In this chapter, I finish up the Special Episode so I can get back to the main storyline. For some reason, I find it more fun to write than this but maybe it's because there's less text every cutscene. Oh well.
After I was so rudely woken up by Loudred, I made my way to where the others were gathered for the morning address. After our usual routine, I made my way over to Chatot so as to know more about Star Cave.
"What's the matter, Bidoof? Quit spacing out and get to work," he said.
"Mind if I ask a question first, Chatot?" I asked politely.
"Alright, but make it quick. I have some important business to attend to later," he responded. Gulping nervously, I asked Chatot if he knew about Star Cave. At the mention of that name, Chatot raised one of his eyebrows.
"Star Cave you say? Hm, I think I've heard of it. According to legend, Star Cave is a place where the legendary pokemon Jirachi resides in. Jirachi is rumoured to be able to grant any wish so long as you can wake him. The only thing is that no one knows where it is. Even said legend is doubted," he explained. "Why do you ask?" he questioned. I couldn't hear Chatot due to me thinking about the possibilities of meeting Jirachi. Gosh, my dream to be a great explorer… it could come true thanks to Jirachi… and I had the map for Star Cave…
"Are you ok, Bidoof? You were spacing out a bit there, and you were even smiling, is the sun getting to you?" Chatot questioned. Thinking that I've been caught, I nervously answered that I was fine. Seemingly not believing me, Chatot prepared to ask more question but was interrupted by Loudred when he called me, saying I had a visitor. I sighed internally, narrowly dodging a bullet thanks to Loudred. But me having a visitor doesn't happen every day so I was confused for a bit. Excusing myself from Chatot, I made my way to Loudred who told me that my guest was waiting at the entrance. Thanking him, I went up to the guild entrance where I was greeted by a familiar sight.
"Oh! H-Hello…" the other pokemon greeted.
"It's you! You're the snover from yesterday. Well nice to meet you," I responded cheerfully. I wonder why he had the map to Star Cave though.
"Yeah… S-Sorry to cause you trouble yesterday, but I had to keep that map safe from those two," he told me. Snover then continued talking. "You see, I found that map in an envelope while going through some of the memorabilia from my parents. Along the envelope was a letter that said that the map should be protected at all costs as it lead to the greatest power in the land,"
"Golly, that sure is an interesting story, yup yup." I was amazed. I guess Star Cave was real! Now I was even more excited to go there.
"Um… I have a request… Would… Would you accompany me to Star Cave?" he asked.
"Whaaaat?! You want me to accompany you?" I asked, very surprised. On the other hand, I was really excited. I was going to Star Cave!
"Yes… I want to go to Star Cave to meet Jirachi but I'm too weak to go along… Will you go with me to Star Cave?" he requested. Golly, I didn't know what to do. On one hand, this is the chance of a lifetime for me… but I have to do today's guildwork…
"Sure! I'll go with you," I replied enthusiastically. To be fair, I can always do my guildwork tomorrow but this is just too good to pass up.
"Thanks a lot! But I'm probably sure you need to prepare, so why don't you do that while I wait at the crossroads?" he suggested. True, I wasn't prepared at all, and I had to make sure Chatot didn't look for me, so I went up to him to ask for a day off.
"What? Why do you want a day off?" he asled, confused.
"Well, uh… my mom wrote a letter telling me that something was happening back at home," I told Chatot. I felt bad that I had to lie but this was the opportunity of a lifetime! No way I'm missing out, yup yup.
"Hm, well if you put it that way, there's not much I can do. Alright, your request for a break is granted. Just don't cause any trouble for anyone else," he stated. At that moment, my insides exploded with joy! I was gonna meet Jirachi. I thanked Chatot for understanding and said that I would be back as fast as I could.
After making some preparations for our expedition, Snover and I met up at the crossroads and headed to Star Cave. Nothing really eventful happened along the way except that we had met a friendly bunch of Eeveelutions. They were a couple along with their daughter who were out on an afternoon stroll. Gosh, they sure were a nice bunch.
Soon we had made it to the entrance of Star Cave. For a place with a legendary pokemon, the entrance wasn't overly spectacular. Well to be fair, they did say it was a rumour… But I had to try! I had to find Jirachi.
Once we got inside, the entrance behind us suddenly disappeared and it started to hail. Goshdarnit, why hail?
"Oh no, not hail… I hate hail. It's really annoying," I complained to no one in particular.
"It isn't too bad," Snover said.
"That's cause you're an Ice type and aren't affected by it," I retorted back. Ending the conversation, we both started exploring Star Cave.
The inside of the cave was very beautiful. Despite being a cave, you could see pretty clearly in here. There were pools of water everywhere which reflected the natural light produced by the cave. The stalactites only made the scenery much more mystifying as they gave off natural light amidst the dark ceiling which was probably how Star Cave got it's name.
Too bad it was hailing. We had no time to watch the scenery since I was pelted with hail. Luckily, we didn't meet any wild Pokemon on this floor. The next floor also had hail. What the heck was up with the hail? Not long into the floor, we saw the most unusual thing ever. In one of the wider spaces of the floor, a lone Kecleon sat on a carpeted part of the ground surrounded by various orbs.
"Greetings! Welcome to my shop~," said the Kecleon.
"Huh? What's a Kecleon shop doing here?" I questioned.
"Oh, you didn't know? There's always at least one Kecleon shop in these dungeons. We're in the process of opening up one in Mt. Bristle though," he explained. "Anyway, would you like to buy something? Currently on sale are Rainy and Sunny Orbs," he said, directing to the orbs on the carpeted ground.
"That sounds like a good idea, Bidoof. You can stop the hail by using these orbs," Snover exclaimed. Snover did have a point so I asked how much the orbs cost.
"They're 70 Poke per orb. I'll also make a deal: Buy 3 Orbs and pay only 180 Poke, that's 40 Poke off!" he bargained. Well, seeing as I wanted the hail to stop as soon as possible, I handed over some Poke we found while exploring. The Kecleon thanked us and sat back down. Without hesitating, I used the Sunny Orb. A yellow beam then shot out to the ceiling, causing the hailstorm to stop. In its place, warm sunlight encompassed the cave which didn't make any sense but oh well.
Leaving the Kecleon, we decided to look around now that the hailstorm stopped. We found more Poke as well as some Apples. Yum!
About the residents, they sure weren't on the friendly side. We were attacked by Chingling and Anorith. Since my only offensive move was Tackle, I wasn't much use against Anorith so Snover had to deal with them. On one occasion, we were walking along a particularly huge body of water when suddenly I was pushed aside by Snover. As I recovered, I saw Razor Leaves whirl past my head. Looking at the direction where they came from, I saw Lotads firing them off. Since I didn't have any attacks that could use them, Snover had to step in. Grabbing a leaf from his pocket, Snover started blowing into the leaf.
The leaf started to glow green as it produced an extremely soothing melody which made the Lotads fall asleep. After thanking Snover, we continued on our way.
After a few floors, we reached a different kind of floor. There was only one path to follow which was surrounded by pools of water as far as the eye could see. In the center of the room lay a large, circular platform which hosted a Kangaskhan Rock. Talking it over with Snover, we decided to take a break for a while. Snover decided to go swimming while I took out a Big Apple we had found and started to munch on it.
Once we were ready, we moved out again and entered Deep Star Cave. Golly, the scenery drastically changed in just two rooms… The light which illuminated the cave was now brighter which allowed us to see more of the cave. The bodies of water were even clearer than the ones we saw earlier. The aggressive Pokemon also changed but we still fought Anorith and Bonsly.
When we reached B3F of Deep Star Cave, it suddenly started to hail again.
"Gosh darnit… not more hail," I complained again.
"I dunno… this hail seems different," Snover replied.
"Oh? How so?" I wondered.
"I'm not exactly sure how to explain but it's definitely different…" he explained. Deciding to trust Snover, I hesitated on using a weather Orb. Sometime later, the hail began to subside.
"Gosh, the hail stopped... Very mysterious indeed," I said.
After exploring some more, we found the stairway to the next floor. This floor seemed to be the bottom of Star Cave since it also had a different look than the previous ones. This area had lots of small craters in the ground, kinda like pictures of the moon I saw when I was at the library. There were also rocks which were glittering in the light, adding to the mystifying view.
"Gosh… this looks like a dead end… and there's no other pathways too… where's Jirachi?" I wondered aloud. Suddenly, I heard laughing.
"H-Huh? W-Who's there?!" I asked, afraid of the menacing laughter. Suddenly, a figure jumped down towards the ground in front of me while another was floating down. It was a Bagon and Gligar! What are they doing here though?
"Heh heh heh… so nice of you to come here so trustingly," said the Gligar.
"Wh-What? How did you two get here?! I though only Snover and I knew…" I trailed off
"Hehe. It was quite easy tricking you into coming with me, Bidoof," said a voice behind me which belonged to Snover. I was confused at that point.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Jirachi was never here. It's just an old urban legend," the Bagon said this time.
"Y-You tricked me?!" I asked, very afraid.
"Yep. We're Team Rogue. We trick our targets into going with Snover into various places far from others and then take their valuables," the Gligar explained.
"If you're wondering, I'm the leader of the group," Snover stated proudly but then returned his attention to me. "So you're probably wondering why we're targeting you, right Bidoof?" he asked. I nodded.
"It all began when you were at Kecleon's shop in Treasure Town. While you were pondering about whatever, we were watching nearby. Normally, we'd ignore you but once you brought out that wad of cash, that's when I told my team, that you'd be our next target!" he declared loudly. But then he turned around.
"But obviously we couldn't mug you then and there since we'd get caught immediately, so we devised this cunning plan to lure you," Gligar said.
"S-So it was all a lie?" I asked, hoping it wasn't true.
"Yep. And you fell for it!" Bagon replied. At that moment, my hopes were crushed into itty bitty pieces.
"But don't worry, before we mug you, we'll share something with you. At first, we were pretty excited too when we found that map. We also believed that wishes come true here, so we came to take a look. Boy oh boy were we disappointed when we didn't find anything," Snover told me as the three of them circled me, closing in as well.
"Now, your money… it's ours!" they all said as they dashed towards me. Out of pure instinct, I quickly scampered to the side.
"Tsch, why do you resist? If you hand it over, we'll leave you forever," Bagon bargained.
"N-No, that money i-is… important to me… Who do you think you are?" I retaliated.
"Argh! This one's stubborn! We're gonna take your money one way or another," Snover said, starting to get angry.
"Yeah!" the other two chimed in as they once again approached me.
Suddenly, an orb dropped from above. Shattering and releasing an immensely bright light. Once the light had subsided, I couldn't believe my eyes.
Sorry for not uploading last week. My dog got sick and my family had to confine it until it got better so that explains the delays. Anyway, the final part will be uploaded not too long from now and then it'll be back to the main story.
Until next time, bye!