Welcome once again, everyone. This is the part of the story where things actually start to happen, so that's cool. If you liked or didn't like the chapter, feel free to leave me a review to tell me what I did right and wrong. They're really helpful.
IT BEGINS!
By the time we had reached Marisu's home, the sun had completely disappeared behind the horizon. The full moon had come out to take its place, causing moonlight to filter beautifully through the canopy. Soon, the trees started to clear out, leaving a barren cliffside in our path. Hundreds of feet below, the moon reflected off of the ocean's surface, giving the illusion of there being two moons. All considered, it was a beautiful trip.
"All right, here we are." Marisu stated, letting the bag she had been carrying on her back fall to the ground.
"What? Where is it?" I questioned, confused.
Marisu didn't reply, and instead walked up to the only bush on the cliff, grabbed it in her mouth, and pulled it aside. Moving the bush had revealed a stairway that descended into the ground.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed in awe.
"Pretty sweet, huh? I can't take credit for it though; I paid a Dugtrio to come dig out the stairs. But, the cave underneath is all natural." She said with pride in her voice.
"Pretty sweet is right." I chuckled, before grabbing Marisu's bag in my mouth. I then followed her down the stairs.
We descended into the ground before exiting the stairs into a large open room. Taking up the entire left wall was a natural opening in the cliffside, through which the moon could be seen perfectly framed by stalagmites and stalactites. On the right wall were many wooden shelves, holding all sorts of items. Against the back wall, a crack in the stone dribbled clear water into a small collection pool. Near the back wall, but closer to the center, were a few piles of hay, probably beds. I was awestruck at how cool the place was!
"You live here? This is so awesome!" I exclaimed, running off to see if there was anything else in the room that wasn't immediately obvious.
Marisu simply giggled in response, and walked over to the piles of hay. She chose the one on the left, and after a moment of re-arranging it, she laid down on top of it.
"You should probably go to sleep," she yawned, "We have a big day tomorrow."
I decided to listen to her advice, and walked up to the second bed. I cocked my head to one side, confused at how to make this pile of hay into a sleepable bed. I tried to copy what Marisu had done, but the hay just wouldn't stay where I wanted it to. I groaned in frustration and just flopped down on top of the pile.
Marisu giggled, and I gave her my best 'I'm not amused' face. After that I just rolled over and went to sleep.
I woke up to Marisu poking me in the face.
"Wake up, sleepy head!"
"Five more minutes…"
"Nope! I already let you sleep an hour past dawn, and I'm way too bored to just sit here and watch you sleep."
I groaned and rolled off the bed pile. I stood up and adjusted my headphones around my neck. Then, without warning, my stomach let out huge growl. I blushed, and looked at Marisu with a look that said 'can I have some food?' Marisu took my hint and walked over to one of the shelves. She moved a couple things around, and pulled out what seemed to be a gigantic apple. The thing must have been the size of a basketball and, given my smaller size, was nearly as big as me!
"You're drooling." Marisu stated, trying to hold back a laugh.
I stopped only to wipe the drool from my mouth before grabbing the huge apple from her paws. I then reached forward and took a bite, albeit a little awkwardly with my new mouth.
To say this apple was amazing would have been the understatement of the century. The instant I bit down, juice exploded into my mouth, sweeter and tarter than any apple I had ever tasted. It was crisp and crunchy and absolutely delicious. I went for another bite…
"Greetings from Apple World!" Someone yelled from my apple. I yelped and dropped the apple back on the ground. Out from the fruit crawled a little worm-like creature that I recognised instantly. Weedle.
The little thing was laughing its head off, but before I could squash the offending creature, Marisu spoke up.
"Prince, what have I told you about popping out of apples and scaring pokemon?"
The Weedle, apparently called Prince, looked down, embarrassed. "That it's not okay, and I shouldn't do it."
"Does your mom know you're here?"
"No. I snuck away from Guard 27, and came to say hi. When I saw you had a friend over, I just had to scare him."
Marisu sighed in exasperation, obviously this was a common occurrence. "Okay, now go back to your escort, you know how your mom gets when you sneak off."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." Prince said, his good mood having vanished like shaving cream under hot water. The weedle then crawled up the stairs and out of sight.
Normally, I would have thrown out the apple, since there was a worm in it, but I was way too hungry to care. I devoured the whole thing in under a minute.
"So, what is so important today that you couldn't let me sleep in?"
Marisu looked at me with a terrifying look in her eyes. "I'm glad you asked!"
I gulped.
"You see," she said, settling down on the floor, "you're not the first human to come here."
I gawked. "I'm not?"
Marisu shook her head. "At least, not according to the stories. These stories are all very different- but they share one thing in common. The humans have always appeared in a time of need."
The Eevee got up and started pacing. "Since you're here, and you're human, then logic states that something bad is going to happen. SO-" She stopped and turned, drawing herself up to her full height- "I say we form a rescue team."
"A rescue team?" I questioned.
"A rescue team is a group of pokemon that save pokemon lost or hurt in Mystery Dungeons." I opened my mouth to ask what the heck Mystery Dungeons were, but Marisu held up a paw. "Don't ask; I'll explain later. We're going to go through the forest to sign up as a rescue team in Port Town. It's only about an hour away from here."
Great. I hate walking.
We packed up quickly. Marisu grabbed a small variety of berries and put them into her bag, slinging it over her back before we set out. The sun was just rising as we began our march. The forest quickly grew dark though, because of the thick canopy, but I could still see just as well as in bright sunlight. I was confused for a moment, until I remembered that Zoruas were known for being able to see well in the dark. Marisu was trying to lead, but she was squinting very hard, and obviously couldn't see very well.
"Hey, do you want me to lead? I can see just fine in the dark." I offered.
"Yeah, that would probably be for the best. Just stick to the path and we won't get lost." She said, obviously relieved that she would not have to strain her eyes so hard.
I followed the path for about twenty minutes before something came flying out of the trees above. "Look out!" I yelled to Marisu, before jumping out of the way of the pokemon.
I looked back at the pokemon that had flown out of the trees, and saw a Beedrill. It didn't seem interested in attacking us though, and instead flew right up to Marisu.
"27? Is that you?" Marisu asked.
"Yes, Marisu. Have you seen Prince? I was supposed to be guarding him, but he has escaped my sight once again."
"But I sent him back to you when he showed up at my den this morning. You haven't seen him since then?"
"Nay! If you have sent him to me, but I have not seen him, then he could be in danger! Come! We must find him, posthaste!" 27 exclaimed, before charging off into the woods.
Marisu looked at me for a moment before stating, "I think I know where Prince went. Follow me!" Then she dashed off into the forest.
"What is it with you pokemon and just running off without talking first?" I groaned before chasing after Marisu and 27.
I followed Marisu through the forest for a minute or so, running at full speed. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Zoruas have a lot more stamina than humans, so even running at full tilt, I could keep up that pace for awhile. I was thinking about my newfound stamina, so when Marisu stopped, I didn't notice in time, and was about to crash into her. Marisu saw me headed for her though, and simply sidestepped, allowing me to fall flat on my face.
I groaned as I stood back up. "Are we there now?" I asked Marisu.
"Yep. Here it is." She said gesturing to a set of extremely out of place stairs, which descended into what seemed like pure darkness.
"What the heck is a set of stairs doing in the middle of a forest?" I said, very confused.
"This is one of those Mystery Dungeons I was telling you about," Marisu said enthusiastically. " Inside a Mystery Dungeon, the normal laws of reality don't really apply. Each dungeon has a certain number of floors that you have to clear to get through them, but each floor is completely different each time you enter the dungeon. This dungeon is called Tiny Woods, just three floors. Perfect for a low level Weedle looking to get stronger."
"Oh, you think he went in here to train?" I said, understanding her meaning.
"Yep, now let's go!" She said bounding down the stairs. I quickly followed after her.
We descended into darkness, and for a moment I saw a set of words appear in front of me:
Tiny Woods
BF1
I laughed at the absurdity of the words, before I reached the bottom of the stairs. I blinked from the extremely bright light, and found myself in the middle of an open room. Somehow, the stairs had vanished behind me, and there was no sign of them ever being there. I raised a paw to ask Marisu where the stairs had gone, but she gave me a look that said 'don't even bother'.
"Welcome to your first Mystery Dungeon! As you can plainly see, these places are super weird. These dungeons usually appear near a place of importance, but there's nothing too special about Tiny Woods. Before we go any further, I need to teach you how to use an attack. The pokemon here might be weak, but if you can't attack, they'll beat you easily."
Then she turned to me, and held up a paw. Squinting her eyes in concentration, she lashed out with it across the floor. Instantly, there was a cracking sound, and four long gouges appeared in the dirt. Marisu looked back at me, grinning.
"That was Scratch. Most weak pokemon can use it, especially if they have claws. I know that Zoruas can use it, so give it a shot. Just swipe with your paw, like this." She repeated the swipe in slow-motion.
I copied Marisu's move, and got a very similar result, albeit a bit weaker.
"There you go!" she said patting me on the back. "We should be good to fight anything we find in this dungeon." And then she started off toward the one exit to the room.
We walked up to the exit, and saw that it was very small. We would have to go single file through the corridor.
"Just follow me." She stated before walking into the corridor. I followed behind her, and soon we had reached the next room. Inside the room was a set of stairs perfectly identical to the ones that had let us in the dungeon, and standing near the stairs was a Sunkern. It noticed us as soon as we entered the room, and made its way toward us a quickly as it could.
"It wants to fight, Max! We're going to have to fight it." She said, a determined look in her eyes.
I nodded and turned to face the little thing, ready to fight it as soon as it reached us. After another moment it was within Scratch range.
"Now!" Marisu exclaimed, bringing her paw down on the Sunkern. I quickly followed suit, and also used Scratch on it.
The poor thing didn't stand a chance, and dropped almost instantly. After it had fainted, it was surrounded in a golden light, and then vanished.
"Don't worry, it just got sent to the entrance." She said, relieving my fears that I had just killed a pokmon.
After that, we walked down the stairs again. Once again, the strange words appeared in the blackness, except instead of 'BF1' it read 'BF2'. We then entered the next floor. It was very similar to the first, with a large room that had one exit. We walked through the exit into the next room, and were faced with two Sunkerns instead of one. We still made quick work of them, but they managed to land a couple of hits on Marisu and I. We then went to the next room and found the stairs, before we descended them.
This time something was a little different, The same floor change appeared, reading 'BF3', but after that we entered a smaller room. In the center of the room were three Bellsprout, who had surrounded a single Weedle.
"Prince!" Marisu exclaimed, before covering her mouth with her paws, realising that she had cost us the element of surprise.
The Bellsprouts turned around and whipped their vines at the ground menacingly.
"Max, we gotta beat these guys to save Prince!"
"Got it, let's go!" I yelled dashing towards the nearest Bellsprout.
The plant Pokemon lashed out with a vine that I only just managed to jump over. Giving a wild yell (maybe it was cliche, but who cares? It felt awesome!) I lashed out at it with a paw, slashing it right across the head. With a warbling cry of 'Bellsprooooouuuut!' it flew back and...disappeared.
I whirled to face Marisu, who was locked in a vicious tussle with her own Bellsprout. "Got it!" I yelled.
The Eevee managed to slash the Bellsprout across the chest (stem?). It gurgled out a cry before falling over and vanishing like the first one.
The moment of watching had cost me dearly- I felt something land a stinging lash across my back. Yelping in pain, I slammed into the ground, rolling over to see the last Bellsprout standing over me gloatingly. It lifted a vine- no doubt to finish me off-
Only to freeze awkwardly, before slumping over and vanishing. Behind it, horn pointed straight where it had been a second before, was Prince. He didn't have a visible mouth, but I'm sure it was in a gloating smile.
I stood up, and dusted myself off. "Thanks, Prince. That thing definitely would have knocked me out if you hadn't stepped in."
"No problem," squeaked the Weedle. "I definitely wouldn't have been able to beat them without your help."
"Okay, you two. We should probably get back out to 27 now." Marisu stated before heading for the stairs.
We quickly followed her back up the stairs, and in a moment we had reached the entrance to the dungeon again. Which was strange because we had gone down three floors, but only back up one. Mystery Dungeons are weird, and can't be explained easily. I told myself.
Outside, 27 was waiting for us, and as soon as he noticed Prince, he picked up the Weedle. "Thank you, my friends. I would not have found him without you."
"Bye guys!" Prince exclaimed before he and 27 flew off, probably returning to their hive.
"Okay, Max. Let's head off toward Port Town now." She said turning and began walking along the path again.
I sighed, and followed after her. This is gonna be a long day, Isn't it?
