Chapter 19 - Tunnel Vision
According to the Society Gadget's uncouth GPS, there was a sizeable portion of the range that we had yet to traverse. They would surely warrant another half-day's worth of walking, and on an incline, but… it could be done. We were almost there.
Standing patiently on the hill that had claimed our sleeping location following a night of introspective stargazing, I was able to utilize the small increase in altitude and get a decent enough signal. It took a fraction of the time it would take to load way back at Serene Village, in all likelihood a perk of being closer to where the device was manufactured and designed—a promising sign.
A fatigued grunt sounded off behind me, followed by rustling leaves. Leah's fogged eyes met mine as I glanced back at her partially-risen form, and she rubbed them and yawned a couple of times to adjust to the waking influence of late-morning.
"Mornin' Smugleaf," she greeted with a pop of her jaw and a brief glance at our surroundings. "What time is it?"
"Mornin' bed head. It's about an hour before noon."
She scoffed at my nickname, beginning to roll her eyes when they suddenly went wide. "It's almost noon!?"
I motioned my nose toward the sky above, and her face maintained its shocked gesture as she validated the time of day.
"Wow," she continued. "Pops would never let me sleep this late..." She trailed off, and an awkward silence conquered the pristine air. Her ears drooped half an inch, and she turned her head slightly to the side and sighed. "Oh, I mean—yeah... sorry. Gotta stay focused."
"Nothing to apologize for," I answered in an attempt to get our thought processes back on track. "This is our first night away from Serene Village. It's only natural we'd be thinking about everyone when we wake up."
The Fennekin mumbled something incoherent to herself, looking down for a moment. It didn't seem to bother her for long, though—another good sign of progression—and she shrugged it off and padded over to me.
I showed her the map I had just been investigating, and together we charted our path for the day. We would be taken through a cave that began not too far from our current position overlooking the river, and hopefully end up within sight of Lively Town. There was apparently some sort of highway being built that would cut from coast to coast of the Water Continent, but it wasn't finished yet and Leah and I didn't want to travel anywhere near a populated trail anyway. Something like that might prove to be useful later on, but certainly not now.
Satisfied with the gadget's assistance, I held it down and lackadaisically tossed it back into the bag where it settled on top of the various foodstuffs and trinkets stuffed inside. I picked the bag up and slung it around my shoulder before letting out a sizable yawn of my own—an instrument of the twenty-ish hours spent mobile the previous day. I didn't pay the exhaustion hardly any mind; all of that work had been worth the precious miles gained. It was easier now to relax away the tension that had been building in my strained nerves now that the distance between us and the village was so spacious. Yesterday had been quite the journey, even featuring a few brushes with an untimely demise at the hands of gravity, but today it would all come to fruition. It was a downhill ride from here.
I momentarily wondered if it was truly the right play to derail our focus from the long run as much as we had to this point, considering that we were bound to run into someone we knew eventually. Vast urges to procrastinate the thought filled my mind as soon as it entered my head, but I knew it was one I had to come to terms with ideally before too much time had passed. It might take a few months, but someone like Nuzleaf who traveled often could track us down as long as we stayed put in Lively Town. For a moment, I cursed the geography of the world, for the home of the Expedition Society and the epicenter of an extraterrestrial anomaly happened to be only one mountain range apart.
We had left on a pressing impulse of imminent danger and instant adventure. This relaxing feeling I felt didn't seem like it belonged with the knowledge that I had shoved aside my human-related problems, all while creating new ones for myself and my partner. After considering it for a moment, I just decided that I was too tired and too resolved to let it bother me now in the middle of the wilderness. I instead allowed myself to crave the moment when I could finally sit down and just comprehend reality for five seconds without the risk of it crumbling at my feet. No distractions embedded underneath scales, no endangerment to what I had come to hold dear, no need to look over my shoulder as often. Presuming the first opportunity for this kind of peace would be exactly where Leah and I were headed, I notched it up to a motivational goal.
The little moment of bonding the night before was now forgotten with the energy of an important morning. Feeling better about our situation, Leah and I headed back through the forest while chatting about unimportant topics, taking in some more of yesterday's sights and just enjoying the lively environment. Nestled in the heart of several mountains was a crisp forest that filtered sunlight through the parting canopy and creating a spotlight effect—an observation impossible previously due to a late evening arrival. The incline the map had promised we were on was of no major concern to my feet against the leaves still damp from morning residue, the walk through the forest as level-footed as our resolve. A flock of birds coursed overhead and squawked in unison with our footsteps.
As the two of us neared the campsite, I cursed myself for my own irresponsibility. How could I have left our belongings here, unguarded, until noon?
Oh well, it didn't matter now; everything was here, and I gathered it up soundly into the treasure bag. With luggage in tow and a mutual nod with my Fennekin companion, it was time to finally see this journey through.
Gentle Slope Cave wasn't too far from where we had stopped for the night, so it only ended up taking us about half an hour to reach it. It should've taken only fifteen minutes, but Leah and I started bickering about how much food it would take to fill up a Snorlax, and we ended up missing the cave's mouth entirely. It was a laughable misstep, but at least helped to exemplify the carefree atmosphere that had replaced the hammering stress of the past week. Inquisitions of being chased down were all but nullified at this point.
The path through the cave was relatively uneventful at first, the dungeon mostly having Pokemon that one of us held an advantage over. Even while dueling some pesky foes on the slightly inclined surface, one they were likely accustomed to fighting on, they could not properly become accustomed to third degree burns and heavy lacerations.
Then things got a bit out of hand. Leah, in some burst of impatience and excitement that had been bubbling up for a day now, decided to throw away all regard for her own well-being and rush ahead of me in trademark fashion. It had worked a few times before in the past while in easier dungeons where I'd rush to arrive in a room where all of the hostiles had already been cleared in a storm of fire. She would be standing by the stairs, chewing on a twig and smirking at me when I would try unsuccessfully to scold her for her rash behavior. She typically would do this kind of thing whenever she got excited on a mission, and the impetuous strategy would often yield varying results. In short, I would either end up getting called a "big Slowpoke", or I would end up having to save her from some scary enemy that caught her off guard.
On this particular occasion, it was an Onix that stole the honors.
We were a few floors into it, when she sniffed the air for no particular reason and was bounding ahead of me just like that. I rolled my eyes to the ceiling, thinking little of it and continuing my steadfast trot. I was taking another bite out of an apple I'd found when I heard a familiar scream ahead of me, jolting me to attention.
"What the- Leah!" I called out down the hallway.
Not a moment later she emerged from around the corner, running as fast as she could at me with a terror-stricken look on her face.
"Big snake! Really big snake!"
"What?"
Then I heard the rumbling, and easily the largest Pokemon I'd ever seen appeared after her. Its serpentine body was constructed entirely of jagged boulders, but that didn't seem to hinder its speed at all as it covered the distance between us with little resistance. My lithe form was merely a green speck compared to the organic string of rocks approaching.
Wide eyed, I chucked the half-eaten apple at its head. Its approach (obviously) didn't falter in the slightest, and I gasped as the distance between us was cut considerably shorter in mere seconds. With wits harsly surmounted, I followed up with a much more effective leaf tornado, intending to take advantage of the type matchup and knock it out right away before it could barrel over me. The Onix quickly burrowed underground to avoid it, and the leaves uselessly cut through the air that it had just occupied. It was a tactic that I had not anticipated a creature so large would be realistically capable of, and a moment of perplexed hesitation on my part turned into encompassing pain when it reemerged directly below me and struck upward with its pointed head.
I was weightless for a moment as I desperately tried to stabilize my fall, before the sensation met a jolting end upon impact with the ground a moment sooner than I'd have liked. I landed awkwardly on my leg, sending a disorienting wave of pain through my lower body.
Situations like this had happened countless times before in the dungeons around Serene Village. Leah or I would go down hard, and the other would simply cover for them while they collected themselves and rejoined the fight.
The idea that this would be one of these routine confrontations was instantly relinquished when I tried to no avail to get back on my feet. My ankle—my right one—had twisted at an angle that sent a spike of pain up my torso. Sprained, probably.
"Ngh—!" I grunted as I tried to right myself again.
I looked up, making eye contact with the Onix. It was staring at me with bad intentions in mind, beginning with its tail the motion of a rock throw attack.
On a dime, Leah managed to shed her panicked state and take full advantage of the beast's occupation. A luminous orb was her weapon of choice, which she lobbed right at its eyes after shooting a fireball directed at the same target. The fire engulfed the Onix's head, doing little damage. Regardless, it did its job by getting the rock snake to turn and look right into the exploding white light of the orb. It let out a deafening screech that reverberated throughout the surrounding chambers, and burrowed underground in retreat.
"Holy Miltank, that was close!" Leah gasped, still staring at the hole in the ground and making no effort to relish in her timely victory. "What was that thing?"
"A-An Onix, I think. Remember that one lesson we had about rock-types?" I rasped, doing what I could to keep the pain out of my voice. I guess I didn't do a very good job, because my partner recognized instantly that I wasn't unscathed and hastily jogged over to see if I was alright.
"Must've been home sick that day—hey, are you okay?" she questioned with a voice riddled with concern. I pointed at my foot, which was already beginning to swell up, and she sighed in what sounded like self-contempt. "That looks like it might need medical attention." She looked at me somberly, an overcoat of regret dominating her expression. "I'm sorry Sage, I shouldn't have rushed ahead like you said."
"It's just a twisted ankle or something. Bad fall, that's all," I shrugged her off while gingerly rubbing it. "I'm pretty sure I can still walk. And no need to be sorry. Your hastiness usually pays off."
Leah extended a paw down to me, which I took and pulled on to right myself up. I stumbled at first and had to lean on her shoulder for leverage, but I was able to find my balance without too much trouble.
"You sure you don't need help?" Leah continued to prod as she helped me stand. By the way her ears angled downward, I could that she was rather upset, almost to the point where you'd think she had been the one to get hurt. I mentally kicked myself for failing to downplay such a trivial injury. The last thing we needed was for the both of us on this journey to be plagued with guilt over something invariable.
I rubbed my tender foot again and shook my head, smiling in reassurance and ignoring the sharp spike of pain that embodied the bite-sized limb whenever it met with the ground to trade forces. It truly wasn't that bad anyway. Little injuries like this would happen here and there when exploring; it was an inevitability that came with the profession in question. In minor cases where there were no broken bones involved (something we admittedly had to deal with on a couple of occasions, much to nurse Audino's fright), it usually took was some ice and a little nurturing to get over such obstacles. The leg would probably swell a little more, but that wasn't a pressing concern as long as we got to Lively Town. The real issue here was the timing of the injury.
However, there were no longer valley walls to hold us in, and the two of us couldn't just rush back to Nurse Audino for help if one of us broke a leg or cut ourselves open to a fatal degree. It was a reality check that jarred me more than the meager pain in my foot could. It really was just us out here on our own.
In light of the stakes, the rocky obstacle was now in the past and not to be dwelled on further. We continued through the dank cave, albeit at a slightly belated pace to account for the benign limp I was forced to adopt. For obvious reasons, the Fennekin at my side made no more hasty decisions and instead resolved to stick with me for the whole ride through. Thankfully it got a little more straightforward after awhile since I could still fight and Leah still provided an excellent ranged offense. No more beasts like that Onix, which Leah sheepishly admitted had been fast asleep before she barged into its domain, made any appearances as we continued to walk along the corridors. At this unhurried pace I found myself not needing to do much of anything as long as my partner had the ability to furnace anything within thirty feet.
As if I hadn't already had a day's worth of hiking to expound upon my thoughts, I was left again with little activity at my disposal beyond the inner fray that was only now receding from its initial magnitude.
If I was going to move on from what lay trapped in the past, it wouldn't be quartering to keep reminiscing about it like I had been. That only left the tunnel of the future to ponder, which unfortunately wasn't much of an upgrade. Owe it to the fact that there was hardly anything to even ponder at all, with all of the uncertainty that circled around what could transpire in the coming hours. Then came the future priorities of a broader nature: finding out who I was and why I was here. They'd hit the same mental brick wall that I couldn't pray to find a way around anytime soon. They would cycle in my head over and over: Why am I here? ...Where even is here? ...Why am I here? ...Why am I here?
Who am I?
I shook my head, narrowly whisking a passing stalactite with my nose in the process. Of all the inner tempests to spiral into, this would not be the one. Not here. Not now.
That left only the short-term goals to think about, those that commanded more priority but ultimately added less to the bigger picture. The big one at that moment was as simple as making it to Lively Town and meeting this Exploration Society that we've apparently been working for for several months now.
Meeting up with that weird Ampharos fellow would be another thing I'd eventually need to do, if nothing else than to thank him for the materials he'd given us. With the not-so-subtle hint he had dropped about his identity, however, I got the feeling that those two goals would conveniently align themselves. If so, that only made things easier.
And then there was that library that he had mentioned. I wasn't a huge bookworm or anything, but I didn't mind a little studying if it meant learning about something I could put to use in this mysterious world. I didn't have the blessing of developing in a family where many lifestyle commodities would be adopted as second nature, and thus I really was a foreigner in ways beyond the soul even if my biology detested the thought. Nuzleaf had been kind enough to educate me on the simple stuff that I needed to know, from everyday anatomy to basic ways to not get myself killed. But I had still relied heavily on the admittedly-lackluster education provided by the village school, despite a few instances of the topic applied being rather irrelevant (storytime, for example). If this library was as useful as that electric klutz claimed, then I might be able to find out more about my human origin, and perhaps even find a way to prove it to others. There was also that weird ability of mine that nobody could seem to explain; perhaps I could study that too. Maybe even learn how to use it to my advantage, if possible?
Okay, so perhaps the future wasn't looking as bleak as I had initially thought. There wasn't much for Team Prism to lean on besides one another, and a lack of assets at our disposal might cause some issues if Leah answer I didn't figure that out within the waning daylight... but at least we had a fixed direction. At least that was our constant, besides, of course, having one another. Having a place in front of us was infinitely better than only having a place to run from.
It occurred to me how much of the future in question depended on this Expedition Society that I still hardly knew anything about. Leah had done her homework and studied up on it (and she had never been anything along the lines of a bookworm herself), but apparently the village wasn't too keen on educating its pupils on these kinds of modernized establishments. I got that kind of anti-progression vibe from some of the villagers sometimes when they'd raise their eyebrows or frown whenever they saw one of us tinkering with our gadget. Leah and I were essentially left in the dark about the place we were traveling to right now due to the valley's iron grip, and it allowed an air of uncertainty to intensify as we got closer to our anticipated goal.
I also gravely realized that a major problem we might have is actually getting in. I still had no idea how any of the work Team Prism had done actually played into our reputation, or if we even had a reputation all the way over here. I went ahead and guessed that we didn't, considering we had never accepted any jobs outside of the perceptively small area within the valley we were now moving away from. With this in mind, did the Expedition Society even know who we were? Did every mission completed actually send them a notification, or did it instead require some kind of physical link with the connection orb to that "Atlas" thing once mentioned?
If they truly didn't know who we were, and Leah's description of a "no kids" rule was accurate, then there would be a blatant issue with just walking up and introducing ourselves as candidates for members. I didn't doubt our abilities to keep up and contribute, but would they? The more I thought about it, the more I realized how we'd be lucky to even be given a chance to prove ourselves, much less get let in right away. Rejection was a very real and imminent concern.
Alas, it helped little stressing over it this much. Every decision we'd made thus far has essentially been on a whim anyway, so if we did end up hitting that roadblock, I'd just find another path for us.
But this only sparked yet another worry, one that was even more tangible than the concept of having to switch lanes from joining the Society. It specifically involved the fate of the Fennekin who was currently positioned loyally at my flank. What of her, in the case that we were rejected at the door? Would she even still travel with me?
I glanced over at her momentarily. Leah's eyes were alert and scanning the hallway for any enemies. Right now she was nothing like the sporadic excitement and laxation that we shared before the encounter with that Onix. I tried to take reassurance in how selfless she had proven to be during the time I'd known her, which then only worried me more when I thought about how much I failed to return such generosity. Was it not my amazement at her pyrotechnic prowess that was molded by how many times she saved my tail with it? Gabite's cave, Nectar Meadows, Revelation Mountain…
And then there was the little escapade she was following me on. Even if it made a lot of sense for her to accompany me, how much did she hang on the line just for my sake?
I physically shook my head, just faintly enough not to divert her attention.
"Look!" Leah exclaimed suddenly as the light ahead grew brighter with every step, nullifying the influence of the torch I held. "It should be just out there! Come on!"
Back to her permissive self, Leah ecstatically ran ahead of me towards the exit. All negative thoughts erased, I grinned and followed her as quickly as my awkward leg would allow.
"H-hey, wait up!"
I jogged out of the cave's wide mouth to find my partner standing on the edge of a steep drop-off. She was as still as a stone, gazing down at something. I moved myself beside her and placed my eyes at a parallel angle, and every fiber of my being cried out in joy at the sight.
"Check that out…" I whispered, reminiscent of the same thing I had said upon first looking down from the hill with the tree. From the elevated position we stood, the entirety of what could only be called Lively Town stretched out before us like a gift. The water's edge met the town's developing port, which conformed to the wavy curvature of the Water Continent's western coast. The town itself claimed the entire crest of a cape that allowed the mass of saltwater to border two of its exposed sides. Between civilization and ocean was a beach, where even from here I could make out the shapes of numerous Pokemon enjoying a nice summer afternoon.
"That's it, isn't it?" Leah breathed, as awed by the sight as I was. "Wow... that's—that's Lively Town."
It was a wonderfully satisfying sight. The more I stared at it, everything about it captivated me more and more. The only civilization either of us had ever known was Serene Village, which easily paled in comparison to what we were staring at in the distance. The powerhouse of society in front of us looked like it could gobble that little village up tenfold and still have enough commodity left to sustain royalty.
Perhaps that was stretching it a bit, but exaggeration was to be expected in this state of amazement. I'd never seen nearly this many Pokemon in one place before and not be all terrestrial like the ones in the dungeons. The grand observation had totally overwhelmed me, totally caught me off guard.
I could only imagine what it would be like once we actually got down there. And I could also only imagine what Leah was thinking too, considering she had seen about as much as I had of this world. Was it all what she expected? Was her dream of flying like the clouds really staring back at us from atop this stretch?
There was only one way to find out. It simply wouldn't suffice to stand up here any longer.
It had been Leah's idea to come here in the first place, and yet I was the one to break the silent trance. "What are we waiting for?" I marveled, beginning towards the path leading down. "Let's go!"
"Right!" she responded with eyes sparkling and legs bounding.
The walk down to the settlement took a good half-hour, part of it being the lapse of shifting altitude. I suppose that we hadn't really been as close to sea level as I had thought, seeing that a few outliers of the Sheer Mountain Range had planted themselves right here by the sea. One of which, of course, had served host to the cave that took up today's worth of traveling. But I couldn't complain, given all the views and awesome forces of nature that we had seen firsthand all along the way. As I glanced back the way we came once we got a bit farther down, I marveled at the landscaping that was now receding from my view the further away I got. Mountains on one front, ocean on the other. Not a bad location if you asked me.
Concluding our forty-hour journey was a gate highlighting a beautifully carved bridge. It passed over a creek that bordered the edge of the town and streamed into the ocean. I looked down both directions and saw all sorts of contraptions that resembled water wheels that turned with the current and distributed the energy elsewhere.
As Leah and I neared the bridge, I noticed the expansion that Lively Town was currently undergoing, as I could see a few houses and buildings being constructed outside of the river's border. The buildings were nothing like the wooden and thatch huts in Serene Village, these constructed meticulously with mostly stone and what I thought looked like polished quartz. Shiny coats of paint distributing a myriad of contrasting colors gave them a variety that sang like a visible euphony. All sorts of sizes and shapes and advertisements helped add to the independence of each one.
What caught my attention most, though, was the sheer number of Pokemon, which was a defined harmony that gave the shiny buildings life. Some were wearing expensive-looking hats and scarves, and I saw a few even wearing what looked like shoes. None of it really appealed to me, and although none of it was really over-the-top, I could still imagine the laughs one would get from the kids in Serene Village by publicly playing dress-up.
Ugh... I shook me head. Enough of that. Eyes forward.
"Wow, it's so..." Leah didn't finish her comment as she took in more of the sights and sounds and smells.
"...Lively." I finished for her after a few lingering seconds, determining that I would simply ignore any more mental slip ups. The analysis wasn't very descriptive of me, but it was the best way anyone could put it in a single word. Whoever named this town, if still alive, probably chuckled to themselves every time they witnessed it running at full throttle in the busy late-afternoon.
"No kidding!" Leah laughed. But even with the softness of that laugh I could still hear an ambience of fatigue, and I suddenly became intensely aware of my own. It had been a long two days, and we needed to run our errands now in the remaining hours we had left before dark. Gentle Slope Cave, while not being too large, was still a formidable dungeon, and those usually took up most of the day to conquer as it was. Considering we started as late as we did this morning, it was no surprise to see the sun moving closer and closer to the liquid horizon, soon to be swallowed whole by the ocean. The clock wasn't really working in our favor, as we would be in a pretty bad spot if we didn't get provided a place to stay by the Society. It was a very real possibility that they didn't even provide places to stay at all, even for their own members, and then we'd have to find a last-minute hotel and spend a good amount of the money that we brought even if we did get accepted. Simply getting this far wasn't the whole gambit; we still had so much to do. There would be no rest for the weary- not yet at least.
"So, what should we do first?" Leah asked, stealing the question from the tip of my tongue. "I kinda want to see the Expedition Society's headquarters as soon as possible, but we can take care of anything else you need before then."
I glanced toward the center of the town and shook my head. "No, I'm on board with going to the Society now. We need to get ourselves established somewhere while we still have time, and that's gonna be the best place to do so."
Leah's eyes lit up with excitement upon hearing my approval. "Alright!" she cheered. "Then—uh, where do we go?"
There were various roads branching off of the one leading into the heart one town, and at first, I worried any one of them could be the correct path. But as we walked, it became clear they were thinner and less populated than the main road before us. The answer was obvious enough. "Forward," I declared.
So, forward we walked. The further in we got, the more activity we saw, until eventually we reached a point where everything widened out.
The town square was even more incredible than just the outskirts we had seen. From there, nearly everything was visible, with the exception of a few back alleys and streets. The cafe and a pallet of shops were built around the circle in a fashion eerily similar to that of Serene Village's center. But this place was bustling with much more activity, loud noises and other stimuli filling the entire area. From the cafe and a few outlying bistros wafted soul-melting smells that invited us to stay for awhile. Shops for all sorts of things littered the area, most of them progressing beyond basic necessities and instead providing services for convenience alone. I did see a Kecleon shop that looked almost exactly like the one back in the village, so at least that was still a constant.
We skirted along the edge to avoid some of the townsfolk, and were nearly out the north end of the square when I saw something playing out that made me halt in place. Over behind one of the buildings was a black and brown crocodile-looking Pokemon looming over a much smaller Treecko. I tapped on Leah's shoulder with a vine and motioned for her to watch and listen.
"Hey, you're just a kid, huh?" the larger Pokemon questioned the child.
"No!" the little guy answered. "My mom says I'm a big boy!"
The crocodile-looking Pokemon ignored him entirely. "Yeah," he mumbled mainly to himself. "This is exactly what I need. Listen here, you got any bread on you?"
"Bread?" the Treecko answered uncertainly. "Why would you want that? Are you hungry?"
"What? Nah, nah," the ground-type said with an exasperated wave of his arms. "Y'know... Dough. Paper. Cash. Legal friggin' exchange, you feel me? I need some of that, pronto."
"Yeah!" the child answered cheerfully, much too young to pick up on the escalating situation. He pulled out some change and held it to the open air casually. "I have some! But I can't give it to you. It belongs to my mommy."
"Yeah, not anymore," the mugger snickered. "I'll be taking that, and you better not utter a peep in protest." He outstretched his hand, forming it into a shadow claw with unthinkable intentions.
Instinct from weeks of saving lost Pokemon from testy situations took over right around that point. You'd have thought me and Leah were fighting for the last muffin on her Pops' famous platter by the way we sprung to action. That big-snout jerk didn't know he was being flanked until his entire head was engulfed in a crackling flame, and by the time he realized what was going on and cried out in disoriented pain, my two vines were already going to work on his legs. I was a bit slow on the jump with the limp and all, but the bastard was so caught off guard that he just ended up tripping over himself anyway. He hit the ground with a thud, flailing around uselessly and shouting in surprise turned to anger.
The young Treecko looked at us wide-eyed, obviously overwhelmed by the drastic change of pace.
"Go find your mother," I hissed at him, startling him and getting him moving immediately. He ran off without a word, safe for now.
The asshole on the ground grunted in pain, and began to spit curses in no particular direction. Before he could push himself up and face those who interfered with his petty crime, I had already snatched Leah's paw and sped out of the alley. As effective as that was, we still didn't know anything about the law enforcement around here, and thus we'd have been forced to deal with that guy on our own. One surprise attack might have yielded some success, but we were much too tired and bruised to deal with a criminal right now. I lead us northbound, and we caught our breath on the stairway of a giant purple building.
"That was close!" I panted.
Leah nodded her head and took a moment to catch her breath. After a few seconds of this silence, she suddenly exploded. "Who would do something like that?! Rob a young child?"
I shook my head wordlessly. Quite the first impression that was! For all the views and amazement that this world had given me so far, there had been some pretty nasty Pokemon to give it equilibrium. There were plenty of good ones too, such as the one sitting beside me, but still it was to be expected for there to be a handful of individuals that committed actions that made their very existence in society unfavorable.
"At least we were there to stop it," I muttered. "I don't want to think about what would've happened if we hadn't."
I looked up at the waning daylight, and after a moment of silence, suddenly realized where we probably were. Seeing a bulliten board beside the building we were sitting in front of, I jumped up and made my way over to it.
"Hey, come read this," I said, prompting Leah to push herself out of a sitting position and trot over to stand beside me. Together we processed the line of text on the top of the notice board, confirming my suspicions.
NOTICE! EXPEDITION SOCIETY HEADQUARTERS!
Exploring never gets boring!
If you need assistance with something, allow one of our teams to help you through the magic properties of the connection orb.
Tours available from noon to dusk on weekdays.
Soliciting is prohibited under any circumstances. For the last time, we do not dabble in real estate!
I backed up and little bit and looked up at the building to gather a better perspective of it. Now that I was focused on its details, it looked like it had been built much more intricately than any of the other modern-looking structures around. Not that many were around this particular area anyway, being entirely claimed by the building's horizontal influence. The whole structure wasn't too large to comprehend, but it was still easily big enough to effectively house everything that a club this prestigious should need for their research and livelihood.
"This is it," I said definitively. "We're here." I walked up to the door without hesitating, and I moved an arm to open it when I felt a paw on my shoulder. I turned back to look at my partner, who all of the sudden looked as anxious as she had on that night with the ghosts. "What's the matter?" I asked her.
Leah sighed, unsure how to answer. "It's just... what if this doesn't work out? What if everything goes wrong?"
I stared at her tripping over her worries, and sympathetically understood her troubled state. If only she knew how much I had been stressing over the exact same thing.
I racked my brain for cliché reassurances that might ward away her misgivings, and came up miserably empty. I was forced to settle with "We won't know until we try, will we?"
"I guess not, but... I mean... I don't know... I guess I'm just making a big deal out of nothing."
I paused in concern. I tilted my head and tried to break through the wall of stutters she was constructing. "If... you want to talk about this before we walk in, we can."
"It's no biggie, really," she answered. I stared at her unwaveringly for a few more seconds until she finally budged. With a long sigh, she spoke again. "Okay, fine. I'm... worried that if this doesn't work out, you'll... you'll leave. Th-that's all."
"What?" I blurted with a chuckle in the back of my throat.
"If we don't get in, I'm going to keep trying and trying," she elaborated. "This has been my dream forever now, and that'll never change. But... you have those Beeheyem to deal with, and I would think it's not in your best interest to stick around if the Society rejects us."
I wasn't quite sure what to say. Part of me wanted to keel over in laugher—not over the fact that Leah was worried, which I sympathized with in large, but instead for all of the worrying I had done over the exact same thing that now had her twisted up in a knot. I was so concerned that Leah would cut ties with me and return to where we came if our mission failed that I had allowed myself to underestimate her persistence. Of course she wouldn't just give up on the Society like that, she'd keep at it until something worked. And as for my own future, it had never even occurred to me that she might worry about me bailing on her. I had never even considered it. All it would have taken to stifle such silliness would be a bit of communication on my part.
"I made a promise on that first night on the hill, remember?" I said, now finding the proper reassurance that eluded me moments ago. "I'd never forget that. And no matter what happens through these doors, I won't break it. I swear."
Her face softened for a passing moment as she heaved a heavy sigh of relief. "That's good to hear. See, I told you it was stupid, hah..." Then her eyes steeled themselves once more. "But seriously, we'll always stick together from here on out. Deal?"
A nod and a smile were shared between us.
"Deal."
Not really knowing what to expect, I shoved open the doors anyway. Without a moment's hesitation longer, we both went inside, prepared to introduce Team Prism with confidence and clarity that would convey how much we deserved to be here. We had already come so far, and all of this worrying had done nothing but waste time. We left all of that dead weight at the doorstep, and entered as a new pair bonded by undeterred friendship.