"Forget about it, Eevee. It's a wild goose chase."
"But it could lead to a place lost in time, filled with ancient treasure!"
"Or it could be a huge waste of time."
"Where's your sense of adventure? Your curiosity?"
"I lost it the day I went to investigate what was making that weird noise."
"Bidoof apologized for that."
"And I'm still scarred for life. Some things you just can't unsee, and Bidoof doing reversed downwards dog is one of them."
"The yoga helps with his- stop changing the subject!"
Eevee and Sol argued back and forth as they packed up their gear for the day's jobs in their room at the guild. Eevee was sure that the map they received from Glameow would lead to something exciting, but Sol was much more skeptical.
"Come on, Sol, please?"
She sighed.
"How about we check the boards out first for anything promising, then go if there isn't."
"What do you mean by 'promising'?"
"A rescue job. So no, I won't say a job finding a lost berry is reason enough not to check it out."
"That sounds fair."
Was it wrong of Sol to hope that someone fell down a hole in a dungeon and got stranded? Probably, but it hardly mattered when they bumped into Sunflora and Loudred on the way out of the crew rooms.
"What are you guys still doing here? I thought you were on a job to Mt. Travail."
"We were, but you totally won't believe this! It's just so eek!" Sunflora exclaimed.
From her tone and what Sol knew of her, either the world was about to blow up or someone was wearing black out of season.
"A Time Gear was stolen!"
Wrong on both accounts, it would seem.
"WHAT! Where?" Eevee asked, completely shocked.
"In Treeshroud Forest, to the northeast," Loudred said. "Time there has reportedly just… stopped. Officer Magnezone has already started an investigation, but Chatot wanted a team from the guild to check it out too. Naturally, he chose me," he added, looking at Sol.
"Eek! This is not the time for your petty rivalry! We need to get moving as soon as possible."
They left, and Eevee turned to Sol.
"This is bad, very bad. And all the Pokémon who live there, what has happened to them?"
"Why would anyone take a Time Gear?" Sol asked. "From what you've told me, you couldn't sell it for money, and taking one would make you an enemy of just about everyone. What's the motive behind the theft?"
"I don't know, but if they started to go after the others…"
A stricken look appeared on Eevee's face. This was disturbing news. But time stopping? How was that even possible, especially in just one region with time flowing normally in the areas around it? Or maybe not so normally. Wasn't this place suffering from problems with time already? Could that be connected to why someone would steal a Time Gear? Or was it possible that it hadn't been stolen at all, that it just broke up under the strain of all the recent problems? Sol didn't have a clue, and frankly, it made her head hurt to think about it.
Eevee was obviously taking the news pretty hard and looked physically sick. Sol would have to do something to take his mind off it.
"So we better head out if we want to have enough time to check out where that map leads."
"What? I thought you wanted to check the board first."
"Nah. This'll be more exciting. Besides, we're an exploration team. Let's go do some actual exploring."
…
"Well this here," Eevee said, pointing to a spot on the map, "is the symbol for waterfall, and this," he gestured in front of him, "is the only one in the area."
They stood on a natural stone bridge parallel to the river below and ran into the rumbling waterfall directly in front of them. The water pounded down heavily and with great force, sending up a mist that dampened Sol's fur from several metres away. It was a wonder how the stone had managed to withstand such a force of nature for so long without wearing away after years of constant battering.
"Now, according to the map, there should be an entrance to a cave somewhere around here. Hmm…" Eevee stepped closer to the waterfall. "Whoa! I didn't think it would be coming down this hard! Where should we start looking?"
"No idea," Sol said and approached the downpour. She reached out to touch the water, then yanked her hand back.
"That freakin' hurt!" she exclaimed, shaking the pain from her hand. "It felt like someone stomped on my fingers!"
"Well I did say the water is coming down hard…"
Sol's reply was cut off by a sudden dizzy spell.
"Are you Ok?"
Another wave of dizziness.
"It's another one of my… whatevers."
Another wave, then her vision turned black to be followed by the now familiar flash of light.
She saw a silhouette standing in front of the same waterfall she was currently at. It took a few steps back, then ran and jumped into the wall of water. There was a moment of darkness, but then the silhouette tumbled out through the other side into a hidden cave. The vision ended, and Eevee looked at her expectantly.
"Well? What did you see?"
Sol relayed her vision.
"A hidden cave behind the waterfall? But it looks like that water is crashing down really hard. Imagine if there was actually a solid cliff wall behind there! Yeesh… If we tried to jump through, we'd be pounded badly!"
"Whoa! Who said anything about jumping through?"
"But that's the only way into the cave, right?"
"Yes, but-"
"And your visions have been right before like that time with Azurill. I may not have believed it then, but I trust you completely now."
"I lied. I didn't really have a vision."
Eevee gave her a pointed look.
"Ok, fine! I'll do it! I would just like to go on record and say that this is a really bad, stupid idea. And have I ever mentioned I really hate water, and as far as I know can't swim?"
"We'll be fine."
They took their positions down the bridge. Eevee was muttering to himself, giving Sol the impression that he wasn't nearly as certain of the plan as he let on.
They sprinted forwards, building up speed. Sol had just enough time to have an 'I'm going to die' moment before leaping into the waterfall.
They tumbled out the other side, soaking, battered and bruised but otherwise unharmed.
"We made it through! There really is a cave behind the waterfall!" Eevee exclaimed.
"You sound rather surprised considering you were the one who got me to jump."
"Let's go see what we can find."
Inside the cave, the thundering rumble of the waterfall was a constant background noise, echoing through the rock passages and was accompanied by the sound of dripping water. The ground beneath their feet was wet and slick and they had to be careful to watch their step as they made their way deeper inside.
Something hit the back of Sol's head. She whipped around, but there was no one there.
"What the-"
"Hey! You! Ge' outta my cave!"
Sol looked up to see a Tangela on a stone ledge above them that ran along the length of the tunnel in either direction. His body was a mass of twisting, blue vines and pile of pebbles was near his feet.
"This 'ere is my cave, ya 'ear me! MINE!"
He kicked down pebbles to pelt Eevee and Sol.
"Calm down!" Eevee said. "We found this map, and we were just exploring-"
"Explorin', eh? Tha's wha' the pink 'un said, but I knew he was lyin'! Yer after my shinies!"
"Your… shinies?"
"Their MINE! Ya can't 'ave 'em! NEVER!"
He angrily kicked down more pebbles, showering the two with small stones.
"Would you stop doing that? We're not here to take anything!" Sol shouted.
"Yer lyin'! Everyone tries ta trick ol' Tangs bu' he's too smart fer 'em."
"When someone starts referring to themselves in the third person, that's when you back away slowly. Or, even better, run away quickly."
Eevee ignored Sol's whispered comment.
"Please! Just listen to us! We're telling the truth. If you don't want us to take anything, then we won't. We just wanted to look around."
"Lookin', eh? No stealin'?"
The Tangela looked them up and down.
"Maybe ol' Tangs will trust ya, if ya do somthin' fer 'im."
"What kind of something?"
"I keep my shinies in a special place, keep 'em nice n' safe. Bu' there's a certain shiny suck n' there I don't want. Makes the others jealous, ya see, and shinies don't sparkle as much when they're upset. It's too 'eavy fer ol' Tangs ta move, but you lot give 'er a go n' ya can look 'round the place."
"Where is this 'shiny'?"
"Down 'ere."
The Pokémon walked along the ledge above, not waiting for them to follow on the path below.
"Don't you find this even a little suspicious?" Sol whispered. "He was screaming and hollering at us to leave one moment, and the next he's asking us to take one of his precious 'shinies', whatever those are."
"This is supposed to be an adventure! We just can't turn around."
"I'm never said we should turn back, but I am saying we shouldn't follow the crazy guy with trust issues deeper into his lair."
"We'll be fine. He doesn't seem that bad. Just a bit odd."
"A bit odd- you know what, never mind. You win. But just so you know, if we get sacrificed in some cult ritual, I'm blaming you."
The tunnel soon opened up into a room not very wide but long enough that both ends disappeared from sight in the distance. Save for a strip of rock leading out if the tunnel and to the opposite wall, the floor was completely covered with large pools of water. Sol barely noticed all of this, for her eyes were immediately drawn to the sparkling gemstones protruding from the floor and walls, seeming to posses their own inner light.
"Tha' one o'er there, at the end," Tangs said from his ledge, which wrapped around from the tunnel and ended in a small platform high up the wall. "I wan' it gone! It's too big n' makes the others jealous. Take it away!"
The indicated gem was huge, as tall as Sol and she doubted she would be able to wrap her arms around it. It's surface was a bright, unblemished pink, and it must have been worth a fortune.
Sol shook her head.
"Why would you want this gone? And I doubt we'd even be able to move it."
"We can try. Imagine what the others would say if we managed to bring this back!"
Sol could easily imagine. Chatot would try to claim it as the guild's (and therefore partially his) property, Bidoof would gush and say that he'd never be a good enough explorer to find something like that, Sunflora would freak out with a lot of "totalies" and "eeks", Chimecho would congratulate them and be truly happy for them, and Loudred would make up some story about how it was pretty impressive but he had once found one twice the size but had to choose between it and saving some pretty damsel in distress.
Eevee ran up and grabbed a hold of it.. He vainly tried to pull it out of the wall in which it was embedded.
"It's really stuck tight! It just won't budge. You give it a try, Sol."
Sol went up and grabbed the sides of the gem, which were cool to the touch. She tried to pull, but it didn't even shift slightly.
"It's no good. That's not going anywhere."
"Here. Let me try again."
Sol stepped back and let Eevee have another go. As he began tugging on the gem, the world seemed to spin as Sol experienced another wave of dizziness.
Another one? If this one's about how the only way to get the gem out is to jump off a cliff, I'm leaving.
The second wave hit.
This better not show me two idiots lured to their deaths by a crazy Tangela.
The third wave hit, and Sol's vision turned black once again. When the flash of light faded, she saw the same silhouette from earlier. It stood in the room with the large gem, walked over to it and pushed it into the wall with a click. The room rumbled and the silhouette looked around to find the source of the disturbance. A wave of water rushed through the room, sweeping the silhouette away.
The scene faded, just in time for Sol to hear Eevee say:
"Maybe if I tried jiggling it around a bit…"
"NO!" Sol yelled and jumped forwards, but was not quick enough.
The sound of the click seemed to fill the room. The floor and walls began to rumble, and Tangs cackled up on his ledge.
"I told ya ta ge' outta my cave, but ya wouldn't listen.. This'll teach ya!"
"RUN!" Sol yelled.
Just a few feet short of the tunnel, the wave hit. Sol was picked up and swept away with the water, flipped and twisted around in the sudden dark. She screamed, the air in her lungs escaping into the water. Memories pushed their way into her mind, confused and disjointed, making it difficult to separate the past from the present and added to her terror.
She was falling, down, down, down into darkness. She landed with a large splash-
Sol's head broke through the surface and she took a deep breath of air.
"Eevee!" Sol screamed.
"Lyl!" Sol screamed.
The river dragged her away, clawing and struggling to stay above the surface-
"I'm here!" Eevee called. "What's happening!? I can't see a thing!"
Sol crashed into something solid and cried out in pain. She was momentarily pinned between it and the crushing force of the water before she was spun around and swept away once again, going back under for a second.
She struggled to clumsily paddle her way to the shore as a cluster of small, blue creatures with webbed fingers and finlike ears watched her pathetic attempt at swimming. Panic threatened to consume her, her fear increasing drastically when she felt something brush against her leg-
The water pulled them upwards suddenly, shooting them into empty air under a clear, blue sky and illuminated by a blazing sun.
For an instant, Sol was suspended, unmoving, before gravity reasserted itself and dragged her back down. Her scream was abruptly cut off when she hit warm, almost hot, water.
She shouted and flailed, somehow finding the surface and scrambling her way to the edge of the pool and hauled herself out. She sat there, dripping water and trembling, knees pulled tightly into her chest.
"Sol?"
She turned her head and saw Eevee, his fur sodden.
"Are you Ok?"
"Just… give me a minute."
She turned back to stare straight ahead and hugged her knees a little tighter.
"Uh, hi! Are you two Ok? You plopped down from nowhere and startled everyone."
Sol didn't turn towards the voice. Eevee answered for her.
"I think so. Where are we?"
"This is the Hot Spring."
"H-Hot Spring?!"
"Indeed!" said a second, much older voice. "The Hot Spring works wonders on tired muscles and creaky joints. Many Pokémon visit here. Tell me, do you have a map?"
"We did, but the water kind of ruined it."
"No matter. I think I have one somewhere around here…"
The water had carried them a long way. Torkoal, an old, turtle-like Pokémon, showed them where they were on the map and how to get back to the town. They declined the offer to rest in the Hot Spring (they had both had enough of water) and made their way back to the guild.
Eevee went to explain what had happened and what they had found to Chatot, while Sol thought more on her visions, specifically about the silhouette she had seen in them. Tangs had also mentioned something about a pink one…
On a hunch, Sol went to the Guildmaster's quarters.
"Excuse me, Wigglytuff."
"Hiya!" the not-quite-all-there Pokémon said. "Whatcha doing? Have you had any fun explorations yet?"
"Um, sure. I just wanted to ask you a question."
"Ooh, questions! I do love questions! They are so much more interesting than answers!"
"… Right… I was just wondering if you knew anything about a cave behind a waterfall…"
"A waterfall cave?" He mulled it over. "Oh yes! Memories! Sweet memories!"
Wigglytuff did a little dance around the room, making Sol question her decision to come in here in the first place.
"Yes! I think I found a cave behind a waterfall once! But then there was a meanie who threw stuff at me."
That confirmed it. Sol's vision had been of the past this time, not the future. As Wigglytuff rambled on about waves, gems and how they weren't as special as perfect apples, Sol backed out of the room. She had had her fill of crazy for the day.