Aurora said.

"A package?" Inquired Tesla.

"This isn't any package, the nintales seal indicates it's for governmental purposes only. In case you're unaware, Mardol has been ruled by queens and kings for ages. I was sent by her highness to retrieve this package and hand deliver it to her."

"I see," Flint began, "this object you have is of high importance. Something of this high of value would amount in an equal reward, yes?"

"Yes, your rewards will be granted once we reach Whitestone, and I'll talk with the princess and put in a good word for you all."

"The princess?" Kindle asked, "I thought this was for the queen and king."

"Well, it would be, but the princess was passed the crown after the passing of her mother."

"Aww, that's sad... and, what of the king?"

"We don't talk about the 'king,'" Aurora aside with slight bitterness.

"So, why exactly do you trust us?" Asked Tesla, "How do you know we won't easily turn against you and steal this item from you?"

"I don't... but you guys are all I have left, my time is running thin, I'm out of options, and even if you were to turn on me, I'm well protected."

"What do you mean by that?" Flint asked.

After setting the package back in the chest, Aurora then pulled out a necklace that had a silver chain with blue, oval, gems that sparkled. "This is a special made necklace. Only royal guards of the princess are given these and require a vigorous amount of training to get one in the first place."

"How do we know you aren't lying?" Asked Tesla.

"You'll just have to trust me like a trust you. So, we'll leave midday tomorrow, be ready. I suggest you all get yourselves rooms before they're all gone, the cost three bronzin."

With that, everyone exited the room. Flint and Rose headed downstairs to purchase a room. Behind the counter in the tavern was a spinda wearing a bow tie.

"How may I help you sir?" He asked.

"I need a room for the night," Flint said while setting three bronzin on the counter. Bronzin coins are a thin brown coin made up of bronze, they are circle in shape and have a hole in the center of them for the purpose of using a thick string to hold your currency. The spinda swept the coins into a bag and opened a drawer pulling out a key with the number seven engraved into it.

"Here you are sir, room seven. Head right upstairs and it will be the second door on your left. Flint took the key and headed towards his room for the night. The room had the same design as Aurora's. Flint set his backpack next to his bed and flopped onto the bed. It had been a long day and he was finally ready to rest.

"Flint?" Rose said while climbing on the other side of the bed, "How long will this take?"

"I'm not too sure. Possibly a few days, why do you ask?"

"No reason, just curious..." she lied. The truth was that Rose didn't enjoy doing bounties with Flint and she wished they could just stay in one city so she could grow up there and make friends.

"Alright, well, goodnight Rose," Flint said while curling up under the blanket.

"Goodnight."

Meanwhile, sitting on the mountain was a bipedal pokemon overlooking Grassroot. It was holding makeshift binoculars and spying on the tavern, its focus mainly on Aurora's room. 'I won't fail at stealing it the next time...' It thought while putting its binoculars in its backpack in which the figure then swung over their shoulder to wear, 'you may have reinforcements now, but you're still weak and vulnerable. I guess I'll be seeing you shortly,' it then walked away from Grassroot and disappeared into the shadows of night.


Well, I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter of the story. Also thank you to all of those who have favorited, followed, and reviewed the story, I appreciate it.

Anyway, that's all for now, see you all next chapter.