A short time later two pokémon wearily climbed out of the surf onto the beach. "Ugh… here we go again." Kai muttered, weighed down by her waterlogged fur and her paws quickly caking with sand. Blade spared her a sympathetic glance and then checked on his treasure for what had to be the hundredth time. She followed his gaze and after a moment asked, "Okay, so out of sheer curiosity, why's that thing so important to you?"

Blade ducked his head sheepishly. "This is my relic fragment. At least… that's what I call it." They started walking away from the tide's edge as he continued. "See, I really like legends and such, and I love hearing tales from far-away places and the past. It's so mysterious and exciting. Relics and treasure and uncharted places…" He waved aimlessly with his unoccupied paw, the look in his eyes making Kai smile. "So… when I found this relic fragment, on this beach, actually, it inspired my dream to become an explorer. Look at the design on it."

He stopped for a moment so she could get a good look, using the very last rays of the sun to see. Faint white lines swirled around the one flat face of the rock, forming a circular pattern with shapes and swirls extending from it. "Okay, that's… actually pretty cool."

They started walking again, Blade taking a slight lead. "I think… this fragment is the key to something," he said. "Maybe to a legendary place; maybe to precious treasure; maybe both!" His expression then saddened. "I wanted… want to join an exploration team, so I could figure out what it belongs to. I was trying to do that earlier today, actually, but…" he sighed, "…I was a coward, as usual. No matter what I do, but I can't seem to work up the courage to join the guild."

"Guild?"

He looked confused at her question, but quickly adopted a 'oh yeah, duh' expression. "Wigglytuff's Guild. They train exploration teams to search for treasure and help pokémon that need it. I often see members around town, and sometimes I hear stories from them." His smile returned briefly. "I tried to join as an apprentice, but… I got scared and ran, and came down to the beach. And then I found you."

He blinked as occurred to him, and started talking again before she could come up with a response. "Kai, what are you going to do? You don't have anywhere or anyone to go to, do you?"

"Uh…" Kai came to a halt as her brain attempted to come up with an answer. 'Well, no, I actually hadn't thought about that.' "I… guess not. Is there a human settlement around here? Maybe I'll recognize someone."

Blade winced. "Kai..." he began, and then shuffled his feet, staring down at them, "the reason I didn't think you were human… is because no one has ever seen a human before. They don't live anywhere I've ever heard of."

And what the heck was she supposed to say to that?

Blade hastily waved his paw. "I believe you now, really! It's just…"

"Don't worry about it." Kai said, her mouth twisting into a half-smile. "Considering everything, I think you took that considerably better than I would have."

They rounded a curve in the path, and Kai began navigating the steps with very deliberate movements.

"…Kai?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… This is kinda sudden, but…" Blade had turned to face her and shifted uncomfortably again. His next words came out in a rush. "Do you want to form an exploration team with me?"

Kai blinked.

"I think we could be a really good team," Blade continued, apparently blurting out whatever came to mind. "We could solve the secret to my relic fragment. Maybe we can learn where you came from and why you turned into a pokémon." He grinned. "And there's always lots of places to explore. Caves, mountains, forests; I've even heard that there are mystery dungeons under the sea and in the sky!"

"That would be cool; to explore the sky," Kai said in a daze. Then she finished processing what Blade had actually asked her. She opened her mouth, and then closed it. The image imprinted on Blade's relic fragment came back to mind, and her brain promptly took it and ran with it, speculating what else could be out there.

Huh; so legends and lore and ancient ruins were definitely something she could get behind.

'Well, I don't have anything to lose.'

"So will you?" Blade asked, returning her to reality. "Please?"

She was not wagging her tail. She wasn't. "Sure, Blade; I'll team up with you."

Blade's eyes lit up. "Really? Thank you!" He bounced in excitement, and then waved for her to follow. "Come on! We can sign up at the guild. I bet I can get in there if you're with me!"

\](o)[/

"Am I the only one that finds something just a little bit ominous about this place?" Kai asked. The pair of them stood in front of a towering, wigglytuff-shaped tent, lit from below by a pair of torches that themselves rose over their heads.

And someone had the brilliant idea of putting a duskull face in one of the totem poles that, if Kai didn't know better, she could swear were staring down at them.

"No, I'm with you." Blade said, voice wavering just slightly.

Deciding that studying the structure was unproductive, Kai's gaze then fell on the heavy-looking gate that covered the entrance, and the hole covered by interwoven branches set just in front of it. "And that…?"

"There's a sentry under there." Blade answered.

"Weird, but okay. So…" She looked to Blade, and the riolu nodded sharply, steeling himself before stepping onto the grate.

"Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!"

Kai twitched at a pang of sympathy from seeing Blade visibly try not to jump. It didn't seem that bad, but still…

"Whose footprint? Whose footprint?" Mysterious Voice Number 2 seemed further away, but was still just as loud, almost louder, than the first.

As Mysterious Voice Number 1 quickly identified 'Riolu', and Mysterious Voice Number 2 granted entry, Kai swept her gaze across the plateau the guild was built on. She could see a handful of lights off to the left, probably a town; and she'd probably be able to see the ocean if night hadn't fallen.

"Hey STRANGER! Your turn!"

Kai blinked and stared at the grate as Blade moved off it. "How'd they know I was here?" Notably, the iron gate still hadn't lifted.

Blade shrugged. "Beats me."

Also weird, but whatever. Kai mentally echoed Blade's gesture and took his place. The identification routine started up again… only to fall apart pretty quickly.

"The footprint is… The footprint is… um…"

Kai looked over her shoulder. "I take it my species doesn't live around here."

"Not really, no."

Mysterious Voice Number 2 echoed up through the grate. "What's the MATTER, Sentry Diglett?"

A few moments later Diglett finally came up with an answer. "Maybe Eevee's! Maybe Eevee's!"

"What? MAYBE!?"

"You're right!" Kai called down the hole, for whatever it was worth.

Apparently not much. As the sentries continued to argue beneath her Kai sighed and adjusted her balance on the mesh of branches.

"…I don't know what I don't know!" Diglett called, sounding resigned.

"Ugh, FINE! Hey Corphish! Go check the GATE!"

Kai's tail twitched in otherwise-concealed impatience as they waiting. Blade was getting increasingly fidgety and she really didn't want him to get scared off again, especially now that they'd gotten this far.

Some muffled clattering drew the attention of both of them as a red pokémon appeared out of the shadows behind the entrance.

"Hey now..." Corphish began after examining them for a moment. "Well you are most definitely an eevee and-" He blinked, and Kai wasn't sure how his eyes widened but they definitely did. "OH! I'll get the sentry to open the gate right away!" He scuttled out of sight again and the duo outside exchanged glances.

"What was that all about?" Blade asked, and Kai could only shake her head in response.

"Sorry to make you WAIT." Mysterious Voice Number 2 said, and a moment later there was a loud groan as the gate finally rose out of the way.

"Wow… We're finally allowed inside," Blade said, and Kai stifled a smile as she followed him in.

They were immediately confronted with a hole in the center of a small room that had a ladder leading underground. "Um…" Kai looked at Blade. "Well, you shouldn't have any problems."

Blade looked between her and the ladder. "What do you mean?"

"Blade…" she said slowly, "…I can barely walk on four legs; never mind figure out anything more complicated than stairs."

Blade winced. "Yeah I guess that makes sense. Um… I'll go first, so I can catch you if you lose your grip."

"You sure? I appreciate the sentiment, but…"

"We'll make it work," Blade said determinedly, offering a nod and a smile before he disappeared down the hole.

Kai waited to give him some time, and then stepped forward. A short jump let her cling to one of the rungs. Slowly she let her back foot drop, just barely touching the next rung down. Carefully, she made her way down.

She met him at the bottom with thankfully no mishaps, and together they stepped into a large room with various pokémon milling about, some checking out whatever was on the walls of either side of them. Off-hand, Kai could identify a bidoof, a pidgey, a seedot, a sunflora, a swellow, and a wurmple. 'I must've seen a lot of pokémon in my previous life.'

Previous life. There's a phrase that refused to make any logical sense in her head.

"Oh, wow." Blade breathed, taking in the scene. "So this is Wigglytuff's Guild."

"There are a lot of pokémon here, especially since it's so late." Kai noted.

Blade nodded in agreement. "I wonder if they're all on exploration teams." They turned to each other. "So, where are we supposed to go to get signed up?"

Before Kai could say 'not a clue,' they were interrupted by a voice behind them. "Excuse me! You two who just entered?"

Kai spun around just in time to catch a… chatot? – yeah, chatot – exiting another ladder next to the first, this one leading further down. "That's us," she replied, overriding Blade's stammering. Around them, the other pokémon looked away from the brief distraction and returned to their ongoing conversations.

"I'm Chatot, the guild's information and executive officer, and direct assistant to Guildmaster Wigglytuff."

Kai's tail twitched. If anyone, it would be this pokémon that could get them registered.

"Now, I assume you two have a job request?" Chatot continued as he reached them. "Chimecho should be up here soon so you can get cleaned up."

Kai blinked, and then looked down at her still sandy fur. "Oops."

Before she could actually get a word in edgewise though, Chatot continued. "It's rare to see someone come in personally nowadays. Most pokémon send in a letter from Chansey's if they even get as far as coming into town." He fluttered one wing in the direction of the exit ladder, as if to indicate where these hypothetical pokémon were. "Did you two get roughed up by some thieves?"

"Well, technically yeah but-"

"Well I'm certainly glad they didn't get away with everything!" Chatot motioned this time to the bundle in Blade's arms.

"Uh-"

"Here, come this way. If you don't have paper, it shouldn't be too hard to find some around here…"

"W-W-Wait!" Blade finally blurted out. "That's not why we're here!" Chatot turned back to them, surprised, but Blade kept going, desperate to get it all out. "We want to form an exploration team and apprentice here!"

His outburst caused some heads to turn, and if that didn't do it then Chatot's squawk of surprise definitely did.

The murmuring started up again, but this time Kai could feel the eyes on them. Chatot was also muttering, although more to himself as he eyed them up and down and then started pacing. Something about their size… or age? Apparently she wasn't a full-grown eevee. Then there was something about training difficulty…

"Chatot?" A voice rang out from the entrance, and a chimecho wove her way through the crowd towards them, carrying a first-aid kit wrapped in her tail. "I'm sorry for taking so long. Corphish said something about the visitors needed to be patched up…"

"Oh, good, good." Chatot said, breaking off of his mostly-internal monologue and waving at Kai and Blade to meet Chimecho halfway. "Yes, these two seem to have had a little adventure before they arrived here. Let's get them to the pool, shall we? And I'll leave you in charge of taking care of any scrapes." He looked back at them. "Are you sure you don't need to post something for the existing exploration teams?"

Kai grinned, letting all her fangs show, and tilted her head towards the relic fragment. "We got it back first."

Chatot blinked, but Chimecho surprisingly spoke up first. "Oh, that's impressive! Good for you!"

Chatot's beak moved like he was about to say something, but then shook his head and led the way to the second underground floor.

Kai may or may not have taken some risks in getting down the ladder quickly, but she made it and, she mused, that was what mattered. She just caught onto the conversation as she landed at the bottom.

"…Is the training really that difficult?" Blade asked hesitantly, though when Kai shot him a glance he didn't seem scared, just confused. Now that he was here, he seemed committed.

Chatot fluttered, stumbling over his own dismissal of his concerns. "Oh, no! No no no! It is certainly very reasonable! Not everyone makes it through, but it is certainly very very doable!"

He settled and hummed a bit, looking far too cheery for his attitude not two seconds ago. "Well, I'll leave you in Chimecho's hands. I must go speak to the Guildmaster for a minute." And with that he fluttered away, muttering to himself again.

\](o)[/

Tingles raced all throughout Kai's body from Chimecho's heal bell, chasing away the last vestiges of poison. "Thanks," she said, resuming twisting around in the rock-lined pool in an attempt to get as much sand out of her fur as possible.

"Absolutely," Chimecho replied.

"Sorry, Kai." Blade said from the next pool over. "I got excited when you agreed to form an exploration team with me and, well… I forgot."

After a moment Kai figured out how to shrug. "To be fair, I did too." Chimecho hovered closer and with a nod she silently agreed to some help, smiling her thanks.

They finished washing up and drying off quickly; and Chatot met them just outside the room. "The Guildmaster agreed to get you registered tonight," he said, looking pointedly at Blade, who flushed at another reminder of his excitement. "Come along, if you please."

They followed Chatot silently as he led them to the other end of the floor. They stopped outside a pair of wooden doors, but Blade passed by distractedly, pushing himself on his toes to see out the window Kai had also overlooked when they first came down.

"This is so cool!" the riolu said. "We're underground, but you can see the outside!"

Kai withheld a sigh as Chatot explained with a false patience. "The guild is built into the side of a cliff. So it is only natural that you would be able to see the outside."

Blade winced at the tone. "Oh… sorry." Turning away from the window he meekly went back to Kai's side.

"Now then." Chatot turned to the door. "This is Guildmaster Wigglytuff's chamber. On no account…" He glared at the two of them. "I repeat, on no account should you be discourteous to our Guildmaster."

"Yes sir," Kai stated, trying to improve their relation with the assistant, however slightly. If they were going to have to work under him…

Chatot blinked, but seemed pleased as he turned to knock on the door. Good.

The thick wooden doors swung inwards and the two recruits ventured inside after their guide. Moonlight streamed in through two windows in the room behind the doors, and with the added light of two torches it was clear the place was a riot of color. Tapestries hung from every available space on the walls and bright flowers sprung up everywhere around the vividly red rug in the center of the room. The Guildmaster specifically was bright pink, although no other details were available as they were facing away from them, standing in the center of the rug; though why Kai couldn't possibly guess.

The two recruits came to a stop on a patch of flat, mossy stones, while Chatot moved off to the side. "Guildmaster," he began, "I present to you two pokémon who wish to join our guild as apprentices."

The Guildmaster didn't move, and Kai and Blade glanced at each other warily.

"Guildmaster… um, Guildmaster?" Chatot repeated, sounding mildly confused but not particularly concerned.

Blade shuffled slightly in the long moment that passed.

"Hiya!"

Kai jumped at the sudden appearance of two giant green eyes, Guildmaster Wigglytuff finally revealing himself in full. "I'm Wigglytuff, the guild's Guildmaster. You want to form an exploration team, right? Then let's go for it!"

For all of Chatot's formality, Kai was expecting this guy to be a lot more serious. Though really, she could hardly complain. At least he didn't clearly didn't have any of the same reservations Chatot seemed to.

"First," Wigglytuff said, "if you want to apprentice as a team, we'll need to register your team name!" He skipped, literally skipped, over to one of the huge treasure chests on each side of the room, and came up with a massive scroll that he promptly brought back to the middle of the rug.

"Oh, I forgot that too-" Blade said quietly, but was cut off from anything more from Wigglytuff shaking out the scroll like a blanket.

Fwoomp! Kai whirled around wide-eyed as the bulk of the scroll sailed past their heads. It bounced off the floor and hit the door, rolling back slightly as it came to a stop.

'Uh…'

Wigglytuff pulled the paper back without care as he searched for the last entry. With a small 'A-ha!' as he found it, he reached out blindly and Chatot placed a pen into his hand. "So, tell me your team's name?" he requested, looking up with a wide smile.

Blade opened and closed his mouth a couple times, and then turned to Kai helplessly. "What do you think, Kai?"

Kai closed her eyes, knowing they were under quite a bit of pressure; mostly in the form of Chatot. With no idea on where to begin, she went back to her seemingly non-existent memory. Maybe if she thought hard enough, something would come to her…

Daybreak.

The image, no, the idea of a sunrise. She couldn't picture it, but the idea of dawn, the rays of the sun breaking over the horizon, came to the forefront of her mind.

She didn't have the slightest clue why that of all things, but it was important. Just like her being human, just like someone needing to understand her situation – whatever that was – this was important too. Important enough for some impression to remain in her otherwise blank mind.

"Daybreak…?" Blade mused thoughtfully, and Kai's eyes snapped open to meet his smile. "I like that."

Had she said that out loud?

"Are you settled then?" Wigglytuff asked, and Blade nodded happily.

"Yeah; we're gonna register as Team Daybreak!"

Author's Notes:

Since I had it ready, I felt it quite appropriate to add this chapter at the dawn of the new year, considering the thematic team naming I have going on. ;)

I changed up the details a little bit here, because... well... you have two sandy, damp pokemon showing up late enough at night for the gate to be closed. Chatot would have to be an idiot and/or blind to assume they were sales-people. :P Also, trying to make sense of the sentry sequence, because I don't want to paint Loudred as completely incompetent ("you don't seem like a bad pokemon"... based off a footprint?). If nothing else, there's no way Chatot would let that slide.

And a tent made in the image of a wigglytuff should not look as creepy and imposing in that first shot as it does; seriously. I kinda forgot how short my two MCs are until I replayed that scene. XD

Also, I enjoyed this mental image of the registration process far more than I probably should. :D