"To run away doesn't always mean to run. Sometimes it's a steady walk, sometimes filled with moments to stop and refocus, sometimes it means to hide away somewhere for a long time. I really don't care what it is, it's freedom all the same," Tamin thought as she slowly stepped through the uncanny forest she had found herself in. She tiptoed quietly through the brush, ensuring only minimal noise was made
The words she recited in her mind helped her justify her pace in the current location. She was just a lone minccino, lost in an eerie forest, moving slowly and frequently looking left and right. Only a limited amount of sunlight pierced through the canopy above her, and the forest seemed to be cut in strange ways that resulted in clearings that seemed like hallways and rooms. Tamin didn't know what forest she was lost in, she didn't know which way was north, and she didn't know how deep into it she was. The only thing she was certain of is where she wasn't: somewhere safe.
She continued through the clearing and the rough. She could hear the sounds of other forest pokemon around. Whenever she did, her eyes would dart around faster, her pulse would raise, and her tail would droop down further.
In the thick woods, Tamin saw a patch of overgrowth. She immediately went over to it and climbed up it, which wasn't anything hard to do for her species. She hoped that from it she could find a way to climb up the trees that made up the uncanny forests' walls, which would allow her to get above the canopy and see where to go from there. But as the minccino climbed over the rough overgrowth, she began to feel something moving from within it.
"Oh no," was the only thing she could think.
She felt a sudden movement from inside of it, confirming another pokemon was inside. Fight or flight instincts kicked in, and she chose flight. Tamin jumped off the overgrowth as fast as she could. She managed to get down, but she did it with so much haste that multiple prickles from the plants stabbed into her fur.
"Ah-" the minccino muttered in pain as she reached the forest ground again.
Tamin continued sprinting away on all fours, trying to put distance between herself and whatever was in the overgrowth patch, pushing the thistles deeper inside of her. She dashed down a thin pathway in the woods. She approached another clearing on the other side, but before she could reach it, she saw a scyther emerge from around the corner. The wild pokemon's eyes met with Tamin, and focused into a hateful gaze.
Tamin attempted to slow herself down, but she was going so fast that she couldn't come to a complete stop before getting within reach of the scyther. She looked up to see the scyther raising its bladed arm up; a sight that made Tamin's heart skip a beat.
Though before the scyther swung its arm towards the minccino, a thunderbolt suddenly came from the clearing and struck it. Tamin let out a yelp in surprise and jumped backwards out of reflex while the electricity cackled through the scyther for a moment; leading to the pokemon collapsing down to the ground.
The entire scene vexed Tamin on what just transpired. She had to take a second to rebuild her composure before doing anything else. Tamin remembered that some pokemon still existed back in the overgrowth behind her, so turning back didn't seem very smart. At the same time, she did know that whatever the source of the thunderbolt was did actually save her from the scyther. Knowing those things, Tamin decided the best option was to press forth.
She stepped towards the downed scyther and looked around the corner, spotting a shinx in the clearing as she did. But this shinx was unlike the other pokemon in the dungeon, they had a sort of backpack with several bags and pouches at their side, many of which were full. The shinx curiously looked back at her; it had heard her. It took a look back at her and began walking towards her.
"Wait-wait-wait, don't attack me!" Tamin said while putting her paws in front of her.
The shinx stopped to look at her.
"You're not from around here, I take it?" he asked.
"No, and you're not like the other pokemon here, I see," Tamin responded.
"Nah, I'm just a rogue explorer. I came here to gather some food and things to sell," the shinx explained.
"And where is 'here' exactly?" Tamin inquired.
"It's a forest mystery dungeon. I don't really know the exact names people have given all of them, but this isn't my first time I've been here."
"Alright, I think I've heard of those before. What should I know about these?"
"Mmm. You're definitely pretty new to these," he said, "They're these places with maze-like environments, treasure, and wild pokemon. All over the world to be honest.
As for the pokemon inside of here, some say it's some sort of 'dungeon sickness' that makes them all crazy and wild, but all you really need to know is that they're territorial beyond belief."
"Oh, okay…" Tamin said, trying to get a grasp on the situation.
The minccino looked downwards, seeing her own body again. She saw the small thistles that were still stabbed into her fur again; there were three of them, all on the left side of her body. She pulled one out, feeling the pain become enhanced upon its removal, and took a moment to inspect it. It felt humiliating to be hurt by such a small thing, as well as scary to be hurt without a way to heal herself. Making it worse was how they were only on the left side of her body which created an asymmetrical feeling that Tamin found particularly annoying.
"You're a bit hurt I can see," he said bluntly.
"Yeah," Tamin replied.
"Here, I have something for you," the shinx said as he sat down and began interacting with his pouches and pockets, from them he withdrew a blue slice of sorts, "Remove the thistles from your body, it will heal it. Just this small amount should be enough, I don't want to give you a full oran berry since I don't have a lot of food on me.
Try to eat it with your side teeth instead of your front teeth. They're quite hard. "
Tamin took the slice of the berry from him. Following his commands, she got the thistles removed and ate the berry. After swallowing, she could feel her skin being mended and the pain subsiding.
"Thanks for that," Tamin said.
"No problem," the shinx said as he began to turn around and walk off.
"Wait!" the minccino called out.
"Keep your voice down, and what is it?"
"I'm totally lost right now, and I don't know how to fight. So could you do me a favor and guide me out of here? I could really use some assistance," Tamin begged.
The shinx pondered for a second while looking at the minccino. This was far outside what he would normally do and he understood this would be burdensome to him, but as he looked at her closer, he knew what was best.
"Sure. I was actually planning on heading deeper in to look for food, but it's fine. Follow me," the shinx said as he turned himself to point his body to a different pathway out of the clearing.
"Thank you," Tamin replied as she began to follow the shinx, "Say, you never told me what your name was."
"Locke," the shinx said, "Do you have a name?"
"My name is Tamin."
"Ah, gotcha," Locke said as they went down another thin pathway in the woods with Tamin being shortly behind him.
"Are you sure you know the way out?" Tamin inquired as she held her paws together and looked around carefully.
"Oh yeah, I've got a good mental map and refined pathfinding instincts," he assured, "We won't be long until were in normal land again."
"That's a relief to hear," Tamin said, relaxing her muscles a bit.
"Yeah. Normally it would be like four days to get out, but with my talent I can probably knock that down to two or two-and-a-half days. Pretty good."
"Wait, what?!"
The shinx laughed to himself for a second before he responded.
"Nah, I'm just joking. Doubt it will be more than an hour," Locke clarified, still smiling. "And if my pathfinding senses somehow don't work, then I have a compass on me we could use."
"Why in the world would you make jokes like that?" Tamin said, stress present in her voice, "I'm actually scared right now, and you're not making it any better."
"Gallows humor- my friend. Takes the edge away from bad situations, but doesn't make you less keen about the problems. So those problems won't end up creeping up on you."
"But this situation isn't even that bad, is it?" the minccino asked, "You defeated that scyther in one hit, so isn't this under your control? Wouldn't 'gallows humor' be unnecessary?"
"Well you see, comedy is a lot like coffee. Its purest form is pure black," Locke said as he returned his focus to go onward.
Tamin would have rolled her eyes at such a comment if she wasn't so nervous already.
They continued through the forest dungeon after that, going from room to room with Locke's guidance. There weren't that many wild pokemon since Locke had already fought many of them. Neither of them talked very much past that point, going through the area in silence, claiming recluse in their minds as they thought their own (drastically different) thoughts.
It was a few minutes until another fight came up, with a zigzagoon standing in their way. Tamin stepped back, wanting to be non-confrontational, whereas Locke charged forward. Tamin watched the fight from a safe distance. During the fight, she noticed the shinx seemed to become possessed. At least, that was the only way she could describe it. His fur mildly glowed and he charged forward with absolute ferocity, leaping towards his target with sharpened claws. He went for the zigzagoon's eyes first thing and clawed one out without a moment of reluctance; only brutality. The wild pokemon made its own attack in retaliation and scored a hit against Locke's thigh, but the shinx didn't even react to the pain. He kept clawing and biting with primal strength until the zigzagoon stopped moving. Tamin was speechless, but Locke seemed to return to normal after that. But even with him behaving normally, Tamin didn't want to talk with him nearly as much as before.
They traveled for twenty-two minutes, until Locke made an abrupt stop as he looked around, causing Tamin to stop as well. In front of them was an area with a particularly high amount of leaves on the ground.
"Be careful here, I feel there's something up with this room," the shinx quietly said to her.
"What do you mean?" Tamin asked.
"I just feel something is off. This isn't how these rooms normally are like."
"Okay then. What should we do?" Tamin inquired, ignoring the shinx's grammatical mistakes. She also kept her voice down like he was doing.
"Just keep following me, but watch your step. It's not long until we're out of here anyways," Locke commanded.
He began walking forward with his eyes pointed towards the ground, his body was bent upwards and every step he made was slow and precise. Caution was put into every movement, but he didn't drop his awareness of the surrounding areas either. His body glowed the brightest that Tamin had seen thus far from him.
The minccino did her best to follow in Locke's step, but she did not possess the same skills that the shinx held. The crunch of leaves underfoot seemed much louder than it had previously as they put much more focus on it.
As they continued forth through the area, Tamin's looked upwards, which caused her attention to be trapped on other things. Small details, whether that would be missing bark on a tree or plants which still held onto most of their leaves and seemed out of place because of that- they were things Tamin noticed, and things that annoyed her. Part of her wanted to be able to clean out every leaf in the area, but that part was suppressed by her survival instinct and rationality. But what could not be so easily suppressed was her desire to look all around. So many details from the surrounding environment trapped her eye, like how the trees seemed to not fit with the autumn season, the small chips that were inflicted by pokemon, repeated patterns in the bark, and other things. The walls of the mystery dungeon were just off from what was natural and normal for real forests, like this was some simulacra of an actual forest that was only about ninety percent correct but had leftover errors from that which made it uncanny. Tamin felt compelled to attempt to fix it even though she lacked any method to do so. Frustration grew and the minccino's eyes did not return to the ground.
As the two continued walking forward, Locke continued to make precise steps while Tamin continued to be distracted. Suddenly, Tamin put her foot down on a patch of leaves that did not have solid ground below it like the rest of the area had. As she put her weight down on this step from expecting it to be solid, her leg fell down the empty area and her entire body tripped down. On the way down, she could feel her foot made contact with some sort of thin string and snap it. Then, a clicking sound was heard.
"What did I tell you about being careful?" Locke said as his head snapped back to look at Tamin.
"My leg is stuck! Can you help me?!" she responded.
Before anything more could be done, growling and other distinct sounds from pokemon could be heard emanating from around them. Suddenly there were several wild forest pokemon that were emerging from the trees and pathways like a pack of wolves coming in for a feast. Their gaze locked onto the minccino and shinx, their eyes so full of pure primal instinct they were tinted red.
Tamin looked around at the immediate threat with a face of fear, pausing for a moment and then switching to desperately trying to pull her leg out from the trap. Locke turned his head around quickly to take a headcount of the enemies in the room and add them to his spatial awareness while he charged up with electricity.
The ambushing pokemon began to charge forward. Seeing it as time to act, Locke fired off a thunderbolt at a breloom to deliver a devastating shock. After it had made contact, Locke managed to arc the electricity to turn the current towards a dodrio near them, causing it to be shocked as well. The breloom fell down while the dodrio still had some fight left in it after the shock. Despite the opening attack, other ambushing pokemon continued to close in. The shinx turned his head again and let out an audible growl. He seemed to ignore the fact that he was outnumbered and instead leapt towards another enemy, both of his paws had fully extended claws and in a position to strike. The wild pokemon he was headed towards attempted to get into a defensive position, but before they could do that Locke landed on them and quickly tore at their neck. After wounds were opened and blood was drawn, Locke pressed his lower legs against it and pushed hard to swiftly jump off. Locke met with the ground before the wild pokemon whose neck was torn up collapsed, and he continued the momentum to immediately begin attacking the other pokemon. He barely even blinked before moving from one to another.
Tamin continued struggling to free her leg, pulling at it and shifting her angle. Eventually she found a position where it was able to slide free, and she pulled so hard that she clumsily fell onto her back after getting freed. Once on her back, she looked upwards to see a wild nuzleaf above her that was preparing an attack. Tamin looked away and put her paws in front of her head to attempt to mitigate the blow, but was met with surging pain in her paws shortly after.
Meanwhile, Locke continued to fight against the group of pokemon. He was closely surrounded by three pokemon, but fought with true ferocity all the same. He ignored both his own wounds and the fact that he was outnumbered to fight like a cornered beast- shocking and scratching at the different wild pokemon in a dazzling flurry of chaos. Every second was filled with several actions: hits, evasions and glancing blows alike.
But in the constant chaos, one thing pierced through the struggle and reached Tamin's ears while she was close to panicking.
"Over there!" a masculine voice commanded from the clearing's edge.
Tamin managed to find a moment in the veil to open her eyes and look to where the voice came from. In doing so, she saw that it was a lucario with a black baseball cap. He was turned sideways and was pointing towards her. Beside the lucario was an arcanine and a predominantly blue meowstic. All three of them had differently colored bandanas around their necks.
After speaking, the lucario ran into the room towards Locke and those surrounding him while the arcanine went over Tamin. The meowstic paused for a moment to prevent the pokemon larger than him from stepping on him, and after the way was cleared he ran in the direction that the lucario and went in.
When the lucario with the baseball cap drew close, he threw a haymaker punch at one of the wild pokemon. It made contact with their chest and sent them flying across the room as Locke dodged out of the way. Before the wild dungeon pokemon could properly adapt to what was happening, the lucario grabbed another one and used his other arm to deliver a point-blank aura blast into their waist, disposing of them as well. At the same time, the arcanine released a blast of fire breath from his mouth at the nuzleaf near Tamin. The minccino ducked down to get as flat against the ground as she could get so that the flames would go above her. The meowstic unleashed a psychic attack at the third pokemon near Locke.
Locke maintained the rhythm in the fight through all of this, dodging the new combatants regardless of what side they were on and continued searching for opportunities in the veil. At that point in the fight, he was operating purely on instincts. His eyes met with the arcanine and dilated in focus. He charged up with electricity once more and discharged a thunderbolt at it.
"What the heck?" the arcanine said as he saw a thunderbolt coming from the pokemon he thought he was helping. He attempted to dodge out of the way, but his massive body prevented that from being effective. It made contact with his body, but didn't do terribly much damage.
After seeing the attack, the meowstic turned his head to Locke with his ears unfolding. He attempted to use telekinesis on the shinx to hold him down.
"Calm down you little s-" the meowstic said before he got interrupted.
"Everyone stop!" Tamin commanded as she got up with her paws raised up, "Locke stop!"
Everyone turned their gaze to Tamin after this, surrounded by the defeated wild pokemon. Locke took the longest to calm down and focus on Tamin, but seeing the others suddenly stop like they no longer wanted to fight also caused him to calm down.
"What is going on? Who are you?" Tamin asked.
"We're pokemon from the region's exploration guild," the lucario began to explain as he entered a more relaxed position, "We were returning from the dungeon after retrieving an item, and I felt that you two were here with aura sense."
"Oh… Thank you so much," Tamin said, finally calming down again, "I got lost in this place, and this shinx helped me get this far."
"I see," the meowstic said to Tamin, though his gaze was focused on Locke.
"We were on our way out, so you can come along with us," the Arcanine said.
"Oh really?"
"Yeah, the way out isn't too far away anyways,"
"Thank you oh so much," Tamin said, now devoid of stress, "Come on Locke, let's get out of this madhouse,"
"Sure," Locke said, acting as if nothing was wrong and in his normal state again with normal eye color.
The meowstic rolled his eyes, and then said, "This way," while he pointed to a clearing out.
They all got together to form a group of five and traveled as one. Tamin and others tried to ignore what had happened with Locke firing off a thunderbolt at the arcanine, but the meowstic's eyes were fixated on Locke with a not-so-positive expression. Now away from danger for the moment, they were able to talk once more.
"So you said you're a part of a guild for doing this kind of stuff?" Locke asked them.
"Yes," the meowstic responded.
"Do you just do rescue missions or mystery dungeon stuff in general?"
"We do a lot of different things, mostly requests. Taking care of pokemon with bounties, finding lost items, collecting things, finding secret areas. Quite a bit," the lucario with the black baseball cap clarified.
"Do you have any base?" Locke asked.
"Yes, we have a guildhouse we all live in," Armin flatly responded.
"Hmm. Alright." Locke said, spending a moment to think about what he just said. "In that case, I'd like to join," Locke stated.
All the pokemon there, including Tamin, immediately shifted their gaze to Locke after hearing this request. So he continued to explain himself.
"Winter is coming soon, so I'd like to have a roof to sleep under for that. Or just someone to talk to.
I have been going into these mystery dungeons for a while now. It's how I get food and money. I've learned to handle myself in these and more than know how to fight and navigate these places.
I already have all the right skills to do this. I'm perfect for a guild like this. All I need is for you to give me a roof to live under and I can help you guys out."
"...You know you haven't really made a great first impression to us, right?" the meowstic replied.
"The minccino was the one that triggered the trap for the ambush, it was just an accident on her part," Locke stated.
"Well we can't really confirm any of what you just said is true-" the arcanine said before he was interrupted.
"Then bring me to the guild so I can prove myself," Locke said.
"Alright I guess we could do that."
"I want to join too!" Tamin stated, interrupting the conversation, "If you're going to give him a chance to join the guild, I request a chance as well."
The team of pokemon from the guild looked at each other as the whole group continued to walk through the dungeon.
"Our guild is getting kinda full as is. Should we use the little room we have left on them?" The arcanine asked.
"It is ultimately not our say in whether or not they get in. But, I do believe it is our duty to bring them to the guild if they truly want to try and join it," the meowstic explained.
Locke smiled in satisfaction as he was absolutely confident he would get in. Similarly, a wave of relief went upon Tamin as she knew this was a perfect opportunity and plan.
"What are your names by the way?" Locke asked them.
"I'm Rustin, this is Armin and this is Max. We often go on missions together, but the guild doesn't use concrete teams so we often go on missions with other members as well." The meowstic of the group said, pointing to the lucario first and the arcanine second.
"Sounds great!" Tamin and Locke said together near-synchronized.
Just as they said that, the group stepped out of the mystery dungeon onto a hilltop on a normal forest. Unlike the dungeon behind them, the leaves were almost entirely fallen onto the ground leaving a ground containing a variety of autumn colors mixed together to create a simplistic beauty. Between the branches one could see through the trees to admire far more of the landscape. The true forest didn't go past the horizon, as the careful eye could spot the forest's end as it yielded to a vast prairie with seemingly limitless boundaries. The sun's golden rays beamed down straight onto the two aspiring guild members. They all looked forward, their minds imagining what could be ahead in their futures and what might await them with this major decision.
End of chapter 1.
