"I don't hear any music..." Lewis said. "We've been walking for a while now. Think they duped us just so we'd leave?"

"Uhhhhh," said Lannie. "Did we go right?"

"Wait, right FROM the guild or FACING the guild?"

"uuuuhhhhhhhhhhh from the guild probably"

"...awwwww crap."

He kept walking anyway.

...

...

...

"Hey, what's that sign say?"

Lannie squinted. "...town. It's a town sign."

"Hey, so we WERE right!" Lewis exclaimed happily. "I don't hear anything though...oh, wait..."

If they listened carefully, they could just hear the sound of a fiddle being played, along with some distant cheers.

"That sounds nice," Lannie said, tilting her head (body?) to better hear the music. For a moment, she swayed, captivated, before reclaiming herself. "Let's go."

"Agreed."

The path turned, leading into a much more narrow road between two steep cliffs. They could see colored ornaments hung between the mountain walls, and as the road opened up, a great sign that read "Welcome to Tarrey: the Town of Diversity" marked the entrance.

Already, Lewis and Lannie could see how densely populated the place was; booths lined the walls selling food, drinks, and toys, and people came and go as they pleased, spending time on one booth, then shaking their head and moving on to the next, much to the owner's dismay. While the road wasn't too small, it would still be a pain just to get from one end to the other. It would be easy to get lost here.

Lannie loved these sorts of places. The music, the atmosphere...and the toys! And the crowding! She left Lewis behind almost immediately as she floated forward like she was being pulled on a string, trying to take in all the sights and sounds.

"Lannie! Uh, Lannie! Lannie...!"

"Hey, miss!" A Zangoose with a rather cheerful disposition waved Lannie down to his booth. "Want to share a drink with a special someone? We've got a special blend to make him or her go head over heels for you here at Berry Burst! Only the finest ingredients used here!"

"OR!" A Seviper adjacent to the Zangoose's booth chimed in, "You could try one of MY hearty elixirs! Berries don't do squat for romance, but the venom in these potions are guaranteed to make your crush fall madly in love with you!"

"Nah," Lannie said, turning in a different direction.

"Wha..."

"Nice going, bozo, you drove her away."

As Lannie kept moving deeper into the inescapable black hole of commerce that was Tarrey, she'd notice a few booths with a Serperior adorning the front, managed by nothing but strong-looking Pokemon. One particular booth had an Arcanine in the front talking to a rather distressed Slowking.

Lannie scooooooted to a stop to browse and listen in. She wasn't really above eavesdropping when cool tough Pokémon were involved. She fixed her gaze on the merchandise at the nearest booth.

"Please, please miss, that ruby means everything to me!"

"Don't worry about it, ma'am," the Arcanine's voice was hoarse, but also comforting, in a strange way. "We'll get you your treasure in a flash. And thank you for coming to Team Shield!"

"Lannie!" Out of the corner of her eye, Lannie could see Lewis slithering between strangers wearing a flower crown and about fifteen necklaces made of cheap stone. "Hey, I got you these necklaces since I know how much you-oh my stars."

Lannie broke away from Tchotchke Hell and floated down to Lewis' eye level. "Hey. What is it?"

He pointed at the Arcanine with a shaky finger. "Is that...Rinkah the Resilient?"

"...I don't know. Let's ask."

"What no she's like such a celebrity oh jeez I'm not ready for this ahhhhhhhh" Lewis broke for a minute.

"Hello," Lannie said loudly to the Arcanine. "Are you Rinkah?"

"NO DON'T DO THAT"

The Arcanine perked up when she heard her name. "Why, yes I am. How'd you know?"

"My friend Lewis thought he recognized you. He's the Salandit over there."

"You mean the one havin' a nervous breakdown?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

"Yes," said Lannie. "That's him." She was not at all getting revenge for anything.

"Well, bring 'im over here and maybe he'll get so starstruck he'll faint."

"aaaaaaaaaaaaaa"

"Lewis. Lewis. Forward. A little more...a liiiiittle more-"

"'Ey there, champ," Rinkah said, putting her front paws on the counter. "'Ow goes it?"

"Sweet mother of Arceus you're Rinkah..." Lewis said. His jaw fell to the floor and his eye twitched. "I'm talking to the great Rinkah the Resilient Lannie do you know how much this means to me oh my gosh"

"Rinkah the Resilient?" Rinkah gave Lewis a confused look. "It's just Rinkah, mate. I don't need any fancy titles."

"But you're, like, the strongest Pokemon in the guild," Lewis said. "Some say you were attacked by a wild Gyrados and SURVIVED. Don't you have a scar?"

The Arcanine looked flustered. "Aw, shucks, kid. Yeah, I got one right here." She showed off her right paw, which had a large burn mark on the back.

That made Lannie frown a little. "How did you get burned as a Fire-type?"

"You can still get hurt from boiling water," she answered impressively.

"That's so coooooooool" Lewis whispered. "But where are the others? Po and Ozzy?"

"Oh, there just back here. Wanna meet 'em?"

"Yeah, sure," said Lannie. She hoped a little bit that one of them was a Ghost-type.

"Great, jus' come on-"

Lewis proceeded to scramble over the counter, land flat on his face, then struggle to get up and dash away.

"...in. Jeez, he really is a hyper one, ain't he?"

"Depends on the situation," Lannie said dryly, floating after him. "But yeah, you normally can't get him to stop talking."

Lewis proved her point by pestering a Feraligatr and bombarding him with questions. The poor Water type was huddled into a corner, chewing on his tail nervously, while a Meowstic sitting on a table watched with amusement.

"Kid, couldja stop messin' with my friends? It's gettin' weird." Rinkah grabbed Lewis by the scruff of his neck and placed him on the other side of the room. The Feraligatr, relieved, put his tail down and poked Rinkah with a sharp claw.

"Thanks for savin' my tail back there," he said, wringing his hands together.

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well, y'know..."

"For Arceus's sake, Po, grow a spine. The kid ain't gonna hurt ya. He jus' wanted t' say hello."

"Oh." Po looked at Lewis with growing suspicion...then smiled happily and ran over to him, violently shaking his hand. "Howdy! I'm Po! Nice to meet ya!"

While that was going on, Lannie gravitated over to the Meowstic. She looked back and forth from him to the other Pokémon.

"...I'm Lannie"

"Hi," the Meowstic mumbled, looking away from Lannie and down at the clay he was currently playing with.

"Oh, that's Ozzy," Rinkah said. "He don't talk much, but he's a sweetheart. Now Po, let go of the poor kid before I burn ya to a crisp."

"You wouldn't do that...wouldja?"

"Yeah, if it gets ya to stop crushin' the lizard."

Po reluctantly let go of Lewis's now broken hand, then said some sort of apology to the poison Pokemon. Lewis, gripping his wrist in pain, accepted.

Lannie nodded along to all of this. She'd never met any (apparently) super famous Pokémon, and fully-evolved giant ones weren't THAT common either. Evidently they were just, like, normal.

"So, all of you are...Team Shield?"

"Dat's right!" Po exclaimed with great enthusiasm. "You got me, Rinkah, n' Ozzy over there, and you got Team Shield!"

"See, our whole shtick is that we go around protectin' people who need protectin'," Rinkah followed up. "But not a lotta people like to leave town n' go treasure huntin', so we set up a booth here in Tarrey to keep the business goin'. And to make sure we don't get kicked out o' the guild for inactivity." She added the last part with an embarrassed look on her face. "I'd hate to have THAT conversation again...anyway, I got somethin' to tell ya. Ozzy, get over here. We got a new job."

As Rinkah explained something to the rest of the group, Lewis looked at Lannie with wide eyes.

Lannie stared back. They were pretty cool, she agreed, though of course she was more level-headed than Lewis about it. (Especially as she had only learned of their existence ten/twenty minutes ago.) She absently went over to Lewis to make sure she wasn't getting in Team Shield's way.

"We are in the same room as Rinkah and Po and Ozzy," Lewis blurted, the excitement evident on his face. "Do you know how much this means to me?"

"Not as much as I probably should."

"...Oh. Well, that's fair..."

There was a brief silence, save for the chattering of Team Shield, before the group disbanded and started making preparations. Rinkah approached the duo expectantly. "We're gonna head out soon, so ya best be on ya way. Unless...ya wanna come with."

Lewis's face lit up. "Really? Can we?! ...wait, can we?"

"Can we?" Lannie repeated. "Listen, we're just apprentices...we joined the local guild yesterday and took exams about an hour ago. We still don't know if we're officially accepted. But if that doesn't bother you..."

"Naw, we don't mind," Po said, passing by. "'Long as ya don't get caught, you can do whatever you want."

"Don't believe that." Rinkah said. "Po's a bad influence, lemme tell ya. But yeah, it don't matter. S'long as you make it back to the guild before nightfall, ya won't get in trouble."

"Nightfall. We can do that."

Rinkah nodded and walked over to the back wall, headbutting it. The whole room shook, and a plastic yellow hat with rocks in it landed on her head. "Everybody ready?"

Po rushed over, tripping over nothing on the way and dropping some purple orb. He hastily scooped it up and stood proudly next to Ozzy, who was still transfixed on the light-green clay in his little, stubby hands. "Good. Now, let's get crackin'! TEAM SHIELD-and others-AWAY!"

Po cheered and jetted out the door, while Ozzy climbed onto Rinkah's back and ran off after the Feraligatr. Lewis whooped and slithered after them as well, leaving Lannie in the dust.

Lannie floated after them as fast as she could. Her speed...wasn't really all that impressive. Floating really only had two settings - "slow" and "medium."

After a couple of minutes, she gave up and used Shadow Sneak to zip right into Lewis's shadow. She and him had done this a couple times. Let him do all the moving!

The excitement of going out on a cool and amazing adventure ebbed away as they reached the border of Tarrey. In contrast to Tarrey's livelihood, the forests immediately outside of it were dark, ominous, and foreboding.

"From here on out, we'll be seein' plen'y of hostile Pokemon," Rinkah told the two newbies. "Y'all know how t' fight?"

"Yyyyyes," said Lannie.

"Sort of," Lewis answered.

"Good enough for me," Rinkah said. "Let's go."

~*Q*~

A/N: I HAVE RETURNED. We introduced some new characters today, none of them played by me! Perhaps my time will come.

Hey, please leave a review if you've got the time! I am but a tired high schooler and it makes me very happy.

~*Akirys*~