Chapter 3: The Guild
Emma looked up. She saw the mentioned Kingdra, whom had a harsh appearence. It was really intimidating, and scared Emma. Until the Kingdra smiled.
"Hi, you must be the Amaura that our third-in-command was talking about."
"Well, I… I-"
"It's fine. I'm used to be tackled by pokémon."
"And, ¿May I ask why is that?."
"Long story. Anyway, welcome to Underpath Guild! A guild known by its acceptance of pokémon and the strong bonds we form with eachother."
"Hello, Guildmaster. Kate here. ¿Can she please be in our team? ¿Please?"
"Well, your team is somehow experienced. I think the best thing will be to put her with someone new, or maybe alone, unless of course, she knows her way through mystery dungeons."
"She does. Believe me, she does" begged Kate.
"But let me ask her, Kate," said Guildmaster Kingdra. "¿Do you want to join Kate's team?"
"I," said Emma. Kate, behind Guildmaster Kingdra, mouthed something. 'The promise, Emma'. "Yes, I want to join Kate's team. I think I am experienced enough to handle it."
"Then I guess that's it. You officially are a member of Kate's exploration team. I'll check it out later to see how you're doing."
"¡YES! Thanks, Guildmaster Kingdra. And thank you so very much, Emma."
"Goodbye. I have some stuff to do" said Guildmaster Kingdra, with a smile.
Emma looked in her direction as she went to another room. She is really cool after all, thought Emma.
"Great! Oh, good Arceus, we have so much stuff to do! Didn't thought we could have done it this fast, for sure. Thought it would take us some time, after all. Sorry, ¡I'm just really really happy!" said Kate.
"¿'Us'? ¿'We'? ¿'Our'? ¿What do you mean with that? ¡¿There's more?!" said Emma, thinking of the possible torture ahead. "¡No, no no! ¡One of you is enough!"
"Oh, Arceus. Chill, that's just the rest of my exploration team."
"Oh no… There ARE more…"
"Geesh, we aren't that bad. You need to calm down."
"¡I didn't even sign up for this, I want to go back!"
"¿Kalos? Sorry, too far away. ¿Blissful Town? You made a promise."
"¡You and your promises!" said Emma. "¿And what do you mean with that 'thought it would take us time'? ¿Time for what?"
"Yeah, you see, there's something I haven't told you…"
"What."
"Well, my team and I have been looking forward to recruiting a pokémon originary from Kalos. Since there's barely any around, and even if there's any around, foes wouldn't be expecting to see you. Kalosian's are also said to be unpredictable," explained Kate. "And that seems to be true, I see. Along with reckless. And-"
"I got it. Just, stop talking. Please."
"Smh. Anyway, lemme show you around" said Kate, walking towards a new room with a big, open door. "Here inside its where we eat."
"Yeah, what do you… Junyans… eat."
"So you are not from this region after all!"
"What do you guys eat." asked Emma again. She recalled some memories from humans eating berries and some products like Miltank's milk. She once met someone who ate pokémon parts, and hoped that it wouldn't be the case there.
"The usual stuff, berries, milk, and there are some Pidgeottos who eat Magikarp, but that's it. Disgusting, ¿uh?"
"Yeah… anyway, what else is here."
"School at the top, Dojo outside, Kingdra´s office over there, and the underground side of the place right below us. Not like I could show you it, anyway. Never been asigned to check pokémon's footprints, luckily," said Kate. "The best part, though, its in the first floor!"
Kate dragged Emma to the stairs, and made it to the top rather fast.
"Let me present you, the Job Board!" said Kate. "Here we take the Jobs and Missions and the like. Sometimes we rescue pokémon, others we find objects for them, and we receive rewards. There are other missions, but those are Rukario Rank exclusive, given the fact that they're really difficult."
"Just… tell me what are those for once." said Emma, who had just made her way to the top
"Looking for treasure, of course!"
Emma immediatly reacted to her words.
"Treasure, you say?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Treasures like the Golden Loot, the Lost Gems, and my personal favorite, the Wish of Ice," explained Kate "The last one is one of the most known legends of the pokémon world. Many Rukario Rank teams have tried and searched for it, but to no avail. I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't knew what is it, with your amazing knowledge…"
"Enlighten me, then."
"Ha! Called it," teased Kate. "Anyway, it's said that at the highest, coldest cave at the highest mountain of the entire region, a very special pokémon sleeps. This pokémon's name is said to be Jirachi-"
"¡¿What?!" interrupted Emma. "I mean… Eh, you shall procede"
"Wait. Do you know this story at all?"
"No, I know nothing. Continue."
"…Anyway, Jirachi is known as the wish pokémon. If you make your way to the top of the mystery dungeon, Jirachi will be woken from his slumber 'form', a weird cube of sorts, and with that, he will battle you. If you defeat him, he will grant you any wish, as long as it comes from your heart."
"Interesting story…"
"Yeah. It's said that the legendary Acetrick Team once managed to get to the last floor and defeat Jirachi. However, only one of the two members of the team came back from the cave. He was really sad… and to this day, no one knows what happened to his partner" continued Kate, clearly excited. "But I guess he's the only one who knows. Either way, my biggest wish is to get to defeat Jirachi and ask for… something."
"Paradox."
"¿What?"
"If your biggest wish is defeating Jirachi, ¿Then what are you going to ask for?"
"I… You just…"
"Let's say defeating Jirachi is your second biggest wish, right?"
"Fine. I've only got to Frozelake City once, in a guild expedition there, and it was awesome."
"Frozenlake City… cool."
"It's the city where the cave can be found, idiot."
"Hey!"
"One way or another, it's a beautiful place regardless of the cave. Ice pokémon are amazing, and everyone is friendly there, so there isn't much work an explorer has to do."
"¿Can we get going? All of this information has been seared into my mind, there is no need to re-explain it."
"Whatever. Over there, there are the rooms. Your partners are your roomates, and I hope you get used to fire-type pokémon, because-"
"Wait."
"¡For Arceus sake, what's with all this interruptions!"
"You sleep here. You eat here. You work here. You LIVE here."
"Yeah, and?"
"¡Oh my Arceus, Chimecho!"
"¿What?"
"I am living with a Chimecho, the tent, and Blissful Town!"
"Relax. Chimecho is smart, and probably knows that you're here in this guild. Psychic-type pokémon in general are smart, but Chimecho is in a new kind of level."
"And you know Chimecho. Amazing."
"I'm sure Chimecho's down with this. Don't worry."
"Fine…"
"Now, it's time for you to meet the squad!"
"¿Wasn't it exploration team."
"We call it that way, just don't question it. I'm sure you'll like them, they're nice!"
"You said the same thing about yourself…"
"Well, I AM nice, just not by some weirdo's standards."
"Bye." said Emma, just as she went through a door labelled "Rooms"
"Hey!"
Emma ignored her. As she went through the hall, she saw many doors labeled with the team's name and the names of the members in it.
At the very end of the hall, she saw a door labeled as
"Team Blacklight,
Kate, Lucas, Blitz"
"This is the only one labelled Kate… A name as common as Halley. Hm."
Just about as she was about to knock the door, she was tackled down with incredible force.
"Ow!"
"¡¿What do you think you're doing, you fool?!"
"I don't know, ¡¿Knocking the door?!"
"One more second and you would have regreted that."
"¡It's just a door!"
"¡Not any kind of door! We, well, included the optional defense system against intruders…"
"¡¿What kind of intruders can be here?! ¡¿Why is there even a system against intruders?!"
"Long story short, this thing stoped some… molestations. Step aside," said Kate. She unpinned the badge that was in her scarf and put it in a hollow right next to the handle. After a few seconds of it glowing, the handle made a sound. "Now that's how you open a door. Have you even touched it, you would have been covered in webs and shocked by electricity."
"¡¿What's wrong with you and your team?!"
"Well, we are clever, unlike most of the teams that live on this floor."
"¡That's not clever, that's a death sentence!"
"Luckily no water types live here."
"Let's just meet your team, ¡¿okay?!"
"There you go again. Spoiling the fun," Kate said, however, opened the door. "I'm sure you'll get used to them in no time."
The room was rather little, but seemed comfortable. It had three portions of straw in the floor, and a pile of some more piled up in a corner. It had a table with a lit candle in it, two drawers and a window. It was nice and had a warm feeling to it.
"This is nice. And warm. Really warm, you know? But it has an eerie feeling."
"Emma."
"Hm?"
"Your… tail."
"What?" Emma said. She looked at her tail, to discover it was on fire. "¡AH!"
Emma ran out of the room and into the hall. She ran in circles until the fire disappeared, and entered the room again, to find Kate cracking up in the floor.
"Hahaha! That one never fails" said Kate. She turned to the candle, now unlit, that was were Emma used to be "Hey Blitz, I think you owe our guest an apology."
"…That's a candle."
"Correction!" the candle suddenly lit up, startling Emma, and two yellow eyes appeared as well as a mouth. "I'm a Litwick! Straighten up your facts, ma'am."
"Excuse me?"
The Litwick suddenly turned even paler than it already was, and started stuttering "I-I'm sorry, m'lady. E-excuse my rashness, I should have apologized for l-liting your tail on fire."
"Hey, so this is Blitz. He's kinda sensitive about people mistaking him for a candle."
"Not that I'm not used to it… I would prefer if this mistake didn't repeated, though. Now I may introduce myself formerly; I'm Blitz, a Litwick, member of Team Blacklight!" he said, his flame burning up a bit more intensly as he said the last words.
"I'm Emma, and I guess I'm joining Team… Blacklight."
"R-really?! ¡What a wonderful surprise!" said Blitz, turning to Kate "We did it Kate, we're finally complete."
"Not like we weren't complete before this, my friend. She was with Chimecho, and she's foreign. Most likely Kalos."
"We must share this news with Lucas, he'll be pleased to hear this." said Blitz, looking overexcited
"I'm just some Amaura. I don't see what's odd?"
"No, it's not that. Blitz and Lucas made a bet."
"Yes! If I or Kate found the Kalosian one first, he owed us 200 Poké to each one of us, and the other way around."
"Wonderful. You made it sound like I'm some kind of treasure from that treasure board."
"In this region you're kind of like it."
"However, it's just out of rare sighting. You as a pokémon keep your individuality, of course."
"She might be rare, but she ain't that smart. ¿Can you believe that she doesn't even know what a mystery dungeon is?"
"Well, you haven't explained it to me!"
"Allow me to tell you," said Blitz, as he jumped to the table.
"More like lecturing us…"
"H-hm," he glared at Kate. "Mystery dungeons, as that is the concept with which we know them, are these masses of land and space that have distinctives that make them entirely different from every space concept you might have ever heard of. When you enter one, it is like a labyrinth that never stays the same way, as they change their halls, rooms, and stairs to an entirely different structure once they are entered a second time. The reason of this its still unknown and currently investigated. Most pokémon that don't live in villages, towns or cities, can be found in mystery dungeons, however, as this are harsh surroundings, they are very territorial and in most dungeons, they will attack you the second the locate you. The concept of time in mystery dungeons is the same as space is, given the fact that you will heal from your wounds faster, but become hungrier quicker, which can also cause you to faint and reappear outside of the dungeons. This is-"
"¡Enough jibberjabber for today, thanks for your participation!" said Kate. "Sorry, Blitz gets easily excited with these things. In resume, mystery dungeons are these timey-wimey, spacey messes were everyone will attack you, you heal faster, and become hungry quickly. Got it? Got it."
"That is cleared up by now, thanks to Blitz. And you."
"One way or another, ¿How much time is it going to take for Lucas to come here? I need those 200 Poké now."
"Well, we could clear up some of Emma's question, in case she still has some."
"Agreed. But you won't talk."
"…Fine."
"So, ¿any questions?"
"...Is there any chance that the guild will make another trip to Frozenlake City?"
"¿What? ¿Interested in the Wish of Ice?"
"¿Why is it named like that, anyway?"
"That's the name of the cave, because of the legend and because it's the coldest point of the region. Besides, everyone agreed that it sounded cool"
"It does sound kind of cool…"
"And yeah, the guild will make another trip there. It's part of the general Junya Underpath Trip, but it's once every five years."
"¡¿Five years?!"
"Yeah. We take two months off to travel through the entire region. No city, village, or town, gets left out of the trip. It's nice to do some tourism and train for a while."
"May I ask, Emma ¿What is your current interest in the Wish of Ice legend?"
"¿You know what? Entertain her. Lucas is taking a lot of time, I'll search for him."
"I think of it as just an interesting concept, that's all. Now, ¿what would you ask Jirachi in case you got the wish?"
"Well, thanks for asking. I would just ask for the end of the oldest debate known among pokémon."
"And, what would that debate be?"
"Wheter humans do exist or not."
"What?"
"Yes, Emma. You might not be informed, but one of the reasons of why I joined the guild its because of its giant library. It has the most complete information on ancient legends and old folklore, and more various themes in general. There's an entire collection about humans there."
"Really?"
"Yes! The most well-known and detailed copies regarding humans is the one written by Team Acetrick, a Rukario ranked exploration team insanely known for saving the world a few years ago. It is also said that they're the only ones that managed to defeat Jirachi and demand a wish."
"Could you tell me more, please?"
"Well, of course! It's nice to see someone this interested in the existence of such amazing specimens. Most of my time in the guild has been used to investigate the existance of humans. I could say I wrote a book about their existence myself. Actually I personally am too really interested in the Wish of Ice legend, since it's said that in an alternate dimensión, the human one of course, the Wish of Ice in the cube form, upon touch, will trigger an event which turns humans into pokémon and teleports them to our world, with little to no knowledge of what happened before appearing in this world."
"I guess you could say the last part may have flaws." said Emma. It was true that she knew nothing of this new world, but her memory was intact.
"Wow, you seem to posess a bit of information concerning humans. ¿May I ask where you heard that from?"
Personal experience.
"Chimecho told me some stories about humans and the like…"
"So you know Chimecho."
"Yes. Nice pokémon, really."
"You don't seem to be talkative. I apologise in case I have bored you with my speeches about human legends."
"¡No!, no. It's been very interesting to hear what you had to say, Blitz."
"Ok, cut it with the chit-chat."
Both Emma and Blitz turned around and saw Kate, 200 poké in her paw, and pokémon that resembled a ladybug next to her. A Ledian.
"Sorry not sorry, but Lucas is here. And guess what, he has evolved!"
"I understand nothing. Someone explaaaain." said Lucas.
"First things first, you owe Blitz 200 poké too. Second, the Amaura over there is Emma, the new member of our team. Third, our new member knows next to nothing about everything. And last but not least, ¡¿When did you go to the Luminous Cave?!"
"¿Luminous Cave?"
"Mystery dungeon. Known for having properties which let you evolve if standing in the rock covered in moss and a pillar of light. Rather easy dungeon, of the few ones with docile and friendly pokémon."
"So that clears it up. You're the first member of the team to evolve." said Kate "You guys wouldn't know how surprised I was when I found him. I was just exiting the guild when he showed up with this sweet appearance, and I could barely believe it."
"Heh. Thanks, you know I always wanted to evolve."
"Classic Lucas. Anyway, the Luminous Cave was supposed to be closed to everyone who tried to access it. ¿How did you get there?"
"Well, I went outside to do some exploring, you know. I was in the Moonlight Forest, the dungeon next to the Luminous Cave. And, I found something curious. There were pokémon heading towards it. Of course, I followed them, and the cave was no longer sealed. Long story short, I evolved, and ¿Guess what? So did Eirin."
"Wow, ¿Eirin, of all pokémon, evolved?"
"I know! I mean, she said she didn't want to evolve so that took me by surprise too."
"¿The cute, little sweet Togepi is now… a Togetic?"
"Well, unless I'm misinformed, and Togetic has the evolving abilities of Eevee, you could say she is."
"Don't you dare sass me!"
"Too late." teased again Lucas.
Emma was giggling at the sight of someone teasing Kate.
"Hey! It just took me by surprise. It isn't that common to see the one pokémon who swore never to evolve, becoming its evolved form, ok?"
"Anyway, ¿Who's Eirin?"
"She's an acquaintance-"
"Friend." corrected him Kate
"A friend of us, who's team lives in the floor we are supposed to be living." said Blitz
"¿What?"
"What have you done…" said Kate.
"¿What does he mean with that?"
"Guess we have to explain..." said Kate. "There are a total of eight floors dedicated to the dorms in which teams live. The lowest the floor, the lowest the Rank."
"It's because each floor has a Job Board. The difficulty of the missions varies on the floor."
"And because of a mistake, we live in the first floor. The one for amateurs."
"Well, Kate left some details out. There are seven ranks, but eight floors, as you see. We are supposed to be living in the fourth floor, designated to the third rank, the Silver rank."
"But because of that 'mistake', now we're living in the first floor, taking the missions for amateurs, since we can't take the missions that aren't for our specified floor."
"And we're stuck here until we reach a higher rank."
"Well, ¿haven't you tried talking with Guildmaster Kingdra about it?"
"We did, but it didn't go as well as expected. Now an amateur team has the room which we were supposed to have, and taking the missions we're supposed to take."
"Which is Eirin's team." said Blitz bitterly.
"But they're not bad. We got to meet them because of the mistake, and they're a kind team who truly care about the well being of pokémon. It could have been assignated to any other pokémon team, meaner or just less kind. We're-"
"You're."
"We're glad that they're the ones taking our room. They deserve it. I think you'll like them."
"You say that about everyone!"
"No, I don't," said Kate. "Not about them, at least." she whispered the last part.
"Who?"
"Long story, we'll save it for later."
"One more question; ¿How do you reach a higher rank?"
"The missions are classified as E, D, C, B, A, S, and… let me write it for you" said Lucas, as he took a piece of paper. In it, he wrote '*' "This 'Smblargh'"
"What an interesting way to… say it"
"Yep. The 'Smblarhg' is the most difficult kind of mission. The E ones are the easiest kind of missions. Each type gives you a specific amount of points, the higher the rank, the more points you need, the lowest the type, the less points it gives you."
"This and the second floor get the E type of missions. The others receive from D, C, B, and it goes on. The 'Smblargh' type of missions, as said by our dear friend Lucas, are given to the Rukario rank."
"Most of them are treasures or famous criminals."
"I think I get now the excess of floors in the building."
"Yeah, there's more. But remember, time may be different in the mystery dungeons, but here it goes in the day and night kind of way. ¿Guess what? It's already night, and I want to sleep."
"¿Already night? But I've been here for just a few hours!" replied Emma.
Well, to be honest, I do feel kind of tired, She thought.
"Yeah, I don't know how time in Kalos works, but may Dialga have mercy on your souls if a 'few hours' aren't enough to make the difference in between day and night. I don't know how would you kalosians make it woke up that much time" said Kate "Just take some of the straw over there and sleep in it."
"Ok…"
Emma indeed took some of the straw in the pile a few feet away from her. She put about enough for her size in the floor, next to the other three beds of straw in the floor and slept in it
I never thought I would ever sleep in this position; yet here I am, lying in a surprisingly comfortable bed of straw, She thought.
"Hey, Emma." said Kate.
"What?"
"Night."
Emma was certainly surprised of hearing Kate said that to her. Nobody ever did.
"Night."
Emma dreamed of the human world that night.
—
Hey! Sorry for not updating for over two weeks. I had problems with the Internet that didn't let me upload the chapter, but that only gave me extra time to make it longer.
If you spot any error in the chapter, I would appreciate if you let me know.
Oh, and remember that you have until chapter five to send your OC. Requirements are at the end of chapter three.
Until next Sunday!