He awoke by himself to the empty cliff face, momentarily disoriented and absolutely parched. He hauled himself up to get a drink, and then found himself wondering what to do next. That Pokemon - Meowth, wasn't anywhere in sight, and by the looks of things he'd slept well past noon. Well, he'd probably earned that rest, although he still didn't know what had exhausted him so thoroughly, After a quick stretch and a few quick laps around the room, he found himself rather dissatisfied with sitting here waiting for Meowth to come back. So, after thinking it over for a moment, he ascended back to the world above. Waiting around wouldn't help him figure any of this out, after all.

Treasure town was just as busy as yesterday, and he was sure he recognized a few faces. He got marginally less cold or frightened looks this time, though, that was a bonus. Maybe in a few centuries everyone would get over it.

"Good evening, sir," one of the Kecleon brothers greeted him as he passed. He stopped and inclined his head a bit in response. " Looking for something?"

"Ah - no , apologies. I'm afraid I don't have any money."

The elder Kecleon waved the younger off, and gave their shadowy visitor a welcoming smile. "Ah, no worries, no worries at all. Young miss Meowth told us all about your predicament, and made sure to know if you needed anything to just put it on her tab."

He mulled that over for a moment, and found himself oddly touched that Meowth exhibited both the forethought and kindness to make such a request. "I will … keep that in mind, sirs, thank you. Do you know where Meowth may be?"

"The guild, again, I reckon," answered the younger of the two, gesturing to a building he'd somehow passed over yesterday. He didn't know how he or Meowth had missed it, in all honestly. It was massive, and pink, and absolutely appalling. "She heads up there every day or two, yet never seems to actually get the nerve up to join."

Seeing his clueless expression, the elder one chimed in. "The Wigglytuff Guild is the regional hub for all sorts of Exploration teams and whatnot. It's a hard job, sure, but many find themselves caught by the allure of discovery. And keep us in business!"

After exchanging pleasantries some more, the dark Pokemon excused himself from the shop and headed in the direction of the Guild. Exploring didn't seem like such an enticing concept to him. In his recollection, he'd only ever been to a singular town in his life, and just the one was utterly exhausting to him already. He didn't know Meowth all that well, though. Perhaps she was secretly the brave and dashing type, and had somehow forgotten to be either brave or dashing since they'd met.

Regardless, whatever odd ritual she may have in regards to visiting a place daily but never entering was not about to be disrupted by him because he was bored. Thankfully, something else caught his attention : two purple Pokemon nearby, mumbling to eachother and flying down the path to the beach, completely failing to notice their audience.

He was very, very much not one to judge, but they seemed awfully suspicious. And what was one suspicious Pokemon to do but follow two other suspicious Pokemon?

The path to the beach was notably nicer without the pounding headache, too. He hung back as to not be noticed, and took idle note of the scenery as he made his way to the beach.

He was far, far less relaxed about the scene that met him. He'd found Meowth, but so had the two he'd been tailing - and the chunky one just shoved her, while the flappy loud one snatched something she'd been holding. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying from here, but before he could cross the distance between them, the chunky one and flappy one both cackled and floated away into a nearby cave, taken whatever they'd stolen with them and leaving Meowth stunned and teary-eyed.

As soon as she spotted him, she practically threw herself at his legs, clinging to him and wailing. "Spooks! They - those two bullies stole my special treasure! Wh - what should I do?"

Spooks (as it appeared he'd been unfortunately dubbed) was taken aback for a moment , then crouched down and put both of his hands on her shoulders. "Meowth, listen to me. You won't get anything done by crying. Now, what you need to do, is go in there and beat the shit out of them."

She sniffled, and wheezed out a laugh. "Spooks, I think you have terrible ideas. There's two of them, and one of me, and - oh, I can't do it! They were right, I'm a coward!" She sniffled again, tears welling up once more. He shook her slightly to get her attention.

"No, Meowth, you misunderstand me. You are going to go in there, and you're going to beat those little punks into the pulp and get your weird rock back. Then you're gonna tell me what the deal is with the head building."

"Head bui - oh, the Guild. Right, right. I can … I can do that. I can do this!" She sounded more like she was trying to convince herself than him, but he gave her an encouraging thumbs up regardless. She wiped her face, straightened up, and marched into the cave with as much purpose as she could manage.

Spooks was pretty sure she had a 50% chance of getting instantly wiped. Plan B was to just throw the round one into the flappy one and call it a day.

He was rather pleasantly surprised when, instead of Meowth, the two who had been picking a fight came fleeing out of the cave, empty-handed (metaphorically speaking) and significantly more battered than before. He was almost proud when Meowth emerged shortly afterwards, holding her treasure in one paw and beaming despite looking like she'd been thrown into the sea more than once.

"Spooks! I did it!" She held up the weird rock triumphantly, bounding over to him to show it off. "See? This is my personal treasure! It looks like garbage, yeah, but look closer!"

He obliged. "It still … kinda just looks like g- a rock to me."

She huffed. "Yeah, but see, there's a little inscription here!" She pointed it out, and continued to explain the history of it and her desire to explore the world. He may have tuned it out a bit, and eventually took her arm and steered her back to the beach path as she rambled on, only half listening. She didn't seem to notice at all, not even when he led her up the stairs to - what was it? The 'Guild'?

"-but every time I get there, I just get all jelly-legged and nervous , and then I can't gOOOWHOAH." She finally noticed where they were, and turned to him with a look of pure betrayal. "No! I can't do this, Spooks! I-I haven't even had time to prepare!"

"Just like you couldn't beat up those two purple idiots?" When she didn't answer that, he pressed on. "Listen, you may not get in, yeah, but you won't get in if you don't try." He didn't understand why she'd even want to, the idea of running around in unexplored places just seemed tiring and inconvenient, but hey, if she was into that he didn't get why she didn't just go ahead and do it already.

She stared at him for a moment, and he could practically see her resolve crumble. Maybe she figured he wouldn't let her leave until she tried. Which was a little true - he pretty much had nothing else to do around here, and she looked like she could use the extra … motivation. She took a deep breath and stepped onto the grate before her.

"Pokemon detected! Pokemon detected!" A shrill voice called up from below, making Meowth squeak in alarm and jump a bit. She stayed there, though, shivering violently.

"Who's footprint! Who's footprint!" Oh, cool, everyone just repeated what they said here, apparently. Meowth was still tense, and Spooks resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Everything about this screamed nerds.

"The footprint is Meowth's! The footprint is Meowth's! YOU up there!" Meowth jumped again. "Someone's WITH you! So get them to stand on the GRATE!"

She gave him a helpless look , stepping off of it, and he gave her a blank stare in return before leaning forwards to call down the hole. He could have sworn whatever was down there squeaked as his shadow suddenly covered the grate, and he almost laughed when he realized why. He, too, would be afraid if he saw something shaped like him when he thought it was a footprint. "I'm not coming in, it's just her." Meowth looked a bit put off, but not surprised. It's not like she could expect this memory-less stranger to randomly make a major commitment like this with her. Who would even do that? What kind of person would ask someone to do that?

After a few moments of talk between the two, the louder one called back up. "ALRIGHT, you can come on IN. You there, with Meowth, DON'T get any funny IDEAS." With that, the gate over the door creaked open.

Meowth gave him a nervous look, but smiled. "Wish me luck, Spooks!"

"You won't need it," he lied through his teeth.

She entered the head-shaped building, and he found himself standing there silently for a few moments, before turning and heading back to Treasure Town, leaving her to whatever fate this so-called Guild had in store for her.

She didn't come back that night, and he found himself much more at ease once the sun left the sky. The cool ocean breeze was relaxing, and he found himself wandering the town, driven out by some indescribable urge. The shops were closed, and the town was empty. It was blessedly quiet with everyone asleep. He closed his eyes and just sighed slowly. He'd made no breakthroughs on remembering anything today, or really done much of anything besides motivated some random Pokemon to follow her dreams. Sure, it was dissatisfying, but he couldn't make massive breakthroughs every day, surely.

That was when he walked right off the edge of Sharpedo Bluff and found out he could fly.

So, maybe things weren't so bad.

Here's chapter two ! I've got a handful written already , but I'm gonna space out posting them so I'll always have one or two chapters ready to go in case I hit a dry spell with writing . Reviews are greatly appreciated , and I hope you all enjoy so far !