CHAPTER 2
Serene Village
"Well, here we are. Home sweet home!" Aprie stretches out his hands, relieved. "Come on in Miles, make yourself at home."
"T-Thank you. It's awfully kind of you to let me rest here, Aprie."
"Don't sweat it. You can stay here as long as you like! A kid like you with no memories...that's a call for danger! Although..."
Miles looks at Aprie in confusion, curious as to what he was thinking about.
"Hmmm. It might be suspicious for an Eevee like you to be suddenly out here. Let's see...I'll have to enrol you to the school here, then."
"School? ...Er, okay," Miles tilts his head. "School...where did I hear that before...?"
Aprie, noticing the Eevee's confusion, pipes up. "School is a place for kids like you to learn! I'll go ahead and enroll you ASAP. In the meantime, there's a haybed in the room over there," Nuzleaf points to the next room. "The kitchen's over here - don't eat all the berries when I'm gone." he intructs. Miles nods.
"And don't go outside! We still don't know where those Beheeyem went. We don't want to cause ruckus at the town."
Again, Miles nods. Aprie waves off as he heads out the door, and the Eevee immediately flops down to bed, not minding the bed of hay - it was pretty comfortable, despite how it looks.
Miles shuts his eyes, thinking to go for a nap. The events of today made his head spin, and the 'Mystery Dungeon' they traversed drained him out. He'll have to ask what exactly a mystery dungeon is from Aprie later, but all Miles wants to do now is take a big snooze.
Around ten minutes later, he is awoken by a sudden crash by the window, followed by murmuring of pain. Cautious, the Eevee heads for the scene. Was it the Beheeyem...? Did they find him...?
"Hello!" a head pops out from outside, causing Miles to fall back, shrieking in surprise.
"Oh, I'm sorry! Didn't mean to surprise you like that," the strangers scratches its head in apology, but Miles still backs away in fright.
"Oh no, no! It's okay!" the Pokemon assures. "I'm your neighbor! I saw Mr. Aprie come back a while ago with you, so I thought I'd say hi! Although...I guess I woke you up from hitting my head on the window frame, he he..." the Pokemon says sheepishly.
Miles observes the stranger - a blue, canine-esque Pokemon. The black mark on its face made it look like a mask, and the ears looked floppy. Behind, Miles noticed a thick tail, slightly bent at the tip.
"I've never seen an Eevee before! What's your name?" the Pokemon asks bluntly. Miles slowly relaxes as he sits up, still cautious of the Pokemon.
"It's...uh...Miles."
"Miles huh? I'm Rafael! But everyone calls me Raf. I'm a Riolu!" Raf raises his arms up, as if to say hi.
"Is...is that so..?"
"Yep! As I said, I live next door with my pops," he points at the house behind him. "And you? Are you Mr. Aprie's child or something?"
"N-No..." Miles ponders for a bit, searching for an answer. "He's...he's my uncle! Yeah, my uncle."
"Uncle, huh? I didn't know Mr. Aprie had a family! He always seemed to keep for himself most of the time," the Riolu stops to think. "Oh well. C'mon! Since you're new here, I'll show you around town!"
"I...I don't think..."
"Come on! I'm not taking no for an answer!" he interrupts. Sighing in defeat, Miles jumps up and out the window, now face to face with the Riolu.
"This way!" he runs off, and Miles chases after him, albeit very tired.
"So here's the town," Raf stops at the center, and presents the town to Miles. "Serene Village is quite small, but we have everything we need! Right there is Mrs. Kanga's cafe...right there is the Kecleon shop...over there's the Slam School, then the Locksmith is over there," he points at a weird - key ring like Pokemon, and then blabbers on. "The theatre's there, ooh...and over there's the Glorious Gold!"
Miles seemed impressed by Raf's chatter...which seemed to go on and on and on.
"And down that road..." he points to a path beside the cafe. "Is the Serene Village school!" he exclaims in excitement. "Didja get all that Miles?"
"Ye-Yeah...I think i got it all..."
"Well then up next is -"
"Hold it, young man!" by the voice, both Miles and Raf squeak in surprise. The Riolu slowly turns around cautiously, face to face with a quite irritated looking turtle.
"Ee! H-Hiya, pops!" the Riolu flashes a grin, which only intensified the turtle's glare, sending shivers down Miles' spine.
"Don't 'hiya pops' me! Don't you have chores to do, young man?!" he bellows out. Raf nervously laughs.
"W-Well, I was about to do them, but then I saw Mr Aprie come in and -"
"No excuses! Go back home and do your chores!"
"Yes sir!" with a quick glance and wave at Miles, the Riolu rushes back to his house.
"That kid sometimes..." the Pokemon, who Raf called his pops, muttered under his breath. He takes notice of Miles and raises an eye.
"Hm? And who might you be?" he looks at the Eevee.
"U-U-Um...hi?"
"Miles, there you are!" the Eevee sighs in relief with the voice of Aprie, headed toward his direction. "I was worried when I came back and didn't find you anywhere!"
"Hmmn? Aprie, this your kid?" the turtle asked.
"E-Eh, not really, Mon. H-he's..." right then, Miles mouths the word 'nephew' to him.
"Nephew! He's my nephew! Isn't that right Miles?" the Eevee nods in reponse. the turtle shrugs, giving Miles a pat on the head.
"Is that so? Nice to meet you then, Miles, was it? I hope Rafael didn't cause you trouble. That Riolu is a bit of a hardhead sometimes. A bit more and this Carracosta's going to loose his shell!"
"N-No, not really, Mr...Carracosta, sir. Raf was just...showing me around!" Miles assures.
"Call me Mon, from here on. Anyway, I have things to do. See you around!" and with that, the Carracosta waves off.
Once out of sight, Aprie lets out a sigh of relief.
"Well, now that Mon knows, the whole town will catch wind. Guess we'll have to keep this uncle-nephew thing up, huh?" Aprie scratches his head.
"Yeah...I guess so," Miles replies.
"Let's head back then. Your first day of school is tomorrow. Might be a bit easier since you already know Raf," Aprie says. Miles nods in response, yawning from the events today.
And so they both head back to Aprie's home, Miles immediately knocked out, asleep.
Later that night, somewhere on the outskirts of the village...
"Are you certain about this?" a dark figure quietly asks, another figure next to him nodding.
"Positive. I'm sure about it. Leave it to me." the figure responds.
"I'll go report this to the others, then to the boss. We'll see how this plays out."
"Very well."
The cold night breeze drifts, seemingly innocent, yet the threat of darkness, imminent.
"The time has almost come..."
I'm having fun writing this story. I hope you guys like it so far! Anyways, the next chapter will probably be longer, but I'll upload that along with chapter 4.
Additionally, there were a few grammar/spelling errors in the previous chapters. I've updated them; please tell me if there are others you've noticed.
I bid adieu!
