A/N: To all of my -8.712 followers, I just want to tell you that updates won't happen for a while. I hope you understand. This A/N will be deleted when updates are more frequently.


Chapter 3 – Exploration

Sudowoods S1

The moment we stepped onto earth's ground, the air around us shifted dramatically. It felt much thicker for me somehow, as if we just entered another dimension parallel to ours, while these were connected and accessed via those Mystery Dungeons. It was like the air itself was being artificially created just for those who are in said dungeons. Kori told me nobody knows anything about them, and now I could see why. It was the strangest feeling I had ever experienced; after the fact that I was some kind of electrical cat now.

Out of curiosity I turned myself around to look at the gravel pavement we had been traveling on for the last thirty minutes, only to stare at a wall of trees blocking the entrance. I jumped in surprise, not expecting this at all. These trees were just like a solid wall; they were growing together in themselves in some parts, just to make sure that no one was ever permitted to leave through those outer trees and escape the dungeon prematurely. I even noticed something odd about them: they all look the same! The trees appeared strangely homogenized, as if they had been copied and pasted to the one next to it.

The top of the forest was no different. Its dense vegetation of thick branches and leaves left barely enough room for the sun's light to hit the ground, but still enough to see one's surroundings. The branches seemed to grow infinitely long, sometimes growing through some of the higher tree's trunks. If I had tried to follow one thicker branch above us with my eyes for a while, I would've surely ended up on the same spot I had begun.

After finishing my observation of the barrier and the roof, I turned back to Kori and wanted to voice my thoughts to her. But she was quicker.

"Pretty spooky, huh?" I found her staring at the massive wall behind me, not a single bit of dread visible neither in her voice nor on her face. It looks like she must have travelled through many of those dungeons before, all well known to result similar ways in managing to trap those who dared to enter it. "The way it just throws you somewhere random without you noticing it. As if the laws of time and space are thrown together and mushed into a puddle of an unrecognizable mess."

I nodded in response. The area we had found ourselves in looked like a room, with two sides having some sort of corridor to go through. I'm not sure why, but the grass seemed to have been growing much higher than next to the path we traversed. Kori signaled a bit urgently that we should go. I followed after her, while we went through some sort of corridor which had barely enough room for us to walk next to each other. I was picking the option to walk behind her. I assumed those halls connected the various rooms together, because not long after traversing through the makeshift hallway, we entered another bigger opening.

On the opposite side of the room, inside of a thicker part of grass laid something I've never seen before. It looked like a berry, but not with the usual colors or size I thought berries had. Its round form was acceptable for me, but the blue color it had indicated it was not ripe at all. It even had, from this distance barely visible, black dots on it. But on the other hand, it was way bigger than I thought they could normally get after they were ready to be harvested. But where did it came from, exactly? There were no signs of some berry tree or bush nearby.

But god knows how long it has been there for. Maybe it was the Mystery Dungeon that had brought it here, somehow?

Curious, I asked my guide about it.

"Hey, Kori. Do you know what kind of berry that is?"

"Huh?" She turned to me. After scanning the room again, she still hasn't found it. "Where is it?"

"There." One of the tiny fingers of my paw pointed at the berry, the claw of the same part was extending from inside. I looked at it subconsciously, trying to withdraw it and extend it again, not noticing I was dimming out everything around me.

"Really? I don't see anything." Kori said while she was making her way to the spot which I had indicated. Halfway there, she saw the item, too. "Ooh, there's an Oran berry hidden in a patch of grass! Nice catch."

For me my paws were much more interesting—I didn't notice her coming back from the found object. I was still glancing at my outstretched leg, before I answered to the compliment, a bit flattered. "Oh, t-thanks, I guess." It felt like my cheeks went from blue to a shade of red. "Glad I could be of help for you. What kind of berry is this, though? I've never seen it before."

She had grabbed the berry with one of her vines, it was wrapped around the berry once. Her vine made its way to me, holding the berry in front of me to look at it better.

"No surprise there, I think. It's an Oran berry, which has the awesome ability to make you recover much faster after a big fight or training. Plus it tastes sooo good. Its skin is hard to crack, but once you manage to open it, the juice from the inside will do its work. It's without a single doubt the most common and loved berry for us Pokémon."

"Interesting to hear. Thanks for telling me." Not at all exaggerating with this.

We were going along the only other hallway connected with the room (which was to the right where we entered), when I quickly noticed something. Kori was still holding the berry with her vine; it was retracted to the length where it almost looked like a human finger growing out of her neck.

Wait. Why did I only now realize that she wasn't wearing anything? It didn't even cross my mind to register her as someone with nothing to hide from her. Not even myself had I seen as someone who was naked. I was theorizing it was the fur that hid this from me, I was almost certain this was the reason. Strangely enough, it didn't and still doesn't feel weird to me to not have anything on me except my skin and blue fur; black-blue, to be exact.

I don't think Pokémon even wear something along those lines. I thought of some kind of bag, those which you can hang around your neck or put it on your back to carry stuff. Was that even a thing here? She looked like that kind of Pokémon which hobby was mostly traveling around the continent, with her knowledge of these Dungeons we were currently in and all that. She must have seen plenty of those to know these things about them.

"Hey," I tried to grab her attention while entering another somewhat bigger room than before, which was empty once I looked around for a moment. "You're a wanderer of some sorts, right?"

"Yeah, I am. I think I even told you that, why do you ask?" She faced me and looked at me with her big eyes.

"Because, uh... don't you have some sort of bag or something to store your berries in? Or do you hold everything together with your vines?"

She suddenly looked down and sighed, as if she is being remembered of something that could have been averted. Or was embarrassing for her to admit. I wasn't sure.

"Umm, about that..." She held one paw behind her neck, to symbolize her being unsure in telling me about something. I was surprised at how flexible she was with her front legs, her body structure not implying her to be so agile as I thought it to be. "I did have a bag full of food and water and other similar important stuff, but... oh, that's embarrassing... I lost it."

"You... huh? Lost it?"

"Well, I didn't technically lose it, but some wild Pokémon snagged it before I noticed it." She sighs and continues. "I think it was some Mankey, but I'm not certain about that. I only saw the absence of my bag after I decided to continue. That's what I get for letting my guard down for a couple seconds, I guess..."

Mankey? Hmm, I can kinda guess how it could look like, but I think now is not the best time to ask for details. That can wait, for sure.

She sighed again and closed her eyes for a moment. "That's one reason I want to hastily arrive at Muji Village, I haven't eaten anything since last evening. And yes, I searched for something edible, trust me. Everywhere. Not a single apple or berry tree was in sight. My luck in a nutshell, I guess. I'm barely managing to not eat this berry out of hunger, even. Being in one of these dungeons doesn't help much, either... I seriously hope we find anything to eat in here. Please tell me if you see anything edible, alright?"

Was she serious about that? Couldn't she just eat some leaves, or grass, or anything plant-like, for that matter? Who knew how long this berry had been laying there, it could have been days, even. Normally berries should wilt after an hour or two. The fact that Kori informed me that it has a hard skin shouldn't matter that much, it's still a fruit. Whatever the case, it shouldn't be edible in the first place.

Or I'm again rambling too much to myself, and shouldn't have been worried about that in the first place. Kori was acquainted with what she was doing, right? I should be trusting her decisions.

…I didn't have much of a choice, now did I?

I didn't even know what to answer to her little rant. After simply nodding and answered that I would tell her immediately to verify I had been listening, we continued on our way again. Or so we would have.

"Looks like we hit a dead end." I stated the obvious.

"No, really?" She jokingly replied as we turned around to take the other way.

Before we could walk back the way we came from, something stood in our way. Due to mysterious reasons, a small tree with yellow spots on its trunk just popped into existence and was standing before us. Not really knowing the existence of said blockage, I nearly walked right into it. I took two steps back, slowly realizing my reaction time had also been improved by a lot. Which makes a lot of sense to me, now that I was some sort of animal.

Woah, where did that came from? Is that the dungeon's making? I should really start expecting the impossible in here, after Kori's information about those places and my small look-around back at the entrance.

While I was wondering why the tree was blocking us and how we were gonna go around it, Kori already had her other vine out and a stern expression on her face.

"Careful, Xunie. That Sudowoodo surprised you pretty well, didn't it?"

Sudowoodo? Does she mean that tree? That's a strange name for a-

Suddenly, the seemingly lifeless tree moved on its own. Its two branches with their three small bushes, which almost looked like arms and hands, snapped out of their petrified state and started to shift their position from an upward angle to a downward angle. The strangest part was that it just grew a set of eyes which were locked right onto me and a long mouth beneath them. Its roots were replaced with a pair of legs, it now standing with those.

I couldn't believe my eyes; for a second I was considering the thought that I was hallucinating this time for real, but after a quick glance at the walking trunk before us, with the fact what had happened to me just half an hour ago, one thing made itself clear in my head.

THAT THING IS ALIVE?!

I hastily took another two steps back, while staring at the intimidating tree. The fact that this thing was towering over me with over four times my body height didn't help me keep my dread at a manageable level at all. Its intention was clear as glass to me after it vocalized its battle cry.

*Rrrraaaaahhh!*

I practically froze in shock, my muscles paralyzed and my fur stood on end. This almost felt like it did while I was in that unconscious state, floating in nothingness. I managed to close my eyes and was waiting for the inevitable impact.

*Snap!*

A strong sound of a whip cracking went through the air.

*Aaaaghhh…*

*Thud...*

Kori's vine connected sharply with the lower part of the Sudowoodo's body, leaving a deep dent in said place. Little pieces of brown pellets were falling to the ground. The attacker crashed onto the grassy earth next to the entryway; it wasn't moving anymore.

After slowly opening my eyes again, I was met with a different scene from what I had anticipated. Lying next to the entrance of the hallway, the walking trunk, with a lethal dent in his body. Strangely, no sounds or movements were coming from it after the brute force of her attack. Kori knocked it out with a single hit. How strong is she? By the looks of it, her weak looking vine just smashed against a rock and it exploded into a thousand little pieces.

Kori was retreating her second vine back into her neck and looked at me disapprovingly. Her facial expression told me everything I needed to understand what she was thinking of right now.

She saved my sorry ass.

"I-I... uh..." I started stuttering, and just now noticed I was holding my breath the entire time. I I was not sure if I could find anything reasonable to say to her after my second rescue on the same day, but I tried anyway. "Listen, I-"

"No, you know what," she interrupted me, holding one of her legs up and shaking her head, the leaf swinging alongside her movement. I was fearing what would have awaited me afterwards. But I was surprised yet again, "don't worry about it. It was my fault you weren't prepared for this, you wouldn't have been able to do anything against it, anyway. Come on, let's get going."

She wanted to go back the way we came from, but thanks to her vague answers I wanted her to elaborate some more.

"Uh... what do you mean by, 'not prepared for this?'" I hoped that didn't go too much in the direction of 'annoyed questioning'. The last thing I wanted to start was a stupid argument about something trivial to her, but not so much to me.

"I don't know why, but I forgot to tell you that Pokémon live in these Mystery Dungeons. Due to unknown circumstances, these Pokémon are much more hostile and territorial than any other you will meet. Normal wilds are scared of the civilized and won't show themselves most of the time, until you purposefully try to intrude into their home, of course. And for the second one, I'll explain that later in detail." Came from her.

I nodded. Is that the reason I didn't even see any other creature on our way here? Well, except for the occasional flying ones, which were much too high to properly inspect their figure. I hope you won't forget the detailed explanation, Kori.

It appeared the Sudowoodo was unconscious, or at least it hadn't moved any since its unfaithful encounter with Kori's vine. Interested, I examined the Pokémon a bit closer, whilst still holding my safe distance to it. The first thing I noticed was the body of this thing wasn't made out of real wood, it looked too smooth to be any kind of bark. The small bushes at the tip of its two arm-like branches weren't exactly little bundles of leaves, either. Those, too, were much too flat to have anything related to leaves to be made out of them. The little brown pebbles next to it didn't help me much to determine what exact element this creature was.

I'm confused. Is this Pokémon a living tree or something along the lines of a walking stone creature, disguised as a tree? This world is so strange.

Seeing Kori idling at the entryway of the hall, waiting for me to follow her, I eventually answered her offer and made my way to her.


Sudowoods S2

It turned out the true way forward was the room next to our original entrance. We found some sort of round tunnel in said room, which was just a hole in the never ending wall of tree trunks. It was smaller than the monotone corridors we had been traversing through and it was much thicker vegetated than them. It was badly hidden, too. We quickly discovered it behind some overgrown grass.

I was lucky to not have met any more of those fake tree Pokémon on our way back, and I was happy about that. No interesting topic usable for conversation was available, mainly because I don't know what to ask her first. And she said when we are out of this dungeon, she would have more than enough time to explain more stuff to me. For now we had to keep our guard up for any other aggressive Pokémon we might run into. Kori said we should be careful, even when the inhabitants of the Dungeon were weak.

My god, I'm such a coward. The fact I was turned into a Pokémon, which definitely have some kinds of animalistic instincts for various occasions and encounters with other Pokémon, makes it even worse. I'm pretty sure I didn't have any of those when I was a human, they weren't necessary for our survival anymore, with the technological advancements and whatnot. But here? Do I even have any trace of animal instinct in me? Except cowering in fear, it seems I'm not missing that. How do I even find the other ones out...?

"My Arceus, isn't there anything I could eat in here? When you need something to eat the most, you never find anything.." She mumbled to herself, her hunger getting slowly worse.

Arceus, huh? Didn't she say that after she found me?

"Who is Arceus?" My ears perked up a bit after she gasped.

"You..." she wanted to say something, but remembered my predicament I found myself in not long ago and replaced her initial speech, "Arceus is our creator."

"...you mean he created you?"

"No, silly. Us, all of Pokékind. He was the very first Pokémon to ever exist. Some even call him The Creator, instead of Arceus. I can tell you about him later, if you want."

"Us all?" You mean you all. If he was really the first one in existence and had the power to create those Pokémon creatures, then he might can turn me back into a human! I just have to find him and ask if he could turn me back. He also would be the source of reliable answers I can get out of my situation here, and can explain why I got this stupid amnesia. How hard could finding him be? ...That is, if he is even real.

"Yeah, better tell me later."

"Alright."

Her stomach protested to her after our little conversation just now, and again I just had to ask her something which might or might not be trivial to her.

"Kori, can't you eat leaves, or grass, or something? I would say yo-"

"What?" she snapped her head in my direction and almost yelled, resulting in me recoiling back. She noticed it quickly, and apologized immediately. "Oh my… sorry about that... It's just... uh..." It was obvious she was struggling to find the fitting words to explain her little outrage, clearly embarrassed about it, too.

"You don't want to eat plants, because you are partly one, right?"

"N-no, not really..." she denied my theory, "I understand why you asked me that, don't worry. But I'm not a Mareep, or a Flaaffy. Besides, the grass tastes horrible. And if some pieces of dirt are still stuck to it, it's even worse." She outstretched her tongue to further verify her claim.

"Oh, alright. Thanks for clearing that up."

I guess with Flaafy and the other one she meant some kind of sheep species. I hope I know what they look like when I see them.

"Wait, you don't even know which Pokémon I mean, right? They are-"

"No, no. It's alright. I can kinda imagine how they would look like."

"...uh, really?"

"Yeah, don't worry."

"Mhmm, ok then, if you say so…" She shrugged.

Concentrating on our way forward, I quickly noticed that we didn't run into any other of those Sudowoodo - that's what Kori was calling them. We didn't find anything particularly interesting in this section of the Dungeon, much to my partner's dismay.


Sudowoods S3

We were lucky to find the connection to the next section rather quickly, so the encounters with those Pokémon stood as low as possible.

As we entered yet another hallway, I couldn't shake the feeling away that we were being watched. At first I marked it off as just some paranoia from me, but when I heard something rustling behind us I almost jumped.

"W-what was that?" I stuttered, turning around to see what caused this noise.

"Probably another one of those Sudowoodo, but those aren't much a threat to us; you don't have to be so worried. I'll protect you from those monsters." Her tone indicated some slight traces of humor, I presumed she used it to try to make me feel better.

I was unable to locate the source of the noise—to my relief and to my horror—while Kori was already on her way again. I briefly witnessed her turning a corner in the hall. I was yelling for her to wait, me meanwhile running towards said junction. Strangely, I tripped over my own legs, but it felt like something caused me to trip. Or it was because I wasn't yet forced to walk faster than the usual walking speed. It didn't really bother me, but it was enough to increase the distance to my guide. I turned the same direction as Kori did just seconds ago, now with improved caution to my feet.

"Hey, wait for m-"

After I tried to follow my guide, I stopped dead in my tracks. I was expecting my guide standing there, waiting for me to catch up. But instead, something else greeted my vision. A solid, wooden barrier made of tree trunks.

It was a dead end.

Wh- huh?

My eyes ran along the wall blocking my way, my paws were now touching the wall just to be sure. Yes, it was there; I wasn't going crazy yet. Or maybe I was starting to, didn't that wall have an almost unnoticeable darker shade than all the others? No, I was sure it was just the light.

I... couldn't have just hallucinated her going this way, right?

I quickly turned my body in the other direction of the branch, to see an empty corridor full of emptiness.

My seemingly biggest fear I had since we entered this Mystery Dungeon turned into reality. Me, without my guide to help me when I needed her the most; me, in an laws-of-existence defying Dungeon with no certainty of knowing the right path to the exit.

Me, all alone with those aggressive... stone-tree Pokémon, attacking me on sight.

My heart was pumping and a cold shiver ran down my spine.

I didn't know what to do, I didn't know where to go, I didn't know why my guide was gone. But one thing was certain to me.

Breath in, calm down... panicking won't help me in the slightest bit here. Breath out. The most important thing right now is that I find Kori.

I wanted to shout her name, to see if she would've been in the nearby area, but quickly went against that idea—this would only attract the wild Pokémon, and that would be the very last thing I wanted to happen. The only option I had was going in the other direction.

Remembering the sudden noise from before, I checked on any kind of suspicious movements or sounds. Finding nothing, I started my quest of finding Kori.

This goddamn Dungeon just gets worse and worse. I can't believe I was eager to get into one of these abominations of nature, or whatever they are. I'm just hoping I'm not going too far away from my partner...

Slowly and steady I made my way through the empty corridor.

And those Pokémon who roam in here, which she said I can't do anything against, isn't doing me a favor, too. What should I do when I meet one of them? The only reliable option is to run away, but what if I land in a dead end?

I entered a small room, which was empty; except for the fact that an item laid just to the right from where I stood.

Now what the hell is that blue spherical thing now?

Its smooth surface seemed almost too even to be held onto. I would've tried it out, but there was just one small problem.

How am I even supposed to carry stuff with no proper way of grabbing them?

Then, it struck me. I could've just rolled it along with me.

Oh my god, I'm a genius!

But when I wanted to lay my paw on it—one for my genius rolling idea, and two because of my curiosity in how the surface of that item felt like—someone, or more like something spoke to me.

Trawl Orb.

"Ah!" I almost screamed after hearing the unknown voice in my head. Quickly shutting my mouth, and with a racing heart, I looked around me to make sure I didn't lure one of the wilds of this area to me. When I heard nothing suspicious, I sighed and tried to calm down.

What was that?!

Still in a little shock from earlier, I decided to touch the blue circular thing again. Maybe this orb was the source of the voice, who knew. I hoped it would be. This world had been very strange the second I was able to see through my eyes.

Trawl Orb.

Ah, it's just this orb. Telepathically communicating with me, like it's some sort of psychic. Great.

The voice sounded like it came from everywhere at once, even from inside of me. It also had a very gentle and feminine voice, with traces of robotic sounds to it.

What does it even do? Seems-

Trawl Orb - Pulls all items on the current floor to the user.

...Nevermind then.

Continuing my search for both Kori and the exit, I stopped right before the hallway I had the intention of entering. Looking at the orb beside me, something came to my mind. Maybe I could use this to get some help from an item, who knows?

I decided to use the orb.

...Uh, how do I activate it?

Looking around said sphere, I didn't find anything that implied 'I activate this thing'. I pondered for a moment, just what was I supposed to do to use it?

Come on, activate, for-

Suddenly the item was glowing ever so brightly, I had to cover my eyes from it. This lasted for about five seconds, until it stopped doing its thing and just disappeared.

It seemed like nothing happened.

...ugh, did it even do what it's supposed to do, or did the Dungeon interfere, with its magical magic? Or are there no items here?

Something landed on the grass next to me and rolled a little bit in my direction. Its red semi-circular shape instantly told me what it was supposed to be.

An apple. A very fresh one at that.

If Kori were here, she would've mowed it down before it even catched my attention in landing beside me. I just stared at it for a few seconds. The orb seemed to have completed its task, but…

Is that all? Just an apple was on this floor? I would've hoped for a more helpful item than just something edible. Oh well, at least Kori has something to eat… when I find her.

Meanwhile… Kori's POV

Her face slammed to the ground.

Ow… hey! Where did it go?!

She could've sworn there was something on the ground just now. Maybe the Chikorita was hallucinating out of hunger? No, she was certain there was something. It was too real to be just be a fatamorgana. But now it was gone.

Arceus dammit, I just want something to eat; is that too much to ask?!

Her stomach sounded like there lived a wild beast in it, growling the whole time. She almost couldn't take it anymore; there had to be something edible somewhere.

Arg… where did the apple even go?

Back to Xunie's POV

Instead of the blue orb, I now had to somehow bring the apple with me. Rolling it on the ground, like I used to do with the previous item, was a possibility, but then it would be all dirty and everything. Carrying it with my body was not something I could do, because I didn't want to hobble on only three legs. Maybe if I were more experienced and accustomed to my new body, then this would've been no problem.

I decided to just push it with my paws. The dirt was not really big of a deal, as I've noticed the apple was on grass most of the time, instead of only the ground below.

After a while of walking and pushing, I was so happy of the absence of those wild Pokémon. It was only me and the object next to me. It was so quiet, too, I could almost hear my own heartbeat.

It's really peaceful here, when there are no wilds in the area who are out to kill you. Normally this would be very suspicious, but I don't care. The exit's right here, too. I mean, I hope it is.

Before me was the usual smaller, round tunnel, overgrown with the common greens in the area. But now the question was: should I wait here for my partner? Or should I continue to search for her? What if she was already in the next section?

No, I was sure she would've searched for me. Kori was searching for me, right?

Of course she is, stop worrying about that. She wouldn't just abandon me because of some stupid dungeon.

I occasionally switched glances at the small tunnel before me, the hallway where I came from and the only other passage, now certain I should just wait for her. She'd come by here eventually, right? The floors before weren't that big, only on the first section did we turn the wrong way, which made it longer than it should've had to be. So why would it be different here? I found the exit rather quickly too (I hoped it was), so Kori couldn't be that far from me. Maybe she even was in the by me unexplored passage right now?

It was then when I looked at my initial passage again, my heart went from 0 to 100 in an instant. The only thing that I absolutely didn't want to see, stood at the entrance of the room which I resided in at the moment. A tree me and my guide met in the first section. The same tree with yellow specks on it was idling not too far away from me, seemingly waiting for the perfect moment to strike. How long had it been waiting there?

I had the brilliant idea of not moving at all. Maybe, I thought, it can't see me when I don't move. That was quickly proven wrong, because the tree moved the exact same way as the first one did, before it had tried to attack.

Uhm… maybe now would be the best time to make a run for it and pray that I find Kori.

And just like that, I was sprinting into the other passage. Being extra careful to watch out that I, under no circumstances, allowed myself to lose my balance and trip over again. Who knew what this tree monster would be able to do to me.

"Kooriiii!" I screamed like I was followed by a demon from hell, "Where are you?!"

Turning a corner, I noticed the hall before me was unnaturally long, seemingly stretching for several hundred metres. Ignoring this anomaly, I concentrated on getting away from this wild Pokémon. Its footsteps were still reaching my eardrums, and the slight vibration after every step it took were picked up by my paws. My body screamed at me, faster, faster, go faster, but I didn't listen to it. The risk of tripping again was high, even at the speed I had now.

Slowly arriving at the junction, I mentally prepared myself for the turn to the left. The moment I wanted to slow down, my curiosity got the better of me and my vision switched to the Sudowoodo for a short time. That proved not to be a good idea, it was only a couple metres away from me.

Suddenly, it jumped forward and was attempting to hit me with its branched horn—or whatever that was. Just in time, I managed to jump to the left and landed, to my surprise, very gently on the ground. As my legs wanted to carry me forward, away from my aggressor, some peculiar sound entered my ears.

I looked back, and questioned my luck.

The Sudowoodo was stuck with the top of its head in the wall of trees surrounding the Dungeon. It wanted to escape from its situation, but to no avail; the missing parts of the wall, seemed to have regrown again, resulting in the Sudowoodo being completely stuck. The little arms and legs it had didn't help much, either. They were just a little too short to get a good grip somewhere to help itself getting out.

A sigh escaped my lips, partially relieved that I'm not in immediate danger anymore.

"Nice try, next time be more careful where you're running!" I mocked its stuck form, it had given up by now and accepted its fate. Or it was tired out. I didn't know. "Guess Kori was wrong about me not being able to do anything, I just needed a bit of luck."

"Xunie," I jumped, not anticipating someone to call me. For a moment I thought it was the wild Pokémon saying to me, "there you are. I finally found you." but to my relief it was Kori.

"Oh my god, Kori!" I was so delighted, I wanted to tackle her out of sheer happiness. But just before I hit her, she caught me with her vines and turned me around again.

"You can do that later, I just want to get out of this hellhole." She sighed after putting me down again. "Sometimes I just think everything turns against me. This is one of those times. Let's just go."

"O-oh, ok…" I stepped aside and let her lead the way again.

She noticed the Sudowoodo still stuck in the wall, and just stared at it for a moment. It seemed she was pondering over something, a part of her vine was outside; hey, where was the Oran Berry? She didn't have it in her grip anymore. I couldn't blame her for eating it, she was pretty desperate for something edible. But why is she still looking at the-

Suddenly, the familiar sound of a crack made itself known.

Before I noticed what just happened, Kori spoke up.

"Ah. I needed that. Stupid Sudowoodo."

Did she just-

I stared at the wild Pokémon, now split in two halves, unmoving. A shiver ran down my spine, as I realized what she had done.

She just cut that Pokémon straight in half!

"Kori, w-what the fuck did you do? Y-you just- ...killed that thing!"

"And? It was wild, no one would care."

"Wh- but- ..." A mixture of ways to react came to mind, but I was too shocked to let them out.

Eventually, I gave up. I just kept my mouth shut, after all, maybe this was the best option for me in this situation.

I was very certain she was not in the right mood for any sort of topic to talk about, so we were silent the entire way to the tunnel while I kept a safe distance between her, just to make sure. Well, we were quiet, but Kori saw the apple laying next to it.

With lightning speed she went straight for the fruit and already munched on it.

"Mmmh, thith ith thoo good!" She failed to speak with her mouth full.

Not even five seconds later, the apple was gone. The Chikorita was much happier, now that she had gotten something to eat. The satisfaction surging through her body, and at the same time quenching her inner monster—her belly.

"Finally." She sat down, closed her eyes for a moment, and relished her few seconds of satisfaction of not starving anymore. After a deep sigh, she motioned me to go through the tunnel with her.


Route 27

Yes, I was right, this was the way out of the Dungeon. Relieve came over me as I felt the light breeze around my body and breathed in the much fresher air again, along with various scents from the trees and flowers next to us.

In the distance I saw a small mountain range near the horizon. They weren't high enough to have a snowy top, but instead had an immense amount of colorful flowers on them. Before us, the gravel path. It was continuing like normal, as if it never had disappeared in the first place. Surrounding our group and the pathway were still trees, but the amount of them has decreased tremendously after exiting the Dungeon. The green color of the leaves indicated the season of summer—at least, I thought it was. This wasn't my home planet, after all. Through the scattered trees I spotted the beautiful sunset and the view of the now partially orange sky. It was magnificent, as if it had been ripped straight out of a fairytale.

Why did I not notice all that before? Was I really just focused on the way ahead of me, to not have the slightest intention of taking in the local nature? Even for making sure that I knew what was around me, there could've been a town several metres from the place I woke up and I wouldn't have noticed.

"Wow," was the only thing I could muster up.

While I stood there and awed the sunset, the first owl-like Pokémon were starting their nightly routine. I spotted some small rodent Pokémon running around the grass, too—they even jumped over the gravel sometimes, as if it was an obstacle they had to overcome to reach their destination.

"Beautiful, isn't it? That's one of the positives of travelling everywhere, you get to see breathtaking views and sceneries like this," Kori remarked. "It's getting late, so we should get going… or, wait."

She was switching glances at the way forward and the sunset, careful enough to not get blinded by the sun. "You know what, we won't make it before it gets really dark, so we should find a place where we can sleep for the night."

"Sleeping… here, outside? Without anything above us? Are you sure this is a good idea?" I was not really fond of getting wet, maybe a sudden rainfall would happen while we were slumbering.

Or, I'm again making it look worse than it is. I'm not a human anymore, so I would be able to withstand the forces of nature more easily, with all this fur to keep me warm.

"Come on, you're making it worse than it actually is. I think I found us a nice place where we can rest. Trust me, you'll like it." Came from her as she was looking at a particular tree.

...As if she could read my mind.


So… this is how they sleep, huh?

Tired as I was, I accepted the suggestion from Kori that we should call it a day and find a place for the night, after everything that happened today—even if it just was a trip through a relatively small Dungeon. I was exhausted, and I guessed my guide was, too.

We, or rather, Kori, found a nice place under a treetop, its size was good enough to suit as a temporary shield from the rain for us both. She wanted to make sure, she told me, as I watched the sky for any sign of bad weather, finding none for now.

By the time we found our sleeping place, the sun already had set behind the horizon, making more than enough space for the moon to shine; it was almost a full moon. The stars were dispersed all across the now blackish blue sky, most of them shining ever so brightly, others were just beginning to.

Now, there I laid. In another world, in a different body, with a stranger who was lucky enough to randomly find me, unconscious. No, what was I thinking, I was the one who luckily got found. My mind was already often coming up with what-if situations, but I tried not to directly focus on them.

While Kori was already in her position and ready for sleep to take her, I was still trying to find a comfortable position for me to slumber. Not wanting to disturb her, my body very quietly shifted around, until it finally got into an acceptable sleeping posture. My ears, as I had noticed, were just big enough for my head—I was able to put it on them and not let my cheeks touch the ground. They were cushy, and didn't protest against my head laying on top of them, too, so it was a win-win situation for me.

I was thinking, wouldn't it be cold outside at night, especially with the wind around us? Actually, no, not at all. I felt it blowing against me and my fur, but the feeling of getting cold was nonexistent. It was fair to say that sleeping in the open like this was pretty relaxing.

While getting accustomed to the smell of grass in front of me, Kori spoke up.

"Hey, you asleep yet, Xunie?"

My head perked up and looked in her direction. She was doing the same, but with her legs under her head on the ground, and her leaf over her body to act as a blanket—she looked kinda cute doing that, I didn't know why that was. It seemed as if at any moment she would fall asleep.

"Do I look like I'm sleeping? ...What is it, Kori?"

"Remember when we met the first Sudowoodo? You wanted to know why I said that you wouldn't be able to do anything against them, and now is the perfect time for that, don't you say?" She said, now looking at the ground, "...speaking of those, we only met two of them; that's very odd. Normally there would've been at least six or seven in there… anyway, do you want me to tell you?"

Oh. Now it was me who forgot. Two of them were more than enough for me, why do I have so much luck?

"Riiight, I remember now, yeah. Tell me, I'm interested."

"So, you know we Pokémon have various types of elements, I told you that before. Those Sudowoodo have the stone type, even when many say they have the plant type, like me. Don't believe them, they are made of stone." As she began with her explanation, it seemed she wanted to go in every little detail with it. "And you weren't able to show me that you can fight with, or control your electricity, leaving you with only your teeth and claws. If you were to fight with your claws, this would've been a normal type attack.

"Unlucky for you—and every normal type—you would've done next to nothing. Just… imagine you wanted to carve something in stone with only your claws. That won't work, obviously. You'll get more hurt than you do harm, you know what I mean?"

I nodded. This went on for a while, she was mentioning something along the lines of there being 18 different types, all with their advantages and disadvantages against other ones. All that stuff should've been as trivial as anything for me to stay alive in this world. But for now I knew that I should be the most careful when meeting an aggressive ground type. They can really hurt and have strong attacks sometimes, she said.

"You're lucky you don't have to be cautious about five different types. Grass is the most vulnerable out of all of them." Kori finished with her one-time use of an explanation. "That doesn't mean that we are weak, though," she added with a quick wink.

I saw that you were not a pushover, but me… I have to get myself together. And next time we meet someone who wants to attack us, I promise to be more useful than I was back in the Dungeon. But…

"How can I know which Pokémon are ground?"

"Trust me when I say that you'll definitely feel it when you meet one."

"What do you mean by 'feel it?'"

She snickered for a second. "Your instinct will tell you, what else?"

...oh. I might have a problem there. Might. Still not sure if I have these or not. Well, until I meet any ground type, there's no real way to test it.

A long yawn was heard from me, Kori following right after. Woah, I didn't know I could open my mouth this much. If I had known that earlier in the Dungeon, I would've carried that apple with my teeth instead of rolling it on the ground.

"Don't infect me with your yawning!" Came from her, clearly meant to not be taken seriously.

"Haha. Very funny. Shouldn't we be asleep by now?"

"No rush, we have all the time in the world. Well, maybe. You're pretty hungry I presume?"

Suddenly the feeling of an empty stomach revealed itself, making growling noises. Yep, I was.

"Maybe you can eat some grass now, Xunie," she laughed. "No, but seriously: we will be continuing at dawn, alright? That way we can arrive at the village and still get some late breakfast."

"Sounds good. I'm pretty worn out myself."

"Heh, you know that you didn't really travel that far yet, right? Don't worry, that's the Dungeon's fault. It somehow accelerates your body's internal functions, meaning you'll get hungry much more quickly. On the other paw it can help you regenerate faster, if you get hurt. So I guess it's made up for?"

"I… guess? But, I'm gonna sleep now. Good night, Kori."

"Yeah. See you tomorrow."

I turned my head around and laid down on my ear again. After a quick search for a good spot, I closed my eyes, letting me take myself to dreamland.


Their journey to the village, they say.

A big surprise there, if you may.

Be quick, before they wake,

or our plan will be at stake.