Chapter Nine: Max
"So, um… You hear about that scyther that's been going around?"
Luxio didn't respond as he and Max continued to plod through the narrow canyon, being careful not to slip off of the small ridge that was all that stood between them and the river far below.
Desperately wanting to keep the silence broken despite Luxio's obvious hostility, Max continued, "That scyther – Edge, wasn't it – he was here in our jurisdiction last time he was seen, wasn't he? He's been cutting up pokémon left and right… Even that group of three pokémon from the Western Guild wasn't able to beat him. It'd stink to run into him here, huh?"
Max glanced back behind him to judge the Luxio's reaction, and in another moment found the ground beneath his talons crumbling. He squawked with surprise and instinctually flapped his wings, which – after weeks and weeks of training – were just barely strong enough to keep him aloft for a few seconds.
The few seconds was all he needed, though; Luxio soon had the archen's scaly tail between his sharp teeth. With a grunt, he pulled the panicked bird back onto the more solid part of the ridge he was standing on.
"Be more careful," he said with a scowl.
As Max sat on the ground and let his heart calm down from the scare, he watched as Luxio pulled a piece of papery bark and a bottle of ink out of his explorer's bag; the luxio dipped one tip of his star-shaped tail into the ink and, with a few deft strokes, marked the unstable spot of the canyon path on his self-made map.
After he had put the two items away, he looked up to Max again and said, "No reason to just sit around here all day. We've got work to do." Though he had probably just saved Max's life, his distant attitude toward the archen hadn't changed whatsoever.
Max just sighed, picked himself up, and hopped over the newly-created gap.
He was so nice to me before that mission at Sheltered Vale… Why has he been so rude ever since then? No one else from the guild seemed to care that I was a coward. Why does it matter that much to him?
"So, um… You go on exploration missions like this often?"
No response.
Max's feathers ruffled up a bit in indignation, but he tried his best to keep calm as he continued, "It's really kind of cool. Just looking around, seeing what new things you can find…"
Luxio finally spoke, but not in response to Max's friendly observations. "Check those footholds just above you," Luxio said tersely. "There's a cave above and ahead of us a ways. We should see if we can get to it."
Rather than comply as he had for the rest of this exploration, Max let his feathers fully poof out from his body in anger; he felt like if he'd been a human, his face would probably be just as red as the crimson canyon walls that rose above him. He spun around quickly and, in a loud voice, said, "Look. I know I'm just along 'cuz you needed some sort of flying-type to check the stability of the ground for you, and I was the best thing available, and I know you'd rather have someone else along who's more help… But you could at least be nice to me, all right? I'm just trying to make casual conversation!"
Luxio's own fur bristled, though he tried to hide his agitation behind a calm voice. "Just hurry up and do it so that we both can get home as quickly as possible."
"No," Max said firmly.
Electricity cackled in the air, fizzling out as it hit the dry canyon rock. "That's the mission, okay! We're supposed to be exploring this place. You gonna just forget about the mission 'cuz your angry with me?"
"I'm the one who's angry with you? At least I deserve to be angry!" Max said. He was finally at his limit. Being paired up with someone who hated him for no apparent reason was just too much for a self proclaimed people-person like him to handle. "Seriously, why haven't you been talking to me at all? I'm a coward, I'll admit it! I tried to tell you that from the beginning, but you wouldn't listen! It's not my fault that I just wasn't ready to fight against something like that monferno!"
The sparks grew and grew to the point that they were hitting Max's beak. Still, Max didn't back down, and continued to meet Luxio's angered gaze. He wasn't used to fighting with former friends like this, and he hated it.
Aside from Luxio, I've tried and succeeded in befriending essentially every pokémon at the guild, at an acquaintance level at least. Then, with he mentally shook himself, and corrected, No, not aside from Luxio… He was the first pokémon I befriended, after all! So what is it that happened?
There was a tense few moments when it looked like a battle might break out. The thought made Max nervous, but he knew that Luxio wouldn't go overboard against him; there was no reason for him to be afraid, as he normally would've been against another stronger pokémon.
But then the Luxio let the electricity disperse from his fur as he relaxed. With a sigh, he lowered himself to the ground and curled up, his tail resting against his body and his head on his paws as he looked out over the river.
"…I'm sorry," he eventually grumbled, though he spoke so softly that Max wasn't sure he'd heard it.
"What?" Max asked, just to be sure.
"I'm sorry, all right?" Luxio said, still looking down at the ribbon of blue that threaded between the shadowed canyon walls. "You did warn me that you weren't that brave, and I got my expectations up anyway. I guess that wasn't too fair of me."
He spoke like he didn't really mean it, but Max could tell that he did; he just didn't like admitting he was wrong. If there was one thing he'd learned from being around Luxio, it was that he could be rather prideful at times. Immediately, all of Max's anger left him.
He lowered himself to the ground and carefully scooted up to the edge of their pathway, so that he could hang his legs over the edge. It didn't work quite as well as he would've hoped. Since his archen legs bent the opposite direction of his human legs, all he could really manage was having his talons in the air.
Max ignored that minor difficulty and looked over to Luxio, bearing no sentiments of haughtiness despite the fact that the Luxio had admitted his fault. Instead, he asked, "Why did it mean so much to you to begin with? I mean, so much that you wouldn't believe the truth, and so much that you'd stop being friends with me because I ran instead of fighting a losing battle?"
Luxio lifted his head, uncrossed his front legs, and began to knead the ground with his paws thoughtfully, as if the action might somehow loosen both his mind and body. "It's a long story… You see, my sister and I were the only two cubs in our littler, and by competing against each other, the two of us grew very fast. Our mom was a luxio, but in a couple years us two shinx had already surpassed her in power. When we realized that, we decided it was time to set out on our own. We both wanted to see more of the world than just Tallgrass Plains, where we were born."
"However, we… Wait, I'm not boring you, am I?" Luxio said, finally looking up to Max. "I mean-"
"Go on," Max encourage. "If it's a big enough story that you didn't want to be friends with me because of it, then it's far from boring."
Luxio grinned and a bit of his former seriousness dissipated. Max smiled back, glad to see his friend finally going back to how he'd known him for those first few weeks.
Now more engaged than before, Luxio continued his story while looking over at Max. "Well, me and my sister got into sort of the same situation as that whole mess at Sheltered Vale. We were staying in a new area for a while when an ursaring came and started bullying any pokémon he saw. Neither of us being crummy battlers – and, moreover, both of us being rather young and stupid – we decided to take on the ursaring. My sister broke a paw in the process, badly… It's never worked quite right since.
"Anyway, I was angry, so I decided to take him on again. He was on his way to beating me soundly, when all of a sudden, this little fluffball of a rufflet flies up and attacks the urasaring's face! The little guy could barely hold himself in the air, but even despite that, he was strong. I was surprised and grateful and ready to take advantage of his help. I redoubled my efforts. We still were nearly beaten, but both of us kept on fighting and fighting until… Well, just neither of us would give in. We were so determined, and both of us were so strong, that we both evolved. Then we managed to take down the ursaring.
"So I guess you could say that I've looked up to heroic types like that ever since then. I mean, that ursaring was way angry, and might've killed me if I'd been stupid enough to force myself to keep fighting, even when I was clearly beaten. So that rufflet earned my respect, and my thanks. Bet you can't guess the rufflet's name, by the way."
Max tilted his head, confused. "I dunno. Rufus or something? Rufus the rufflet is kinda a fun name…"
"Gale."
Max jumped up a bit, nearly losing his seat and tumbling off the cliff face. "Gale? You mean, like, Gale our guildmaster?"
"One and the same," Luxio said with a smug smile. "After my sister had recovered, the three of us ended up making a team for a while. But soon enough, my sister wanted to settle down. Gale and I traveled as a team of just the two of us for a while, but … Well, let's just say he can get a bit obnoxious at times. Plus, he was always more of a rescuer, while I much preferred exploring. We went our separate ways. He joined the Southern Guild and eventually fell in love with Mandibuzz, who was Virizion's deputy at the time. And when I heard that he was there, I decided to join up and do my explorations for the guild, rather than just for myself. I've always done my best to help other pokémon out, as well, since I look up to heroes so much."
By the end of the conversation, Luxio was no longer talking like he was explaining himself for his less-than-rational actions; he was just retelling a story, just like any friend.
"Guess I can see why you got so angry at me, then," Max said. "If you look up to heroes as much as that, then-"
"Nah, it still wasn't justified," Luxio said, casually but honestly. "But after hearing your story from that oddish, it just sounded so much like how Gale saved me. I got a bit excited. But I've thought about things more now, and I figure that it doesn't matter so much that you ended up running from that monferno, or those beedrill. I mean, you still tried to face up to them when it really mattered. That's the part I really admire. Plus, I think if you really tried, you've got enough power to really do a lot. I mean, two beedrill with one attack? That's still insane, even if you were backed into a corner!"
I little bit of Max's good mood left him as he listlessly began to rock his talons back and forth over the edge of the canyon wall. "Even if that's true, it doesn't mean anything if I don't have the guts to use that strength."
Luxio dropped his gaze back down to the river below. "If it bothers you that much, why don't you just stand up to stronger opponents? Surely you can force yourself to, you know, actually-"
"That's just it," Max said. "I feel like I've tried to for years, but every time… Well, other thoughts and feelings take over. Like, when I was facing down Monferno… I knew I'd hate myself for backing down, but at the same time, my brain was just thinking that that monferno had the strength to kill me and joltik if she wanted to, and it didn't make sense to keep on fighting if that chance was there, even if prolonging the fight might've given us enough time for you or someone else to see us and help.
"And that's how it happens every time… I mean, not when I'm just training with someone from the guild, because in those cases I know that I might get hurt, but they aren't going to be completely serious. But against those beedrill, and that monferno, and… at other times, too, I just can't keep myself from running. No matter what's on the line, my own life always comes first… And I hate myself for that."
A confused expression showed itself on Luxio's face. "At other times?" he said, detecting seriousness behind the purposeful vagueness.
Max shrugged and turned away a little, obviously not eager to talk about it. "There was one time when I could've helped my little sister, but didn't. It didn't turn out well."
By the archen's tone of voice, Luxio suspected the worst, so he did his best to move the conversation away from that topic. "Well, that's why you're here at the guild, right? To overcome that fear that holds you back?"
"How'd you know, Luxio?" Max asked, surprised.
Luxio grinned again. "Everyone's got their reasons for joining. You don't seem like much of an explorer, but you're not much a rescuer, either. You obviously want to get better at one or the other, then, and rescuing makes the most sense, based on that story. Oh, and by the way, my name's Zeke."
"What?" Max said, confused for a second at the sudden topic switch.
Luxio stood up and stretched, apparently ready to get moving again. "My name's Zeke. You'd best remember it, too. I don't let many pokémon call me that, but what can I say? Coward though you might be, you're just too darn likeable. I bet everyone at the guild would agree with me on that account."
Max didn't respond, trying to figure out whether to be flattered at being called likeable or offended that Luxio was flat-out calling him a coward.
Luxio just laughed at his apparent confusion. "Come on, let's get going. I still want to check out that cave up ahead."
"Oh, right," Max said, taking a look at the footholds the luxio had previously mentioned, before this whole conversation had begun. With a flap of his wings and a little hop, he managed to make it up to the first foothold. It wasn't wide enough for him to really rest on, however, so he continued to use his legs and wings to propel himself farther and farther upward until he reached the broader ledge far above.
"So? What do you say?" Zeke shouted up.
Max looked down over the ledge and saw Zeke some fifty feet below him, his black and blue fur standing out in sharp contrast to the red rock around him. "Even if you could get a good grip on those little footholds, I don't think they'd be strong enough to hold your weight!" Max shouted back down. "Want me to check out the cave by myself?"
"Yeah, sure," Luxio said. "Just be careful not to slip off the edge again! Doesn't seem like a very stable shelf that you're on."
"Careful is my middle name!" Max yelled confidently back as he turned to look towards the cave just ahead of him. The path he needed to take was barely as wide as his body was long (minus his tail), meaning that he had to tread carefully; however, he'd more or less gotten the hang of things throughout the course of the day, and so he walked down the ledge confidently and without fear.
In fact, he even felt brave enough to let his mind wander back to the conversation they had just had. I'm glad all that is finally sorted out, he thought as he inched closer to the dark maw of the cave, which he noticed was several times his own height. The rest of the mission will be a lot more fun without Luxio – or, I mean, Zeke – giving me the silent treatment.
He reached the cave without incident and peeked in, wanting to go inside. But it got exceedingly dark just a few feet into the cave, and Max didn't like to think what could be hiding in those shadows. His fears were unnecessary, he knew, since very few pokémon lived here; but, as always, he couldn't override his worries.
"It's pretty deep, and pretty dark!" Max said, shouting straight down to Zeke, who had kept pace with Max's position. "What should I do?"
Luxio took a moment to think; up until now, he'd been able to use his flash to explore any of the caves they'd stumbled upon. Then, some idea coming to him, he cheered up and shouted, "You've been practicing dragonbreath, right? See if you can use it to light up the cave for a moment! Just to see if it really is deep enough to be explored, or if there's anything of interest."
Max turned back to the cave. "Well, it's still not much, but I guess it can't hurt to try."
He focused, calling forth the power that Vibrava had taught him to look for within himself. It was a sensation that was similar to his ancientpower, yet different; it had a sort of grandeur to it that was quite a bit unlike the sheer feeling of age of ancientpower. According to Vibrava, the only reason he hadn't managed to learn the attack yet was that he was having trouble feeling equal to its sense of might.
As Max finally locked onto the small amount of power rising within him, he could see that she had been right. The dragon-type power seemed to contrast directly with how he felt about himself. He just couldn't get into the right mindset, no matter how hard he tried.
Oh well… A little light is better than none at all.
He opened his beak a breathed outward, releasing a small stream of something purplish that was not quite fire, but not quite anything else either. It went maybe ten feet into the cave and lasted only a few moments.
Yet the briefness of the technique wasn't due to any lack of ability on his part; the stream could've been maintained as long as he had breath. Rather, the moment his dragonbreath lit up the cave, he saw something shift from within the depths, just barely within the range of his dragonbreath's light. As soon as the violet light fell upon it, it dashed forward, a murderous expression lighting its eyes.
It was all Max could do to let out an alarmed squawk before the assailant was upon him.
Max dodged, staying just within the entrance of the cave as he instinctually swung out with a wing as a counter-attack. He wanted to run, but he reasoned that he didn't know whether or not the pokémon attacking him was a real threat to him or not. Max was by no means weak, and he was quite capable of holding his own against strong pokémon so long as he didn't have to fear for his life; there was a decent chance that Max would be able to deal with this pokémon, fast though it seemed to be.
By some miracle, Max's wildly-aimed wing attack hit the speedy attacker, who immediately jumped back into the shadows where Max couldn't see him.
But Max had caught a glimpse of his assailant in that moment his attack had hit. And that one glimpse was enough to make his will to fight disappear. That green body that towered over him, the sheer speed of the assault, those twin scythes – there could be no doubt about it.
This pokémon was Edge the scyther, infamous among the guilds for his ruthless battle style and his tendency to leave as many of his victims dead as he left alive.
"Max! MAX! Are you all right? What's happening?" Zeke shouted, his voice echoing within the cave walls.
Max didn't have a chance to respond. The scyther leapt out of the shadows and attacked again. The scyther was closer than he had been before, and Max didn't have time to properly dodge the incoming edge of the scythe. Panicking, he did the only thing he could think to do. He lowered his beak to meet the scythe, shielding his more vulnerable body.
There was a clang as the hard steel met the solid beak, jarring both the attacker and defender with the force of the impact. Tears of pain streamed from the archen's eyes as he took a couple steps back out of the cave. He couldn't see the top of his beak, but it definitely felt as if even the tough beak had been no match for the blade; the pain was intense enough that it felt almost as if it must've cracked.
"Max!" Zeke shouted again; Max caught sight of him trying to scramble up the cliff side to help. "Max! Get down here so I can help!"
The archen didn't have the time to get back down, at least not in a safe way. Even with the help of his wings, Max didn't trust himself to drop down without misjudging his momentum and hurtling into the river far below.
And – more importantly – Edge was already coming back for another attack.
Max sidestepped away from the cave mouth, blinking back the water in his eyes as he turned and ran, digging his claws into the rock as he tried to keep himself moving quickly without falling.
He heard a buzz, and glanced behind him to see the scyther quickly gaining, his wings beating the air as they both lent speed to the bug's feet and helped him to keep his balance.
Just before the scyther had caught up, there was a flash of light and Max felt his feathers stand on-end. The buzzing and footfalls of the scyther abruptly stopped, and Max heard a clang of metal against rock.
Nearly out of breath, Max stopped and turned to see Edge singed by the thunderbolt but still conscious, one of his scythes dug into the wall to keep himself from falling.
"Max, jump down now!" Luxio said from somewhere below and some ways behind; like Max, he was out of breath from running.
"Already on it!" Max said as he stood on the edge and judged the distance to the ledge below.
He spread his wings just as the buzzing began again.
I need more time!
A hasty lightningbolt missed its mark, sending crimson shards of rock sprinkling downwards.
I have no more time!
Max spread his wings. The buzzing grew louder.
I have to go now!
Edge lunged right as Max stepped off the precipice, and both were soon tumbling towards the ledge below. But though both were falling, only one was in control of his flight; Edge was using his wings to make up distance, his scythes outstretched as he prepared for the kill.
Max didn't dare slow his descent with his wings, knowing that doing so would immediately put him within range of Edge's scythes. Instead, the archen's eyes were wide as the canyon zoomed past him, his brain going into overdrive to try to figure out something he could do.
But as soon as I hit the ground, it's over! I'll survive that much if I use my wings at the last moment, but Scyther will get me anyway! He's right above me! I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead!
What happened next was familiar to Max, yet it happened so quickly that it wasn't until afterward that he fully comprehended what had occurred. Out of the corner of his eye, Max saw Zeke running forward, trying without success to reach the spot that Max was falling toward. That in itself was nothing unusual, of course.
However, in the next moment, the luxio was glowing brightly and his body began to change. His limbs grew and he moved more quickly, surges of electricity flowing through his legs and lending him speed. Without really thinking about it, Max realized that now, the most important thing was keeping the fall from killing him, and so he flapped with his wings to slow himself down. He just had to trust that the newly-empowered Zeke would find a way to deal with the threat just above him.
And Zeke the luxray did not disappoint.
Right as Max hit the ground, Zeke leapt over his head and collided with Edge in a powerful spark attack, sending them both rolling onto the ledge just beyond Max. Though clearly injured from the fall, the Scyther immediately counter attacked, slashing open the luxray's chest and giving Edge the chance to get away from the larger pokémon.
The broke away from each other only momentarily before diving right back into the battle, each struggling to use the narrow ledge to their advantage. Luxray slashed at the scyther horizontally, trying to knock him off the edge; but the scyther dodged and quickly counter-attacked, opening a narrow scratch on the luxray's leg.
"Zeke!" Max shouted, wanting to help. But the ledge was barely large enough for one pokémon to battle securely, let alone two side-by-side.
I've got to think!
Max looked around and quickly spotted a rocky part of the cliff nearby and, without a second thought, he climbed back up to the ledge above. After a little running and another controlled drop, he was on the other side of Edge.
"Zeke, I'll help out, too!" he shouted as he let the dragon power build within him before expelling it in a gust that, though not so mighty as he might've hoped, still managed to do some damage.
But that caused Edge to turn towards him and charge straight into the purple flames, mostly deflecting them with the flat of his blades. The dragonbreath attack fizzled out almost immediately as Max panicked and ran.
"We already did this once!" Max wailed back at his pursuer. "Can't you just leave me alone?"
This time, however, Max wasn't alone in the battle. Another thunderbolt attack stunned the scyther long enough for Zeke to catch back up. The luxray pounced and locked his lightning-cloaked jaws onto Edge's shoulder as he pinned the bug to the ground.
Max could see that the scyther was flagging now. With his free scythe, he tried once to attack, but missed as volts of electricity continued to surge into his shoulder. It was only on the second try that he finally hit his mark, opening a thin but long gash in the luxray's stomach.
The luxray backed off and glared at the scyther as Edge got back to his feet. But despite his tough guy act, Zeke was in bad shape; his limbs were shaking as he forced himself to keep standing.
"You're… coming back with us, Edge," Zeke managed to say, ignoring the blood that trickled steadily from his underside. "You've hurt and killed too many pokémon to be allowed to roam free."
"Oh, um, yeah!" Max added, trying to be confident even though he knew he'd flee again if the scyther came at him. "What he said!" With any luck, the scyther's injured enough to want to stop battling a luxray and me, especially when I'm still mostly uninjured. Maybe-
Max's thoughts were interrupted when the scyther suddenly stumbled, his exhaustion after that thunderfang attack apparently getting the better of him. He teetered for a moment on the edge of the cliff; then, before the situation had even processed enough for Max to think of reacting, the scyther fell off of the edge towards the river nearly a hundred feet below.
Max heart plummeted nearly as fast as the scyther fell. Turning to Zeke in a panic, he said, "Should we go help-"
"Watch," Zeke said as he kept his eyes trained on the falling bug-type.
The archen looked back over the edge and caught sight of the scyther again right as he opened his wings and pulled out of his dive, flying parallel to the water for a few moments before letting himself drop into the rather gentle river.
Max let out a sigh of relief as he plopped down on the ground. "Phew! Jerk of a pokémon though he might be, I'd have felt awfully guilty if we'd managed to kill him."
"You're kind of weird, you know that?" the luxray said with a relived chuckle as he practically collapsed to the ground, exhausted but not so badly injured that he wouldn't heal, given some time under Rose the audino's care. "From what I could tell from down here, that pokémon would've killed you with that first attack, had it landed. We already know that he's capable of it. And yet you don't want him dead?"
"Us guilds still don't try kill our targets, though, do we?" Max said. "And maybe the guy has his reasons… I dunno."
The luxray flicked his tail, conceding. "I suppose that's true," he said. "How's you're beak doing? That looks like one nasty scratch."
Though he'd momentarily forgotten about it in the heat of the battle, Max was now reminded of the ache that continued to permeate his beak. He tenderly reached up and touched his beak with the claws at the joint of his wing; even that light touch caused pain to shoot through him. He quickly jerked his wing away, but that touch had been enough to tell him that it was definitely no unnoticeable scratch.
"It's not debilitating… But it hurts," Max admitted. "How bad is it?"
"Bad enough that the attack probably would have killed you, had you let it hit your body," Zeke answered. "Good thing you didn't."
"And what about you? You're okay, right?" Max asked.
The luxray shifted his position a little. "I'll be okay in a bit. It'll probably have scabbed over enough in an hour or so. We'll be able to leave around then. And it'll definitely heal, unlike that beak of yours." Then, he jerked his head upright and, with new excitement in his voice, he said, "Anyway, that's not even what matters right now. Spill it! How is it that you make pokémon evolve when no one's been able to evolve in years?"
"What?" Max squawked in surprised. "I didn't do that! That was all you! And congrats on it by the way. That must be-"
"Don't try to change the subject," Zeke said with a toothy grin. "I know what I felt. I was wanting to do something to help you, but I knew I couldn't make it in time, and I hated myself for it and kept on pushing myself, and then… Well, it happened. But the power to do it came from you. That's what it felt like, anyway. And besides, that joltik is the only other pokémon to evolve in ages, and she was right next to you when that happened! So what've you been hiding? Have some special evolution stone tucked under your feathers or something?"
Max scowled as he looked at Zeke, letting the luxray's words slowly make their way through his brain. "Hmm… I hadn't even thought about it like that yet," he said, remembering back to that joltik's evolution. She'd been held up in Max's beak when she'd started evolving, after all. If that wasn't suspicious enough in and of itself, the fact that Zeke had evolved just now was. "Maybe you're onto something."
"Of course I'm onto something!" Zeke said. "Surely you must have some idea? This can't have happened without you not having any idea whatsoever why, right?"
Max suddenly had an epiphany as the one thing that set him apart from other pokémon finally connected to the coincidence of the evolutions.
Zeke saw the realization on Max's face, and his grin broadened. "You know, don't you? All right, hurry up and tell me!"
The archen debated for a moment before finally deciding that it couldn't hurt. "Well, the truth is…"
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"You're a HUMAN!" Guildmaster Braviary shouted disbelievingly.
Guildmaster Mandibuzz whacked him gently with a wing. "Dear, do be quiet!" the mandibuzz chided, though no amount of chiding in the world could possibly take back that shout.
Max sighed as he looked around the infirmary, sure that the few pokémon in scattered within the large room had heard. In fact, he was quite certain that Braviary's voice had been loud enough that anyone and everyone in the guild probably had heard. "That's why I was whispering, Guildmaster! It wasn't something that I was about to tell every pokémon, you know!"
"But you've gotta be pulling my wing!" Braviary said. "Humans are just myths, aren't they? And there's no way around the fact that you're a regular old archen!"
No longer whispering since there was no longer any reason to, Max replied, "You're the one who asked! It's the only reason I can think of for why both Joltik and Zeke evolved when they were around me!"
"I was a bit incredulous at first, too," Zeke admitted as he scratched at some of his bandages with a paw. He was the only reason they were discussing the topic in such a public place; Max had gone straight to the infirmary with the injured luxray, and he'd been in the middle of getting his injuries wrapped up when Braviary and Mandibuzz had shown up, anxious to hear an account of the eventful mission.
Mandibuzz tilted her head. "But you believe him now?"
Zeke nodded. "I mean, it's Max. He doesn't exactly strike me as the lying type."
"It's true!" Max insisted, wanting to be believed since he'd finally told the truth. "I don't remember much about being a human, but I definitely was one before I woke up here in Woven Forest."
Before Mandibuzz could reply, a little yellow pokémon suddenly appeared just next to Max, a mischievous look on her face despite the fact that she appeared to be asleep.
"Did I hear right, guys?" the abra, Fum, said excitedly. "Someone's a human? That's crazy! Can't wait to tell my sisters!"
"I don't care who's a human and who isn't, but you all need to quiet down or leave!" Rose said as she stormed over, her voice quiet yet threatening. "I have patients who are resting!"
Mandibuzz sighed as she looked at the quickly escalating scene they were creating. "Of course, Rose. We'll go somewhere where we aren't disturbing you," she said. Then, turning to the abra, said, "And you, Fum, need to keep your nose in your own business for once in your life. Off you go!"
"Nope!" Fum said, being purposefully loud. "Not until I find out who the human is! Luxi- I mean, Luxray, is it you? Or is it you, Max?"
"Fum, that was not a request!" Mandibuzz said, becoming visibly annoyed. "You are to drop the matter this instant!"
"Oh, never mind, I figured it out!" Fum said excitedly. "It's gotta be Max, right? 'Cuz you came out of nowhere, and I've known Luxi- Luxray too long for him to have been a human all this time without me finding out! All right, thanks guys!"
Before anyone could stop her, Fum vanished as quickly as she had come.
Zeke cast Max a knowing glance. "So much for keeping it between only a few pokémon," he said. "Now that she knows, every pokémon at every guild will know by nightfall…"
"And the news will just spread from there," Guildmaster Mandibuzz said with a sigh. "I do believe someone should be apologizing right now for opening his big beak and letting the whole guild hear him."
Braviary ruffled his feathers in embarrassment. "Oh, right. Sorry about that, Max."
"You know what? I don't think I really mind, I guess," Max said, too exhausted from the mission and the sudden flurry of activity to care too much. "It's nice to not have to hide it anymore. Besides, with any luck, everyone will just think it's a crazy rumor."
"If you want everyone to think it's a rumor, then you'll have to keep lying about it, Sweetie," Guildmaster Mandibuzz reminded him, her usual motherly persona returning. "Is that really what you want?"
Max thought for a moment. "That depends, I guess. Do you all actually believe me?"
"I wouldn't, but myths do tend to attribute strange happenings like unusual evolution this to humans," Mandibuzz said. "Beside, what sort of guildmaster would I be if I didn't believe my guildmembers?"
"Ha! That's right!" Braviary crowed, just as loud as ever. "It's a bit strange, but I don't see any reason not to believe you!"
Zeke tapped Max's wing with his star-tipped tail. "And we discussed this the entire way back here. You already know I believe you."
"Guess that's that, then!" Max said. "I don't see any reason to keep it a secret any longer, so long as not everyone thinks I'm crazy. Besides, what's the worst that could come of everyone knowing?"
"What's the worst that can happen?"
~Cue worst thing happening.~
Anyway... Sorry! One day late... My bad. I misjudged how much time several of my homework assignments would take this week and watched My Little Pony when I should have been writing this or doing that homework... I feel like this is a justifiable defense, and shall leave it at that. On that same note, though, I'm afraid I may not be able to finish a chapter for next week, since I've got a ton of homework. I'll try my best, though, so keep an eye on my profile if you're curious.
Also, I think it's about time for shameless self-promotion! If you simply stumbled upon this fic and have not read any of my other pokémon fanfics, then I highly suggest you go check out the Language of Life. If you like my writing style overall and you enjoy save-the-world trainer fics (I know, so original), then you may very well like it. Or if you enjoy the idea of a trainer who can communicate with pokémon, or you want to see my view of how politics might work in a world filled with weaponizable creatures, or you want to see my take on myth and religion in the pokémon world, then you also might like it. ^_^
Also, PLEASE NOTE that I had a continuity error with the last chapter. I'd forgotten that I'd burned off half of Emma's ear in that first chapter she was in (since I hadn't originally been planning it), so I edited in a moment or two where Cody noticed it, since that's not exactly something you just ignore when meeting a pokémon for the first time. Nothing big, but I thought I should mention it.