"We're what?"
"'Restricted to the guild for the foreseeable future,' were his exact words," Astrid quoted. She sipped at her Apple Tea. "I would not worry; he seemed to have approved of our rescue, even if the official standing is that this was a bounty mission."
"Huh. Do you think that we might be able to, um, to visit Rkune?" Matt stuttered, a slight shiver traveling through him. Astrid smiled in approval behind her cup; it really was nice to see him chipping away at his fears. Now if only she could get him to ask after the swarm…
"Look at you, Mr. Fearless," the voice of Team Renegade's other buggy (friend?) acquaintance spoke over Astrid's shoulder. She wasn't at all surprised when Flit slid into the empty seat at their table. "Keep at it an' you'll be asking after the Queen."
Matt's complexion went from blue to ice, and the girls shared a quick laugh at his expense.
"So Flit, what brings you here? More packages to sneak under pillows?" A jest, as it was broad daylight and Astrid knew she could only go intangible long enough to go through a couple walls (that didn't count normal-type attacks—they just went right through her with no effort on her part).
"Or swim up the stream?" Matt added.
Flit shook her head, amused. "Nah. Just here to tell ya that I'm headed off for a bit."
"Can we know why?" Astrid prodded, watching Flit through her narrow right eye.
Flit just smirked. "There is somethin' I found you might want to know about, Chip."
"What about?"
"Your circumstances."
A look was shared between vulpine and amphibian. It was common knowledge by now that Astrid wasn't from the Hidden Isles, her accent was too thick and way of speaking too strange, and the same could be said for her amnesia.
"I am listening."
"When are you not? One of my contacts had a rather curious encounter near Shaymin Village the other day," Flit began. "He was comin' back from a mountain tour when he saw a commotion at the entrance of the village. Obviously, he went to look what was goin' on. Turned out to be a dusknoir, with a strange accent and an 'almost creepy knowledge of shaymin customs.'"
An electric shock ran up her spine. "A... dusknoir?"
"Somethin' tickling in there, Chip?"
Astrid thought... "Nothing at the moment. But what do you mean about shaymin customs?"
Flit waved a scythe. "Somethin' about flowers or other."
"A gracidea offering?" Astrid supplied.
"What's a gracidea offering?" Matt asked.
Astrid gave him an odd look. "It is… a sign of reverence and respect to offer a gracidea to the shaymin. I was told…" she trailed off, expression vacant.
You must always treat a shaymin with the utmost respect and reverence by offering them a gracidea.
"Well?" Flit prompted after a minute had passed. Both of Astrid's eyes focused on Flit.
"A family legend," She explained, closing off. "And if this Dusknoir knows it…"
She found she couldn't finish. But she didn't need to.
"I'll keep an eye on him—tell ya where he's headin' and what he's been doing." Flit stood. "See ya, Chip. Squirt."
Flit left, throwing a 'I'll send for ya when those packages need sendin'!' back at the solemn duo.
"Ash…" Matt began, but Astrid was already standing.
"Let us go. There are some things I want to do in town before sundown."
Matt watched her for a second, then leapt up to join her, smiling.
.
.
"Chatot?" Flora asked after the morning cheers. "Where is the Guildmaster?"
Was it just Astrid, or did she see the slightest bit of something devious in the Head of Intelligence's eye?
"He is out scouting with Dugtrio and Croagunk," Chatot sang. "And speaking of… Diglett, you will be taking over your fathers' job for the next couple of weeks. Team Renegade will be alternating between sentry duty and special training. Dismissed!
"Astrid, you go see Loudred; he will instruct you on the details of our sentry system." He turned to Matt. "You will meet me in the Labyrinths. I trust you remember where you got the red flag? See that you are there and ready to run in five minutes."
They shared a look.
Have fun.
Traitor!
Astrid snorted, turning, and leaving Matt to his fate.
.
.
Matt was, understandably, nervous.
Normally, he knew what to expect from training. Loudred liked to work with raw strength. Flora favored flexibility. Guildmaster Wigglytuff tested reactions. Croagunk liked stealth.
However, not one bit of that told him what to expect when Chatot was the one doing the training.
He said 'run', so speed? Endurance? What—?
"Gah!"
What he was not expecting was the sudden Fury Attack from straight above.
"Strike one," muttered the avian from an unseen nook above. Fast! "Three strikes before I start using the harsher moves. I'm certain you don't want a direct hit with Chatter? Head to the exit where you found the white flag, then right along the cliffside. Begin."
Matt ran.
If he had the sense to think properly, he'd have labeled Chatot for a mix between Astrid and Guildmaster Wigglytuff.
Astrid liked playing chase.
Matt didn't know whether that was good or bad.
.
.
Astrid did not understand how Diglett could stand being sentry.
Oh, sure, Diglett could sense vibrations through the earth, letting him know long before they stepped onto the grate their gait, weight, and shape. Astrid had none of that. She could only see the footprints on the grate. Well, that, and a quick look through the complex set of mirrors, tunnels, and a faux bush that gave her an estimate of who was there.
"Three incoming, fiery and green spotted, assuming visitors are Team Flame," Astrid murmured into a pipe leading back to Loudred. She didn't need to worry about him not hearing; she'd found out in the first minute that he could hear very sharply.
Thus followed the intimidation tactic of shouting up the eerily smooth walls of the sentry post. It also had the side effect of letting people think that this was the guild's only piece of security.
Loudred had been quite pleased to say that more than one pokemon had been at the mercy of the Guildmaster's Hyper Voice.
(But not without a minute shudder at what Astrid guessed him to be imagining himself at the end of said move.)
So the day wore on.
And on.
And on.
Astrid sighed.
.
.
It was one very bored Astrid that met one very exhausted Matt at the dinner table that night.
"Rough day?" Astrid drawled, berries floating to her plate via Confusion. After a moment's hesitation, a few found their way to Matt's.
Matt groaned. "He's more sadistic than the Guildmaster! You know how you like to train? By running everywhere? He attacks while you're running! From nowhere!" There was a thump, and when she looked, she found Matt's head on the table.
"Training with Chatot?" Loudred winced.
Matt simply groaned. Astrid poked him with a paw, slightly worried.
Loudred laughed. "Yeah, what I wouldn't give to be an apprentice before Wigglytuff took over the guild from Sylveon. You know, I HEARD from one of her apprentices that Chatot hadn't been so stingy in his apprentice days. He said that Chatot was actually pretty NICE."
"What happened?" Astrid abandoned her doomed attempts to revive her partner to gaze imploringly at Loudred. He was, after all, offering up information on their Head of Intelligence.
"Brine Cave."
"Brine Cave?" Now she was genuinely confused, and maybe a tad regretful of abandoning Matt. He knew more about this- World's? Where had that come from?- region's geography, even if it was faintly familiar.
"Oh, right, I keep forgetting you have AMNESIA." Astrid gave him a totally unimpressed looked and he blushed. "Er, that wasn't… Uh."
Flora must have heard, because she snickered. Loudred swelled with anger.
"So," Astrid drawled deliberately cutting whatever Loudred was going to shout, "What is so awe-inspiring about Brine Cave? And where is it located, exactly?"
"Huh?" He blinked and she barely withheld an eyeroll. "It's, uh, almost directly to the… east? No, northeast. YEAH! Directly across the bay from the Tear Falls."
"And the problem?"
"Well, the apprentice told me…"
.
.
"I presume that Matt told you about his training last night at dinner?" Chatot asked as he lead Astrid through the Labyrinths.
"Complained," she corrected.
"To be expected with one as young as him." Chatot sniffed. "I've noticed that in his training with the Guildmaster that he's too trusting of the environment and, to a degree, his opponents."
"He has a 'code of honor'." The sarcasm in the vulpine's voice told Chatot exactly what she thought about that.
"And you don't?" Chatot looked at her over his wing.
"I learned a while ago that being 'honorable' does not bring back the dead." She shrugged. "Besides, being an explorer means that sometimes you have to chase down crooks, and they sure as hell do not care about honor."
"Indeed," he said, and Astrid was drawn back to the conversation last night.
"...they were jumped, and Chatot almost didn't make it back."
"However," Chatot was saying, "what I noticed about you wasn't so obvious- to the normal observer, at least." He turned to her now, eyes narrow. "You don't sleep. Almost every other night you are off to Spinda's Cafe for a nice chat with the scyther on Team Razor Wind while her teammates babble about their mothers. That's not even counting the times you've gone for a walk in the Labyrinths and haven't returned until sunup.
"Which brings us here," Chatot brandished a wing at the surrounding caves. To Astrid's surprise, the room was decorated with dim candles and comfy pillows and blankets. Crystals hung from the ceiling reflected spots of colored candlelight throughout the room, giving it an ethereal quality. "Your training will be meditation. I've found that if done properly, you can 'sleep without sleeping.'"
Astrid blinked, muttering: "Sounds like something Casey would say…"
"Pardon?"
"What?"
"Did you say something?"
"No, why?"
.
.
As it turned out, Astrid sucked at meditation. No matter what she did, there was always something that broke her concentration. Always a thought, an itch, a patch of fur that just had to be groomed back into place.
She was, quite literally, the restless dead.
"This is hopeless." Astrid stated after a scuttle from the corridors snapped her back to awareness.
"Perhaps," Chatot mused from his nest. "But this is just your first lesson. It usually takes several lessons to get it. Now, let's try this again: breathe in- deeper… and out. As I've said before, keeping yourself still it not necessary, but concentration is. If nothing else, concentrate on the sound of my voice—"
"—And release it!"
She yelled, Will'o-Flame leaping from her arms and to the target, engulfing it in an inferno.
"I hit it!" She cheered, leaping and dancing as one of the Thirteen Elders—Elder Wicker—watched impassively.
^Indeed^, the Chandelure hummed in Ghost. ^You are progressing quickly for one so young.^
"Does this mean that when I die, I'll be a Litwick or Lampent, like you were?" She asked, silently comparing her bluebell flames to the orange of the Elder's.
^Perhaps, or perhaps one of those Marowak native to Alola,^ Elder Wicker mused. ^Enough practice for you, young one. Your brother is waiting for you.^
She giggled, thanking Elder Wicker for his time and darting off and proving her lineage in how soundlessly she moved.
When she emerged in the clearing where their shared home stood, she was confused to find the front devoid of her brother's presence.
"Umbra?" She called when she entered. No answer. She called again, searching every room of the house for her brother. "Umbra..."
Maybe he's in the back, she thought, heading out the back door. "Umbra?"
It was empty. Well and truly scared, she began to turn when-
"Wake up!"
Astrid jolted awake. The meditation room was there. She was sitting on a pillow, and not in the arms of… What? A monster?
...her brother?
"Are you alright?" Astrid startled, whipping around to face Chatot with a racing heart.
"I…" She swallowed, shaken. "I think I just… remembered something."
.
.
"...that is when someone had grabbed me and I woke up."
Astrid was finishing relaying her dream (memory) to Matt the next day.
"Wow." His eyes were bright as he thought. Astrid could practically see the gears turning. "That's…"
"I know," Astrid cut in. "But I do not want to get too excited about this. I do not…"
His life-blood was seeping away, his breathing labored.
"I do not know if all of my nightmares are fiction. I… need time.
"So how was sentry duty?"
He gave her a look that wasn't sympathetic.
It was empathetic.
Over the course of the next three weeks, Team Renegade alternated between sentry duty and Chatot's training. Matt had learned that not all opponents fought fair, and was anticipation Chatot and the residents of the Labyrinth's sneak attacks. Astrid, on the other hand, and gained little progress with meditation. She was just too restless for it; every little thing set her off- the light of the crystals reflecting the candlelight being the most distracting. When she told Chatot this, he had nodded, and the next lesson, they were gone
One morning, Chatot pulled her aside after the morning cheers. She was to deliver a basket to a team of traveling apprentices under the guild.
"They travel, mostly," Chatot had said. "But they also gather information- local customs, history, and mythology. They also help track outlaws and their movements. Team X in particular deals with the Deities and the belief of others."
"And do you believe in the Deities?" Astrid had asked.
"I think that they exist, but no, I don't believe in them."
A True Neutral.
Which, in and of itself was a rarity. Usually one either had a Belief, or they shunned the Deities' excitiance.
Astrid shook herself from her thoughts as she passed the well at the crossroad. Chatot had said that Team X was further down the road, but…
'Here,' a voice echoed within her head. Astrid flinched when an abra Teleported in front of her, a black cloth around his eyes. 'This way.'
"You are apart of Team X, I assume."
'Yes. Call me Abra.'
"Astrid."
Abra lead her to a clearing not far off the road, where she was surprised to find an Elder florges and a tent there.
'That's Eric,' Abra said upon noticing her awed stare.
Eric was watching her with a curious gaze.
Astrid blinked, blushing despite herself and, feeling like she was standing before Elder Wicker, bowed her head. "Forgive me. I forgot myself before an Elder."
To her left, she saw Abra bristle, but the unmistakable sing of the Fairy language filled the air. Sadly, Astrid couldn't understand.
~She isn't calling me old. The Wraith Belief thinks that shiny pokemon are what they call Elders.~
'She said that you meant no offence, and that to the Wraith Belief, an Elder equates to a shiny- alternately colored- pokemon.'
"Did I just hear that someone of the Wraith Belief is in our camp?" Someone asked from the tent. A head poked out, causing Astrid's blood to freeze.
It was a human.
.
.
A/N: Ooo, the dreaded cliffhanger!
1) On the subject of languages in this universe, we have eighteen pokemon languages and five human ones. The ones we know so far are:
"Normal"
"Bug"
Ghost
'Psychic'
~Fairy~
All of which are pokemon languages. The human languages are Japanese (Common), English (Unovish), French (Kalos), Hawaiian (Alolan), and Latin (Almian).
2) When Eric is explaining what Astrid means to Abra, it isn't strictly true. Elders are fully evolved pokemon that have lived long enough to change color, which is basically them turning grey. Eric, however, is only a shiny pokemon.
So what are your thoughts? Did you notice any mistakes like Astrid using contractions? What do you think about the languages and Beliefs? Tell me in the box below!