"Alright Pokemon! A slightly different set of missions today, due to the main keep being in a state of slight disrepair."
Flygon was once again carrying out a briefing for the guild apprentices, as her job had been for the past several years. Although she was still able to carry out dangerous missions once in a while, the dragon-type was long past her prime - most of her time and energy being devoted to the smooth running of the apprenticeship programme and the guild as a whole.
That's not to say Flygon disliked her job in any way; on the contrary she loved helping her trainees grow and develop into capable Pokemon, and was immensely proud of each and every one of them. Currently there were sixteen apprentices in all - comprised of four teams and nine individuals.
As she glanced across the assembled group, Flygon was struck with a harsh pang of guilt - her eyes moving from the newest recruits of Team Saviours, over to the much more senior Salandit.
"The damage to the keep was caused by an outlaw, who has since been dispatched." The dragon continued, "I should also mention that our guildmaster will no longer be assigning missions to any of you, unless they are first passed through me. This is due to some… 'unprofessional' behaviour on his part."
A quiet murmur passed through the crowd, only to be quickly silenced by a stern look from Flygon.
"I'm sure you're all confused, but rest assured the two events are in no way connected."
Another wave of guilt flooded the dragon, although she kept her expression completely unreadable. She had realised that it would be impossible to oust the steel-type, as it would cause complete uproar throughout the guild, thus preventing any actual - life saving - work from being done.
Flygon produced a small stack of papers, flicking through them thoughtfully. Each sheet contained a different task, hand-picked by the dragon herself to best fit the skill level of the apprentices. She took a long look at the missions, making sure everything was correct, before handing them out to the assembled Pokemon.
"Salandit - you will be alongside Team Hopeful. I need the three of you to investigate a reported sighting of feral Golem further up the continent." The poisonous lizard graciously took the offered slip of parchment in her mouth, and Flygon continued. "Team Cacophony, I need you to check on Hoothoot, make sure he's still safe and unharmed. After that, I'll need you to complete a supply run to try and prepare for a worst case scenario. Tell the Kecleon Brothers to send the bill to me."
Flygon handed the three Pokemon a small set of papers, containing an incredibly large shopping list. Whismur took the mission, giving the dragon-type a tidy salute as she did so.
Flygon continued down the list of apprentices, handing each and every one of them a mission, until she finally reached Team Saviours.
"I need the two of you to head over to the library for me." She said, casting a concerned glance over the most junior recruits. Mudkip was smiling pleasantly, although Flygon could tell that it was clearly forced. She'd always had a knack for detecting dishonesty, and it was incredibly clear that the water-type was hiding quite how upset he truly was - not that she could blame him, getting captured by cannibals would be traumatic for even the most hardened Pokemon.
Bulbasaur, on the other hand, made no such attempt to hide his feelings. The grass-type was staring forlornly at the ground, refusing to make eye-contact with the dragon. He looked like a broken Pokemon, the usual spark of cheerfulness and energy having faded from his eyes.
"I think it's high time you learned to read and write, Mudkip." Flygon continued, keeping her voice steady and professional. "Bulbasaur will act as your teacher."
Flygon glanced down at the pair once more, a deep sense of sympathy flooding through her.
"This will be your assignment for the next several days, until I say otherwise. Is that understood?"
Mudkip nodded with a forced eagerness, while Bulbasaur simply stared despondently at the ground, giving absolutely no indication that he'd even heard the dragon-type.
"I'm happy for you to take some time off, if you need it to recover." Flygon said softly, lowering her voice so that only Team Saviours could hear. "I know how difficult it can be to overcome the trauma of an event like that."
The two starter Pokemon stayed silent, causing the dragon to let out a slight sigh. She hadn't expected them to take her up on the offer, but she wouldn't have felt right if she didn't at least give them the chance. With a heavy heart, Flygon once again took her position at the front of the crowd.
"Now obviously the keep is off limits to everyone but myself, the guildmaster, and any repair teams." Flygon explained, her strong facade once again applied, "Volbeat and Illumise will most likely be in the cafeteria when you need to register your mission's completion. DISMISSED!"
As soon as the command was given, Flygon shot into the air with a powerful beat of her wings, all the trainees scattering - bar Team Saviours, who were much slower to leave. Flygon let out a small smile at the sight, before gliding in a lazy arc around the castle and coming to a halt exactly where she'd started, in the now empty courtyard.
With a quick glance around, Flygon headed towards the keep, ducking under the rope barrier around the door, and entering into the main building.
It was in a sorry state compared to the previous day - the bulletin board had been completely soaked through, with the jobs congealing together into little more than a useless ball of paper mache.
Flygon took a quick look at the ruined workstations of Volbeat and Illumise, before heading swiftly up the stairs - she had a meeting with one of her least favourite individuals.
The second floor of the keep made the main area look in near perfect condition, compared to the devastation that had torn its way through the opulence of Aggron's personal quarters. Where there had previously been fancy silk drapes and luscious red paint, there was now ash and scorch marks. The intricate doors had been smashed into splinters, providing an easy view into the guildmaster's office.
In a similar fashion to the outside corridor, the office was in complete tatters. Aggron's desk had been obliterated - several burnt fragments of wood were all that remained. The regal ornaments and macabre mounted heads were blackened with soot and smoke, most having been damaged beyond repair.
For the most part Flygon didn't care about the carnage caused, however there was one piece of decor which made her pause. The intricate tapestry was torn and burnt, having been almost completely destroyed in the fighting. Aggron himself stood with the only remaining piece of the fabric, looking over it with an almost nostalgic look in his eye.
"You wanted to see me, Aggron?" Flygon said coolly, as she entered the room. "This had better be important, I have things to do."
Aggron's features immediately hardened. He dropped the tapestry and turned to face his partner.
"Flygon. I wasn't expecting you to be here so soon."
Aggron's tone was that of barely contained rage, as though he were desperately trying not to snap and fly into a violent frenzy.
"You said you wanted to speak to me today." Flygon said with a snort, "I'd rather get this out of the way quickly so I can get on with actual rescue work."
Aggron let out a harsh, barking laugh.
"All these years and you haven't changed one bit… It's sad really."
The metallic dinosaur paced slowly around the room, keeping his one good eye fixated on Flygon as he did so.
"Yesterday you destroyed my personal office and killed one of my business partners. I think that merits a serious discussion, don't you?"
Flygon narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"I'm not going to apologise for killing a crook."
Without warning, Aggron slammed his thick tail into the wall, causing the entire keep to shudder and almost knocking Flygon off of her feet. The steel beast reared up to his full height, glaring furiously down at his second-in-command.
"Do you have any - and mean any - idea of the amount of money that Arcanine brought into the guild?! You have tarnished my reputation and cost me a fortune. If it were anyone but you, Flygon, I would have torn them to pieces slowly until they begged for a merciful death. Do you have nothing at all to say for yourself after this?!"
Flygon stared defiantly up at Aggron, not flinching in the slightest under the steel-type's fury.
"You crossed a line by threatening my apprentices, Aggron. You had this coming."
The steel-type let out an inarticulate bellow of rage, smashing a powerful claw into the wall and causing dust to trickle from the ceiling.
"They are my apprentices, Flygon." Aggron spat, jabbing at Flygon threateningly, "This is my guild, it was my business partner who you killed, my office which is in ruins, and it's my bank account which is going to feel the strain of this."
The metallic dinosaur paced around the remnants of his office, clearly fighting the urge not to smash anything else. Flygon simply looked at the guildmaster calmly, completely impervious to the outburst.
"Is that all?" The dragon asked with an almost bored tone, "You really called me all the way up here just for a dressing down? You must be going senile, if you actually think I care."
Aggron turned around sharply, his ruby eye somehow seeming to shine with fury as he stomped towards his second in command.
"You are on very thin ice, Flygon." The steel-type said, his voice dropping dangerously low, "You're lucky we have a history."
Without waiting for a response, the famed Pokemon strode quickly out of his destroyed office, leaving his companion alone amidst the mess.
As soon as Aggron was gone, Flygon let out a deep sigh, running her hands along her antennae in frustration. She knew that riling up the guildmaster was a bad idea, and yet she couldn't help it - every time she saw his face anger just boiled up inside of her.
As the dragon also turned to leave, she caught a glimpse of the tapestry fragment which Aggron had been studying when she arrived. It was a depiction of her and Aggron as they defeated a monstrous army of Houndoom - the event which had solidified the pair as the most powerful team on the continent at the time.
Flygon felt a deep pang of nostalgia and sadness, the memory of a bright and eager team, determined to do as much good as they possibly could. The memory of a past now faded and gone.
Flygon quietly picked up the scrap of cloth, tucking it away in her bag before wordlessly exiting the building to continue with her day.
"Not quite, Tauros-print is pronounced 'ah'. Let's try that part again."
The two members of Team Saviours were sitting in a small, dusty library situated on the outskirts of Hope Village, where an increasingly exasperated Saurton was desperately trying to teach his companion how to read.
This was how Henry found himself bored out of his mind, as he vainly attempted to understand what the grass-type was trying to explain to him.
The pair were hunched over what Henry could only assume was the most basic of textbooks, likely used for small children. Despite the supposed simplicity of the task, however, the human-turned-Mudkip was struggling badly.
"I thought it was pronounced 'ee'?" Henry said perplexedly, causing his partner to let out a defeated sigh.
"Only if there's an upside-down Murkrow-print alongside it." The grass-type explained, slumping his head in exhaustion . "It's really easy, Henry."
The pair had been at this for what felt like several hours, with next to no progress having been made. No matter how hard he tried, Henry simply could not fathom how on earth footprint-runes worked as a writing system.
"Do you mind if we take a break?" Henry asked, casting a sideways glance towards Saurton, who was tiredly rubbing his eyes with the ends of his vines.
The grass-type frowned irritably, before nodding his head and swiftly leaving without a word.
Henry's face morphed into an expression of quiet concern, the previous day's events weighing heavily on his mind.
"Poor Saurton." The water-type thought sadly, shutting his eyes and resting his chin on the desk. "Maybe we should've taken that day off, after all yesterday was really bad…"
Henry shook his head, suppressing a shudder at the thought of it all. He snapped his eyes open and started to take a look around the room, desperately searching for anything that would take his mind off of the horrible memories.
The library was a surprising claustrophobic building, low-ceilinged and filled with shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls, all haphazardly stacked in an organised mess. An Oranguru sat at a small front desk, its nose buried in a thick book.
Henry cast his eyes between shelves, scouring the mass of books relentlessly almost as though they would suddenly all make sense if he looked at them hard enough, until he suddenly noticed something peculiar.
Instead of the usual footprint-rune writing on the spine of each book, there was one with writing that Henry could almost understand - a series of shapes which looked incredibly familiar.
With a frown, the water-type walked over to the tome, inspecting it closely. A spark of recognition flashed through his mind as he read the title of the book.
"Ancient Legends…" He realised with a start, "Hang on, this is English! Wait, what on earth is English?"
Henry shook his head, pushing that thought away for a later date. He quickly took the book solidly in his mouth before bringing it over to the table where he and Saurton had been studying.
With a much clearer view of the publication, Henry turned to the first page and took a long look at the writing.
"Yes it's definitely English." Henry realised, giving a cursory glance over the text, "It's stylised for certain, but I can understand it."
With that, the water type excitedly began to read:
'In the beginning, Arceus sat alone. Bored and powerful, the deity created all... Or at least that's how the story goes, according to its followers. This novel shall attempt to examine many of these ancient myths, and provide a lens of truth to each of them through the eyes of rationalism.
Let us start with the most relevant of all, the legend around the creation of mystery dungeons. The most common variation of the tale is that, in times gone by, all of the legendary Pokemon engaged in a battle which shook the world, until Arceus itself descended from the heavens and put a stop to the carnage. Arceus' intervention came too late, however, as the damage caused by such powerful entities battling each other, had irreparably split the very fabric of reality in many areas of the world, causing inhospitable and inconceivable areas of chaos.
The legend concludes that Arceus decided to allow these areas to exist, as a warning to all of the legendary Pokemon of the damage that they could cause when they let their tempers get the better of them, thus ushering in an age of peace between the legendaries.
When examining this critically, however, we can easily find flaws with the story. Several legendary Pokemon have been observed to fight one another over the years - most notably Groudon and Kyogre, who's fighting shook the very earth to its core, before they were quickly stopped by the great sky dragon, Rayquaza.
Additionally it should be noted that several legends have been found to make their homes at the hearts of incredibly dangerous mystery dungeons, thus leading to a rise in the theory that they create the spatial anomalies themselves, as a means of protection and privacy from Pokemon who would seek to bother them. This is most obvious with the lord of time, Dialga, who rests upon the mythical Temporal Tower, which is said to be an incredibly dangerous mystery dungeon that exists in a space unable to be visited by all but a select few.'
"You can read Unown?"
Henry was jolted out of concentration by Saurton, who was looking at his companion with an odd expression.
"I-uh, well if what I'm reading now is Unown, then I suppose I can." Henry spluttered, flushing slightly under the scrutiny of his partner.
Saurton frowned slightly, before heading over towards Oranguru and, after a muttered conversation, returning with another book clutched in his vines.
"What's this one called?" The grass-type asked sharply, placing the tome neatly in front of Henry.
Henry took a long look at the book in front of him, studying the cover briefly.
"It's called 'The Meteorological Effects of Rain Dance'" He explained, "By Castform of the Arceus University."
Saurton flashed his partner a small smile.
"Well that's pretty cool." The grass-type said with a curious tone, "How in the name of the legendaries can you do that though? Unown is only used by academics and the like."
"I don't really know, to be honest with you." Henry replied, feeling slightly bashful, "All I know is that I can read it."
Saurton's smile grew slightly.
"Well this is great! It's another clue about your past, at least."
Henry frowned slightly as his companion sat alongside him - the grass-type's sudden cheerfulness seeming incredibly forced.
"Hey Saurton?" Henry probed, dropping his voice to a near whisper, "Are you okay?"
Saurton seemed to wince at the question, his smile fading in an instant.
"No I'm not, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't bring it up… please."
"I just want you to know that I'm here if you want to talk." Henry said quietly, his concerned frown growing even deeper. "We had a rough day yesterday and-"
"I SAID DROP IT!" Saurton suddenly snapped, whirling around on the startled Mudkip, "CAN YOU NOT JUST LISTEN TO ONE ARCEUS-DAMNED THING I SAY?"
Henry just stared, dumbfounded as the grass-type once again stormed out of the library, followed by the confused gaze of Oranguru as he did so.
A loud slamming of the library's heavy wooden doors snapped Henry out of his surprised stupor, causing the water-type to slump to the ground in defeat, softly bashing his head against the cold ground.
"You goddamned idiot." He thought viciously to himself, "Just had to go and bugger things up as usual."
The starter Pokemon lay on the floor for a short while, before rising shakily to his feet and quickly chasing after his partner. Only as soon as he pushed open the door, Henry found himself rooted to the spot, eyes growing wide with panic.
It was raining. Large droplets of water were falling from the sky, impacting harshly with the cobbled ground and giving it a bright sheen.
Henry couldn't move. Every instinct was screaming at him to dash back inside, while his more rational thoughts chastised him for not helping his friend, resulting in a mess of mixed signals and simply rooting the quadruped in place, helplessly staring at the downpour.
To say that Saurton felt miserable would be an understatement. To the young grass-type, it felt as though his entire world had been turned on its head - the figure he had grown up respecting so much turned out to be one of the most foul and despicable creatures possible.
Frankly it was all too much for Saurton to bear, as he lay huddled in a back-alley, tears openly streaming down his face, mixing and diluting with the cold raindrops falling from above.
"Damn it all." The grass-type muttered, as he desperately tried to clear his head. Saurton had never felt as drained as he did in the moment, he'd never felt so stressed, and he'd never felt so lost.
"Hey, there's no need to feel so down." A vaguely familiar voice sounded from behind Saurton, causing the grass-type to whip about suddenly.
"Hello again." Gastly cackled, the ever present grin on its face growing even wider as it looked at the disheveled starter Pokemon.
Saurton jumped to his feet in an instant, extending his vines and bristling himself for a fight.
"What do you want, you filthy thug." Saurton all but spat, shaking the tears from his eyes as he glared at the gaseous Pokemon with single-minded hatred.
Gastly backed up slightly, its smile not faltering in the slightest.
"Now now, I'm not here for a fight." The ghost said in a surprisingly calm tone, "Besides, if I were, Honedge would have just cut you down while you were focused on me."
Saurton felt a creeping dread crawl its way up his spine. With a start he turned around, revealing the possessed sword floating silently at the head of the alleyway.
Honedge gave the Bulbasaur a cheery wave with the end of its ribbon, as Saurton's hatred started to give way to fear.
"What do you want?" He said slowly, trying to keep an edge in his voice, "I'm a member of the guild now. You can't hurt me or they'll hunt you down."
Gastly let out an amused cackle.
"I just told you I'm not here for a fight." The ghost-type explained, its laughter subsiding. "We want to talk to you. Is that alright?"
Saurton tensed slightly, his eyes darting between the two ghosts as he searched for a way out. Ultimately deciding it would be pointless to try and fight, the grass-type relaxed, retracting his vines while staying alert for any sign of aggression from the duo.
With a somehow even bigger grin, Gastly floated down to Saurton's eye-level, before the two ghosts ushered the grass-type into a dryer corner of the alleyway.
"Alright what do you want?" Saurton grumbled, trying to keep up a strong facade while inwardly panicking even more, "If it's an apology you're after, there'll be no such luck. I don't waste my breath on scum like you."
The two ghosts burst into a fit of laughter at that statement, causing Saurton to rile in anger.
"WHAT'S SO DAMN FUNNY?!" Saurton suddenly yelled, startling the spirits, "Are you here to talk, or are you here to mock me?!"
"Hey, calm down." Gastly said, suddenly adopting a serious tone - its toothy smile fading. "We didn't mean to cause offence."
Saurton huffed indignantly, wiping newly forming tears from his eyes before they had a chance to fall.
"We just learned from certain… sources… that you had to do a job for Arcanine."
Saurton froze, suddenly feeling very cold and very sick.
"W-What?!" He managed to splutter, getting a grin from Gastly in response. "Who told you?!"
Honedge decided to answer, shifting in its sheath in an approximation of a shrug.
"Not our place to say." The sword said nonchalantly, "But we're speaking to you because we thought you could use some advice from Pokemon who've been in your position."
Saurton narrowed his eyes in suspicion at the two ghosts, backing up slightly.
"What do you mean 'my position'?" He said lowly, causing the pair of spectres to glance at each other, before Gastly once again spoke:
"You don't think we actually like hurting people, do you?" The purple ball said in an almost mocking tone, gazing at Saurton with mischievous eyes. "We just got caught up with some pretty rough Pokemon, and have to do these jobs to survive."
Saurton stared blankly at the two Pokemon in front of him, unsure quite whether to believe them, before Gastly let out a dramatic sigh.
"Look, Pokemon like us have got to stick together." The ghost-type said pointedly, "Arceus knows the guild won't help you, they're corrupt from top to bottom."
Saurton flinched slightly at that statement, causing Gastly to smirk slightly.
"See I knew it!" It said almost triumphantly, before looking deep into Saurton's eyes and dropping its voice to a low whisper, "Look I know you don't trust us, but we have to skedaddle before the boss gets too suspicious. If you want to speak to us again, we'll be in the Shuck Shack tomorrow evening. Nice and public, no chance of us pulling anything. Alright?"
Despite his better instincts, Saurton found himself almost unable to disagree. He shakily nodded, and Gastly gave him another large grin.
"Fantastic!" The ghost said with an almost relieved tone, "You should probably get back to your Mudkip companion before he comes looking for you."
"W-Wait!" Saurton managed to splutter, as the ghosts turned to leave, "What about Hen- Mudkip? Shouldn't I tell him to come too?"
Gastly and Honedge glanced at each other for a moment, before turning back towards the grass-type.
"You shouldn't." Gastly said simply, "We'll explain it all tomorrow, but you can't trust him."
"Can't trust him!?" Saurton all but shouted, "Of course I can trust him! Mudkip's a good Pokemon!"
"Yes very true." Gastly said sagely, bobbing up and down slightly, "Just like Aggron was a brave and noble hero."
The colour drained from Saurton's face in an instant - His mouth opening and closing rapidly, yet producing no words.
Gastly let out a soft cackle.
"See you tomorrow, Bulbasaur." The ghost said with a wink, before the pair of spirits faded away into the walls of the alleyway, leaving nothing behind them but a very stunned grass-type.
Henry sat, staring despondently at the desk where he and Saurton had been studying. He had managed to tear himself away from the rainfall, only to scurry back inside, forced to listen to the gentle pattering of water on the ground outside as he waited desperately for the downpour to end.
There was a sudden clattering of the door being pulled open, causing Henry to turn and see a very beleaguered and very wet Saurton.
With a start, Henry immediately dashed towards his partner, although keeping some distance between them due to the ample amount of water currently dripping off of the grass-type.
"Saurton!" Henry cried out, relief washing over him, "Where were you? I was so worried!"
Saurton glanced curiously at the Mudkip, his expression unreadable.
"Nowhere in particular…" The grass-type muttered, almost in a trance like state, "We should carry on with your reading practice."
Without waiting for a response, Saurton padded back towards the desk where the pair had been studying, causing a massive spike of alarm in Henry.
"This isn't good at all." Henry thought, staring in disbelief at his friend, who seemed completely oblivious to the attention, "He's acting like a completely different person."
Henry wordlessly followed his companion, keeping a wary gaze on the grass-type as he did so. Together the pair sat in front of the desk, remaining in complete silence for what felt like an eternity, before Saurton suddenly broke the calm.
"I did some thinking on my way back, Mudkip." The grass-type said with an eerie stillness, "And I simply cannot figure out where on all the continents you could have possibly come from."
Saurton looked at his partner with an incredulous expression, before continuing.
"There's just a lot of very, and I mean very, odd things about you which just don't add up in my mind."
Henry's eyes widened, a small knot of panic starting to form in his chest as Saurton began to list oddities.
"I mean first off there's the obvious fact that you're afraid of water, despite the fact that you're a water-type and should therefore be completely at home in it." Saurton began, keeping a cool tone yet never letting his eyes leave the Mudkip. "But okay, maybe there's some bad experiences there, I don't know. Same thing with your name, it's an unusual name and it is generally taboo to introduce yourself using it, but there are some continents where it is accepted."
Henry balked as Saurton took a long, expressionless look at him.
"Those are fine, they're unusual but plausible." Saurton said, keeping his eyes firmly on the water-type, "But it starts to get weird with you being able to read Unown; that by itself is an incredibly rare skill, but the fact that you can't comprehend even the most basic sentence in footprint-runes is just far too strange to be ignored. Now almost immediately after this weird thing is revealed to me, I receive a warning not to trust you. Couple this with the cryptic things Hoothoot and Cofagrigus said about you, and I have to ask: Who are you?"
Henry's face had completely drained of colour, this being perhaps one of the last things he was expecting from his friend.
"A warning?!" The former human managed to splutter, "Saurton, what in God's na-"
"Ah! There it is again!" Saurton interrupted, spinning around to face Henry, with a wild look in his eyes, "That's not the first time you've mentioned this 'God' person, but I've never heard of them. Just like the 'car' thing you mentioned the other day; what are these things and why do you know about them?!"
Henry desperately searched his memories for any sort of answer, only to find that he could produce no explanation whatsoever.
"Saurton I-" Henry tried to begin, only to once again be almost immediately cut off by the grass-type.
"Well I know for certain that you aren't a Zorua or Zoroark because I've seen you get hurt, and you can't be a Ditto because you would have to change back while you slept." Saurton shook his head thoughtfully as he looked at the trembling Mudkip in front of him, "No you're definitely a Mudkip, which means the only real explanation I can think of is that you've been messed with by a psychic-type somehow, and if that's the case then I don't know if anything you've ever done or ever said to me has actually been you."
Henry was shaking badly, the sudden hostility from his closest - and perhaps only - friend scaring him to his core.
"W- What are you talking about, Saurton?" He managed to say, almost succeeding at keeping the tremor out of his voice. "What on earth happened while you were gone?"
Saurton let out a deep sigh, breaking his cold gaze with his partner and instead looking sadly at the desk.
"Look, Mudk- Henry. You're a good Pokemon, it's just-" Saurton looked around the room for a second, as if struggling to find the right words, "It's just that you're a strange case. I would feel better if we could get you checked out by a dark-type or something, just to make sure there's no weird psychic things in your head."
"What if there are?" Henry managed to respond, his voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. "What'll happen then? Will you cast me out or something?"
Saurton once again looked intently at the desk, shame seeming to crawl onto his features.
"No. I mean- Well." Saurton took a deep breath, "I don't know, Henry. I guess we'll find out."
Henry just nodded. He felt sick.
"So what now?" He managed to ask.
Saurton let out a long sigh.
"I think you should head back to the guild for today." He said simply. "I need to think some more - I probably won't be back tonight, so don't wait up for me."
Henry stared for a moment, before all but running out of the library and back towards the guild - the rain having mercifully stopped.
"This really isn't good." The water-type mused, as he navigated his way through the winding streets of Hope Village, "Yesterday must have affected him worse than I thought. Maybe I should ask Flygon for advice."
Henry quickly found himself deep in thought, desperately pondering the best course action. He was so lost in his own mind, that he didn't notice where he was walking until he bumped solidly into another Pokemon in front of him.
"I'm sorry." Henry mumbled, quickly attempting to maneuver his way past.
"Oh it's absolutely no problem at all." The Pokemon in question responded, "In fact I was just looking for you, Mudkip. Isn't this a… happy… coincidence?"
Henry froze, his blood suddenly running cold. With a start he quickly turned about, finding himself gazing up at the sinister smiling form of Cofagrigus.
Henry bristled, suddenly filled with equal parts fear and hatred towards the golden casket.
"What do you want?!" The water-type spat, disdain clear in his voice. "If you try and hurt me, Flygon will rip you to shreds."
Cofagrigus splayed its hands in a show of disbelief, its brilliant white smile disappearing into a sad frown.
"Hurt you?" The coffin said, sounding genuinely upset, "I'm disturbed that you would think of me in such a… vile… way. No, no. I'm here to talk with you, Mudkip."
Cofagrigus threw its arms wide and wobbled slightly in what appeared to be an approximation of a bow, its predatory smile returning once more.
Henry scowled at the ghost-type.
"What kind of an idiot do you take me for?!" The water-type shot accusingly, taking a wary step backwards, "I mean you've already tried to kill me and Saur- and Bulbasaur once before. Whatever you have to say, I don't care."
Cofagrigus let out a hearty laugh, clapping its hands together in amusement.
"Well, well. There's no fooling you, is there?" The ghost chuckled, its usual mocking tone appearing, "You made one tiny mistake though, Mudkip: If I had tried to kill you and your little companion, you would both be dead. I am nothing if not efficient."
Cofagrigus stared at the slowly retreating form of Henry, a greedy look appearing in the sarcophagus' eyes.
"No, I have no interest in killing you - it would be a waste of such an… unusual… Pokemon, don't you think?"
Cofagrigus suddenly leaned forwards, its body looming over Henry in a way which shouldn't have been physically possible, given the rigid nature of the stone and metal box.
"In fact I want to… recruit… you, little Mudkip. You have managed what seldom few Pokemon are able to do - You have piqued my interest."
Henry stared up at the menacing form, a defiant look in his eyes despite the fact that he was trembling like a leaf.
"No chance." He said firmly, "I'll never side with a monster like you."
Cofagrigus stood upright once again, both pairs of arms folding across its body as it cast its eyes upwards.
"A monster!? Oh how you wound me, Mudkip." It said dramatically, before shooting Henry a sinister look. "Although I can't help but feel as though you have no idea at all what it is that I actually do, is that right?"
Henry racked his brains for an answer, only to find that the giant casket was absolutely correct, he had no idea at all what the ghost's motives were, outside of locating areas of death. However there was one small hole in Cofagrigus' logic:
"I know you hurt Hoothoot." Henry said, puffing himself up as big as he could, "I may not know what things you do, but if you torture people then it can't be good and I'll have no part in it."
Cofagrigus let out a small laugh, before placing a hand contemplatively under its mouth.
"Very true, very true. Although that nasty bag of feathers had it coming. If it had simply answered my questions then I wouldn't have had to resort to more… unsavoury… measures."
Cofagrigus threw open its arms invitingly, its dazzling grin growing even wider.
"Very well, Mudkip." It said in a surprisingly friendly tone, "It's quite clear that I haven't got through to you this time, but if you should ever find yourself… unemployed… then you should know that my offer still stands."
Without another word, Cofagrigus quickly faded into the ground, its last words rattling around Henry's mind.
"Why me…" He muttered in exasperation, before continuing his journey back towards the guild.
A/N: Hiya! I cannot apologise enough for such a long wait between chapters - I really didn't mean for it to take so long. It's just that I kept hating what I'd written and deleting it all. Truth be told, I'm still not entirely satisfied with how this one turned out, but I start a new job tomorrow, so I thought it best to get something out before it gets to a point where I have very little time to actually work on it.
With that in mind, this job will probably be taking up a lot of my time, so updates are probably going to become a tad inconsistent (although hopefully not 2 months apart). I can only apologise for this.
Anyway, that's all for now.
Stay safe.
Candlewick