Shorter, but more impactful

The Tale of Twin Hearts

Chapter 4

"Loudred! LOUDRED!"

Entering the bottom floor of the Guild after escaping out of that nightmare of a dungeon, Chatot called out with an unbelievably loud voice. Around the left corner of the room, a Loudred rushed over to us with an expression that he was prepared for anything.

"Chatot, I'm here! What's going on?"

"Loudred, I need you to go get Chimecho immediately!"

"Wha-? did something happen?"

"No-well, yes but…"

Looking over his shoulder, he looks at Pumpkin as Miya lays him on the floor. Although barely a scratch on him, Pumpkin stares vacantly into the distant with tears in his eyes. His expression? There was none. It looked as if he had seen death face to face and honestly, that...monster that called himself a pokemon wasn't too far from it.

Sighing, Chatot shook his head and looked at Loudred once again. "I'll explain later, for now, I need you to get Chimecho as soon as possible."

"Roger that! CHIME! WE NEED YOU OVER HERE!-"

"Squawk! That's not what I meant! I asked you to go get Chimecho, not blast the entire room!"

"Sorry! To be honest with ya, I don't know where Chime is. The last time I saw her, she was-"

"Right here!" A voice said as a Pokemon came around from the opposite corner of the room. Right on cue, a Chimecho floated over to us with a sincere smile on her face. She was quite tall, which only added to her graceful demeanor.

"Is everything alright? I was preparing something special for dinner since we just recruited two new members to the guild."

"Well…," Turning around, Chatot gestures toward Pumpkin, who continued laying on the floor, unwilling to move. Just watching him lay there on the ground, not moving, made me feel this...knot...in my stomach. It was like a mix between sorrow and guilt and it was not a pleasant feeling. I wish I could have been able to help him better when he was being pinned down and bullied by that awful Pokemon, but I didn't know how I would have been able to. If I didn't save the hostage, who turned out to be my childhood friend, then...how would that have made me look? All of this was too much…

"My word...what happened to him? Also, who is he exactly? I don't remember him being part of the Guild," Chimecho said as she floated over to him and gently touched his face.

"This is Pumpkin, one of the five new recruits. He was attacked by a monstrous Pokemon that I...I...I can't even fully describe. He was barely able to escape and was left with just a cut on his face.

"Goodness...Wait, did you say five?"

"Yes. five."

"Huh!? Chatot, why didn't ya tell us about this!?" Loudred fussed. Chatot glared at him, which was enough to literally silence him as he looked back nervously.

"They were last second additions. I thought they were salespokemon or another one of those soliciting groups."

"Chatot, you said that about the other two Pokemon that just joined."

"I know! I know. It's just…how often do you see anyone join nowadays? It's hard not to."

Signing once more, he walks up to pumpkin and kneels next to him, touching the scar on his left cheek and he looks at him with regret written all over his face.

"I'm so sorry, Pumpkin. I should have never let any of you go on that mission…...Loudred, please take Pumpkin into the vacant room next to the new recruit's room. Add a few more beds for the others to sleep too. Chimecho, see if you can help him by any means possible. I need to think for a moment..."

"Right away, Sir" They both said simultaneously as Loudred picked him up with care and rushed to the room with Chimecho following behind.

Before entering the hallway, Chimecho stopped, suddenly remembering something. "Oh, and Chatot, I just got word that the new recruits, the duo, just finished retrieving the pearl for Spoink, in case you want to meet them before they get back.

"Thank you, Chimecho, I'll be there after I check on the Guildmaster."

Smiling, she leaves for the hallway. Behind her, Miya followed as well.

"Hey, Miya, where are you going?" I said, before she could make it past the corner.

Looking back at us, she gave us a faint smile. "I'm going to go see If I can help. It's the least I can do. You guys can come along if you want."

"We'll be there in a minute." I said, giving the best smile I could.

"Alright," She said, nodding as she heads off to the room. I feel her pain.

As Chatot walked off towards the Guildmaster's Room and the others to tend to Pumpkin, It was just me and well...Queen. As unbelieve as it is, being face to face with my childhood friend was a feeling so indescribable…It's like gaining back something so precious to you that you've spent years searching for without end…

...Ok, I might be worse at explaining stuff than I thought...

As we stood in the room alone, Queen cleared his throat, getting my attention as I was apparently staring at him. As soon as I finally realized, he chuckled nervously.

"Heh, Liloxi. I know you're just as excited to see me as I am to see you, but uh...you do realize you're still carrying me, right? Haha."

"Oh! Sorry about that!" Immediately I put him down, allowing him to walk. I was already completely speechless since I haven't seen him in so many 's hard not to.

Queen and I have been friends since we were days old. It's hard to believe, but him and I were actually born only days apart, him being a bit older, but completely different parents of course. His parents are both Gardevoirs, though his father died of an accident during a mission he was on, just leaving him and his mother. I, on the other hand, still have both of my parents, but my father just up and left a few weeks before I was born so I never got to see him.

Our mothers knew each other for years and together, understanding each other's hardships, raised both Queen and I until that one day when a strange Pokemon visited our home. I don't fully remember what happened since my memory is kinda fuzzy, but I do remember holding out my hand towards the Pokemon and a flash of light erupted, blinding me, similar to what happened during the mission we'd just finished. Before we knew it, both my mother and his mother decided to move very far from each other, take us with them. Why? I don't know and I still don't even down to this day, despite how much I asked why. It was the saddest day of my life and yet that was 5 years ago. Some might not see that as along, but since most Pokemon don't live as long as they'd like, it was honestly too long.

*Sigh*...Seeing Queen in front of me...it was an unbelievable feeling. I noticed he'd gotten taller since the last time I saw him, which is kinda cool and odd at the same time, since he's my height now and way taller than any normal Ralts. Of course, I couldn't see his eyes, but his smile is always visible. However, what struck me as odd was the fact that he of all Pokemon was the hostile. How did he get there?

"Hey, Liloxi? You're doing it again."

Shaking my head, I realized that I was staring at him again. Embarrassing, I laughed nervously, rubbing the back of my head.

"Sorry about that again, I honestly don't know what to say."

"Well, for starters, you can at least give me a hug, it's been years, dude!"

Laughing, we hugged each other. Hearing his voice like this was interesting. It's a bit deeper than what I remember it sounding like, but we're older, though what do ya expect?

"So, What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing seeing as you were the one we had to rescue." I said, scratching my head.

"Rescue? But I didn't send out a rescue request."

"Really? Then why were you…"

"I'll admit, I did get ambushed by that...thing while I was exploring the area, but I wasn't in any real danger since I had a few ways of getting out. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you guys getting me out of that bind, but it wasn't me who sent out the notice.

"Weird. Well, regardless, I'm glad we took that mission. Who would have thought it would have been you tied to that tree!

"Haha, yeah. Anyways, now that i'm here, I guess I can stay for a while before I head out in a few days to continue exploring. Meanwhile, we can catch up and enjoy ourselves.

"Wait, you're leaving in a few days?"

"Well, yeah! I'm an explorer. I'm not exactly affiliated with this Guild since I'm more solo, but I do come here on occasions when I need to stay around town for a while."

"Oh...that's kinda unfortunate…"

Frowning, Queen stands next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulder. "Come on, Liloxi. Cheer up! After all these years, we finally get to see each other again! We also get to spend some time together, just the two of us! We can make the best of it! How does that sound?

Looking at his cheerful smile, I couldn't help but to smile back. "Heh, I guess you're right. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I know today we probably aren't going anywhere, how about we head to the beach tomorrow morning. I heard it's actually quite nice, especially when the sun raises."

"Wait, You...actually like that?"

"Of course! What, you didn't think I would? Liloxi, you know me better than anyone. If anything is as gorgeous as Pokemon says, I gotta see it. And what better way to see it than with my best friend, yeah?"

"Haha, you got me there. The beach it is."

"Perfect. For now, I'm going to go to the Square and restock on some items. While I'm there, I'll leave you and the group a little something at Kangaskhan's Storage for helping me out. It's the least I can do.

"Heh, Thanks Queen. I'ma go head to the room and check on Pumpkin."

"Alright, sounds good. I remember they make food here for recruits and guests, I should be back before then."

"Cool."

Just as I began heading to the room, leaving him to tend to his errands, Queen called out from the other end of the room. As soon as I turned around, I was suddenly given such an embraceful hug that nearly fell over. The way he hugged me...it was as if I could feel his emotions and no, he definitely wasn't using any abilities on me. He hugged me tight, holding on to me for quite a while. As surprised as I was, I couldn't help but to hug him back just as much. Half of our lives we've been without each other… and today, we finally meet again; who could blame us?

Right before he broke the hug, he whispered: "It's been so long...I'm so glad to see you again, Lilo.

...Hearing him say that made my day.

As soon as he broke the hug, he regained his composure and grinned, giving me a thumbs up.

"See you before dinner!"