- Chapter 9: Deeper into the Mire -
As I stared at the two pokémon that I had known for most of my life, only a single emotion coursed through me: utter horror. It simmered in the depths of my soul, burning straight through my heart to the pit of my stomach.
This can't be real.
My heart thumped loudly in my chest. My breath staggered erratically in and out of my lungs. My emotions nearly shattered at the mere sight of them.
How did this h-happen to them?
They were too gruesome. Seeing the sheer amounts of cuts and bleeding and—was that bone?! One of Kyle's arms was clearly broken. Was a luxio's tail supposed to bend like that?
No, no, holy Arceus—!
I could not tell if they even breathed. All of my hatred for Zane and all of my ambivalence for Kyle drenched itself in a concern so terrifying that I could only focus on one thought.
Are they dead? They…no. But they're not moving.
Tears welled up in my eyes. There was so much blood. They looked like broken toys that had been discarded. They're really…
"Clear a path! Clear a path! Make way for the paramedics! Clear a path!"
My head instinctively lifted at the sound of the voice commanding the crowd to part. The voice repeated its message again, and the crowd parted, creating a direct pathway to center. Pokémon dressed in white coats flooded into the small clearing. Two pairs of the white-clad pokémon each carried a woven stretcher and a white blanket.
An audino immediately rushed to Kyle and Zane. He laid a hand on Kyle while simultaneously wrapping his other hand around a feeler that dangled from his ear. He paused momentarily before repeating the same process with Zane. No one in the crowd spoke.
The audino lifted his hand from Zane's chest, sighing deeply. "They're alive," he said in a relieved tone, "but they're not going to be for much longer. Get these two onto the stretchers and run them back as fast as you can!"
At the audino's command, the paramedics lifted Kyle and Zane onto separate stretchers. As soon as they were secured, the medics sprinted through the crowd and towards what I presumed was the nearest hospital in town.
"Everyone, you must leave the scene now," the same voice from earlier shouted. "This is now a crime scene! I repeat, you must leave now."
Still positioned near the center of the crowd, I watched as a tall chesnaught marched into the space the medics vacated. Her green, spiky arms were tensed, and her tan body armor gleamed dangerously in the afternoon sunlight.
"Please leave the area now. This is a crime scene!" the chesnaught repeated.
While the crowd, one by one, migrated away from the two pokémon and the foreboding message, my paws remained rooted to the ground. A momentous despair simmered within me.
Why am I losing everyone near me?
I could not care less how much Zane hurt me in the past. As much as I had felt the urge to hurt him back after all those years, he never deserved this. Kyle never deserved this. Lucy never—
"Eevee! Please follow everyone into the city," the chesnaught said. His voice had a softer tone to it. I must look like a wreck, what with the tears streaking down my face and my legs shaking like earthquakes.
"I—I knew t-them," I choked out.
The chesnaught, who had been advancing on me, halted. His fingers clicked together thoughtfully; the spines on his arms relaxed.
"You knew them?" he repeated of me.
My throat now too constricted to respond, I merely nodded. Sighing and rubbing, her face, the chesnaught looked around her for a moment. She eventually returned her focus to me and pointed to the left of the town's entrance.
"Stand over there. Some detectives will be coming by to speak with you," he said. He laid a comforting hand on my shoulder and patted me a couple of times like I was a little kit.
I did not mind being treated like a little kit at this point. Following his directions, I trudged toward the indication destination. I refused to glance over my shoulder even once. When I reached the spot, I slumped onto my belly and buried my head in my paws. The sobs I had struggled for so long to contain now poured out from me like a flood, wracking my chest and sides.
The sound of footsteps walking toward me dragged me partly out of my misery. Raising my head, my blurry vision picked out two pokémon approaching me: a manectric and a lombre. In particular, the manectric exuded an authoritative aura.
The manectric and lombre halted next to me. Judgingly, the manectric scrutinized me. "Are you the one Officer Cliff told us about?" she asked. Her voice hummed with a soprano overtone. The lombre merely stood silently behind her, holding what appeared to be a booklet full of paper in one hand and a levi-pen in the other.
"Who's C-Cliff?" I asked shakily. Wiping my eyes, I straightened myself into a sitting position and tried to regain some of my dignity.
"The chesnaught," the manetric responded.
"Oh, yeah. I-I met him-m," I said.
"Your name?"
"M-Mona."
The manectric gestured her head towards the lombre, who then casually opened his booklet and levitated the levi-pen over the paper. After jotting down a few short sentences, he looked at the manectric expectantly.
The manectric blinked and turned back to me. "Okay, Mona, my name is Detective Jane, and this is my partner, Detective Pads. I'm going to ask you a few questions about what happened here, and my partner will write down what you say. Alright?"
Speechless, I simply nodded.
"Okay, then. First question: when did you arrive to the scene?" Jane asked.
"Fifteen minutes ago."
Pads rapidly copied what I said on his paper. When he confirmed that he had written my exact words, she continued, "Very well. As you were approaching the scene, did you notice anything unusual?"
I blinked. Unusual? Besides my friends lying dead on the ground?
"There was a strange message on the ground," I replied with an obnoxious sniff.
Jane sighed exasperatedly. "Other than the scene itself," she elaborated.
I frowned. "W-Well, besides the crowd? Um, no, I didn't see anything unusual."
It was the Jane's turn to frown. "Alright," she muttered. She paused as Pads scribbled on his booklet. After he finished, she asked, "I heard from Officer Cliff that you know the two victims in this crime. Care to tell us about them?"
I paused momentarily. She doesn't need to know everything. It's not like it's her business, I thought.
"Their names are…Kyle and Zane. I've known them since I—I was a kit. Kyle was—is shy but strong," I said, sick at myself for using past tense, "and Zane is really…confident. Mean, too, I guess."
"Okay. Now, one last question. When was the last time you saw Kyle and Zane before they were severely injured?" Jane asked me, her voice acquiring a stern tone.
Sniffing again, I blurted, "I saw Kyle at graduation. Zane was missing…until now."
Pads's Levi-pen furiously copied what I said. Jane glanced over at his paper, nodded to herself, and returned her gaze to me.
"Thank you for your time and information, Mona. If you ever have to contact us, come to the Sunrise Police Station. I'm sorry about them. I hope they recover," she politely barked.
She smiled lightly, then turned to leave. As if realizing something, she halted mid-turn and faced me again. "Oh, I forgot to ask. I couldn't help but notice the badge on your chest. What is your exploration team and guild? It could help us in contacting you if we need further information."
"Oh, it's Team Advent," I responded quickly. I wanted her to be gone; my emotions could hardly handle company any longer.
"Team Advent? Interesting name. Again, just be on lookout for any news from me or my fellow officers. If you want to visit they, I believe they are at Sunrise Hospital," she said. She gestured to Pads, who had shut his booklet and tucked the levi-pen into its binding, and they entered into the city.
I watched them pad back into the city. Slumping, I hung my head.
I just came back from my first failed job in a Mystery Dungeon, I thought,and if things couldn't get any worse, I find two pokémon that I've seen for most of my life lying half-dead on the ground next to Treasure Town. What the heck is going on with my life right now? What even just...happened?
"Mona...?" a voice whispered tenderly.
Blearily, I raised my head. Deep brown eyes filled my vision.
"Waah!" I cried, starting. "Eris, don't do that to me!"
"Sorry, Mona," Eris apologized softly.
I sighed and shook my head. "No, no, it's fine, Eris," I croaked.
"Arceus, you look like a wreck," Ray commented, poking his head around Eris. His arms were crossed, the fingers of his right hand tapping his left bicep. Eris seemed to finally notice my tear-streaked face; her attitude shifted into outright concern.
"Mona, what happened? Why d-did you run off?" she asked.
"I…," I started to say, but my throat constricted. Taking a deep breath to relax it, I continued, "Eris, I saw Zane and Kyle."
She tilted her head at me. "Oh, really? Uh, when did they come to Treasure Town?"
"They were nearly dead."
Eris froze, her mouth dangling open. Ray raised his eyebrows at me.
"D-D-Dead?!" Eris sputtered.
"…Yeah. They had this…this message around them: 'This is only the beginning. The war has begun,'" I said. I wiped my eyes and stood. Now that I had some time to process, my mood was calming—enough to regain my composure.
"The heck?" Ray said, uncrossing his arms.
"It was written in ashes, too," I added.
"…Freaky," Eris breathed.
"Freaky? This is horrible!" I said, my emotions detonating again. "How could this happen again to people I know?! First it was Lucy, and now—"
I bit back my words, snapping my head to the side. Eris bit her lip, appearing unsure of what to say. Ray glanced back and forth between us, his eyebrows creasing. The tension steadily mounted.
"Alright," he finally said. "Let's just head back to the guild. You can fill us in as we go."
"…and that's when those detectives left," I concluded.
"I c-can't believe that Kyle and Zane were…," Eris whimpered.
The shadow of the guild cast itself over us. We had gathered right next to the gate, Ray relaxing against the wall. My paws pattered on the ground; my body still felt wired from earlier.
"I just want to know who did it," I said to her.
"I have no idea," Eris said. Ray, while we were speaking, strode in front of the gate and shouted up to Walter to let us in. As the gate rumbling upward, he motioned for us to come inside after him.
After a moment of silence, Eris said, "Hey, we, um, have to t-turn in our thing, right?"
"Ugh, yeah," Ray grunted, rubbing his face grimly.
Her statement awkwardly ended our conversation, but nonetheless, we had to do our job. With Ray walking ahead of me and Eris beside me, we crossed the hall and entered into a hallway on the far left. Entering into the offices on the right side of that hallway, a flurry of harried pokémon greeted us. Several pokémon were busily writing on stacks of papers and scrolls. Messengers in white hats with matching white bags darted in between the rows of desks, exchanging papers before running out one of several doors.
We navigated the maze of desks to a blue door near the back. When we reached the door, I noticed that a tiny, golden plate rested on the door frame. It read: "Chief Secretary Alice's Office".
"Well, here goes," I said. I tentatively raised a forepaw and knocked on the door.
"Come in," a voice lightly chirped.
Thankfully, the door opened by sliding and not by turning a handle, so I slid the door to the right and walked into the office. A blue pokémon engulfed in fluffy feathers rested primly on a nest-like chair. In front of her laid a wooden desk, its top barely rising to the bottom of her wide chair. Several ink pots dotted the surface of the desk next to heaps of papers. Multiple filing cabinets lined the wall behind her.
"Ah, you three. Hello again," Alice greeted.
"Hello, Mrs. Alice," I greeted back. "We're here to report our job outcome."
"Very well," she said. One of Alice's legs emerged from under her cloud-like feathers and flicked through the papers on her desk. I noticed that, though her talons were ink-stained, they did not leave any marks on her papers.
"You know, you guys have stirred up a little gossip here," she commented idly. "Some of the teams here are talking about how you know Team Crescent."
"R-Really?" Eris asked.
"Mm-hmm. A very small number of people know much about them. Even I don't know much myself. They like to keep to themselves," she said.
Keep to themselves? I thought. Mr. Ace, while he was rather stand-offish at school, never really withheld himself much from the students. He personally involved himself in the dungeon exploration, often siding with one or more teams during some of our drills.
How much do I really know about him? I pondered.
"Hum. Anyway, may I see your job request?" Alice asked. Obliging, Eris reached into my treasure bag and pulled out the rolled-up document. She handed it to the altaria, who rolled it out on her desk. Her talons stopped flipping through the pages upon reaching a blank one. She set a paperweight on the edge of the page. Dipping a talon in one of several inkpots on her desk, she hurriedly scratched out some sentences on the blank page.
"Now, may I please see the reviver seed?" she asked. She proffered a talon, staring at me expectantly.
I gulped nervously. "We...didn't exactly get the item we needed to," I said slowly.
Her eyes pierced mine coldly. "You mean to say that you failed your very first job?" she asked scathingly.
I winced at her tone and hung my head. "Yes, ma'am. We...failed our first job."
She stared at us for a moment, an almost sad gleam in her eyes before she wrote several lines of text on the page.
"Tut tut. I'm very sorry to hear that," she consoled. "However, I still have to give out the due punishment, regardless of your newbie status."
I gulped nervously. I did not like the sound of "punishment".
"What d'ya mean?" Ray asked, fingering his neck fur.
She tapped a talon that was not recently covered in ink on her desk. She then continued to write on the page. Her silence grated on my nerves, but I waited for her to speak.
Eventually, she finished with whatever she was writing on her page. Looking up at me, she said, "Your punishment, as per guild regulations, is a reduction in the amount of payment you shall receive for your job."
My mouth dropped open. "No way."
She nodded sagely. "Yes, dears. Time is money, after all, and our clients expect a speedy delivery of their requested items. It's the only way we can compensate for the delay in their item's arrival."
Unable to continue holding eye contact, my head lowered to my chest. "Oh," I said in a small voice. "Is that all?"
Alice shook her head. "Sorry, but that's not all. The rank points you receive for completing this job are halved as well."
I grimaced. From my studies, I had learned that rank points were given to exploration teams after completing a job. Rank points were the easiest way to track a team's inherent skill. If an exploration team acquired enough rank points, they could take a test to advance to the next exploration rank.
Glancing down at my explorer's badge, I saw that a pink gem was inlaid in its center, denoting that our exploration rank was only at the Normal Rank, the lowest level.
We didn't do ourselves any favors by failing this job. We've just made it harder on ourselves to advance, I thought, depressed.
Alice wiped her ink-covered talon on a cloth that laid on the corner of her desk. She slid the job request document closer to her with her semi-dry talon. I watched anxiously as she bent her neck to close the paper and skimmed over the job description.
"I see. This is only an E-rank job. You won't lose that many rank points since you wouldn't have gained much in the first place," she said. "Still, I have to notate that you have failed this job. Any subsequent failures must be reported to me; if you succeed, you must bring the item and job request back to me. Any questions?"
I did have one question, but I was afraid of how she would answer it. "Alice, what would happen if we used the item that the job asked for?"
Alice froze in her seat, an expression of shock on her face. Her talons hung suspended in the air. A stray drop of ink dangled on the edge of one of her talons, then separated from the tip and splashed onto the desk.
"You...what...," she sputtered. Her eyes locked onto mine in wonder. She then whispered, "In all my years of working as a secretary, never have I come across a situation like this. Please, tell me how this came to be."
Reluctantly, I shared the story of our exploration of Seacoast Cliffs. I told her about the first kabutops fight on the dungeon's first floor. I skipped most of the details in between to the fight against the kabutops duo on the final floor. As I explained about the kabutops ambushing and knocking out Ray, the riolu's paw began to twist his collar fur, a withering gaze radiating from his eyes. I finished with saying that I had used the reviver seed to revive Ray so that we could beat the kabutops and escape relatively unharmed.
Alice did not interrupt me as I explained the reasoning behind me using the reviver seed. When I had finished, she did not appear angry as I thought she would. Instead, a smile graced her gentle features.
"You are a very noble pokémon, Mona," she praised. "I don't know many who would forgo their jobs for the sake of their friend's safety."
I felt a blush creeping onto my cheeks. She thinks I'm noble? I thought in disbelief. I was just doing what I thought should be done.
"I can't assure you with the fact that you'll find another reviver seed. However, I wouldn't give up hope; you may just find the means to acquire another one," she stated hopefully. "I can give you one useful suggestion, however: get some rest. Not to offend you, but you three look horrible. Anybody would be exhausted after going through what you three did."
I could not help but agree with her. My eyelids threatened to close of their own volition, and my entire body ached from the beating I received at the blades of those kabutops.
"You can say that again," Ray grunted.
She chuckled lightly. "Now, I've held you long enough. I should've already been on my dinner break, so shoo! Go get some food and rest."
To emphasize her point, she pointed with her talons towards the door and waved good-bye. I smiled and turned to leave, but I suddenly remembered a question that I had desperately wanted answered.
"Ma'am, I have to ask you one question before I go," I said, facing Alice once more.
"What is it, dear?"
"Do you know of any hospitals close to Treasure Town's eastern entrance?"
She paused in thought, her talons rapping sharply on the desk. "The only place I know is Sunrise Hospital on Main Street."
My smile broadened. "Thanks, Alice."
She smiled in return. "You're welcome, dear."
Keeping my smile plastered to my face, I slid the door open and exited her office, Ray and Eris following quietly. When I had shut the door, I groaned and sunk onto the ground.
"I'm so sorry, guys. I didn't think me using that reviver seed would be so bad," I apologized.
While Ray simmered in silence, Eris crouched and patted me on the shoulder. "It's, um, okay, Mona. It really is," she comforted.
I tried to smile, but I could not fake one again. I merely said, "Thank, Eris. I still messed up, though."
Standing, I shook the dust out of my fur. My legs quaked violently from the effort. I really am tired, I thought. I could use a nap.
"You guys just wanna go back our quarters? I'm beat," I asked.
Eris nodded wearily, her exhaustion more than evident.
"I'm getting food. I'll get something for you guys, too," Ray said. He appeared rather fresh despite the events of today.
He doesn't show his exhaustion as obviously as we do. Must be a riolu thing, I observed.
We trudged out of the offices and down the staircase. At the bottom, Ray headed down to the mess hall, where I could smell the food even from this far away. Eris and I headed to our right and through the double doors to the members' hall. Climbing up the stairwell, we reached our room and gratefully opened the door.
Eris sighed deeply as she crashed onto her straw bed, curling into a tight ball. I opted to set my treasure bag onto a chair at the table and relax onto another chair. As I reclined, my eyes roved around the room, properly observing it for the first time.
From the tiny crack of light shining from underneath the door, I saw the large cabinet that I had noticed on my first day here sitting in the back right corner of the room. A long, wooden counter-top was attached to the left wall. A series of shelves dominated the wall space above the counter, and a line of smaller cabinets filled the space under the counter. A candle rested on each end of the counter and in the center of the table. A box of matchsticks laid next to the candle on the table.
I could use a little light right now,I decided. Reaching out with a forepaw, I latched my claws onto the edge of the box of matchsticks and dragged it closer to me. Tearing open the bag, my claws punched through a matchstick and pulled it out of the box. My mouth gently grabbed the end of the matchstick.
Using one forepaw to hold the box steady, I struck the end of the matchstick against the rough end of the box. It lit with a soft, orange flame. Holding my breath so that smoke did not enter my lungs, I held the tiny flame up to the candlewick until it lit as well. Then, I exhaled deeply, extinguishing the matchstick's flame.
I spat the used matchstick onto the table, then rested my chin on the table's edge. My eyes stared into the flickering flame. As time passed, my mind slowly began to unravel. For the first time that day, I was relatively calm.
My peaceful mind reflected on today's events. I had received a tour of the guild, gotten my first job, explored my third Mystery Dungeon, failed my first job, seen Kyle and Zane collapsed in front of Treasure Town, been interviewed by two detectives, and returned to the guild all before dinnertime.
Today couldn't have gone much worse, I thought with a dry humor. Absently, I ran my paw over the table's smooth surface.
Should I have chosen being an explorer? Honestly, though, I don't regret my decision. This is a just a little bump in the road; that's all.
My paw slid from the table and onto the chair.
I'm worried for Zane and Kyle. Who would do that to them? I mean, anybody who does that to them is some sick jerk. I hope those police people, or anybody really, finds the pokémon that did it and catches him or her.
As I thought about Zane and Kyle, memories of being in school with them surfaced in my mind.
I saw Kyle, then only a torchic, when he first entered the school. The school had recently opened and only consisted of two tiny classrooms. He always sat in the back of the classroom and kept to himself. I remember judging him as a hopeless nobody by his lack of socialization. My opinion of him did not change until we both reached our third year in the school. That year was the first year the school implemented a battle class.
In that class, he fought me in his first match. While that match only served to acquaintance the both of us to fighting, he forced me into submission in under one minute, completely surprising everyone in the class.
However, his fighting talent was not what stunned me the most about him. Though he could have gloated about his victory over me, he instead helped me stand on my paws and congratulated me on a fight well fought.
After that day, my outlook on him changed. I still viewed him as distant, yet I could not forget the battle prowess and inherent chivalry he displayed after our first fight. Even when he evolved and when I became known as the school outcast, he never treated me any differently than before I had that label so ungraciously slapped on me.
My memories unwillingly shifted to those of Zane, and I felt my stomach twist into knots. Zane had also entered the then-new school with me. As a shinx, he had acted relatively respectfully. I guess it had something to do with his father being the head of the local tribe.
As time passed, however, he changed. He evolved in his first year, the typical evolution time for bug types, not electric types. My parents always had told me that those who evolve too early in their lives usually were not able to handle their newfound power very well. I never really believed them until I had witnessed Zane's blinding change in behavior. His new, nasty attitude had been part of the reason that I had waited until my fourth year to try to evolve—the year I discovered that I actually could not do so.
When my third year rolled around, pretty much everyone in my grade had evolved at least once—a spewpa actually evolved into a vivillon near the end of the year. Lucy had invited me over in the winter to watch her evolve into a glaceon. Judging by that, I should have had a great year, but that year was also the year that Zane started bullying me.
By the fourth year, my role as the school outcast had been cemented. However, like a cruel twist of fate, that was also the year that I saved Zane's life.
I vividly remembered that eventful day. That day had been during mid-spring. School had ended for the day, and I had decided to walk home on a different route directly through the forest to see if I would arrive home faster. While I had struggled to drag my unwieldy lunch box through the underbrush, I reached a small creek.
Thirsty from my hike, I had set my burden on the ground and prepared to crawl through the underbrush when I spotted Zane reclining on the bank.
His presence had startled me so much that I ducked back into the bushes. I stared at him, not moving an inch. Zane had only gazed at the water tensely as if anticipating a giant feraligatr to leap from the water and devour him whole.
I had given up hope on waiting for him to leave when he abruptly stood. Slowly and carefully, he slunk down the bank until his paws brushed the edge of the water. I had watched with bated breath as he dipped a paw in the water.
A second passed, then Zane yanked his paw out of the water with a yowl. Hunching like a frightened poochyena, he limped from the water's edge and rung out his paw.
I had been shocked to behold such behavior from Zane, who I had seen as hardened and without much fear of anything. I felt as if I had witnessed a private moment.
I had seen Zane's greatest fear: the water.
Hastily retreating from the edge of the underbrush, I moved to grab my container and run away when I heard a loud screech and a heavy splash from the creek's direction. Forgetting my fear, I had sprung from the bushes to discover what had happened.
Zane had fallen into the creek; I could tell from the gouges in the wet mud where Zane had stood moments before. He had flailed in the water, desperately trying to swim to the bank. However, rain had recently fallen, and the creek had swollen, its water moving rapidly downstream.
Zane had struggled to grab a branch to anchor himself, but every branch he had tried to snag was just out of his reach. He then yowled, a cry full of the terror one has when faced with imminent, unavoidable death. He was searching for something—someone—to save him.
I knew nobody could come and save him. Nobody but me.
As Zane had drifted downstream, I searched for anything that could save him before he drowned. Luckily, a dead tree, its girth massive in size, was hanging over the creek.
With Zane's quieting cries driving me, I had Tackled the tree until it cracked in its base. Gravity then took over for me, and the tree tumbled into the water below. Both ends lodged themselves in the mud, forming a bridge over the creek.
Zane had smacked into the tree trunk and dug his claws into its dead bark. His chest had risen and fallen rapidly. His paws had trembled as they held his body in place.
After several minutes of motionlessness, he had raised his head and swung it side to side to spot who had saved him. By then, however, I had hidden myself well behind the cover of the undergrowth. Zane had puffed out a breath, then had clambered onto the truck. He bounded onto the bank—the same side that I was on—and pulled himself up the last bit of slope.
Before he left the creek-side, however, he had halted, his eyes fixed on a point in the distance. I had silently followed his gaze, and my breath had caught when I realized at what he was staring: my lunch box. It had shone brightly in the sun, unmistakable even to the unwary eye.
Zane's eyes had narrowed, and he peered around him carefully. I shrunk back against the earth, grateful for the first time for my diminutive stature and dull, earthy fur. I was also fortunate that Zane had not yet evolved into a luxray, for he would have spotted me in an instant with the luxray's see-through vision.
Seemingly satisfied that he was alone, Zane had wandered off into the woods. I did not move until he had been gone for a long time. Carefully, I had picked my way over to my lunch box, grabbed it, and toted it back to my house. That night, I had applied a new coat of paint to make sure that Zane would not be able to tell that I—the loner, the outcast—had saved his life.
My mind withdrew from its inner memories as I noticed that the candle, already short, was running low. Abstractly, I tapped my claws on the table. Don't go all sympathetic for him, now, Mona. He's given you more than enough of a hard time to make your act seem unworthy,I scolded myself.
Something thumped on the door; then, it swung open. Ray entered into the room, toting a wooden box. He kicked the door shut with his foot, saying, "I have food."
"Food? Where…? In the box?" I asked, jumping off my chair.
"Where else?" Ray said. He ambled over to the table and, setting the box on it, pulled off one of the sides. Inside the box were three racks, each containing a steaming plate of scrumptious edibles.
"You got it to-go? Neat," I praised.
"They're letting us keep the box, too," Ray added. He withdrew the plate and set of silverware from the top rack, leaving me to choose between the remaining two.
"Hey, Eris, you coming?" I asked Eris. She did not budge from her bed, instead twitching rather oddly. I frowned at her as she muttered something under her breath.
"Eris, heh, c'mon. Wake up!" I said. I walked over to her and shook her roughly. Her eyes snapped open, and she recoiled from me.
"Woah, good morning to you, too," I said, raising my paws.
"Ugh, what is it?" she said, sounding irritated.
"Just…dinner," I said. Her behavior freaked me out a little bit. Never before had I seen her act so rude.
"Oh, really?" she said, perking. She quickly leapt off her bed and darted to the table. Grabbing a plate and silverware set, she hopped onto one of the chairs and gazed expectantly at me.
"Well, alright, then," I laughed. As I jumped onto the last chair, Eris pulled over my dinner for me. She pushed the box to the far side of the table. While they dug immediately into their meals, I quickly said a prayer before digging into mine.
After passing the first few minutes in silence, Ray said, "It's too dark in here. I'm opening the door."
"So, Ray, did you hear anything about the incident down in mess hall?" I asked.
"Yes, actually," he answered as he cracked open the door a smidge. "An emboar announced that the east exit is closed to all traffic. You go there, and you get arrested."
"They probably did that to preserve the message on the ground," I deduced.
This is only the beginning. The war has begun.
"That message w-w-was creepy," Eris said, trembling. "So creepy..."
I sat in silence. The more I thought about the message, the more familiar it seemed. Then, it clicked.
"This is only the beginning."
I've heard that before! I realized.
"Guys, I think I know who did it," I said solemnly.
Ray gestured with his paw. "Well, spill."
"Shroud."
Eris gasped. "You...you think so?" she squealed.
Ray's brow creased. "He's the guy who set fire to your school, right?"
"And nearly killed me," I added, "which is why I'm so confused. Why didn't he kill Kyle or Zane? What makes this scenario different?"
Ray opened his mouth, then shut it. It appeared that he was stumped as well.
As we both struggled to answer the question, Eris offered, "Maybe...we shouldn't focus on who did it...and more on the message itself."
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
She stared shyly at the table. I almost thought she would not speak, but she answered my question by saying, "W-well, you said it yourself. 'The war has begun.' If Shroud did this, then maybe he's, um, setting some sort of plan in motion."
I shook my head. "What sensible person would announce their plans?" I said in disagreement. I sighed and hung my head. "He can't just start a war! He's only one person; it's suicide, no matter how strong he is. It just doesn't make sense."
"None of this makes sense," Ray stated bluntly. "The more we try to make sense of it, the less sense it makes." Finishing his meal, he set his fork and knife on his plate.
"That's why I'm heading to the library tomorrow," I said.
"You're heading to the library to find out about the vague ramblings of some crook?" Ray asked, sounding, for once, actually confused.
I shook my head. My head had run farther ahead than the actual pace of the conversation. "Sorry, I was just remembering how I heard the guildmaster and Team Crescent talking about some Ruins of Eld. They said that Shroud was interested in it, so I thought that maybe I could find something about it in the library. You guys wanna come with me?"
Plus, I want to figure out what Mr. Ace really could know.
"No thanks," Ray said immediately.
"Oh! Um, sure, I guess I'll go with you," Eris replied. "Shouldn't we, uh, you know, take another job, though?"
Before I could consider her question, a knock sounded at the door. We looked at each other in confusion; why knock if the door was cracked open?
Apparently, the visitor realized this, too, because he said, "I'm sorry if I'm bothering you. I know the door is open, but I don't want to barge in. I have a message to deliver."
A message? For us? I thought. Hopping off of my seat, I trotted over to the door and nudged it fully open. A growlithe in a white cap waited outside of my door. A white bag hung loosely from his shoulder.
"Hey, you're that growlithe from before. It's Blaze, right?" I said, recognizing him from when he delivered a message to the guildmaster during my team's interview.
"Yes, I'm Blaze! I'm surprised you remember me. Not a lot of people do," Blaze said happily. "Now, I bring news from the guildmaster himself."
My eyes widened in shock. "Oh. What does he want from us?"
He puffed out his chest as if he was proud to deliver the message. "The guildmaster has requested that you and your team come see him at once."
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