Whew... long chapter. =P
I try to put in a bit of extra when I can but maybe that wasn't something I should've done for this chapter.
Ah well... I still hope it's good. Read & Review please, I always want to try make the chapters the best I can.
PMD2: A Novelization
Chapter 8: An Actual Exploration
For the past few days, Alex and Eve had been getting into the routine of Guild work and Chatot had been leaving them to decide what jobs to take for themselves.
One morning, Loudred had called them over to the hole he was usually shouting down and it had been revealed that Diglett had to do something for his dad (who was apparently Dugtrio) and asked them to take over his job for the day. After straightening out what they were supposed to do with Loudred, Alex and his partner went down the hole and tried sentry duty.
Alex had found he wasn't very good at sentry duty… he hardly knew anything about footprints which was what sentry duty revolved around and he didn't exactly spend his free time observing other pokemons' feet meaning he didn't know even half the pokemon that visited the guild by their footprints. Eve frequently had to correct him and by the end of that day, Alex was feeling thoroughly humiliated. Chatot rewarded them for their efforts but Alex could tell the bird wasn't all that impressed with their work under the grate.
They continued their work, doing board-jobs and the two apprentices soon were had a higher team rank. They were rewarded for this with new badges, emblazoned with a different gem to indicate their rank.
o0o
Alex was starting to get up earlier and earlier now and one day, he was just getting up as Loudred came in to give them a wake up call again. The loud apprentice had been a little surprised to at first to find him already awake but then treated him to a pleased smile and headed back out.
Alex woke up his partner (who was still asleep) and they headed out for the morning routine.
Following the cheers, Chatot got their attention.
"I've noticed how you two have been working hard and, though you're new, you've done more than even I would've expected from such a young team. Therefore, I've seen fit to assign you a task worthy of a true exploration team." Eve looked curious and by the time Chatot finished, she was clearly excited.
"You two, will be going to explore a location and unveil whatever secrets it may have."
This was something Eve had been waiting for, for a while now. She attempted to keep calm as she asked where they were going to explore. Chatot had them pull out their wonder map.
"There," Chatot pointed at a site a short ways to the north-east of Treasure Town "As you can see by the map, there's a waterfall there. We want you to go there and uncover whatever secrets you can find there. Is that clear?"
Chatot looked up as he asked this, to see Eve smiling with tears in her eyes. The tears appropriately startled him.
"A-are you alright, Eve?" he stuttered, concern in his tones. Eve nodded.
"Y-yeah… I'm alright… just excited." She said in a soft voice, she then turned to Alex as they put away the map and a shiver ran through her.
"Ooh, I can't wait! Let's go, Alex!" she said. It was a wonder to Alex that she didn't explode right there.
o0o
The walk to the waterfall was a short one and soon, they were soon standing on a rock ledge before the wall of water, a thick mist curling through the air, chilling them as they stood. They looked around the site, looking for anything immediately suspicious.
"So… where do you think we should start?" Eve said, looking at Alex. Alex looked around again, trying to see something to investigate. All there was though, was the waterfall in front of them and damp rocks all around. Eve wandered forward and, in trying to look around the waterfall, got a little too close.
"Yipe!" she cried out as some of the water pounded on her and she jumped back, shaking the water off her head.
"Jeez, I didn't think it'd be coming down that hard!" Eve said, looking at the waterfall with a stunned look.
Alex stepped up to the waterfall and stuck out a paw to feel the water.
It felt a little like trying to catch a rockslide in just that paw. He quickly withdrew the paw, which was already starting to feel a little numb from the cold water and pounding.
"See? That water's coming down like a storm, isn't it?" Eve said, looking around more. "Where do we even start? I don't see anything here."
Then the familiar vertigo hit Alex.
What? This again? Why-?
His vision flashed and he was viewing the waterfall again. An oval-shaped figure silhouetted in shadows came walking up to the waterfall and looked around. They appeared to be contemplating for a moment and then, to Alex's shock, they charged at the waterfall and jumped!
His sight followed them through the waterfall and the figure tumbled into a cave behind the wall of water. The shadow looked around one last time before proceeding deeper into the cave.
Then the vision vanished and Alex had to steady himself to keep from stumbling.
Another vision?
Eve was still looking for a clue as Alex reflected on what he'd just seen.
She noticed his perplexed look.
"What's wrong, Alex?" then she recognized the expression "Did you have another one of those visions?"
Alex nodded vaguely and then related what he'd seen. His partner looked over the waterfall following the explanation.
"A cave behind the waterfall?" she murmured then she got nervous "I don't know… that water's coming down really hard. You felt it. If there's just a rock wall back there…" she shuttered at the thought. "You know we'd get pounded by all that water."
She turned to face Alex, concern etched on her face now.
"Are you sure about this? You're sure there a cave back there?"
Alex wasn't sure himself but the last vision had been true… why not this one?
Eve apparently saw the determination that crossed his face as she straightened out her own and nodded.
"Alright then, I'm going to trust you on this. We'll jump through there. Together."
Alex returned the nod.
"Not like we've got anything else to work off of." Alex said with a nervous laugh.
Eve backed up to get a running start at the waterfall and Alex joined her. She was still nervous though and she shivered. Then she shook her head and focused, murmuring encouragement to herself:
"Alright… I need to be brave… I don't go through at full speed, I'll get pounded into the water, wall or no wall." She glanced at Alex who gave her an encouraging nod.
"Alright!" she said aloud "On three. One… two…" they both tensed "THREE!" they charged and jumped at the wall of fluid. All of Alex's doubts attempted to assert themselves in those seconds.
Oh man! We're history!
They both ended up yelling out, eyes squeezed shut, fully expecting to slam into a rock wall waiting for them.
Alex hit the water, and felt like several, wet Geodude were falling on him for half a second. Then he fell through open air for several moments before he hit horizontal ground and tumbled several feet.
"Oof!" "Ouch!"
Alex got up and shook himself off, throwing specks of water around. His ear hung in his sight as he looked up.
Eve was next to him, getting up as well and also shaking excess moisture off. In front of them, was the same cave he had seen in his vision. It was dark since little light was getting through the waterfall behind them but nonetheless, it was lit enough that they could see a few feet ahead.
"Wow…" Eve gasped as she viewed the scene "You were right, Alex! You were right!" her excitement from before returning.
"Alright! Let the exploration begin!" she cried out and charged forward, Alex hastily swept his ear back up and followed her, a smile plastered across his face. He found he liked Eve when she was so happy.
o0o
The cave behind the waterfall proved to be more complex than the dungeons they had encountered thus far.
This wasn't to say it was hard to traverse though, especially with Alex handling most of the fights against the water-types in the dungeon. Eve helped though, especially when they came across pokemon like Barboach or Wooper, both of which were ground-types.
There was also the matter the pools of water flooding most of the floors. The water made it difficult to get around and the water-types liked to come at them from the water. Fighting in dungeons over the past few days had strengthen both of the guild-members though. Alex had gotten faster and could even jump out at these water-dwelling foes and leap back to land safely. Eve had harden as well and wasn't so shy anymore in a fight.
They stopped at one point to rest. Eve gazed around at the cave walls.
"Pretty isn't it?" she commented as Alex pulled an apple out of their treasure bag and took bite. He glanced around too, chewing and swallowing before replying. It was a beautiful place, especially if you liked water. There were even bits of rock that almost looked like crystal in one or two places. He finished the snack and got to his feet, deciding where to go next.
"Alex… what do you think of the guild?" Eve asked, in a rather shy tone. She mumbled something else but Alex couldn't hear her because she spoke too softly. Considering her question, Alex reflected on the guild and its members he had gotten acquainted with.
He had encountered Dugtrio once. The group of moles had regarded them with enough respect, but Dugtrio seemed… odd in a way. Perhaps it had been the fact that Diglett was supposed to be their son…
Alex shook his head, discarding this line of thought…
His thoughts wandered over to Chimecho, the guild-member who did only a few things that Alex had seen. Chimecho was a colorful pokemon, being a sort of blend of turquoise and magenta in color and looked like a wind-chime. She was psychic-type, which explained to Alex how she floated through the air like a ghost, her long, flat tail waving in any breeze.
Chimecho was a bright personality and reminded Alex of his own partner is a few ways. She had been a little shy around Alex in fact but had warmed up to him rather fast. Perhaps too fast as at once point, she had gotten up in his face in a fit of cheerfulness and startled him. He accidentally shocked her. Alex still remembered how he had apologized over and over and Loudred had come by to check what was with the noise. To the former-human's embarrassment, Loudred got the mistaken impression he had done worse than what had happened.
It had been ten minutes before Alex's ears recovered from that incident and afterwards, Loudred had told him off for getting him worked up like that. Chimecho then apologized for getting him into trouble once Loudred left. Alex took it all in good humor though, he was used to Loudred by then and besides that, he knew there wasn't much point getting angry with anyone over it. It would only spoil the enjoyable atmosphere of the guild.
Alex's mind finally wandered back to Eve's question: What did he think of the guild?
He chuckled. "I think it's a great place to train. The members are all colorful characters, in more ways than one."
His partner smiled in agreement with his statement, then Alex decided they needed to move on. Just in time as it happened, as a curious Psyduck came wandering up and decided it didn't like them trespassing.
o0o
They arrived at what appeared to be the bottom, where they were greeted by the sight of colorful gems embedded in the walls and the floor.
"Whoa…" Alex breathed.
"Wow…" Eve's eye were glittering with wonder. Their eyes came to rest on a particularly big gem that was mostly out of the ground, against the back wall. Stepping over the gems and going deep into the room, they approached the large gem.
"Awesome! We'll be famous if we manage to bring this back to the guild!" Eve said excitedly and got up on her hind-legs and started trying to pull it out of its spot. Alex looked around as she attempted this. It wasn't long before she backed up, breathing hard.
"Whew… that's stuck something good. How 'bout you try pulling it out Alex?"
Alex shrugged and stepped up to the metaphorical plate, flexed a moment, and got a firm grip on the gem before pulling with all the force he could muster. It amazed him when, despite being mostly out of the ground, the gem stubbornly refused to even budge.
Geez, this is really is stuck tight!
After a moment, he backed off feeling like he had just tried to pull his arms out of their sockets rather than the gem out of the wall and shook his head.
"That gem's not movin'." He breathed. Eve looked discouraged at first but her ears stiffen as she refused to give up and Alex moved out of the way as she stepped up again to try again. Then Alex felt that dizziness strike again.
What now?
He might've groaned but the flash halted it before he could.
He saw the chamber they were in right now. The shadowy, oval-shaped figure came wandering in and looked around. Alex noticed the long, rabbit-like ears of the darkened figure. Then the figure tripped and stumbled into the gem in the back. The gem shifted in its place as they put their weight against it. Then the ground started shaking and the figure looked around before panicking as a wave of water came rushing through the chamber!
The vision ended abruptly and Alex swallowed as his mind straightened itself out again.
Meanwhile, Eve backed away from the gem yet again, groaning over her failed efforts to move it.
"Ergh… it just won't come out… maybe if I try rocking it out…"
Alex opened his mouth to tell her to stop but- too late. She pushed on the gem and it shifted back like a switch. Alex heard a loud noise to their right, and his mind knew what it was… his stomach felt like it bottomed-out.
"What was that noise?" the blissfully ignorant Eevee murmured, looking around. Alex looked as he felt a rush of air come blowing in from the right.
He started backing away from that direction.
Then the wave rounded a corner and came charging at them.
"RUN!" Alex screamed and tried fleeing for the exit, a terrified Eve stumbling after him.
The wave hit them in the middle of the room though and they were swept off their feet down the tunnel!
o0o
After an unknown length of time filled with confusion and being tumbled around in a wet carousel of chaos, the water shot both of them straight up into air. They were greeted by daylight and bounced on the water before the pressure died down below them, making the tower of water they were on fall away. They both screamed as they fell several feet to earth below. They landed with a loud splash!
Alex regained his sense a little later, feeling very warm but drenched. He could feel he was floating in water.
"Hey, are you two okay?" someone spoke not too far from him. Alex glanced around, there was steam rising from rocks and the water they were floating in was murky but rather comfortable.
"You both dropped out of the sky and startled everyone." The same voice commented.
Alex sat up in the water and he sunk in until his feet touched bottom, the water going up to about his waist. The pokemon speaking was a little bear pokemon from town Alex had met once, named Teddiursa. There were various other pokemon in and around the pool of water they were in, some who looked like monkeys looked about ready to attack him out of anger, most of the others though looked, indeed startled and some were dripping water, having jumped or hurriedly climbed out when they had come crashing down into the pool.
Eve walked over to a rock, keeping her head above water until she could put two feet up on the rocks, before asking in an exhausted tone:
"Where are we?"
A turtle-like pokemon with red skin and a black shell standing on the rocks came walking up, his shell spouting white smoke every few seconds.
"This is the Hot Spring my young friends. I am Torkoal." The pokemon said in an old, yet earnest tone. Eve raised an eyebrow.
"Do you have a map? Could you open it for me?" Torkoal asked. Eve found their Treasure Bag which had fallen on the ground outside the Spring, and found the map inside, mercifully dry and they spread it out on the rocks before the old pokemon. The turtle then put a foot on a point on the map:
"We are here. This is the Hot Spring. Pokemon come here all the time to relax and unwind." Torkoal explained. Eve and Alex both looked at the point, which was quite a ways to the right of the town and the waterfall they had just been at.
"Whoa! That wave carried us all the way over here from the waterfall?" Eve blinked, astonished. Torkoal blinked as well.
"The water carried you all the way here? My my… you two have had a rough trip haven't you? Please, rest here and enjoy yourselves." Torkoal said, offering the invitation cheerfully.
Eve seemed to notice for the first time the relaxing atmosphere of the Hot Spring and she relaxed.
"Yeah… that's sounds good. Let's take our time before heading back, okay Alex?"
Alex was already settling back on a rock in the water.
"Don't need to ask me twice." Alex sighed, taking in the relaxing air himself. The other pokemon at the Hot Spring settled back in too and soon, everyone was back to enjoying themselves.
o0o
After they finally had had enough of the Hot Spring for one day, they headed back and Chatot greeted their return. Eve related with great gusto what they had gone through.
"A shame we couldn't bring back that big gem…" She mumbled with a sad smile. Chatot jumped on it right away.
"My word! No, no, no! This is wondrous news!" Eve looked up, confused as Chatot babbled hurriedly "You two discovered a cave behind that waterfall! No one knew about that! It's a tremendous discovery!"
Eve caught what he was getting at and started cheer about it. Alex though… he was lost in his own thoughts…
No one? What about that figure I saw? And… haven't I seen that shape before?
Alex thought of the oval-shaped figure with the long ears… That's got to be it…
"No." He said, cutting Chatot short in his excited chattering about telling the Guildmaster. "I think the Guildmaster already knows about it… because he was there before."
Chatot jumped, feathers flying free in his flustered state. Eve was gaping in mild shock.
"No! That couldn't be! If that were the case, he would've told me!" the bird squawked.
Alex held firm though.
"Ask him then. I don't want to be claiming a discovery someone else has already made. It would be wrong."
Chatot frowned, disappointment clear but submitted to doing so (mumbling something Alex didn't catch) and told them to wait while he asked the Guildmaster.
A minute later, Chatot came back out of the Guildmaster's chamber.
"So, what did the Guildmaster say?" Eve asked, curiosity etching her tones.
Chatot thought over what he had been told before explaining:
"Well, he yelled out 'YOOM-TAH!'" Chatot started, flapping his wings out to punctuate the words, which startled Alex and his partner "Then he danced around a bit… then he said 'Yes, yes, when I think about it, I might've gone there once or twice.'." Chatot finished.
Alex stared… bit a stunned by Chatot's acting.
"In short," Chatot said "It's just as Alex suspected: he has already visited the cave in the past."
Eve seemed to shrivel a bit before murmuring,
"Oh… I kind of wish he could've said that sooner…" Alex felt a twang of guilt about spoiling Eve's mood.
Chatot sighed.
"Yes well… the Guildmaster can be a bit… odd at times. Even I can fathom what goes on in his head." Alex quirked an eyebrow… "odd" seemed like a grave understatement from what little of the Guildmaster he had seen and what he had just experienced moments ago. For crying out loud, Wigglytuff was frequently asleep with his eyes wide-open during morning cheers! Then there was the fact that he tended to be dancing around at dinner bouncing an apple around on his head… Alex couldn't blame Chatot for not being able to figure the Guildmaster out.
"At any rate, we'll still be expecting just as much effort out of both of you tomorrow." Chatot said cheerily, which contrasted with Eve's mood.
o0o
Following dinner, Alex checked on Eve's mood as they settled down to sleep that night.
She seemed to have cheered up though there was still a trace of glumness to her mood.
"You're okay then? Sorry, about spoiling our… discovery." Alex said, noting her slight smile.
"It's alright…" she murmured "Besides, I don't think I've ever felt so brave. Fighting Drowzee had been one thing but… jumping into that waterfall… I don't think I could've done it without you there."
Alex blinked… a bit stunned. Eve giggled at his expression.
"I'm okay Alex, and today was really fun. But I'm tired now so let's get some sleep, okay?"
Alex shook himself a bit and settled down.
Then Eve sat up in bed.
"You know… it just occurred to me… those visions of yours…"
Alex looked up.
"You always seem to be touching something when they come." Eve said. Alex reflected on the past few days and realized she was right.
"And then when you had those visions of Drowzee. You saw a future event, right? But this time, you were seeing something that happened already, meaning the past." Alex hadn't realized this bit of insight until now.
She's right… everything she just said… correct.
Eve smiled brightly "That's such a cool ability! It could be really useful for adventures!"
Well, yeah… but there's the still the matter of control… if only I could have them when I want…
Eve calmed and settled back down.
"Well… it's a little late to be getting so excited… but… I really glad I met you Alex."
"Thanks Eve…"
Both got comfortable and drifted off to sleep.
