A bit of exploration and little more development of characters. Basically, a chapter with a little bit of fun in it.

Enjoy.

PMD: Life In Flames

Chapter 9: Dungeon Delving

Elisa woke up the next day to the guild Chimecho's ringing.

"Hey! A new day! Let's get up and go!" he said cheerily as they woke up.

He then hopped off while they were getting up.

The morning meeting went by in a bit of blur to Elisa and soon, she was before the job board with Rio. There was no sign of Team Long Ears.

They really are gone now on their own exploration… Elisa thought, somewhat glumly.

Rio was picking out jobs from Nut and Denwood Forest…

"Rio… um... how about we try somewhere different?" she suggested somewhat hesitantly.

Rio glanced at her, mildly surprised. He then acceded to the request with a shrug and smile, proceeding to search through the jobs for ones in a new location.

Elisa swallowed… she knew where that request had come from and she wasn't comfortable actually making it herself. But Alex had told her she needed to take a stand and facing her fears of the unknown she felt, was one way of doing that. Besides that, if she kept being afraid of everything she didn't know, she might as well have gone back to bed and hid under the straw in cowardice.

As a result, she had spoken up and was now trying to keep her heartbeat even and fighting her nerves.

Rio finally picked out a few jobs from the board and opened up the Wonder Map, pointing out the new location.

"Okay… this one might be a bit hard for you but, how's Moss Cove sound to you?"

Elisa could tell from the name that they were likely dealing with somewhere wet. She knew the result of fire versus water (it was elementary after all). Her first impulse was to reject the idea but she kept a stiff upper-lip and nodded, feeling an uncomfortable knot forming in her gut. "Nervous" wouldn't even begin to describe her.

Relax Elisa… she thought to herself, You can deal with a little water. You liked showers as a human.

Yeah. Her pessimistic-side dead-panned, When you were human. You know well enough a Vulpix isn't going to like water in the least.

She exhaled, steeling herself and Rio could clearly see how tense she was.

"Don't worry. I'm here to help."

"D-Don't think you need to handle everything though." She said trying to sound confident (and failing), speaking faster than necessary. She then marched for the exit ahead of Rio, absent-mindedly running into the wall instead. She shook her head, trying to get her mind back into gear as the other guild members stifled their amusement and she led Rio out to Moss Cove.

o0o

Moss Cove was directly to the west of the village. There was an inlet of water near the cave, a very small amount of the water trickling into the cave. The cove was aptly named as wherever there was some moisture, moss and lichen was growing on the rocks. Elisa could feel the damp air making her instinctively uncomfortable.

"Just take it easy Elisa." Rio said comfortingly, "Even Quil's explored here once or twice with a little help. It's not exactly a walk through Nut Forest for a fire-type but it's not like you're going to get absolutely drenched in there either."

Elisa breathed in and out again, calming her nerves, which were on the verge of bursting with tension.

"Alright… let's do this."

o0o

They went down a floor and met their first cave resident: a Lotad. The pokemon looked like a lilypad with a small blue body that had eight stubby legs underneath. Elisa took some comfort in the clear fact it was grass-type. However, given the manner of plant, it was also water-type, which meant that Elisa's fire wasn't super-effective. Nonetheless, she attempted to burn it and the grass/water-type retaliated by bumping into her. She felt an uncomfortable sensation of energy being sucked out of her body. Oddly, it didn't bother her that much, which was surprising to her. The Lotad even seemed disappointed.

"I'm not losing to a plant of all things." Elisa declared firmly and spat more fire at it, causing it to flee.

They continued on into Moss Cove, finding an item someone had wanted (one of their jobs) and put it away in their treasure bag.

They came across a Psyduck at one point, which indeed, looked like a yellow duck with hands rather than wings.

Rio attacked and the Psyduck seemed to experience a severe headache following the attack, as it gripped its own head and trembled as if in severe pain. Then it opened it eyes wide, gazing at Rio who yelped and staggered back.

"Whoa, what happened?" Elisa said, quickly checking Rio any injuries.

"Ugh…" Rio groaned, rubbing his head like the Psyduck had just passed its headache to him "Psyduck may be water-type, but they have some psychic attacks too so be careful… ow… that smarts…"

Elisa stepped up and shyly approached the duck-pokemon, wary for another psychic attack. She then leapt forward and smacked it with one paw. The attack seemed to trigger another headache. However, Elisa got an unwelcome surprise when rather than her mind coming under assault, the Psyduck suddenly spat a glob of water at her, hitting her with a loud, hissing splash.

Elisa screamed. It felt like someone had slammed her with a barrage of ice, the water was so cold. Not only that, but her body reacted to the soaking with vehement dislike and she immediately felt intense pain over all the parts of her body that were soaked. It was almost like an extreme allergy if not worse.

She immediately shook off the water as quickly possible. Any focus she might've had for a fire-breathing counter-attack was killed right then as the heat inside her was sapped of power and Elisa was already starting to shiver with cold.

Rio shook off the remainder of his headache from the psychic attack and shot forward, punching the duck with his paw. The Psyduck swayed and then fell over, one webbed foot sticking up in the air.

Elisa searched through their treasure bag and ate an oran berry they had packed. She was grateful that the berries were relatively plentiful and easy to find in most places. The berry restored her strength and she felt warmth spread through her again as her body quickly dried up any remaining moisture.

"Ugh… I do not want to get wet again." She said shivering again at the thought of the cold water hitting her.

"Like I said, it's not exactly a walk in through Nut Forest but I'm sure we can get through here together. Just stay with me." Rio said.

Elisa readily agreed and stuck close to Rio as they continued deeper.

They found someone who had mistakenly wandered into the cave and gotten lost. They sent the lost pokemon back.

Still one more job left.

They continued on down, running into other water-types such as a few Goldeen living in the pools along-side the path and some Barboach, both of which were fish-pokemon. Elisa backed away from either pokemon when they encountered them, unwilling to experience getting wet again. This left Rio to handle them alone which wasn't too much of a problem for him.

Then, at one point a Goldeen Rio was fighting, jumped from the water, hitting Rio squarely in the head with the horn upon its own head.

Rio yowled and stumbled back, falling on his rear, clutching at his head where he had been hit as his opponent bounced off and landed in the water again. The Goldeen was about ready to fire a stream of water at Rio, who wasn't in any condition to protect himself.

Elisa wanted to stop the fish from doing this but she didn't want to get in range of the attack either. Like anyone, she did not like experiencing pain so severe. She felt like she was in-conflict with herself as she couldn't get herself to move forward.

Argh, no! I need to focus! She thought desperately and quickly tried to do just that with her thoughts. Her mind was sidetracked on concern for Rio though. She was worried he was about to be seriously hurt and it would be her fault for not standing up for herself.

To her surprise, she felt the flame sac in her body expand despite the distraction and furthermore, it expanded an even greater amount than normal. She didn't let her surprise keep her from acting though. She inhaled deep and looked up at the water-type, her resolve firm.

She then forcibly blew a large stream of fire at it, the pouch inside compressing completely. The fire blazed across the gap between them and the Goldeen (already weakened somewhat by the fight) was taken off-guard by the intense flames slamming it from the side. It was knocked into the air by the rather hard impact and fell back into the water, where it didn't resurface.

Rio had looked up to see this and looked back at Elisa afterwards, clearly stunned. She was astonished herself. The fire she had attacked with had been no small amount. She could've easily had incinerated a grass-type with an attack like that.

"When did you learn to use that much fire, Elisa? That was… that was incredible." He said, blinking.

Elisa was just as stunned. She had actually acted partially out of instinct. Part of her mind had been reminding her just before she attacked that she needed to get closer or the flames wouldn't reach. Her instincts though had said otherwise and she had acted on them.

She tried focusing and the flame sac readied itself again but it was back to the size it had been on previous occasions. She blew some flames but they were small. No bigger than she was used to.

How did I manage to do that? That was…was...it's just as Rio described it. It was incredible. I didn't know I could hold so much fire like that. How did I do that?

"Well," Rio said, getting up "I think I owe you one. That last attack from that Goldeen kinda nailed me, it felt like getting pecked by a bird. I think you saved me from some further pain."

Elisa felt extra heat flood her face as she listened and she just smiled, appreciating his gratitude. Then she felt her extremities getting a little cold.

"Whew… I think I really took it out of myself with that." She breathed, relaxing for the first time in the cave and searched through their treasure bag again, this time looking for an apple to snack on. Rio thanked her again as she ate and then they moved on.

Elisa continued trying to bring out that greater fire on more opponents in the cave but the flame sac seemed to resist attempts to expand any further than usual. This was a source of aggravation to Elisa but Rio just took her bad mood in stride and tried to reassure her that she'd pull it off again soon.

They completed their last job, getting a different item someone else had wanted and headed back, getting out of Moss Cove. Elisa was grateful to be away from the water, but at the same time, she found (in hindsight) that she had actually enjoyed the adventure once she had set off on it.

If I can just get myself out there and going, I think I might be able to handle exploring...

She wasn't perfectly confident in this statement, but she felt it would be a good start. They headed back to the Guild and received their rewards for their work.

Elisa then decided, in the time they had before dinner to go find Quil and ask the village resident something that had been in the back of her mind all day.

o0o

"Quil, you know Rio, don't you? After all, you gave him the warning about Team Gangster."

"Yeah… was there something you wanted to ask about Rio?" he said, curious.

"I'm a little nervous about asking Rio personally… I don't want to make him uncomfortable. But is there some sort of connection between Rio and Team Gangster? He seems to know them rather well."

Quil frowned, and Elisa could tell he knew, however his expression gave his answer before he even said it.

"I don't think it's my place to share that kind of information, Elisa. I'm good friends with Rio myself and I know how much he dislikes that bunch. You'd really have to ask him yourself because I don't think I should be the one to tell you. I just don't. Sorry." Quil's sad look told her that he was truly sorry and then the Quilava turned and went back to his own business.

Elisa sighed, dissatisfied and she headed back to the guild. She didn't notice the night-black bird that flew off from the brush a short distance away.

o0o

After dinner, Rio noticed Elisa's puzzled expression.

"Something wrong, Elisa?" he asked, concerned.

She looked up at him, wondering if she should ask Rio himself about his connection.

However, her nerve failed her and she shook her head.

"No… it's nothing Rio. Don't worry. I'm just thinking about what to do tomorrow." She lied.

All this lying is becoming a bit of a bad habit. She noted in the back of her mind. However she dismissed this and settled down on her bed.

The question wouldn't stop nagging her mind though.

Why does Rio know those three jerks so well?