I had to crane my neck to see the vast building in the obvious shape of a wiggilytuff, impressed by its size.

Moments before Rion showed me the gate when you stepped and it evaluated your identity and teamship.

"Yikes..." Said riolu grumbled, staring down the gate. "It looks so strange... No! I have Arian with me. I can do this!"

I really did need to talk to him about my name... But he seemed content, pepping himself. I was really happy to be someone's strength- it was an odd feeling. We had barely known each other since that after noon, to the boot. Or, would it be paw now?

"I have to be brave!" He growled to himself, storming onto the wicker gate.

"POKEMON DETECTED POKEMON DETECTED. WHO'S FOOTPRINT WHO'S FOOTPRINT?"

I had to shrink back at the sheer volume, the noise catching me off guard.

"THE FOOTPRINT IS RIOLU'S, THE FOOTPRINT IS RIOLU'S."

Rion flinched, but I knew he was fine when he kept his cool, grinning while clenching his fists. Poor guy. I thought, stretching my hind legs anxiously. Hind legs, ha. I'm already getting used to it.

"YOU MAY ENTER. SEND UP WHOEVER IS WITH YOU NOW."

I walked onto the thing, flexing my toes at the new weird sensation. After getting fully on there, I also had a new discovery. I really don't like heights.

I froze, rooted to the spot as the same process was repeated with me, until they couldn't figure out my specie. I swallowed the intense instinct to flee, instead using Rion's encouraging smile to keep me on there. Be calm, chill. It will all be over soon.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER, SENTRY?"

... Or I will explicitly murder each and every one of them. God help me...

"Maybe vulpix! Maybe vulpix!"

"MAYBE?"

"It isn't a common footprint, y'know..."

"THAT'S BULL."

Way to be blunt. I said to myself, focusing on sarcasm to clear my head.

"DIGLETT, YOUR JOB IS IDENTIFYING VISITORS!"

"Yes, but... How can I know what I don't know?"

Rion sighed and sent me small smile. "They're arguing." I chuckled, surprised my voice was so strong.

He nodded, fists relaxing as a purple figure stormed up. "Sorry to make you WAIT."

The steel pikes lifted out of the ground and Rion shivered before walking in first. We were both surprised to find a ladder leading our way down. I mentally panicked. Oh god. I can barely walk with my paws without tripping- how am I supposed to climb down a ladder?

Luckily, Rion helped me as I slipped on the last step so no one noticed. They wouldn't have anyway- the hustle and bustle of pokemon making the place lively.

We walked in a bit. The soft grass felt nice under my paws. "Wow..." Rion exclaimed, awed. "Are all these pokemon exploration teams?" Two large boards seemed to be the focus of the many colorful pokemon filling the room.

A chatot hobbled up to us. "You two are the two whom just came from the gate, yes?"

We nodded.

Chatot introduced himself at the go-to-guy and the Guildmaster's right hand man. I couldn't help myself from a mental quip, from his puffed up feathers and high turned beak. Poly has a complex.

I had to hide my snickering as he tried to shoo us off and then I returned to the reality of the situation. Rion explained we wanted to join a exploration team, and this shocked Chatot, apparently, because he talked to himself as he turned around.

"Its rare to see a kid want to join the guild...Especially how hard the training is! ... Surely the numbers of quiters proves that!"

Rion looked a little intimidated. "Excuse me... is it that hard?"

"WHAAAAT?!" Chatot squawked, surprised he had been heard, and then quickly composed himself. "Well-no no! That's not true in the slightest! It's easy as can be! Hehehe... Well, well, well, I wish you had told me up front, hahaha! Hee-Hee! "

Rion scooted closer to me. "His attitude totally changed, didn't it?"

I nodded. "We shouldn't trust suspicious pokemon like that."

"Let's go then, hee-hee-hee !"

Reluctantly, after a very long and quiet discussion, we followed to sign up.

I missed the last peg again, but the second floor was beautiful, which cheered me up. There was a half wall to ceiling of window and lots of space, with even fluffier grass and a cozy feel to it all.

Rion gushed about the window, because we were essentially underground, but Chatot sharply barked at him that of course, because we were in the side of a cliff. I tsked, silently making a list of things off about this bird. Talks to himself. Is possibly transitioning into a schizophrenic. Lastly and most importantly: children dream killer.

"On no account. I repeat, on no account shall you be rude to the Guildmaster." The bird threatened, sending us a death glare before hoping to the door, and speaking in a singysong voice. "Master? It's Chatot ! I'm coming in~"

Whatever I had expected, it certainly wasn't what I came to know was Master Wiggilytuff.

"Master~, I've brought two newcomers wishing to be apperentices~!" Chatot sang with a creepy beak grin. No response from pink bunny man. "Uh... Master?"

Rion and I exchanged looks. Several odd beats passed.

"Hiya!" The wiggilytuff turned around all puppies and rainbows. "If you wanna join, then go for it! First you guys gotta have a name!"

I knew we had forgotten something. I wanted to groan but Rion seemed to have thought about it far more than I. "Pokehelpers-" He blurted excitedly.

"No." I vehemently shook my head.

His growlithe eyes didn't work this time. "We don't want to sound generic, right?" I asked, tiilting my head.

He sighed, but nodded all the same. I almost scratched my ear with my front paw when I remembered my ear was on the top of my head, and I sighed in turn. Being a pokemon was so weird.

Shaking the thought away, I suggested another name. "How about Team Rune Flame?"

Pouting still, Rion nodded a little. "... I like it."

I rolled my eyes, amused by his childishness.

I had very nearly shat myself dead when Wiggilytuff yelled, drawing in the power of the room with his voice. "YOOOOOM-TAH!"

Rion looked equally startled, at least. Then Wiggilytuff set down a gold box before us.

"An Exploration Kit?" The eager riolu questioned, eyeing it ravenously.

"Open it, open it!" The friendly Guildmaster ordered us, motioning to the box.

Taking the orders happily, Rion dug in.

Firstly he took out the badge with little wings on the side, handing it gingerly to me as he scanned a map in there- a wonder map. We both stared happily at the quality bag that came with it too. His tiny Relic bag hadn't held hardly anything in the dungeon.

Wiggilytuff explained the Explorer Badge- our certification to show off our rank, basically. It was fairly cute in my opinion.

In our bag was a Special Band for Rion and a Green Bow for me- I felt oddly drawn to it. The material seemed to pulse comfortingly, relaxing whatever tension was in my body.

"Do your best on your missions!" Wiggilytuff yelled with a smile. We nodded, Rion yelling along side him.

"Yeah!"

"Do your best to train until you excel!"

I joined into the tradition this time. "Sir yes sir!"

We left giddy, to a room we found to be our boarding. Two beds of warm hay were laid out, with soft sunlight on loose dirt and stone walls. We even had a window, letting in a red sunset.

We both collapsed, exhausted as the exhilaration from the day drained. I stayed quiet, unable to sleep and merely familiarized myself with Rion's breathing, thinking of the future.

During our dungeon raid, he had explained to me why he had been so suspicious of me. Apparently, in the last few years especially so, pokemon had been going rogue. Crimes were often, occuring in even broad day light. Dungeons had appeared- they had always been safe until the world flip flopped and the balance began growing sour.

Some pokemon had even begun to lose their minds.

I shook my head, trying to get out of the dark thoughts so I could sleep.

"You still up, Arian?"

I grunted affirmatively, resisting the urge to open my eyes.

"I gotta confess: its hard to sleep. My heart has been pounding nonstop today. But I finally made it here. Y'know, Wiggilytuff sounded scary but he's more scary friendly. Tomorrow... and even beyond that, we'll experience all sorts of amazing things. But unlike trying to work the courage against those thugs, and going to Wiggilytuff's guild, I'm not scared. Its funny we only met today, but because of you, I've been able to accomplish so much. Thank you, Arian."

It was weird, being told I did so much just by being there- and it made me suspect Rion was actually very lonely.

Feeling sleepy now, I decided to shove the questions for later. I curled up in the smallest ball I could manage, and focused on my breathing, slowly falling into sleep.

"HEY, RISE AND SHINE!"

Oh god my brain is noodles. I flailed in my bed for a moment, until I managed to get straw everywhere on myself. Rion- the bastard- rolled out of bed, army ready.

"HURRY UP! I'M LOUDRED, YOUR FELLOW APPERENTICE. IF YOU TAKE TOO LONG AND MAKE MASTER WIGGILYTUFF ANGRY... YOWIE!"

I also had no time to destraw- we had to hurry right behind Loudren not to be late. Thankfully, Master Wiggilytuff wasn't even out of his room yet. All the exploration pairs were lined up and Rion and I quickly joined.

"Good. Everyone's present." Chatot said mostly to himself, also looking morning chiper. "Then lets start the morning address. Master Wiggilytuff, everyone is ready and present!"

The guildmaster stumbled gracefully out of his room. I had to hold my laughter back when I noticed he was still drooling- the guildmaster was sleep walking.

"Thank you Guildmaster. Please address the crew."

"Snort... sniffle... snore."

Amused whispers filtered throughout the room. "That's our guildmaster alright."

"He's completely wide awake, huh?"

"That's gotta take some serious skill." I whispered to Rion, who grinned behind his hand.

If anything that bird could be commended for, it would be an A plus for effort. "Thank you for your... words of wisdom!" He turned to face the laughing apperentices. "Okay, take that to heart everyone! Now lets do our morning cheers!"

Rion and I awkwardly stood there as they energetically shouted some cheery lines. "A ONE! A TWO! A ONE-TWO-THREE! ONE! DON'T SHIRK YOUR WORK! TWO! RUN AWAY AND PAY! THREE! SMILES GO FOR MILES!"

Chatot then sent everyone to work. Everyone set about to do it, leaving us two standing still, idly until he came up to us.

We followed him on his orders to a simple wooden board.

Being begginners with no rep, Chatot hand selected one for us from the Job Bulletin. While he was doing this, Chatot and Rion talked about how the messy time flow was part of the rogue pokemon crisis.

It went all over my head, in short.

We were given a letter from a Spoink character. His pearl had been stolen and recently spotted- he was just so boingingly nervous without it. It had been sighted in a rocky buff, apparently.

Rion argued that the mission wasn't exciting enough but Chatot would have none of it. Not having an opinion nor ability to help much in the matter, I kept quiet.

And then Chatot delightfully reminded us what would happen if we failed- loosing items and most of our poke. That did not sound ideal.

With furious squawks of rage behind us, we hurried to Drench Bluff.

Oh fucking wonderful. Water.

When we arrived, we wasted no time plowing through, with Chatot's threats in our ears. It wasn't extravagantly hard- they didn't know any water attacks so I was safe. I pretty much just spammed Faint Attack with Rion by my side, and we finished in about three hours plus the two hours getting there and going home.

Rion was especially disappointed with the mission- he wore his pouting growlithe face all day. I guessed he was hoping for something with more flair, or at least something more helpful.

Really this cave was just an elongated version of Beach Cave- the one we went through the day prior.

Spoink had given us some training goodies and 2000 poke- Rion and I balked at the bag of coins bigger than my head.

"Really? All this for us?!" He exclaimed, happily confused how getting Spoink's pearl warranted us getting 2000 bucks.

"This is my special pearl! I haven't been able to sleep without it properly!" The psychic type hopped around us gleefully.

I scooted closer to Rion. "It's like your Relic Fragment. You felt devastated without it, right?"

He nodded, his spirits lifted some. We waved Spoink off, our first mission closing to a success.

And then, Birdy the Dreamkiller came out once more.

"We're rich, Arian! Just like that!" He laughed, petting my turf of curled hair. I grinned, poking the bag.

"We could buy all sorts of cool stuff with this!" I agreed, examining the gold now. It was all brand new- probably from the bank. Spoink must have really loved his pearl to give us such a large sum from his funds- the pokemon obviously wasn't a high roller.

"Now hand over the money please." Chatot said, the bastard's face completely content.

I bet he eats babies for breakfast.

Rion had to take a moment to form words. "We- but we just earned that!"

"Don't be silly. " The bird scoffed. He gave us back a handful of poke. "You get 200 poke. You see, most of the money goes to the Guildmaster!"

Devil bird.

He was crestfallen, staring at the amount that'd barely buy us maybe two or three apples. "That's awful..." He murmured, frowning.

"That's the guilds rule! Accept it!"

We bowed our heads in mourning for our lost coins.

"That's the guild's rule! Squawwwwwk! Accept it!" I mimicked in our room.

Rion laughed, setting down our Treasure bag. I had ranted enough for the both of us- he was too polite to do it, you see. I was just finished with it by the time a soft voice filled the halls.

"Come on everyone! I finished making dinner!"

We followed the hungry horde to a long, warm mess hall. Colorful dishes lined the place from wall to wall. Everyone was complimenting the cook- a graceful looking chimeco.

It tasted better than anything I could remember...

Wait. This is the first time I've eaten since I wound up here, which was almost two days ago!

My stomach growled and I obliged, diving in with a tummy to rival Loudren's. I heard some of the girls at the table giggle something about me- I didn't much care, I was starved. It was just me and my fateful, delicious, gorgeous food.

I moaned as we got to bed. "That was sooooo worth loosing 1800 poke. Mmm..."

Rion laughed. "Yeah. We haven't ate since yester... You haven't eaten anything yet, huh."

"Besides the cooked fruit of our labors." I grinned, plopping down on my bed

"The girls seemed to taking a liking of you, Arian."

I shrugged. I was a girl, it didn't matter much to me if I was popular with them. Some girlfriends would be cool though, I guess. I yawned and snuggled up in my bed.

Rion began again with his nightly monolog. "Today was crazy, huh? So much happened. I'm happy our mission was a success, though. It was too easy for my liking, but Spoink was so happy! I was really down whenever the guild took the majority of our cash. But we can't do anything about it if we want to train here. I'm glad we got a pokemon their special treasure back, though. Good night, buddy."

I wanted to say good night but I yawned, an promptly fell asleep.

Just-Me-Here: E'yo~ Please favorite n stuff if you feel inclined!

If you have any thoughts, critiques or whatnot, please review me so I can get better :D

Bye-bai!