Everything is fine. Everything is fine. Everything is fine.
"Take that!" Valérie's yell rang through the small beach. Her exhaustion was a feeling we could all agree on. She collapsed on the sand and let out a big sigh… and an insult I would rather not repeat.
I was still panting from that last chase, my feathers fluffed up to maximum capacity. I didn't bother trying to put them down; they'd do so on their own, and I kind of wanted to let the panic linger for a sec. Last level was a nightmare, but what else was new? It was better than the sky stage.
We couldn't have gotten out of there soon enough. Even through the portal, I'd stretched my wings and floated in the cool, misty air, a far cry from the strenuous conditions of nighttime flight. Flying was by far the best part of being a Pokémon. It calmed me. Needless to say, it was a very welcome feeling after that disaster of a battle.
As Valérie restarted her triumphant cascade of dunks on an enemy who was nowhere to be seen, the rest of the group appeared and landed. Whenever we did that, there was no portal involved visually. From the outside, one second there was no Pokémon, then the next there was one, falling a short distance to reach the floor. Between those two seconds, there was the smallest flash of light, but if you blinked you'd miss it.
I didn't miss a lot, to be honest. I was observant even when I didn't have a bird's eye for faraway details. You don't get to skip a grade without some good detection skills, after all. You also need to be good at standardized tests, no matter how useful the skillset actually is, and you need to seem vaguely happy with yourself. Teachers like that.
"Hey, uh, Lola?" Micheal called, smooshed against the sand. "Third Dark Trap commandment: we don't talk about that thing."
"Seconded!" Kieran said, leaning his head against a stony cliff wall.
I thought he'd guess how dangerous a Gardevoir was, but even Mr. Competitive Battler underestimated a lady in a dress.
"The prophet of the Dark Trap accepts this addition," Lola declared, before lying down herself. It seemed her sense of humour stayed intact no matter how drained everyone was, and that was an awesome trait. Gab hopped down from the Absol's back and took off her backpack, stretching her arms.
Everyone around me conveyed the feeling of being mush. I was the same. We'd just come back from a big workout session in the middle of the night, after all. Those moves and stair climbing added up, even for me! Flying at night made it so much harder to find a useable breeze. That counted a lot when trying to reach good heights. I could not blame anyone for lying facedown on the floor for a few minutes. If my beak wasn't most of my face, I would've done so myself. I just sat and closed my eyes, wings splayed out to either side of me. Big breaths, Chloe, big breaths.
Something was different in the air. It felt less heavy and had a slight salty tang to it. The sand was cool under my talons, and as the wind gently ruffled my feathers, I heard waves. Letting out the last of those big breaths, I looked at the watery expanse in front of us. It wasn't that big. In fact, I could see the opposite shore about a minute's flight away. Behind us, there were towering and downright unclimbable cliffs, coloured with a subtle blue hue and fine white erosion marks. A couple trees and bushes were visible if you looked hard enough. The cliffs surrounded everything as far as I could see, except the sky, which was totally uncovered. Judging the area, I determined it was a lagoon. Maybe there was water flowing in from an undersea cave nearby but there were no openings above the surface.
The sky was a gentle greyish azure. It was early dawn. There was no sun making shimmers on the waves yet, and everything within the cliffs was blanketed in cool shadows. The ambient temperature was still warm, but again, if felt lighter than last level. I sighed and took in the peaceful sight of the water.
My heart leapt in my chest when something breached the surface not that far from us. My keen Swablu eyes rendered in crisp detail a viscous, bulbous blue ovoid shape, with globulous scarlet protrusions encrusted into it. The whole was slick with water, and upon closer inspection I noticed shiny red eyes leaking pixels at the bottom, along with two muddy-green tentacles ready to strike. A new battle so soon?!
"No!" Kieran spat. He pointed at the boss Pokémon… frustratingly. "No, we are not dealing with you right now! Go away, ugly!"
A Tentacool. It was a Tentacool, and while I didn't want to defend the enemy, Kieran was far too mean to it. My thoughts had been generously scientific.
"You dumb knock-off Darth Vader helmet!" Wow.
The jellyfish who looked like a knock-off Darth Vader helmet didn't seem to understand Kieran's words. If anything, it reacted to the sudden presence of sound. Sluggishly, it opened its mouth and spat out glowing purple spikes our way.
There was no cry to take cover. We were just depleted. We did get very lucky: none of the spikes hit. They were almost laughably far away. The Tentacool spat more and more spikes, but none of them got even halfway to us. It kept checking the sand floor, not finding a way to get closer and then, angrier and angrier, it would attack again fruitlessly. We didn't say anything. We barely even moved! I, for one, could only stare back and feel my panicked urge to fly away dissipate into apathy. The Tentacool stopped, looking around and eventually slamming its tentacles against the water. It wasn't an attack, just an angry splash. If I hadn't known any better, I'd have said the mollusk was embarrassed. I wouldn't blame it.
"Come back later, dude!" Lola yelled at it snidely. "I'm sure you've got other things to do while we work on our stuff."
The Tentacool only glared back, not moving another inch. It didn't try anything else. It honestly looked a little cute, all pouty like that! If I had any tension left in me, it vanished when I burst into nervous laughter. It was contagious, and as the fit spread and grew throughout my group, eventually my guffaws were strong enough that I felt like I was going to throw up. Again, the Tentacool did not seem to understand what was happening. Maybe it thought we were doing some kind of war cry? To me, the only thing we were going to fight for at the moment was a good nap.
"We need a day off," Kieran moaned. The laughter had started to ebb away, but the mood was cautiously optimistic.
"If we're on guard," Micheal hesitated, "maybe we can get away with it."
The Tentacool kept glaring from the distance. It seemed to understand the impasse it was at. It sank into the depths, lying in wait until one of us made themselves easy prey. Knowing our group, that might be soon, but no one was wading into the water right that second.
"Screw you, dungeon!" Lola yelled out, her voice ricocheting off the lagoon's cliffs. The Tentacool did not answer. Lola turned to Gab excitedly, but the latter just shook her head.
"You're not gonna get her to join in," Valérie sneered.
"Screw you, dungeon!" Yelled Gab immediately after, her voice cracking.
Valérie huffed and rolled her eyes. I didn't understand. I'd heard her say so many worse things. Plus, it was so nice to see Gab feel more comfortable with us!
Was the Tentacool really incapable of doing us harm? I liked that possibility a lot. I wanted to go home sometime soon, but a vacation sounded great. Training in the last level was just the beginning. There were so many things we hadn't tried out because of the constant rush. We could finally try to make some berry s'mores! Besides, if there was any danger, we did have the shift system. We'd never been outright attacked when we were sleeping, but the dungeon could get creative. Creative was usually fun, but not here!
We'd been granted something simple. A break was simple, and it would give us all a chance to unclog our brains of stress before the road ahead. I could almost think of this as a spa treatment, to be completely honest!
"Free day?" Micheal asked, in a relieved but very tired tone. This time, everyone agreed with hushed grunts or quiet nods. "Great. I'm going to sleep. You guys do whatever."
He walked nearer to the wall where a small pile of leaves laid atop a rocky floor. After prodding it a bit to check its safety, he unceremoniously flopped down onto it. It wasn't like another Tentacool could be hiding under there. There was a pause, everyone else glancing my way. Wait, were they waiting for me to speak up? Oh boy. Yes! My time now.
"There's so much we can do here! I mean, apart from swimming— which we won't do, of course—there's berry picking, strategy brainstorms, more training—"
Valérie didn't even say anything, yet she still managed to interrupt me. She turned away and practically canon-balled into the leaf pile next to Micheal. Guess she was out! I glanced from side to side to assess who else was still up: Kieran, Gab, and Lola.
Lola chuckled quietly and settled some more into the sand. "I think we're too wiped out for those. And we've got enough berries left, right?"
Gab patted the backpack without even looking. "Intact and fully packed for a week or so," she sighed.
"Awesome!" I exclaimed. "We could do ice breakers! Or just small talk?"
"Eh," Kieran shrugged, not at all impressed. "Why the hell not?"
"Leave her alone," Lola moaned. "We don't know jack about each other. Let the fun one handle the fun stuff."
Kieran walked sluggishly to join us and sat down on the sand. I felt a little flutter in my heart at being considered the "fun one". However, there was a quiet nag in the back of my mind. I hadn't given off the impression that all I wanted to do was have fun, had I? Where had this come from?
Was that what people saw me as? It was good to know I was approachable, but I did try very hard to be the person who could dispense some good factoids. I knew about the nighttime sky clock! I knew my typings and movesets!… I guessed those were really fun too.
"Are there any Persim in there?" Kieran asked, pointing to the backpack.
"Why don't you check?" Gab suggested. She was lying on her back and surely not wanting to get up anytime soon.
"Poison arms."
"Man, that's a great excuse! Next time we spin the superpower roulette, I want poison," Lola piped up. She opened the top flap of the backpack and shuffled around until, sure enough, she pushed out a Persim berry. "Dig in, dude!"
"Oh! Pass me a Razz berry if there's one there, please!" I requested.
Before long everyone who was awake was also lounging in a circle with their choice of snacks. It was like a picnic on the beach back home! Sure, the sand was rough and there were no palm trees, but beaches in rural landlocked Canada weren't fancy to begin with. The fact that it wasn't perfect made this beach cozier, more familiar. Plus, ice breakers were always awesome help with the mood!
"You guys ready for the history test?" I shot out as the first question.
"Oof. Yeah, I guess?" Lola answered first.
Gab was second. "I'll need to cram all over again. I forgot a lot."
"Oh, God no!" Kieran groaned, mouth full. "I haven't thought about that in weeks."
"Huh. Me neither!" I said. "What were we doing on the 16th anyway?"
A low silence was the answer. Woah, tough crowd! Didn't think this one was going to be a bummer.
But then, the realization slowly crawled up and dawned on me. That was the first full day we'd spent in this world. And that was a while ago.
Today was the first of December. We'd spent over two weeks as Pokémon. Huh. Why did that feel so much longer when I put it that way? I'd been counting the days and keeping track as well as I could, but for some reason I hadn't thought of the events associated with them. Weird. Still, there was the possibility of "Narnia time". Maybe we'd go back home with not even a second having passed us by. That was a very comforting hypothesis.
"What do we do next?" Gab thought aloud.
Well, what was next?