After what felt like a short while, I slowly but surely had consciousness return to me. I slowly stretched, starting with my arms, my jaws opening wide with a yawn, my tail fidgeting as I stretched, and a few tears squeezed from my eyes.

As I rubbed my eyes, I had realized just how great of a sleep I had, I felt refreshed and relaxed. I started to get my bearings, ready to start my day as usual, catching me some breakfast. I opened my eyes, ready to see my usual surroundings.

I honestly felt stupid looking around, how did I forget that fast? One look around at where I was made me remember that I wasn't living at my cave anymore. I was living in this small tree house in a guild. I looked down at my bedding, remembering this is what I slept on last night. I forgot how comfortable this thing was, and as soon as I realized, I almost wanted to lay back down again.

I looked across from me, to see Zen still asleep. He seemed to be sprawled out weirdly in his bed with all his legs spread out, each in a different way. He wasn't like this last night, so my guess was he must fidget in his sleep… Wonder if I do that?

I was a bit skeptical on what I was supposed to do now. Was I supposed to go out? I think I might have missed what to do in the morning, or maybe it wasn't explained?

I thought of waking Zen up, but I couldn't really tell how early it was, so I went to get a better look. I quietly walked to the window and took a peek outside, trying to see where the sun was. I couldn't really get a good look at where the sun was, but I could tell from the sky that it had to have been early.

"Hello…?" I heard someone quietly say. I poked my nose around to see a familiar face. I noticed the spectacular Rudy's head at the door peeking in, quickly noticing me, "Ah, Dax! Hi," She tried to keep her voice low noticing Zen was asleep.

"Hey!" I said back, keeping my voice low as well. I walked over to the doorway to see her.

"You're up early," she noted, looking at my state up and down.

"Yeah, I'm kinda used to it, just didn't know how early I got up today," I replied.

"Well that's good, we usually try to get everyone up early anyways," she said.

I took a long around and she was right, Cute Crew, and the Forces of Nature were already moving, some slower than others, they must have just woken up too.

"You guys like starting early?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's the gist of it, so anywho, mind waking up Zen? Usually I'm the one to do it, but since you're already up I'll be able to go ahead and get started on things," explained Rudy.

"Oh uh, sure I'll wake em,"

"Great! Thanks, meet us in the cafeteria, everyone will be picking up breakfast," she said.

"Okay!" I called as she walked off.

I didn't hear they had breakfast yesterday, I was sure I didn't, but that was reassuring to hear… I am hoping it's more fish honestly.

I went back inside and went over to Zen, who seemed to still be caught in sleep. I walked over to him. I wanted to wake him up simply, so I lightly tapped him with my paw.

"Hey! Zen! Wake up!" I raised my voice a little.

He quickly jumped up, head bobbing left and right, and looked at me, "Oh! Hey Dax!"

I was surprised at how fast he was moving, "Hey, Rudy asked me to wake you up."

"Oh! Cool, so she did stop by, right? she ussually makes sure I get up on time." Next, Dax then seemed to get really excited, hopping around prolifically. "So, you ready for your first day!? This is gonna be, AWESOME!"

The amount of energy he had was already making my head spin, "How can you be so active this early?" I asked in shock.

"Huh?" He seemed confused, but had a giddy smile like normal.

I gave a huff, "Know what? Nevermind. So uh, Rudy mentioned breakfast?"

"Oh! Oh wait we didn't tell you did we?" Dax blurted, scratching the top of his head.

I shook my head at him.

He gave himself a knock on the head, "Well, we get a small meal in the mornings to keep us going till dinner, nothing big like night though, so that usually means no fish… sorry."

"It's alright, no need to say sorry," I assured. Although, I was a little disappointed I wouldn't get fish, but it wasn't his fault.

He got his smile back, "Alright come on, let's get our food, and I'll show you the ropes!" He hopped out of our house, and motioned for me.

I followed him out of the house complex, where I saw the magnificent Rudy handing out berries to the teams in the dining hall. The Cute Crew had gotten theirs and headed over to the tables to eat. I saw Pythagoras and Mucosa over at the barricades, and looking towards the forest.

"Here you two; you both were the last ones," Rudy walked up to us, and handed me four berries, "There ya are, two for each of you."

"Thanks Rudy!" Zen.

"Oh uh, thank you Rudy!" I said after Zen, making sure I didn't forget.

She gave a nod and walked back, and started to put stuff away. Zen tapped me to follow him, and I did so, making sure I didn't drop the berries. He went to go sit with the Cute Crew again, it seemed they are who he usually hangs around huh?

"Need help?" Zen asked, getting up onto the table.

"Nah, I got it don't worry, I've handled worse," I said, hopping up onto the chair.

I sat down the berries and was greeted by a loud, high pitched voice, "MORNING DAX!" That was Lazuli.

"How was your first night?" Crystal asked.

"It was actually really nice! I haven't slept that well in my life," I answered.

"Duh, these people make the best beds," Stella added.

"I can jump on mine and nothing bad happens!" Lazuli exclaimed.

"... Has you jumping caused bad things to happened?" I asked worriedly.

"Hahaha! No need to answer that!" Crystal chimed in.

"Okayyyyy," I backed off.

"So, any missions chosen yet guys?" Zen asked.

"Yep, simple one, just gotta find something someone lost, honestly though, some of these things pokemon really do make a big deal out of," Stella said.

"Huh?" I was curious on what she meant.

"Huff, so basically like, some of these jobs pokemon give us are really, non issues, like one guy wanted us to find a berry he lost, not just get him a new berry, the exact one he lost!" she said.

"What? That sounds stupid, why didn't he just want a new one?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've heard this before, and I still don't get it," Zen shook his head.

"Like, if it was treasure, I get that, but we just decided to get him a new berry, might seem a bit rude, but really, it's just a berry," Crystal said.

"Are most missions like that?" I asked worried I'd be dealing with that.

"Not really, most of them are pokemon who actually really do need help, that is one we just find funny from time to time," Crystal said after eating one of her berries.

"We'll find whatever that pokemon lost! Cause we're the Cute Crew!" Lazuli exclaimed.

The eevee facepalmed, "We. Have. Not. Even started yet, Lazuli," Stella hissed with a hint of irritation.

"But we will! And when we do, we'll find it!" he bounced.

I heard Zen give a little laugh, and I couldn't help but make one as well. They finished up and headed out, while Zen and I stayed to finish off our berries.

"So uh.. Zen?" began myself.

"Yes Dauz?" he replied with his mouth full.

"Well you said you'd be showing me the ropes on these missions, and I know you've given me like, ideas of what to expect but, I don't really follow what I'm supposed to do, how I'm going to do it, or even what mission I'm going to be doing," I explained.

He swallowed and looked down, "Hm… well first we need to figure out what missions we're going to do…"

"Yeah… do you have an idea?" I questioned him again.

"Well… not sure, I know we want to start with something small, so you can get used to it..." He said.

"Well… I don't really know what we can do," I answered, and ate one of my berries.

"Hey kids," I turned to see Mucosa had walked over to our table.

"Oh Mucosa! How's it going?" Zen asked.

"Hey Mucosa," I said to her.

"Haha hey, how's it going you two?" she asked.

"Oh uh… going great!" Zen hesitated there.

"Really? Cause it sounded like you were having a bit of trouble," she caught him.

"B-but, uhhh," Zen tried to think of a response.

"Yeah, we're both having trouble thinking of what job we want to take, we aren't sure what to start with," I explained to the dragon.

"Ohhh, I see, I get why though, first mission is always the hardest to choose, and not all of them are just thrown right at you," Mucosa added.

"Yeah… do you have any ideas?" I asked.

"Well let me think… I don't have anything specific in mind, but here's an idea, why not go with something you're already good at doing, if you know how to do it, won't be too bad right?" she suggested.

"Huh… that sounds good, but I don't really-" Before I could finish, I was cut off by my jumpy cohort.

Zen had jumped up, "I GOT IT! Dax come on!" He zoomed out of his seat, and straight over to the stairs.

"UH! Thanks Mucosa!" I yelled off trying to keep up with Zen.

I heard her yell back, "No problem!" followed by a few laughs.

I was to the stairs as I saw Zen cut a corner to his left. I carefully hopped stair by stair til I made it to the ground floor. There, I saw Zen at the board with the jobs on it.

"Let's see, let's see, come on there's got to be one here," I heard him say.

"Uh… Zen what got you so excited?" I tried to ask, but was ignored.

"Mmmm, AH THERE!" He moved forward a little and grabbed one of the papers, holding it up to me.

"Raight thwr si?" he spoke with the paper in his mouth.

I looked at the paper, and I read aloud, "Need help catching… a fish?" That sentence made me perk up.

Zen laid the paper down, "As soon as Mucosa said to try something you're good at, I thought about yesterday, how you were fishing, so I went to see if there was anyone asking for that, and thankfully there you have it!"

"Wow, that's not a bad call actually, so what are they asking for?" I asked.

"Says here that they want a certain fish caught, a blue striped bass," Zen said.

I recognized that, "Blue striped bass? I've heard that before, from what I remember they're pretty rare," from experience, I'd only ever found a few in my entire life.

"Well, the good news is that whoever requested this gave us a location of one," Zen said.

"Oh really?" I asked.

"Yep, we just have to head to this lake," Zen explained.

"Wait but, if they know where it is, why don't they catch it?" I asked.

"Hmm… seems here that their bait doesn't work, the fish are too smart for it," Zen explained.

"Oh huh, so they aren't a water type," I said.

"Probably not, but thankfully, I don't think you'll have any trouble catching it!" Zen reassured.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked.

"Let's go!" Zen ushered.

"Just a second you two," I turned around to see Pythagoras looking at us.

"What's wrong?" Zen asked.

"You made sure that was a beginner mission right?" He asked.

"Uh…" Zen said, and looked down at the paper, "AH! Yep see right there! Beginner!"

He held the paper up and Pythagoras looked at it and smiled, "Haha, alright you two, go right ahead, good luck out there."

We waved to Pythagoras as we headed our way downstairs. The door was opened up ready for us. I heard Rudy from above shout good luck to us as we left. We waved to her and headed our way out. We kept up jog, heading to our destination.

"So do you know where this lake is?" I asked.

"Yeah it's bit far though! Might take us a while to get there, we could possibly get there a bit after noon I'd say. Thankfully, Treeside lake isn't usually that populated, so we shouldn't have much trouble catching the thing," he explained, yelling back.

"Alright!" I called over to him.

We traveled for a while. We moved pretty fast. I don't know how long it took us to get there, but it didn't really feel like it was too long, but his guess was close, looking at the sun I'd say we got there around noon. Soon enough we came to a path in the woods. Zen said it was through the path, and he was right.

Making our way to the end of it, we came across a pretty large lake connecting to a waterfall. Trees covered us with their leaves, not letting much sunlight break through. The lake was rather large too, but not large enough to where I couldn't swim through and get the fish.

"Okay so, I've done some fishing before, where do you think we can catch it?" Zen asked.

"Hm… from what the paper said, it's smart enough to not come up to the shore for bait, so I doubt it'll come up here to us just standing in the water," I explained.

"Yeah that makes sense…" Zen said, seemingly in thought.

"Well, here's an idea, we need to rile up the lake a bit," I continued.

"Rile it up?" Zen asked.

"Yeah, get the fish swimming, so do you have any attacks that could do just that?" I asked.

"Hmm… Yeah, I think I got something," He said.

He walked forward to the edge of the water. He opened his maw, and I saw purpleish, blue, energy start to build up in front of him. It spiralled around like wind, I could feel a light breeze build up around him from the attack. I didn't speak - I made sure I didn't break his concentration, but it was impressive nonetheless. He charged the move for another minute, and then in one go, he shot the energy forward at the water. Rings of the dark energy shot forward, and collided with the water, causing it the water to splash upward from the blast. A rainy shower formed from the impact.

I didn't have enough time to gawk, for Zen called out, "Go Dax!"

I took my change, without hesitating, I ran forward, and dived into the water. As I swam, I saw the droplets above, still pattering against the surface of the water. I took a look around, and sure enough my plan worked. The fish had already started to swim, now I just needed to find that bass. I saw a bunch of smaller fish swimming around, but thankfully I knew that wasn't what I was after.

The blue striped bass had two distinct features over the normal bass. For one, its pattern in the skin has blue linings in it, a very bright blue that shines when the sun hits it. Secondly, they were much larger than the average ones. While some bass grow bigger than others, the blue striped was almost guaranteed to be big.

I kept my eyes out, the fish I wasn't after passing by me like I wasn't even there. Bubbles forms from the water as the fins moved by. I moved to another area, still looking for my target. I had to find it, and catch it, and be careful with the catch too, I'm sure the one asking for this fish don't want my teeth in it.

I looked in one area, then the next, where was it. I saw some bigger fish, but then I'm not seeing the… BINGO!

There it was, moving at a quick pace through the water, the stripes glowing when the light passed by them. No wonder the guy asking for it knew where it was - the thing seemed to be even larger then every for the blue stripes.

With my target found, I didn't give it even a second, I started swimming for it, and knowing I was after it, took off as well. Another thing about them, don't let their size catch you off guard. Just 'cause they're bigger, doesn't mean they're always gonna be slower, something my parents taught me.

The fish was keeping his pace throughout, trying to stay away from me. I needed to catch up though, I didn't have a clue if there were any caves it could escape to, or any way to make to another lake.

Thankfully, I could tell he was slowing down, using up all that energy to try and get away, and now I had the upper hand here. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose it, so I went for my best bet. I usually don't use my moves when hunting, just in case I ever got into a fight with a Pokemon, but since Zen is also here I don't think I need to worry about that all that much.

I shot forward a water gun, and while it's less effective being underwater, the force and pressure could still travel. Sure enough the shockwave was enough to disorientate the fish. It swam around trying to get it's bearing, and as it was, I swam in close, and used the opportunity to wrap my arms securely around it.

It thrashed in my arms to try and get away, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I used my back feet to paddle up to the surface of the lake, making certain that the fish wouldn't escape my grasp. As I popped my head out of the water with a splash, I called out.

"Zen! I got the fish!" I called out.

"Great work!" he called from the shore.

I took my time to swim over to the edge of the lake, and soon enough I was able to stand up. The fish started to squirm really bad as I got above the water with it, so I was having trouble walking.

"Toss it!" Zen called.

Following the instruction, I did what was asked and tossed the fish from it's tail, it landed on shore and tried to flail itself back in, but thankfully Zen went in front of it and started pushing it more on land.

"Nice work Dax!" he called form the shore.

"Thanks!" I responded from the water.

While Zen was making sure the fish didn't move, I was about to step out of the water.

Suddenly, I felt my tail sting really bad, right after a resounding crunch sound ringing through the air. Within seconds I screamed, then right after, I felt myself get dragged back under the water, a splash and bubbles following suit from where I entered. My scream had been muffled by the water, and I heard the sounds of a distressed Zen screaming out above the water.

I was getting dragged through the water at a very quick pace by my tail, and I saw a pokemon. Blue and red skin covered the pokemon's body, with my tail locked between its jaws, a bit of blood staining the water as I got pulled. Its fins were yellow, and by that last detail and the teeth I realized the pokemon was a Carvanha.

I don't know why it was pissed off, but it was sure pulling me down fast, so I needed to concentrate. I squirmed in the water, doing my best to move my body and my tail. It was disoriented a bit, so I did the best thing I could do and kicked it, trying to get it to let go of my tail. In response to my kick, it bit down harder, which led to me screaming out under the water, bubbles flew around where I was screaming.

Thankfully, I wasn't alone. As I screamed, energy rings flew straight at the water and dark pokemon. The force was enough to get him to let go of my leg. I turned my head to see Zen had jumped into the lake, and shot the energy under here with us. He was already moving back up to the surface for air, so I did my best to get out of the lake. Zen had already gotten himself to the surface, and I was gaining, but once again was caught, this time by my foot. He didn't have a good of a hold as he did on my tail, but those teeth were still sharp, and he wasn't leaving me alone. So I kicked, and kicked him again. They would not get off me, GET OFF!

Then beside my for a split flash, I noticed those dark rings fly by once again. Then the shockwaves flew out, blasting the water around me and the fish away. We were caught for a split second out of the water, the Carvanha panicked and let go of my tail. I caught a glimpse of Zen who was falling as well, did he shoot the attack down into the water? I regained focus, and took my chance at hitting the prick as I fell. I slammed my fist on the top of its head, sending it crashing into the water.

As the lake closed up, the water flowing around me again like a storm. I took my chance though, while the fish pokemon was down, I needed to get out. I saw Zen had been looking, and once he saw I was okay he started moving his way to shore. I followed him and a much quicker pace. I overtook him, and was the first to get out of the water.

I ran up a few feet, turning around as Zen was getting out, "Hurry! Get away from the water!"

He had made his way out, and was now hopping to get away, but I noticed the Carvanha's fins making a mad dash through the water, straight at Zen.

"Zen look out!" I yelled.

Thankfully my plea worked, at least a little, Zen jumped just enough away to not get grabbed completely by the dark type. He did however catch Zen's front paw, and was trying to pull Zen back into the water. Zen thankfully had a good enough grip to keep himself in place.

"ARGH! DAMN IT LET GO!" Zen screamed out in a mixture of panic and anger.

I didn't even think, I bolted straight up to the fish pokemon, and bit down right onto it's back. The thing screamed just as Zen had and let go. In retaliation Zen followed, up by slashing the thing with his claws. I had let go just as he did, the fish landing into the water. I saw the pokemon about to move again, but ran up, and kicked the thing. Hard. It flew back a few feet, and took a splash in the water.

Zen and I quickly got ourselves out of the water, and back to dry land. I looked back to see the fish eyeing us, and then submerge itself back under. My breathing was fast, and I did my best to slow it down and calm down.

"You okay?!" I heard Zen yell right next to me.

It took me a second to realize what he had said, but then I replied, "Y-yeah… I'm pretty sure, are you?"

He looked at his paw, and I followed that as well. He had gotten a nasty bit on his paw, a bit of blood from where he was bit. He tested it out, making sure he could walk on it.

"Yeah, I'll be fine, I can still walk," he mentioned, then proceeded to lick the wound.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Cleaning it until Mucosa can take a look at it," he continued after answering.

"Oh, I see," I said.

I looked down at my foot. Thankfully got lucky, was really just a scratch. But my tail was a different story, I got bit as bad there as Zen did on his paw. I shot a cool stream of water back at it from my maw. I cringed from the pain, but this should be enough to clean it until Mucosa could look at it.

"Oh…" I heard Zen say.

"What?" I asked.

"Is your tail alright?" he asked.

"Uh… should be fine, I think," I replied.

"Oh good, uh… could you possibly, shoot some water on mine?" he asked.

"Oh uh, why?" I asked.

"It would be faster," he simply said.

"Oh uh, sure alright then," I agreed.

He held out his paw, and I made sure to be careful with the force of the water. The water landed on his paw, he cringed a bit, I would imagine it still stings being an open wound. After a minute I stopped, and he shook it around, inspecting it.

"Ah, that feels a bit better, for now at least," he said.

"That's good, you sure you're okay?" I asked again.

"Yep! I'm good to go," he said cheerfully.

"Well that's good… jeez, that pokemon was angry," I commented, doing another check at my tail.

"I probably went too strong with that attack, it probably disturbed it," Zen guessed.

"Yeah, maybe," I was inclined to believe, it made sense to me.

"Well, good job by the way, you caught the fish," Zen congratulated.

"Oh.. right, almost forgot," I laughed.

I got up, being careful with my tail, and walked over to the fish. Its squirming has died down, and I picked it up, thankfully wasn't dirty.

"Alright, we have the fish, now what do we do?" I asked.

"Well on the paper, our client is gonna meet us back at the guild, Rudy should be taking care of things if he beats us there, so let's head on," Zen said.

I noticed he was moving a bit slower than before as I followed him. It must've been the bite, if he got bit as bad as my tail got, which still was stinging right now, then he was feeling it too probably.

I asked some questions as we walked, "So are missions always like that? I usually don't have that many encounters with pokemon when I go hunting."

"I'm not really sure, I don't think it's always gonna be like that, but I've heard The Forces of Nature have dealt with such things too," Zen explained.

"Huh, so we wont be in situations like that too often?" I asked.

"Not really, at least I don't think. If we pick our missions right we shouldn't have any problems," he stated.

I lowered my head, "So, you didn't tell me you were that strong."

He turned back to me, "Huh?"

"You had that move, that was a big impact, you're actually really strong," I complimented.

He seemed to get a bit shy, smiling, "Oh haha, uh, it really wasn't anything big."

"Dude. You turned a lake into rain, how can you not call that big?" I asked.

"Well uh, hey you were great too you know, I can't fight like you can underwater, you've definitely got the advantage there, and you kicked that fish farther than Lazuli can bounce!" he argued back.

I tried to think of an argument, but failed, "Haha, alright, point taken."

We continued on our slow pace. To make sure the fish stayed fresh I shot it with water as I continued moving. We had been traveling for a while, and I was getting tired. We took a few times to stop and rest, getting in that fight took a lot out of us. We were careful with the bite marks, but they weren't really healing, so Mucosa would need to look at them.

"You doing okay?" I asked as I was walking.

"Yeah, so far so good, what about you?" he asked.

"I think I'm alright, the bite still stings, but it should be fine. We're almost there right?" I asked, not familiar with the distance and the time it takes.

"Well, we shouldn't be that much longer thankfully, we'll go to Mucosa as soon as we get there. How's the fish?" he asked.

"Fine, still kicking," I said.

That was all that was said for then. We traveled for a little while longer, I think it was late afternoon now, due to the sun starting to go down. Thankfully, I could see the giant guild tree in the distance.

"THERE!" I called out.

"Yep! Let's go!" Zen said.

We decided to close the distance with running, Zen I was surprised could still run even with his cut, but I guessed he'd be fine. We made it back to the gate, which was closed from the morning.

Zen walked up to the intercom-thing, "Rudy! We're back!"

"Zen! Heya! Good to see you two back! Opening the gate.".

The gate once again opened like before, and this time we went on inside on our own. The gate behind us shut closed, and when we got inside Rudy had rushed over. To see us.

"Hey how was your first-" she must have noticed us hurt 'cause she got panicked.

"Good grief - what happened!?" Rudy yelled out, running over to us, first inspecting Zen's paw, which had some blood on it outside of it's normal red fur shade, "Your paw, a-and your tail!?"

"It's okay Rudy, we got into a fight with a wild pokemon," Zen explained.

She looked over me, "Dax, are you okay as well?"

"Yeah, I'm okay, we fought it off," I said.

She gave a sigh of relief, "Well, that's good to hear… How'd your mission go?"

"Went great! We caught the fish we were supposed to catch with no… well, some problem but otherwise it worked out!" Zen smiled.

The Blaziken stifled a laugh, and rubbed the hair on top of Zen's head, "Well then, great job, now Zen, get you and your teammate to Mucosa, and I'll hold onto that fish 'til you guys get back from that, Dax."

She motioned for me to hand her the fish, and I complied.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it cool for the client 'til they come around, now as I said, nurses office," she repeated.

"Got it! Come on Dax," he said.

"Uh, right yeah!" I got up as well.

We all headed upstairs, the amazing Rudy heading over to her station where she cooked with the fish, while Zen and I headed over to Mucosa's. We walked inside to see her just sitting around.

"Hey Mucosa," Zen started.

"Oh hey Zen, you-" she stopped mid sentence, "What happened!?"

"Haha, we got into some trouble with a pokemon," Zen said.

"Alright, get up on the table, I'll get my stuff out," she said, fiddling with stuff she had around, such as bandages.

Zen jumped up on to the table with a bit of trouble, but still being able to make it, while I struggled to get up there, not really being suited for jumping. Mucosa walked around, and helped me onto the table.

"Alright, let's see here," she took a look over us, first at Zen's paw, then moving over to take a look at me.

"My word these bites, what did this?" she asked.

"A Carvanha, I'm sure it was one," I said.

"Yep, no mistaking it that was a Carvanha," Zen followed up with.

"Yeesh, I've heard those things are vicious, thankfully you guys got away from it," she said.

"No kidding, from what my parents told me they don't care about what they go after," I explained.

"Mhm, sounds about right," she finished up checking the wounds, and got the medicine ready, which was her goo if I recall. Gross.

"Now be prepared, this is definitely something that's gonna sting," she held onto my tail, getting ready to put the medicine on.

She applied it, and well, "AHHHH!" I screamed.

"Oh I'm sorry, I tried to warn you," she said.

"It hurts worse then it did before!" I yelled.

"Haha, I guess you've never had medicine before," she said.

"I haven't and- OUCH!" I tried to speak again but she put on more, it was only a dab but it stung SO BAD.

"Yeah, I remember my first time, you get used to it though," Zen said.

Mucosa began to bandage my tail now, "What is it even for?" I asked.

"It's make completely sure the cuts don't get infected, and we don't know what could possibly make you sick, so this is to make sure anything that could harm you, can't anymore," Mucosa explained.

"Oh… sorry," I said, not realizing I was out of place.

"Ah don't beat yourself up about it, I think everyone here has said the same thing," she said.

"Oh, well, alright," I said as she finished bandaging my tail. Looking back at it, it was wrapped tightly around the bites that the pokemon had put into me. I fiddled with it. I felt a bit of a sting as I did so, but at least it'd get better like she said.

She moved over to Zen next, and looked at his paw. She applied the medicine on, but I noticed Zen wasn't really reacting to the pain the medicine brought me. He was cringing a little, but it seems Mucosa was right, you get used to it. I felt annoyed it was so easy for Zen to take the pain though.

I gave a huff.

"Hm? You okay?" Zen asked.

"Uh, no it's nothing," I said embarrassed.

"Well I know we got hurt, but at least our first mission went well," Zen said.

"Oh it did?" Mucosa asked.

"Yep! Dax was able to catch the fish we were looking for in no time at all!" Zen explained.

"And then, that's when the Carvahna attacked?" she asked.

"Ahaha… yeah that was probably on me, I kinda shot the lake with an attack," Zen rubbed the back of his head.

"Welp, that's a learning experience I'd say, maybe try and find a way to not gain unnecessary attention?" she said.

"So come up with a better plan next time then?" I asked.

"There you go," Mucosa finished up Zen's bandages, "And yep, try different things, so hopefully something like this doesn't happen, or, hopefully something not worse than this."

"We'll be more careful next time," Zen promised.

"Please do try to," Mucosa said.

We headed out of the nurse''s office, and Zen decided that we'd wait on our client to show up. We told the astonishing Rudy what we'd do and she said she'd watch out for the client. We waited around for him to show up, but before that, the Cute Crew came back, and they seemed covered in dirt. Stella was kinda going off.

"Grr… Can't believe this nonsense," she said.

"Stella it's alright at least we got it back," Crystal said, holding what appeared to be a charm.

"Again! It's not that we didn't get it back, it's why was it in a dusty cave?! WHY WERE THEY IN THE CAVE?!" She yelled back.

Crystal gave a nervous laugh, "Haha, I'm really not- OH! Hey look Zen and Dax got back!"

"YAY! GUYS GUYS!" Lazuli screamed hopping over to us.

Zen waved, "Heya! How's it going you guys?"

"We got to go in a cave!" Lazuli said, he just like Crystal and Lazuli were covered in dust.

"Hey Dax!" Stella called out.

"Huh!? Uh, yes?" I asked.

"Do me a favor and shoot me with water, I don't feel like heading over to the lake right now," she said.

"Wait what uhhh," I stammered, a bit surprised.

"Look, just shoot me with water alright, that's all I want," she said.

I cocked my head and shrugged, she asked for it. So I shot water at her, enough to where she'd be soaked. Her fur was dripping wet, but the dust was gone. Her eyes were covered by the fur on her head.

"Thanks…" She gave an annoyed response.

"Uh… you're welcome?" I really didn't know if she was mad at me or not.

She shook as much water off as she could, "Anyways, now that that's over I can wait for dinner."

"Oh yeah guys! How'd your first mission go?" Crystal asked.

"It went great! Well minus the small bites," Zen said.

"Bites, you-oh?" Crystal noticed.

"AH! You guys got hurt! Nononono please say it isn't true!" Lazuli started freaking out.

"Lazuli we're fine, Mucosa patched us up," I tried to calm him down.

"Wait really? So you're not hurt?" he asked.

"Outside of some stinging, no it doesn't hurt," I said.

"YAY!" Lazuli bounced happily from the news.

"Well good to hear your first mission went alright, what happened to cause that though?" the Cleffa asked.

"We ran into a Carvahna," Zen said.

"Wait really?" Stella asked, "Good thing you handled it, I've heard bad things about them."

"No kidding, thing was able to pull me under the water so fast, thanks to Zen though we were able to get away," I said.

"You helped too though," Zen intervened.

"Zen! Dax!" We heard from the stairs.

Everyone looked over to see Rudy, "Your client is here."

Zen and I looked over to see, I believe that was a Talonflame, wearing a satchel bag around its neck... wait, A TALONFLAME!? Why did he need help catching a fish?!

"Heya! So you two got that fish for me huh?" he asked.

"Yep!" Zen called out as he walked over.

I was following behind him, "Uh, you're a Talonflame right?"

"Indeed I am, name's Barret," He greeted.

"I'm Dax, but why did you need help catching a fish?" I asked.

"Haha, I must admit it's quite embarrassing," He held a wing behind his head.

"I'm Zen by the way, and yeah, why did you need help? You seem like you could be able to catch the fish," Zen questioned as well.

"Well, that is what I usually do, but the only problem is that the fish seemed to know what I was doing, and kept deep under the water, so I couldn't exactly go in and fish for it," the Talonflame explained.

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense," I said back.

"Speaking of the fish, let me get it for you," offered the bewildering Rudy.

She walked over for a moment, and got the fish. She came back.

"Here you go sir," she said.

"Thank you very much, especially thanks to you two for getting me this," he said.

"Hey, it's no problem," I said.

"No problem at all!" Zen said.

"And here's this, almost forgot," he put his head into his bag, and pulled out a little pouch.

"Here you go you two," he set it down on the ground, then took the fish from Rudy, and put it in his bag.

I picked up the bag, "Wow, thanks."

"Thanks sir!" Zen said.

"Don't mention it, well I'll see you guys if I ever need anything," Barret then opened his wings, and took off from the floor we were on.

"Wish I could bounce that high," I heard Lazuli said.

"No, no you don't," I overheard crystal.

"Hey Dax, mind if I see that?" Rudy asked.

"Uh, sure," I handed her the coin pouch.

She opened it and seemed to be counting, "Alright, that's two hundred for you two to keep."

"So, this is the cut you mentioned?" I asked.

"Yep, we take about, well ninety percent of what you earn per mission, again I'm sorry about that," Rudy said.

I shook my head, "It's fine really, I don't really need money anyways, well, actually we might need it for missions, so let's save up."

"Yeah, here I'll give it to Sly to put in my account," Zen said.

"Oh alright," I handed him the bag, which he grabbed in his mouth and ran off.

"Really good job out there Dax," Rudy said.

"Oh uh, thanks," I said, not really sure how to continue.

"I'm glad he was finally able to get a team, makes me happy," Rudy said.

"Really?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yep, ah I'm rambling aren't I, you go have fun with the others, I'll get to work on dinner."

"Oh uh, alright then, see ya!" I said.

"Ciao," she replied.

She went back to cooking, and I went over to see the Cute Crew again, I sat with them as I saw Zen coming back upstairs, talking to the Forces of Nature. Seems he was excited to tell everyone about our first mission, and I think I was happy about it too. I just joined and my first mission was a success, that was something to be proud of right?

Zen came back over to us, happy as ever, and after a long first day, we decided to wait until dinner alongside the Cute Crew, discussing our days to one another til dinner. Safe to say by night fall, I think it will take me seconds to go back to sleep, and boy did I want it.

Author's note: Thanks to Luanastar for the beta read of Chapter 3, and all others who have helped me with creating this story. And thanks to all of you who take the time to read this story. I wish you all a good day or night