Zoey: I'm gonna write the chapter this time around. -cracks knuckles-
Me: You don't know how to write... or read, for that matter. Hweh.
Zoey: Yes I do!
Me: -spins out of spinny chair; out of sight, out of mind-
Zoey: -clacks on keys for awhile- Ah... -admires work- This chapter's gonna be so pretty and junk!
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Chapter 4: Housing Plans
My leafy green hand clutches Zoey's wet, white arm. If I go, she's coming. I don't want another accident with that tall and gray timburr again. He's kind of like a shadow, or a mountain... Zoey, on the other hand, is hardly much higher than I am. I oddly find the soggy mammal comforting at this time. Her oval eyes stare my direction, but the wet bipedal doesn't stop me. She skips towards the figures I had seen behind the timburr in clunky, dark blue feet. Thus, my lightweight is dragged on her leisure stroll. "Hey! Hey you guys! You're making us a house!" she squeals loud enough for the pair of fluffy timburrs to easily hear. "You got that? Now that we've got it established, let's get it all started! Woo-hoo!"
The shadowy-furred pokemon blinks, the one Quagsire called... Tim, was it? He doesn't seem to talk much. Instead, his brown friend proves to be responsive. "Yeah, I'd take you tiny adorable guys any day!" I think he would get along better with Zoey than myself. The oddly boisterous attitude clashes with the bruises sprinkled about his brown fur. Oddly, the same scratches don't seem to transfer over his partner, darker hues or not. Perhaps the cumbersome-appearing Burr fell in a thorn bush or hole on a walk. Doesn't have to mean anything serious pertained upon him. That's crazy. Crazy.
Proving to be of sure response, unlike me, the dark-furred Tim quickly utters a "come with us" and strides back, closer to the wooden structure looming on behind. Burr shares a glance with the oshawott stuffed against me and follows his darker friend. I quickly move my tiny feet to catch up with the furry characters. Tim's nearly-black blue eyes dart in my direction for a moment; he blinks and turns back around like it was nothing. But my heart threatens to stop from the movement. The dark orbs are unnatural in my sight. Must be my pale, dried composure. Like a dead flower of sorts. Zoey ambles on past me, quick to catch up to her new, er, friend, as I stumble onward.
A tall sheen of lumber smacks into my face. Too far behind, the door had slowly closed until it nearly shut in my face. Once my auburn eyes dare to peek open again, I wince. Splinters in my face. Biting bits of wood prick and prod the scales littered along my face, but the outburst is majorly quick to shake off. Shoving splinters out of the niches between scales, I brush past tropical blue, noticeably sopping, wet fur and stop. Plucking the last of the chippings, I glance warily at the being in front of me.
Like the timburrs, this pokemon also radiates of power. He has dense gray fur, thicker and tougher than Tim's. A pair of dark-colored eyes glare down upon me. Even thicker, curly dark hair the same color as his fur erupts from his head in wayward directions. A black, round nose lay on his face. The large beastly pokemon has a large, broad body and muscular arms. Like the smaller timburr, pairs of pink ringlets -these more a magenta- circle his arms. The color also appears on his forearms, chest, and puffy legs. He must be Gurdurr, the sire Quagsire spoke of earlier. "Whaddaya want, kids?" An unstable color lingers in his eyes. "What are you, mute? I said speak. I have places to go, places to be..." The hard color sharpens over the bottle in his hands...
Zoey swipes a glance at me, her gaze relaxing on my widened eyes. "Well, I'm Zoey!" The oshawott takes over for me. Thank you, Zoey. I can't believe I'm thanking you, but apparently I am. "And this is Llana!" Her white, wet hand makes contact with my scrawny, yellow shoulder and droplets leak down my arm. I stiffen, trying to delete a shiver from my body. "We need you to build a place for us! Heard you were the best at this kinda junk, too." Flattery. I trust he falls for the overdose of sugar.
"Some scrawny little weaklings, I see," Gurdurr snorts. Funny how, like Quagsire, he doesn't use his own name. The gray and burly mammal easily crosses his muscled arms and leans in, his dark gaze sweeping across me, then the blue water mammal loitering nearby. "Humph. This'll do fine, I'd say." The burly creature snorts a second time, backing up. I take in a breath. He reeks of some sort of berry juice, easier to see as he looms this closely. "Get me some fine treasures and I'll build you yer oh-so-needy home. Seems ya don't got much, judging by the penniless look there, so go find Stony Cave on some map or another. Check there. Heard they had crap like that somewhere."
Zoey nods, giggling. "Great! Will do! Be right back~!" Her wet, cold fingers latch onto mine. The oddly chilling water stings, but I stay quiet about it. She hops past the clearing of Post Town with the tents and rude villagers and releases only once we stand within the sandy road between Paradise and Post Town. It's quite convenient to have this oversized plot not too many steps from a shopping area, even if the villagers don't seem to like us.
A speck of sand hurtles into my face, reminding me just how premiere the orange wasteland is.
To our left, a long, tall map stands, nailed heavily to a thick board digging into the ground like its own splinter. It is covered in colors- juices from berries splattered and altered to appear as landscapes: Mystery Dungeons. Those places Zoey told me about, and that I've seen some of. The map is torn between many diverse colors. An overwhelming sandstorm has taken over most of the colors: dull yellow stains the midst of Truught. We aren't too far from it. Rimmed around are tall trees, leaving no light above a portion of the sand land. A large quantity bushes around the top-left edge of the map. A volcano erupts in the middle; a bright orange path leads up to it from a long distance away. Mountains cover the rest of the areas. Sticking out like spikes- some tall, some short. Many different cool colors. Rock formations. Like a trail, they lead downwind, a small, green path traced amongst the spiked hills. And nestled within the small hill of Ragged Mountain and a stony cavern with blue diamond speckles is Post Town. Directly to the side is a barren wasteland: Paradise. We live in the small bottom-left corner of the map.
A white finger masses the blue-speckled, cavernous mountain. "This is Stony Cave!" Zoey squeaks, her dark blue tail flicking restlessly. "We gotta go a bit foreword, then we'll find this cave mountain thingy! Then we go down a lot, and voila! Presto! We get diamonds! Blue ones!" The furry water creature stops pointing at the cave and rubs her wet paws together. "This is great! Us, as our own team!" She smiles at me. My expressionless face does not react, but I get the feeling my eyes are betraying my emotions. What those could be, I don't know. "So we get like a ton of blue gems and then bust outta there..."
Zoey grabs my arm again. I don't protest in my usual flinch this time, since I have no idea how to interpret the wet one's directions to the Mystery Dungeon. She pulls me and her long feet through a short path of green grass to the north. Shadows loom around; I glimpse upwards to find mountainous rocks overhead nearly blotting out the sun. The rocks are high enough to fit rows of dragon pokemon each flying above the other. Eventually, the dragging on my arm ceases. A hole in the rocks yawns against me, brushing out cool air. Small glimmers spark from the entrance. "Yep, I thought it was nearby. Let's go, Llana! Don't leave me lonely, Llanaaaa!" Giggling, the water mammal struts on toward the cavernous region.
The water mammal takes her time crawling into the gap of black yawning in front of us- the entrance. I watch in near-horror as her white face darkens, her tropical ocean body slipping from view next. Suddenly afraid, I skid for the cave. Soon enough, the stilled, cool air surrounds me. I slowly blink, and release a sudden sigh of relief. The cave isn't a dark room like Ragged Mountain. This land... what is this land called? "Where... are we?" I shyly murmur, my head dipping to the ground. I can see speckles of what appears to be ground up gems in the cavern material.
"Whaddaya mean, where are we?"
It appears I have to elaborate. She is forcing me to talk. "...Here."
"Looks like I'll have to give ya the Mystery Dungeon talk, then." She winks my way, eye brightening, not even questioning my tendency to stay silent. "Well, you know we live in Truught, which is pretty much giant-desert-surrounded-by-trees-by-mountains. Woo-hoo. Trouble land. Anyways, Mystery Dungeons are these creepy cool places filled with mysterious power that only live in Truught. They really mess your mind up. So... let's go see what this'll do!"
My gaze turns from the ground in time to watch a white head bumble into the wall. "Owwie! That didn't work how I thought it would!" She prances around, screaming wildly, before allowing a calm composure to seep back in, smiling back at me. "And that's a Mystery Dungeon." I will learn more when we fall into it rather than allow Zoey to try and elaborate.
To forget about the bruise on her head, I stare around the cavern area Zoey and I are in. Holes from wherever else the other entrances are filter enough light in the Mystery Dungeon. It's just enough for the surroundings to be seen, but not brightly. The room we are in reveals a few key exits: a single corridor out, and a nearly identical one to the side. Zoey's large blue feet carry her into an opening, her dark blue ears swishing with the movement. I dash after her, rather being lost with her than without.
We set off a brisk trot, the naïve mammal skipping ahead. The corridors we hustle through glimmer of ground-up gems, and all carry the identical trait of light gray walls. Zoey babbles as she scampers. "Did you know not very many lands have Mystery Dungeons? I heard they're, like, sacred. It's when a 'sacred' place gets mystical by something unknown and super mysterious. Then that place has a lot of odd aspects. None of them are the same though. Like some have warp rooms, other spawn random enemies with dead brains, like completely dead brains, and others hand out items." Her muddy brown nose wrinkles in disgust. "And we heal fast sometimes. Weird, ain't it? So we live in sacred land! ...But it spreads, too..." Zoey sighs. I can imagine her river blue eyes clouding in thought. "So maybe it's more like we live in a cursed land. I dunno. I never really go in these."
Me neither, Zoey. From searching the map, I was reluctant to decide that the main land Gerald and I frequently stuck to was the mountain range circling the outskirts of the desert overtaking the majority of Truught. I don't think I've actually been there, though.
It doesn't take much more of a trot before Zoey gathers her steps far ahead of me again. But this eventually reels in my advantage, as she finds our prize much faster than my pace could've.
"Llana! Llana! Llana, come see this! Over here!" The voice is aspired, but contains the squeak. I listen for the voice's direction, and slowly continue foreword on soft feet. "Llana! This here!" A glowing pathway tinged in blue erects from the nearby sprig of rock stuck to the hard-packed ceiling that happens to be shining. Blue minerals sparkle enticingly throughout the concoction. A white paw tugs at a noticeably large piece. A dim crack; the gem scatters onto the floor. Drop, drop; other, smaller bits follow. The white paw slaps at the gems, gathering each part together. She smiles at the glowing pieces. "And we're out. Incognito." I nod, not wanting to encounter any of the enemies Zoey speaks so highly against, especially after the geared creature, that klink, from Ragged Mountain prior.
We have to scale back up the corridor. Once again, with Zoey still in the lead. I keep an eye on her bobbing tail, certain not to let her out of my sight again. I keep behind and watch Zoey's large feet clamber over rocks that lead higher into the mountain; rocks we had walked down earlier. Our movements are up, up, up. We scale over walls and stones that lead further to the earth. Light shows more fluent on the rock. And holes- the entrances from above or under. Finally, the large dip and the doubled corridors lead us away from the crooked and holey chambers, fixating my nerves into ease.
Zoey clambers on with an air of excitement dancing over her floppy feet. She desperately tromps throughout the grassy mounds, white arms outstretched and shivering with the weight of steadily dropping blue gems, like rain. I often stoop over and pluck the ones she's accidentally lost in her mad dash until the water mammal's speeds of utter need escape my own and I can hardly see her watery silhouette whatsoever.
By the time I reenter the small, darkly-situated Post Town, what I assume to be nearly every gem other than a meager few have transferred to myself as a yellow entity barges into me and, of course, sends my sorry and tiny-boned self reeling. The blue gems transfer into his own yellow scales and his doubled legs dash on, quickly ramming into the somewhat-taller oshawott, who squeals at such touch.
"Sorry, wimp!" With another misplaced and weakly-filled cackle, the bipedal clods on with what I assume to be the majority, if not all, of the blue sapphires we had collected from Stony Cave. An odd impulse presses down into my pressure points as if threatening to catch him, but judging by how many gems Zoey lost, she must still have hold of one or another of sparse crystals we can hand off to the big, scary gurdurr whose name is unknown to us. We should be fine.
As if on cue, a large, hairy being looms ahead, calmly clomping closer to us, a sickly-scented bottle resting firmly in one paw. "Hmm." He titters at our sight, as if we're the ones drinking the fermented stuff in the jar. "Looks like you've decided to show up without pay, eh?" His leering tone suggests... "Come back. I'd like to see you try again."
My eyes dart to the oshawott staring up at the shadowy adult. With furled fists, she struggles to mumble a reply between what appears to be empty hands.
Her hands are empty. She was too excited and didn't notice that...
Something inside of me bursts. How dare he... how dare that yellow... that scraggy... he... that...
Then again... this is Post Town. Of course someone robbed us.
"Oi, snivy! You too... Tim, what was her name again? Yeah. The one freaking stuffed with wate- Ohhh! Zoey. Yeah. Zoey!" I soon find our sorry presences interrupted by the lanky timburrs, their bipedal forms like shadows in front of us. Shadows, perhaps, but they smile nicer than their boss. Although Tim doesn't smile. Burr's brown face offers a kind enough expression, despite forgetting both our names.
"Yeah, yeah... you guys. Zoey and the snivy who, uh, sorry, but I like forgot your name." Burr beams at this, an awkward and wavering mark. His bruises are dominant in sight when he does so. "Uh... our boss was trying to rob you guys of gems... he's been doing that lately to a lot of good people... I dunno. It just ticks me off and you guys are girls and that is disrespectful to all of freaking humanity to rob some girls of their treasure and... uh... blah blah blah, we know where the scraggy's going with our boss. Let us take you there!"
Zoey steps up to the suggestion and juts out her white-furred chin, smiling thickly. "Uh, totally, creepy timburrs! I got nothin' better to do!" And there goes my apparent partner again, rattling off and sending me into some bad conditions that could kill us all. But again, Zoey is all I have.
"...Snivy." A darker tone. The second timburr is staring at me with those dark orbs. I fall back a step or so. He's... really shady, even if Burr trusts him. "Yes... you. Do you agree with this?"
"Llana." I can't stand them calling me "snivy" much longer. I have a name...
"Llana..?" The dark tone cuts at me.
Sadly, along with the attention mobbing me, now I have to talk longer. "Me. That's me... and I'm fine... I'm fine with whatever Zoey says." He blinks at this, Tim, but doesn't go on. A sense of relief ices over my startled heart.
And then the tall, guard-like timburrs shove themselves past us in the opposing direction. Zoey and I suddenly find ourselves chasing after the furry and dark-looking males, our stubby or irregular feet reducing to hindrances. The grassy pathway weeds along slugmaly, almost looking similar to a carefree road leading us somewhere happier, if none else. Eventually, the northern path is left behind as Burr veers a sharp left, his brown, smudgy fur melding into a shadowy territory: the perfect lair to smuggle treasure, in fact.
The timburrs eventually halt to the front of a shadowy, foggy tower. A leaning tower. Similar to a mountain, with footholds and entrances in and outside, but more smooth. A purple twinge mixes with the metallic gray of the tower. There are also smooth walkways, leading in and out of the open holes to the air. It appears those places aren't as mixed with the mystery that turns lands into Mystery Dungeons, because the paths are well-trodden, orderly, and the only ways out of certain areas to the Mystery Dungeon and another into the path onward. The small hole is our only entrance to the Hazy Pass. And somehow a lug like Gurdurr had fit inside.
"Oh right!" Zoey squeaks, slapping her face with a white, wet paw. "This totally means we're all buddy-buddy now! I've made a whole trio of friends after I lost-" She breaks off. The silence only details and derails her intention to voice. "Uh... ever since I got all lonely and Llana showed up, that is!" No one seems to link with her lie. It doesn't pull us in. Zoey splutters at the three of us, her cheeks flaming.
"Eh, I'd consider it friendship. Even though sni- er, Llana, takes up all the attention." Unsure how to react to Burr's comment, I blink furiously at him and turn away from my apparent teammates.
And I softly blink toward the ground another time. A plan forms. I decide to create a small moment of peace for me to plan. Not only will I capture a moment to gather myself in front of the others, but I can scout ahead. Learn what is coming at us. I quietly watch Zoey, waiting for her to be enough distracted. Once she snorts over a topic, I spring to life. My feet skid over the soil. I jump into the small hole, easily sliding back out. I land face-first on hard rock. It rubs against my scales painfully in rashes. I slugmaly lift off the ground, dusting my scales off. Particles of orange sand flit from my body and land in the rough ground. I watch such grubby flooring and the entrails dusted amongst it. It is a deep, ragged purple, along with the walls and corridor exits of this Mystery Dungeon. The floor appears to be almost wounded, with the rough scratches covering the ground like stubborn battle scars. The ravaged tail stuck to my behind stiffens in agreement to the pain of these markings.
Noises behind. My... teammates, I hope. I stiffen, but it seems inevitable to stay for them. Unwise to amble along and get myself killed by those spawned enemies I keep hearing about.
First sets off a silent land. His shadowed fur. I give a small nod to Tim. He has his hands clasped against a rectangular chunk of wood. it appears to have red encrusted on the sides, making my stomach squeeze in a short pang of a chunky, churning sort of horror. I try to forget the fighting he must have done and glance back at the ground. Studying the earth beneath me is one of my usual attributes because I know the soil can't be angry at me. It does not die on me or grow depressed. It simply is.
Chattering is a buzz in the background. Voices can be made out. A snicker. "Wow, Hazy Pass is sure purple!" a female voice squeaks. Zoey. That could only be she and her ocean-tinted, slippery accent. She and a heavier set of feet thud from the hole. She and Burr have arrived. I wait furthermore and let her white body slip past me and scurry to the corridor opposite to our standing; I wait furthermore for Burr's brown body to sneak past, to follow the wet mammal in. I hear my feet quietly tap, tap against scarred ground, to be the next in line. The final pokemon to our group settles in behind me. His dark blue gaze travels behind us, watching for enemies from behind. His log eventually leans against the wall and creates a sudden scccrrrrape noise. My heart thuds painfully fast, remembering the wood. Just wood.
A medium-pitched squeal. A kick. Rushing water shot against noiseless breaths of wind. I can't see past Burr's brown head, but can hear him hitting... something. Zoey's foot makes a squishing noise, its large amount most likely stepping on an enemy. A moan. Burr's dusty brown chunk of rectangular wood raises above his dark head, and swings downward. Any cry of enemy pain stops short. A cough. Burr's feet lift as he carefully maneuvers around the fainted enemy. Now it's my turn. A flash of blue head. Oval-shaped. I stare up at the purple ceiling and attempt forgetting the broken, bloodied entrails as I swoop out from the chamber and prattle onward.
The dark, open doorway yawns out to us. The beings ahead step through the gaping entrance. I speed up until the night light is surrounding me. The miniature sunset gone now. Stars poking through the sky at us. I walk upwards on the dungeon's gray path, slowly climbing higher up the treetops. Further, farther out. A new, nearly identical doorway, opening out to me; swallowing me up and tugging back inside the Mystery Dungeon, where purple walls and purple floors stay.
After scaling further through this narrowed passage, a newer, higher doorway opens up to us. A boulder blocks the sky view, large, round and deep gray. I shove past the other pokemon and push myself behind the oversized rock. Other bodies collect beside me. A voice from further out past the boulder. A deep, dark voice full of menacing truth grunts, almost as of thinking. As if... methodical. The shady gurdurr knows what he's doing as a yellow-scaled scraggy lugs himself toward the thick, smoky male and deposits the glittering gems. "H-here, Boss," he grumbles. This, too, is near methodical in speak.
Like a play. This has all happened plenty of times before. We've stumbled over a harvest of wrongdoings.
"Ah, yes, Scraggy." Yet another pokemon without use of his name. "Thank you for that. But next time, really. Be more discreet with your thievery. Anyone with a new glance could've been able to tell what you were doing... especially Mary." I jolt. That's the swanna. The prettily-finned pokemon smiling warmly our way through her honey-blonde bill. She... she would disagree with the robbing, then? Perhaps Zoey should take me there once. I would like to know more of this creature, if such is true.
Scraggy mutters a response that most likely follows along the lines of listening to his boss. "Good, good. Now that Truught is so tattered, may as well play along and do what we can to live. If pokemon are gonna be jerks..." A gleam crawls into his murky eyes. "We may as we-"
With that, a brown body leaps out of our hiding, a log in tow. His gleaming blue eyes filled with hate. "How could you?" He screeches at Gurdurr, letting his hate lie in thick, unable to catch runny emotions as he's hidden in front of the boulder where we can't see. "Dude, so what if the world is messed up?!" His growl gives away the want Burr has to strangle his boss. I can only assume his eyes display the same. "You're not supposed to give in!" Hard footsteps. "You're never supposed to give in!"
Tim climbs over the boulder and sits on the top. He watches the enemy, his hand curled in a fist. The gray fingers placidly tap against the boulder. A shroud of boulders flit from the sky, crashing down and down on the enemies in utter destruction. I watch with wide auburn eyes at the fight. The numerous round objects hurtle at the foes, crushing Scraggy in a simple snap. I hear a thick, breaking noise. A yellow fist flashes; the boulder crumbles to dust. Replaced by a shaky brown hole, leading down into the roots of the Mystery Dungeon. Burr glares down into the hole, but makes no attempt of pursue.
From the other edge of the paired doorway, boulders hide the gray body of Gurdurr. A flit of red hints at the hunk of metal each gurdurr has: his girder. He smashes the boulders away with a flick of the wrist. I feel a wet body race to the enemy. With no plan, I follow Zoey towards the creature that had tricked us. He is flexing, looks ready to kill easily. I suck in a breath of air and send out a pair of vines. Each leafy whip lashes out at the opponent. I push back my worries and force the vines to hit harder, lash deeper, slip faster. A spurt of water erupts from Zoey's outstretched jaws.
Behind, a boulder sweeps from the side of me, smacking Gurdurr in his muscular chest. To my surprise, the great beast falls, coughing hysterically. His chest clutches as he hacks in his arm. "S-stop," his deep voice manages, before shakily coughing once more. "No..n-" The smoky- and curly-furred pokemon's eyes are glazed in agonizing overflows of pure, visceral pain. He rolls over to reveal a thin, long scar on his back, overlapping his rib cage nastily. Immediately, the smaller timburr bounces by his side, mumbling against the actions put to his chest and pumping through puffy, brown paws.
A yellow-scaled mongrel sneaks out from under our grasps quickly, eyes shaded and voice crackling.
"Boss..." mumbles the brown timburr, "why did you stop listening to your own words?"
Our group huddles in silence as the gray character breaths thickly and heavily in vain attempts to recapture his breath. He's... older, now, older than some. This must be backbreaking work to try and fight against opponents like us, much younger.
"I stopped because there was no point in it. No joy. You've seen Post Town." Gurdurr downloads another lengthy bit of air, his chest pounding. But his voice is stabler, thicker. Heavier. I never realized how old the furry biped was. "Why the heck did you try to stop me this time around?"
Tim, who's eaten silence for quite a time, speaks up again through his low and lacerating tone as it encompasses upon the group, sending shivers down our spines:
"If scrawnier beings like Llana are believing against the hate stuffing up every last bit of land, then why shouldn't we?"
Another hush swabs up the cliff we overhang on with the outcroppings. He has a point, truly.
"We need to try, if we want happiness. They're trying." Tim flings a shady hand toward Zoey and myself. The oshawott's eyes have drowned their little, blue sockets with shimmery tears. She wasn't kidding about her awkward emotions. "We can try. You can try."
The large, shadow-like creature sits limp on the ground. "Fine, then. You've convinced me. These runts need all the help they can get. We're strong." He grunts at this. "Mary would be happy to know about this, too... agh, fine. Fine, then. It's settled.
"I'll make you the stupid house already."
Me: OH right! Truught is pronounced "Truhht". The two "u"s make an "uh" sound. One syllable. I got the word from tough materials, since the land of Truught is made of tough survival stuff. Like a volcano, some glaciers, a giant desert, and mountains!
Zoey: YAY TRUUGHT!
Llana: Are you from Truught?
Zoey: CAN'T TELL YA THAT HEHEHEHEHEH.
Me: … ewell Really Zoey.