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~\({O})/~
15.
Fright Night
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Capim Town ~ Grass Continent
~Buizel~
There weren't a lot of distractions flying around in Buizel's head when he decided to focus on a mission, but sometimes he honestly had to wonder why Archen was the off-continent explorer instead of him. The bird was cranky half the time and standoffish the other half, and he had an aversion to mystery dungeons like Buizel had never understood.
All of that was without mentioning that the Expedition Society would save a fortune in Lapras fares if Buizel had Archen's spot.
Buizel liked to let his thoughts wander when he shot across the sea faster than any lapras in the world could take him. He probably could get Archen's spot if he asked for it. It was technically a rank above him, but Buizel had been performing missions with a near-perfect track record for just about a year, and a promotion was probably in order (His track record was better than Archen's anyway). But on the other hand, getting a promotion meant getting on the executive staff. And being on the executive staff meant paperwork. And missions with Mawile. And everymon knew Mawile was just no fun to go on missions with.
Besides, for all the bird's grumpiness, Archen was still a valued and respected member of the Expedition Society, and Buizel wouldn't seriously think of trying to get him demoted on purpose. Surfacing briefly for a breath of air, Buizel took in the large landmass he was currently jetting towards. He abruptly changed his direction, rocketing due east instead. It was the Grass Continent; alright. All he had to do was find a dock to properly surface on.
When he wasn't exploring the deep sea and helping to map the off-land portions of the world out, Buizel did a lot of grunt work meant to help pay the Expedition Society's bills. He counterbalanced that by purposefully choosing missions that took him far off-continent and to remote places of the world. He had even helped Archen with mapping duty a couple of times (The cranky bird still owed him one for that).
This mission was easy surfing; really. Buizel had taken it because he'd been itching for a good, long swim after the stress of being cooped up with bossy Dedenne for a week, and the swim to Grass was about as far as any of the missions on the board went. (Except the ones on Sand. Buizel didn't take missions to Sand.) It wasn't anything complicated. A quilava had dropped a precious keepsake into the bay, and wanted the help of a determined water-type to get it back- oh, there was a dock.
The dock was made of unvarnished, unsmoothed wood. There weren't even any steps to climb up onto it easily from the water. It took Buizel a while to get up onto the dock, and a few seconds more to keep his balance on the uneven surface. He quickly shook himself off when no-mon was looking, and continued on into the town in the distance.
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Capim Town wasn't anything to write home about, but Grass was poor in general. There were none of the electrical lampposts of Lively Town, but no luminous moss streetlamps existed either. Most of the houses had been made of massive tree stumps that been uprooted from their original resting places and carved out from the inside, and the signs were in footprint runes instead of unown. Buizel walked across the log bridges that spanned the many tree stumps that made up the town's squares and walkways (He was still trying to find his balance on those), using his rudimentary knowledge of how to read footprint runes to try and locate the tavern. His client would be waiting there for him; that was what had been put on the request.
Actually; Buizel wanted to double-check that. It was always better to be safe than sorry, anyway. At least that was courteous enough to be in Unown. He turned his attention away from the bridge he was about to step off to unzip the waterproof bag Jirachi had designed for him and dig out the note. It took a while (Buizel always packed well), but eventually he pulled out the note, which had been written on a piece of papyrus.
"Looking for a water-type willing to recover my lost heirloom for me," the note read. "3000 Poke reward. Will give more details in person. I will be waiting in the tavern in Capim Town for the next two weeks to see if anyone accepts my request. Sincerely, Quilava."
Buizel relaxed. His client was in the tavern, then. He stuck the paper back in his bag and re-zipped it, looking around at the buildings in the square he was standing in. Let's see… he had only bothered to even try to learn footprint runes at Mawile's request, but he was pretty sure footprint runes for 'tavern' were-
Squish. Everything in Buizel's head came to a screeching halt. God no. He hadn't stepped in…
He had. Buizel slowly lifted his foot out of a pile of dung that sat straight in the middle of the street. He grimaced and carefully wiped his foot off on the 'ground' beside that. He had forgotten pokemon on the Grass Continent did… that… now he remembered why he hadn't taken a mission here in so long. No-mon around him seemed to care that he had just stepped in a large pile of pokemon trash; the few inhabitants of the place (There was much less hustle and bustle here than there was in Lively Town) going about their days relatively carefree.
Luckily, Buizel had remembered the footprint runes for 'tavern', and the sign was just to his left. That was a stroke of luck. Buizel gingerly stepped around the pile of dung he had just stepped in, and walked off to the tavern before anymon could question him.
~\({O})/~
The tavern was lit by torches that hung from the walls. What little light was inside the dimly-lit building flickered often and made it hard to see. Still mildly traumatized by the event that had occurred out in the square, Buizel made sure to check the floors well before taking his next steps. Once he was sure he wouldn't be stepping in any more piles of dung (At least Grass Continentals were civilized enough to keep the stuff out of their buildings), Buizel turned his attention to the pokemon in the bar. There were many grass types, but a few bug types and the odd water-type were there as well, and the bartender was an octillery. It didn't take long for Buizel to locate the quilava that sat on the stool in the back of the bar. A fire type amongst all those grass, bug, and water types stuck out like a sore paw anyway.
Buizel quickly strode over to Quilava's table, clutching his bag close to him as he went. A plate of slightly seared berries and vegetables sat in front of the quilava, but it was barely picking at the food, instead staring down at the table anxiously. Buizel made sure to clear his throat to get the quilava's attention after stopping in front of its table.
Quilava looked up; quickly straightening himself when he noticed Buizel. Buizel quickly opened his bag and produced the mission slip, sticking it on the table in front of Quilava.
"Is this you?" he asked, making no attempts at subtlety or tact. A straight question was ruder, but it got to the point.
Quilava slowly took the slip of paper in his hands, holding it up to his face. After an abnormally long amount of time, he set down the paper, and looked up at Buizel: "Yes. Tha's me."
"Great." Buizel held out his paw to shake. He held it there for a moment impatiently, waiting for the quilava to grab it. When Quilava did no such thing, Buizel awkwardly retracted it. "Look; I'm sorry- can we get a move on? We're burning daylight."
Quilava looked down awkwardly at his plate of roasted berries. Buizel felt a mix of impatience and annoyance flood him. He glanced around the bar quickly, then took a seat on the stool opposite the quilava. "Alright then. Brief me. That way we can save time once we reach the coast."
Quilava looked down at his plate once more. He picked up a fork, speared a strawberry, and put it in his mouth. Buizel inwardly wilted from impatience. Was this going to go on all day?
"I' was five days ago," Quilava started; having swallowed the berry while Buizel was stewing. "Ah was fishin' off tha coast to tha east of Capim Town."
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Whip. The fishing line soared through the air, flying gracefully for a few seconds before entering the water with a 'plonk' that barely met Quilava's ears. That was good. That meant the line was far enough out, and he was going home with a nice big fish to surprise the butcher with. Or maybe he'd roast it himself for dinner tonight. He hadn't eaten fish in a while. That sounded good…
Quilava laid down on the rocks; staring up at the sky, and the necklace on his neck jangled softly. It was solid gold; with a radiant fire stone encrusted in the middle. The necklace was a precious family heirloom, bought by one of Quilava's ancestors who had not realized the quilava line had no use for such objects but had enough money to get it encrusted in metal anyway. It had been entrusted to Quilava by his parents when he became old enough to leave their den out in the wild, and Quilava had never parted with it since. The residents of Capim Town had long since grown used to seeing the image of a quilava walking around with a thick golden chain hanging around its neck; especially a quilava that hunted for the butcher often. Although in his recent days he had taken more to fishing, once predator pokemon more capable than he had moved to the village. When everymon had their sights set on the large prey like bison, no-mon thought about the fish, and Quilava liked it that way.
A loud 'boom' in the sky shook Quilava out of his idle thoughts. He quickly sat up, looking around frantically to find out where the boom had come from. Was it a battle between winged pokemon? He did not see any. Whatever it was, enough noise and it might scare off his fish.
Then Quilava realized that in his franticness to find out where the boom had come from, he had neglected to look straight ahead. The sound of a loud whine from the air caught his ears, and Quilava quickly whipped his head towards the bay in front of him. And then he saw it: Something was falling from the sky. Something massive. And he was about to be caught in it!
That thought jerked Quilava into action. He forgot about his line. He forgot about the butcher; about the necklace; about the fish he wanted to eat for dinner; about anything that didn't equate to survival in the moment. Briefly falling back into his feral ways, Quilava abandoned the civilized way of walking on one's hind paws, scurrying away on all fours from the bay before he could get caught in the wreckage.
The object – whatever it was- hit the bay with an ear-killing splash, and Quilava tried to bolt for the trees in the distance. Too late he realized they were too far and he wasn't going to make it he should have headed for the cave instead-
The wave generated by the object's powerful splash crashed into the shore and engulfed Quilava. For a few agonizing seconds Quilava was tumbling in the water; his head breaking the surface for one second and being dragged underwater the next, and then the wave receded and Quilava was left panting on the sand. He pulled himself to his feet once his body had regained the strength, shivering both from the cold of the water and the absolute fear of what had just happened to him. The massive object had sunk into the water, and Quilava was sure he would see no more of it.
He wanted to see no more of it.
Staying wet was a hazard for fire types; so susceptible to water-borne diseases. Quilava tried shaking himself off like he had seen the animals in the wild do, then ran back to Capim Town as fast as all four of his paws would take him.
Only after he was in the safety of his hut and warming up in front of a warm fire did he realize that he had lost his family's precious necklace.
~\({O})/~
Buizel sat back in the stool; his arms folded as he listened to Quilava's story. It was the same old story many of his clients gave him- they were going about their day, something unfortunate happened, they got away but lost their valuable thing that they were willing to pay poke to get back. Cue the explorer. He nodded intermittently to give Quilava the impression that he was listening, since it seemed like the pokemon would take offense to being ignored. Buizel had gotten the necessary details, anyway. A run of the mill retrieval mission. Solid gold necklace. Fire stone in the middle. No biggie. He looked at Quilava's plate of berries, which was empty at this point (The quilava had alternated between telling the story and eating; not that Buizel cared).
Seeing that Quilava was done, Buizel rose from the stool and stretched.
"Alright then. Let's stop wasting daylight."
"Bu'…" Quilava looked down at his empty plate. "Ah haf' to-"
"I'll cover it." Buizel opened his bag; dug in it, pulled out an amount of poke he didn't know the worth of; didn't care; but he was sure it would cover Quilava's meal. This wasn't Swanna Inn. "Let's do this."
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Serenity Village
~Espurr~
A loud bang woke Espurr from her slumber. She sat up straight in the bed of straw, looking around the room that had recently become hers only two days ago. No-mon was there. She could make out the outlines of the room's sparse furniture (What amounted to a dresser and a vacant bookshelf), but no-mon currently shared the room with her. Espurr kept an eye on her surroundings anyway. This was not the first time that she had been woken like this.
For a moment, there was silence. And then the dresser began to rattle. Espurr jumped in her bed. She braced herself; just in case she'd have to fight. If something was in that dresser…
It suddenly tipped over and collapsed onto the floor with a loud crash. Espurr let out an involuntary yelp and jumped back. And then, for a moment, it did look like there was somemon else in the room with her: the very faintish outline of a pokemon running directly towards her-
There wasn't time to retaliate. Espurr quickly hit the ground behind the bed, cowering. But the pokemon never came. She felt the whoosh of air, and then a slight funny feeling like somemon had just passed through her, and then the room was her own again.
The tarps were whipped off the orbs of luminous moss in Audino's room, and Audino rushed in, looking around in terror.
"What happened?!" she cried out. "Was it- was it… oh." She slowly calmed down, taking in both Espurr and the overturned dresser. "What happened?"
"The dresser fell down," Espurr responded. She'd had half a mind to tell Audino about what had knocked the dresser over, but there was no need to stir up even more commotion. She'd tell Audino tomorrow.
Audino walked over, looking at the damage.
"It looks like the legs gave out," she said, glancing at the snapped front legs of the dresser. "It must have just been old wood. We'll replace it tomorrow. For now, sleep."
Espurr tried to, even after Audino had gone back to her room and Espurr lay curled up once more in the bed of straw. Had she just been lucid dreaming somehow, and the dresser had fallen as a co-incidence? She glanced back at the overturned dresser. It was a very convenient coincidence.
The idea of a coincidence helped her get to sleep better.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village Square ~ Afternoon
"Errand day is usually Sunday, but it's just about; we can have it a day early." Audino and Espurr walked through the ever-crowded village square, which was bustling with pokemon all willing to do their shopping in the harsh summer sun so that they could get some of whatever rare imported Mist Continent delicacy Kecleon was offering this month. The Café Connection looked fairly busy as well, and the area of the square that housed Hawlucha's Slam School was dead as always. Audino discreetly stretched as they both walked to the end of the line for Kecleon's.
"It's hot out today; isn't it?" she asked. Espurr hadn't remembered a day in which it hadn't been hot outside of a mystery dungeon. At some point the waiting in Kecleon's line began to bore her, so she quietly slipped away when Audino wasn't looking and walked over to the empty portion of the square to observe from a distance. The logs were missing from the square today; Espurr noticed. She was a bit disappointed- it had been a nice place to sit, while it had lasted.
Things were much quieter on the other side of the square, and it wasn't long before Espurr's ears began to pick up the sound of distant, off-key whistling. Getting closer. She turned to see who was making all that noise, and then suddenly she dived behind Hawlucha's Slam School. She knew she had recognized that melody from somewhere- it was Nuzleaf's song! She just couldn't avoid him, could she?
Sure enough, the whistling got closer and closer until Nuzleaf walked by, carrying an empty sack of supplies on a stick slung over his back. Espurr relaxed as he passed. He hadn't seen her.
"Espurr!" Audino called out, from the other side of the square. Espurr's spirits fell. How was she going to- She spotted a gap in between two buildings outside the square. Never mind,
She took the long way around back to Audino, who had the now-filled to bursting exploration bag firmly strapped to her shoulder. "I wonder where all your friends went?" she asked. "I usually see one or two of them hanging around by now. Espurr suddenly perked up. Did that mean…
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Serenity Village Outskirts
"…And that's a job well done." Pancham brushed off his hands and gazed up at the finished treehouse. It looked sturdy. Enough.
"Are you guys sure you followed the manual?" Tricky asked suspiciously. "The roof doesn't look right…"
"Hey," Pancham said. "Me and Shelmet have built treehouses before. We know what we're doing."
"I don't think that was the right way to put the shingles on," Tricky said.
"Whatchu talking about?" Pancham asked, leaning against a tree. "The shingles look fine. Want my opinion? That manual can go m-"
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"That looks wrong," Espurr said, glancing up at the roof shingles.
"See?!" Tricky cried triumphantly. "I told you!"
"Guys," Pancham insisted. "It's fine."
Deerling shook her head. "No it's not," she said.
"Yeah it is."
"No, it's not."
"Prove me wrong."
"Prove you wrong?! Have you ever been right?"
"Go out with me and I'll let you win."
"Ha! You wish."
"G-guys-"
"That's not the right way to apply roof shingles!"
"There's a manual!"
"G-guys-"
"Alright!" Pancham threw up his hands. "Have it your way. I'm not putting them back straight."
Espurr leaned back against a tree, rubbing her head with her paws. "They're back straight," she said, not even bothering to open her eyes. The rest of the children all glanced behind themselves at Espurr. Then they all looked at the rooftop of the treehouse, and saw that the roof shingles had indeed all been reversed and put on the other way. Then there was a moment of silence as everyone tried to process that.
"I-I tried to tell you," Goomy meekly pointed out.
~\({O})/~
"What's that thing?" Pancham put down the picture book he'd gotten tired of staring at, glancing lazily at the other side of the treehouse where Espurr and Tricky were fiddling with the Expedition Gadget.
"It's our expedition gadget," Tricky said, not even looking up at Pancham. "We use it for exploring."
"What's it do?" Pancham asked; obviously not satisfied.
"I just told you," Tricky said. "We use it for exploring."
Pancham was silent for a minute.
"So what do you do when you go exploring?" he asked.
Out of the corner of her eye, Espurr saw the look on Deerling's face sour. They had been sitting rather quietly in the treehouse for a couple of hours, all doing their own things but not really talking to one another. It had been so long since the six of them had been in one room together that they didn't know how to anymore.
Tricky eventually broke the silence between them. "Stuff," she said.
"What kind of stuff?" Pancham pressed.
"Stuff," Tricky repeated. "Exploring stuff."
"So tell me what exploring stuff is."
"Let's talk about something else," Deerling quickly cut in before anymon else could say anything, directing most of her gaze at Tricky. "I'm not in the mood to have this conversation."
Tricky went silent, and then everymon stayed that way.
~\({O})/~
It was sundown. Even though the treehouse had been finished, the day was spent in silence between the six of them. Espurr had started the day in relatively high spirits, but before long the waves of negativity from everymon in that room had begun to get to her, and she'd silently excused herself from the treehouse to take a break from it.
It seemed they just weren't ready to become friends yet.
They all walked back to Serenity Village in groups of two. Espurr and Tricky stuck together, Pancham and Shelmet walked ahead of them in a group, and Deerling ang Goomy were in the front. Even from a distance Espurr could feel the negativity encroaching upon her brain, and so she said something to Tricky just to stave it off for a little while: "That salamence mission is still up."
Just as she expected, Tricky quickly looked towards her like she was crazy.
"Did you just say salamence?" she asked, barely keeping her voice down.
Espurr nodded. The mission reward was a large-ish amount of poke, and came accompanied by a sack of something called 'blast seeds' (Which Espurr thought sounded useful, even if she didn't know what they were).
Tricky stayed silent for a minute, but Espurr could already see the gears whirring in her head. She yawned. "We can go tomorrow, right?" she asked.
The answer seemed so obvious that Espurr didn't even grace it with a verbal response.
The six of them all split up at the village square, and then the haze of feel-bad thoughts that had been plaguing Espurr's head for the last hour or so finally lifted. She could think clearly again for what felt like the first time in hours, and she was riding the high spirits as she walked into Audino's house.
She was not visited again that night.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village Outskirts
~Eevee~
Thankfully, it was not the new moon. Eevee quietly trotted through the forest, followed by Fletchinder. The moonlight was just bright enough that they could see where they were trudging, as well as where all the trees were.
"Are you sure we have permission for this?" Fletchinder asked uneasily, stepping around one of the ferns. Up on the hill in the distance, they could see the ever-dark school buildings looming over them all. "I'm not getting in trouble because you want to cover your tail."
"Don't you get it?" Eevee hissed at him. "We were supposed to get all the lumber from Fraxure! I'm representing the lumber company; it was my responsibility to get it for you! And now all we have is half the lumber we need, plus those logs we pilfered from the town square! No-mon's gonna notice if we chop down a tree here or there. You get your lumber; I file some paperwork; that's both our tails covered. No-mon's gonna know."
A stick cracked in the distance, and something pushed apart some foliage. Eevee snapped her head in the direction of the sound, but then dismissed it. There were lots of animals around this portion of the Continent.
"If a tree falls in a forest and no-mon hears it, it still fell," said Fletchinder.
"Uh-huh. Except no-mon is gonna care," Eevee hissed back. She walked up to the base of a tree and swiped some of the bark off with her claws. "This one. You chop it down; I'll debark it."
"…Chop it down?" Fletchinder asked. "How do you expect me to chop it down?"
"You're a carpenter; how do you usually chop lumber?" Eevee responded.
"Well, I have tools I use…" Fletchinder said.
"And you didn't think to bring them?!" Eevee stressed. "I told you what we were going to do before we walked out all this way to do it!"
Swish. Both Eevee and Fletchinder went silent. That wasn't too far off from where they were currently.
"Did you hear that?" Fletchinder whispered.
"No duh I heard it," Eevee said in the same hushed voice. "Stupid animal thinks it's got the jump on us." She turned around. "Whatever. We need to go back for your tools anyway; we'll come back later after it's gone away. Sound-"
She stopped abruptly. A frozen expression hung on Fletchinder's beak, and he stared ahead of her. It was then that Eevee noticed the lights reflecting off his face. She quickly turned around, and then they both screamed.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village ~ Daytime
"Wanna join us."
Tricky did not sound enthused at all about asking Pancham to come along on their mission. Espurr had made sure they packed well and with everything they might need to combat a salamence. After the disaster that had been Poliwrath River, she was loath to take any chances (Even if she and Tricky cleared standard dungeons every other day).
"Join what?" Pancham asked, twirling his slingshot by the sling.
"Our mission," Tricky said flatly. "We need at least three pokemon on our team to take it."
Pancham thought for a minute.
"I don't know…" he said. "See, I'm a 'mon who likes to be appreciated. And I'm not vibing the proper appreciation from you; you catching me?"
Smoke started to curl up from Tricky's ears. She glared daggers at him.
"I-I'll join."
All three pokemon quickly looked to the left, where Goomy had slimed up without them noticing. "I- I'm not fast," he said, "But I wanna g-go anyway. I c-can take it."
"Sold!" Tricky chirped, her bad mood evaporating on the spot. She immediately pranced over to Goomy, when began to trot off at his pace like Pancham had never existed.
"I assume you're coming?"
Pancham, who was busy fuming at Tricky, jumped. He looked at Espurr, who was standing off to the side with the overstuffed exploration bag and staring directly at him.
"Yeah; I- I'm coming," he said. "What do you think I am; stupid?"
Espurr didn't answer that for his sake.
~\({O})/~
Lush Forest
The salamence roared. All four pokemon scattered.
"You didn't tell me we were going to be fighting a mukking salamence!" Pancham yelled over the noise. "I would have stayed home!"
"I thought you knew!" Tricky yelled back. "We talked about it on the way!"
"Everymon duck!" Espurr yelled at them both, brandishing her hands in front of her as if her mental power was a physical weapon. The salamence blew a mighty dragon breath in their direction, and everyone but Espurr ducked. Only seconds later they all peeked out from the foliage they had hid behind to see that she had conjured up a barrier and blocked the attack. And then they all scattered again once the salamence began to come at them itself.
"Run!" Tricky yelled, running. Pancham didn't even say anything, hurry-scurrying away as fast as he could.
Espurr spared a look at the other three retreating pokemon, then saw the salamence that was almost upon her and reluctantly retreated.
The four of them quickly dived in a bush behind where Salamence was looking around for them, and quickly huddled together in a circle.
"What's the plan?" Tricky asked.
"One of us needs to get close enough to land an attack," Espurr said. "Or we'll never beat it."
The salamence roared, realizing that it had been tricked.
"Or we can hit it from a distance," Pancham replied. He showed Espurr, Trick, and Goomy the slingshot that he had brought along.
Tricky's eyes bugged out of her head. "You brought that along and didn't tell us?" she chided.
"It doesn't matter anyway," Espurr said. "We don't have anything to shoot."
Pancham picked up a couple of stones from the ground. "We do now. Listen up." He leaned in closer. "here's what we're gonna do…"
~\({O})/~
"Hey! Ya big lunk! Here's a wake-up gift from your neighborhood gangster!" A pebble struck the back of Salamence's head. It turned around, looking at him fiercely.
"Y-yeah," Pancham stuttered once the salamence's attention was on him. "T-that's right. Follow me! …Dung-head!"
The salamence screeched; enraged by Pancham's insult, and it began to lumber after him.
From a little distance aways, both Espurr and Goomy were perched on a largish boulder. Espurr quickly fished in her bag for something last minute. "Make sure you're ready," she said to Goomy. "We both need to jump at the same time for this to work."
Goomy looked slightly annoyed, but he set his sights on the salamence instead.
"I-I don't need help," he murmured. "I can do it on my own."
"Yeah! Keep following me!" Pancham yelled. He shot his last pebble at the salamence, which landed right between its eyes. Realizing he was out of pebbles, Pancham quickly course-corrected for the large boulder.
Espurr braced herself for the jump. Goomy looked at Espurr, then copied her. The salamence lumbered closer and closer towards them, but just before it could pass it Tricky suddenly leapt out of the underbrush and spat an ember straight into Salamence's face. By the time that Salamence's vision recovered, Tricky was gone; and so was Pancham.
"Over here!" Tricky yelled from behind Salamence. Salamence turned its head, opening its mouth to snap at Tricky, but Tricky was too fast and dove under its belly before the salamence could get her.
It was now or never. Espurr jumped, and so did Goomy. Espurr landed on Salamence's back. Goomy got in its face. All as planned. Salamence threw Goomy off easily, but it was too late- Espurr had already uncapped the tube of toothpaste, and squirted some onto her paws. She leapt onto the salamence's head from behind, jabbing her toothpaste-covered paws directly into Salamence's eyes.
Salamence reared back, letting out
"My eyes!" it roared. "Why won't you stupid dungeon 'mon just leave me alone?!
All four of them stopped where they stood; mortified. Espurr discreetly slid off Salamence's back and wiped the toothpaste residue on the ground.
Tricky let out a nervous laugh after a minute.
"Ha… Ha… Funny thing… …We're not dungeon 'mon," she said.
~\({O})/~
"Haaa!"
Fraxure had practically fallen against his half-empty wagon of supplies, wheezing in laughter. "Oh my god that's good. You guys- you- you- Haaa…" he wheezed.
Salamence simply growled, narrowing his eyes at Fraxure.
"See?" Fraxure said, still wheezing. "I told you- I told you that you're like a dungeon feral when you wake up! And this just proves it!"
"That was uncalled for," growled Salamence.
"You also promised you were going to help me with that delivery two days ago and guess what? Nothing," Fraxure pointed out, folding his arms and leaning against the cart. "That's what you get for lazing off in a mystery dungeon."
"So you sic a rescue team on me?" Salamence retorted.
Fraxure shrugged his arms. "You owe me; by the way."
"For what?" Salamence snapped.
"That bet you made when you got drunk at Spinda's in Lively Town." Fraxure.
"What bet is that? I don't remember making any bet!" Salamence asked.
"Wanna take a stab at it?"
"Hey," Pancham began, just before Fraxure began to grab the reigns of his cart again. "Don't you owe us something?"
"Oh-" Fraxure smacked the side of his head with his stubby fists. "Pardon, I forgot all about that. Let me get that for you. Thanks for reminding me."
"Such newfound politeness," Salamence grumbled to himself.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village
"You have gotta let me shoot one of these things in my slingshot sometime." Pancham admired the bag of blast seeds as they approached Serenity Village.
"B-but you could destroy a tree with one of those," said Goomy.
"Exactly," Pancham stressed.
Espurr really should have figured out what blast seeds were once she'd heard the name 'blast seed'. She eyed Pancham concernedly the entire way home.
"If you wanna use our stuff, you've gotta be on our team," Tricky said. "And you're not joining."
"Aww, why not?" Pancham mock complained.
Tricky didn't answer that. She just trotted ahead of him. Espurr silently took the bag of blast seeds in her paws before Pancham could think about stealing one.
~\({O})/~
Audino's House
"I moved the dresser out of your room, by the way," Audino said as they ate.
"What happened to it?" Espurr asked.
"I sold it to Lotad," Audino replied. "He likes to pawn things like that off in Lively Town. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a replacement at the market. That was where I used to keep all my herbs and supplies."
"There's still the bookshelf," Espurr answered.
"Yes," Audino replied. "There's still that."
~\({O})/~
Slowly coming to.
Espurr blinked her eyes open wearily to the sound of the bookshelf in her room violently rattling.
Then she wasn't weary anymore.
Espurr immediately stood up in her bed, bracing herself for a possible attack. It was back again, wasn't it? She spared a quick look over towards Audino's room. The sound wasn't loud enough to wake her. Espurr considered doing it herself. But then the bookshelf stopped rattling.
Espurr snapped her attention back towards the bookcase. And then she saw it: The fuzzy, faint outline of a pokemon that walked out from behind the bookcase. It was the first time that Espurr had gotten a good look at it. It was barely any taller than she was, and it stood upright on two paws just like she did. And yet it looked nothing like her.
It suddenly took a single step towards her. Espurr took several backwards, until she was backed up against the wall under the windowsill. She was out of ground, but the creature quickly advanced upon her, until it stood right in front of her. And then it stopped. It tilted its head, like it was just as confused as Espurr was. Espurr didn't dare move as the creature studied her, lest she upset it somehow and incur its wrath.
The creature suddenly lurched through Espurr, stumbling halfway through the wall and tripping over the lower part of it. Espurr spun around, backing off a little as the creature righted itself. It looked at Espurr – or maybe through her. Then it took off immediately afterward, and Espurr barely had any time to turn around before she was hit with a gust of wind from nowhere and that same funny feeling of something passing through her. And she was alone in the room once more.
~\({O})/~
Audino awoke to the noise of what sounded like somemon dragging a bale of hay across the floor. She glanced at the window: It was the middle of the night. Sleepily sitting up in bed, Audino looked at the doorway, where Espurr was busy dragging her bed in through the door.
Espurr quickly stopped when she realized Audino was looking at her.
"I'd prefer to sleep in here tonight," said Espurr, trying to keep the waver out of her voice. "If that's alright with you."
This sleep addled; Audino was only able to produce a barely-coherent nod before returning to sleep once again.
~\({O})/~
Espurr woke up a bit later than usual the next day. The sun was already shining in through the window and hurting her eyes, which signaled to her that it was much, much later than it should have been. She quickly sat up in bed. She wasn't used to sleeping in like that!
But then she remembered what had happened last night, and why she was sleeping in Audino's room in the first place. Espurr glanced toward the now-empty room across the hall. Then she quickly got up and walked down the hall.
~\({O})/~
Deerling's House
"Do you want to come to our sleepover?"
Espurr stood outside doorframe of Deerling's house; the exploration bag strapped firmly to our shoulder. Deerling, on the other side of the doorframe, traced circles in the ground with her hoof uneasily.
"Is Tricky coming?" she asked after a minute.
"I invited everymon," Espurr said matter-of-factly. "I thought we'd give the treehouse another shot."
"…Did everymon else say yes?" Deerling asked.
Espurr nodded. "You're the last. We're going to bring berries and tell scary stories until it gets too dark."
"Where's this happening?!" Deerling's mother called from inside the house. Espurr froze. They had been talking in hushed voices.
"…It's happening at my house!" Espurr yelled back after a brief pause. Deerling gave her a 'stop!' look.
"Alright then!" Deerling's mother yelled back. "Deerling, you should go!"
"But what if I-"
"Don't be rude to your friend! When was the last time that you had a sleepover, anyway?"
Deerling sighed in defeat. "Fine…" she muttered. "When's it happening?"
Espurr glanced up at the sky. It was nearly sundown. She had spent the entire day just getting everymon to agree with it.
"In an hour."
Deerling shifted in place. "I'll come. Just don't expect me to stay or anything.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village Outskirts
"Hey. Tricky." A hushed voice that was obviously Pancham's flitted through the darkened treehouse. "Light this for me."
"But…" Tricky could barely see the torch in the dark. "Won't the treehouse catch fire if I do that?"
"Eh, I'll be careful. Now light it."
Tricky reluctantly blew heat-charged breath over the stick, and soon it began to glow with the very first embers of a fire. Pancham whipped back the fur-woven cover he had been crouching under, making the torch suddenly flare up as a result. Everymon jumped back. "Don't do that Pancham!" Deerling gasped.
Pancham made the tiniest shrug, and then he was all business again.
"The Ancient Barrow," he began. "It's been standing since before half the village was born. Farfetch'd won't talk about it. Watchog won't even go near it. Some say it's built on a rift between dimensions. Others say the pokemon who founded this village built it. But I know the truth. The truth about the Ancient Barrow."
Espurr slowly leaned forward. Pancham was probably full of it, but she remembered the terrifying pillar of pure evil that had been the Ancient Barrow. If there was even a grain of truth to what Pancham was saying, she'd gladly take it.
"Every summer, the thing that lives in the Ancient Barrow awakes from its slumber. It descends upon the town and wakes pokemon in their beds. Pokemon have disappeared from their houses in the night and woken up the next morning just outside the Barrow's entrance. It's said… that the Ancient Barrow does something to them. Maybe it's making them into zombies-"
"-Pancham." Deerling interrupted flatly. "Literally no-mon says that."
Pancham would have folded his arms if he wasn't holding the torch. "You're no fun."
Everymon stayed silent for a bit longer. Pancham looked sheepishly at all the eyes looking straight at him.
"…Yeah. I'm done. Next 'mon." He held out the torch awkwardly.
Tricky volunteered to go next. She took the torch in her mouth, but then realized that she couldn't hold it and talk at the same time. Espurr helpfully held it for her.
"Long, long ago," Tricky began, keeping her voice low to increase the dramatic effect, "there were two pokemon who went into a mystery dungeon."
In the light of the dim torch, the glimmer of three-or-so other pokemon rolling their eyes could be seen.
"They were stuck all alone in the forest, and wanted to get back to town before it got stormy," Tricky continued. "Piplup wanted to take the long way around, but Arbok knew that it would take too long, and they would get caught in the storm. So they took a shortcut through a mystery dungeon. Arbok said the other side would lead them to the town, so Piplup followed him in."
Tricky was better at telling a story than Pancham was, and the others were beginning to realize it. She had no interruptions as she continued.
"But they didn't make it out. The dungeon had more floors than Arbok thought it did, and they wandered around for days. The dungeon fog began to close around them, and soon they had to eat grass off the ground so they wouldn't starve. And then came the Dungeon Wraith."
"The Dungeon Wraith was evil. It chased Piplup and Arbok through the dungeon, until they hid behind a rock and it lost track of them. But it came back. It always came back. And soon, Abrok and Piplup reached the dungeon exit. But then the Dungeon Wraith caught up with them! Arbok told Piplup to run, but he was no match for the Dungeon Wraith. It…"
Tricky suddenly pounced forward, and Espurr barely moved the torch out of the way in time "-ate them all up!"
Several of the other occupants in the treehouse jumped back; startled. Then they gave Tricky annoyed looks. Tricky sat back in place.
And then everymon looked at Espurr, who held the torch. She looked down at it, and then realized that it was her turn to tell a story. Only… she didn't have one.
But everymon was looking at her. She had to improvise somehow.
"…Once upon a time," Espurr began. "There was a pokemon that woke up in the middle of a forest. She didn't remember anything about who she was, or where she was from. All she knew was that she wasn't supposed to be there. She ran into three pokemon in the woods— three pokemon that didn't talk to her; didn't communicate, and weren't friendly. They chased her through the woods, until she could barely keep her eyes open anymore."
"Eventually, the pokemon found a safe place to stay. A place where the Evil Pokemon wouldn't follow. A place they wouldn't find. But she still wasn't safe, because she knew that they were still out there, looking for her. She knew that she couldn't stay there forever, but she had nowhere else to go. And so she stayed, pretending that it didn't exist; and that she could be normal. Until one day, the Evil Pokemon found her. They burned the safe place to the ground, and everymon who lived there – including the pokemon – died. The end."
The entire room was left silent in the wake of Espurr's story, their faces all either shocked or spooked.
"…Interesting," Deerling said, breaking the silence. "I've never heard that one before."
"I… made it up," said Espurr. "Who wants to go next?" she held out the torch a little too eagerly, which had begun to fizzle out at that point. Goomy raised his slimy paw, and Espurr crawled over and handed the torch to him.
Goomy opened his mouth to begin-
-But then the torch blew out all on its own, and everymon was cast into darkness. Espurr felt the air shift drastically. It felt like… she hadn't felt that since…
Swish.
Everymon heard that. Their eyes had adjusted to the moonlight, and they all looked at each other worriedly. Pancham silently shushed everymon with a paw.
Slowly, silently, Espurr crept towards the treehouse window. She had to know. She just had to. She wasn't going to be able to sit still and await her fate if the things she thought were out there really were out there.
Slowly, Espurr glanced out the window, and into the foliage below. She saw the very thing that she had been dreading: A trio of cone-shaped heads, staring directly up at the treehouse. Espurr scrambled away from the window and backed up against the treehouse wall as quickly as she could. Everymon stared at her in horror, and then she realized she had forgotten to do it quietly.
But there was nothing to do but wait. Wait, and hope that they moved on. Espurr quietly clutched the straps of the exploration bag. If worst came to worst… then they could battle. Right?
Something violently shook the treehouse. Everymon let out various yelps and screams of fear. Espurr was almost knocked to the side. The treehouse shook again, and everymon was knocked off their paws/hooves. They all tried to stand, but the treehouse was left at a lopsided angle. Slightly tilted downward, Espurr could see the beheeyem staring straight up at her through the window. They were trying to knock the treehouse out of the tree!
"Pancham!" Espurr didn't see the need for subtlety anymore. "Did you bring that slingshot?!"
Pancham quickly dug it out from behind his ear. "Yeah."
The treehouse shook again. Espurr dug in the exploration bag for the sack of blast seeds. She had to have brought them. They had to be in here. They just had to-
-She finally fished them out of the bag, and thrust them to Pancham. No words needed to be exchanged between them. Pancham opened the sack, pulled out a couple of blast seeds, and stuck one in his slingshot. He pulled it back, and then aimed directly at the beheeyem.
"Gotcha."
Pancham let the sling shot. The seed whizzed through the air, and then hit the ground right at the beheeyem's feet-
Boom. There was a large, fire-less explosion that sent the beheeyem retreating back into the woods.
All six of the children watched them go. Uneasily
"They'll come back," breathed Espurr. "We need to get back to the village."
~\({O})/~
"Go!"
Everymon in the treehouse hurried down the ramp that was (thankfully) not damaged by the Beheeyem at all. Deerling helped Goomy along, and Espurr kept track on the woods all around them. She had given the blast seeds to Pancham, who had his slingshot. Tricky lead them all down the ramp, checking ahead just in case they came back.
Espurr happened to look behind them. She saw the lights approaching from the woods.
"They're back," she called to Pancham, spinning and charging up a mental blast of her own. She was done dealing with these 'mon-
The Beheeyem's mental blast hit all six of them first, sending them all careening off the ramp and onto the ground. Then they approached, while everymon Espurr knew was still picking themselves up. They weren't going to get away in time! Unless-
-The Beheeyem attacked. Espurr used the mental energy she'd been reserving to pull the same barrier trick she had pulled with Salamence. The attacks were weakened, but Espurr's barrier broke apart. None of them hit. Espurr saw that they had been weakened by the blast seed's explosion. But not by much.
Everymon had gotten up by now. Pancham launched another blast seed over everymon's heads, and it hit the middle beheeyem directly in the head and sent all three careening apart.
"Run!" Tricky screamed. Everymon obliged.
They ran. They ran, through the woods until they reached the big tree on the hill. And only then did they stop to catch their breath.
"What…" Deerling panted. "What are those things?" she looked at Espurr. "Do you know something about this?"
"Don't let your guard down," Espurr said, facing back in the direction of the woods. "They're still coming."
Sure enough, they could see the beginnings of blinking lights emerging from the far-off foot of the woods.
"Keep going!" Pancham yelled out. "We can lose them if they don't see us here!"
That was true. Espurr began to run for the other side of the tree, and then so did everymon else. If they were quick and lucky enough, they would make it back to the village without being spotted.
~\({O})/~
Serenity Village
All six of the children rushed into the Serenity Village square, which was currently deserted. It seemed they had missed the last of the houses turning their lights dark. For a moment, everymon sat in the square, catching their breaths. Then Goomy voiced what they were all thinking:
"I-I don't f-feel safe sleeping on my own tonight," he said. All of the other children looked at each other, and it was clear that they agreed.
~\({O})/~
The house was deserted. Audino was nowhere to be found. That worried Espurr just a bit, but she was quite winded from having run all the way back to Serenity Village while being chase, and it was clear that so was everymon else.
Eventually they all fell asleep in a pile on the floor of Espurr's bedroom, all keeping an eye on the window until they drifted off to bed… just in case.
~\({O})/~
Capim Bay ~ Grass Continent
"This is the place?"
Buizel followed Quilava onto the rocks of the bay, still wet from the receding tide. Quilava had a bit of a hard time keeping his balance amongst the rocks, but Buizel was right at home. Quilava hopped onto a particularly large rock, then took a moment to catch his bearings right in the center.
"Ah was fishin' here when tha' thing-"
"-Great. Thanks. Let me do my job." Buizel quickly cut in, agilely leaping onto the boulder and staring down into the bay. It looked calm; no rip currents, fairly stable tides… And Quilava's necklace was solid gold. That was good.
"Alright," he said, turning back to Quilava. "So, good news; bad news. Bad news: it's been a while, so somemon might have fished it out of the bay and claimed it already. And that's assuming it didn't get caught up in a rip current and shunted out to sea. If that's what happened we'll never find it. Good news: Your necklace is heavier than air, so that probably didn't happen. Nine times out of ten; it sunk to the bottom of the bay and got caught on a rock or something. Five-minute job; you'll have your necklace back in no time. Kapeesh?"
The quilava nodded; a cautiously hopeful look on his face. Buizel effortlessly walked from the rock they were standing to another, bridging the gap with ease. "Alright then. Stand back while I get some traction."
With that, he quickly made his way back onto the sand, walking all the way to the entrance of that cave in the near distance as the quilava made his way off the rocks. Buizel set his bag on the ground and dropped to all fours, waiting for Quilava to get himself out of the way. Quilava stumbled once before scurrying off to the side. Buizel flicked his tails impatiently.
He set his sights on the ocean before him, It was a straight line, and the shortest distance between two objects was a straight line.
Perfect.
Buizel began to run. He deftly leapt from rock to rock once he sped past the end of the sands, heading for the expanse of water in front of him. Just before he reached the end of the bay Buizel jumped up high into the air, did a backflip, and dove into the water headfirst.
The bay wasn't deep here. Only about ten-or-so feet to the bottom. Buizel let himself sink to the seabed as quickly as possible. That was where the necklace would have ended up. Buizel opened his eyes once he felt the embrace of pointy rocks and seashells against his behind; finding a sandy spot on the seabed and pushing himself back into the water. His tails began to softy spin, keeping him there. Buizel cast a look at the seabed around him. Even at this depth, something as flashy as a golden necklace with a firestone would have stuck out. So that meant it wasn't here. The wave probably pulled it out deeper.
Buizel swam out a little further into the ocean, doing a routine combing of the bay. He could be done with that in about ten minutes, but the only way it was going to take that long is if the necklace wasn't here at all. Which Buizel doubted. He would find it eventually.
He swam through the seabed, looking over the countless things that had been discarded by countless pokemon over the years - old scarves, half-eaten berries; an entire exploration bag – but there was no sign of the necklace. Buizel almost didn't see the object he was about to hit until he almost hit it. He barely made a sharp turn upwards in time, swimming up to the surface and taking a quick breath before he flipped back into the water again. What was that?
Buizel quickly made a round turn back towards the object. This was what nearly hit Quilava. That meant the necklace was probably around here somewhere. He let himself hover in the water in front of the object. It was large; larger than anything from the sky had a right to be, and solid rock all the way through. Buizel swam around it, taking it in from all sides. More and more; it was looking like…
…Lugia. Buizel's eyes fixated on the long neck and traced it all the way up to the head, whose beak was drawn out in what seemed to be a scream of horror; if Buizel didn't know better. And this had fallen from the sky. Somemon had dropped a statue of Lugia from the sky. Who? Why? And more importantly, who was this twisted?
That wasn't the real Lugia. That was ridiculous. Buizel's eyes drifted towards the seabed below him, where there it glittered- the necklace of gold; with a fire-red gem encrusted within the center. Buizel shot down like a waterborne bullet and snatched the thing up from the sea floor. It was time to return to the surface.
Quilava was busy sitting at the edge of the sands on the beach and minding his own business when Buizel shot up out of the water, landing on the edges of the beach effortlessly. Buizel took a second to shake himself off, before walking forward with the necklace in his hands.
"There you go." He held out the necklace to Quilava. "Five-minute job." Quilava's eyes lit up. He tried to grab the necklace, but Buizel held it away from him briefly.
"I assume I'm going to be paid?" he asked. A few pokemon had tried to commission his services and dock the pay in the past. Buizel didn't fall for that anymore.
Quilava quickly shook his head. "Ah have tha pay in my house," he quickly began. "Ah can take you there-"
'Yeah, let's do that." Buizel began to march back up towards the cliff without even waiting for Quilava to lead the way first. He didn't want to admit it, but truth be told… he was a more than a bit shaken. It just didn't make sense. It just didn't. Who would go to the trouble of making such an intricate statue just for the purposes of some kind of twisted prank? And why drop it all the way out of the sky? Even though he knew it was probably just the work of some busymon with nothing better to do, Buizel felt a little jittery just thinking about it. Maybe he ought to call it in. Yeah; he'd do that. He'd leave a message with whatever authorities existed in this village, and then he'd be on his merry way; thank you kindly sir; no weird prank statues here.
That lingering thought was enough to placate Buizel for roughly the rest of the evening.
~\({O})/~
Music of the week! :D
Labor Intensive – Marco Beltrami
