The discovery of the bedchamber reignited a spark in everyone that the weeks of endless, fruitless, restless searching had tried to stifle out. Not the usual relics, not the rotting goods that practically disintegrate in our hands when we try to examine them: A whole room of treasures relatively untouched by the hands of time due to its isolation underground: And if we could just break through the passageway connected to it, who knows else what we could find!
There was plenty in the sealed chests that we found: Tightened vials of concoctions labeled in the language of the Unown and detailed with various symbols, a few scrolls to add to the other documents, tools made from stone and ivory. Even still, the key remains the most promising—and bewildering—of the finds. When we showed it to Dusknoir, he said that ancient locks and keys were commonly made out of wood instead of metal, so it's rare to find one at all, much less one made out of bronze as ours is. That and the intricate patterns the wrap around across its stem show a careful amount of consideration was given when it was made. Depending on who owned it, it might just be a wasted luxury from someone who had more money than sense—the room seemed to hint that a person of some high authority stayed there anyway. But I don't think that's the case.
I guess we'll know if we find any more: If it was just a luxury of a bygone age, then there's a greater chance that there are others like it. If not, then who knows what it'll lead to.
"You aren't anxious, are you?" Ri teases me, snapping me out of my musings. I've been so deep in my own thoughts that I've started fiddling with the strap of our bag. "We get to take a break for once: I think you can relax for just a few hours."
I grin, but I honestly don't think so. "I think focusing on our work's been the only way that I can relax."
Really, I should probably at least try to calm down a bit. To celebrate our small success, a lot of us ended up travelling to the nearby village after dinner for a night out. Within about a week, the villagers will be having their annual harvest festival, but they've already set up a lot of stalls for the event. Being a small and pretty isolated community, I guess most of them are eager for any kind of excitement. Treasure Town has its own traditions and celebrations, but it's always nice when you get to participate in others. I really want to enjoy tonight: It's just hard, having so much on my mind.
Giving me an empathizing smile, Ri tugs at my hand, "Well, focus on having fun for a bit. I think both of us could use a chance to breathe."
He takes the lead through the fairly busy streets lined by multilevel terracotta buildings with simple, geometric patterns along their overall flat rooftops and the rows of tented stalls that dot them, looking around to find something for the two of us to do. The scent of heavy spices tickles my nose from the range of food booths we pass by, and a range of colors parade around us from the works of craftsmen—earthen, painted pottery; jewelry made from polychromatic stones; neatly stitched fabrics; and all sorts of glass trinkets that sparkle in the evening light.
Kids run around playing games from what few have been set up this early ahead of time and it isn't long before one of these stalls catches my eye: A ring-toss game with all kinds of prizes set randomly on a table in the back. The brief, prolonged attention to it is all it takes for us to veer that way and the Nidoqueen standing at it greets us with a hand on her hip, "If it isn't the littlest heroes! Haven't seen you two since your friends showed up. Out on a supply run, or are you actually gonna stick around town for a while?"
Laying low would be impossible for a new face in a place like this, especially in our team's case. Of course we know how our names have spread all over the continent thanks to the incident with the Time Gears. And what happened with Darkrai only kept the news going: Two young apprentices traveled into the future, solved an age-old legend, and saved the world. The fame is weird for us though.
That goes for Ri and me in particular as the youngest members of our team—who are still considered by a lot of people as baby Pokemon at that! So when they find out that we're just a pair of teenagers barely half the size of most of our enemies, we get some pretty… interesting, reactions. A lot of people still respect us—kids in particular—but there are still moments when I'd rather be just another blank face in the crowd, like after discovering the slew of nicknames we didn't even know we had: The Littlest Heroes, the Kid Crusaders, the Copycat Couple… Anytime we meet anyone new, I look forward to the point where they finally get used to us so we're past all of it…
At first, we used to come here every week or two to get food and other supplies; however, ever since some of the other Guild members showed up to help our investigation, we haven't come to town as often since we usually have to keep track of everyone either in the Concealed Ruins or at our campsite not far from it. I'd be lying if I said sticking in the same place for so long hadn't made me antsy. There's not much to see here, but the fresh air is a welcome change after you've been cooped under layers of stone for a while. The investigation has gone on long enough by now so that the people here know us fairly well too, so it's easily become like a second home.
"We had some good luck today, so we figured we'd celebrate," my partner explains for us both as I fish around inside our bag for our money pouch. "It's great to get out for a change."
"I'll bet," she chuckles with a toothy grin, "You both seem like a real couple of go-getters."
"We'll take two sets of rings please."
We're both handed five rings each. It doesn't cost that much to play, but then the prizes aren't exactly all that big either, mostly just little things like bags of rock candy and other sweets, charms and toys that could fit in the palm of your hand, and a good range of odd items that we could probably get at the Kecleon Brothers' shop. It doesn't stop me from looking them all over either though, trying to decide what to aim for.
I've hardly thrown my first ring by the time Ri's finished playing already, all but one of his own looping around the prizes farther from us. I can't help but smirk, shaking my head as I watch Nidoqueen's bewildered expression from the corner of my eye. Except when it comes to my Aura Spheres, Ri's always had the better aim out of the two of us: Like with most other things though, he's oblivious to just how good he actually is. He accepts his winnings so casually that he might as well have traded for them at the recycle station at Spinda's.
And then, while I've still got my second ring in my hands, he just wanders off to the next stall less than a meter to the left. There's a bit of a line, so he has to move back, and once he's out of earshot Nidoqueen lowers down to my level to mumble with a disbelieved snort, "You don't think he'll keep coming back to play, right? I don't want to lose everything I've got before the festival's even here."
"I'll keep his attention away from the booth if it looks like it," I laugh in reply.
I manage to do well at it myself—all of my rings surprisingly managing to hit something—but I mostly aim for the small stuff in the front: A small bag of chocolates, another bag of chestnuts, a ribbon I'll probably just give to Azalea or Celebi, an Iron, and a palm-sized Baltoy doll. By the time I'm done, I turn around to find Ri's made it back with two slices of some kind of flatbread dessert covered in cinnamon.
We slip through the crowd a second time and find a small haven from the masses at the bend of a tiny alleyway to enjoy them, trying to peer above the buildings to see how long we've got until sundown or if we can spot anyone else from our group. Once we reached the village, everyone split off to do their own things, so they could be anywhere, but we're supposed to meet up later in the night. Given how the people are already starting to thin out as the desert's cold, night air begins to creep in and the long walk back to camp, I can't imagine we'll be staying out too late anyway.
"What do you think Celebi and Grovyle are doing right now?" Ri asks halfway through his snack as we sit on the earth with our backs to the wall.
"I have no idea," I shrug, finishing off another bite myself, "but I'm kind of hoping that they're with Dusknoir. The way he is, he'll probably just go ahead and leave without telling anyone if someone's not with him."
My partner offers a firm nod of agreement, but what I'm saying's only half-true. Yeah, there's no doubt Dusknoir would pull something like that, but it's not my biggest concern and he knows it. I've known it for a long time now, but it's just becoming more and more obvious by the day. To everyone now.
Celebi's always had a crush on Grovyle: Considering how she's practically always had hearts in her eyes every time she's with him, there's not a soul that could deny it. And even in the Dark Future, I knew that Grovyle… kind of always liked her back, even if that sort of thing completely went over his own head. I'd tease him for it sometimes, but despite how good he is at reading other people, he's always been clueless to that sort of thing. Back then I thought it was funny, and whether because I was just too oblivious myself to think about it or because I was too numb with the thought that none of it would matter since we were all going to vanish anyway, it never really crossed my mind what it would be like if they actually did fall in love.
No matter the timeline, for as long as I've known Grovyle he's stayed aloof: He's got a good heart and he cares about what happens to others deeply, but he's never really let people get too close to him to form any solid attachments—not except with me, anyway. I guess because he's always had to be that way. It probably never even once occurred to him what falling in love would be like. But things are different now. We're all safe and together, and all of the dangers that've loomed over us for so long are gone. We're not alone anymore and we're stronger than we've ever been. We can actually have a future, and he doesn't have to keep his guard up as much any more worrying about what could happen to any of us.
And I think he's started realizing that. Where before, he'd team up with Celebi on assignment because it was the logical thing to do and he knew how close I already was with Ri, he's slowly begun to spend more time just to be alone with her. He's not as outwardly stern as he used to be either and he smiles when they talk just for the sake of talking. He talks about her to me more often too. He's likely still as clueless as ever, but I know it'll have to dawn on him sooner or later. When it does, I can only imagine how fast things are going to go from there.
I'm happy for him—I am for them both—it's just all so new to me too. For the longest while, I remember that Grovyle and I just kind of lived in our own, little circle. We had the Resistance and in the corrected future we had Max, Gardevoir, and our other teammates, but we were the first to really get close as a team. As a family of two. Celebi's already family to us anyway, but it's just… different. Maybe it's just my turn now to know what it's like for our circle to get a little bigger and for me to possibly need to step back.
Arceus, if they do get together, that'll make Celebi my older sister! I snort: Now that's kind of a scary thought…
Ri scoots a little closer to me and I lean against him as his wraps his free arm around my shoulders. It'll be different, but it'll be fine. I was the one to take that kind of big step first anyway, I know it won't change Grovyle's and my relationship, and I'm far from alone myself.
Tilting my face into his chest, I grumble, "It's not fair, you know… We need to get Dusknoir a girlfriend. Maybe then he'll stop being such a recluse."
He twists a lock of my hair between his fingers playfully, "You know he'd kill us if we set him up with someone."
"True, but he already tried that, so we know he can't actually do it."
The both of us chuckling to ourselves at that, we're content for the moment to just stay as we are. I can feel myself nodding off with every brush of his fingers against my shoulder as he continues to toy with my hair and I close my eyes with a faint, eased hum. The rise and fall of my chest soon matches the pace of his own and I feel him brace his chin against my head.
Even with all of the chaos, I have my own future to look forward to. I still don't want to evolve just yet, but Ri and I still keep up our training for the day when we eventually do. Since we've graduated so early, we've been talking about where we're going to go now as explorers after we've finished our work at the Concealer Ruins: We want to see the other continents, but we're not sure if we want to be so far away from home for any great length of time. Of course we want to climb up the ranks as much as we can within the Exploration Team Federation: We're just not sure how far or what we're going to do if and when we get there.
Then there's the "Secret Rank" that Scizor gave us and we still have no idea what it's about. No one's tried to contact us since we got that first, vague message: SRs, please standby. There's so much going on already that it's probably for the best, so I'm not complaining. The only issue is that there are times when we wonder what we got ourselves into. I highly doubt that Scizor would drag us into anything devious or dangerous, but getting some kind of honor when we don't even know what it is is unsatisfying to say the least.
Well, it's nice to imagine what life could be like for us—wherever we might end up. If we've settled on any big decisions for the future, it's that we think we want to stay in Treasure Town. In my case, it's pretty much the only home I've known in this time: In Ri's case, he's lived there for so long now that he's already made it his home. I'm sure we'll end up making plenty of trips to his hometown, but for now we like staying at the Guild and we want our base to be Sharpedo Bluff. We haven't had a chance to work on it since we tried adding that second room in the spring, but I know we'll figure something out. I mean, maybe someday it could end up just being me and Ri there, but we want there to be plenty of room for the whole team to live and conduct our work in.
Possibilities follow me as I lull into a subconscious trance only to be shattered by a sudden, sharp jolt that rocks us both as if something heavy had slammed into the other side of the wall. It's enough that the pebbles around us even tremble in reaction. We both sit up in alarm, right in sync to the startled cries of pedestrians around us—all of us sharing the same confused and disturbed look.
We don't know what's happening, but we know we need to get moving. As fast as we can, we pull each other up onto our feet just as another tremor washes over us, this time seemingly rocking the very ground we stand on. In the distance, I hear more screaming and the shatter of glass and pottery as the vendors' wares are rattled to the earth. People panic. Those that can fly away. Others run, trying to take cover wherever there's any while all the same there's a bit of truth reflected in all of our horrified stares that admits there's no where we can run to.
The jarring quickly gets worse—matching the tremendous thunder of a stampede. Tents begin to loosen and collapse and dust rains from the walls around us. Ri and I dive away from the alley and into the open streets nearby, but we just end up getting swept into the river of Pokemon doing all they can to get to safety.
And then the earth begins to split apart around us.