Sudowoods S1
The moment they touched those purple fizzles, the air dramatically shifted into one much thicker and humid. It seemed… artificial. It was the strangest feeling the Shinx had ever experienced; after the fact of being some kind of electrical lynx... creature… thing. Wind didn't exist in here and it was very quiet; he only heard their own footsteps on the grass and his increasing heartbeat. His body felt very strange all of a sudden. Was it the anxiety?
"Kori, I wasn't ready!" he said, terrified of the lack of noises in here. Her vines let go of him.
"Relax, I'm here. I'll escort you through."
"Can you not do that anymore?!"
"What even do you mean…?"
The Shinx blinked. "You know exactly what I mean. The grabbing. Don't ever do that again." She had one of those dumb smiles on her face. "That's not funny!"
She raised a leg to indicate that he should calm down. "Ok, ok. Sorry. Goodness."
The Shinx turned around to look at the gravel pavement they had been next to for some time, only to stare at a wall of trees, blocking the entrance. He recoiled in surprise. These trees acted like a solid wall, phased together in themselves just to make sure that no one could leave through them and escape the dungeon prematurely. He also noticed something odd about the wall: it was the same tree copied and pasted right next to each other.
On it was a big green caterpillar with unusually big eyes and a red antennae on its forehead, splitting into two, making it a Y-shape. On the tip of its tail was something that looked like the tail end of a rattlesnake, but without the rattling. It tried to get up above, the leaves its top priority. He wanted to take a closer look at it, but the thing on its tail suggested that he should, under no circumstances, disturb this alien caterpillar. Who knew what it was capable of. Suddenly, it stopped. Why it did that was a mystery to him, but it very quickly solved itself once its black eyes locked onto the Shinx. It had noticed him.
Kori noticed too. Hmm. Let's see if he can defend himself against this Caterpie. Should be easy enough.
He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. His distance didn't feel safe anymore for him, and he slowly took a step back. This turned out to be a bad idea, for it fired a white string directly at him, while his foot was off the ground. It scared him so much that he jumped with a shriek and fell onto his back, while the caterpillar jumped onto his belly. It didn't stop until his legs were glued together with its icky string. Its prey was now the webbed Shinx: helpless, defenseless, very tasty.
Ouh, it hit his face.
His vision was impaired, but that didn't stop his hearing from picking up its hissing sounds. His legs felt as if they were bound together, so running away wasn't an option. Oh god, is it going to eat me?!
"Kori, please! Help me!" He was almost sobbing, but his panic made it a scream.
Not yet… come on, you can do it, Shinx.
Its stubby legs wouldn't stop moving, making this all the more uncomfortable for him. He struggled to get it off of his torso, but the strings on his legs made them hard to move. They felt sticky and really disgusting to the touch, and string sticking on fur felt at least a million times worse than a spiderweb to the skin.
The Chikorita quietly sighed. This is a lost cause.
But to his relief he had someone with him. She noticed the monster on top a little later than he would've wanted, but with one whip of her vine it let go of him. The Shinx tried to scurry back to her, scared for his dear life, but his legs couldn't manage to. She came up to him and removed the webs of string from his legs and face.
"Uurrgg, tthhaannkkss, Kkoorrii." He groaned after a deep breath of air. His words sounded dragged out like a piece of gum. Looking back and forth on himself, she had gotten rid of any kinds of strings, but he still felt like he had web sticking everywhere that slowed him down. The feeling just wouldn't go away.
"Yeah, no problem. Be more careful around those Caterpie next time, ok?"
He sighed. The caterpie was laying on the ground next to where it pinned him down. "...Oohh, I wwiillll bbee, ddoonn'tt wwoorrrryy." He answered after five seconds of silence between them. Open wounds decorated part of its skin. Disgustingly green blood was oozing out of them. He wanted to look away, but found out he couldn't move his head as fast as he wanted it to turn. After sluggishly closing his eyes, he attempted to remove this image from his brain. Thaaat's something I don't want to see ever again.
"Oh, it slowed you down."
It took him another five seconds to look at Kori again. "Wwhhaatt?"
"Don't panic." He was still panicking, but not as much as before. "It'll subside after a short while."
"Hhooww aarree yyoouu mmoovviinngg ssoo ffaasstt?" A short break. "Hhuuhh?"
"Goodness, that hit you pretty good-"
"Wwhhaatt ddoo yyoouu mmean? Huh?"
"See, it's over."
The Shinx looked past her. What… just happened?
"Are you alright?" she asked. "I'm pretty sure it didn't actually attack you properly, but-"
"What the fuck just happened?"
Again… She shook it off. "The caterpie attacked you with a string shot. That web can make you react and act slower than normally. When the string is around any part of your body, it releases a gas-like… substance that makes your heart pump slower. No, it's not life threatening. Yes, I promise. The only way of not getting slowed down is to not breathe in at any moment this web is touching your skin."
"Sure," he murmured. "Whatever. Not life threatening. Sure. Sure…"
The top of the forest wasn't much different than the walls. Its dense vegetation of branches and leaves left barely enough room for sunlight to go through, but it was enough to see where they were going. Interwoven was an understatement and a half: they phased through each other on more than one occasion. The branches seemed to grow infinitely long, sometimes going through some of the higher tree's trunks. On one of them was a big, green cocoon. Whaaat the hell is that?!
"Dungeons are pretty spooky, huh?" Kori was staring at the massive wall behind him, not a single bit of anxiety visible neither in her voice nor on her face. "The way it just throws you somewhere random without you noticing it. As if the laws of space are thrown together and mushed into a puddle of an unrecognizable mess."
He nodded in response. The aggressive giant caterpillar was more than enough for him to agree with her.
Their opening was very high and room-like, forming a square with two sides having an opening to go through; where there was a hole in the wall, the trees formed an arch to keep the sky blocked. Kori signaled that they should go, and he quickly followed her.
They went through the corridor with barely enough room to walk next to each other. The Shinx picked the option to walk behind her. The walls were still the same as in the room they had seemingly landed in.
"These halls," Kori explained while pointing around in the tight space, "are connected to more of those rooms, that's how you can travel between them. In those areas, there is a chance of something laying on the ground. Though it's completely random. There's no saying what you'll find in the next room."
It looked empty.
On the other side of the room, however, inside of a thicker part of grass laid something strange. He had never seen it before. It looked like a berry, but not with the usual colors or size normal ones had. Its round form was acceptable, but the blue color of it indicated it wasn't ripe at all. It even had, from his distance barely visible, black dots on it. Where did it come from? Was it even something edible?
"Hey, Kori. Do you know what that is?" he asked, still looking at the object.
"Huh?" She turned to him. After scanning the room, she didn't find it. "What do you mean?"
"Over there." One of the tiny fingers of his paw pointed at the berry, the claw of the same part extending from inside. He stared at it subconsciously, trying to withdraw and extend it again. He didn't notice that he was dimming out everything around him.
"Really? I don't see anything." She was making her way to the spot he had indicated. Halfway there, she saw the item. "Ooh, there's an oran berry hidden in that patch of grass! Nice catch."
For him his paws were much more interesting right now—he hadn't noticed her coming back from the object. She poked him.
"Huh? What?" He looked up, put the paw back down again and turned to Kori.
She chuckled. "I got the berry you found." One of her vines had grabbed it, and she held the blue object in front of him.
He retreated his head a little from the sudden vine. "So... what is that?"
"It's an oran berry. It has the ability to make you recover much faster after a fight or training. Plus it tastes fantastic. Its skin is hard to crack, but once you manage to open it, the juiciness inside will do its work. It's without a doubt the most common and beloved berry for everyone," she said gleefully, before putting it in her small bag.
"Ah, interesting. Say, sorry for being curious, why do you have a bag with you?"
"Oh, this is just for storing stuff."
Silence followed. He was expecting her to continue, but nothing ever came. "And…?"
"And what?" She said, sounding like a genuine question. Normally he would've heard some sarcasm from her, but this time there was none. Didn't she want to talk about this?
"And you just have this with you because…"
"Because. If I find something, I can take it with me. That's what bags are for, dummy." She winked.
"Well," He rolled his eyes. "If you say so..." He secretly kept glancing at it.
They went through the only other hallway and took a sharp right turn, entering a room with a tree in the center of it. Not just any tree, but a tree full of fresh apples.
"Look at that!" Kori gasped.
"At what? The tree?"
"Duh, what else?"
He wasn't entirely sure why she was so excited about an apple tree… were they a rarity? He shouldn't complain, a snack sounded nice right about now. She grabbed a few with her vines. The fruits made a nice snapping sound as they got removed from the branch, the tree wobbling around for a short time.
"Hey, Shinx, you wanna have one?" She held the fruit near for him to see. "You know what this is, right?"
He nodded. "Of course I do, gladly."
She put the apple in front of him, and sat down next to him. It was perfectly red, as if it had been painted over. After saying his thanks, the Shinx laid down and ate it, while making sure it wouldn't roll away. The fruit had been secured between his front legs, above the ground. It made a satisfying 'crunch' as he bit down on it.
Mhmm, so delicious…
It felt strange for him to eat something like this, and even more so without hands. There was more than one occasion where he had wanted to grab the apple with one of his paws, but stopped himself before he could lift one up.
After they finished their snack, they looked around the room and didn't see another opening.
He stated the obvious. "Looks like we have to go back."
"No, really?" she jokingly replied as they turned around.
Before they could go back, however, something stood in their way. Due to mysterious reasons, a relatively small tree with a few yellow spots on its trunk and a small amount of leaves at the top, had popped into existence and was standing at the entrance of the only way out. On both its sides was a branch going upwards, which ended at two smaller branches on top. Not knowing the existence of said blockage, the Shinx nearly walked right into it. He instantly took a few steps back, realizing then that his reaction time had been improved significantly.
The 'tree' looked… very odd. It had no bark, its stem looked like it had been polished not too long ago… was it even made of wood?
While he was wondering where that tree came from and how they were supposed to go around it—this thing nearly blocked the entire passage with its thickness—Kori already had her vines out and ready, and a stern expression on her face.
"Careful, Shinx. That Sudowoodo surprised you good, didn't it?"
Sudowoodo? Did she mean that tree? That's a strange name for a-
Suddenly, the seemingly lifeless tree moved on its own. Its two fat branches snapped out of their petrified state and started to shift their position downward. The strangest part was that it seemed to just have grown a set of eyes, which were locked right onto the Shinx, with a long mouth underneath them. Its roots were replaced with a pair of legs that it pulled out of the ground.
He couldn't believe his eyes; for a second he was considering that he was hallucinating for real, but after another quick glance, one thing made itself clear in his small head.
THAT THING IS ALIVE?!
The Shinx hastily took another few steps back, staring at the menacing tree. The fact that this thing was towering over him with over four times his body height didn't help his current situation at all. Its intention was clear after it vocalized its feral battle cry.
The Shinx froze in shock; his muscles paralyzed and his fur standing on end. He managed to close his eyes and braced for the inevitable impact.
...But it never came.
Instead, a strong sound of a whip cracking went through the air, followed by a thud and short trickling.
And then… everything was quiet.
He slowly opened his eyes again, and was met with a different scene from what he had anticipated. The walking trunk lay next to the entrance, a lethal dent in its body. No sounds or movements came from it after the brute force of Kori's attack. One hit. Her weak looking vine just smashed against a rock and it exploded into a thousand little pieces.
Kori was retreating her vines back into her neck and looked at him disapprovingly. It told him exactly what she was thinking right now.
She saved his sorry ass. Again.
"I-I... uh..." he stuttered, and just now noticed he was holding his breath the whole time. He wasn't sure if he could find anything reasonable to say to her, but he tried anyway. "Listen, I-"
"No, you know what," she interrupted him, holding one of her legs up and shaking her head, the leaf swinging alongside her movement. He was fearing the worst, but was surprised yet again as she said, "Don't worry about it. You wouldn't have been able to do much against it anyway. Not without electric attacks, at least."
A quiet "Oh," came from him.
It appeared to him that the Sudowoodo was unconscious, or at least it hadn't moved since its unfaithful encounter. Interested, he examined the creature a bit closer, whilst still holding his safe distance to it. The first thing he noticed was the body of this thing, as he'd suspected, wasn't really made out of real wood. The small bushes at the tip of its two arm-like branches were much too flat to have any resemblance with leaves, either. The little brown pieces next to it didn't help him much to determine what exact element this creature was.
Why did that small caterpillar only have a small bruise on it? He was sure she had hit it with the same amount of force...
I'm confused. Is this creature a living tree or a walking stone disguised as one? Is it a 'Pekamon', too?
Seeing Kori idling next to it, waiting for him to follow her, he eventually answered her offer.
"So… what did you mean by 'not been able to do much'?" he asked on their way back to the first room.
"Against the Sudowoodo? Oh, yeah. It's because grass type attacks are strong against stone types."
"Uhh… say that again?"
She repeated herself.
"So it was a… stone type?"
"Yes. It's called Sudowoodo. Sounds similar to 'pseudo wood'."
"Ooh, I get it. It's a stupid word play." He forced a quick laugh.
"Pretty much, yeah."
"And why didn't that caterpillar explode as well?"
She snickered. "Explode? Grass attacks are not as effective against bug types."
So that's why its body was almost cut in half, but the Caterpie's just had wounds.
"Why is that?"
She thought for a moment. "That's… a good question. Uhm… I don't actually know. I never thought of that, now that I think about it. Everyone just seemed to accept it the way it is, I guess." She shrugged.
They entered the next clearing, and something caught the Shinx's interest: a small round tunnel in the far right corner. It was smaller in height than the other hallways, and also was much more overgrown with all kinds of flora and fauna: grass, moss, and small flowers of different colors. Their aroma was wonderful.
He also found a giant green cocoon on top of it. He shrieked and retreated back into the hall. His tail tucked away between his legs again.
"Huh?" She found out why he was screaming. "Oh, that? Pfft. It's harmless."
It's… it's harmless? He stared at her in disbelief. No way this cocoon looking thing is nothing to worry about.
"What I mean by that is that it can't use any proper moves. Even you could get rid of it. Now come back here, you scaredy-skitty."
"No-no thanks. I'm good." He stepped forward again, eyeing the green thing above him the entire time as if this was a big stalactite about to fall. He pointed at the round-ish tunnel. "Um, any reason why this looks different than the other passages?"
"This one leads you to the next section of the dungeon. In most cases this would be stairs now, but… actually, why aren't they stairs…?"
"Stairs? Why would there be stairs in a forest?"
"Don't question it. It's just the way it is."
Sudowoods S2
Inside that small tunnel, the air felt much fresher than in the rest of the last section. Just as if it came from outside. After going through it, they entered another empty room. It felt like they were making progress.
The tunnel behind them suddenly had vanished, as if it had never been there.
"Uh-!" The Shinx froze and stared at the missing path. "Wh- where…"
She shrugged it off. "Don't worry. That's normal."
He let out a heavy sigh. "Of course. Yeah. Disappearing tunnels are… 'normal'. You see it every day!" he said to nobody.
The Chikorita was looking around their current room. There were three paths now. The left one was a long, straight hallway, the one in the middle turned to the right, and the right one curved to the left.
"Now, which way do we go?" asked Kori.
"Huh?" He awoke from his trance. "Oh, uhm… I mean… you're technically escorting me, so you should… you know."
"You're right. We'll go through... this one." She pointed at the middle path.
It turned out it led back to the first room. But upon entering, a shrill cry came from above them, and in the next moment, Kori was pinned down by a dark blue bird with a split featherly tail and a wide beak. It had white feathers on its belly region, and red ones on its face with a V-shape on its chest.
She tried to hit the Taillow with her vines, but it evaded every attempt of her doing so. How was it able to move so fast? She tried it with her leaves, still no luck.
"Shinx, don't just stand there, I need help!"
Just by seeing the strong plant type getting destroyed by a small bird, he was very worried. If this bird is that much stronger than her, he would've had no chance against it.
"I- uh..." What was he supposed to do? Pin it down? Ram it? No, what was he thinking, just get it off of Kori! It hadn't noticed him yet, it was now or never!
"Hey you! Bird for brains! Over here!" ...This didn't seem to have worked… The feral was still attacking as vigorously as before.
"Shinx, I swear to Arceus if you- just ram it, or- OW!" She screamed, the bird now pecking at her leaf.
Arceeos? He shook his head, now was not the time! You heard her! Ram it!
He managed to get a good run-up, and jumped forwards. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated the strength needed to get off the ground, and missed the bird by almost half a metre. He yelped in surprise at how well he could control his body, and how high he had leaped. But that also meant there was no stopping him while in the air.
He ended up crashing head-first against the wall, and with an "oof" he landed on the ground—the grass softened his landing a tiny bit.
His attempt wasn't in vain, however, as the blue bird now focused on the Shinx instead of the Chikorita. However, before he could stand up again it was already on his back; its talons gripping tightly, piercing his skin with ease.
"Arg!"
He tried his hardest to get it off. It effortlessly evaded every move he made, seemingly always a step ahead of him.
"Get off me!" he said with clenched teeth.
Kori jumped into the action, grabbing the bird by its neck and legs, lifting it up. The talons were still grabbing tight, resulting in him getting picked up, too. This made the Shinx scream even more. Even though it was barely for a second, it felt like an eternity.
Kori made sure its claws and beak wouldn't interfere with what she was going to do. It tried its best to break free again, but to no avail. He stared at the bird for a good half minute, seeing it squirm, chirp, and flutter around. She seemed to struggle holding it.
"Now, Shinx, get it!"
...Huh? 'Get it'? What did she mean by that?
"Come on, I can't hold it for much longer!"
Was he supposed to do something?
"Shinx! I know this is very sudden but you have to do this!"
He was. Now it clicked. While she was holding and keeping it still, he would come and finish it.
"Can't you just-"
"Shinx I swear if you…" She growled.
He really was. He was supposed to kill this thing.
"I…"
With another worried sigh, he mentally prepared himself and got on his way. His heartbeat accelerated tremendously, getting more nervous by the second. She didn't say anything about that kind of thing, did she? Do I really have to… end its life?
"Shinx. Now."
Calm down... You'd have to do it eventually, right? There's no... other way. Either it dies, or we do... No one will judge you for this… I hope? I really hope.
His back stung more and more with every step he took. Kori carefully lowered the wild beast so he could reach it. It snapped at him and her vines multiple times, but to no avail.
It felt like his subconscious was telling him where he should strike—were these his instincts? Kori held its head up, indicating where he should attack.
He locked eyes with the bird, and it did the same. There was no mercy in them, only bloodlust. Its cries were getting obnoxious. It didn't seem to give up at all.
The dungeon did this to it, didn't it? Scrambling the creature's mind until only its aggressive instincts are left over. Would the same happen to them? What if there were Pokemon like Kori or him in here, acting just as primitive?
He shook his head again. Now was still not the time to get distracted.
He lifted his paw, claws outstretched, and struck its throat.
It surprised him how easily his claws got through its feathers, skin, and flesh. Like he was cutting through a cake with a hot knife.
With one last raspy breath and attempt to break free, it fell on the grass, lifeless. Its legs twitched a bit, but it quickly subsided. The color of its eyes slowly changed to gray. Its pearl-white belly feathers began to look like the ones on its neck, but a more darker red. The Shinx stared at his now partly red paw, his claws drenched in its blood.
He… had done it. He had killed something.
He couldn't look away from the corpse, despite the fact there was nothing more he wished for right now. Why had he… felt happy? His breathing was getting irregular. I just killed something! Why do I feel happy?!
A sigh came from Kori, "Any longer and I couldn't have held onto it anymore. Taillow have pretty good tenacity. ...Hey, you alright? ...Shinx?"
"I... I… killed something."
"Shinx, calm down, it's-"
"I'm a murderer."
"Stop saying that-"
"Are you seeing this?" He held up his drenched paw with outstretched claws. He looked at Kori, being happy, sad, and terrified at the same time.
"Snap out of it! This is perfectly normal!"
"You say that to everything. Disappearing tunnels? Normal. Suddenly appearing tree golems? Perfectly fine. Killing things? Most trivial thing in the world!"
The Chikorita realized. Did I really forget to tell him about this? Oh, I didn't mention this part… uh oh. Not good.
"Do I have to lick it, too?" He asked, looking at his paw.
"Eugh," her face scrunched a little, "no, why would you-"
"What are the next ones gonna think when they see a corpse of a Pekamon just laying around?" He glanced at the dead bird, a puddle had formed around it, painting the nearby grass with a dark red color.
"It's Pokemon. And they're not gonna see it, because the-"
"How in the fuck are they not gonna see this giant pool of blood in the middle of this room?!"
"Because the layout will change when someone new enters this dungeon, remember?"
He certainly did remember her saying that earlier. "But- but what if someone enters it right now, and made their way to this section here? They're gonna see me drenched!"
"No, they won't. If someone were to enter this dungeon right now, they would have a completely different first section compared to ours. To actually go through them together, you'd have to enter it at almost the same time, else you'll be alone. This is also the reason why I grabbed you before."
"You could've told me earlier!"
She looked away, realizing her mistake again. How could she have forgotten such an important detail? And to someone who never heard of those dungeons!
"Ok. I'm sorry. And please, put down your leg."
He reluctantly did as he was told. The blood had dried a little, and a few parts of his leg-fur was sticking together. His breathing slowed down to a normal pace.
"Yes, you're completely right. I should have told you this. And I forgot." she said bluntly. "I'm very sorry, but trust me when I tell you that this is absolutely no reason to freak out. And before you interrupt me again," she squinted her eyes, "hear me out.
"Dungeons are a very dangerous place, you know that already. I never got into detail how dangerous they were. You were probably thinking they were riddled with traps and pitfalls, or something similar, right? Well, you're not entirely wrong. Yes, some dungeons have traps in them. But what I had meant were the ferals in here. They are extremely hostile against anyone they come across. This bird was going to kill us both."
Her leaf was nibbled on; it was missing a tiny part just to the right of the top. She herself had scratch marks over her spinal-region, too, but they didn't seem to look as bad as his back felt.
"Mmh…"
Suddenly, the thought to be dead Taillow slowly raised its head to look at the Shinx. Its growls and hisses sounded bizarre, wet, like it was burbling. Its wound was still there, and was still bleeding.
"Woah! What the f-" He shouted and pointed his red leg at it. How was it still alive?!
"Huh? What?" She quickly turned around and look at the impossible event that was happening right in front of her. "What in Arceus's name…"
In a blink of an eye, it shot up and went straight for the Shinx, pushing away the Chikorita with ease. It managed to pin him down again, but not before pushing the poor lynx into the corner of the room. He hit his head on it, giving him a strong headache. The bird was towering over him, its talons ready to rip out his insides.
Out of sheer panic, he slashed and continued to rip open this monster. It didn't even flinch.
...You. ...How are you here?!
Before he could realize what happened, two familiar vines grabbed it on its head and body again. This time, however, instead of picking it back up, she snapped his neck with a sickening crunch. Its body flew straight into the opposite wall, where it made another crack.
The Taillow stopped moving again.
The two of them stared at the thing. They didn't say anything, didn't blink, didn't move any muscle.
"...What…" He managed to say in between heavy breaths, which developed into screaming. "What in the FUCK. WAS. THAT?!"
Kori was as terrified as he was. "I… I don't know… this..." she trailed off and continued whispering to herself. He couldn't understand her anymore.
"That… it…" He couldn't find his words anymore. "How..."
This mangled Pokemon... How was that possible? He had cut its throat, and it was still alive? It seemed impossible, unbelievable, but yet, it happened. Right in front of their eyes.
Kori started to theorize that the Shinx didn't cut deep enough.
After what felt like hours of silence, she managed to speak up and slowly walked to the long hallway. "Let's… go on. I think I'm getting sick…"
All he could do was nod.
They were quiet until they reached the next room. The only sound surrounding them were the Chikorita's footsteps and the Shinx's heartbeat. He noticed she was shaking because her leaf was over her body, slowly vibrating.
The Shinx made sure nothing was following them. If this... thing came back again…
Halfway through, the Shinx remembered the less strange event that happened to him.
"Kori, it said something…" he managed to blurt out. "How was I here…?"
"Huh?" Her voice was also a little shaky. "It said something to you? That's impossible."
"Yeah, but it also would've been impossible for this bird to come and attack again…"
She didn't find an answer to that. "Now I kinda know how you feel about all this. As far as I know, Pokemon couldn't just come back to life… oh no…"
"What 'oh no'?" He instantly looked behind him, only to find yawning emptiness.
She didn't reply. Her breathing got more irregular. Kori managed to get out a whisper. "Look."
Her body shifted to the side for the Shinx to see what was in front of them.
He saw the bird again, not having moved still.
"How in the…"
"Oh, I think I know what this is. This might be the quirk of this dungeon." She glanced at the carapace. "At least… I think it is. Shinx," she turned around, "run into the room, turn right, and dash through that hallway. Ok?"
He nodded, even though this was the last thing he wanted to do: near himself to that monster.
"Then start running. On three."
He stared at it again. He didn't want to go any further. It could attack him at any moment. "One."
His eyes fixated on it. The longer he stood there, petrified, the higher the chances of it to… "Two…"
He couldn't get his eyes away from it. They were glued to it. They didn't blink anymore. They started to burn.
"Three." In an instant, she started running for the only other hallway they haven't explored.
'...What are you doing…? Just go!' His mind screamed at him for being stupid. 'What the hell are you waiting for?!'
As much as he wanted to, he couldn't. The moment he would start running after Kori, it would get him. He knew this was gonna happen. He was certain.
He needed to be completely silent. It could hear him breathe from where he stood.
His legs tip-toed him into the room, nothing happened. He slowly turned his body to the right, still nothing.
Keep calm… hold your breath… you can do it. Could it read his thoughts? He hoped not.
He was almost there… perfectly silent, like a predator sneaking up on its prey.
The instant he laid foot into the hallway, he sprinted like a madmon.
This hallway was the first one that had curves—or more like, it was one singular curve—and not sharp corners. Left, left, left, ...left… wait. It still continued.
After two more rounds, he realized what was going on. It looped. "It loops? The fuck?"
One more round, just to be sure. "It does. Loop. It does…"
The walls, the grass, the ceiling, everything still looked the same.
"Kori?" He called out, he thought maybe she would hear him.
Another round, and then the sixth. "Kori?"
Did the dungeon trap him? How was he supposed to get out of this? There was just the path in front of him, looping around him indefinitely. It never ended.
Suddenly, he heard something from behind him. Its tapping on the grass got nearer by the second. Did that monster wake up again?! Oh fuck no!
He started running away from the noise—he was more hopping than running, but it was quicker than walking—to no avail. It didn't matter how much or for how long he would flee, it would always be following him in here.
Would I be able to jump it? Last time I couldn't get it off of me, but maybe… Does it know I'm in here? He listened closely. Its breathing wasn't raspy or irregular, it made no sounds except for its steps… was it even the Taillow?
"Shinx?" A familiar voice entered his eardrums. It was Kori!
He gasped. "Yes! Kori! I'm here!"
She picked up her pace.
"Where are you?" They both said at almost the same time.
She sounded like she was right in front of him, but he didn't see her. He even heard the footsteps going past him, somehow.
"...Kori?"
"Yes?" Her voice was behind him now.
"How in the…"
"Ok… which direction are you facing right now?"
"How am I supposed to know? Left?"
"Does the path curve to the right or the left?"
He facepalmed himself. "It goes to the right."
"Good. Walk that way. And don't stop."
"But…" he objected, "I would go back…"
"...Just go."
With a worried "Alright?" he made another round through the circling path.
"And for how long?" He barely finished his question as Kori came into view.
"Not any longer. Hey. It took you awhile to get here…"
"Yeah. I know. That thing distracted me…" He shuddered.
She nodded. "Understandable, I'm sorry. Follow me."
"Ok… is everything alright?" She was sounding a little too monotone for him.
"Yes. That Taillow… I'm still shocked at how it managed to survive your attack. How it came back to life was just..." She shook her head. "Well, follow me. I found something."
Of course, the Shinx didn't want to lose her out of his sight again, so he quickly followed. "What did you find?"
She kept silent for a moment, until they reached a small room. It had one of those small overgrown tunnels. "Oh, are we through with it?" he asked.
"Yeah. Hey, how's your back? Does it still hurt?"
He managed to take a peek at his back, surprised yet again at how much his body had changed; this time how flexible his neck was. There were visible claw marks on it, but they looked much worse than they felt. "They sting, but aside that, no. Not really."
"Here." She took out the blue berry he found earlier. "Eat this. You'll feel much better."
"Uhm, what about you?" He looked up at her gnawed leaf, the missing spot had almost healed up. "Oh-"
"Your metabolism works much faster while you are in here." Kori explained. "That's why these wounds look nasty, but don't actually hurt. You heal and recover quicker, but also get hungry more often."
"Huh." That was sudden… "...How does that work?"
She made her equivalent of a shrug. "Beats me. Ask the dungeon."
Ok, she doesn't know. She might also be a little annoyed right now.
He accepted the berry and tried to chew on it. It didn't crack on the first bite, and also not on the second, much harder one. "Jtheeth, how harh ith thah?"
"Very hard."
With his new, sharper teeth he should've easily been able to break its shell, but found it impossible to do so. After three more attempts, he managed to split it open, but half the berry flew out of his mouth and onto the dirty ground. The other half spread a sweet and sour mixture of flavours through his mouth. He instantly felt remarkably refreshed, and the stinging went away, too.
He looked at the other half beneath him, and sighed. That berry tasted incredible. And-
Kori picked it up. "Here you go."
"Uh, no, thanks, uh-" He held a paw in front of his body and shook his head.
She looks annoyed now. "What, is the berry poisoned now that it had hit the ground? Don't be such a baby."
"No, it's alright," he answered in a lower voice, "you can have that."
"Hm. If you say so." Her vine chucked the berry into her mouth, crunching noises came out of it as she destroyed the remaining shell.