Mount Twist Path

3F

There appeared to be nothing in Zangoose's eyes as he stared down the party and snarled in warning; only pure animalistic rage. With his fur matted and blood from a fight with some other feral dripping from his mouth, Rye and Mavy could only stare in horror. They knew full well what would happen should one stray off the dungeon path or linger on a floor at the wrong time, but they had hoped they'd never have to see it for themselves, especially not to someone like Zangoose. Yet here he now stood, ready to tear them to ribbons.

Of course, there were none more horrified within the group than Nidorino and Raboot, whose professional demeanors had long since fleeted as they stared at their former friend.

"Z-Zangoose! Come on, it's us! S-snap out of it, 'mon!" Raboot tried to reason. As Zangoose only seemed to get more upset, Rye stumbled back in fear as Mavy tried to step up.

"We gotta tranquilize it! Gimme a Sleep Seed!" he demanded. Team Luster only ignored him as their pleading continued.

"Zangoose, please! R-remember, w-we-" Nidorino began.

"Zyaah!" Zangoose screeched, charging towards the group. Before anyone could do anything, he sliced at Nidorino's face and kicked him on his side. Raboot staggered back in shock, though that only opened up the opportunity for Zangoose to dash behind him and strike him hard with a Pursuit. As Raboot fell to the ground and tried to stagger away from the growling feral, the bleeding Nidorino looked up again, tears in his eyes.

"Sh-Shiloh, please..." he pleaded. Before Zangoose could go for the kill, though, several sharp spines suddenly whizzed through the air and lodged themselves into his body, causing him to screech in pain.

His Pin Missile a success in turning Zangoose's attention, Mavy gestured to Rye, who shakily held a seed from Team Luster's bag. As Zangoose gave a furious, animalistic cry, Rye threw the seed as hard as he could, managing to land it in his open mouth.

The two young Pokémon scrambled away as Zangoose immediately made to skewer them in response, managing to nick Mavy's ear before his swings started to become more sluggish. As he fell to the ground, his eyes drooping, Zangoose gave one last snarl before going still. With the Sleep Seed having done its work, Rye bent over to check on his partner.

"M-Mavy, your ear..." he said, seeing blood oozing from the wound.

"Screw mah ear, we gotta tie him up so he don't eat us when he wakes up. You gotta rope in that bag?" Mavy responded.

Rye gritted his teeth, though nodded as he snaked a length of rope out of his bag. As he tried to ignore Mavy's demands of "come on, wrap 'er round, now crisscross, applesauce" and tied Zangoose's limbs behind his back, Team Luster could only regain their bearings and stare forlorn at the sight. As Rye tugged at the rope to make sure it was secure, he turned to face them, giving a grim look as he cleared his throat.

"W-we're good now, I think. What do we do n-"

Raboot's fist suddenly slammed into Rye's cheek, cutting him off and sending him staggering back. Too shocked to at the sudden act to truly comprehend what had just happened, he shakedly held a hand up to the welt as Nidorino held back the furious Raboot.

"We could have saved him! W-we could've gotten outta here and this wouldn't have happened! But no, you just had to take your sweet-ass time in getting here, and... and..." Raboot yelled as angry tears stained his fur. With an anguished cry, he fired an Ember, narrowly missing Rye before collapsing into Nidorino's forepaws. "Sh-Shiloh... fuck..." he choked out.

As Raboot's rage devolved into quiet weeping, Nidorino looked up at Rye and Mavy as they looked on, their backs against the dungeon's wall. After a long, unreadable look, he hung his head grimly, silently took a team badge out of his bag, and tapped it against Zangoose's head, warping him and Raboot away.

As adrenaline left Rye's veins and gave way to dull throbbing in his cheek, he and Mavy just stared blankly at where their clients had been for a while, the shock of what they'd just experienced weighing down on them.

"...R-Rye, I... I didn't think that..." Mavy tried, though ultimately just kept quiet.

It was not until the distant bark of an approaching feral echoed down the hall that Rye shakily took their badges out, rubbing his swelling cheek. With a final look at the signs of their brief battle, he handed Mavy a badge and grabbed a hold of Zangoose's slumbering body. A couple of quick taps later, the three were gone, leaving only the quiet whistling of the wind past the mountainside and a curious feral sniffing at the disturbance left behind.


Shiloh's eyes shot open as the loud clang of an iron door jolted him awake. At once, he could tell something was off; everything smelled and looked wrong. His fur standing on end, he clambered to his feet, snarling threateningly as he looked up at his apparent captors. He could sense it, they were not from the dungeon. They were encroaching upon it, but the real concern here was what they were going to do. Hurt him, steal his hard-earned food, take the watering hole, maybe? This couldn't stand, he had to stop them!

Was he even in his territory anymore, though? Most everything around him seemed wrong... but those intruders... something nagged at Shiloh's chaotic, animalistic thoughts as he glared them down. There was just a twinge of familiarity to the outsiders... never mind that, though, there was a clear threat to his survival present. He couldn't afford to let his guard down now.

Shiloh prowled over to his prison's corner on all fours, continuing to growl at his captors as he took a sitting position, drool dripping from his snarling maw. Watching his former friend, Raboot averted his gaze before quietly walking off.

"Ch-Church, wait..." Nidorino stammered, turning to try and reason with Raboot, though was only met with indifference as he walked off. Nidorino hung his head, and with nothing else to do, looked over at Rye and Mavy as they stared into the cage.

"It... it wasn't you two's fault. The dungeon would've shifted anyways. Y-you..." he tried to reassure them, though hung his head before he could continue.

"...so what now?" Mavy asked.

"We take him back, have him signed off as lost in action, then... th-the Guild decides what comes next," Nidorino explained, clenching his teeth as he stood there for another minute. Before long, he sighed, took a sack of coins from his bag to dump into Rye's hands, and turned to leave. As he did so, Rye reached out to stop him, though stopped himself short of touching his poisonous spines.

"...er, Mr. Nidorino? D-didn't you see how he was looking at you? M-maybe we can still-" he started.

"You can't reverse this. No one's ever really gone back from dungeon madness," Nidorino said coldly.

"I-I know, but what about Beck?" Rye asked. Nidorino gave a quick confused look.

"Who?" he asked. Rye bit his tongue.

"Er, Oshawott. I-I don't know, he's a feral, m-maybe he can talk some sense into him?" he suggested. Nidorino considered this for a moment, looking up at Shiloh.

"I don't know, kid. Try if you want, I doubt it'll do much," he sighed. "Anyways... I'm sorry about what Churchill did back there. He isn't usually like that, I..."

Rye ran a finger along his swollen cheek. The berry and ice pack he'd been given had helped, but he suspected it'd be a while before it went back down. Despite this, he hung his head.

"I-it's okay, I understand, I guess. Uh, L-losing someone here, y'know?" he said. Nidorino stared at the Treecko for a moment, some sort of understanding in his face before he simply turned around.

"We'll be sticking around to sort everything out. You can go whenever you want," he said.

As he trudged out the door, Mavy glanced up at Rye.

"Why's Beck gotta talk to him? Just do whatcha did to him," he said. Rye shifted in place, scratching at a itch on his wrist.

"It's not that simple," he said, to which Mavy sighed and gave a light eye roll.

"Yep, figured," he said before stopping and biting his lip. "Sorry, it's just that the ear's flarin' up. Don't mind me."

Rye gave an absentminded nod as he rubbed at his itching arm and watched Shiloh for a bit longer, though he and Mavy soon silently headed for the door, leaving the Zangoose be.

The two walked out of the modest police station and headed for the inn across the square as the cloudy sky above sprinkled snow down onto the teammates. Watching amusedly as snowflakes began to catch in Mavy's jagged fur, Rye hurried into the inn, looking back to make sure no one had recognized him.

"O-okay, uh... I guess we just wait for the weather to clear up, then we head home," he said. Shaking snow out of his fur, Mavy sighed.

"Yeah..." he said, melancholy weighing his voice down. Rye shot him a sympathetic look as they headed down the hall.

"H-hey, didn't you hear Mr. Nidorino? It's not our fault," he tried to reassure him.

"Iunno, just... ugh..." Mavy groaned. "It sucks, though. Like, just throw the dungeons out and I'd wanna settle down here. It's like that back home, sure, but at least y'all kept the place afloat," he said as he zigzagged into their room and hopped onto the bed. Rye looked through the window at the clouds now obscuring Mt. Twist's peak, giving a grim nod as he took a seat and kept itching at his arm.

"Yeah. Th-that'd be nice," he said.


The last couple hours had been nothing but a confusing blur of panic. Immediately after Sinni and I had been fished out of that tunnel, we'd been rushed back to the station, the perfect place to watch the chaos of the ruin's destruction unfold. As the town's only doctor had looked us over, we were bombarded with questions as to just what we'd done in there while the village outside descended into panic.

Now that it seemed that the worst was behind us, I just took a moment to breathe easy as Sinni hobbled out of the station on sturdy iron crutches, shooting a glare behind us as the Miltank crossed her arms and watched us go. While I'd apparently just gotten banged up in my fall, Sinni had required a bone resetting, a hefty cast around her hulking leg, and a recommendation of rest.

It seemed she wasn't about to take all that sitting down, though.

"Fuckin' Betty, I swear. 'Ooh, why're you asking about Oshawott? Does it weally matter?' And right in front of you, like, come on," she said as she clumsily weaved past the village's confused residents.

"Ergh, yeah. 'Shaawaaa, sheeh,'" I tried to say in the Miltank's voice. Sinni gave a loud snort.

"Eeyep, that's Betty, alright," she said as her house came into view. Atop it, Cap'n Brine stood there staring at the distant plume of dust as it slowly dissipated, though he broke his gaze as he saw us approach. Once he caught sight of Sinni's crutches and cast, I swear I could feel an aura of just pure "what-the-fuck" wash over me as the Feraligatr leaned on her crutches and innocently waved.

"Wot even...?" he asked.

"Phoenix shit," Sinni clarified, hobbling into her house and probably leaving Brine even more confused. She stood there for a minute just looking over the room before she made her way to her bed, carefully set herself down, and let out a massive sigh as I sat down next to her.

"Welp. This is gonna be a treat to explain," she groaned. "We're dealing with wandereyes who got high out of their minds on X-eye seeds and believe in fucking... Palkia, they all got away, and I ate shit trying to catch 'em."

As Sinni ran her hand down her maw, I bit my lip.

"Er..." I awkwardly began.

"I ate so much shit, Beck," she said. A moment of silence hung in the air until Sinni tried to sit up.

"So... er, anyways, thanks for coming with. You know, you were kinda the one who found them in there, and something tells me I'd have a lot more than a busted leg if you weren't with me," she said. Looking over at her, I offered a little smile.

"N-nah praahb," I tried. With a little snort, Sinni continued.

"I'm guessing you're done here. No Phoenixes, no reason to stay, huh?" she asked, looking down at me with a soft gaze. Fidgeting with my tail as I sat, I hung my head a bit.

"Yeah," I said. Sinni cleared her throat.

"Well, Betty probably won't let me forget it if she sees me out for the rest of today. Could you do me a favor and stick around for a bit longer, make it a bit more bearable?" she asked. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this request seeing as Rye and Mavy were probably back by now. I didn't want to keep them waiting, but... eh.

"Yeah, s-sure," I said. Call it selfish, but I felt like I could use some inconsequential chill time to help everything I'd seen today sink in. In response, Sinni cracked her crocodile grin as she shifted in place, giving a light groan as her leg smarted.

"Grab a couple calciums from the crate over in the living room if you don't mind," she requested. Watching as I nodded and headed in, she cocked her head. "Hm, while we were talking last night, I didn't bring up... alright, allow me to enlighten you of the tale of Rye and the very unfortunately placed Trubbish."

"The wha?" I called back as I made my way across the one-room house. Sinni chuckled to herself, her face becoming ever so slightly somber at the memories.

"Well, see, it was just after the harvest, and the Sceptiles had invited us over for a nice celebration dinner. What they didn't know, though, was that a little Trubbish got into their stockpile..." she began.

We didn't stay there long, but it was a welcome change. Tales were told, laughs were shared, and a couple bottles of bitter calcium were gleefully forced down. With the energy boost the supplements had provided coursing through me, I'd eagerly tried to show Sinni the progress I'd made in the weeks since she'd given me those combat pointers.

"Alright, not bad form, good stance, decent grip. Looks like that'd leave a real good mark if you still had your... er, shell," she observed.

Putting the rock I'd used as a substitute down, I took a moment to reflect on my lost weapon. While I was already starting to feel something growing in... where was my scalchop growing from, anyways? That disconcerting thought aside, I still just felt wrong somehow without the thing. Watching as I started noticeably pouting, Sinni cleared her throat.

"Sorry if that's still a sensitive topic," she said. "Uh, you wanna move on?"

"Y-yeah," I quickly said.

"Right then. You got any other moves?" Sinni asked. With a nod, I packed some energy into my tail, then tried to jump up to swing it in a circle. Unfortunately, it seemed I'd grossly underestimated the Aqua Slap's range, as evidenced by the thud of a table and the loud crash of what sounded like pottery from behind me.

"...shaht. S-seeni?" I squeaked, trying to keep my cool as I shrank back. I don't know if I can quite describe the sheer terror of being glared daggers into by a seven-foot combat-trained monster while stumbling over the pieces of her ruined pot. As her maw clenched, said monster's face softened as she let out a deep sigh.

"You break shit like an amateur. Watch and learn," she said. Before I could quite process what she meant, she grabbed a small pot from beside her bed and tossed it into the air as best she could, then swung her massive tail to smash it to what I could only assume was dust. As I cowered in place, she looked over the fragments scattered about the floor.

"Bitch," she declared, giving a satisfied smirk. As I managed out a laugh of relief, Cap'n Brine looked in from through the window.

"Ye alroight in thar?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're all fine," Sinni piped.

"...aye. Well, try an' finish up, dayloight be wastin'," Brine said, fluttering back up to the roof. Watching the window, Sinni nodded.

"Right. I guess you've gotta head out now," she observed.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Mmm. Well... just tell Rye to write back to me, alright? You know, since he didn't come, might as well make up," Sinni requested before shifting in her bed. "Really, though, I've... said a lot of things to him I regret, and..."

Sinni paused for a minute, clenching her jaws as she seemed to go over the memories.

"Wha yeh seh?" I asked.

"...I'd really rather not talk about it," Sinni said. "Think 'go explain to his grave, I'm sure he'll understand' or 'I'll bite your face off if you ever come back to this house...'"

She paused.

"...point is, I've got a lot I wanna tell him. Just... don't forget, yeah?" she requested, straightening up.

"Yeh, ma'am," I said.

"Thanks. Uhm... guess I'll see you when I see you. Knock 'em dead, kid," Sinni said, flashing one last crocodile grin my way. With a wave goodbye, I headed outside, taking a look back before calling out for Cap'n Brine.

As I climbed back into the Pelipper's foul bill and held on as he took off, I stole a final look back towards Bassa Village, namely the new gaping hole in the sand about half a mile out.

'I get the feeling that thing means we're gonna be back soon. Till then, there's a lot to unwrap here. The whatever Orb? That whole monologue from Xatu? Whatever that tunnel was? Where does it lead? If Bassa Village really is Nimbasa Town, then... anyways. I got some explanation as to why I'm here, but now there's just more that needs explaining...'

As I thought about it more and more, I ended up slumping against the wall of Brine's bill, my head throbbing.

"Urgh, shaht," I groaned.

"Oi, watcha tahngue ahn thar!" Brine demanded.

"Sorry," I quickly apologized, settling in for yet another long flight.


"Aight, you got e'rything?" Mavy asked.

"Yeah, uh, everything's packed, I think," Rye said. With the midday sun peeking through the clouds in the window, the Treecko slung his bag over his shoulder and gestured Mavy on. With Team Luster having to stay overnight to get things sorted out, Rye and Mavy had agreed to just head back home, as Beck was likely already waiting.

The two's moods had been quite down from their failure to save Zangoose in time, though Rye had managed to keep his hopes up with the thought Beck could be able to help. All he wished was that they'd been a little faster in their efforts...

Managing to put his regrets over Zangoose aside for a minute, Rye decided that this mission had been a success in some regards. He'd managed to face his past head-on, he'd started getting on Mavy's good side, and no one had seen... him...

"W-wait!" he suddenly yelped, turning to run back to their inn room. He'd forgotten that mask! He couldn't risk anyone seeing his face!

As he scrambled into the room and bent down to retrieve the painted bone mask, he suddenly hesitated. Rye stared the mask in its eyeholes for a minute before his tail twitched. Without a word, he turned to leave, leaving the mask on the floor. Hanging his head, he trudged ahead of Mavy towards the inn's lobby.

"What was that about?" Mavy asked. Rye gulped, choosing not to answer as he stepped outside, pausing to take in the sights.

"Y-you remember the way to the Flyer pad, right?" he asked.

"Um, yeah, it was just up that way," Mavy said, leading the Treecko along. As they walked, Rye hung his head, gritting his teeth as passing Pokémon double taked and stared at him with wide eyes.

"I-is that...?"

"The fu...?"

"Th-that's the Sceptiles' kid..."

Keeping his gaze glued to the road, Rye trudged after the zigzagging Mavy, who looked around curiously at the shocked townsfolk.

"Ah'm guessin' those're...?" he asked. Rye gave a grim nod, trying not to look at anyone. He knew full well what the Pokémon of Twistfoot Town thought of him, and he didn't want to risk a confrontation, especially if it ended up leading him back to his parents. Perhaps he could come back and make amends at some future date, but for now, just letting everyone know he had stopped by was good enough for him.

Ignoring the shocked stares of the townsfolk, Rye and Mavy climbed back up onto the rooftop landing pad as Altaria flew out of the building below, allowing the two to clamber onto her pillowy back.

Rye clung on as she began to take off, though stole a final look back at Mt. Twist as it loomed over the town, not breaking that gaze until it and the town disappeared behind cloud cover.

With a sigh, he scratched at a bothersome itch on his back. He wasn't sure why he was itching so much today, maybe-

"Ah! Wh-what in distortion? Stop!" Mavy cried, pointing at where Rye was scratching. Retracting his hand, he found what was the matter: a white scaly film sticking to his fingers. Frantically looking around as bits of it floated down into Altaria's feathers, he groaned.

"No! Wh-why'd I have to start shedding now?" he protested.

"Sheddin'?" But ya don't have fur, do you?" Mavy asked.

"N-no, no, I outgrew my skin. Now it's coming off," Rye explained, peeling a little strip of dead skin off his back as an example. Letting it flutter away in the wind, Rye slumped down in defeat.

"N-now it's gonna stick in her feathers and I've gotta take a day off to let it finish... ugh," he groaned.

"Mm. Talk 'bout poor timin', huh?" Mavy observed, flicking one of the pieces of skin out of Altaria's feathers. Rye snorted.

"Yeah, a-at least it's better than that time I ate... uh..."

Rye tensed up, quietly swearing to himself as Mavy looked up.

"Hmm?" he asked.

"Nothing," Rye said hurriedly.

"That time you ate what, Rye?" Mavy insisted.

"N-nothing!" Rye said, his face hot as Mavy chuckled.

"Come on, now, we got till dusk, might as well just spill the gummis now," he reasoned as Rye buried his face into Altaria's feathers, cursing himself for letting that of all things slip. Altaria rolled her eyes at the two, shifting her gaze ahead as she set her course back towards Gray Proper.


"Tell yer bunch oi said ahoy, alroight?" Cap'n Brine requested.

"Yessir," I said, giving as good a salute I could with my little arm. The Pelipper gave a hearty grin as we stood just outside Impetus Town. With our mercifully uneventful flight bringing us home just before dusk, Brine been nice enough to just drop me off and spare me the nighttime walk. As the town started to light up behind me, we stood there quietly for a second before Brine hopped in place.

"Ya need any more flyin', joss come'n tolk tah me. Make sure ye make better arrangments fah me than the roof, hm?" he asked.

"Yeah," I promised. With that, Brine gave a quick grin and salute and flew off into the darkening sky, leaving me to head into town.

The streets were mostly empty save for the businesses still open for the Guild, so my walk back went without incident. Waving at Cinccino as I passed her booth, I took a brief look around. With dinner fast approaching, the Guild was bustling with activity as Pokémon went about their evenings, passing by without giving me much thought. While I was glad to be left alone, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. Anyone who might have known about my absence probably assumed I was in Twistfoot Town with the others, so no one knew what I'd done yesterday.

'I mean, not yet, at least. I'm gonna guess Sinni and friends won't keep all that secret for very long.'

With that in mind, I stopped at our team's base and gave the doorframe a gentle knock. When no one answered, I took a peek inside. By the looks of it, Rye and Mavy hadn't come back yet, as evidenced by the unlit lantern and the general cleanliness of the place (we'd have to talk with Mavy about that, it seemed). A bit bummed but still counting my quick return as a win of some sort, I plopped down on my bed and resigned myself to staring at the ceiling and twiddling my webbed toes as I waited for my teammates to return.

It was probably half an hour until I suddenly picked up familiar voices approaching the base. My ears pricking up, I sat up just in time to see Rye and Mavy chatting as they walked in.

'...wait, Rye and Mavy are talking? They're not ready to kill each other? And why does Rye look so pale?'

I barely had time to consider any of this before Rye spotted me, his face cracking into a grin.

"Beck! Hey!" he piped as he and Mavy ran over to meet me.

"Hey! Er... Rye?" I said, pointing to his unusual-looking skin. Rye exchanged a quick look with Mavy, then put on a mock grim face.

"Yeah, uh, I-I caught something while we were in town. Mavy says it's just, uh, l-leprosy," he said as he scratched at his forearm, then suddenly peeled a strip of scaly film off.

"Ah!" I yelped, scrambling back in shock. Rye let the strip of skin flutter to the ground and slumped guiltily as Mavy burst out laughing behind him.

"I'm sorry, i-it's not leprosy, just my skin shedding. Mavy wanted me to do that," he apologized.

"Worth it!" Mavy wheezed. As we waited for him to calm down, Rye cleared his throat.

"So, uh... I was thinking we could go into town for dinner tonight? W-we have money and, er, I wanna wait till I finish shedding. Maybe we can, y'know, catch up while we're doing that, is that alright?" he asked. I cocked my head curiously. Did restaurants still exist?

"Er, sure. Wehr?" I asked.

"Okay, er, I think there's a place run by a Tropius near town square, we can try that," Rye answered, dropping his bag to the side and leading us out of the base. As we headed into the now brightly-lit Impetus Town, Rye straightened up, splitting a strip of dead skin in the process.

"So, we've got a lot to talk about," he said. "Y-you wanna start?"

"Meh?" I asked.

"If anything, we'll just end up readin' it later. Might could figure out what's happenin' now if ya tell, y'know?" Mavy reasoned. With the two now watching expectantly, I bit my lip, quietly asking to anyone listening to forgive me for the butchering of language that was to come.

"Er, I go tah Brehh. Cap Brehh. I, eh, f-feh... f-fly tah Ba-sha..."


As I felt the moon beginning to tug ever so slightly at my core, the three of us sat around a table with no one but the Tropius running the open-air restaurant to bother us as we pigged out. Even if it was quite odd eating something other than Raticate's cooking, I was enjoying myself a good bit. It felt nice to just kick back with the squad and splurge for once, especially now that we could pick our meals. After a month of just predetermined mess hall meals, I'd forgotten how nice that was. As I listened to Rye tell of what he'd been up to, though, our attention was drawn to Mavy as he loudly smacked on his Pidove meat.

"...what?" he asked as he noticed our staring. Rye scratched at his shedding skin as he cleared his throat.

"C-could you please quit... uh, smacking like that?" he asked. Mavy snorted.

"Pfft. You city slickers and yer manners," he chuckled as he went back to eating, though thankfully refrained from his unappealing slurping. With quiet finally achieved, Rye turned back to me and continued with his tale. I hadn't had much luck in telling what had happened on my end, but despite the confusion, Rye and Mavy had been satisfied enough to regale me with their own retellings.

"So, anyways, once we came to terms, we just started... er, screaming at each other," he recounted, scraping his finger along the bottom of his bowl of stew. My mouth full of Magikarp, I cocked my head.

"Wha?" I asked, accidentally spewing bits of fish onto the table as Mavy looked up from his plate and put his forepaws on the table.

"Yep, we basically just roasted the livin' daylights outta each other and tried to start fresh from there. May have gone a bit far, but looks like it's worked out so far," he explained.

"Y-yeah, then... uh... then we found Zangoose," Rye said quietly. I looked up from my dish, my eyes undoubtedly lighting up.

"Rehly?" I asked, though shrunk back as I noticed Rye's grim expression.

"Th-the dungeon took him. He got driven feral," he said. A long silence hung over the table as the information sank in.

"Wha?" I quietly asked after a minute, my eyes wide. Rye let out a sigh.

"They get back tomorrow with him. I-I was hoping you might be able to talk some sense into him. Like, we won't be going anywhere while I'm shedding, and, uh, maybe you can understand him, who knows?" he suggested.

I considered this for a bit. I hadn't really stopped to consider if I could understand ferals, especially when every feral I'd encountered thus far had only really given me one thing to work with: get the fuck off my property or I'll skewer you between the eyes. With that limited range, I hadn't been able to tell. Maybe in a controlled environment, I could...?

"...I t-try," I promised. Rye gave a thankful nod as he sat back and kept scratching at his arms. We sat there in grim silence for a minute until the Tropius serving us came tromping back, carrying a small dish in his mouth that he placed in front of Rye.

"Uh... what's this?" the confused Treecko asked.

"Complementary poffins for your hatchday!" the Tropius piped. "It's an old recipe from Sun Minor, hard to come by 'round these parts! Enjoy!"

As the Tropius lumbered off, Rye tried to choke out a protest, then gave Mavy a flat look.

"What? It's free food!" the Zigzagoon reasoned.

"But... Mavy, it's not even my hatchday!" Rye said. Mavy smiled deviously.

"He don't know that," he grinned, "I mean, if you ain't gonna eat 'em, ah'll gladly-"

"W-wait!" Rye said, holding the dish away from Mavy's grabbing paws. "It's just... y-you heard him, it's rare."

"Well, it ain't every day you get dessert, right? Ya only got so long, you gotta live sometimes. Lemme have a couple," Mavy said. Rye seemed to relent, placing the platter down for the Zigzagoon to grab at.

"Y-yeah, huh. I never really noticed dessert's kinda... er, not common, I guess. Haven't had it since... I don't know, really," he mused. As I reached for one of the curious pastries, something from my talk with Sinni that morning came to mind. Looking up at Rye, I smirked to myself.

"Seence Trah-beh?" I asked.

"Huh?" Rye asked, popping a poffin into his mouth. I waited quietly for a minute as he savored the treat, then suddenly and violently blew it out as he gave me a look of abject horror, his eyes bulging out of his head.

"Y-you... she... h-how much did she tell you?!" he cried out.

"E-enaff," I replied, trying my damnedest to keep a straight face. As Rye seemed to implode in on himself, Mavy put his forepaws back up on the table, looking at me interestedly.

"Ohohooo! Tell ya what exactly, Beck?" he asked. Rye started to form a plea for me to stop, but suddenly stopped before straightening up.

"Uh, w-well, i-if we're gonna share, uh, st-stories, then I could tell about the thing you ate in Amber- I mean, Arid Riverbed!" he managed. I gave him a confused look before the memory suddenly popped up: me stupidly eating that apple out of desperation and poisoning myself. While that went down in my mind's eye, it was my turn to recoil in panic.

"Wh-wha?! Rye, nah!" I pleaded as Mavy looked over in my direction, seemingly quite interested in that unfortunate incident as Rye watched me die inside.

"C-come on... uh, B-Blubby! I think Mavy'd really like to hear about that!" he added on.

I tried to form a response to this, but alas, I could find none. After a bit of silence, I chose to just stick my tongue out at Rye, who grinned and sat back in his seat as we looked each other in the eyes, making a silent agreement to keep quiet about any food-related incidents. With that decided, we started picking off the poffin platter, Mavy snorting as we did so.

"Cowards, both o' y'all," he declared as he joined us.


Author's Note: Sorry for the uneventful chapter, I'll try and make up for it next time. It shouldn't be long, so just hang tight.

So... got nothing else to say except that we hit 69 favorites. So, you know, nice.