"Hello? Sir? Rise and shine, sir!"
"Mmneh?" Grovyle mumbled incoherently, blinking his eyes open as the sight of the hospital ward reappeared, and he rolled onto his back, feeling the leaf on his head trailing against the cold floor. Pushing up against the bedframe, he let the wool blanket fall off of him as he glanced at Arcanine, who grinned cheerily at him. He held a small wooden tray between his teeth, a covered plate sliding from end to end of it as the dog tried to balance it in his grasp, and Grovyle reached out to grab the other side of the tray, pulling it onto his lap as Arcanine let go of it with a breathy wheeze. "Oh… hello there."
Arcanine made a quiet gagging noise, his tongue sticking out of his mouth, before shaking his mane. "Sorry, sir! It's hard for me to carry those trays in my mouth like that, sir. Thank you for helping me with it, sir!"
"Er, you're welcome," Grovyle replied with a nod, briefly stealing a glance outside the opposite window. The sunlight had waned somewhat, but the glass remained as frosted by the snow as it had been before. "How long was I asleep?"
"Oh, you've only been napping for a couple hours, sir!" Arcanine said with a strange amount of enthusiasm, raising one of his forelegs to his head in a salute. "It's almost noon now, and I don't think the Guildmaster brought you anything when you woke up this morning, so I figured I would bring you lunch, sir!"
"Lunch?" Grovyle muttered under his breath, looking skeptically at the thin metal dome that sat atop the plate. Slipping his claws around the edges of the cover, he lifted it up and off, turning away to place it on the bedside table, next to the melted candle. Looking back, he held his breath as his eyes widened a tad. On top of the plain plate sat an odd bit of food, a couple dark tan things that looked like cones without their tips, dotted with bits of pink and brown. Next to them sat a small canteen, which Grovyle picked up and shook; the liquid inside, hopefully water, sloshed around. "This is lunch?"
"Is something wrong, sir?" Arcanine tilted his head slightly, scratching against the wooden floor. "Oh, wait, I forgot we never got a chance to ask you, sir, chestnuts don't make you sick or anything, right sir? I can bring you a different kind of poffin, if you'd-"
"Poffin?" Grovyle interrupted, picking up the still-warm pastry and looking it over, shaking it lightly as a few loose crumbs fell onto the tray. Arcanine blinked, raising his head a bit in awkward surprise as the strange gesture. "This is a poffin?"
"Um… yes, sir," Arcanine answered. "It's a nanab-and-chestnut poffin, as simple as it can get, sir. There's nothing wrong with that, is there, sir?"
Grovyle leaned forward and took a quick sniff of the food, nodding as the savory smell hit his senses, and with a small amount of trepidation, he opened his mouth and took a small nibble out of the poffin, setting it back down as he chewed, then swallowed. "This…"
"Sir?" Arcanine said, standing rigidly at attention, thoroughly confused by the lizard's odd behavior. Grovyle's eyes widened to the size of the plate his meal sat on as he beamed incredulously, taking a huge bite out of the poffin and letting the mix of sweetness, bitterness and nuttiness meld on his tongue, his mouth quickly beginning to water as he practically in haled the pastry, chomp after chomp, pausing only to take a quick swig of the fresh water from his canteen. Arcanine stepped back a bit as the dog watched the grass type go at his meal with unexpected gusto. "Slow down a bit, sir! I wouldn't want you to choke on my watch, sir!'
"M-mm, mmph!" Grovyle grunted in response, his mouth still full of food, and he gulped down some water, letting the drink wash the delicious meal down. Setting the leather bottle back onto the tray, the wood gecko Pokemon took a deep breath, still wearing a rather-dazed smile as he stared at the plate in shock; in the span of nary a minute or two, he had polished off two whole poffins and most of his water. How could food taste so good? "Sorry. I've never had something like that before."
"Never had… a poffin before, sir?" Arcanine quirked one of his eyebrows upward in confusion, sitting down as his tail began to wag back and forth. "That's… a little strange, if you don't mind me saying so, sir! Are you sure you're not just forgetting, sir? The Guildmaster said you mentioned some odd things when he talked to you before, sir!"
"Could you stop with the 'sir' business, Arcanine?" Grovyle shot back, a bit more forcefully than he had meant to as the smile left his face, and he fiddled with the leaves on his arms as the dog flinched at his words. "Please, it's just Grovyle."
Arcanine tapped his paws against the floor for a few seconds before nodding at him, smiling toothily at the lizard as he reached over and took the candle and metal cover in his hands, putting them on the empty tray before moving the entire setup onto the bedside table. "Alrighty then, si- er, Grovyle!"
"Thank you, Arcanine," Grovyle nodded back at the fire type, pulling the fluffy blanket up a bit as he rested his hands in his lap, leaning back against the wall. "And no, I've never had a poffin before. I would definitely remember…"
"Really?" Arcanine asked, though it was more of a statement than a real question. Shaking his head, he took a few steps back and gestured at Grovyle with his nose. "Well, whatever, Grovyle! While I'm here, I might as well see how you're feeling!"
"How I'm feeling? I feel…" Grovyle looked himself over, moving each joint systematically as he checked from head to toe, clenching his claws into fists and curling his toes underneath the wool. His headache from earlier in the morning no longer plagued him, and his ravenous appetite for the poffins seemed to have made the nausea and bile from before fizzle out. Reaching up and stroking the leaf on his head, Grovyle licked his lips. "I feel better than I did before. There's no lightheadedness and I don't feel sick."
"I'm glad to hear that, Grovyle!" Arcanine replied, his tail wagging happily at the good news. "Do you think you could try stepping out of bed again, and walking, if you feel up to it?"
Grovyle thought briefly, smacking his lips as a trace of the nanab berry's bitter aftertaste hit the roof of his mouth. Lightly throwing the blanket onto the end of the bed, he carefully swung his legs over the side of the hay-covered frame, steadying himself as he gripped the edges of the wood. Arcanine nodded reassuringly as Grovyle let himself slide onto the floor, the lizard barely having time to shudder from the plummeting temperature before feeling an immense warmth soak into him, and he blinked, looking over at the fire type, who huffed and puffed through a goofy grin.
"You looked cold, so I'm trying to heat myself up and make the room warmer, si-, er…" Arcanine explained before trailing off, the dog's fur bristling as the chill seemed to simply disappear, and Grovyle let out a pleasant sigh, taking a few steps towards the window. "It was snowing a bit this morning when you woke up, so you must have been pretty cold when the Guildmaster found you!"
"Hm." Grovyle let his arms fall to his sides as he slowed to a stop in the middle of the room, the empty beds leaving him a little unnerved. He glanced at the door out of the corner of his eye. "Arcanine, where are Celebi and Dusknoir?"
"The other patients? Oh, your friends, Grovyle?" Arcanine quickly corrected himself, padding over to the grass type as he continued to speak. "The Guildmaster had each of you put into a different ward of the guild, so that you couldn't wake each other up if any of you started making a big loud racket, hehe!"
"I see…" Grovyle stifled a chuckle, thinking back to when he'd woken up the previous night; Even if Arcanine found the idea funny, the Guildmaster hadn't been too far off of the mark. "Do you know if they're awake yet?"
Arcanine shook his head, his smile wavering a bit. "Sorry, I don't really know, Grovyle. Probo and Solo are the ones who got assigned to watch them today, and I haven't really gone to talk with either of them yet."
Grovyle opened his mouth to respond, but Arcanine hopped onto his hind legs, his eyes brightening as his tail began to wag enthusiastically. "Oh! But since you're awake, I could probably show you around the guild, and then we could ask together, right?"
"You mean… like a tour?" Grovyle stood up straighter, putting his hands on his hips, and Arcanine nodded vigorously. The wood gecko rubbed a claw under his chin, thinking aloud. "Hmm… I guess that would be a good idea… especially if I can walk."
"Who said anything about walking around the whole guild, si- Grovyle?" Arcanine replied, and Grovyle sucked in a breath as the dog bumped him into the air, and he winced as he landed on top of the fire type's fluffy back, getting winded in the process. "Like a former guild member used to tell me, 'why walk when you can ride'?"
"Former guild member?" Grovyle asked hesitantly, taking a few deep breaths as Arcanine walked over to the door, carefully biting onto the doorknob, twisting it, and letting the door slide open, scratching against the floor. "What do you mean by former?"
"Oh, she graduated from the guild a few years ago, heh," Arcanine said with a chuckle, walking out into a small hallway before turning around and closing the door behind him. Grovyle shuffled around, letting his legs hang over the sides of the fire type's belly as he looked around the hall. Another window sat in the wall, the same as the one opposite his hospital bed, while the other walls were adorned with plain white tapestries that hung from the ceiling, decorated by odd colorful shapes.
As Arcanine stepped past them, Grovyle leaned towards the sheets of fabric. Upon closer look, the tapestries seemed to be covered with simplistic drawings and words – he guessed that they were probably drawn by Pokemon that the guild had treated. "Anyway, the door to the north and the door at the west end of the hall lead to the other wards, so I'll show you around the rest of the guild, and then we can check on your friends when we circle back, okay, Grovyle?"
"Alright… I'll follow your lead, then, Arcanine," The wood gecko said, and as he thought back to his meeting with Guildmaster Delibird, reached forward and slipped his claws into the fur close to one of the dog's ears, scratching gently. He smiled as the ear flicked forward as if it had a mind of its own, and Arcanine broke into a sudden gallop, forcing Grovyle to hang on, wide-eyed, to Arcanine's thick mane, struggling to keep himself from tumbling backwards. "W-woah!"
As Arcanine skidded to a stop and ran out the middle door, he began to trot around the guild, scampering south until the two of them ended up in a small, plain room, dotted with stools near a large set of double doors. Despite the warmth of the fluffy fire type, Grovyle could feel the chill coming in from the crack in the doorway. Arcanine didn't seem to notice, his ear still flicking as he spoke. "This is the main hall! The guild meets here every morning and every evening to do the daily cheers!"
Turning his head, Grovyle glanced at another door set across from the exit, a small sign hung on the doorknob that read 'out'. The lizard grunted. "Who's 'out'?"
"Oh, that's the Guildmaster's quarters, Grovyle," Arcanine answered cheerfully. "That's where he and nurse Audino stay! The Guildmaster must be out on a house call down in the village, or maybe he decided to talk to miss Lin and mister Yama over lunch."
"Lin and Yama… Guildmaster Delibird said that they were the ones who found us on the mountain," Grovyle murmured as Arcanine obliviously continued onward, moving down a set of stairs dug into the floors close to the wall. Patting the dog's ear to get his attention, Grovyle spoke up. "But Arcanine, if I've been asleep for a few hours, why would they still be talking?"
"Sshshshshsh!" Grovyle recoiled, startled, as Arcanine shushed him with a quiet hiss. The logs had given way to dark stone, with light being shed from multiple candles hanging from the walls. A clatter could be heard through a thick flap that dangled from the wall. "Some of the guild members are still asleep down here!"
Looking around the new room, Grovyle noticed a few Pokemon that snoozed away in beds of their own. A Pansear, an Abra and a Phanpy could be seen underneath their blankets, the latter snoring loudly through his trunk, and Grovyle frowned at Arcanine, giving him a look. "They're sleeping through that noise."
The dog balked. "W-well… okay, fine, we don't have to whisper! This is where we all sleep, Grovyle. Pansear, Abra and Phanpy work during the nighttime, and Probo, Solo and I work during the daytime."
"Arcanine, is that you, maybe?" A strained female voice called out, Grovyle tensing up at the new sound, but the fire type walked through the room over to the doorflap, which rose as a paw pushed it up into the air. Out walked another Pokemon, this one pink with a cream-furred belly. Her grey eyes shot fully open in shock, her expression only overshadowed by the white beret she tried to keep from falling out between her large ears. "My goodness, Arcanine! Maybe you should bring the patient back to his bed? He shouldn't be up now, maybe!"
"He was up and about earlier this morning, nurse Audino! You can ask Guildmaster Delibird when he gets back, ma'am!" Arcanine answered mildly, smiling as he looked back at Grovyle. "Grovyle, this is nurse Audino, the one who watched after you last night. Nurse Audino, this is Grovyle!"
"It's good to meet you, ma'am," Grovyle greeted the older Pokemon, holding out a hand, which she took, shaking anxiously as she peered over her shoulder.
"Yes, yes, good to meet you too, and maybe your two friends if they're awake?" The nurse replied questioningly, but seemed to shrug the question off with a cry as she let go of Grovyle's hand, stumbling backwards and through the doorflap. Grovyle furrowed his brow, confused, but Arcanine moved onward, leading him into the next room. "Oh dear, the water's ready! Hmm, maybe I should add some rawst… or maybe a little-"
"And this is the kitchen, Grovyle!" Arcanine stated.
"I… see." Grovyle looked around the room, filled with pots, pans, and all sorts of odd bits of equipment that he didn't know the names of. Much of it was full of liquid that fizzed, boiled or steamed, going from bottle to bottle. "It… looks busy."
"It is busy, and maybe more if you're going to hang about," Audino scolded the two of them with a wag of her paw, the pink Pokemon grumbling as she vigorously stirred the contents of a pot. "Please, Arcanine, just take him back to his room, maybe. I don't care if he's able to get up and walk, he's not fully healed yet, and neither are the two others! Now go on, go, maybe!"
"Alright then, ma'am!" Arcanine replied, but before Grovyle could protest, Audino had hopped away from her work, waving a spoon at them as she shooed them out of the kitchen. Grovyle grimaced as he was pelted by droplets of water that flew off of the utensil, gasping as one stray drop landed in his eye, which he scrunched shut. Arcanine ran through the guildmember's bedroom and back up the stairs to the main hall, and both Pokemon exhaled in relief, the dog laughing to himself. Grovyle rubbed at his eye, blinking a couple times as the pain subsided.
"Is she normally like that?" The wood gecko couldn't help but ask as they moved back through the halls, and Arcanine nodded.
"Yeah, she's a little, eheh, uptight, maybe?" The fire type snickered, his paws scratching against the floor as the two of them made their way back to the medical hall, and Grovyle reached out to open the door this time, earning him a grateful nod from Arcanine. "Behind the kitchen was our storage room, but we don't go in there very often… and that's just about everything, Grovyle!"
"That's it?" Grovyle said, leaning back against the dog's fluffy tail, its tip still wagging as he walked towards Grovyle's ward. The tour was that short? "It's… smaller than I was expecting, I guess."
"Smaller?" Arcanine asked. "What do you mean, smaller? We're no bigger than the Wigglytuff Exploration Guild back on the mainland, or so I've heard, Grovyle!"
"The Wigglytuff Guild!?" The lizard exclaimed in shock, wobbling precariously as he jerked forward, and he yelped as he lost his balance, falling onto the floor with a thump. Grovyle stared outside the bright window as Arcanine left away from the doorknob, walking over and sticking his face above his charge's. "It still exists!?"
Arcanine quirked an eyebrow upward as he continued to stare at Grovyle, his incredulous expression saying everything it needed to. "Wow, the Guildmaster was right when he said your memory was kinda iffy, huh? Of course the Wigglytuff Guild's still around, Grovyle! How could it not be?"
Grovyle felt his breath catch in his throat as he tried to register the very idea. Wigglytuff Guild. Treasure Town. The mainland. It was all still here. Bill and Rose… he, Celebi and Dusknoir… they really had changed the future… "Hey, Grovyle, what's wrong? Say something, you're looking all surprised!"
He fainted.
Guildmaster Delibird exhaled heavily into his mug, his breath wispy as it made contact with the piping-hot tea. Glancing out towards the foggy stretch of water, he silently watched the dock workers fumble and stumble about, the Pokemon hitting their knees against boxes and slipping and falling on their backsides as they unloaded their ship's cargo – or tried to, at least. The elderly bird frowned deeply as one of the workers let out a loud curse, and he took a sip of his drink, letting the mild hint of mint soothe his senses before returning his gaze to his friends, smiling through his disdain. "Before I forget, how is Erin doing, hoho?"
The Mienshao that sat across from him shook her head, taking her small reading glasses and setting them onto the table before reaching over and taking a small slice of apple from a platter, her thin, graying fur pulled back to keep from falling onto the freezing furniture. "She's doing well, Guildmaster. She sent us a letter just a couple weeks ago, saying that she and her friends were going on a mission somewhere… up north, I think."
"And she said she misses us and she wants to come and see us soon, like she always does, eh, hun?" A Hariayama added, the heavyset Pokemon licking his fingers clean as he shuffled around on the floor, too big for any proper seat. "Glad yer still asking about her, Guildmaster. We haven't gotten to talk in a while, so I was wondering if you'd forgotten about her, eh?"
"Hoho, I doubt anyone at the guild could forget someone with as much boundless energy as she had, hoho!" Delibird laughed, staring into the grey, overcast sky as his mind drifted to the ever-cheerful rescue graduate, quieting himself as he smiled in fond reminiscence. "If you don't mind me saying, she truly was your child, Lin, Yama."
"Yeah, yeah…" Yama replied as a soft blush formed on his cheeks. "It's what you always tell us."
The trio of Pokemon settled into a comfortable silence, the three heads turning as a yell came from the docks; the Poliwrath captain of the longship finally emerged from his cabin to berate his inept sailors, his string of abuse interrupted when he himself stepped into a thin layer of freshly-fallen snow, sliding across the deck and smacking face-first into the floor. Delibird winced as the loud crash sounded above the rising wind.
"So…" Lin began, the gentle smile vanishing from her face as she peered at the Guildmaster, her bright blue eyes began to fill with concern. The red-feathered penguin waved a flipper at her, cutting the elderly mink off, and she nodded slightly.
"They're alright, hoho," Delibird answered the unspoken question, a small grin on his beak as he took another sip of his tea, and he inwardly sighed in relief as the two Pokemon outwardly sighed in relief. "Grovyle actually woke up this morning before you came by, and he was walking and everything, hoho!"
"Really? Dear, they're alright!" Lin said, beaming as she briefly turned towards her husband, scooting a bit off of her stool. "That's wonderful news!"
"What about the other two, eh, Guildmaster?" Yama asked, leaning back as he rested against his hands. "Yer having yer guildmembers look after them too, right?"
"Hoho, there's been no news on them yet, but they seem to be just fine as well," Delibird replied, taking an apple slice and popping it into his mouth, chewing slowly. "I had Grovyle go ahead and lie back down before I went to go greet you, hoho! Hopefully the others will be awake before long."
"I'm amazed that they're recovering so quickly…" Lin remarked as a frigid breeze kicked up, the sound of waves crashing against the shore beginning to drown out the sailors nearby. Picking her reading glasses back up and returning them to her nose, she looked at Delibird curiously. "They were completely unconscious when we found them… they must be powerful to be able to just get up and walk the next day. I wonder what ran through their heads to make them climb up Mount Avalanche with no supplies!"
"No kidding, hun!" Yama slapped his thigh, his eyes narrowed in confusion as he reached over to take a handful of fruits. He let out a short grunt when his wife lightly smacked his side, and he gingerly pinched a single slice between two of his fingers. "Maybe they were in a rush to see the sunrise from the top or something, eh?"
"Yes, hoho… it was strange," The Guildmaster said quietly, holding his mug of tea between both flippers. Taking another sip of the brew, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, tapping his feet against the ground.
"Were you able to talk with Grovyle at all, Guildmaster?" Lin asked hastily, the mink pushing her reading glasses up as they slid down her nose a bit. She continued to speak when Delibird nodded. "What did he say? Were you able to find out what they were doing all the way up there?"
"Ahh… unfortunately, no, hoho," Delibird stroked his beard thoughtfully, sighing in resignation as he sat up straight. "I didn't really get to ask him anything myself before you arrived, though he had quite a lot of questions for me, hoho!"
"Surely you were able to learn about who he and his friends were, if you're calling him by his name, Guildmaster," Lin pointed out, looking out towards the sea of fog that rose above the icy ocean. "Please, you can trust us. We put our daughter in your care… and we put those three young explorers in your care as well, because we know that we can trust you."
The words struck Delibird hard, leaving him silent for a few minutes as his gaze moved from Lin to Yama, back and forth. The Mienshao kept her eyes focused outwards, while the Hariyama leered at him with an expectant look, neither one willing to let the matter rest. Slowly, but surely, the Guildmaster smiled wryly, shaking his head as he downed the rest of his tea, and he slammed the mug back onto the table as he gulped the drink down, the hot liquid scalding his throat.
"Hoho… very well then, I'll tell you what I know," Delibird conceded, his dark-ringed eyes sparkling with withheld curiosity as his two friends looked back at him. "I will say that there's not much I can tell you, but I'll tell you anyhow, hoho!"
"Yer a good Pokemon, Guildmaster," Yama stated plainly, shifting his weight until he was relaxing on one warm, the other one hanging from his knee. "Thank you."
"Go ahead, Guildmaster." Lin hunched forward, sitting both literally and figuratively on the edge of her seat. Delibird took a deep breath, looking at the empty fruit platter atop the table.
"When I found him, he was looking out one of the windows, and he seemed very nervous, asking me lots of questions at once before I helped him onto a nearby bed, hoho," The red penguin started to explain, thinking back to the encounter he'd had with the lizard not a few hours prior. "He didn't really seem to know what happened up there either, and when he talked about climbing up Mount Avalanche, hoho, for some reason he called it Vast Ice Mountain!"
"I dunno, Guildmaster, that sounds like a pretty good nickname for the place, eh?" Yama joked, laughing heartily, and both Delibird and Lin broke into peals of good-natured laughter as well, the former stifling his chuckles as he nearly wobbled off of his stool. "Though to yer credit, yer more of the medical expert than I am, hah!"
"Yes, hoho, well, anyway…" Guildmaster Delibird coughed into his beard as the three of them settled down, the strong winds easing off a bit, and the bird caught a peek at the sailors out of the corner of his eye – they'd finally managed to unload whatever cargo had come in from the mainland and were heading further into town, the docks returning to their usual tranquility. "We started over and I introduced myself as the guildmaster of the guild here, which seemed to just confuse him further, hoho. I mentioned that he was mumbling some during the night and he asked me if he'd said anything understandable, hoho. I wonder if his memory was affected from his exhaustion."
"Mumbling?" Lin perked up, blinking behind her glasses as she cocked her head in thought. "Now that you mention it, Grovyle was mumbling when we found him atop the mountain, too…"
"Hoho, yes, you told me before," Delibird replied, reaching down to grab his bag-like tail.
"Yes, though I didn't think he said anything understandable… Yama, dear, you said you heard something, didn't you?" The graying mink turned to her husband, who had switched back to his sitting position, his legs crossed and his hands on his sides. The large fighting type rolled his eyes upward, thinking. "What was it you thought he said? Something about…"
"Dialga!" Yama yelled with a snap of his fingers, shrinking back a bit as he noticed the odd stares that both Lin and Delibird gave him, and he chuckled sheepishly, reaching back to scratch behind his head. "Eh, heh, sorry about that. But yer right, hun, I heard him say something as clear as that morning was, and he said 'Dialga'!"
"Dialga?" Delibird repeated, frozen in his seat. "Dialga… and Grovyle, Celebi, and Dusknoir…"
The four names sent a chill down everyone's spine as the three Pokemon quickly pieced the puzzle together, the all-too-familiar tale running through their minds. Lin was the first to speak, carefully taking her reading glasses into a trembling paw. "G-Guildmaster… y-you a-aren't t-thinking…"
"Lin… Yama…" Delibird said in reply, an anxious edge in his voice as he dropped to a whisper. "You found them… yesterday?"
The husband and wife both felt their eyes widen to the size of platters, Delibird's implication not lost on them for a second. Yama swallowed dryly, unconsciously reaching over to the empty fruit platter to grab some food, only pulling back when he realized there wasn't any left. "Lin… hun… we forgot in the panic... we were climbing up the mountain yesterday because it was-"
"Guildmaster, sir!"
The yell broke their combined train of thought, and Guildmaster Delibird looked over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing as he shuffled around on his stool. As Arcanine galloped up to the three of them, the dog took a few gulps of air before bowing his head. "Good morning, miss Lin, mister Yama. Guildmaster, sir?"
"Yes, Arcanine, go ahead, hoho!" Delibird forced a laugh, trying to remain calm as the fire type nodded a greeting at his two elders. "What is it now? I thought I asked you to keep an eye on Grovyle while I was talking with Lin and Yama?"
"Yes, sir, Guildmaster, sir," Arcanine nodded hastily, smiling awkwardly as he pawed at the icy ground. "Well, sir, he woke up again and he ate his lunch, and he seemed to be feeling better, so I decided to give him a tour of the guild, sir."
"Hoho, that was a very prudent thing to do," The red penguin reassured the apprentice, hopping off his stool and patting the flustered dog's side. Lin and Yama got up from their seats as well, the latter sliding a handful of coins into the Guildmaster's empty mug.
"Well, um, sir, he said that the guild was smaller than he thought, and I said it wasn't any smaller than the Wigglytuff Guild, sir," Arcanine continued, the words stopping the Mienshao and Hariyama in their tracks, and Delibird's head shot up. "And he asked if the guild still existed, so I told him of course it still existed, and then he just fainted!"
Delibird took a step backwards, mind sent reeling, and both Lin and Yama let out quiet gasps. "Ho… hoho… oh dear."
